First early start for several months, up at 05:00, and fishing by 06:30, back to Marsh Farm, but Harris Lake this time. Things looked encouraging, a couple of patches of bubbles from what I hoped were feeding fish made me stop and set up in peg 12, an area of the lake I’d not fished before.

Not much of a plan today, apart from I wanted to fish near some lilies, and I hoped my close range float fishing would be more successful than on previous outings!

It just looked right for a spring dawn fishing trip, okay, maybe a bit past the dawn aspect! I had made some new paste up the night before, never tried previously, but I thought I would give it at least an hour before trying any other of the baits that I had brought with me.

The first bite came after only 30 minutes, no pre-warning dithering and dipping, the float just disappeared……the kind of bite I normally miss A short battle later, and my first fish of the day was on the unhooking mat, a tench of 5.04, and more to the point, it had taken my home-made paste!

Only minutes later the tip of the feeder rod flicked round, and I was paying enough attention to see it ! The fight was instantly recognizable, this was going to be a crucian, and it was, a bit battered, but at 1.14, this was a good start to the morning!

And this was sort of how it continued until I packed up just after noon, I’d get a fish on the float rod, and then one on the feeder rod, with a final tally of seven crucians, and three tench. The largest two crucians both took the scales past the 2lb mark, with the biggest at 2lb 5oz.

Amongst my usual varied selection of bait, I took some maggots, which only got used to keep a local sparrow family well fed for a few hours!!