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My first evening session after the clocks went back. With a light frost that morning and the threat of even lower temperatures tonight under still, clear skies, a blank would have been disappointing, but not inconceivable. Nothing for an hour, before I brought in a very welcome 5lb 10 common, one of those fish that broke the surface as soon as it was hooked and insisted on surfing throughout the fight. With the swim still reeling from the disturbance, my float, not 10ft from my feet, gave a perfect lift-bite and I was in to a good fish. All carp seem to give heavyweight fights on the centrepin reel, no matter what size they turn out to be, so I just hung on as usual while dusk turned to night around me. When I finally saw it, I got the idea that it was actually quite a nice fish,. A few more runs later in came a chunky monkey common of 17lb 8. I sat smirking for the next hour wile the temperature fell sharply to 3 degrees. I decided to pack up at 7, and with everything packed except net and rod, it was almost pulled into the dark water, as my 3.5 hour session ended with a third common of 6lb 7. ps - apologies for the pic - I've not really got the hang of this nocturnal photography lark.

I thought I'd save you yet more of the same thing by condensing the last three trips into one post. My plans to migrate to the rivers/canals for winter were delayed for a further week as (1) my Tuesday afternoon slot takes my only evening slot and I just feel more comfortable fishing lakes than the crayfish-filled rivers in the dark and (2) the forecast for Friday and Saturday were billed as being very wet, and I felt hiding under a brolly was slightly less uncomfortable lakeside. Tuesday - A skimmer and 3 x commons - 6lb 10, 7lb 12 and 5lb 5 on three different baits The final two being on a star-lited float in the margins on the centrepin were particularly exciting. Friday - with strong winds, rain, but an air pressure of less than 1,000mb, I hoped the carp would be throwing themselves on the bank. And so it proved in the morning at least, with commons of 8lb 5, 4lb 8, 8lb 8 and 8lb 2 supplemented by mirrors of 6lb and 5lb 6 during on/off torrential rains. However, no matter what I tried, the afternoon brought nothing but mercifully fairer weather and the obligatory skimmer. Saturday - I spent the first hour sitting in the car as the rain lashed the windscreen before venturing out. The same surface chop as yesterday, but for the first four hours I couldn't buy a bite. To prevent the possibility of a blank, I set up my light float rod and from the first cast, had 13 roach to 6 ounces, 5 rudd, 3 bream and a perch. With half an hour to go, the float sank again an this time it was a proper fish. Ponderous at first, when the coin dropped it fought very hard and took all of those final 30 minutes to land. It came in at only 8lb 5, but my knots and forearms had passed the test and salvaged the day. Hurrah!

A mixed day. I predominantly fished the margins on a virtually deserted lake. Within 5 minutes, I'd hooked a good carp on float fished single corn dipped in my top secret ingredient, that had the centrepin screeching and took me right, left and central before falling off the hook, unseen, after around 10 minutes of fun. If this wasn't annoying enough, I then missed bite after bite after bite, the float dragging under every 5 minutes or so, yet I couldn't hit any of them. I began to suspect crays, but one finally stuck, for 10 seconds anyway, before the charging fish also fell off the hook, and the bite-missing routine resumed. I changed baits, swapped from lift-method to shirt-button and changed the depth, but still the bites came and went and after 3 hours I'd had loads of activity but was still blanking. Frustrated, I changed to method feeder, and threw into the baited area in front of me, and finally got a strong rod-tip pull and was in ... to a 2 ounce roach on double corn! I reckoned it was those horrors that had been fiddling with the corn giving me false bites, so I decided to play them at their own game and lighten the tackle even further to a size 16 hook and the maggots left over from yesterday. This accounted for a large number of tiny roach (including the frighteningly goggle-eyed one pictured here) and perch to the point it was getting boring, and I switched back to the method feeder. Then an amazing thing happened. The strengthening breeze led to a huge birds nest around my reel, and while cussing and trying to untie it, the feeder was in the water, maybe a foot from the bank in front of me. The process took a while and I was wondering if I just should have broken the line and started again, when the rod was almost pulled out of my hands. With the line still snagged around the reel, all I could do was grab the landing net and thrust it into the boiling surface and pulled in a 8lb 5 mirror and several more pounds of bankside vegetation. Robbed of the chance to fight for freedom, it flapped around furiously on the mat as I managed somehow to unhook and return it. With signs of fish close in, I spent the last hour back on double maggot, for 11 roach up to 6 ounces, a skimmer, a 6lb common with a stomach growth making up at least a pound of this, and finally a rather battered but still beautiful crucian of 2lb 5 (no doubts of its ID this time, Chris!)

I was reminded that my Tuesday evening sessions are coming to an end as it felt like it was already getting dark when I arrived at 3:30. With a full moon and a lower air pressure, I had hoped that the Willows piscatorial population might be more forthcoming than of late, though the on/off rain strong south wind that was whipping the surface all evening raised more than a doubt. I snatched a 4lb 5 common on method feeder, but with the few anglers telling me of poor returns frim their day, I was at least assured of not blanking. So I set up my float rod and centrepin earlier than expected to float fish the margin with single corn dipped in my trade secret flavouring. I had four bites: 1st* - A good fish that roared off towards the middle, sending the centrepin screeching, but causing the 5lb hook length to snap after a heart-thumping 10seconds. 2nd - A magnificent fight. It is so much more fun on a centrepin. This one took line again and again and again. The fight, the best bit about fishing, even more than the excited anticipation of the initial bite, lasted over 20 minutes. I've only been fishing this way recently, and was wondering whether a 'big' fish could be caught on lighter tackle, particularly after several losses - but this one came in at a splendid 14lb mirror, and there was never a serious doubt that I wouldn't land it. 3rd* - Wow. The fish went mental. It took the bait a yard out and set off like a rocket, heading away from me parallel to the bank. If there had been anglers to my left, I would have crossed lines with them all. It just wouldn't stop. I did my best to add resistance to the drum with my palm, but nothing would slow it. Though I was only a third of the way along the bank, with yard after yard of line being torn off the reel. I was seriously concerned that it was heading for, and would reach, the reeds in the far north corner, maybe 50 yards away. You cant lock down a centrepin like you can a fixed spool, but I maximised the strain giving as much palm pressure as I could...then the hook pulled free. With the slow retrieve of the centrepin it took over a minute to wind back in. Heart breaking, but Incredible. 4th - A 7lb 11 mirror - a good fish really, but a tiddler compared to bite #3. I felt there were more fish to be had on the cards, but with heavier rain due, I made the prudent decision to abort just at the right time: as I reached home it was torrential. * Hmm. The reel was loaded with the 4lb braid that I've been using for trotting, along with a 2.5ft 5lb mono hook length. I appreciate there is no stretch on the braid - do you think this might be why I lost the two fish? With my centrepin not having a spare spool, I couldn't be a*sed to change it to mono. Perhaps I should have been.

Autumn is here, and while the books will all tell you that the carp are feeding hard, sensing the forthcoming winter, the continued unseasonable warmth has maybe stopped the message getting through. Little to report from 3 sessions frankly, with a mirror and 5 commons cross the piece - or should it be 4? - I caught the photo'd fish an hour after dark in single corn float fished about 2ft from the bank. It didn't give much of a fight, and was particularly well behaved on the unhooking mat. My lantern and camera flash weren't great, but what do you think it is? To me it has the body of a common, but the facial features of a crucian (including no barbule). I have passed the pic around a number of NAA dignitaries - with the voting currently standing as common (2), crucian (1) and F1(!)(1) I've gone with my fishing mentor, Mr Plumb and recorded it in my nerdy spreadsheet as a common. Shame - at 3lb 10oz it would have been a crucian pb. The only other thing to say is that with the method feeder being untroubled by fish, I loose-fed the margin in front of me and set up a lift-method float, single corn on 4lb braid/5lb hook length on a 15ft rod. OK, I went on to lost 3 carp (2 fell off the hook, the other my hook knot gave way - grr!) which may have helped make the stats more acceptable, but I have been converted. The fight on a centrepin is amazing fun. Even the 6lb-er took line screaming against the ratchet many times. Much more enjoyable than dragging them in on a leger rod! The fun bit is a fish on the line, so why not make the most of it?

A couple of pretty crabby days. Friday was a comparatively cold start from recent days and I suspected it might be slower. It was. Soon after arriving, a strong, cold and to my mind, unforecast southerly wind, It was a struggle and the bait only troubled by a 3lb 6 Mirror. When times get tough you try anything, and when the sun finally came out and though the wind remained, I gave a black foam zig suspended 2ft from the bottom a go. Result: Ha! a 7lb 1oz bream! Saturday would have seen a trip to the river, but rain was due and hiding under a brolly just seemed less unpleasant on a lake. Anyway, it couldn't be as bad two days running, could it. It could. Fishing in the corner the wind was blowing might be the instruction from the books I've read, but there was nothing doing. I moved to the lee-side of the island where I wondered if the fish would be sheltering from the chop, I managed a small rudd and a perch on float and then a 4lb 8 mirror on swimfeeder. Meh.

Two more trips to my fave lake chasing the carp before they hunker down in the cold and go off their feed. Saturday. Slow. I was told it had dropped off since my Harvest moonlit fun on Tuesday (maybe because of its waning?). Tried a bit of everything, and though I lost a couple, just three carp of 8lb 4, 4lb 8 and 6lb 14 was below par. Tuesday. Unable to do any work for today's employer as their computer system was irrecoverably down. As the job is wholly reliant on access to data bases, I became a professional angler for 4 hours when I got to go fishing but was still paid for the day. The showers - the first rain in a while - were occasionally heavy and driven in by strong southerly winds which I followed into the north corner, but didn't get a single bite until my usual after work arrival time. Moral justice, some would say. In the final three hours, the carp took pity on me and sent me Commons of 6lb 11, 11lb, 7lb 15, 6lb 6 and 6lb 10 as well as Mirrors of 5lb and 3lb 10. At 6:30 I would have packed up and gone home as the rain was lashing down so hard, I wanted to cower under my brolly as the water ran off my gear and into the lake, but the fish had other ideas. The last three carp came in quick succession during the worst of the downpour and while I'm sure there were more to be caught, I was soaked to the skin and had to abandon.

The first feeling of autumn. Despite a near 20-degree 3pm start and a stillness in the air, it was quite chilly and dewy as I packed up an hour after dark as the harvest moon was rising. Anticipating fish on the surface, I aimed to repeat last Saturday's surprise catch with a foam zig rig. The carp weren't on show until I pinged in a few biscuits. Within two minutes I had 4 wheeling terns plus 3 moorhens and 2 coots in my swim waiting for the next ping. The carp were almost as quick on the scene, and a bird v fish battle commenced. Safe with the knowledge that my hook was 6 inches below bird-level, I pinged with impunity and had 2 commons of 6lb 12 and 7lb 12. Both very violent takes and massive fights for such comparatively small fish - maybe the sheer indignity of falling for half-inch stubs of foam drove them to greater strength. As if a switch had flicked, the carp stopped swirling and ignored any more biscuits, so I switched to method feeding on the bottom. The next two hours brought mirrors of 9lb, 11lb 10 and 8lb 15, plus a last cast common of 6lb 2. A great fun evening.

Friday: A bonus early morning 3 hours. Despite being put off seeing a guy fishing topless in shorts while I was considering running back to the car for a third layer, I was warmed by two sparkling mirrors of 9lb and 8lb 15. It was one of those mornings where the quivertip was trembling throughout, but despite changing baits, I didn't manage to convert the action to bites. Lost one at the end which would have made it a great sneaked session. Saturday: 7:30am til 2:30. An autumnal misty start with hard fighting early mirror of 11lb 15, commons of 5lb 6, and 5lb (my third one-eyed carp here...?) plus a bonus crucian that didn't give a bite but was there on the end when I wound in. When it went quiet I swapped to a float for an hour and chucked hemp and maggot close in for 18 roach (all tiny except for 2 half-pounders and a clunking 12 ouncer) and 9 perch between 2 and 6 ounces all seemingly with pot bellies. With an hour to go I switched back to method feeder to attempt a final carp, but within minutes there were carp cruising along the surface pretty much everywhere. That's when it happened. Thinking it wasn't worth bottom-feeding for them, and having no surface baits nor aptitude for fishing this way, I kept the feeder unit on, but replaced the 4-inch hook length with a 3ft one from which to suspend a home assembled yellow foam zig. I had no faith that any carp would be taken in by such an artificially shaped, madly coloured, atrocious bit of haberdashery floating 6-inches under the surface, but with only 45 minutes left thought there was nothing to lose. Blimey. Two minutes later the rod was virtually pulled in and thus started a ten-minute battle of man v fish as it made run after run against the drag. I was so relieved to land it, and could not believe it was a common of 'only' 7lb 9, it fought like one twice its weight. Boy, I was the self-appointed King of Fishing. I felt like doing a lap of honour showing all the other anglers my measly little rig and showing them the attached picture of my reward. So I didn't catch any more in the remaining half hour or so, but my smile was, and still is, fixed.

Two sessions spent in my favourite swim. With the temperature and air pressure having fallen, and the breeze and chance of rain up, I was hopeful the carp would be obliging. Largely they were. One popular consensus is that the carp shoal and swim round and round the island. This is borne out by the fish often coming in pulses of 15 minutes when the rod tip won't keep still, and more than taking the method feeder 'on the drop', before the rod goes back onto the rest. Then it quietens again and the bobbin hangs stubbornly still until the merry-go-round returns. I tried pinging a bed of pellets out to hold them in place when they did arrive, and maybe this worked to some degree, but maybe it didn't. I met Commons of 5lb 12, 8lb 5, 7lb 9, 7lb 12, 7lb, 6lb 6 & 4lb 4, plus Mirrors of 5lb 1, 3lb 12, 5lb 15, 4lb 14, 8lb 2, 3lb 6 & 5lb 6. One of the strongest bite on a 10-mil pellet/size 12 hook brought a half-pound Crucian (sorry, Chris!). Finickity biters? No that one. We all lose fish of course, but three times I suffered my old nemesis of having commercially-tied hook lengths snap between loop and hook on a take (I've learned always to test them between fish, yet the violence of a take seems to beat the 12lb b.s. links more often than you'd expect). I'd tie my own, but am fingers and thumbs tying hairs and loops. I also had a plastic connector separate mid-fight on top of the several fish that threw the hook, and the unmissable bites that I missed.

Well, if you'd told me I was going to have two personal bests since records resumed last June after my 20-odd year hiatus from angling, I'd be anticipating a fab day, though by anyone else's standards it probably wasn't. After my haul of ten (10) carp on Tuesday evening, they really didn't want to know today. After an hour or two without a sniff on the method feeder, I maggotted and hemped-up a zone about 5ft out from a bankside shrub and swapped for a float. This brought fourteen roach, of which eight were 6 ounces or others, including two half-pounders and two 12-ouncers. Really chunky they were, the two bigger boys giving a proper fight and needing landing. A few small perch and a breamlet joined the fun. Something also took the bait and rocketed out towards the middle, but after the clutch screamed for a good five seconds, the size 16 hook lost it's hold. Shame. The afternoon sun brought the carp to the surface. One guy fishing biscuits, or similar, had at one point over twenty terns looping overhead and diving for his freebies, so I didn't get involved. I tried a bird-resistant zig-rig suspended a foot below the surface for a while, but not convinced that an inch of yellow foam rubber could really catch anything, I aborted for a final hour on the river at Hambridge. Here, though plenty of maggots were chewed and two minnows snared, the one true bite brought a dashing 1lb 12 chub to the net, a tribute to the advice I'd received previously to use a microbarbed hook (cheers, Chris). OK, so I admit that 12-ounce roach and sub-2lb chub aren't much to write home about, let alone blog, but they will be memorable fish while I try to get the hang of this sport

A nice mornings fishing. Lots of line bites, knocks and spells of fish playing with the feeder, and some rod-yanking takes that somehow failed to connect. The sum total was 3 mirrors of 5lb 2, 6lb 2 and 7lb 8, ending with a bream of 3lb 8 was probably about par.

Goodness me. I know carp aren't everyone's cup of tea, and some consider the gugle-eyed lake cows a nuisance when fishing for wilier harder to tempt species; but they are such good fun. In under three hours this evening, I had commons of 6lb 8, 3lb 12, 4lb 9 & 7lb 15 plus mirrors of 5lb 12, 8lb 10, 9lb 9, 9lb 2, 9lb 4 and 4lb 2 - ie 69lbs of fish! If I'd landed the three fish that slipped the hook mid-fight, or snagged some of the many hard takes that seemed impossible to miss, who knows what weight I could have managed. Reasons for such a haul? who knows - was it my 'new' bait, or long-awaited O-Level in watercraft? More likely I think it was the second day of strong northerly wind boosting the oxygen levels - to a fish they fought hard and even on the bank, flapped like demons, making 'selfies' pretty much impossible to take. Whatever it was, though the wind kept blowing, the switch flicked at 7:30pm and I caught no more and hardly had a touch for the remaining hour and a half. Carp, eh? Don't you just love 'em.

Summer Bank Holiday? Of course it was: there was a stiff cold north wind right in my face that had me back to the car firstly for my gilet and, half hour later, my thick coat. It was bloomin' cold. There was one other angler sat right opposite me. OK, so he had the wind on his back rather than full-facial, but how he sat there for three hours in his shorts I couldn't tell you. The fish hid as well. I didn't get a touch for three hours, then wondering how I could change my luck, saw that a ruddy great slug had climbed into my groundbait. Ah, surely a present from the carp gods. I found the biggest hook in the tackle box and pinged the thing out towards the edge of the lilies. There it sat for two hours. I did set a single tap at one point, but that was probably a greedy roach no bigger than the slug, or a carp chuckling at my desperate effort. To try and avoid a blank, in the last hour, I switched to a small float, one rod length out with the remnants of the maggots kindly donated to me by a packing-up angler last week. Phew, I lured seven perch, mainly tiny, to the bankside, but among the bites, one tugged away with a vengeance, which took me by surprise. But ine powerful lunge and it was over, up flopped a 4lb 2oz bream, staring at me, beaten, as I lowered in my net.

Arrived early to find five cars already parked and the warming sight a whole family fishing from consecutive swims on the western bank. For the second session running, I hooked a carp within thirty seconds of my first cast, a mirror of exactly 10lbs, hard fighting but another candidate for the ugly fish and ugly angler awards. Within a couple of hours, alternating between an orange wafter and a Robon Red pellet, I'd caught commons of 5lb 13, 10lb 8 and 7lb 13 as well as a greedy 8-ounce bream. Then Willows did its thing and shut up shop. With the sun breaking through at last, I pinged in enough dog biscuits to feed off the coots and moorhens (the Canadas relievedly absent) while the ducks were chased off by the carp breaking the surface. I flung biscuits for an hour and in all that time and carpy commotion, my biscuity hook bait was mouthed only twice and immediately rejected. Fed up with this energetic form of fishing for no return, I set up a float road and spent the last hour stealthily exploring the margin for crucian, but having to make do with two roach, one maybe 6 ounces, the other about a hundredth of this.

Willows was busy as ever, and I chatted to a number of anglers on my way to one of the remaining swims. A few had come out, but one guy had been there since 8am and had not caught a thing - and now it was early 4. I chucked in a few balls of breadcrumbs mixed with pellets in the far margin opposite my narrowish swim then set up and cast out. Before I'd even got my seat set up, the rod was dragged across the bank and I held on for a 7lb 9 mirror - wow! Tonight was going to be the night. I had no more bites on the method feeder, short of one bringing in a 4-ox roach, foul hooked in the head. I switched to float fishing the near margin earlier than planned to drum up some action. Had a three perch, three more roach and a small bream. But I also had tench of 1lb 2 and 3lb, and as it darkened, two pretty crucians of 4 and 6 ounces, the smaller having recovered from having a big bite taken out of its back. As it got dark, my line got tangled around the end of the rod which required a head torch switched on to sort out, which probably sent any fish scampering away from the margins. When the same thing happened again ten minutes later, I took the hint and packed up. I'd seen the carp up on the surface on open water in the warmth of the evening sun, so I'm sure a pellet waggler, or a floating dog biscuit would have caught well, but I took my chance in the margins which on this occasion, did not pay off. Never mind.

I'm sorry readers, but it's Willows again. A rare Monday morning session, but took the day off for a funeral so sneaked in a 4-hour stint. Dull, overcast (the weather, not me) with a chill northerly breeze that had me running back to the car for a jacket - it could only be summer 2021. Despite the drop in air temp - or perhaps because of the drop in air temp?) the fish were quite active throughout. I had lots of liners, lots of jerky hits that came to nowt, and somehow missed some unmissable bites. I had one fish fall off the week, the first in some weeks since switching to Guru QM1 hooks (other hooks are available, but I tend to lose fish on them). In a short session, I was very happy with a 2lb 6 tench (that jumped clear out of the water mid-fight). a common of 4lb 14, mirrors of 5lb 4 and 7lb 5 plus a foul-hooked crucian of 4oz. Could have been more, but that's fishing.

Two long stints at my favourite lake (when it's playing ball) to test my theory that the carp swim round the central island in the morning, move to open waters in the afternoon and slink out to the margins for their tea. Friday: dry and with the lake to myself at 6:30am pinged the method feeder out towards the island. By 9. I'd had visits from commons of 7lb, 4lb 10 and 9lb 12, all on the same orange wafter. It was set to be a fab day and I held my smile even when fourteen Canada geese splash landed in my swim. Another bite followed and I dragged in a 2-ounce bream, hooked in the back. My next cast brought a similar bite and, amazingly, a similar sized bream hooked also hooked in the back! Then it all went quiet. I could not buy a bite so switched to float fished maggot for a bag of small bream, roach and perch. Saturday: on/off rain. Not a sausage for the first two hours, no matter what I tried. I remembered I had a bag of Robin Red pellets in the car, and as I brought them back past the guy who hadn't caught anything either, I joked they were 'magic beans' . I cast out and before I'd set the bobbin, the rod leapt up, taken by a 5lb 2 common. Magic or what! Within minutes a 3lb 8 common was flapping in my net and I knew I'd discovered the secret bait to unlock Willows. Ten minutes after that, the bait runner screamed, but soon the fish was flapping, beaten on the surface. I presumed it was a bream, but as it came in I could see it was golden; a stunning personal best crucian of 2lb 12. But that was the end of the fun, unless you count the 8-ounce bream that I thought was a twig when I wound it in. With the magic beans having lost their lustre, I switched to maggots close in and in the last hour had another 8-ounce bream, a feisty 1lb 4 common, 1lb 2 tench and a couple of handfuls of perch and roach. To end an overall disappointing two days, I got hit by a sudden drenching downpour on the way to the car.

Not a great success. My three preferred swims were already taken, but that's OK, I've done well previously from the one I chose. Tossed out the method feeder at the island, and threw pellets out over it, but though I had sporadic attention on the bobbin, nothing seemed to want to take it for real despite changing hook baits several times. Switched to and from float fished maggot over hemp and managed a meagre 1lb 4 tench, 5 bream around the 6-8oz mark and three roach. Nothing exciting until in the fading light when back on the feeder, I at last had a proper take and a 5lb mirror.

Regular readers will know that a week ago at Willows I achieved: (a) 6:45am til 11:30 - nothing (b) 11:30 - 2:30 - 5 carp. (c) 2:30 - 4:45. - Not even a nudge Following this, a revered and sagely angling guru wisely ordained that 'the knack is to 'ONLY be on the bank for (b) ! 4 hours at the 'right' time is better than 10 hours at the wrong...' Seven days later, with different bait and tactics, though I spent the first two hours before crossing the causeway to Willows, the scores on the doors were: (d) 6:45am til noon - a 2oz bream (e) noon - 2pm - commons of 6lb 8, 4lb 5, 6lb 9 and 8lb 15 (f) 2pm - 5pm - another 2oz bream. Sound familiar? To break the afternoon famine, I opened the big tin of hemp that had come with the generous bait basket that the Angling Trust people had sent me when I joined last year. I started pinging it in 2 rod-lengths out and within 10 minutes the water was absolutely fizzing with feeding bubbles. In panicky expectation, I started making up a float rod to substitute the method feeder. In my hurry I was all fingers and thumbs, spilling the split shot, dropping hooks, fumbling knots and getting the catapult caught around the reel while trying to multitask tackling up with the fast rate of hemp pinging. My first cast was aborted when I got caught up in overhead trees, then the line inexplicably birdnested meaning I had to break down and retackle. When I finally got out, with the surface was still frothing like a washing machine, the bites I got were hard and fast and I missed them all (apart from another 2-ounce bream), with pretty much every one ending up with me dragging in a severered branch of willow (how appropriate) or getting stuck on a snag. It was so frustrating that I declared my baited-up swim unfishable and returned to the less-stressy method feeder, hoping that by now the carp had swum around the central island and were back in my zone. Nope. Nothing. For the final half hour, I decided to ping the remainder of the hemp straight out and hand throw the feeder over the top. I didn't get the fizzing, but within 10 minutes the rod almost pulled in, and something angry was ripping yard after yard of line out towards open water. It was the best fight of the day, I didn't see the fish for ages, but eventually it came in - (just) a 5lb 5 common, surely the fly weight champion of carp. There was just enough time left to miss an 'unmissable' bite from the hemped-up patch. Driving away trying to absorb the lessons of the day, my car happened to pass that of said sagely angling guru who advised me that 'fish can get so excited by hemp that they wont eat anything else'. Hmm, that made sense, so perhaps the way forward is to lace the method feed mix with hemp, or certainly using it more sparingly than the pouchfuls I was flinging at them. Its all a learning curve. I'll tell you about it next week.

Well, that was a strange evening. Only just got into the carpark at 3.30 and walking to one of the only one of my preferred swims left, people seemed to be catching. In 6 hours I caught just the 6 fish. But they were tench of 3lb and 1lb 3, mirrors of 8lb, 16lb 10 and 4lb 8, plus right at the end in the virtual dark, a common of 15lb 9. So though I struggled for bites, I ended up with just under 50lb of fish! Funny old world. BTW the larger tench gave no fight whatsoever despite having the tail of a mermaid. Two other points of note: - I unhooked the largest mirror of both my own hook and another (maybe size 12) already in it's mouth - While playing the common in the almost dark, a bat flew into the end of my rod. -

Ooh lovely - air pressure falling (just) below 1,000mb brought the prospect of hungry fish with easing stomachs. (a) 6:45am til 11:30 One bite. Missed it. Mixed it up - fished far, fished close, swapped baits, loose fed. Nothing. (b) 11:30 - 2:30 - 5 carp. All in pristine condition. 5lb, 7lb 8, 5lb 10, 5lb 2. 8lb 14 and a bream, 4oz. Could barely put the rod down without knocks or line bites. (c) 2:30 - 4:45. - Not even a nudge The knack of angling is catching in sessions (a) and (c), a skill that I clearly don't currently possess. I'm trying to get there through trial and error. It's frustrating, but such fun trying. What didn't help was the violent, 20 minute storm at the end of (b) that brought the air temperature down dramatically and maybe contributed to the impotency of (c)

After yesterday's slowish day at Willows, I decided while driving down Muddy Lane to try and make my recent luck change and turned right to Dobsons. My favourite swim was free, and with the forecast rain and lower air pressure after the previous week's heatwave, the omens were good. The fish thought so too, at least in the first few hours, when my method feeder was hit hard six times to my right. Whilst I was snapped twice, the other four bites did not connect which made me question once again how self-hooking the method feeder actually is. Allowed a second rod on the lake, I alternated between method feeder and float to my left on the other. No bites at all on the feeder, the float brought in 21 perch in two sessions, including some fun and feisty stripeys around the 12oz mark, plus a single, small beautiful golden rudd. Could/should have been so much better - but that's fishing.

Arrived at 3:30pm for my Tuesday evening fish to find the Willows/Alders carpark with just one space left. Willows was very busy, and though folk said they were catching, I opted for the always-quieter and beautiful looking Alders, which had just the two anglers fishing. As it was hot and sunny, I gave it a couple of hour on the method feeder (no bites) before switching to float and starting to ping in the maggots, as demonstrated to me by the Welshman last Saturday who I watched pull out tench after bream after tench. It was a slow evening. It never did 'wake up' as common wisdom dictates. I saw it though for 2 tench and 1 common around the 1lb mark, and a few roach and perch. Changing depths/bait made no difference. Very disappointing. Fish 1 Martin 0

I spent the first willing my rod tip to tremble while listening to fish after fish being pulled in at the next swim. I walked around to see if he was using magic beans for bait and met a charming Welshman who clearly knew his stuff. He told me there was little point legering against the central lily pads, no matter how accurate my casting had been to get it there, as these grew on a submerged island not far below the surface where as the fish were feeding at the bottom of the slope leading up to it. This made sense, as I watched him pull in another tench and a 4lb-ish bream that he seemed to consider a nuisance. He told me the secret was to keep pinging in maggots every cast and build up the swim, then to 'keep chucking the bait in' as if the tench or bream were around they would hoover it up in no time. He said he'd tried corn before (I was fishing with corn) worm and caster, but only maggots 'got them fizzing.' He pulled in a couple more perch striking at bites I did not register on his antennae float. He added that it was an early mornings and evenings venue and so was about to pack up. He kindly offered his swim to me, and suggested I kept catapulting the maggots while I brought my stuff over. A lovely guy. In the 'new' swim, I endured one heavy rain downpour, but brought in 3 roach (one around 6ox), a skimmer, just 5 perch (I'd had over 50 there earlier in the month much closer to the bank), 8 rudd (to 3 oz) a 1lb common and 5 tench, the biggest being 3lb 12 and 4lb 8. Thank you, my friend. I look forward to my next visit.