With the weather nice and humid it’s a toss up between eels and rudd, but the desire for a big snake finally got the better of me and it was off down to the south coast on Monday evening.

After last weeks frustrating session my new game plan was too fish maggot medusa on one rod and on the other a big chunk of meat however after being breamed out after the first hour of darkness I changed to the fish sections.                                 

Twenty odd runs later l was leaving after being once again completely beaten up and not hooking one eel, back to the drawing board.  Somehow after no sleep the night before l managed to find enough energy to visit Frensham for a spot of rudd fishing and by 2am l had managed to land five two pounders, the best two going 2lbs 5oz 8 drams and 2lbs 8oz 8 drams along with lots of backup fish and the odd tench.

Fishing maggot on the hook and spraying 6mm sonubaits hard feed pellets over the top keeps the cost down and keeps bait falling through the water, keeping the rudd interested.

Wednesday was my day off but after such a good session I was gagging to get back and the following night saw an opportunity but only after a photo shot session on the river Wey at Addlestone for TCF was finished. Shame I forgot to look at the weather forecast as after a glorious day the wind picked up and the rain came. Frensham is a 60-acre lake open to the elements so at 11pm it was time to call it a day. Although wet through l still managed 25lbs of rudd, but no monsters were among them.

On recent walk I stopped to chat with a couple of anglers and as we talked his rod signalled a signature chub bite which was followed by a fight that certainly wasn’t a chub. It had to be a barbel but low and behold an eel in excess of five pounds, if not six came to the surface. His friend managed to get it in his smallish net only for the monster to tail walk out again in mid air breaking the line. The bait he was using was…. as if I’m giving that one away! Watch this space.

With the weather slightly better tonight I’m of to the river Thames, in beautiful Berkshire in the hope of a river carp, or two! How those floods of last year have changed the river. We fished a known area for carp but apart from the odd bream no carp showed, it’s like starting all over again!