I was hoping to visit an old carp swim on the river Thames but by the time my angling companion arrived it would have meant a busy trip up the M4 and then probably finding the swims sown up by boats mooring so l decided to go fishing on my own and headed back to Cemex Little Moulsham in the hope that a big crucian might come along.

The high pressure meant that the night was going to be chilly and temperatures fell away to just six-degrees, not ideal but at 4am one of my rods indicated a stuttery take which initially felt like what l was after but after a few seconds things didn’t feel quite right as the head shaking was slow and heavy and even before the fish surfaced l had a feeling that a repeat capture was inevitable. My instincts were right and the only bream in the lake once again fell into the net, noticeable from its strange tail and around a pound and a half up from two-years ago at around six-pound. Although disappointed l smiled as l dropped off to sleep once more, as l knew if l could catch this fish then one of its elusive crucians wasn’t impossible.

Thursday it was back to the Loddon with my dad but after settling dad in the going swim and then making my way downstream l noticed a dark line in the wet grass, proof that someone had made a dawn visit and beaten us to it. After two and a half hours we called it a day, biteless!

Friday l met ‘The Pons’ at Sindlesham Mill along with one of his previous clients Paul. The three of us walked the complete stretch, probably a good couple of miles then started working our way downstream covering all the good swims in the hope of a big barbel. Only one proper bite came to our rods but ‘The Pons’ had dropped his guard and wasn’t holding the rod when the tip flew round. I offered some comfort telling him that it could well have been a seventeen plus pound barbel, however he consoled himself by convincing himself it was a crafty chub.

A pint at the Poachers Pub and some good old mickey-taking bought an end to an enjoyable day even though we went fishless which was probably due to the high pressure and not starting till around 9.30am and finishing at 5pm!

The following morning it was all about trying to get my Godson Max a decent fish from his first visit to a river. ‘The Pons’ once again had a dabble in two of my best swims only to strike at a certain chub liner and once again ended up with his head in his hands, red in the face and rolling around in the damp grass like a uncontrollable madman!

Max arrived and much to Chris’s pleasure we once again set off on a short one-mile plus track to a chub hotspot. Straight away the tip started to rattle but Max resisted Chris’s chants at strike from behind. These chub are quite cute and the pulls soon became less frequent so it was time to stop moulding the scolded Sonubaits Halibut pellets around the lead and mix it into a soft paste that was moulded around the 13mm hard pellet hookbait, a tactic that has worked in the past.

Burying the hook within the ball soon got the tip moving again and after some ten minutes one slipped up and a firm strike saw Max bent into a fish. All l remember is max standing up with the rod bent and smiled as he placed the cork handle of the Korum Precision Specialist rod expertly under his arm and started winding. After a short fight l managed to bundle a good chub into the net which at first looked around four-pound but it slowly started to look bigger as we lifted her onto the mat. Zeroing the scales l let Max read the weight out and Chris and myself were shocked when the young guy read a weight of 5lb 8oz! I checked the weight and sure enough he was spot on and after a few pictures we all left happy as there couldn’t have been a better ending to what proved a couple of difficult days roving.

When we got back to the car I phoned my father and asked him what his best chub was and then sent a text to my brother to find out his. The replies came in, however l will leave it to Max to tell them the weight, as its bigger than both dad’s and granddad’s personal bests, whoops l wont be popular!