A week of sunshine, heavy showers and cool nights as well as atmospherics that has put the fish down. Monday was spent targeting a big crucian carp but the swim that had been baited daily for over a week failed to supply the goods with just a stocky mirror to show for my efforts, at least my rigs are holding out now.

Wednesday myself, bother, father and girlfriends father headed back to Mill Farm Fishery in West Sussex. My target was to try and target the silver bream on the Specimen Lake for a feature fore Pole Fishing Magazine. Unfortunately the hordes of tiny roach made it impossible to fish as every offering was stripped in seconds so it was a case of moving to Mill Pond in order to complete the article.

Moving at 11am isn’t the best time to start on any lake as its often a time that things go quite and so this was however after four hours l managed to catch a few moderate silver bream, crucians and roach. My brother faired better and had one of those days when the crucians move in and over the course of the session took in excess of fifty fish plus the occasional bigger carp.

Thursday was a session that l was looking forward to as an article was due for CAT based around a ‘Head to Head’ against good friend Steve Ansell on my local Frensham Great Pond. It was simply a case of showing who got the best from his swim and after a very quiet evening and night l awoke and balled some Sonubaits Supercrush Green, which had been sieved twice along with having just a handful of casters and hemp added. Over the next four hours l managed sixteen tench on the waggler using caster as hookbait.

Steve unfortunately struggled after balling in a groundbait that was rich in particles and frustratingly got beaten up as the tench became preoccupied on this, ignoring his maggot hookbait in the process. The session ended with myself talking eighteen tench plus a few rudd and perch whilst Steve managed just five as well as a few perch. It just goes to show the difference a correctly mixed and specifically designed groundbait can have!