23/05/13 - Rood Ashton

Weight - 33lb 0oz
Catch - 12 Carp, 4 Roach
Weather - Cold & blustery
Match - Wiltshire Angling Evening Series - rd 3 - 4th out of 9

Its Thursday evening the weather has turned from what was reasonably warm to a cold, blustery day. So back on with 2 fleeces! When will it warm up properly, since we are long overdue?

 

9 eventually turned for the 5pm draw and I found myself in the far corner of the lake. It’s not normally a peg that produces during the day, probably because the prevailing SW winds usually blows out towards the opposite corner. Today however a cold northerly was blowing into the bank and I was uncertain how it would fish. Mark suggested that fishing the right hand margin is usually best in this peg rather than fishing under trees to my left, but to be honest the trees looked to tempting.

 

Only 3 rigs for today.

-Ackoo Powertrap 0.3g > .16 > 16 B911 – to fish meat

-Big H paste > .17 > 12 feeder carp – to fish paste

- Ackoo Powertrap 0.3g > .16 > 16 B911 – to fish meat in the shallower parts of the swim, but only had 1 fish on this rig.

 

On the 6pm start I cupped some meat & hemp at 13m along the tree line and another small cup went in along the right hand margin at the bottom of the shelf. Starting at 13m, I didn’t have a bite, which is always concern. After 15mins I started feeding a small handful of meat & hemp into the corner, where it was a foot deeper and hoped the fish would prefer the deeper water.

 

A switch to the paste rig into the corner produced my first fish and after an hour I was up to 3 fish. I’ve started experimenting with meat paste, because I used to use it quite a bit a few years ago and felt it would give the fish a different option. Today however with the cold wind the fish didn’t really want to know, because I had to wait a while for a bite, although the fish caught on paste were a better stamp than those on meat.

 

The second hour saw me land a further 5 carp, as well as losing a couple of foul hookers, before adding a further 4 in the last hour. I had tried 8mm cubes, but realised probably 20-30mins too late that a single 6mm cube produced a quicker bite. I had kept the right hand margin topped up, but I could only catch roach so obviously there wasn’t much in the way of many carp in the area.

 

Must admit I was glad when the match finished because it got quite chilly and the temperature in the car went down to 5.5c on the way home. 

 

Although I finished 4^th in the match, I managed to pick up the section by de-fault after Stu White won the match, fishing 6mm cubes of meat in the sheltered part of the lake.

 

1^st 90-14 – Stu White – p9

2^nd 90-12  - Tony Gilbert – p2

3^rd 68- 0 – Jon Atkins – p5

4^th 33- 0 – Ken Rayner – p6

4^th 33- 0 – Ian Willetts – p8

6^th 32- 8 – Mark Poppleton – p1

09/05/13 - Rood Ashton

Weight - 45lb 4oz
Catch - 16 Carp
Weather - Gales & rainy - typical spring evening really!
Match - Float only evening series - rd 1 - 6th out of 10

I decided to fish this evenings float only series run by Wiltshire Angling. In previous years the series has been solely fished at Rood Ashton, however due to dwindling attendances and poor fishing it was decided to include Leech Pool, alternating each week with Rood Ashton. As such I decided to book in, because had it all been at Rood Ashton I wont have bothered.

12 booked in for the league, although there was only 10 fishing today, however there was some good quality anglers in attendance, fishing from 6-9pm.

Well after a week of warm weather, back on with the thermals and wet weather gear! Those that know Rood Ashton, know there isn't much in the way of shelter and everyone wanted a peg that at least offered some relief from the gale force wind.

I was disappointed to drew peg 1, which didn't offer any shelter from the wind that was blowing mostly over my left shoulder. For company I had Tony Gilbert on peg 2.

With the aid of a bump bar I could just about manage 12m, about a metre off the reed bed, where I fed meat & hemp via a toss pot. My second swim was into the corner, again feeding meat & hemp.

On the all in the wind was really strong and it was proving difficult to keep the rig in the water. After 20mins I managed my first fish and by the end of the hour I was up to 8 carp, mostly on 8mm meat, whilst Tony was up to 6 fish. Unfortunately I couldn't catch for 30mins, losing 3 fish. I eventually had 4 fish by the end of the 2nd hour from the corner.

The third hour proved to be a bit of struggle. The wind dropped to a more manageable level, but the fish seemed to stop feeding. Initially I thought I had overfed, but speaking to others it appears most struggled to catch.

By the end Tony & I both had 16 carp, although mine were a smaller stamp. If it hadn't been for the wind I'm confident I would have caught more.

1st 69- 8 - Pete Neate - p10
2nd 65- 7 - Mark Poppleton - p4
3rd 62-13 - Tony Gilbert - p2
4th 56- 8 - Nat - p9
5th 54- 6 - Stuart - p5
6th 45- 4 - Ken Rayner - p1

21/07/11 - Rood Ashton

Weight – 56lb 14oz
Catch – 15 Carp
Weather – Mostly cloudy, humid. No wind.
Match – Wiltshire Angling Evening Open – 5th out of 9 (2nd out of 5 – section)

At least I managed to avoid breaking anything this week and with a pleasure angler sitting in the “pipe” swim when we arrived (despite there being a sign saying the left bank of the lake was closed!) which meant I couldn’t draw it, I thought my luck may change. Unfortunately peg 3 soon dismissed that idea. Not the best peg and one that has previously been left out. Situated between 2 trees, it’s a little narrow and there isn’t any real margin to speak of.

Decided to fish paste again at 13m, feeding heavily with 6mms. Also decided to only feed lightly under the trees, just in case, but never caught, so no more about that. I also set up a pellet waggler, hoping the wind would pick up to create some ripple.

After 2hrs, I only had 5 fish and already behind Pete on peg 1 and Bill on peg 4, both catching on meat. Although I had caught on paste, the fish just didn’t seem to settle, I kept changing my feeding pattern from stopping feeding to 3 quick pouchfuls of bait, but the lack of ripple was making the fish a bit edgy.

There was certainly plenty of fish on the waggler line and I managed to hook 2 fish, losing 1 under the branches of the left hand tree, but without the ripple the fish were proving to be very cagey. I kept feeding 3 or 4 8mm pellet every 30 secs and finally got the fish into proper feeding mode and the last 75mins proved to be my best of the match, however I still had periods where the fish just backed off. I really needed some ripple, because I am certain I would have challenged the winning 80lb weight.

1st 80- 0 - Tony Gilbert – the point - meat
2nd 73-14 - Pete Neate – peg 1 – meat – fished into the corner
3rd 67-7 – Steve Martin – peg 6 – 15 fish down the edge
4th 63-10 – Gary Etheridge

Mark proved he is fallible, by struggling for 40lb. He was having similar issue to me fishing the paste. The fish didn’t really want it and I think the recent heavy rain and cool conditions affected their desire to take the bait.

14/07/11 - Rood Ashton

Weight – 25lb 8oz
Catch – 6 Carp
Weather – Sunny & breezy to start. Later calm
Match – Wiltshire Angling Evening Open – 5th out of 9

I thought my luck had changed when I found a spare unused no5 section from my old K47, which fits my current N47, which will save some money on repairs, particularly since I had now broken the section in 2 places.

However, with 9 people booked in, the 1 peg you didn’t want is the “pipe” and that’s exactly where I found myself. The peg really is crap, it’s shallow and set back in a small bay, so I was 6-8m behind Gary Etheridge on the current flyer to my right. Fortunately I keep a pair of wellies in the car, so made the decision to sit in the water, which meant I could more easily fish the 2 corners of the bay. I had also brought 2 pellet waggler's.

After 2hrs and no fish was a serious problem, particularly in a 3.5hr match. Going home was a definite possibility. A quick walk revealed the lake was fishing poorly. Gary had 4 or 5 carp, whilst I saw Mark land his 6th. Steve Martin was in the same boat as me, so I thought I got to keep going, because I wasn’t that far behind.

So far 3pts of 6mms had gone into the margins and 3pts of 8mms had been fed over the waggler, but the fish seemed to have backed off for everyone. I was surprised the waggler didn’t work, but I never had a sign of fish moving, despite there being a breeze, the water in front of me was virtual flat calm.

Since nothing was working, I decided to fish 13m in open water, but negatively only feeding a pouch of pellet at a time and it worked. A 5lber was shortly followed by a PB for this lake of 11-2, however the fish were easily spooked and the margins still didn’t produce.

In the end, I was actually relieved to have caught, but the overall weights were poor and had the fish turned up ½hr earlier I could have framed.

Mark won from his “easy” section and Steve Martin picked up the section by default with 3 fish for 21lb! As for my section, I was sat in the worse peg and had Gary Etheridge and Tony Gilbert to contend with – not a great evening. Mark is talking about getting me a violin, I told him where to shove it.

1st 66-8 Mark Poppleton
2nd 39-12 Pete Neate
3rd 35-0 Gary Etheridge

07/07/11 - Rood Ashton

Weight – 45lb 13oz
Catch – 16 Carp
Weather – Sunny, cloudy periods. Variable wind and cool.
Match – Wiltshire Angling Evening Open – 4th out of 6

There is certainly a fine line between failure and success, and occasionally fate isn’t in your hands. My poor run of match results continues and it’s certainly one of my worse runs, however I am confident it will end, although it will be nice to get a result which didn’t require too much effort.

Only 6 turned up tonight. It appears those early matches which attracted 17 anglers many have dropped out as it became obvious who would pick up. So rather than work out what works and compete, they would prefer to stay at home in front of the telly saying the venue is crap.

Anyway back to tonight’s match. For the 3rd match I found myself on peg 2 and I had Mark next to me for the 3rd match. Also Tony Gilbert found himself on the best margin peg – again, whilst Gary Etheridge was on the other.

Tonight I decided to bring a pellet waggler, because on previous matches there was a lot fish boshing out in the middle of the lake. I started on paste at 13m and within 10mins had 2 decent carp, but as I kept the 6mms going in, the fish seemed to back off and bites stopped.

In the meantime I was pinging 8mm’s at distance. As the match progressed I spent more time on the pellet waggler and started to catch, but only when there was a decent ripple. This prompted Mark to say I was going to win, but I could see that Gary was catching and the fish I was catching were a smaller stamp.

Going into the final hour, the wind dropped and the ripple all but disappeared and I struggled to keep the fish coming. My margin failed to produce (for the 3rd match and the regulars confirmed it is a poor margin peg) and the 13m line was still a struggle. In fact the fish didn’t seem to want the paste tonight, because I would get what looked like a proper bite, but no fish. Mark was suffering with the same problem. Gary caught on pellet, whilst Tony who had struggled, until the last hour when his margin finally came good and he caught some proper fish on meat.

Unfortunately the smaller stamp of fish, combined with the drop in the wind counted against me. I had 12 carp on the waggler, which prompted a few questions from Tony and Gary. Normally 16 carp would be worth 55lb, but I had some proper “squeakers”.

1st 88-8 Tony Gilbert
2nd 69-8 Gary Etheridge
3rd 51-0 Mark Poppleton
4th 45-13 Ken Rayner
5th 41-0 Steve Martin
6th 23-0 Terry Fell

23/06/11 - Rood Ashton

Weight – 33lb 0oz
Catch – 10 Carp
Weather – Mostly sunny & windy.
Match – Wiltshire Angling Evening Open – 5th out of 7

The longer these matches go on the fewer actually fish. 10 had booked in, but for various reasons only 7 turned up, so the pegs were spread along the left bank up to the point. I drew the same peg as last week, so was quite happy, however that is were my joy ended.

A really frustrating evening and I genuinely don’t know why I couldn’t catch properly. Tactics were the same as last week, the only difference was the weather condition. After the 1st 75mins I had 5 carp and doing ok, but the next hour or so I struggled to the point that feed 10-12 pouches of pellet in 1 hit. This helped with a better last hour, but the fish still hadn’t settled properly and I lost a few foulhookers.

Very, very frustrating and I must admit I got home in a bit of mood, but a quick grope of the missus soon cheered me up!

1st 84lb – Tony Gilbert
2nd 77lb – Mark Poppleton
3rd 67lb – Mike Withy

16/06/11 - Rood Ashton

Weight – 48lb 8oz
Catch – 14 Carp
Weather – Heavy thunder to start, later bright and calm
Match – Wiltshire Angling Evening Open – 3rd out of 8

There should have been at least 10 fishing today, but Mark trapped a nerve in his back, so at least that gave someone else a chance to win. Gary Etheridge was expecting Terry Fell to pick him up at 4.15. At 4.45 Gary calls up saying Terry hasn’t turned up so can’t go. Transpires Terry thought he had to pick Gary up at 5.15, which is a bit odd since the draw is 5pm! Terry did eventually turn up and we put the start time back 15mins to 6pm.

Unfortunately we can no longer drive around the lake to our pegs, so only the left bank was pegged. I drew 2, which I was happy about and decided to fish at 13m and down to my left next to the tree.

As 6pm approached the clouds became darker and the all in was met with a flash of lighting and massive clap of thunder. Well I didn’t fancy fishing 13m of pole, so started next to the tree and caught a small carp almost straight away, but rain was now really hammering down, which also included some hail.

20mins later the storm moved away and I could start fishing properly and an hour later I had 6 carp from my 13m line. I had been regularly feeding a pouch of 6mm pellet, which certainly brought the fish in, but the ripple disappeared and it became very bright. Now I couldn’t catch, it was if the fish just disappeared. In the meantime I could see Pete 2 pegs down now catching regularly, because he still had some ripple to fish to and Darren to my right was getting closer and closer to the reeds in an attempt to catch, but he was struggling to keep hold as the carp made their way into the snags.

After a very dodgy hour the sun had dropped a little and I started to catch again, but the fish weren’t really having it. I had tried down by the tree later on, but despite continually feeding never had a fish, so had to concentrate on the 13m line.

I’m convinced I would have caught much more had I had some ripple to fish into, because it was noticeable I struggled more when it was flat calm and I fed 5pts of pellet to get the carp feeding properly, so a bit disappointed to only finish 3rd. Darren and Terry either side of me did not weigh.

1st 66- 4 Tony Gilbert
2nd 64- 8 Pete (Wiltshire Angling)
3rd 48- 8 Ken Rayner
4th 46-8 Steve Martin

09/06/11 - Rood Ashton

Weight – 42lb 12oz
Catch – 13 Carp
Weather – Cloudy sunny periods, shower later
Match – Wiltshire Angling Evening Open – 4th out of 9 (1st in section)

A pleasant evening for a change, without any gale force winds! 10 had booked in, but only 9 fished, so it was decided to have a section of 5 down the left hand bank and a section 4 on the right hand bank. Also to take advantage of the longer days the match was due to finish at 9.15, instead of 9.00pm, so 3.5hrs fishing.

I was pleased to draw the concrete drain on the RH bank, with Gary Etheridge to my right and Pete (Wiltshire Angling) to my left. Gary wasn’t happy with his peg, because the farmer had decided to cut down some overhanging branches, but unfortunately left a few in the lake.

Today I felt I needed to keep it simple, so left the pellet waggler rods at home (but I’m sure it will work when the weather warms up a bit). I did bring some bread in case it was hard, but except for 1 put in never used it, which the ducks were happy about at the end of the match. Focus was on very soft paste at 13m and down the margin. Feed was mostly 6mm’s with some 4mm’s (only because I didn’t have enough 6’s with me).

As the match started there was a gentle breeze blowing into my bank, with a nice ripple and I really fancied it for a few fish and I was desperate to do better than my previous 2 matches here. After 30mins I already had 5 carp, but the wind switched slightly and I began to struggle, so by the end of the 1st hour I was up to 6 carp, leading my bank and from those I could see opposite was doing OK.

I had being feeding a pouch of pellet, but since the wind dropped/switched direction the fish seemed to spook, before returning over the feed. As mentioned I did briefly try bread & 8mm pellet, but didn’t have a bite, so stuck with paste.

When plumbing around at the start, I found the margins were much deeper than in open water and thought I was guaranteed to get a few fish down there later. However despite continually feeding from the start, other than 1 lost fish I had nothing, which was a surprise.

Moving into the last 90mins I started feeding 2 pouches of pellet at 12m whilst still fishing at 13m. Although I had to wait for the fish to settle I started to put a few more fish in the net, however I could see a couple of anglers opposite now catching, particularly Mark who was taking advantage of his “end” peg and was catching most put ins (he did say afterwards he started to catch properly when the wind changed and he had some ripple to fish into).

I only lost 3 fish today, but that did include an 8lber at the net when the line snapped above the float – obviously nicked it on something. It also meant I lost 1 of my new Jon Walker MP shallow paste floats, which I only brought on Sunday!

When the match finished I was certain I had won my section, which I did with Gary weighing in 33lb and Pete had 25lb (Terry Fell tipped back). I had hoped to frame, but the top 3 all came from the opposite bank.

1st 74- 5 Mark Poppleton
2nd 60- 5 Tony Gilbert (included 3 carp in the last 15mins for 30lb)
3rd 57- 8 Ian Willets
4th 42-12 Ken Rayner

26/05/11 - Rood Ashton

Weight – 11lb 2oz
Catch – 3 Carp
Weather – Strong NW wind. Sunny period but cool
Match – Wiltshire Angling Evening Open

Heavy winds and showers preceded this evening’s match and it felt cold.

14 booked in, which meant there was only 1 bad peg, since those along the top bank weren’t included. Unfortunately, I drew the noted cesspit, known as the pipe swim. You are set back in a small bay about 6m behind everyone else and its really shallow close in. With the wind blowing straight into my bank and only 10lb coming from the peg last week, a difficult evening was likely.

The wind was too strong to fish 13m in front, so I focused on the left hand margin at 8m and a clump of reeds to my right at 11.5m. Both swims were at the edge of the bay as it started to deepen off. When I arrived there were a few fish showing about 30m out, so I also set a pellet waggler.

On the all in I started on the pellet waggler hoping to pick up an early fish, whilst I put 2 pouches of 6mms into both margin swims. Without any bites on the waggler I soon switched to the pole, but it was 45mins before I had my 1st fish. I had another 2 over the next hour, but that was my lot.

With an hour to go I dumped nearly 2pts of pellet into my left hand margin, but never had a bite from there again.

The wind was a real pain in the arse and I would have quite happily fished the method today, but being a float only match it wasn’t an option and the wind was too strong for a conventional waggler, so I was hoping for a few fish on the pellet waggler, but it never happened, I even tried bread without success.

I didn’t hang around for the final results, but 49lb won my section from the top left hand corner, which was sheltered from the worse of the wind. The angler to my left only had 1 carp, whilst 19lb came from the peg to my right.

19/05/11 - Rood Ashton

Weight – 23lb 0oz
Catch – 7 Carp
Weather – Breezy & sunny
Match – Wiltshire Angling Evening Open – 12th (out of 17)

This summer I wanted to fish an evening series. The problem however was where to go. Although I live in Bristol, I work in Bath, so finding a venue was going to be tricky.

Mark told me that Wiltshire Angling as of last week was running a float only series at Rood Ashton. Draw at 5pm, fish 5.45 – 9.00 - perfect. Fortunately I park my car in a private car park, which is relatively secure, so I can leave my kit in the car, drive straight to the lake in 20/25 minutes and get changed in the car park.

17 booked in today, which for an evening match isnt bad. I drew peg 10 which is on the small spit on the top bank. The same peg Mark won from last week with 68lb and a noted flyer. Alas I didn’t do it justice.

After the very cold winter, there were rumours that most of the carp had died, due to the very shallow nature of the lake. That’s the thing with rumours, they are rarely based on fact, because there are still plenty of fish in the lake.

I have only been to the venue a few times, but already developing love/hate relationship and today was a bit a hate day. Having never fished the top bank, I hadn’t realised how shallow these pegs are, about 1ft, all the way out to 13m. In fact the deepest part was tight into my RH margin, were I had a couple more inches, which meant 1 paste rig did all, although a duplicate was setup just in case. I also set up a pellet rig and I had 2 pellet waggler rods already made up.

Feed would be 6mm’s on the pole and 8mm’s for waggler. Being sheltered from the wind, my peg was flat calm and any ripple was 30m out.

2nd put in on the paste at 13m I had a carp and after an hour I had 3 carp, but lost 2 (at least 1 was foul hooked when I came back with a scale). It was obviously fishing hard, because I couldn’t see much being caught and felt I was holding my own.

The 2nd hour is where it went wrong for me. I had been feeding the waggler line and other than 1 lost foul hooker on the full depth rig no fish. As for my pole line, there were fish moving around and I was getting plenty of liners, but the fish just wouldn’t open their mouths. I tried the pellet rig at full depth and shallow, I even swapped the hooklength and tried 4 dead maggots, but that didn’t work either. So by the end of the 2nd hour I only had 4 carp, wondering what to do next. Due to the shallow nature of the swim, I hadn’t fed heavily, because I didn’t want too many fish in the swim, but that was happening anyway, so I started feeding 2 pouches of pellet in an attempt to force the fish to get their heads down and feeding.

I also throw 4 handfuls of pellet into my RH margin, but despite their being swirls and obvious signs of movement I only had 1 carp. I again tried the pellet rig, but to no avail.

The final hour proved more productive when I just struck to fishing the paste, but I still suffered from liners and lost fish.

During the weigh in it was also obvious I had caught a few smaller than average carp. Peg 12 in my section had only 6 carp, but weighed 33lb. The general comments from everyone it fished hard and the fish didn’t really want to play ball.

Mark is on fire at the moment, winning again, with 12 carp for 58lb from the RH bank. At least I learnt a few things today and looking forward to my Thursday evenings.

1st 58-8 Mark Poppleton
2nd 53-5 Gary Etheridge
3rd 49-12 Ian Stainer

31/08/09 - Rood Ashton

Weight – 132lb 15oz
Catch – 45 Carp.
Weather – Warm & cloudy, later sunny. Breezy
Water Temp– 17.5c > 19.0c
Match – Rainbow Trust Charity – 1st Overall

20 had booked in for this match, but a couple of late drop outs, meant 18 would be fishing in 2 sections of 9. At least it meant Mark could leave a couple of the worse pegs out.

I asked Mark what pegs he fancied. 5, 6, 15, 16 & 17 was the reply, so when I drew peg 5 I knew I was in the right area. Unfortunately for Mark, he drew peg 10, which was in the corner. It looked a cracking peg, expect the wind was blowing in the opposite direction.

Whilst setting up a couple local spotted I had a couple of pellet wagglers set up, which apparently doesn’t work here. At the start of the match, I immediately started under the tree to my right on paste, because I had noticed a few fish moving around and I hoped for a couple of mug fish. 15 mins later I had 1x 4lber in the net, but bumped 2 others. In the meantime I started feeding my 13m line with 6mms and the waggler line with 8mms.

After an hour, I managed 4 carp from under the tree and 1 on the waggler. The 13m didn’t produce (although I only tried it for 5mins), so I decided to ditch it in favour of concentrating on just the 2 lines. As the match progressed the waggler line got stronger & stronger.

From what I could see peg 2 (where I practiced on Friday) was catching, as was Nick on the bottom bank. It was noticeable the fish preferred to have a ripple over their heads and for 3 hours I caught consistently on the waggler and knew barring a disaster I was likely to be in the frame.

The 5th hour of the match proved really difficult with only 3 fish. The wind had dropped and the sun came out. There was obviously still fish in the swim, but they wouldn’t take the bait. I tried a longer hooklength, but that only resulted in foul hookers and my paste line was only producing iffy bites. I really wanted the paste line to produce, because you tended to get the bigger fish. Fortunately the average size on the waggler was better than on Fridays practice, so I didn’t persevere too long on the paste.

Going into the last hour the fishing picked up, it was still bright and there was a little more ripple on the water, however I had to wait a little longer for the bites. Previously I was hooking fish almost immediately of the waggler landing, but I now had to wait up to a minute before I got a proper bite.

In the end I had 37 fish on the waggler, which isn’t bad for a method that doesn’t work. Apparently no one can remember the pellet waggler winning at Rood Ashton.

Overall, it was a really enjoyable match, not because I won (although that helps), but I kept things simple struck to the game plan. To be honest, I felt confident the waggler would work on most pegs, simple because any anglers who were casting out beyond the pole line were using method feeders.

Nick finished 2nd with 102lb and 81lb was 3rd.

28/08/09 - Rood Ashton

Weight – 113lb 9oz
Catch – 36 Carp, 1 Roach.
Weather – Rainy start, later mostly sunny. Very Windy
Water Temp– 17.5c > 18.5c

Today’s trip to Rood Ashton was a practice for Mondays charity match organised by Mark (Slider). The last time I fished here was 3 years ago, so I needed some up to date info from Mark, who only lives a couple of miles away from the venue. Paste was apparently the bait, which I was more than happy about, however I did notice in the results page of the Angling Times that Rod Wootton won a Carps AC match using pellet.

I asked Mark about whether the waggler would work, the answer was nobody uses it there and he even suggested I had a problem, because I always want to get my wagglers out!

The weather forecast wasn’t great, with heavy winds and showers. I had considered not going, but I had booked the day off work and with other commitments over the weekend I forced myself to go.

On arrival the rain started and the next couple of hours it remained showery. With a strong westerly I didn’t wander too far from the car park and set up right of the first tree, which provided enough shelter to fish the pole up to 11m. Just to illustrate the strength of the wind, I had 13m of pole blown off the 3 flat pole rollers, hence the reason why fishing 11m seemed to be better.

I started at 11m fishing paste over 6mms, but there was a real strong tow which meant I couldn’t fish the paste as soft as I would like and the pellet rig was like fishing the stick!

After an hour I had a 4 fish, but wasn’t happy with my presentation and a few foul hooked fish suggested there was a few fish around. I had fed next to the tree and managed a few fish on paste, but I had to pull hard to get them out of the snags, which meant a few more lost fish.

When I started the session, I really didn’t fancy the waggler and left the rods in the ready made holdall, but decided to catapult 8mms out just in case conditions improved. After 2 hours it was obvious fishing the pole was difficult due to the wind, so it was time to get the wagglers out. 2nd cast I landed a foul hooker, a switch to a shorter hooklength I started to get a little run of fish.

Back on the pole I switched to a heavier 4x18 float in the 2.5ft swim, which helped with the presentation but the wind had switched around slightly, so my sheltered spot, wasn’t quite so sheltered.

The wind proved to be a real pain and I could have probably caught more. I was pleased to catch on the waggler, because it at least proved it can work, however the average size of fish was smaller at 3lb, whilst my paste fish averaged 4lb.

Needless to say Mark will be bring his waggler rod on Monday.