Spring 2026

 Introduction

I'd already caught two fish. One modest example and one very big one. Both very powerful, the second one in particular. Prolonged physical fights. I was down to one rod and shortly after I had put the very big fish back my bobbin did a kind of staccato movement which was fairly normal, the previous two had done the same before absolutely tearing off. 

Whatever was mouthing my bait didn't tear off but I was fairly sure it was hooked and I picked the rod up and leaned into it. Sure enough, I was met with solid resistance. It didn't feel very big initially and I vividly remember thinking to myself I wouldn't mess about and give it maximum pressure from the off to try and get it in quickly.

I wasn't fishing very far out and I'm not particularly prone to exaggeration but I swear within about thirty seconds of deciding to show this fish who was boss with a stout rod and thirty pound line it was closer to my pals on the neighbouring lake than it was to me. It was a beast and determined to get away.

That dear reader is a hook and tease. Before we get to that story I have other remarkable things to tell you about....

Walthamstow

It had been a while since we had visited east London. Members of our online specimen group SHUK were granted access to Walthamstow reservoirs one and two. Surprisingly there were only eight takers and as such we decided to not have a draw for pegs and just meet up as we'd all have plenty of room. Three of us chose to fish one while five were on two. 

I chose an open area just off an island and baited heavily with groudbait, pellets and corn. I'd been given a massive bucket of floating pellets that I had ground up and added some binder. My mates are some of the loveliest people you could ever meet but they won't be offended when I tell you they won't be troubling MENSA for membership anytime soon. They insisted my groundbait would float. I still don't know whether they were joking or not but what I can tell you is that I had nobody fishing downwind of me.

Anyway, I had to wait until nearly four in the morning for my first bite. The fight was woeful but I'd got my target species and it was a lovely fish...

11lb 6oz

I followed that an hour later with a new PB.....

14lb

Despite topping up my spot a few times I had no action during the day and had to wait until almost the same time the following morning to add another...

13lb 2oz

An hour or so later I had another....

12lb 10oz

James Hunt was next to me and he found it fairly slow going too. He managed a couple of carp and three bream. Strangely he had a couple of nines before he got his prize...

12lb 12oz

Behind me was our old friend Nick. He wasn't in the best area but plugged away and had a couple to show for his efforts including this magnificent example...

14lb

Our youngest member Joe was the star of the show. He had an almost unbelievable twenty one double figure bream.....

His biggest 14lb 2oz

He also had a 7lb 12oz Tench. Remarkable fishing and all those double figure bream were over his previous PB. Joe had caught from the start and at one point early on he was visited by specimen angling superstar and bream expert Dai Gribble to ask him about his tactics. A testament to Joe's abilities. 

In case you missed it and I have been asked before- What makes Dai so good? He's inquisitive. I've fished with him a bit and he always takes something away from his time with other anglers. It is also a reason why I claim to not have a clue what I'm doing when he asks me anything, which to be fair, sometimes I don't. 

Dai had a a lot of bream, not as many as Joe and suspiciously only started catching after roughing him up, er, I mean asking him politely for advice. It included the best fish of the trip....

15lb 3oz

Next up is Nate Green who had undoubtedly the nicest carp of the trip...

20lb + common

He also had a couple of bream one of which was just under his PB of 12lb 8oz so he strolled over to Joe's peg for last knocking and had this...

12lb 12oz

Last but not least was Mike Lyddon who had several bream three of which were over 14lb...

14lb 6oz

That's only seven I hear you cry? Andy Loble joined us mid session and slotted in an unfancied peg just to be sociable. Next time Andy. Incidentally I'm not saying Andy is posh but who do you know that brings a Charlie Bingham ready meal to a BBQ?

Local action

Back to Lincolnshire now and I heard one of my local venues had been restocked with a few carp over twenty pounds. Those as well as the resident catfish piqued my interest. True to form I had plenty of carp, absolutely none of which were over twenty pounds. As I write this I've caught over twenty carp from there and haven't managed one over the target weight yet. Here are some of the better ones...

The catfish were irritating me. Like most big predators I suspect they feed ravenously before laying up for a while. I'd had a couple of blanks before they switched on. I started off with a kitty of around 17lb...

And then early that same morning I had a better one....

27lb 4oz

Now I had been winding the carp rods in at night and just fishing for cats but on my next visit I decided to put a cat rod out early in the evening while it was still light. Within half an hour it tore off. There wasn't much weed in the lake at the time but this fish charged into every weed bed it could find. It gave me the right old runaround before finally sliding over the net. They really are impressively powerful....

44lb 2oz

I had a couple more small ones after that but I reckoned the 44 was probably the biggest of the residents so was happy to leave them in peace for a while.

And that was pretty much it for my spring fishing although I did get the boat on the sea and caught several smooth hounds upto around 9lb. I have to say though, it was rough. Rough enough for me not to bother again.

Queasy

One of many

Linear

Whoever said a bad days fishing beats a good day at work was lying. 

Oxfordshire is a long way from Skegness. The draw time was arranged for 9am which meant a 3.50am alarm call. I travelled over with Nick and met the rest of the group. There were twelve of us on a lake exclusive booking for three nights. 

I have a brief but checkered history with Manor Farm lake and I knew I really needed to be in the top half of the draw. I came out eleventh. That disappointment was the start of a rather embarrassing meltdown. I had a plan B of going off to fish for cats on another lake but it wouldn't have been very sociable. So I barrowed all my gear to the far end of the lake to fish the lifebouys swim on Manor. It took three trips. 

A lot of work had taken place since our last visit and it soon became apparent my chosen spot had been designed for a different climate and seemingly a different pastime. The mercury was creeping towards thirty degrees and there was very little shade. I had my gear in three or four partially shaded spots trying to keep cool. As the sun moved the shade all but disappeared. I couldn't find a clear spot, Nick kindly helped with that. My spomb mix went knarly and I was overheating. With my stuff all over the place, under logs and in stubbly stingers I started to slip into a slightly delusional tantrum. It wasn't edifying or pleasant and yes, I'd have rather been at work.

Eventually I calmed down and gradually started to pull myself together. Remarkably I felt happy with my baited area and rigs so set up my shelter on some fairly uneven roughly cut foliage. Not ideal but would be partially shaded early in the morning. 

The first night I had two cat rods and a carp rod out. At 2am I had a screaming take and my initial bleary thoughts were it must be one of the cat rods. It wasn't. I lifted into my unseen foe and it felt slightly odd before locking solid. I heaved from every angle and after some time and a lot of walking backwards I managed to free it and brought my rig back minus the fish.

That was the only indication I had for the next twenty four hours. I snapped one of my spod rods which did nothing for my enthusiasm but the one saving grace was the fact I had Nick and Dai next to me and we had a couple of lovely BBQ's. On the second evening it was a whole group affair....

Si, Martin, Coops, Nate, Gareth, Me, James, Dave, Nick,Oz, Dai, Matt.

That second night I had three carp rods out. Sure enough around 2am I had another take. Again quite odd, I never really felt any resistance and it locked solid again. This time I lost the rig and somehow my other rod on the spot had become tangled and I lost that too. Word around the lake was that they may have been a fish trailing line. An hour later I had another 'take' and another snag and another lost rig. As I tried to get some sleep I promised myself I would put up with this debacle not a moment longer than necessary.

I woke around 7am and decided to move. Not pegs but lakes. I still had one cat rod intact and some bait. It was a big effort but at that time it was still fairly cool. By the time I had moved from the far corner of one lake to another it was around 10.30 and the temperature had risen to unbearable again. My new spot was paradise though. A semi-circular beach like swim shrouded by mature trees and shrubs. Almost fully shaded and supremely comfortable. 

Dai had given me some tips and I set about baiting my spot. I put a lot in and by the time I had two baits out it was past midday. As I sat there I looked at my rods, one 5lb spod rod and one 3.25lb carp rod. Both with my cat reels though loaded with 30lb Big game line. It wasn't right and I needed some water from next to the shop anyway so I wound in and wandered around to see if they had any suitable alternatives. 

A short time later I returned with two shiny new rods. Daiwa Black Widow 12ft in 4lb test curve. It was an outlay I could have done without but I was a lot happier when they were on the pod.

I didn't have to wait long for the first fish. Typically it was a stubborn fight but no real dramas and I had my first fish of the trip in the net. 

28lb 4oz

Some cats are a bit messy. They eat a lot and ergo they deposit a lot. So A quick change of clothes and recast later I sat back to enjoy my surroundings, happy to have just caught something. 

My next bite came fairly quickly and it became apparent early on in the fight this fish was substantially bigger. The initial run wasn't far, maybe thirty yards but it stubbornly hung out there, refusing to come any closer. The Black Widows were coping well but with shrink wrapped butts I had no leverage, to be precise I either had leverage or testicles, not both. I nestled the too thin butt just above my pelvis and walked backwards as far as I could before shuffling forward to gain some line. It worked and slowly but surely the cat came back towards me. Eventually I managed to net it and called for some help. I had called James but he was away at the local supermarket. Luckily the next closest on Manor, Coops, came around to help. It wasn't a PB but it was close.

82lb

Tired but happy

With two nights of broken sleep, an arduous move and a couple of battles I was starting to feel a little weary. The observant among you will realise I still had a rod out on the spot. After Coops had gone sure enough I had a take on that rod. Here's your opening story. It wasn't like the other two. The bobbin just jiggled up and down, like it was trying to eject the bait. As previously reported I leaned into it and prepared to bully it all the way in. I was tired. It wasn't.

It charged off with quite spectacular dogged power. The fish steamed straight through one thick weed bed and just carried on. Coops was back in his peg on the adjacent lake by now and I reckoned the fish was closer to him than it was to me. A second tranche of weed slowed it enough for me to gain some kind of control. Following the previous fight I repeated the same routine. Lock the rod and walk it backwards before slowly gaining on it. Fortunately for me James walked around mid fight to see if I still needed help. I remarked at this point the chances of getting it in weren't great. The line had gathered a lot of weed but it had little effect on the cat who was still powering all over the place. 

My new rod and heavy line stayed the course and the ever brilliant James paddled into the margin with me to help with the netting. It took a few attempts but we finally got it safely in the net.

New PB at 99lb

I can't thank James and Coops enough for their help but that was me done. As I sit here now I could catch them all day but the trip had all its tribulations and effort caught up with me so I had a much needed snooze. I even offered my peg to the others, that was my frame of mind. What a fish though. My biggest ever and a wonderful memory.

I awoke around teatime and put a bit more bait out before casting in again. A visiting Andy Loble came round and we had a nice chat in the evening sunshine. The alarms remained unusually quiet. After Andy departed and with the light fading my left hand rod did the usual. A quick jerking of the bobbin before tearing off. 

39lb 6oz

Before I could recast the other rod railed off. Another quite fraught fight in the now inky black night ensued. 

51lb 8oz

Again, this seems odd and it's certainly not anything I can remember doing before but I decided not to fish on. Sleep was more important to me than catching anymore cats. A privileged position to be in but I've had red letter sessions before and they happen so infrequently I always try and make the most of them. I'm reasonably fit, incredibly strong and some would say unfairly good looking but I needed uninterrupted rest.

The next morning I cast both rods out again and they both went within an hour. The first was another titanic battle that resulted in this....

81lb

The business end

Of course as soon as that magnificent creature was safely returned my other rod tore off.....

45lb 8oz

Once again, I had time to recast, plenty really but I decided to call it a day. I wanted to try and dry all my gear out, have a leisurely pack away and have a shower before getting in Nicks van for the long journey home. My friends were kind with superlatives, calling it the greatest move they'd ever witnessed. I was certainly very happy just to have experienced it. As ever in fishing all the disappointments paled into insignificance as I rode high on the feeling of achievement. 

Manor fished typically hard and I heartily concur with the mantra of life being too short to fish for carp but here are some highlights from people with far more patience than me......

Gareth with a 35lb 2oz Mirror

James 31lb Common

Dai 38lb 

Martin 31lb 4oz

Matt with a 7lb 6oz Tench

Back to reality

Nick in his ever pessimistic demeanour had advised me joining a waiting list for a tidal Trent fishing club ticket was a waste of time due to the length of time it would take to get accepted. Luckily my optimism stopped me from taking any notice of him and sure enough I got a ticket in the late spring. So far I've had three trips with just one modest barbel to show for my efforts. It has been very hot though and the river, even the tidal has been in poor form so I decided to go elsewhere. 

I still needed three carp over 20lb for my annual SHUK competition so with my local proving stubborn I reluctantly headed back to the caravan park. The old bailiff was lovely. His replacement not so but it had been a couple of years and I decided to give it a try. I've been three times and not had any unsavoury encounters yet so I'll keep plugging away as there are some nice fish in there.....

22lb 4oz

Catch Cult

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till next time.........