The River Loddon is absolutely choked with weed still but walking and looking will reveal the odd spot where a bait can be placed, however always feel the lead down and if a firm bump isn’t felt recast.

Another tip when fishing in weed is to wrap the whole hookbait including the hook in quick dissolving paste. On a couple of previous visits I’d found two spots and caught of both. The swims were around a mile apart so what I wanted to do is to find a spot in between the two and luckily there is a deep stretch that contains little weed, unfortunately having fished the area in the past and never caught a barbel from it my confidence was low, but knowing it does produce the odd huge fish felt that I had to start giving it more attention.

It was Sunday evening and my brother was with me so he headed to the upstream spot and I went downstream with the plan to meet in the deeper water as darkness fell. Kevin only managed a small chub but my swim that’s giving me some vibes that it will do a massive fish produced a proper barbel bite after an hour’s fishing. The fish felt big, a little to fast to be one of the really big ones but after a few seconds the hook pulled. That’s two hook pulls in four hooked fish. Last season I took around thirty barbel and only lost one fish! The next hour was fruitless so as darkness fell I met Kevin in the deeps and dropped a bait into a swim that normally produces late on in the season. It only took fifteen minutes to see a three-foot twitch and after a very slow deep fight that had every making of a really big fish saw a strange shaped scrapper double drop into the net.

Tuesday evening was back to family affairs and the request to join my brother who was taking his seven-year-old son, Zac on his first full overnight session. The location was Farnham Angling Society water called Lodge Pond, a runs water that normally produces carp in the 7-11lbs region but does hold the odd better fish. I’d been sent some bait to test by Ian at Sonubaits and just thirty minutes in casting one out, next to a method feeder of pellets landed a ghostie common of 22lbs 4oz, much to the amazement of young Zac. On seeing such a fish he went on to land a dozen fish, helped by father, including a personal best of 10lbs 6oz.

Thursday night l was sent on a mission by an angling magazine to prove to the world the average size of crucian that can be expected in August from Harris Lake on the Marsh Farm Complex. It was a challenge I was looking forward to, as looking through the weeklies I could but notice one angler reporting numerous four pounders! The conditions were bang on, but when I arrived the lake was just emptying after being full to capacity. The reports were that little was showing during daylight so my expectations were high for an after dark feeding frenzy. The tactics for the night were simple scaled down bolt rigs, not attractive but highly efficient and with the small 10mm baits that Ian had asked to test expectations were high. Little happened until darkness fell, but as daylight faded the lake became alive with crucians swirling everywhere, sometimes half a dozen at a time. It wasn’t long before the bolt rig did its job and a crucian fell along with another, and another. By 1pm I had taken 38 crucians, sometimes two at once so it was time to place a few into a keep net for a trophy shot at first light. Another twenty came to the net along with four tench and at 2-30am l had to reel in and get a couple of hours sleep. My final tally for the night was 58 crucians, ranging from 2lbs to a best of 3lbs 5oz, most around the 2lbs 10oz to 3lbs mark. Out of the 58 crucians, 19 were 3lbs or over, but the four pounder eluded me again; maybe its time l changed my name!

Next week l will be sorting out some vital kit, a life-jacket and roof rack that will enable my small boat to be safely transported and fished from within the river Thames later in the year. I will also need to set myself a target for September, however at the moment I’m caught between a number of species, eels, barbel, bream or should l go back after those so called Marsh Farm four-pound crucians, l don’t think so!