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  1. For those who don't have a Newbury AA ticket, Willows is a small, shallow lake without enough vegetation but with a central island that the carp, typically 6-12lbs like to swim around. It has also recently stocked been stocked up with bream and also tench of around 6lbs. Totting up, I've had around 260 commons and 150 mirrors since joining the club in 2021 with the odd decent crucian between them. You can see that it's what they call I a 'runs water' (I'd not heard of this phrase until recently) which means that you cant really go wrong. But I can. Yesterday I completed a hat trick of blanks. OK, I lost a couple on the way, but this is an epic failures as even one blank is unlikely. Can I blame the hot weather or the fish feeding on the large number of fry? Why not. More this while I've tried method feeder, PVA bags, pole and float, the carp at least, have been on the surface, and call it one of my blind spots, but I'm not really in to surface fishing. For one I hate the thought of hooking a bird, but to me the joyous mystery of fishing is catching what you cannot see, and plucking them off the top - and it's my loss - just isn't me. I'll get there in my own way.
  2. A start to the season in two parts. Firstly, I thought I'd spend several hours on the lakeside eager to catch a few tench before the sun rose and ruined everything. Needless to say the olive green beauts thought otherwise and bites were limited to 3 small roach and a pound-and-a-bit bream. Made it late morning to the hot and sunny syndicate at Marsh Benham where I was happy to bump into CP of this parish who'd caught his quota and was now headed home to watch the test match. Rumour elsewhere was that there weren't so many trout escapees into the carrier this year. Perhaps there wasn't as I 'only' had 3 of around 3lbs each, but a 2lb 7 chub squeezed in which more or less saved the day.
  3. It's been a tough Spring. With chilly water and my forthcoming move to South Wales eating at my fishing time, there's been little to trouble the scorers from largely short, sharp sessions. When concern for my well-being was expressed by an anonymous reader of this bog (thanks, Chris) I decided to update the following catalogue of mediocrity. 14.3 - Willows - A shortish evening stint, colder than yesterday and zero degrees when I packed up. One wintery shower caused a 'hailbow'. 2 Commons - 9lb 2 and 4lb 2. Mirror 4lb 14 22.3 - Willows - 10 degrees with strong winds and scudding showers. Mirror 8lb 2, Commons 8lb 4, 9lb 6 28.3 - Willows - clocks have gone forward, but strong winds again. Mirror 9lb 2 and Common 10lb 4 on another wise quiet evening. 3.4 - Willows - frosty start, 19 degrees on arrival, chilling off when sun went down. Blank 4.4 - Willows - not as cold as yesterday. 6lb 2 Common, 5lb 2 Tench (pictured) 5.4 - Willows - 4lb 4 Common 13.4 - Alders - Bobbin was jumping skittishly all evening but could not turn any to bites no matter what I tried. Bloody Alders. Blank 15.4 - Willows/Alders - first full day session in weeks. Blank. 18.4 - Avington - 2 x Gudgeon, 2 x Roach, 1 x Perch. Short, uneventful session. 19.4 - Willows - easterly wind. Blank 25.4 - Willows - after morning frost and bright afternoon a very welcome 8lb 10 Common There! What a load of rubbish. My worst April since records began (3 seasons ago). Enjoyed every minute, tried different baits/tactics, but always felt behind the curve, cold or both.
  4. Life is getting in the way of fishing at the moment. Don't get me wrong, it's all good stuff, but it's leaving me just a short ate afternoon/early evening session on Tuesdays at the mo. Last week, given a spell of warmer weather, I risked Willows, checking to see if the shallow water had warmed to bring the carp out. Not really. It was a fun evening, I really enjoyed stargazing at Orion, but with carp of 4lb 3 and 6lb 12 plus a beaten-up bream of 3lb 2 it wasn't a huge success. This evening, with the river season closing in I plumped for the syndicate water in Marsh Benham. No rain in weeks has brought the levels back low, and though I was after chub, in 45 minutes I'd banked 5 Brownies around the 3 - 3.5lb mark, lost a few more and even I was getting bored of them. Went to the end of the stretch to find the water flowing off the weir was running to hard for my heaviest lead to cope with, so returned to the carrier to fish swims i'd not tried before in the hope that the trout hadn't found them either. Do you know what - they hadn't! Had two stonking chub of 4lb and 3lb 12 from exactly the same spot. The last hour in darkness brought no more fish, but constant jingly knocks making me think the crays might have woken up.
  5. Friday. Piking at Dobsons. Deadbait out on rod 1, with a feeder and tiny bait/hook out on rod 2 hoping to find the odd roach or bream. Changed swims, baits, depths, but apart from one pike run (missed) at 8:30, had nothing all day. Had hoped that given a week of warmer temperatures that the fish might be waking up hungry, but not today. Then again, it was forecast for 11 degrees this afternoon, but in a stiffish wind it felt far from that. Saturday. Grey and windless. Much better. Had commons of 9lbs (a real beauty), 6lb 8 and 5lb 4 and a mirror of 9lb 4. A fun morning. The water wasn't as cold to the touch as i'd imagined.
  6. The re-arrival of freezing temperatures after a week of stormy winds and rain led to my morning customer cancelling my gardening services giving me a bonus couple of hours fishing. I grabbed my spinning rod and a box of traces and lures then headed for the canal. Lure fishing ain't my favourite style - possibly because I've never really done well with it. To be fair, I've only really tried it on short, deep winter sessions like today when I wouldn't blame any fish for not wanting to chase a piece of plastic and metalwork. Perhaps drop-shotting is the way on days like this, but I've not got around to trying this. Anyway, I snapped on a rubbery shad and off I went. Not a touch on the canal, Bulls Lock or Knotts lake and my hands were feeling cold. I swapped lures and at Dobsons on a slow retrieve I thought I might have had a nudge, but not being very experienced, perhaps I just dragged through some weed. I made a few more casts in the same area and this time when I contacted the patch it pulled back, but only for a few seconds. I couldn't connect again, so moved round a few more swims but to no effect. With time running out, I moved back to that swim and three casts in, I had an unmistakable take and a tail-walking pike. OK, at 5lb 10 it wasn't the biggest in the lake, but on a horrible cold day, and with my limited faith in lures waning further, it was an inspiring fish.
  7. There's the difference, you see. While other bloggers on this site were catching bream, chub and gudgeon on the rivers, I decided to go piking at Dobsons. I'd found it hard to sleep last night thinking of a swim I knew, with snags to the left and an overhanging tree to the right that screamed pike. I arrived in the back end of pouring rain to pop up a shad on one rig and flat-bottom a mackerel on the other: whichever proved the most irresistible, I'd swap and have both rods pulling them in. However, four hours on and I'd not had a touch. I'd swapped swims and witnessed a couple of lure angler walk past on the bank opposite me. One disconsolately tossed a single cast and immediately caught a jack pike mere feet from the bank, before nonchalantly chucking it back and moving on with his mate for more prolific areas. Pah. i consoled myself that dead-baiting was the only route to the big 'uns. Another hour passed until the inertia was broken when a bailiff turned up. 'Can you get hold of any wellies?' he asked, nodding at my ankle-height boots. 'Well, I've got some at home,' I said defensively, wondering whether this was some kind of foot fetishist. 'I see. That is your car over there?' he said, pointing at the only vehicle in the carpark other than a monstrous 4x4 'Err, spose so', I said, expecting a slant against its age, dirtiness or both. 'OK, only I'm not sure it will get through the flood,' he informed me, rather helpfully. We walked the 50 yards together to the one exit from the car park where a breached stream had flooded the area to a cold water depth of well over a foot. 'Ah,' I said. 'I think you might have to take the lid off your air-box,' he said. He might as well have asked me to conduct surgery to remove an arteriovenous malformation from the brain. 'Air-box?' I quizzed. 'Flip the bonnet,' he said. I flipped the bonnet. He pointed out the air intake of my 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer, and commented on its comparatively high location under the bonnet. This transpired to be a good thing. I was glad I hadn't brought the Maserati. 'As long as you don't create a bow-wave, you might be OK,' he suggested. 'But get water in there, it will destroy your engine.' I needed to get home. I had a date with Mrs S in the pub, and what's more Christmas was only 30 hours away. I gingerly revved the engine, shut my eyes and engaged first gear. ... I made it through, somehow. It did leave a tide mark of trapped leaves high up on the radiator but crucially just below my elevated 'air-box'. Lovely people, the Japanese. Suddenly a blank wasn't quite as bad as it had seemed as I spluttered down Muddy Lane to the safety of the M4. I type this after the afore-mentioned date with Mrs S and a Thai curry. In true angling style the horrors of the day have been filed away, the record deleted and I'm excited about a trip to the river tomorrow.
  8. Pulled on my snowman suit for the first time this winter, a prudent decision with the beautiful afternoon sun becoming a chilly moonlit evening, 3-degrees when I left. Not a touch before dusk, though the glow of the trees in the evening sunlight was beautiful - my photo has not been filtered. A 9lb 10 Common came in as the last of the light failed, followed by an old friend - Blinky, the one-eyed Common who I've caught a good 6 times. He's become a real pal and has put on 8 ounces since I last saw him at 6lb in October. While I listened to World Cup footy on the tranny (I'm not sure we can still call radios that?), I had a stunning, if small, fully-scaled Mirror of 4lb 7 and ended an enjoyable session with a floppy 6lb 10 Bream, that made sure I went home with a sodden, slimy net.
  9. I had reason to be in Thatcham first thing so decided on a rare trip to Brimpton. I'd convinced my wife the night before that liquidising a loaf of bread with a tin of corn was a prime use for her mixer, and I delivered several balls of the luscious confection in six chubby swims to fish in turn. The three pieces of betaine-soaked corn link-legered on a size 6 hook would surely be irresistible. Sadly, it was, and no matter how stealthily I moved and cast, I didn't get a bite. The good thing was I wasn't troubled by crayfish either, but then they would have given me some bend in the rod. Frankly I'd half expected this given my awful history with chub, and at lunch time moved to Collins lake to take my chances piking. It was a chilly 5 degrees even with the forecast easterly wind not arriving. I sat there feeding the visiting robin with bits of sandwich when finally, one of the most exciting few moments in fishing started tappen. The bung, which had steadfastly sat squat in the water for several hours spun slowly on is axis. Then it bobbed a couple of times, stopped for a few seconds then started to draw away. I struck hard, prepared to miss a fish than leave it any longer and risk deep-hooking. It may only have been 5lb 7, but it was 5lb 7 of welcome blank-busting meanness and made the whole day worthwhile.
  10. (1) My usual Tuesday evening session. With the rivers so low, I've stuck to the lakes, particularly as the temperatures have been mild. Arriving to find no one fishing but two cormorants, I managed a par two carp. The first, just before dark was a mirror of 6lb 8 was 'orange spot'. My pal Steve who surface feeds in this swim regularly in the summer says he catches it every session. Do you recognise him? He certainly didn't put up much of a fight, adopting a 'come on then, let's get this over with' attitude to the landing process. It took two hours for my next bite to come, a real rod-yanker from far down along the margin. Strangely for Willows, I lost this to a snag a moment before the second rod tip trembled and this time a very pretty common. I guessed it's weight at 12lb, but it only came in at 11lb 14. (2) Friday. After a week of moody cloud, mild temperatures and on/off moisture in the air, I plumped for another shot of piking at Dixons. Woke up to find it cold, clear and still - not great conditions, but by this time the car was packed and the mackerel thawed, so i followed through. One solitary run leading to a 5lb 7 fish. Swapped swims every 40 mins, fished by overhanging cover and out in the open, but nothing would inspire a second take.
  11. I was planning to go chub fishing this evening at a syndicate water, but was put off by (1) talk from another member of crayfish, combined with the view of a professional crayfish trapper that they are most active under full moons combined with (2) a second consecutive Tuesday of winds and threatened sharp showers had me thinking it would be slightly less unpleasant under a brolly in relatively sheltered Willows, than roving across open country casting between swaying branches over a narrow river. Maybe next week. The moon rose just after dark at 5 and lit the whole lake. It was beautiful. I sat watching the clouds scud past it as it slowly rose towards the bright light oof Jupiter. With it a very comfortable ten degrees, it really didn't matter that the fish weren't around, but then I was testing the cheesepaste I'd originally planned for chub, and mussels that were cheap in Sainsburys the other day. In the end I reverted to a more traditional bait and was rewarded with a mirror of 4lb 12 and 2 ugly commons of 7lb 8 and 5lb 2. Not the greatest haul, admittedly, but it was a really enjoyable session.
  12. When my Monday morning gardening customer cancelled at short notice, I was delighted to get a bonus 3-hours fishing in. With no maggots to fish the Lamborne or Hambridge, I pulled out some mackerel I had in the freezer from last winter, grabbed a couple of heavy rods and made for Dixons. Warm for November, dank and with light rain, it seemed perfect and I cast out a leger 20 yards to my left, and a bung a similar distance to my right. After about half an hour, the buzzer sounded a couple of times and I struck early to avoid deep hooking as they say. Fish on, it made for the far bank, but I managed to turn it whereupon it turned right and powered at some pace to the snags the other side of where my bung was floating. I've spent all day trying to work out what happened next to no avail... Inevitably the bung started to drag as the lines inevitably crossed and the pike reached the snags a few yards further on where it jammed solid. Unable to pull the fish out, I put the rod down to allow it to swim off when it thought the coast was clear, and in the meantime, I started winding in the bung to at least get it out of the way. But that line immediately met with the resistance of a swimming fish, just as the leger rod with the snagged fish on, now on the ground next to me, started bouncing. Did I now have a pike on both lines? I had to play the fish on the bung line and netted it, along with a tangle of hooks and wire traces about a foot up the wire from the fish's nose. On quick inspection this tangle was made up of both of my rigs - so none of my hooks were in the fish! But instead, there was a large, alien swivel in the birds nest attached to some previous angler's wire which was connected to pike through the edge of its gill plate. I turned the fish on its back to find the hooks from this mystery rig swallowed beyond sight through the gill rakers. Not wanting to damage them, I snipped the wire trace as far down as I could and released it. I was left to disentangle my two traces and cast both rods out again. I've absolutely no idea what happened. All I can say is that the initial fight seemed to be from a fish much bigger than the 8lb 12oz pike I landed. Had I lost this one, but implausibly snagged another? Who knows - but it still counts! The pike I did land was in perfect condition despite the swallowed tackle. In the remaining couple of hours, I missed two more runs (possibly striking too early, but I hate the prospect of deep hooking) and landed a 3lb 15 jack.
  13. A strange evening, my first Tuesday evening after the clocks went back. I'd intended to do some evening chub fishing on the river, but with strong winds and yet more heavy rain due, I felt an evening huddled under the brolly would be a slightly less uncomfortable than roving the banks. Naturally, I was the only one on the lake as I was blown down the bank. With the two-rod winter allowance now in place, I cast one to the island, the other along in the margins. I made friends with a mallard who was to be my companion, for the whole evening, it's heart set on munching my method mix I'd imagine rather than being mates, before the main rain started. There was distant thunder too before suddenly the clouds parted and a bright first quarter moon appeared from nowhere and illuminated the whole lake. Beautiful. Even the wind dropped for a few minutes during which time the margin rod was virtually pulled in by a fair fighting 6lb 8 common. Nothing for a further 45 minutes, apart from hooting owls and the occasional passing satellite before a good take on the island rod. Odd - though I'd cast 30 yards or so out, a fish immediately surfaced and started splashing on the surface just a rod length or two out. Had something picked up the bait and swum undetected toward me? No - but the flapping fish in front of me had somehow got my line wrapped around a fin. I netted it, a 5lb 2 common, then reeled in, half expecting another fish on the end, but no. I've no idea how the carp had tangled itself on what was a taut line, but hey ho, I wasn't complaining. A 5lb 4 common followed later on by more traditional means, and I packed up at 8 thinking three fish to be a pretty good return in the conditions. I started winding in the island rod to find some resistance on the end. This was strange as there is little if any debris in the lake, but I wound the weight in until 10 yards from the bank when it started moving back the other way pretty quickly. Turned out to be a 6lb 2 mirror.
  14. Tuesday - My usual evening session. it took me three rubbish casts to realise I'd wrapped the line round the rod when putting the sections together. An odd evening with many trembles on the rod tip that refused to develop into proper bites. I swapped baits to try and encourage some positive takes and in the end was happy to settle for mirrors of 5lb 4 and 6lb 4 plus commons of 5lb 10, 4lb 5 and 6lb. I'm delighted to report that the last fish was Blinky, the one-eyed common, who I last caught on 4th October, and have had four times overall. Friday - With low air pressure and rain sweeping in, I took my brolly to Dobsons. Spent most of the day huddling underneath it, stepping out only to address bites. I had a few. Bream of 3lb 10, 1lb 6 and 2lb 2, commons of 6lb and 5lb 15 (this one having curious patches of goldfish on each side) plus a stonking fat tench of 5lb 1. There was one much larger fish that powered me into the snags and never came out. Home and dried, the rain got worse and teemed down for hours, so next morning fearing swollen water levels, I forwent a planned river trip to the calm waters of Willows. I hear my fears were unfounded as other bloggers caught well on the Kennet, while I enjoyed a pleasant sit in the sun for just three carp of 5lb 8. 6lb 10 and 3lb 10. I lost another fish to a submerged snag in a lake when I've never previously encountered a snag in open water.
  15. Trip 1 - Tuesday evening. With the evenings closing in, it's lakes only on a Tuesday as I don't like fishing into the dark on rivers. Had some maggots left over from Sunday's match, so started on the pole at Willows. However, one roach in, a gusty wind got up which gave the surface a chop. I felt that a bobbing float wouldn't be conducive to good bait presentation so I switched to the method feeder and aimed for the island. Others seemed to be struggling to catch so I was happy with three carp in the just over 5lb mark and losing a bigger one at the net in the dark. Trip 2 - Started at a chilly first light on the river at Bulls Lock. Had 15 dace, largest a good 8 ounces before the sun climbed too high and all went quiet. Followed my plan and walked to Knotts. Fished the pole, but it was tough going. Two perch, either of the 2lb mark were the highlight, the larger one I had to unhook twice as it was trailing the line and pole float I'd lost on a snag half an hour earlier! Bonkers. Another small perch and a solitary, if 14oz roach, just about made it an acceptable day. Trip 3 - Clear and cold overnight, I didn't head for a river as the sun threatened to be bright all day over shallow water which i thought would keep the fish hiding. I fished a small bait on the pole at the corner of the lake that the sun had hit first, thinking I'd have the best chance in what might be the warmest water in the lake. A few small roach a perch and a skimmer was all that came. I switched to method feeder right in that sunny corner for the last hour and bingo - the most perfect pristine and feisty common of 13lb 8 making it suddenly a very profitable morning.
  16. A not fishing conducive scorching 18 degrees and millpond conditions when I set up at 3:30 in an unusual swim for me, but thinking it was where the last of the evening sun disappeared and the air would chill fast. Plumbing the depth with my pole, I snagged and brought in a weighing sling in the margin; the one I lost at this swim the evening I caught a 13lb Mirror on 3.3.21. That was the only excitement until dusk having barely had a bite. Just before dark at 6:30 and having switched to method feeder and hurriedly donned thick jumper, jacket and scarf, I managed a blank-bustin' 6lb common. I stuck it out until 8:30, watching the massive full moon rising through the trees behind me, Ursa Major and occasional satellite in the sky and the bats, one of which flew into my line. Two more runs with two mirrors of 5lb 2 and 4lb 1 making it an almost par evening for the time of year. Back at the car, i found that the temperature had fallen to a cool 5 degrees and that my team were 2-ut at AC Milan. AC who?
  17. With temperatures crumbling as autumn starts to get in gear, I started my migration from lakes to the canals and rivers. The morning could have been perfect for perch at first light- misty and still, but overnight it had dropped to four degrees, the coldest since spring, and maybe that turned them off. I managed to get some pole practise in prior to the match at Enborne on Sunday, presenting and jiggling a worm right in front of their reedbed ambush points, but only managed one of about half a pound. By the time the sun was climbing and the mist gone, I'd had just 2 more bites, a 5oz roach and having swapped to maggot, a bleak even small by bleak standards. Sticking to the plan, I upped-gear and stepped it out to a remote swim at Speen Moors. 4-foot deep, not too weedy, far bank vegetation and a good 50 yards+ to trot, it screamed chub and perch, and I'd been excited to fish it since discovering it by accident the other day. But disaster struck. Twice. In assembling the float rod, I managed to snap the tip off - don't ask me how. (Can anyone recommend a 14 or 15ft trotting rod that doesn't have a tip the width and strength of cocktail stick?). Then, though I'd replaced the line last week, I quickly discovered it was as brittle as a witch's hair estimating it about half of its alleged 5lb breaking strain remaining. This would be fine for roach, but if a chub came along, I knew I'd have to be very gentle as any sort of lunge would inevitably cause a snap. Third cast in, a chub (I'm guessing) did come along. i gave it as much pressure as I dared and had it on for 30 seconds or so before I could no longer keep it out of the snags it was determined to take me to. There it did that inexplicable fishy thing of swapping hook from mouth to snag, and I gingerly landed a section of tree. And that was the end of the excitement. I managed a chublet and maybe half a dozen roach between 3 and 6 ounces, but any hopes that I'd somehow developed any running water fishing skills while on the lakes in summer proved unfounded. The rain brought an almost welcome end to a largely disappointing session.
  18. Monday - Day off for my Auntie Jackie's funeral (don't be sad, it was her time) allowing me a bonus 3 hours fishing beforehand. I'd planned a river trip, but with brisk winds and showers forecast, decided instead to huddle under the brolly in the comparative shelter of Willows. As I sat biteless and without a puff of breeze (WHY do i ever follow the forecasts?), a guy set up to my left and had soon caught two carp, while a chap arrived to my right and caught three. I eventually had just the one, a 6lb 2 Mirror, and that was that. Tuesday - my usual afternoon/evening escape. Yesterday's wind finally arrived and was now making up for lost time. All the books say to fish into a new wind, so I bravely took seat on the east bank and took what it blew at me. However, once again this didn't work, and though the unexpected half hour rain took the wind away with it, I didn't get a single bite on 2 rods that I could be certain wasn't the work of crayfish. So, no fishy picture for you to enjoy, but this one of my auntie, uncle and cousins taken by me circa 1973 with my Kodak Box Brownie. RIP Auntie
  19. Arrived in the rain to find my preferred swim was closed for repairs, so with the whole lake to myself, as it was all day, I took myself to a new swim for me on the opposite bank. After a biteless hour I was losing faith and was strongly considering a move to the generally more reliable Willows. I'd packed up one rod when I noticed that the line on the other was not pointing in the direction that I'd cast it. I picked it up to find a fish on the end. Although this dropped off unseen, it encouraged me to give it another half an hour. Five minutes later, a 1lb 7lb bream came in, so I stayed and was rewarded by others of 1lb 13, 1lb 7, 2lb 4, 2lb 8, 4lb 10, 2lb 6, 4lb 6 (the haggard, fin-pecked one pictured above), 2lb, 1lb 12, 4lb 3, 2lb 4 and 5lb. And a 6lb 10 common, plus 12 roach between 2 and 6 ounces. OK, so none of Dobsons' big 'uns came my way, but it was one of the most enjoyable trips I'd had for a while - and I love them all.
  20. I'd intended to try chase the bream at Dobsons again, but parking up, was told by a dog-walker that it was bivvy-city over there given Her Majesty's funeral day, so I defaulted to Willows. Pretty pedestrian session, I landed every bite and after mirrors of 4lb 10 & 8lb 10 plus commons of 3lb 4, 7lb 13 and 7lb 14, a par evening was boosted by a slab of a 14lb 15 common soon after dark. The other highlight: a splash in my swim turned out to be made by a kingfisher which immediately flew up and sat in a shrub opposite me.
  21. I dug out the first jumper of autumn as we begin the approach the end of the lake season. Friday had 15mph northerly winds forecast at Willows, so I thought I'd be a clever so and so, and fished into the teeth of it, casting at the sheltered side of the island in front of me. At first it worked like a dream. In the only area of calm water on the lake, while others appeared to struggle, in 90 minutes I had mirrors of 5lb, 4lb 10, & 4lb 6 plus commons of 4lb 8 10lb 2 &5lb 2. I suppose I might have sat beaming to brightly at those lesser mortals on the west bank who didn't seem to be catching much, because suddenly the fish gods decided I'd had my quota, and though I mixed it up constantly, the final four hours were fish-free. The only other excitement of seeing a kingfisher was more than expunged by a large mink swimming across my swim. Saturday brought a colder 4-degree start though gentler, westerly winds and I headed to the deeper water at the easterly end of Dobsons. Allowed two rods here, I had jangly bites on both, though all I brought in were sticks. I'm always amazed how branches can give such good indications! It was a bit of a struggle tbh until the bream appeared in the last hour, with two around a pound and one of 4lb 4 to save my blushes. I think I could have gone on to have a few more but alas, we can only fish when we can fish, and not always when the silvery fellers are hungry. Compounded an average day by crunching my car nastily on the way home on an unseen low barrier at Sainsburys buying of all things. a pack of Apple & mango J2Os.
  22. A slightly better than par day at the Willows. With the air as still as can be and at a lower pressure after heavy rain most of yesterday, I had hoped for better. With nothing happening on float, I defaulted to the method feeder and through the day found pulses of fish at different ranges - commons of 4lb 8, 6lb 5, 5lb 15, 6lb 9, 5lb 9 & 6lb 5, with mirrors of 6lb 6, 7lb 12 and two bream, both under a pound. I've caught plenty of feisty carp here in recent times, but no doubles for aaaages. Highlight of the day was this elegant 2lb 12 crucian. On a tactical note, I swapped rods for a much softer, whippier rod with lower strength line and found not a single fish pulled, nor hooklink snapped. Yay!
  23. OK, so the heatwave has definitely gone. This evening the SW wind was blowing grey and black clouds hard and fast overhead making it look more Mordor than Berkshire. The chop on the water meant float fishing was out and pinging the method feeder out towards the island brought only phantom bites as the wind caught the bobbin. I chanced that the carp may be sheltering so came back to a rod length or two out near the cover of the lake's lone overhanging willow. A bite soon ensued. Winding in, it was twigs that first surfaced, followed by what at distance I thought was a tench. Turned out to be a beautiful 2lb 10 crucian - so whatever else happened this evening, it was going to be a good one. Turned out to be the right attitude to have as it was slow going. A common of 7lb 12 and mirror of 4lb 14 kept me interested, but it was hard. Then just as it got properly dark, the rain that had threatened all afternoon absolutely crashed down for quarter of an hour. I huddled under the brolly, willing the fish to leave my bait alone - I'd have got soaked trying to play one. Then it stopped, and a huge waxing gibbous of a moon appeared between the clouds for twenty seconds before disappearing, not to be seen again. But in that magic moment, the rod made a lurch for the water and I slid across the bank to grab it. This was as big a fish as I've hooked for some weeks, stripping plenty of line. When it turned back to the willow, I feared for the snags behind it, and increased the side strain. Bah! I was nowhere near maximum and the hook length snapped. That was the 9th of 10 Guru hooklinks that have snapped in the last 3 trips. They're meant to be 9lb BS, but no way. I've had problems with them before, but fell for them again as I love the QM1 hook that comes on them, being strong and less prone to bump fish. That's the problem with Drennan links - so many drop off, while I find he hook straightens out very easily on the Preston ones. I packed up in a huff. Hmm. I know the answer is to tie my own, but when tying knots i seem to have more thumbs than a platoon of hitch hikers. I find the loop tyers fiddly too, especially when dealing with short 4-inch lengths. Ideas anyone?
  24. Ridiculously, I thought that the overnight rain (yes, rain!) and slightly lower air pressure at first light might bring the notoriously plentiful but cagey fish out at Alders. After 2 hours without a touch, I took the hint and crossed the causeway to their noisy neighbours in Willows. A slow start, bumper lunch time then slower afternoon, brought commons of 7lb 12, 4lb 4, 5lb 6, 5lb 15, 5lb 12, mirrors of 6lb 11, 6lb 4, 4lb 11, 7lb 12 and 6lb 5, plus a single 2lb 11 tench. None of the bigger ones again - I've not seen one of those for weeks. I'm not sure what was in the water today, but they all fought like fire-spitting demons - great fun! After losing an unacceptable number of fish recently due to snaps or dropping off after several minutes of fight, I fished with a much loosened drag. Alhough this led to me striking into fresh air while I got the hang of it, I didn't lose any on the initial surge that has been snapping 9lb hook lengths tied by a company whose name rhymes with Muru, and only one fish dropped off, the last one of the day, moments after I'd congratulated myself for solving the problem.
  25. A slightly disappointing end to a month which brought almost 400lb of fish - my best month to date. Had 2 Commons and 2 Mirrors, all around the 5-6lb mark, but that was half the story. I had two more snap brand-new 9lb hooklinks and lost three more on the wind in. I thought I'd appeased the fish gods too, by passing my rod soon after hooking a fish to a nice young boy who, fishing on his own in the swim next to me, had apparently fished all day for a small bream. Half way through their fight however, the fish exchanged itself for a branch in the way that they do. I repeated the offer on the next bite and am pleased to report that he landed a nice 7lb-er a few minuted before his mum arrived to pick him up.
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