Thursday evening saw me meet with a friend to fish a short evening session on a local lake targeting carp.

These are not a species that I generally fish for, however I fancied a short enjoyable session so I dusted off a couple of rods and headed off after work 

The evening was cold and clear with the temperature quickly falling.  Armed with method feeders, scalded Sonubaits 6mm halibut pellets and 13mm halibut pellets for hook baits I was confident of some action.  After watching a couple of fish head and shoulder out in the middle of the lake I was soon blasting a couple of method balls in their direction.  Two hours later and after several recasts I managed 4 bites and two fish, both commons in the low double figure bracket.

Saturday morning saw an early start as I headed to the River Loddon with perch in mind.  After last weeks result I was hopeful of some action and I wasn’t disappointed when first cast just after dawn saw the float sink and a perch around the 2lb mark was netted.  Three small pike followed before I decided to call it a day.

I returned early Sunday morning and three more small pike where all I had to show for my effort.  Every time I positioned a live bait one of these little fish thieves would grab it wrecking my swim.  Where have those perch gone?

I stopped off at another stretch of the River Loddon on my way home and armed with a bucket of Sonubaits Hemp & Hali Crush mixed with Crushed Halibut Pellets I decided to see how the local barbel population would react.  The morning had been bright with fairly low temperatures, not ideal barbel conditions.  After depositing a few balls into a couple of areas I returned to the van for a drink.  Peering into the first swim I was amazed by the feeding reaction that had been created and as you can see from the pictures the fish where pigging out.  They could be seen grazing the bottom and obviously making the most of the food that had been introduced.  Not wanting to disturb the fish as I have caught most of them before I decided to drop in a few more balls and be on my way.  Maybe Hemp and Hali Crush will feature more in my barbel fishing…