1998

I was never going to fish this weekend as I spent Saturday drinking cider at Coventry, the day was great but the less about the football result the better lol. Sunday was going to be spent doing some gardening and having a nice meal with family for Mothers Day. I do love the first day after the clocks go forward, as long as it is sunny, when you get that late evening light and it just gives you a positive feeling. Although it was windy it was bloody lovely weather so I hope if you were out on the bank today you enjoyed it.

Going back to 1998 my days out fishing were sparse from April on, as you will see...

A month on from the end of the close season on 12th Aril and I got out pleasure fishing, I had a day (my one and only) at Brokerswood Lake, I am sure I fished here with a few lads, Ian Spriggs and Andy Floyd, but it is difficult to remember exactly. I do know it was a very cold day and the temperature got no higher than 5C. It was a hard day, seven pound of roach on a waggler with caster, and four small carp for 6lb on a maggot feeder. Two days later there was heavy snow in the North of England, and we had two hours of heavy snow in Bristol, but by the afternoon it was all melted.

My next venture out came on the Sunday 3rd May, a trip to Lovelynch fishery. I caught small carp at 3m on and off all day, but never got them lined up like you needed to do here, I ended up with 40lb which was no good. A week later with the weather improved I took a trip to Witham Friary with Dave Haines for a bit of pleasure fishing. I fished on the bottom lake, left hand bank, I fished a light 4x10 float with a 20 to 0.10 and fished a single red maggot on the hook. Feeding small amounts of pellets and maggots at 7m and also down the margin by some reeds I caught lots of small crucian carp and a few small commons and wild carp. It was a lovely day as I recall and I had 42lb.

Another day pleasure fishing with Dave Haines was at Sevington Lakes, as we had heard a lot of stories about this venue being solid with small tench and crucians. I fed groundbait with a bit of sweetcorn in it at 11m. I fished a 0.1g float with 0.10 to a 14 hook with corn on the hook. It was a steady day with 25lb of small tench and crucians as we were told. I got talked into fishing another new venue, this time a match, at Burley Fields which was supposed to be solid with silver fish. In previous matches here silvers won the money and only odd carp were caught.This day was very different though as I struggled to put together 10lb of roach whilst I watched other anglers land odd big carp, and I think Tony Rixon won with about 74lb.

On the 31st May I fished a small match at Keynsham AA's Century Pond, back then this venue was brilliant when you pleasure fished but hard in matches, today was no exception. I fed very little and fished light with a single maggot to winkle out just 7lb 8oz which was enough for second overall. I went back again the following week and struggled for just 4lb 3oz but lost 4 big carp, I won the section money with that lowly weight. My last match in the close season was on June 14th where I fished a match at Sadborrow Pond, I think this was a league event and I may have stood in for someone. I had drawn a peg with an island opposite me and as it turned out this was the only place I could a bite. I fed mainly sweetcorn and fished it on a 16 to 0.14, I pushed the float as near to the island as I could but I still had fish that seemed to swim behind the float so I guessed the bank was undercut. I finished with 9 carp and a few accidental roach for 27lb and just missed out on some section money.

On June 20th I fished in the CLA teams of 5 on the K&A canal at Devies. I think I was by Semington, and it was very wide where I was. My 14.5m pole was nowhere near the far bank even with my box set up on long legs in the margin of the canal. I fed some gbait at 13m at an angle, and fed some pellet and corn at 14,5m. Starting on the gbait I had a few small skimmers on single red maggot on a 22 to 0.08. The line at 14.5m was poor and I realised I had to get over tight, so I fed casters, corn and pellets via a catapult across and put a long 3m line on with a dibber and put 1BB on the line just above the hook length. The BB would give me the weight to swing the rig in, and hold the bait in place as the canal tows a lot. It was not pretty but it worked as I had 4 carp! My total weight was 23lb 15oz and that was enough to give me 4th place overall and a nice pick up.

Hopefully find a match to fish next Sunday, might stay local to Windmill.