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About this blog

I started this blog in March 2021, having blanked in over half of my fifteen winter trips to various waters of Newbury Angling Association. The rivers, canals and lakes are fine, I'm just not very good at catching the fish in them. Oddly, i seemed to get a bit better for a while, but 2023 has undone all that. In July I moved to South Wales, not entirely for the weather, but to enforce a change in my fishing luck.

Entries in this blog

Willows

19.8.22 - Willows - the day of days

All started pretty standard. Set up a float as there was fishy movement close to shore, and after 3 hours, had 2 commons of 4lb 6 and 6lb 8, plus a bream (unweighed) of around a pound. Bites slowed and with the sun starting to climb and having seen some movement two thirds of the way to the island, I chucked a method feeder at them, rather than tight to the island, as seems to be the fashion. This suggestion was pooh-poohed by one of the revered club denizens on his daily stroll. He was only try
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

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Willows

19.4.22 - Willows

I was going to spend the evening at Alders, but when I arrived there was quite a breeze rattling from the west causing quite a chop. With showers planned, I defaulted for the sheltered north corner of adjacent Willows. For the second consecutive week, I watched the carp mouthing at the surface just yards from my feet. With no biscuits/bread/pellets, I suspended a pop-up on the surface from a bomb, but they weren't interested. While the pop-up bobbed on the surface, even the terns ignoring it,  I
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

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Willows

26 & 29.3.22 - Willows

Ok, so my experiment didn't work. 3 small roach in three other venues had me cross at my lack pf skill and back at the shallows of Willows until the water warms up. But then Saturday only saw my bad run continue. A day spent in the sun was pleasant enough, but only one bite and a face-saving 5lb 8 Common was a disappointment. Tuesday brought the first cloudy day in a fortnight and temperatures half of last weeks 16 degrees, My first evening stint since the clock change had me changing
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

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Willows

21.11.21 - Willows

Well, like a fool I'd been listening to the hyperbolae of  recent weather forecasts, warning us of a huge drop in temperature. Sure, it was 6 degrees, but the sun was beautiful when I pottered in the garden potting up bulbs and sweeping leaves this morning, so I hurried up and made my way to the lakes. After my disheartening river stint on Friday, and believing the canals to be no-go zones at times of temperature drops, I elected for Willows thinking the sun on the shallow water might at least m
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

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Willows

25.9.21 & 27.9.21 - Willows

Two more trips to my fave lake chasing the carp before they hunker down in the cold and go off their feed. Saturday. Slow. I was told it had dropped off since my Harvest moonlit fun on Tuesday (maybe because of its waning?). Tried a bit of everything, and though I lost a couple, just three carp of 8lb 4, 4lb 8 and 6lb 14 was below par. Tuesday. Unable to do any work for today's employer as their computer system was irrecoverably down. As the job is wholly reliant on access to data base
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

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Willows

14.9.21 - Willows

I was pleasantly surprised to find I had the lake to myself for most of the evening considering it was still a shirt-sleeves 15 degrees an hour after dark. But there was a stillness and strange atmosphere and the light had an odd yellowish quality. Even the birds seemed quiet. A brown rat swam past my feet several times, a kingfisher flew across the water and the jumping fish regularly crashed through the surface while large patches of bubbles suggested much activity below. There was an intense 
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

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Willows

2021 07 30 - Willows

Storm Evert? Pah! It was as still as can be when I arrived at 5:45am. But by 8, the aspen tree was shimmering its leaves in the increasing wind and by 11 I was struggling to lash the brolly to my seat as incoming rain hit me horizontally. With the air pressure falling below 1,000mb anticipation was higher than ever, and the fish pretty much obliged, in the morning anyway. Mirrors of 4lb 12 and 5lb 6, a 1lb tench and commons of 9lb 8, 7lb 12 and 6lb were all most welcome. Come  midday howeve
Willows

29.6.21 - Willows

Fishing, or England v Germany in the Euros? A dilemma indeed, but I could always watch the highlights when I got home, so bankside I went. There were quite a few anglers when I arrived which meant I couldn't have he swim I wanted, but on an overcast evening with the wind in my face, it looked good. Nothing happened in the first hour except the gusty north wind leading to two unnecessary and spiteful reel tangles which had me breaking the line and retackling twice. But then at 5pm on th
Willows

5.3.21 - Willows

Well, after three fish in the final hour on Wednesday, it was no surprise I chose to go to Willows again today. Eben better, I was the only angler there all day but I soon began to cotton on why. It might have been four degrees in the car, and the efforts of morning gardening had been exhilarating, but there was a cold northeasterly breeze, enough to create a chop on the surface and have me pulling a second coat on. I tossed out the method feeder with a pink pop-up that scored the other day and
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