Another week on garden leave and another week where spring let alone summer is yet to arrive in Bristol. The thunderstorms in the early hours of Thursday morning woke me up, so I was a little tired when the alarm went off. It was a cold and grey start and it was the same all day just a bit of rain too. No photos as phone stayed in my pocket. This was my first Thursday match at Windmill, and looking at prior matches the weights aren’t quite as good as they are on a Sunday for some reason. Possibly the 30 minute earlier start and finish? Anyway, talk at the draw was you still needed to be ..read more

 You may be surprised to see a weekday blog, as it’s not often I take a day off work for a match. However, last week I resigned from my company after 38 years loyal service, and have taken a job with a small family run business which is a small competitor. As a result of this I have been put on garden leave for 3 months and so a bit of fishing will be needed as well as jobs round the house and garden. Onwards and upwards. First job was making some rigs, tying hooks and putting some new elastic in my top sets. I picked up Glenn Bailey just before 7am and we set off for Sedges near Br ..read more

 Last weekend I had a fabulous time with my wife in the New Forest. We walked 15 miles over 2 days and I got to see some great birds that I haven’t seen for years, best of the lot a lesser spotted woodpecker. Will definitely be going back. I was keen on fishing again but I had two things to contend with 1) the weather forecast for Sunday strong winds and storms. 2) Saturday at the gas with some friends from Huddersfield who drink cider like it’s water! Sunday morning I felt fine when the alarm went off, I’d survived the Northern drinking session ?. A breakfast at Wetherspoons set me up f ..read more

 Another busy week, four days working in Munich and then Friday at Cheltenham races, five second places and no winners hmmm. I was pleased to see Kevin Boltz won the last match on the river at Newbridge with 87lb of bream. Quite a few bream fed and so it seemed quite a few anglers had a good day. Dean Harvey framed and he rang to tell me he followed my blog and advice and it was spot on, happy days. Today after the match, an angler asked me if my blog would contain the truth about the bait I used, not sure what caused that comment but I have no need to lie and have always wanted to help ..read more

 After the disappointing weather and flooding of the previous week I was really pleased to enjoy a lot of dry weather. However, with football on Saturday and my having to travel on business to Germany Sunday I was going to miss out on the last week. However, I was able to get Friday off work and so was going to get one final crack at the Bristol Avon. I had my bait still from last week and that was done worms, casters and dead maggots. The question was where to go? Saltford straight was a good place, but then I saw that Graham Hunt had 60lb of bream there Wednesday, but not much the foll ..read more

 Well I’ve had my fill of this winter, it seems to have been raining mostly for 3 months or maybe more. On Wednesday the weather forecast was for light rain, so I thought yes I’ll get on the river. Then in the early hours of Friday it hammered down, game over… I’d ordered bait and so had to get that, and thought about what do to with it.  Then on Friday night I put a post on Facebook saying would this rain ever stop. Well yes it did, but only to be replaced by a dump of snow Saturday morning. That was it I couldn’t take anymore lol. I’ve been travelling a lot with work lately and a l ..read more

 I was working in Ireland all week and was a bit tired after travelling from Dublin to Galway, Cork and back to Dublin. But I was itching to get back on the bank, though of course the river was once again out of the question being in flood. I dropped a text to Dave Haines and booked in for the Windmill open, this was about 2pm on Saturday. After asking a couple of regular anglers for tips it seemed I really needed a pint of maggots, so nipped off  to Premier Angling where you always get a warm welcome from Tony Rixon. The forecast was for heavy rain Saturday evening/ night, and th ..read more

 I’ve been wanting to get back onto the river for ages, and finally I thought the level was ok to give it a go. I fancied a go for some chub which I hoped would be hungry after all the floods. I didn’t need to any preparation other than to pick up some maggots on Friday. Saturday I was busy watching Rovers, got to see a decent game and good result. A leisurely start Sunday, and I parked up at 10:30. Carting my gear through the kissing gate I was then loading the trolley and realised I’d left my bag with reels and feeders in the shed (hope this doesn’t become a habit again ??).  I r ..read more

 At my last outing at Hillview I had an irritating cough, unfortunately that just got worse and with a lack of sleep I felt quite low on energy. I had to work from home, cancelled going to the gym and didn’t really do anything at the weekend. Even now the cough is still lingering, but I don’t feel rough, although my wife has not got a heavy cold.  With the very cold weather and everything being frozen, and the forecast of nasty wind and rain for Sunday I put fishing on the back burner again. I’ve said before I don’t mind not going fishing this time of year, I’d rather not risk it. Sp ..read more

 Happy New Year everyone, hopefully you had a great Christmas and New Year. My wife and I went to Tenerife for New Year, what a great decision that was, 25C every day and missed all the storms in the UK. I did pick up an irritating cough that I still cannot shake but I’ve not felt ill. Back to work and back to normal, but where to go to get back on the bank? The river was certainly out of the question, the highest I have seen the Bristol Avon in my lifetime, and feel sorry for those who got flooded. My choice was Hillview near Tewkesbury as Martin Reyat told me it was fishing well, pl ..read more