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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

11.10.22 - Willows

A not fishing conducive scorching 18 degrees and millpond conditions when I set up at 3:30 in an unusual swim for me, but thinking it was where the last of the evening sun disappeared and the air would chill fast.  Plumbing the depth with my pole, I snagged and brought in a weighing sling in the margin; the one I lost at this swim the evening I caught a 13lb Mirror on 3.3.21. That was the only excitement until dusk having barely had a bite. Just before dark at 6:30 and having switched
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

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Willows

17 & 18.11.21 - Willows

With the unseasonably mild weather lasting a little longer, I managed a few hours in the late afternoon/evening on consecutive days. Along with the full moon and a water temperature of 10 degrees, I was optimistic that the carp hadn't gone to bed quite yet.  I managed to lose one on the centrepin after a good 10 mins of battle before nabbing a 6lb 6 bream that didn't bother even making a splash. As I packed up by torchlight, I squeezed the very last pip out of the session, putting everythin
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

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Willows

1 & 2 October 2021 - Willows

A couple of pretty crabby days. Friday was a comparatively cold start from recent days and I suspected it might be slower. It was. Soon after arriving, a strong, cold and to my mind, unforecast southerly wind, It was a struggle and the bait only troubled by a 3lb 6 Mirror.   When times get tough you try anything, and when the sun finally came out and though the wind remained, I gave a black foam zig suspended 2ft from the bottom a go. Result: Ha! a 7lb 1oz bream! Saturday would have se
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

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Willows

23.8.21 - Willows

I'm sorry readers, but it's Willows again. A rare Monday morning session, but took the day off for a funeral so sneaked in a 4-hour stint. Dull, overcast (the weather, not me) with a chill northerly breeze that had me running back to the car for a jacket - it could only be summer 2021. Despite the drop in air temp - or perhaps because of the drop in air temp?) the fish were quite active throughout. I had lots of liners, lots of jerky hits that came to nowt, and somehow missed some unmissable
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

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Willows

06 08 21 - Willows

Ooh lovely - air pressure falling (just) below 1,000mb brought the prospect of hungry fish with easing stomachs. (a) 6:45am til 11:30  One bite. Missed it. Mixed it up - fished far, fished close, swapped baits, loose fed. Nothing. (b) 11:30 - 2:30 - 5 carp. All in pristine condition. 5lb, 7lb 8, 5lb 10, 5lb 2. 8lb 14 and a bream, 4oz. Could barely put the rod down without knocks or line bites. (c) 2:30 - 4:45. - Not even a nudge The knack of angling is catching in sessions (a
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

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Willows

6.7.21 - Willows

A fun evening after having started with a spate of the heavy showers that had been forecast earlier in the day. One of the more torrential downpours started soon after I'd had my first bite and was playing a carp of maybe 6 or 7lbs. As it towed up-and-down it darkened and there was a loud rumble of thunder in the trees behind me. Not really wanting to be standing there with a rod acting as a lightning conductor, I more or less yanked the fish into the net through the rain-thrashed surface b
Willows

02.07.21 - Willows

Perhaps I should have expected it. After a week of vets bills, repeated hitting of my funny bone on the elbow with tendonitis, breakdown of my newly serviced hedge trimmers mid job, followed by multiple bee stings when disturbing a subterranean bee hive while clearing up the few leaves I'd severed, a second consecutive quiet session at Willows was almost inevitably on the cards. Knowing the carp would be in the upper levels, I experimented with a zig-based rig  once the morning winds had ea
Willows

18.6.21 - Willows

Ah, a British midsummer. It rained, hard and solidly from 7am until 2 as I huddled under my brolly, clasping my lunch and other perishables around me. After 10 days or so of solid heat, I anticipated that today's mere 13 degrees and northerly breeze would turn the fish off, and so it did. With the water still warm, I suspected the fish would still be off the bottom, but also driven from the surface, so kept to the shallows and varied the depths I fished.  I managed two of the recently-stocked 3l
Willows

5.6.21 - Willows

A scorching day, and my strategy was sound: (1) Until the sun climbed above the trees, I would fish the shady, shallow north corner,  upagainst the lilies and winkle out some tench. (2) Once the sun hit the water, I would switch to the method feeder in the remaining shade of the shallow end to my left and (3) when the carp started to rise I would switch to surface-fished dog biscuits. What could go wrong? I had to admire my own watercraft and cunning. (1) No bits in 1.5 hours agai
Willows

6.3.21 - Willows

I know, I know. With the river season drawing to a close, I should have had a bash on running water, but the chance of those Willows carp was too much. If only they sold hindsight at the tackle shop as well as boilies because Willows was hard going today. The north easterly wind though not strong, brought a real chill that kept the fish low and sent me back to the car for my winter layers. Of the ten or so anglers, I think more than half blanked. surprisingly, I was not one of them, catchin
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