Well my lack of angling over the last months has been very frustrating to say the least. What with a move of house, 3 consecutive funerals and buying a puppy, I have not had a moment to myself in ages.

Hopefully, things have settled down now, and the acquisition of Lhotse my little bundle of joy, doesn’t seem such a life changing decision now that she is fully vaccinated and can go to the lakes.

Our first trip out fell on a very hot day and so with the floater kit packed a roving day session in the Lee Valley was planned. The is only on day venue in the Lee Valley’s portfolio, but it fitted the bill perfectly as it rarely gets floater fished, yet has a large stock of hard fighting fish that averages upper doubles with the odd twenty thrown into the mix, plus one or two older originals.

The water was very coloured when I got there and the was no evidence of fish cruising around on the surface, but with steady feeding of the 11mm Oily floaters the fish soon responded and after half an hour, were feeding confidently.

I started out with an in line controller, .21 Power Line and a size 10 Korum S3, using the smaller of the two artificial dog biscuits as a hook bait.

This is my standard starting point but it was clear that things weren’t right, despite losing a fish almost straight away. I had a feeling the fish were just taking the baits with a minimal of suction to get them into their mouths and if the balance of the hook bait wasn’t exactly right the fish would spit the bait out immediately.

I dropped down the size of hook to a 12 and instead of the ‘large’ hook bait I opted for a 10mm white plastic pop up. The reason being, it was smaller than the dog biscuit and so sat lower in the water with the weight of the hook and it took less effort for the fish to take it into it’s mouth, and as the water was very coloured white baits often work very well. The added bonus is that it is very easy to see the bites and so you can hit them instantly, before there is any indication on the controller.

Straight away I was into another fish and it fought far above its weight, using the deep margins for most of the fight. The fish turned out to be a mirror of around 18lbs, although you will have to excuse the mat shot, as it isn’t as easy as I hoped to set up a self take tri pod with a 14 week old Stafford in tow!!

I had five more fish over the next hour or so and so it just goes to show how a slight bait change can make the world of difference. All the fish were perfect and all fought like tigers, proving that the water quality is exceptional despite it being so coloured.

This venue can be fished on a day ticket which is available through the Lee Valley Fisheries office and comes highly recommended.