From having very few angling options available over the last few weeks, the weather takes a turn for the better, making what species to target extremely difficult.

Sunday was the first day of noticeable change and l was tempted to fish overnight for pike but the forecast was for a cold Saturday night and l felt that the lake might still be frozen. Venturing out Sunday afternoon with minimal tackle l kicked myself as the lake had thawed. The session of just three hours leading up to dusk brought three runs resulting in one jack, one lost and one missed, again not a great return. Returning the following morning resulted in just one dropped run, which leads me to think it’s an afternoon water. Luck was with me again as a well known carp angler stopped to chat after his overnight session and told me how he accidentally caught a pike some eighteen months previous which he estimated close to the thirty-pound mark, she’s out there!
Tuesday was put aside to produce a feature for Improve your Coarse Fishing and a few hours in good company was spent on the banks of the River Loddon in search of winter chub. Two modest chub plus a bonus barbel came my way making it a very rewarding day. Finishing early, although knackered, offered the opportunity to head for another part of the river in search of its huge barbel, however after fours hours roving around just one modest chub came to the net.
Wednesday, my birthday, was spent in the company of Paul Garner who popped down to see me and discuss my future at Korum and some new products that are in the pipeline.
Thursday was again spent with the IYCF crew, this time at MBK, Barron Ponds at Liss. Again it took me a few hours to get rigs sorted and into a fluent routine but once mastered, quality roach came to the net regularly. By the end of the day I’d managed around 35lbs of quality roach, the best around 1lbs 12oz. It took a couple of hours of steady feeding with casters to get the fish up in the water but the shallower l fished the bigger the fish, and l enjoyed catching on a technique never experienced before. My brother tried the waggler and managed around 20lbs of smaller fish and dad was put on the feeder, which proved, difficult, sorry!
Another invite to fish the famous, Willow lake in Oxfordshire for its roach proved irresistible, so quickly organising the tackle on Saturday l headed off in the early hours of Sunday morning, arriving well before daybreak. Unfortunately only two swims were free due to an influx of carper's so l cast my rods out and waited for someone to leave. The normally, inform Med1 swim became available mid morning but this winter its has had little in the way of consistent form so after a fruitless day moved further down the lake just before dusk. Confidence wasn’t high as no roach had been caught over the weekend by three other anglers, infact no one had, had a bite from a roach! The night, as usual went uninterrupted as did first light but soon after a re-cast the indicator dropped to the ground and a roach at last hit the bank. Not a monster but looking at other angler’s returns l couldn’t help but feel happy with one of 2lbs 3oz.