Willows Lake, Thatcham

1400 - 2300

Overcast, and quite breezy at times. Not particularly warm - in fact quite chilly(9ºC) when I departed under clearing skies.

4 Carp; 3lb - 6lb 10oz. 6 Tench; mostly around the pound mark - with a couple a bit bigger at 1-14 & 2-15. 6 Crucians; again all quite small - though the stocking from a couple of years ago is getting noticeably bigger - put a couple of the better ones on the scales for curiosity and they both went 10oz. 4 Rudd. 30+ Perch (bit of a menace!)

In need of a confidence booster after last week's rainy debacle at MF. Again Tench and Crucians were on the agenda and I didn't so mind if the odd bully-boy carp put in an appearance. Which is exactly how it turned out - though I hadn't reckoned on the voraciousness of the perch - had to stop using my bait of choice (chopped prawn) as they just nailed it immediately - even maggot lasted longer. Thankfully all the carp arrived in a flurry around tea time - not to return - so as the shadows lengthened I had a steady stream of my target species plus a few handsized rudd. Was even able to switch back to prawn with the immedaite result of the bigger tench. As temps plummeted so the bites stopped - and whilst I had intended to fish until midnight no bites after 10pm saw me head home 'early' for a warm bed.