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Johnsons Lake, Milford 1500 - 2315 Warm (ish) and sunny day with temps plumeting after sundown - car thermo registered just 7ºC on the way home... 2 Tench; 2lb 3oz and another half that size. 1 Crucian; 1lb 10oz. 2 Rudd; 1lb 10oz and one of around ½lb. 3 Roach; all 'hand-sized'. Slowish evening - with everything bar the large rudd (just an ounce off my pb)coming after 2100. And whilst I caught by target species (Tench & Crucians) they weren't of the calibre this lake is famous for so the rudd was a bit of a bonus. Had planned to switch to the lake next door but chilled bones and a quick chat to someone who was doing a night on there (and not catching!!) decided otherwise!

Johnsons Lake - Milford 1200 - 2315 & 0300 - 0900 Warm and overcast and quite breezy. Quite the best night to be out - no need of warm clothing - or a shelter! 8 Crucians - best 4: 3lb 11oz, 3lb 8oz, 3lb 5oz, 3lb 4oz, 2X2lbers & 2X1lbers. 9 Tench; 3X5lbers to 5-15 and 6 of various sizes. 5 Rudd, 1lb 11oz & 1lb 8oz and 3 smalluns. 1 Roach. Wait 27 years for a decent rudd and then 2 come along at once. 1-06 was my previous best rudd - from way back in July 1991! The 1-08 held the crown for no more than a couple of hours before a stunning looking fish of just under 1¾lb graced my net. The thinking was that the evening would be relatively quiet with the footy on - but I didn't expect to get the place to myself - I was the only angler on the railway bank in the evening! Cracking haul of crucians which mostly fell to float fished prawn as did the bigger rudd ( the smaller one was on maggot)

My favourite and the way I learned to fish. I love pole fishing for bream, roach, carp, rudd Carrasio and tench. I have a few videos here of my pole fishing adventures. If anyone has any videos or particular stories I would like to hear them as I am reminiscing about Pole fishing.

Harris Lake, Marsh Farm Fishery, Milford. 1600 - 0700 Cool clear night, with bright sunshine before dusk and cloud building just after sunrise. 6 Crucians; 4 over 2lb - best 2lb 4oz. 5 Tench; Biggest 5lb 7oz. 4 Roach, 3 Perch, and a Gudgeon! Mission accomplished. Paul and I both said, rather wistfully, that we'd like a 5lb + tinca and a 2lb + crucian to kick off the summer. The crucian part of that equation being the one we thought we might struggle with as they haven't been showing very well recently from this lake - but we had a dozen between us with Paul getting 3 over the 2lb mark to 2.06. In truth it was something of a strange session. I had all bar one of my fish (my biggest tench), float fishing the margins after dark (all fish caught between 2200 - 0415), whilst Paul only had one fish of note during the night and caught the bulk of his fish in the afternoon. He had way more tench than me - including a brace of 5lbers - and a stunning and very unexpected rudd of 1lb exactly (we weighed it on both scales!). Morning saw my swim go back to sleep - and Paul (in the next peg down!)start catching again - most curious! Marsh Farm Gallery. Pics of my first tench of the summer, Paul's and my best crucian of the night and Paul's lovely rudd (a PB for him BTW!)

Marsh Farm, Nr Godalming 1545-2245 Johnsons 2315-0530 Harris 0600 - 0930 Johnsons Warm day - chilly night(well certainly cool at day break). 14 Tench - best 3; 5lb 14oz, 5lb 2oz, 4lb 14oz. 6 Crucians - all bar one over 2lb - biggest 2lb 11oz. 6 Carp 7lb 10oz and 5 tiddlers - and I do mean tiddlers, one was no bigger than my thumb! 7 Rudd - biggest 1lb 1oz (!) A session where the plan was to concentrate on Johnsons - hopefully for one of the big crucians and/or rudd at dusk. Move to Harris to bag up on the tincas and crucians (or in Paul's case head for the car for a kip) and return to Johnsons at day break. Parts 1 and 2 of the plan worked to near perfection - Paul had a couple of big crucians from Js (biggest a 3-02) while I had my first 1lb+ rudd in over 18 years (13/7/96 - Knotts)- all be it caught on ledgered cockle! The baby carp were actually a bit of a pain often imitating a much larger crucian in the way they fought and the 7lber was also a slight disappointment - as having eventually teased it in on 3lb bottom I was convinced I was attached to a really big tench until I eventually picked it out in my headlight and realised it was a carp. Harris fished as expected - 9 of my tincas and all my crucians were caught on here. Chopped prawn again the winning bait. Alas when we returned to Johnsons in the morning neither of us could so much as get a bite - and this despite Paul's swim resembling a Jacuzzi with bubbling fish! My biggest tench of the session - which is uglier - me or the tench!? Paul's 3lb crucian. Dawn over Harris

NAA Stillwater - Thatcham 0500 - 0930 Overcast and cool - with sunny spells for last hour. 1 fantailed goldfish (!) 2lb 3oz. 6 Rudd (4 really chunky ones in the 8-10oz bracket), 4 perch, 1 roach. Breakfast session after crucians - so somewhat disappointed with a goldfish - think its the 3rd time I've caught it (last time was Oct 2010 when it was a couple of ounces heavier!). Some nice rudd were a bonus however - wasn't too aware of them even being IN this lake!

I have been fishing a few years but never been to a commercial fishery, it may have been my imagination but my float fishing in challenging windy conditions seemed to amuse the lads sitting behind their alarms waiting for the the carp to bite. The funny thing is I had a great day for Rudd and Perch, whilst the alarms stayed mostly silent! I was just wondering if this is typical fishery behaviour? or am I just paranoid? after all we are there for the same reason..