Where did April go? Normally a productive month where lots of fish get caught as the water warms up but it seems that most anglers found it a struggle, well at least till the end of the month.

The tench lake continues to be pre-baited and it was good to hear that Alan Stag finally managed to get of the mark with three good fish over the weekend. Watch this space as l know how good the guy is and l'm expecting to see a couple of very big fish come his way over the next few weeks.

Due to a family holiday booked next week I’ve had to stay in the office and get on top of the paperwork as well as writing a few articles well in advance, however when l did get out the ‘fish gods’ were obliging and l recorded some memorable catches.

Monday night l travelled south to the roach lake and managed to catch twenty-three net fish, the best going 2lbs 6oz. These fish are well fat and over the next couple of weeks l'm expecting to see some big fish appear to the angler that gets it right. All the fish came after dark and fell foul of my deadly helicopter rigs baited with double maggot.

Friday l promised to take my father out and we travelled down to Mill Farm Fishery in search of silver. Dad had a difficult day but managed a few tench, roach and just the one bream.

I had a blinder and put the Preston Method Mould and feeders to the test using Sonubaits 2mm feed pellets which I softened by submerging in water for 2 minutes then draining all the water off and then leaving them for 10 minutes. I clipped up so l could drop my bait on the same spot which proved deadly as numerous fish swallowed my 4mm Sonubaits Soft Hooker Pellet including five silver bream. The best weighed 2lbs 9oz 8drams with another of 2lbs 9oz along with one bang on two-pound. The biggest two recorded the biggest brace of silvers ever caught as well as both being well over the present British record!

Next week the family holiday see’s me heading towards Somerset to a holiday village that has fishing on site. Sometimes we are sent little messages and over dinner with my brother he proceeded to find a cut out from one of the weeklies that showed some monster eels that had been caught from a holiday site. Guess what, the eel rods have been packed as it’s the same one l'm going to!