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January 23 was a time of short mid-winter trips to Marsh Benham to plunder its chub and a great many fat trout. This year in South Wales, we sadly have no such river within 30 miles radius (well, none that are not fly fishing only or seen devoid of fish) so it's lakes for me with their inherent poor behaviour in cold weather combined with my lack of ability. 1.1 - Treoes. Scaled down on the tackle and winkled out 4 bream, the biggest of 3lb 2. 5.1 - Treoes. Having spent the cold evenings watching videos on winter lake fishing, I come armed with new tactics. I fished at length with a large bodied waggler, the vast majority of it's 5ssg capacity either side of the float, with a size 18 hook length, ready to step to to either a 16 or 14 once the bigger fish start moving in. The sun rose so low and so bright that I was blinded from the float so had to move to a less painful swim. Kept on the size 18 all day, managing 24 roach from micro-size to 4oz, 13 skimmers and a surprise 2 rudd. Oh well, unlike the Newbury lakes where the cormorants and crayfish have all but accounted for the tinies, at least it's good to see them thriving here. 12.1 - Fendrod Lake, Swansea. Another bright, sunny but chilly day, I changed venue to this 13 acre park lake. Picked a sheltered swim at the deeper end of the lake where the low sun would be hitting the water in front of me. I felt the fish might be drawn to the marginally higher water temperature as the afternoon progressed. It's also the only swim on the entire lake that drops away from the constant strolling by of the general public thus affords the relief of being able to take a shameless wee when needed. Perfectly pleasant sitting in the sunshine, emptying the bladder when required with impunity, but one rod on wafters and the other on teeny hooks with a single maggot brought no bites. 14.1 - Treoes. The second leg of Glamorgan Angling Club's annual pike matches. Most, including me had blanked on the first. 16 of us doughty anglers turned up on a Sunday morning to lovely overcast conditions after days of chill and blue sky. By the time the 9am start came, this had gone and it was hard and clear again. I'd drawn a swim on the shady bank while my compatriots opposite side removed layers and protected their eyes from the glare, I shivered. Looking at the high number of vibrant pike floats across the lake was reminiscent of a schoolboy's heavily acne'd face, but not one of them moved in the entire 6 hours. I've never come close to winning a match before, so to come equal 1st was a minor consolation! 15.1 - Hmm, with it forecast to be colder today and with a northerly wind. I think I'll find something else to do instead.

1 - Treoes - A jog, a sea swim then a fish. Stop off at petrol station for a loaf of bread for bait - £2.89 for a loaf! No chance. Wafters and sweetcorn it is. Watch a guy pull out fish after fish on a pole a few swims down while my rods sit untouched. Finally though regular feeding brings them in and I end up with a very pleasing 3lb 1, 5lb 6 and 8lb 9 mirrors, commons of 8lb 3, 8lb 7, 5lb 14, 5lb 2 and 5lb 6 with a solitary small bream 2 - Half Round ponds - I thought you could do with a change, so made my way to Swansea conscious that the tench might be sleepy and unlike Treoes, no bream to make up the weight. It was a fair guess. I'd managed to purchase a fair price loaf, but not a sausage on it all morning. The only bites come from coots that dive to pick up my bait before at last, after 4 hours and my time ending the rod tip bent right round hard. I struck, the hook getting immediately snagged to the bottom and the line inevitably snaps. Can a snag really give such a strong bite?! My first Welsh coarse fishing blank. 3 - Treoes - an evening session in late summer sunshine. Fish the margins for commons of 9lb 4, 7lb 4, 11ln 10 and 10lbs. They all fought like mentalists.

Summer has arrived at last and even in South Wales it's going to be 25 degrees. Choose the semi-circular lake to the left of the central causeway ans though this contains the smaller fish, it will mean I have the harsh sun on my back rather than full in my face. Take my 10m pole and fish against lilies. Its steady rather than ever rapid and a few hours before the heat of midday drives me away I manage 6 tench to 1lb 4, 2 small roach and 6 small rudd. Ah well, it was fun enough and though the tench were small they are always feisty here, and do pull the elastic more than their size would suggest.

Two back-to-back sessions on these Swansea ponds. With Welsh wind and rain expected and received, the landscaped bowl around these lakes at least kept the wind off me if not the west stuff. Friday was the best of the two days float fishing, and though of the three tench I was after, the biggest was 6oz, mirrors of 8lb 14, 8lb 10 and a common of 7lb 8 at least put bends in the rod. Saturday brought just one more tiny tench and a mirror of 5lb 4. I nodded a hello to the other angler who turned up an hour before I left, and cast a PVA bag to an implausible 1ft from the far bank twice - each one bagging a decent carp.

A morning in wonderful isolation at these usually well attended lakes. Maybe the lack of swims in the 'carp' pond due to an excess of milfoil weed kept all but the die-hards away. I attacked my favoured 'silvers' pond with the pole next to a vast mound of recently raked out weed. This left the shallow water crystal clear, reminiscent of the old aquarium house at London Zoo as I watched shoals of small rudd pass by and experimented with the effect of groundbait and loose feed on them. To keep them away from the hook i fished sweetcorn, the inevitable continued knocks from the small silvers occasionally replaced by a stronger dip of the float. Though I did lose something good in the weed, I did manage five tench between 4oz and nearly a pond, and five 'larger' rudd of 2-3oz after I'd switched to 4mm pellet. Not a lot to show for what was a fun morning

These small back-to-back semi-circular lakes are ex-industrial and have been brought to superb condition by a small band of volunteers of Brynmill & District AC. One has the advantage of being beside a tall escarpment meaning it is somewhat protected from the proper Welsh rain which battered me on both trips. It was truly wet. But the water in front of this shelter since I first came a few weeks ago is full of milfoil. This pond weed is rather pretty to look at, and i imagine loved by the fish, but makes fishing impossible. The bailiff told me the club is having it reaped in a few weeks, and in the meantime members are allowed, even encouraged to chuck out a rake head and drag it out. I didn't have a rake in my tackle box, but was relieved to find a single small clearing, stretching about 10m out and maybe 2m wide. I dropped a pole float in on both trips, and while it was lovely to be kept out of the winds and at least the worst of the rain, I think the fish were happy to remain in the cover where doubtless a billion succulent invertebrates live. I did manage a few. Across the piece I had a single rudd and 6 tench from 6oz to a pound. Boy they fight hard for little 'uns. I would have struggled to get anything much bigger out on light tackle - each landing being chiefly collected weed as well as the diminutive fish. I look forward to returning with a rake-on-a-rope in, hopefully, more clement conditions.