Fishing, or England v Germany in the Euros? A dilemma indeed, but I could always watch the highlights when I got home, so bankside I went.

There were quite a few anglers when I arrived which meant I couldn't have he swim I wanted, but on an overcast evening with the wind in my face, it looked good.

Nothing happened in the first hour except the gusty north wind leading to two unnecessary and spiteful reel tangles which had me breaking the line and retackling twice. But then at 5pm on the dot - kick-off time at Wembley - the buzzer went and I caught Blinky, a one-eyed carp (his good side pictured here) that fought far harder than his 4lb 10 weight. While the texts came in, updating me of the score, little else happened. I switched between method feeder, lift method and shallowed up float to no effect. I've given up surface fishing here because there are so many water birds that pounce on every cast, but that's where the fish were. This was evident from the chap on the other bank, fly-fishing dog biscuits who pulled out quite a few. He also bagged a duck (banked then safely released) which made me feel justified, if way behind on fish. At 8, after not a single bite on floated sweetcorn or bread, a  torpedo of a 6lb 6 Common felt sorry enough for me to be caught back on the method feeder. 

Ah well, at least (spoiler alert) England won.