Its start of the Thames run-off, however as much as l would have loved to have taken the week off other things started piling up and so this week it’s a definite no-go zone as l need the days to keep on top of things.
Monday was spent in the office, however l did manage to get out to Frensham Great Pond and pre-bait in the hope that the rudd might just be obliging later on in the week.

Tuesday was a guiding day spent on the river Loddon with barbel in mind and with the weather conditions spot on things looked promising. Fifteen swims were visited throughout the day with five swims producing either fish or chances, however not one bite came from a barbel and we had to settle with three good chub ranging between 4lb and 5lb 8oz. Mathew seemed well happy with the results and what he learnt, although l would have dearly loved for one of his bites to have been from a double figured barbel, but that’s fishing. Looking back the first two chub Mathew caught came from the same swims l took my father for a practice guiding session and on that day his bites were from an 8lb and a 10lb barbel, that’s fishing. I’m sure it wont be long before l receive a text from Mathew informing me he’s nailed a double, even the big girl from the stretch, as he now knows exactly where she lives and a tactic that she seems to slip up on from time to time.

With a few hours free on Wednesday morning and knowing the Thames run-off was underway thought ld visit another perch hotspot in the hope of some peace but even setting the alarm at 4-30am and arriving before dawn still found anglers parked up and asleep within their cars, so it looks like the Thames is a no hoper once again and l will have to stick with the unmolested stillwaters, although l do have another plan to get in these swims, whether l go the extra mile and through all the hell required to do this is another matter as l do feel that a really big fish is more likely to come from somewhere else! As darkness fell l was once again spodding some bait into Frensham, however once l had finished l ran a lead through and realised that the weed was far to problematic and trying to present a hookbait effectively would be nigh on impossible, however lm going to keep the feed going in twice a week and keep an eye on the situation, as it wont be long before the weed starts to disperse and the continuous bait application and the bird life diving down for this will only hurry things up.

With both the perch and rudd situation hitting home l decided to head to a lake, home of a thirty plus pound pike on Thursday afternoon after completing a chub article for a European magazine. Arriving at 2-15pm it took all of three minutes to catch the first of seven pike before l left at 5pm. This is the problem with this lake, its home of loads of jacks and trying to single out one oversize fish is a real lottery and one that really doesn’t float my boats. With the rains coming on Friday lm going to make the most of the warm spell and have an early start on Friday in the hope of a big chub.
Well how predictable the Loddon is as l tried twelve swims and the three that produced were the ones l would have put money on to produce. They were a bit tricky, probably due to quite a bit of pressure but by constantly changing small things l managed to outwit them, the best going 5lb 4oz.