Finch Farm, 31/12/11

Having had an unusually mild spell for December, I decided a day's fishing was called for. Plan of action was to have a day out at Wood Lane Fishery in Iver. However this was not to be. Duly sat outside the venue at 0745 (just before dawn) and the gate was locked. A phone call later revealed that they were not open today... so plan B was called for, Finch Farm in Maidenhead matched the bill.

I've only fished this venue once before – earlier in the year (28/4/11) when I got an idea of what was present. Lots of smaller fish and bites, so probably suitable for the winter when I'm pleased if the float goes under a few times.

I arrived about 0830 to be first in the car park, to find a warm breeze blowing from the south west. This could be problematic if it rained (as had been threatening on the drive there) but better to be fishing than not, so I got the gear out. The good news at Finch Farm is that there is a bank between the two pools and this was offering quite some protection from the breeze, so I took the decision to fish peg 39 on the island of main lake. The venue is quite unusual in that there are two rectangular islands on the main lake, and you can fish from one of them to the other and easily reach the island with 11m of pole. This is easy fishing, but it doesn't offer you many options if the fish aren't there.

Whilst setting up the bailiff, Lech, came and had a chat. A thoroughly nice guy. I think he was rather surprised to see anyone fishing at this time and even brought me a cup of tea a little later on. Most welcome!

I was set up and fishing the pole by about 0855. Having plumbed up I fed three lines via pole pot using maggot and a pinch of 4mm pellets – dead ahead 8.5m, left to a bush at 10m and right to the far bank at 10m. The peg was 3-4ft deep most of the way across and then started to shelve up dramatically at 9m with the far side being very shallow, so backing off into the deeper water was preferred. (In a previous visit I'd found the far shallows to be too shallow and therefore unproductive).

Left hand swim:

Right hand swim:

The idea was to start on maggot and try pellet at some point, given the time of year this seemed like a good plan. First put in on maggot dead ahead produced a bite and a good roach of 6oz or so. Next put in another roach (maybe a little smaller). Then a gudgeon. Then it went quiet. The right hand swim produced more roach, all of a good stamp and then died a little. Left hand swim, a couple of quick roach, then back to the right for a few more.

Within half an hour I'd had about 20 nice fish, but nothing amazing so I played around with the presentation. Bites had been coming when the float had fully settled and then some, so I pushed the bulk down. I now had slower bites. I tried coming off bottom, laying on, double maggot, fishing past the maggot feed, fishing nearer. I still got bites but it was slower. I tried a small expander in both far lines. Nothing. Hmm.

At the hour mark I had maybe 25 fish – mostly good roach and I'd lost a small mirror (maybe 6oz) at the net. I re-fed with the pot on the two far lines (maggot and pellet again), the right hand one was the more productive but you needed two good lines to the keep the fish coming and the left hand one was not so good. The feeding seemed to kill the swim for a bit, but slowly the fish came back. Roach continued to come in and the odd other fish showed up. Small carp in the 6-12oz range, little plump goldfish and some carp-type thing that looked like cross between a goldfish and an F1. Changing the presentation made it to 50 fish at two hours.

Plenty of roach like this:

Smaller carp:

Goldfish:

I stopped briefly to have something to drink and decided to try a lighter rig – I was missing a fair few bites so I thought I'd see if I could convert a few more. I pulled a canal rig out of the box (K2 4x12 to 0.11 line to a 0.10 hooklength and size 20 K611 barbless) shotted with styls for a slow fall and went across. The rate of bites increased and so did the confidence and hooking rate. More roach and a few gudgeon followed as did the small carp and goldfish and a few other things as well – a few nice rudd and dace added to the haul as I kept the lines ticking over.

At about 1300 I'd had 100 fish and decided to have some food and try the 6mm pellet while I did so (I find this is a good way to try things that might not work for a few minutes). It had failed earlier but why not give it a go? Half way through my roll and the float dived under and an 8oz common came in. Hmm. Re-bait and try again. Another bite, this time a plump goldfish. I persevered on pellet, feeding a pinch of 4mm pellets on each line and switching between produced a steady line of carp and goldfish, nothing amazing but good fish up to 1lb came in from both lines. Sometimes it would slow and I pulled out of a couple of foul-hooked fish, but all-in-all it was enjoyable.

After an hour of so (and 15 more fish) I hit a better ghostie of 1lb or so and a common that was an easy 1lb 8oz (I'd forgotten the scales) which turned out to be the best fish of the day and made it to 1500 with 130 fish. I then experimented for the last 30 minutes to see what else might work. Maggot on the top 3 produced a few quick roach, laying on heavy got a few fish off the far side, but it was slow. So at 1530 I packed up, 138 fish later for an estimated 36lb or so. Not bad for December 31^st.

Catch list:

Common Carp – 30

Mirror Carp – 2

Ghost Carp – 2

Goldfish – 10

Goldfish/F1 - 15

Rudd – 4

Dace – 3

Gudgeon - 13

Roach - 58

River Colne, 24/12/11

Having been off work for the last week and busied myself with some deeply depraved acts (I painted the utility room), I was allowed out for a few hours to drown a few maggots.

I settled for a local stretch of the river Colne. In summer it produces a decent bag of small fish, so I thought I try it in winter. There are a few big fish present too, but they rarely show and the cormorants have had everything else in between.

I planned to work my way through half a dozen or so swims, these have a little shelter and tend to be more productive than the ones offering easy access to the black death. So at 0845 I ran the stick float down the banker swim, which always produced plenty of bites in the summer. Nothing. Ten minutes later still nothing.

Swim 2. Repeat. Exact repeat. Nothing.

Swim 3. Repeat. Exact repeat. Nothing.

Swim 4. Repeat. Bite eventually. Minnow.

10 minutes later, 20 minnows. Time to move on.

Swim 5. Nothing.

Swim 6. Nothing.

Swim 7. Nothing.

Then I worked my way back up. Nothing again until swim 4. More minnows. Just as I was settling in, two dogs appeared in the river just above me and I was just about to give the owner an earful when I realised it was this bloke. So I bit my lip and carried on.

10 minnows later so I moved back to swim 1. Nothing.

Then two more swims further up stream. Double nothing.

Still. Don't care. Went fishing. Caught fish. Job done.

Boddingtons, 9/9/11

Dear reader, please pull up a drink, grab a chair and enjoy today's angling tale. It is a simple story of triumph over adversity, dirty goings on, incompetence, fish, slime and hairy arsed northerners. If this does not sound like your cup of tea then do not read on. (After all, not everyone likes hairy arsed northerners in their cup of tea.)

I do not get many chance to fish these days, contrary to me recent write-ups, due to a young family I mostly only manage short sessions on the local rivers, which whilst enjoyable, are not the same as a proper day out, of which their have been few this year (I think 6 so far in 2011). So I decided to use some of my vacation time to have a few day's out.

So by way of what is probably a final full session of the year I decided to head up the M40 to Boddingtons, a trip of some 75 miles. Not something I do on a whim, but as a special treat I thought why not?

I have a love-hate relationship with the place. I always catch, but I never bag up properly – in three previous visits I've seen what it can do, but only in fits and starts. On one occasion I had 80lb of fish in an hour, only for it to dry up. One day it'll click and I'll put a decent bag together.

So after a decent drive I arrived at Boddies about 0715, got the gear out the car, checked the match list (pegs 75-105 were booked) and carried the gear up the ramp. This worked out well for me, I fancied having a go on the damn (pegs 1-30), hopefully I could do some damage with the pole before moving onto other things. Then I saw the water level. Low wasn't the word for it. First 10 pegs unfishable, pegs 40-60 had 50 yards of mud in front of them. It was chronic.

Unperturbed I continued along the damn, there were but a few anglers there (thanks to my early start) so I wandered down until I saw a few fish near peg 16 – several splashes and a few heads were showing close in, so I settled on peg 15 – there was a clear gravel section at the base of the steps, and this looked perfect for my seatbox.

I set up, fed, plumbed and found a mere 2ft of water. Not what I expected, but enough to try. This was my classic large fish gear – 11m pole, 0.20mm line, size 8 hook, 11mm expander, 22 elastic. I could see movement over my feed as I shipped out at 0745. The float shot under, but no contact was made. Back out again the float shot under. Contact. A brief struggle later and 12lb on mirror was in the landing net. Nice.

Back out. Repeat. 10lb mirror. Back out. Repeat. 6lb common. Three foul hookers lost. Then a few more fish. I paused briefly to reorganize my kit – unhooking mat and coat repositioned behind me on the steps to protect my pole from the concrete and back to fishing.

An hour in and all was going well. 59lb in 60 minutes was excellent pace, visions of a superb session were filling my mind when I noticed in the distance a group of hairy arsed northerners at the top of the ramp. I thought little of it, often the match guys hang around for draws and stuff. I cupped in some more feed, tweaked the rig was about to get stuck in again when a voice appeared from behind me. “Sorry mate you've got to move there's a match on these pegs”. The bailiff no less.

I had a chat with him. Apologised and packed up, rather annoyed. As I neared the top of the ramp I thought I'd check the board again, as did some other anglers who's also been evicted. True enough, there was no match shown on the board for pegs 10-30. I spoke to the bailiff again, he was far from apologetic, but I was now facing a long walk, setting up again, having to fish the pellet wag/method (not my preferred approach) and the best pegs (or those with a little bit of water) had already gone (it was after 9am at this time). To say I was a little annoyed was an understatement. I've got up early, driven a decent distance, got a peg going and now I was back to square one with a choice of poo pegs on my day off and probably my last session of the year. I was not a happy bunny.

I grabbed my wellies from the car and headed off around the damn wall. I went past the next group of hairy arsed northerners setting up in the 80s and off into the distance. Through the gate, onto the mud flats and off to what was probably peg 110 ish. Well beyond where the next match group were due to be. I was not happy.

Having found a nice boggy patch to set up, I liberally coated me and myself with mud. I set up the pellet waggler and thrashed this about for a good half hour. One bite, one 7lb mirror, and great difficulties landing it. It was horrendously shallow. I had less than 6 inches of water at 3m where the landing net was. This was not fair on the fish. I changed to my wellies at this point and had a paddle. If I caught again, I would wade out a short way to improve conditions for landing fish.

At this point the next group of hairy arsed northerners arrived. They pegged well beyond their designated space, but thankfully stopped 50 metres short of me. I was not moving again, and I didn't want to have other people fishing on top of me. They were noisy, disruptive and lairy. Not something I like. But eventually they settled down.

However, there was a problem. Try as they might, they couldn't find enough depth for their keepnets. Not a single net was submerged at the end ring, let alone for any significant length. This didn't seem to bother them, I cant say I approved. Given the size of the fish in Boddies you shouldn't be retaining fish in keepnets in less than a foot of water. Period. And given the likelihood of someone catching 100 lb plus of fish (and then some), the mind boggles. Sorry BW, but you have to sort this out.

I ploughed on and tried the feeder for a while. Nothing. I went back to the pellet wag, nothing. However, there were signs of fish moving. So I tried working the wag a little closer, feeding heavily. Still no bites, but there were fish moving. So I thought nothing ventured... and dug the pole out.

I removed the based from my box, carried the box out a few metres (to improve the depth and use of the landing net). And set up for fishing at 11m. A big pot of pellets went in and I plumbed up. 12 inches ish. I was about to give up when I saw a tail and some swirls over the bait. What the heck. Out I went with an 11mm expander.

A few knocks later, experimentation with the presentation and a brief foul-hooked fish and clearly there were fish to be caught. Then the float buried, I struck, yellow elastic going off to the horizon. 9lb mirror in the net, with looks of astonishment from the hairy arsed northerners to my left. Hmm.

I was concerned that due to the shallow water that I'd struggle for regular bites – surely they'd spook as soon as I hooked one. But no, within a couple of minutes the swirls were back. Bites were still at a premium, occasionally the float would go, sometimes it'd connect and another fish would visit the net. (Landing the fish in the shallow water was a game in itself, but I soon found a method that worked).

This was the pattern for the next hour or so, not frantic, but steady. Smaller fish than on the damn wall, typically 7 or 8lb, but not bad when all things are considered. I was starting to build a tidy weight, maybe 30lb to the hour (at a push) which was considerable more than the match next door. (I could see envious looks in my direction whenever there was elastic pouring out.) I experimented with a 14 hook and a smaller pellet in case it improved bites. It did. From the roach. Back to the big pellet.

About 1pm it all slowed down. The swirls were gone, the tails were not there, and I went the best part of an hour without a bite. Hmm.

I grabbed something to eat, flicked the pellet wag over the line and had a few minutes to think. Nothing.

So back on the pole. Potted out some pellets and gave it a few minutes. After a little while the fish came back. Feed heavy, fish over the top, get a few bites, land a few fish and repeat. This seemed to be the pattern about 200ml of pellets every 3 fish seemed to work now, it appeared we'd gone through the midday famine and the fish were on again. Through the 100lb barrier in the new peg, then 120, 140 before it was time to think about packing up.

One last fish about 3:30 produced a big mirror of 15lb. And that was that.

Final weight from the new peg was 166lb to add to the 59lb from earlier. Not bad, but I cant help thinking of what might have been if I'd had peg 15 all day.

A long drag back to the car, a long drive home.

It'd been an ok day, but I have to say with the disruption, the lost time and the relocation I hadn't really enjoyed myself as I would have liked.

Till next time.

A few photos:

The setup, I wasn't going to win any tidiness awards today.





The rig, this was overdepth by about 6 inches



Typical stamp fish (8/9 lb)





This is how shallow it was at 3m from the bank - this was a recovering mirror having been released from the landing net.

Milton Pools, 29/8/11

After many, many trips past this fishery whilst driving the M40 I finally decided to utilise the Bank Holiday Monday to giving it a go. Having done some limited research on the web (there isn't much info if you're not into big carp) I arrived at the venue just before 7am armed with a range of baits planning to fish heavy pole gear on House lake. This was not to be.

The gates opened as advertised at 7am, and despite their being just two cars in front of me the car park was full, as was house lake. Now I have no problem with overnight anglers, or fishery owners that decide to let folks fish overnight, but I have to say I always find it disappointing that no matter how early you get up, how carefully you plan your trip and diligently organise your gear that you cant get a decent choice of pegs because of carpers. Added to that, it was galling to see that the specimen lake mostly empty – clearly these carpers wanted easy fishing rather than the lake set up for them.

So plan B was on to Len's Match Lake to see what could be produced. This is a small lake about 4ft deep that is mostly rectangular with a couple of circular inlets. Running down the middle of the rectangle is a line of lily pads, but they looked just outside pole range. One side of the lake has no space for shipping a pole back, and the other side had bivvies. It was not looking like a good day. I could see a small space on the 'open' bank only for a couple of kids to settle there while I dragged my trolley along, so I settled for a peg at the far end of the rectangle, this gave me open water, a margin and a chance to reach the pads as three lines. Although this was a bit of a walk, this would have to do.

I potted in some pellets on my two 11m lines, straight ahead and 2 o'clock by the pads, while I sorted out my gear (which was looking a little heavy). By the time I had a rig sorted and had plumbed both lines, each pot of feed had generated a jacuzzi and so it appeared there were fish to be caught. Out went the heavy rig, with a large expander pellet on the pad line and... not much happened. A few tries later and finally a hittable bite, and a 4oz carp. Not quite what I was hoping for. A persevered on the line for about an hour, highlight was a tench of 3lb, but mostly small carp, tench and the odd crucian showed up – an hour in I'd reached about 10lb in weight, but this was not great fishing, I tried a lighter rig with smaller hook and bait – this gave better, more frequent bites, but small fish. Time for something different.

As I'd been feeding some pellets had landed on the lily pads, and the small carp had been becoming more and more active in the pads, there was lots of slurping evident, and the odd set of lips and back could be seen – time to shallow up and try for these fish. Alternating between the heavy and light rig, and using pellets and corn about 12ft deep I started to get the odd fish, mostly carp, but they were better, it was a little concerning catching so close to the pads, but by applying pressure as soon as the bite occurred, it was possible to steer most of the fish away from the pads. Over the next hour I made better progress and added about 20lb to my weight, with the odd better fish in the 2-3lb range appearing. The knack was in the feeding, fire out some pellets, but try to get 2/3rds in front of the pads and the rest on the pads, this seemed to keep the fish up in the water, but looking for bait around the pads and happy to pick at my corn falling through the upper layers nearby. Experimentation showed the fish were nervous of the pole overhead, so a long rig swung out seemed to work better.

And then, just when I felt I sussed it out and got the fish feeding it all stopped. Time for plan C in the margin. The margin produced a few roach on corn and then a common of just under 5lb before that two went dead. It was time for a rethink.

I re-fed my main open water pole line and decided to try dead depth with big pellet. After a few minutes the float buried and bang... a decent bream that went about 3lb. Now if I could get these going with the odd carp, that would work. It didn't. A few iffy bites later and the jacuzzi was in full flow. If I used a big bait, there were no bites, if I used a small bait I'd get iffy bites and the odd small fish (baby crucians and skimmers) and the carp were generally awol, if I tried shallow over the feed then there was nothing. I clearly had something wrong and I wasn't really set up for delicate fishing. (However, despite all my faffing about, I was still outcatching all the other anglers I could see, and probably put together, so it wasn't all bad).

So back on the pads line set shallow. This time a little closer to me and with a dedicated shallow rig. Within 10 minutes the carp were back up on the pads, and the occasional fizz from below suggested some of the pellets were getting through, but most were not. Eventually the bites resumed, not rapid, but frequent enough to get the odd fish and by using corn I was able to have a couple of strikes before losing the bait (something that pellet did not give me). Over time the fish started to come, a mix of fish – crucians, brown goldfish, fan-tailed goldfish, small carp (commons and mirror) – nothing big, but pushing 3lb at times. I lost a couple of fish to hook pulls and snags in the pads, although the vast majority came out.

A couple of hours later and I'd finally got the weight ticking along to about 75lb for the session, when yet again it went quiet. After 15 more minutes of experimentation, I decided to call it quits. It had been an interesting session, but not a great one. Most the fish I'd caught were in good condition, but some of the larger carp had clearly seen a few too many hooks – I've seem worse, but it would suggest too many over-gunned anglers on a small lake.

Overall impressions of the fishery were mixed, this could well be a good place to try in the cooler months – the presence of small eager to feed fish could well provide sport in the depths of winter, but the open nature of the site might might make it a bit cold. It's not the most tranquil of places, you can screen out the noise of the M40, but there was a constant alarm going off throughout the day, which was harder to deal with, so that was not ideal and the camped out carpers were annoying.

So, I might be back, but not soon. There are obviously some good fish in there, but difficult to see how you catch them regularly. General sentiment from the regulars was that it'd fish hard today – House lake had produced very few fish and other anglers on my lake had struggled. Time for something else next time.

Rolf's Lake 7/9/11

I'd fancied fishing Rolf's for years, but never had the chance or inclination; I don't really enjoy match fishing and I didn't want to shell out on an open just to have a play. However, thanks to a thread on MD I found out about pleasure fishing the lake, and a few phone calls later, I was booked in to fish.

I arrived in time for the 8am opening, suitably breakfasted, armed with tackle and ready to have a go. Objectives for the day were (1) not blank & (2) not embarrass myself.

I met John Bennett in the car park, paid up, bought some fishery pellets and asked about pegs. John kindly showed my around some pegs (22-19) and made a few suggestions. I settled on peg 19, (scene of a former Godber experience I believe), at the right hand end of the lake, this has a bush tight to the left, a long margin away to the right and a tree/bush extending into the water at 10m on the right. These were the suggested target areas.

I set up three pole lines. 3 metres to the left under the bush, 8m straight out and 10m to the right towards the trees. Plumbing up I found that all three lines were similar depths, (give or take a pole float length), so I decided to start with one 0.20mm rig to size 10 hook and adjust the depth between lines.

Each line fed with 6mm pellets and in I went with a large expander on the hook and waited for the action to start. 10 minutes straight out. Nothing. Right, nothing. Left, nothing. I ran through the different lines, pellet, paste, nothing.

55 minutes after starting fishing the float finally buried on the straight ahead line. A brief fight and a pound and a half bream lay in the landing net – hooked fairly and squarely in the anal fin. Objective (a) achieved, blank avoided. Sort of.

With renewed enthusiam I started reworking the lines. Nothing again. I set up a lighter rig to a 14 hook for the straight ahead line in case the skimmers were present. Nothing, although there was the odd dip and rattle on the float. Hmm.

Almost to the minute, an hour after the bream, the lighter rig dipped on the straight ahead line and suddenly there was proper resistance. The fish hung deep and steady, the yellow elastic compensated and soon the common carp surfaced and slipped into the landing net. All 12lb 8oz of it. Nice.

Back out again, suitably boosted that the fish had appeared. Nothing for an hour. Then two fish shed the hook. Two quick bites on corn (missed both). Then nothing. Then a quick bite and very brief fight and a 6lb 8oz common.

Then nothing for an hour.

Out to the right line and eventually I started to get little knocks, suggesting there were fish present. Eventually a half hearted bite. Nothing. Another one. A biref fight and a hook pull. Then a proper bite and yellow elastic everywhere.

A good five minutes later and a foul-hooked common eventually found the landing net. It'd been hard work and but 16lb 8oz of carp was in.

I reworked the line on the right, played with the presentation and started to see regular knocks. Seems like the fish had turned on. A few false starts and then the fish started to flow for the next hour or so. 5-8 mirror. 5-0 common. 9-0 mirror. 12-0 common. 12-0 mirror. All in the space of an hour.

Then it went quiet. So I refed and tried the line to the left. A few bobbles of the float, so I deepened off and tried paste. 3 minutes and a run away bite. 11-8 common.

Back in on the left and five minutes later another wrenching bite, but this was a big fish. 10 minutes later and it was all but under control, a brief view of the fish showed it to be a big common, maybe 20lb or so and possibly foul-hooked near the head.

It made one last gasp run, elastic nearly bottomed out. And then the hook pulled. Oh dear (or words to that effect).

Try as I might I could not buy another bite for the next hour or so before I needed to pack up. But I'd had a fish or two, 5 doubles, no tackle breaks and I leant one or two things should I come back. A good day (90lb), but clearly there is more to learn on this venue.

I may be back at some time.

Wood Lane Iver, 5/9/11

In a moment of rare thought, I decided to take a couple of weeks off work. Having spent most of the first week doing odd-jobs around the house, I was 'allowed' to do some fishing.

Monday. I decided to try the specimen lake at Wood Lane Farm in Iver, I've fished it a couple of time before but only in early spring so I was keen to see what it would produce. In theory the lake contains a mix of carp to a decent size (20lb or so), but a stocking of smaller carp meant that it might be more variable.

The lake itself is roughly rectangular (40m by 150m) with a single large island in the middle, which is in pole range of just one or two pegs. Typically it's 5-6ft deep, slightly shallower in the margins and lined with reeds.

Getting there early, I grabbed one of the pegs near the island and set up to fish the pole at 11m. The peg was in a distinct hollow, this was comfortable, buy made shipping back a little challenging, especially when cupping in. This put me close to, but not on, the island (I'd save that option for later). I cupped in 4mm pellets and planned to fish an 11mm expander on the bottom on strong gear (0.20mm line, size 8 hook, 22 elastic).



First put in and I started to get some indications. So I struck one, hit nothing and lost my expander. Back out again. A repeat. Grrr, suddenly this felt like the last session here – lots of bites but not lots of fish. Third put in and I made contact, a little yellow elastic and a short battle later and a 2lb common was in the landing net. Out again for much the same, missed bites, rebait, missed, hit, fish. And so it continued for about an hour, typical fish was 2-3lb with the odd smaller and larger carp putting in an appearance. After the first hour I'd made it to the 30lb mark without really getting into an efficient rhythm – lots of rebaiting, the odd foulhooker and iffy bites had seen to that.



Towards the end of the hour I was starting to see swirls on the surface as I fed, so I thought I'd try a shallow approach for a little while. Out went the 2ft rig with a size 10 hook, and as soon as it fell through the water – bang. Better fish on. This put up a real fight and turned out to be a 7lb mirror hooked in the dorsal fin. So I changed my feeding pattern for the upper layers and kept with this for a while. This produced lots of bites (most missed), but the pace was steady. Switching to an 8mm (shop bought) expander improved things, the bites were slightly slower, but the bait stayed on for a few strikes. The fish however did not keep up with the size of the first one, and at the 2 hour mark I was at 60lb. A brief experiment with a floater was tried, this produced a quick fish, but a strong breeze from left to right made feeding and presentation was too difficult to keep going.

Back on the bottom for the third hour and the fish were happy to bite at full depth providing I fed accordingly. Next followed a period of better fish, a couple of 5lbers an a 9lber that broke the landing net (out came the spare) but still the iffy bites continued. 3 hours gone and 90lb caught, then it went difficult.

I can't put my finger on it exactly, but whatever I tried I got a few fish, lost a few and then they'd dissappear on me. I played with the feeding, depth, hook size etc. but the next two hours were hard work. Small carp continued to show but at 5 hours the pace has slowed and the total stood at 110lb.

I decided to take a short food break and dropped in on the margin (I'd been feeding it for 30 mins). The float went, I made contact but the fish shed the hook. Back in and the bites continued, they were iffy like on the far line but I couldn't hit them. I finally made contact and was just about to swing the culprit in when it shed the hook, a tiny mirror about 4oz. Maybe this was starting to explain what was going on.

A change of tactics was called for. I changed the shallow rig down to a 14 hook, dug out some 6mm expanders and started feeding little and often at 12.5m. Compared to the previous 2 hours the change was dramatic – 3 put ins, 3 fish, about 8lb in total. Clearly the fish were pre-occupied with the smaller baits, dropping down to a smaller bait got confident takes on the drop, often the fish hooking themselves. The downside was the far side reeds – many fish made a dive for cover (and a few made it which meant pulling for a break) but overall the method was productive. The wind was still a problem, both for feeding and presentation, but it worked better than any other method at this time. (Revisiting full depth was not productive). The fish weren't huge, the odd fish to 4lb or so, but the average was 2-3lb but it kept things ticking over nicely.



3 good (but tiring) hours followed. I was going to finish at 3:15pm with a target of 175lb, but the wind dropped and the fishing improved so I pushed on to 3:45 with 203lb. Just in time for the heavens to open just enough to soak everything. Still, not a bad session, the switch to smaller bait had made a big difference, which was welcome, I now need to work on sorting out the bigger fish.

Boddingtons 30/6/11

So after much deliberation, I treated myself to a day out at Boddingtons on Thursday.

Leaving the house at 0530, I arrived (after several diversions) at about 0700. Having scaled the bank, set off and settled into peg 81 - the peg being chosen based on the general advice (go for 75-95), the fact that the lower platform was dry and that there were a few fish moving.

Initial attack was the pole at 11m - large expander on a size 8 to 0.20mm line and 22 elastic, fished on a 0.6g rig at full depth (about 4ft+) over 4mm pellets.

Three bites in 4 put-ins resulted in three carp - 9lb, 7lb, 5lb and then bites started to get iffy - the roach had arrived and were knocking the pellet off the hook. I persevered with a few different approaches, hard pellet produced two foulhooked fish (7lb and 9lb both landed) and paste didn't do any better.

I experimented for a while, but try as I might I couldn't get back into the carp on the pole line with any degree of consistency. That said, the roach were quite catchable will several examples up to 12oz falling to large expander.

After 60 minutes of frustration, I re-fed the line and rested it for a few minutes whilst watching a guy a few pegs up bag a few fish on pellet waggler. (My back up plan).

I gave it another 30 minutes on the pole with no success and so moved onto pellet waggler with 8mm pellet for hook and feed set 2-3ft deep. 30 minutes and nothing. So I fed a margin line and carried on... nothing.

A switch to the margin got an immediate carp bite, but shed the hook. And going back in only produced roach. So back to the pole line (roach). Margin (roach). Pellet waggler (nothing).

And so it continued until lunchtime. Despite other anglers catching on the pellet wag and having the odd fish in the swim. I couldn't buy a bite out there.

I tried different things to avoid the roach, but that switched everything off.

So in desperation, come lunchtime I soaked a few pellets and set up the method feeder. 2nd put in the tip started to rattle, but when the bite happened the fish pulled straight out, with the brand new 14 hook straightened out.

A switch to a size 10 with a long hair and 2 x 8mm pellets later and I got a quick bite that tore off all round the peg. Assuming a good fish I took my time, and was a little disappointed for find a foul-hooked 8lb mirror on the end.

I carried on and this time a few casts later a mirror of 10lb 8oz was safely landed, and shortly after that a mirror of 13lb 8oz. But that was that. Additional goes on the margin and pellet wag failed and home time was beckoning - it's a long way back to the M25.

Chatting to the regulars suggested it was fishing very hard, the guy next to me had caught 15 carp on pellet wag, but it was hard (and he was starting to have roach problems), and some anglers in the 30's and 40s were blanking completely. Apparently there were many fish spawning in the very low numbers.

So not a disaster (85lb caught), although 50lb of that was in the first hour or so, but 2+ hrs of unproductive pellet wag in 30 minute stints didn't help. If only I gone onto method sooner, but hey, that's how it goes.

Wood Lane, Iver. 2/7/11

Having earned some brownie points during the week, your truly was allows the day off on Saturday to do a little fishing. Target venue for the day was Wood Lane in Iver, Bucks – a small commercial type venue that has been going a few years. It has two pools a specimen lake with a few larger fish which I've tried a few times, and a match lake which I'd never fished. The plan was to fix this latter issue and hopefully bag up on some of the smaller carp that are supposed to be present. It's not cheap at £10 for a day ticket, but it is closer to home than most (it's easy to spend £20 on petrol to go elsewhere) and it doesn't get full of kids vaulting over your pole like some other local venues.

Arriving about 0630 I set up on peg 4 on the match lake. This was an east facing peg, so lots of direct sun to start with, but this would ease over time. I'd seen fish caught from this area on previous visits so it seemed like a good place to start. Early signs showed lots of fish movement in the upper layers throughout the lake, but not from large fish.

The pool is roughly circular in style, about 120 metres across with over 30 pegs – making it quite tight, there's also an aerator in the middle of the pool providing an easy reference.

Initial approach was 11mm expander at 11m on the pole line fished over 4mm pellets at full depth in about 5ft of water. Second put in and a small carp was on, a muscular little common of about 2lb. Next put in a little blade skimmer of about 4oz – a small fish for a large bait and hook, next put in a 1lb carp, and then iffy bites. Lots of bites, float not settling, expander going missing off the hook – that sort of thing. Then another carp and a few more skimmers.

Experimentation was the order of the day. Change the feeding pattern, try 8mm banded pellet, shallow, deep, on the drop. Nothing really worked, although the skimmers that did start to show were getting bigger. A change to the feeding pattern brought swirls on the surface, I tried to feed the fish back down but they weren't having it, so I set up a shallow rig with a size 14 pellet hook.

However I soon found out that the swirls were skimmers. I caught a fair few skimmers on soft pellets, but I was missing bites too and rebaiting was slow. However the fish were averaging 8oz a piece, with some approaching a pound, so this wasn't bad progress. I switched to banded 6mm pellet and the catch rate improved a bit, if I got the feeding just right I could get a hitable bite most put-ins , but every now and again they'd drift off and bites would go iffy again. I persevered in the hope that the carp would show, but after a good hour on the shallow rig and catching too many little skimmers it did not appear to be drawing in the carp. Just as I was about to try something new 12oz common did show, but this was no better than some of the skimmers that were showing.

If this had been a match I'd have change tactics at this point, probably partially inspired by what was going on around me and my target weight. (Given the skimmers at this point I was serious considering going to 6m pole to hand to up the catch rate.) However, I was pleasure fishing and as much fun as catching the skimmers was, I fancied a few more carp. No one else on the lake (about 6 anglers) were catching regularly, but they were mostly fishing close in or legering, so time to do something different.

So there I was stood on top of my seatbox with the Polaroids on scanning the surface. There were carp out there, probably at 30 to 40m out, black shadows moving around and breaking the surface from time to time. Out came the waggler rod.

A quick shallow set pellet waggler, size 14 pellet hook with hair rigged band set about 2 ft deep, a catapult and a load of 8mm hard pellets. Followed by 15 minutes of frustration. There were fish out there and there was knocks, but no bites. I carried on building the line up. Cast, wait, feed three times, reel in and repeat. In the second 15 min spell I picked up a couple of small carp (averaging 2lb each) and lost one more under the rod tip. This was more interesting than skimmers on the pole, but in a match it was a poor weight return.

Then in a moment on madness I put a dry expander on the band so it held up the weight of the hook and cast out. Instant fish. Alternating between expanders and sinkers on the hook showed that the expanders were by far the more productive so I carried on and flicked a few dry expanders out as well and the fish went into piranha mode. Three 11mm expanders hit the surface, three instant swirls, so that became the new pattern. Cast, wait, feed, wait, feed, twitch, feed, retrieve... unless some inconsiderate carp decided to ruin my rhythm. This started to be quite productive, although the fish were still small, but it was a little more productive. I'd could have fed a lot more - but with only one bag of expanders on me, I had to take things easy.

Then disaster struck. Pellet waggler went one way the rig another as the weight separated from the float. Poo. (Or words to that effect.) Unfortunately that was the only pellet waggler I had on me... what to do?

I briefly flirted with a controller float, this got a few fish, but it sank too readily, so out came a 2AAA waggler. Set 3ft deep with a 14 hook with hair rigged band I was back in business. It was hard work to cast, but once I got into the rhythm all was well, and the fish came back again. They were still averaging 2lb but there was the odd 3lber in there as well. And so it continued, lots more bites, feed, cast, and my estimated weight started to build. But it wasn't perfect – I lost several fish at the net (playing too hard, too springy a hook), and from time to time it would go quiet, so room for improvement should I go back.

I also caught three chub in the mix, averaging a pound or so as I was steadily adding 15-20lb of fish an hour to the catch. I tried feeding them closer, but the bites weren't as confident. Last hour (from 2-3pm) some slightly large fish showed, with a couple of 4lb fish, but it was still hard work to amass a decent weight. However I was quietly pleased... no one else was really catching on the lake... of the nine other anglers I reckoned I was probably outcatching them all, put together.

3pm came and the expanders ran out, and it was getting close to home time. So a last few casts, a last fish and that was that. Finished weight, about 150lb. Hard work given the small size of the fish, but rewarding never-the-less.

There were several lesson learned for next time:

(1) Bring more floating pellets
(2) Buy some more pellet wagglers
(3) Consider getting a dedicate pellet waggler rod
(4) Find a stronger hook for banded pellets