Two afternoon trips to try out my new pole either side of a few days away.

For the first, I went chasing the large roach that are meant to have been jumping out at Knotts. Plenty of bites, though I had to keep switching float depth and baits to keep them coming Did manage 23 of the silvery red-finners, but none bigger than 4 ounces. Nearer the margin later on, I extracted 3 small  perch, and a spritely 15 ouncer. But bites dried up completely towards dusk and I packed up early. In the meantime, a rod set with a method feeder cast out to my left didn't get a touch.

Back from holiday early enough for a short stint at Willows. The elastic really got tested. Commons of 8lb 10, 5lb 7, 12lb and 5lb 3, a Mirror of 9lb 10 and tench of 1lb 11 and 3lb 4. Adding 2 lost fish, it was quite a 3 hours. Some of the bites were very delicate and made me wonder if I'd have missed them on standard float tackle. I prefer fishing/playing fish on rod and line, but will have to think, as rarely have I pulled out so many in such a short time.