My first fishing trip since the end of November, following back surgery in February. I chose the Clay Pit side pond as it is not far from home and I could park next to where I was fishing. It is also a fairly easy water that hasn't disappointed in the past, so I was almost assured of a fish or two.

I picked up an annual ticket from the Post Office on the way to the water. It runs from 1 April to 31 March, so that's a year's fishing paid for.

I wasn't intending to stay too long as I'm still recuperating from the back surgery, so I only took half a pint of red maggots and a can of sweet corn. I assumed small baits would be the order of the day following some chilly weather.

Starting with maggots I soon had bites, although a few small roach/rudd slipped the hook as I reeled in. But I managed to land a couple. Nothing big, but encouraging. After just under an hour a better fish was hooked. I thought at first it might be a small tench but it turned out to be a nice crucian that fought well.

About an hour later, after a few more roach/rudd, I had changed bait to a single grain of sweetcorn and I hooked into a powerful fish that I thought could be a tench or a small carp. It was in fact a battling tench.

Another angler arrived and set up on the main lake directly opposite me, just behind the reeds where I was casting to. He had parked his car by the corner of the side pond and walked back and forth for a while setting up his gear. My swim went dead! So it was a bit over an hour after my first tench that I hooked into another. This time the bait was a bunch of maggots. It was a similar size to the first but seemed a bit more powerful when I was playing it.

I didn't have to wait as long for the next tench, which arrived about 20 minutes later. Once again about the same size. This time I weighed it at just under 3lbs.

That was to be my last tench before I packed up at 3pm, but I did hook into another fish that had first moved the float much nearer the reeds and bramble bush. On this occasion it made a powerful rush into the reeds/brambles and I couldn't stop it. In fact it opened the hook! I thought it might have been a carp but the bite was tentative and took a while to develop, so my guess is it was another tench - but bigger!

I had a few more bites from roach/rudd before packing up.

It was a very satisfying few hours after such a long break and great to be back fishing.