With May ending with dull wet weather, our usual bank holiday week trip to Okehampton and a busy June have all conspired to mean this is the first time I’ve been fishing for a month. My plans to have Friday the 16^th off work were scuppered by my boss being away from work ill (how inconsiderate). Even this outing was brought about by the Chip of the old Block wanting to mark Father’s Day with a fishing trip so we arranged to meet Mickey Minnow in the Everton Grange car park at 4pm on a very hot Saturday. By the time we arrived, Mickey had already walked the lake and had established the lake was not fishing well and that basking carp were visible. We’ve fished Everton on hot days before and it is a venue where when you can see carp, as a general rule you cannot catch them! Also it appears that the established lake has been electro fished and only tench over 6lb and carp remain. The smaller tench (hang on is a five pounder a smaller tench then) have been removed and stocked in a newly restored lake that will open on 24^th June.

On balance we decided to give Everton a miss and moved on to a nearby club estate lake. Again carp were visible, as were shoals of rudd. Interestingly there were small perch shoaled up peacefully with the rudd, which goes against my understanding that even small perch form predatory shoals. The Chip caught a few rudd on the drop on sweet corn and had we had maggots no doubt we’d have had a field day. However, we couldn’t connect with any of the larger stuff despite Mickey having two ledger rods out and the Chip and I trying both in-line ledgering and the lift method. An unusual diversion (and a first for me when fishing) was a wedding party from the big house being serenaded with O Sole Mio on the far bank. We jacked it in at about eight and retired for a pint of Ringwood (well the Chip had coke) at the Royal Oak at Downton as the Chip had had enough by then, as had I in truth. Shame because with the temperature dropping the last two hours before dusk probably represented the best chance, but on balance setting out two hours later would have been the best approach. Lesson learnt for the next hot day!

GG