Sunday evening I headed for the River Loddon for a few hours in the hope of chub. Baiting four swims on arrival I decided to give them half an hour to settle before fishing each one on rotation. The sky was clear but after my third swim I had yet to receive a knock.  Much needed cloud started to gather in force and the air temperature began to rise.  I abandoned my plan and headed for the swim that produced a double figure barbel for me in cold conditions the previous week. I had introduced a couple bait droppers of small pellets into the swim only an hour before as a back up plan. Only minutes of lowering a Sonubaits 13mm halibut pellet hook bait with a handful of 6mm pellets dampened down with hot water and moulded around the lead I Immediately stared to get line bites. Ten minutes later the tip flew round and a small barbel weighing around 6lbs was being netted. 

I repositioned the rig and had to wait an hour before a finicky pull saw me miss a bite.  one fresh hook bait and a little more attraction around the lead brought an immediate response and the second barbel of the evening weighing around 3-4lb soon graced my net.

Monday evening after work I headed to the lake that had produced several good carp for me the week before.  Two rods where baited with small PVA bags of 6mm Sonubaits halibut pellets and a 13mm hook bait were cast to a small area that had been producing well.  I didn’t get a chance to sink the line on the second rod before the line pulled up tight in my hand and a fish was on.  After a great fight that lasted over twenty minutes I knew I was into one of the better fish.  It stayed out in the middle of the lake and once I had coaxed her into the margins I was a little surprised what was in the bottom of the net.  Placing the fish on the mat it looked a good twenty.  The scales confirmed this with a weight of 28lb 4oz.  A couple of low double figure commons followed in the next hour before I decided to head for home.  Sonubaits again doing the business.