I returned to Swift Ditch where the swim had gone dead on maggot feeder, though my first experiment was to try float fishing with hemp'n tares in a slightly different swim. In an hour I had just 3 roach, all no more than 3 inches long. I don't know how the greedy little fish could eat such a large bait as a tare! I wasn't fishing well, partly because I had set up too log a rod for the various trees and bushes.

So I switched to a ledger rod, and moved back to where the swim had died the day before. This time I was more circumspect and used a mixture of groundbait and maggot in a smaller feeder. The bites seemed more steady, though all the fish were small roach with just a couple of skimmers apart from 2 pike which I failed to land. One had taken a skimmer, and let go when it came to the net. It was a jack, 2 or three pounds. The other bit through the line. I never saw it, but it felt a fair bit bigger.

So I must teach Esox some manners. Had a go the next day. Missed a bite, and another pike got off the hook, so no pike landed so far.