The first day of my fortnight’s holiday and I made an early start and headed for the Bickerley Mill Stream at Ringwood. On the way the roadside was heaving with rabbits and it struck me as how nature has changed since I was kid: then rabbits, if not rare, were recovering from misymitosis, sparrows were ubiquitous and perch stocks were low due to disease. (And to think I was churlish about catching small examples of old stripey last time out.) Anyway enough rambling, my hopes of winkeling a roach or chub out of the weed with trotted flake or crust, backed up with loose fed hemp, proved fruitless, I had two or three small knocks that could have been fish or more likely bumps against weed and saw a few fish jump. The common view is that Bickerley fishes better in the winter, but I guess it was worth a try for an hour or two ......