31st March - Linch Hill, Willow.

As the title suggests the floods had deemed my club waters unsafe and as a result saw them closed for getting on 4 months... at my favourite time of the year as well!!

Anyway, that's another story.

After my success with the leather that I wrote about last week the carp bug was well and truly back, but this time I fancied having a go at something a little bigger.

I'd always wanted to fish up at Linch, having read so much about it when it was purely syndicated. It sounded so suited to the fishing that I massively enjoy but have had little opportunity to practice due to the lack of clarity of the Berkshire waters. Clear water and a stock of cracking old english fish that have a lot of history behind them.

After a lot of deliberation I set off Oxford bound on Sunday 30th March, mothers day, after earning a few brownie points in the morning. Linch was to be the first stop, the intention being to have a mooch around, see how busy it was etc and then decide whether I'd stay there or head over to Linear for the night. Obviously with it being a Sunday I expected a lot of the anglers to be pulling off, especially as it was mothers day as well, but I could hardly believe my luck when I made the walk down to the lakes, reaching Willow first and finding only one other angler present . One of the most popular day ticket waters in the country and my lake of choice was almost empty. After a quick chat with the only other guy on it did transpire that approximately 15 had left that morning... good timing or what?

Not many fish had been out of late but I didn't let that phase me and set off on a slow stroll around the lake donning my polariods and a real desire to find some fish. It didn't take long... all of 30 seconds before I noticed a few real good'uns drifting about on the surface. Their whereabouts noted, I carried on with my walk which turned up little of note until arriving back at the corner where I had come in where there seemed to be a number of fish drifting in an out of the snaggy treeline. A quick shimmy up a tree revealed a good few fish coming right in close, not feeding but enjoying the first of the spring sunshine. I stayed up that tree for as long as possible before temptation got the better of me and I was jogging back to get my gear.

After ensconcing myself in that corner I was soon back up that tree, trying to hatch a plan... unfortunately I was soon to figure out that the corner and majority of the lake was proper deep, 12-18ft was what 95% of the swim offered... far from ideal when the fish where clearly loving the unseasonably warm spring sunshine. Ideally I'd have wanted baits in 4ft of water in such conditions but foolishly I stuck to my guns and fished an unproductive night in the swim, though a few did show over me as the light faded.

The lack of shallower water was really playing on my mind... I knew that if I could find something of <5ft I'd have had a real chance of catching one so, after replenishing myself with a hearty breakfast I was setting off on my first lap of the lake... at 5.30am. Only quarter of the way around, when looking out across the lake a fish cleared the water right on the far bank, just off a fairly unsubstantial bush. It did this 4 times in quick succession, performing an acrobatic circle that I prayed the other lad hadn't seen. (No worries, he was still sound asleep, as most people would have been at that ungodly hour). The bank it had shown on was pretty badly flooded still, making for very uncomfortable fishing but by the time I'd got round there another couple had shown out in the open water in-front. A good half an hour I stood in that swim watching the odd one stick it's head out but unfortunately the majority already seemed to be up on the surface. Another show had my mind made up so off I trotted to get the essentials, returning 10 minutes later with my old waders that had been cut down to the knees. The rods had new baits tied on and were in hand, bail arm over waiting for one to aim at. 20 minutes later I was still stood there, looking like a waterbound sex pest in my boots and feeling a complete lemon as nothing else had shown.

It was only then that the fish that had shown off the bush popped into my mind. Putting the rods back down behind the swim I scrambled up a tree that overlooked the bush, adjusted my eyes and quickly realised that I'd hit the jackpot. The water was milked up, both in the bush and just off to the right and after watching closely for 5 minutes one came drifting out of the cloud, mouth working ten to the dozen having clearly been feeding only a few moments earlier.

Never has a man fallen out of a tree more quietly in a rush to get a rig on the spot. As I said, the rods were ready to go so I grabbed one that had a nice low, subtle pop up on it, and, after checking no fish were present, a handful of crushed baits were under-armed onto the spot off to the right of the bush. You must all know how difficult it is to be stealthy in the excitement of the moment but this was made even more tricky due to the flooded banks and the fact that I was fishing in between swims, under a low canopy of trees with 12'9" rods.

First cast painstakingly clipped the edge of the bush and needed a little heaving to get it back... FFS had I blown my chance before I'd started?!

A quick check of the hookpoint and this time the rig was flicked back out, landing perfectly this time in no more than 3ft of water. The line was left nice and slack but the clutch was completely locked up as I couldn't afford the fish any line in the snaggy situation. Probably 15 minutes passed before I spotted a swan making it's way towards my little hidey hole. Scaring it off wasn't really an option as I'd undoubtedly spook any fish that might have been in the area so all I could do was watch him waddle along nonchalantly, straight over my line. A few seconds later he decided to go back out the way he came and of course, as he reached where my line entered the water the bobbin pulled up tight and I cursed the hideous creature for ruining my opportunity. It wasn't until I looked at the direction the line was heading that I realised it was snaking left, into the snag and the swan was swimming right, away from the snag. I'd only bloody gone and hooked one and due to the confusion it was already dangerously close to the sunken branches I'd been desperate to avoid. In the end my panic was unfounded as it came straight out and hardly fought before a deep common rolled into my net, but not after some adventurous netting... the rod was too long to get anywhere near vertical under the canopy so i had to dig the butt into the silt, hold the spigot and ease the fish over the waiting net.

The fish was left to recover while I ran back around to get the scales and notify the other angler as I had to pass his bivvy en route. He kindly decided to come around and help me with the pics/see the fish (he'd been there 48 hours and hadn't had any). It turned out to be a real fat fish of 26.8, my first 20 of the year and one that really made me smile.

Obviously with the nature of the swim I never expected there to be any fish still present so the gear was packed up ready to find something else to go at. Curiosity however prompted me to climb that tree one more time and incredibly 2 fish came out of the snag at that exact moment, both chewing away. The rod was reassembled in double quick time and a fresh rig was soon back on the spot accompanied by a couple more handfuls of the crushed boilie. It took a little longer this time but sure enough the rod pulled up tight again and following a slightly better scrap and a repeat of the awkward netting procedure, another nice common went in the net.

This one went 19.8 .

I vowed there and then to visit a wider variety of venues rather than getting stale with the whole club water scene.