Monday l arrived late at Frensham with just enough time to set up. With lots of small rudd moving plus the odd better one my hopes were high but the lack of other anglers should have told me something. It was all out for rudd with the helicopter rigs over hemp and maggot, however after dark the lake became strangely quiet apart from the odd carp that launched itself skywards. I had walked around the lake with a marker rod the day before and decided on a swim which showed that the weed wasn’t to bad and after dragging my feeders back felt confident that it was clear, however up till midnight l lost four good fish from hook pulls due to them getting stuck in weed. Looks like my feature finding techniques need sharpening up.

Tuesday night my father and l headed to the middle reaches of the river Thames in the hope of a carp but it was more about getting away from things, spending time in some wonderful countryside and having a good social. The curry was far better than the fishing and we only received one bite each, mine from a bream and dads from a good chub caught in the early hours.

Thursday it was back to Frensham for some more punishment and true to form the big rudd stayed away, however l did catch plenty of smaller samples to around 1lb 4oz, a tench and a perch around 2lb. To be frankly honest l feel more confident catching rudd in February than now so will be leaving this venue well alone until the colder months even if it does mean catching it just right and having a big hit.

Friday morning l helped a couple of youngsters at MBK, Barons Pond catch a few fish with young Thomas Daxter leading the way with some good roach and carp caught using Sonubaits 8mm S-Pellets fished two-foot under the surface below a Preston pellet waggler whilst spraying 6mm hard pellets over the top.

Friday evening l decided it was time to look at a difficult stretch of the river Loddon. Fishing a three-hour evening session up till dusk l roved through five swims finally finding a few fish in the last, which resulted in this cracking chub. The method lead with scolded Sonubaits crushed halibut pellet around and a 13mm hard pellet did the trick, however it was whilst in this last swim that a big barbel surfaced just before a carp crashed so its certainly given me a direction for August.