Bob Goes Fishing | Welcome

Please rotate your device

This page is best viewed in Landscape orientation
(or tap anywhere to view in Portrait orientation)

Diary of an average angler

Who favours traditional methods & baits

fisherman

This diary dates back to a holiday in 2003 when I think the urge to get back into fishing took off. From around 2007 the trips became more frequent with 2010/11 probably being the peak of activity.
Things again pick up in 2020 - a sort of rebirth!

QR code

YouTube channel

Venues
& topics
Species
Archive
Venues & topics
Species
Archive

Fields End (81)

Venue: Fields End
image

More photos in the full report

Arrival time: 07.00 (started to fish at 07.15)
Weather: Bright start but clouded over later. Light W wind became strong during the afternoon.
Swim: Tree Corner.
Tackle: 11’6” Hardy Marksman, Shimano ST6000 reel, pre-loaded waggler, 8lb line, 10 hook.
14ft Shimano Speedmaster match rod, new Shimano Exage reel with 5lb line, 16 hook tied direct. Insert waggler.
Baits: Bread flake and luncheon meat.
Fish: Six carp, best 13lb 9oz, eight crucians, best 2lbs 4oz, a 4lb tench and three roach, best 1lb 3oz.

After a marvellous weekend, weather wise, things deteriorated a bit today.

I was the first on the lake, and started with my Hardy Marksman by dropping a piece of luncheon meat down the right margin. First cast was short, but the second resulted in a bite almost immediately and a good fish tore off. It turned out to be an 8lb 10oz mirror carp that fought very well.

Read full report

Species: Carp 10lb+, Carp, Crucian, Tench, Roach

Fields End (80)

Venue: Fields End
Barbel 5lb

More photos in the full report

Arrival time: 07.00 (started to fish at 07.30)
Weather: Bright start but clouded over later. Fresh NW/W wind.
Swim: Tree Corner.
Tackle: 14ft Shimano Speedmaster match rod, new Shimano Exage reel with 5lb line, 16 hook tied direct. Insert waggler.
Baits: Bread flake and luncheon meat.
Fish: Two carp, best 7lb 8oz, three tench, best 3lb 11oz, two barbel, best 5lb, five crucians, best 1lb 14oz, and four roach, best 1lb 1oz.

I took a chance on the wind today (the forecast was far better for tomorrow but I had things to do) but while it was fresh, it wasn’t too much trouble in the Tree Corner. The story of the day was plenty of bites, almost one a cast, but most were unhittable. I expected this on flake, but a change to luncheon meat produced similar problems. I can understand how a small fish can tug at flake and register a bite, but the missed bites on lumps of meat remain a mystery: crucians perhaps.

Read full report

Species: Carp, Tench, Crucian, Barbel (lake), Roach

Fields End (79)

Venue: Fields End
Crucian 2lb 7oz

More photos in the full report

Arrival time: 07.00 (started to fish at 07.45)
Weather: Cloudy start, bright later. Strong SW wind.
Swim: Tree Corner.
Tackle: 14ft Shimano Speedmaster match rod, new Shimano Exage reel with 5lb line, 16 hook tied direct. Insert waggler.
Baits: Bread flake and luncheon meat.
Fish: Three carp, best 12lbs, nine crucians, best 2lbs 7oz, a 2lbs 9oz tench and a few roach.

The forecast was for a warm day, but windy. The morning was, in fact, far from warm. Cloudy with a strong SW wind it was quite chilly. I benefitted from being in the Tree Corner, which is protected from south-westerlies.

Having succeeded with luncheon meat on my last visit I started with this bait. A couple of missed bites in over an hour convinced me that, today, this bait wasn’t working.

Read full report

Species: Carp 10lb+, Carp, Crucian, Tench, Roach

Fields End (78)

Venue: Fields End
Barbel 5lb 3oz

More photos in the full report

Arrival time: 07.00 (started to fish at 07.30)
Weather: Relatively mild, bright and calm.
Light SW breeze freshened during the day before dropping late afternoon.
Swim: Tree Corner.
Tackle: 14ft Shimano Speedmaster match rod, new Shimano Exage reel with 5lb line, 16 hook tied direct. Insert waggler.
Bait: Luncheon meat
Fish: Two barbel, best 5lb 3oz and two carp, best 9lbs 1oz.

Up until lunch time I thought this was going to be another disastrous day. Not a bite until about 11.00 and then tricky ‘unable to hit’ bites. Managed a few small roach, none of which needed the net. I had been using sweetcorn and bread, the former being the more successful.

Read full report

Species: Carp, Barbel (lake), Roach

River Welland (7)

Venue: River Welland
Chub 4lb 1oz

More photos in the full report

Arrival time: 09.30
Weather: Bright frosty morning but soon warmed up in the sun.
Calm to start with but fresh easterly breeze blew up.
Swim: Roving
Tackle: 12ft Korum multi-feeder, Shimano bait caster, 6lb line, 6 hook tied direct. Two SG shots on a short link.
Bait: Bread flake.
Fish: Three chub, best 4½lbs.

After the disappointment of missing a couple of cracking bites on my last visit to Stamford this was my last chance to put things right before the close season.

I used the quiver-tip top on my Korum feeder rod to present less resistance. Having sold my Mitchell reel, I used one of my small Shimano bait caster reels with 6lb line.

Read full report

Species: Chub

Fields End (77)

Venue: Fields End
No photo message

Nothing worth photographing today

Arrival time: 07.00 (started to fish at 07.30)
Weather: Cold frosty start with clear blue sky.
Light SW breeze that freshened considerably after lunch.
Swim: Tree Corner.
Tackle: 14ft Shimano Speedmaster match rod, new Shimano Exage reel with 5lb line, 16 hook tied direct. Insert waggler.
Baits: Maggots
Fish: Tench of 3lbs and some small perch and roach.

Again I was hopeful of a good day. The night was cold but the forecast was for a day of sunshine. Driving to the lake the Fenland scenery was spectacular. White frosty fields with a large orange sun shining through the mist. The magic was completed by a barn owl flying across the road in front of me and settling on a gate post.

Read full report

Species: Tench, Perch

< Previous Page Page 46 / 68 Next Page >

© 2025 Robert Bassett

Report bugs to webmaster

Built in RapidWeaver
with Shaking The Habitual's
Source micro framework

Your privacy
Cookies are only used for the correct functioning of this site and to prevent you seeing this message every time you visit.

Read more about third party cookies ☞

Note that links to third party sites can result in cookies being loaded. For example, there are links to YouTube to display the embedded videos from my channel.