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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

Speen Moors

11.2.22 - Speen Moors & 12.2 - Speen Moors and Dixons

Friday. Got to Speen in the frost at first light with some cheese paste and link legers. Threw a few freebies in half a dozen swims, then fished them in turn. Had a 3lb 6 chub early doors (I'm only 97 behind you now, Chris!). No more chub action was to ensue,  just three swim-thrashing trout each around the two and a half pound mark. Sitting watching the quivertip not move very much, I switched to a trot for just a roach and a dace, but thought how 'pikey' (the fish kind, not the scrote) and ple
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Speen Moors

2
dixons

6.3.22 - Dixons

A rare opportunity to fish on a Sunday, so thought I'd do something different and went for a last piking session of the season. I'm very drawn to Dixon's Mere; it's quiet, underfished, and has no crays or (on the few occasions I've fished it) any nuisance waterfowl. On the other hand, there's no otter fencing or much in the way of recent catch reports, so I'm not sure what's in there. Fished the east bank, spending half an hour in each of 8 swims, reading that if pike are present, they
Kennet & Avon Canal

12.1.22 - K&A Canal - Hambridge

Well, that was a fun afternoon. The plan always was to spend the first half of it with stick float and single maggot on the canal. Despite the morning frost, it was beautiful in the sun, and with no wind or boat traffic, it was like a millpond. Once the fish picked up on the gentle loose feeding and occasional conker of groundbait, the roach came in thick and fast. I stopped when I got to 50 (in less than 2½ hours) , supplemented by six bleak (not dace). Curiously, the roach started small,
Aldermaston

19.11.21 - River Kennet - Aldermaston

While other bloggers were piling our perch further downstream, Aldermaston was giving me a hard time. I'd started pike fishing on a slow bend where the river starts meandering, but my first cast snagged a root and cost me a trace, bomb and beloved 20 year old pike float. The second brought back 3 large and brutish crayfish clinging to what was left of my mackerel strip. Pointless deadbaiting, so I put on a crayfish lure and twitched it along the bottom. Result: another blinkin' cannibalisti
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Aldermaston

8
Willows

18.05.21 - Willows

A Tuesday evening with Willows to myself, others put off no doubt by the forecast of yet more heavy showers. Despite a chop on the water, the fish were jumping, first time I've seen them this year, so I switched from my initial plan. An hour later, I'd banked three carp, and felt it was going to be a best-ever evening. I would have done it for sure, but was snapped twice on 8lb line before it started to slow down - it had to really, and I had just(!) two more for an evening's total of over
Willows

22.06.21 - Willows

1 - The birds. As if being pestered by geese, cormorants, ducks and terns wasn't enough, I had two grebes building a nest in the edge of the lilies by which I'd intended to fish. Not only did all their tromping about on the pads scare any fish down to the safety of the depths, they had sex right in front of me. Three times. It wasn't much to see and blimey,  I thought I was quick. 2 - The fish. My only bite in the first 2-hours came on a method-feeder with single chocolate orange wafter and
Willows

4.9.21 - Willows

A nice mornings fishing. Lots of line bites, knocks and spells of fish playing with the feeder, and some rod-yanking takes that somehow failed to connect. The sum total was 3 mirrors of 5lb 2, 6lb 2 and 7lb 8, ending with a bream of 3lb 8 was probably about par. 
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

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Willows

20 & 21.8.21 - Willows

Two long stints at my favourite lake (when it's playing ball) to test my theory that the carp swim round the central island in the morning, move to open waters in the afternoon and slink out to the margins for their tea. Friday: dry and with the lake to myself at 6:30am pinged the method feeder out towards the island. By 9. I'd had visits from commons of 7lb, 4lb 10 and 9lb 12, all on the same orange wafter. It was set to be a fab day and I held my smile even when fourteen Canada geese splash
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

2
Willows/Hambridge

3.9.21 - Willows then Hambridge

Well, if you'd told me I was going to have two personal bests since records resumed last June after my 20-odd year hiatus from angling, I'd be anticipating a fab day, though by anyone else's standards it probably wasn't. After my haul of ten (10) carp on Tuesday evening, they really didn't want to know today. After an hour or two without a sniff on the method feeder, I maggotted and hemped-up a zone about 5ft out from a bankside shrub and swapped for a float. This brought fourteen roach, of
Willows

15.5.21 - Willows

OK, so I went for an experiment today. I've fished Willows a lot this closed season and have sort of got the hang of chucking a leger up against the island, but have also looked at the margins and just wondered... So, with the lilies starting to emerge at the bankside I stuck on a float, far more interesting to star at than a bobbin, chucked in some balls of mashed bread and cast a rod length out. After a couple of missed bites, in true Mr Crabtree style, the float zipped away and I was into a g
Alders

11.6.21 - Alders

At 57, I am surely too old to be having sleepless nights over fishing, but the worry over which lake, which swim, kept me awake and anxious into the small hours. In the end, I went for the less popular Alders, which became a good decision. While spawning carp crashed in the middle of the lilies, I kept to the edge, method feeding a variety of hook baits before finding one that worked for today - double hair-rigged artificial corn. Having lost a good tench in the snags near my feet, I was happy t
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
Alders

27.3.21 - Alders

8am Saturday morning and I was amazed to find the car park at Rawlings Retreat empty. Against the general populace , who tend to go Willows and fire against the island from the west bank I chose Alders feeling that less pressured fish might be hungry fish, and spent the day there on my own. After a couple of hours of nothing I was starting to have another think, when my lift-method float zipped under, and a lovely 5lb 6 bream soon came to the surface and offered no resistance to being dragg
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Alders

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Dobsons

2.4.21 - Dobsons

With the partial release of lockdown combining with the Easter weekend, the Dobson's car park was rammed full, and bivvies had appeared all around the nearby lakes like mushrooms on a dewy field.  Good Friday? Pah! My preferred swim was surprisingly free, but this turned out to be in the face of a north easterly wind was cold enough to have me returning to the car for furry hat, scarf and gloves after twenty degrees plus in the last few days. It was really cold and didn't the fish know it and ke
Willows

19.10.21 - Willows

I was reminded that my Tuesday evening sessions are coming to an end as it felt like it was already getting dark when I arrived at 3:30. With a full moon and a lower air pressure, I had hoped that the Willows piscatorial population might be more forthcoming than of late, though the on/off rain strong south wind that was whipping the surface all evening raised more than a doubt. I snatched a 4lb 5 common on method feeder, but with the few anglers telling me of poor returns frim their day, I was a
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

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Willows

22.05.21 - Willows

Woe betide my landing net of shame. More a different world than a different weather system as the previous days stormy winds have died away and the morning session starts still and clear. Alders does its best to lure me with a shoal of fish bubbling the surface, but I walk my tackle by, as today is a Willows day, And so it should be, as I soon have a Mirror in at 5lb 9. But having lost another when a Drennan hook-link, brand new on this morning, snaps as the loop, it goes quiet. M
Willows

27.04.31 - Willows

Well, today was the day I sussed this fishing lark. Everything I touched went right. I got the swim I wanted after work, and casted right in the spot that I'd planned. Eight minutes later, the bobbin cracked against the rod and something powerful was stripping line, bolting away from the central island, leaving me to hang on, relieved that I'd decided not to set the line clip. On a whippy rod and light-ish line to aid casting, the fish can give good fight, this one took took line several times a
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

2
Dobsons & Waricks

20.3.21 - Dobsons & Warwicks

Ha. You got to love those fish. One day you think you've got this angling lark sussed, the next you're at the same swim but without the cold northerly wind - and nothing even waves a fin. Turned out to be an exercise in sittin' on the dock of the bay, watching the my neighbour rolling his bait boat back and forth. I'm sorry, but these just seems too unfair on the carp. At least casting way into the distance to within a foot of an island takes skill. You earn the right to catch those fish. I c
knotts

26.03.2021 - Knotts

A day to fish, and with heavy showers and winds forecast I chose the south bank of Knotts, being protected as it is by the banking of the canal behind. At one point I thought I saw bubbles in the next swim, but there turned out to be furry yellow  pussy willow catkins being blown into the water from the trees behind. Nothing was interested in legered baits all day, be it pellet, method feeder, pop-up, bread or corn, so I set up a second rod with float and size 18 hook and the pint of mag
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in knotts

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Alders (mainly)

30.4.21 - Alders

I'll draw a veil over this mornings start at Willows. While the sound of the cuckoo and woodpecker was a delight, the cold start and bitter northerly wind was not, and had me running to the car for my gloves. The morning was thus predictably quiet on the fish front, so I cut my losses and crossed the causeway to the adjacent Alders lake. This was a good move, even if the wind did swing south to resume blowing in my face. I started close in near some sunken willow roots. Just one bite on swe
Hambridge

22.7.21 - River Kennet - Hambridge

A bonus 75 mins fishing in the 6th continuous day of 30 degrees temps with searing sun.  I don't have waders, which limits me, I believe to just two swims, both adjacent, so with 15 mins of baiting up time, a half hour in each is probably about right. Not a lot around today, just half a dozen small roach and a chunky 8oz dace, but I did end with my favourite fish, the gudgeon. Not much to report about the fishing, so here's a few gudgeon facts: - As well as being the most characte
Alders/Greenham Mill

4.7.21 - Alders & Greenham Mill run-off

Well, that was a strange day. There were eight anglers on Willows when I arrived, enough to keep the fish quiet, so I crossed the causeway to the deserted Alders. For several hours I watched patches of Mr Crabtree-eque frothy tench bubbles rising near my float but could not tease a single bite.  The patches disappeared with sunshine, so before making my planned move to my local Greenham Mill, I thought I'd switch to a light float and small hook/ maggot combo with a view to winkling-out the
Willows

30.3 - 2.4.22 -Willows

Wednesday - A last short afternoon of the season as the gardening season has properly kicked off, and I have to pay for the maggots some how. Arrived at Willows at 2:30 to two surprises: There was only one other chap fishing, and the carp were up on the top everywhere. It was a still afternoon, certainly not the warmest, but there they were, sucking at the surface, some only 3ft from the bank, with groups of 3 or 4 fish seemingly liable to pop their heads up at any point. I fancied I’d either ca
Dobsons

10 & 13.5.22 - Alders and Dobsons

(a) Tuesday evening. Alders. Unpleasant westerly wind made float fishing tricky. Had a 5lb bream after 15 minutes and that was it. A couple of additional bites was more than my counterpart had all session on the bank opposite me, so I was happy to have caught a fish. Very Alders. (b) Friday. Dobsons. Even more unpleasant westerly wind made float fishing tricky. Had a mad half hour mid-morning - a bite on float had me into a good fish. One fight later I had my net ready when up to the surfac
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