Another evening session on the River Loddon, this time I intended to fish a bit longer than my previous visit of two hours.

Dropped into first swim just before 7pm and moved at 8pm having not had a bite or any indication at all that there might have been fish around.

Second swim was a bit more productive - lots of small stuff tugging at the bait, scaling one rod down to a size 10 with small pieces of luncheon meat got me a couple of small Chub and a monster Gudgeon of at least two ounces! The onset of darkness brought a better bite, and a few minutes later a lovely Barbel of 9lb 8oz was on the unhooking mat.

Left this swim to rest for a while and tried a new swim about 20 yards downstream - first cast of my ledgered pellet under the overhanging branches of a tree produced a savage take from something. The something promptly shot off downstream and neatly wrapped my hooklength around a branch snapping the line at the swivel.

Moved back to the productive swim, cast out both rods and poured a coffee while I waited hopefully for another bite. Twenty minutes later, one rod hoops round and another Barbel is on, weighing in at 7lb 12oz.

Fished on until just before 1am, without another bite and decided bed was beckoning!

Short evening session on a new stretch of the river Loddon. Nearly missed first bite, on first cast as I wasn’t expecting anything to happen for a while. Felt like I had connected with something for a few seconds, before the line went slack, suspect it may have been a line bite.

Then had a suicidal Chub of about 8oz, followed by another just over a pound before my only really decent bite of the evening. The rod was very nearly pulled in by a very hard fighting Barbel of 7lb 5oz, caught on legered pellet. Packed up shortly afterwards as I wasn’t feeling very well, but went home quite pleased with myself!

My girlfriend told me recently that her Mum has 2 lakes (ponds) on the land they have here in Thailand. Originally used for water to help grow the crop her father grew when he was alive, they have since been pretty much left alone for more than 2 years, since the old boy passed away.

We took a trip over to the village this weekend so we could say hi to her Mum… nothing to do with the new water she had been talking to me about obviously! The first thing we did when we arrived in the village was to go take a look at the lakes. A short drive of about 1km down a small dirt road and we were on her land and at the lakes!

The first lake was a decent size of about 1/2 rai (800 sqm.) with a depth of 2 metres. Not large by anyone’s standards, but it’ll be fine for me to have the odd day on when we visit, which might be more often now This lake is the most beautiful of them all and has a few patches of lilly pads and is nicely matured. A quick look around and I could see a few small fry in the edges, but have no idea of what they are.

The second lake, double the size and immediately beside the first lake, covers an area of 1 rai (1600 sqm.) and is the latest addition. As you can see from the photo here, its nowhere near as mature as the first, but size wise its the largest.

Anyway, Sunday morning saw me driving to the local fishfarm where I purchased 350 fingerling Pla Nai (common carp) and 200 Pla Nim (a perch like fish) for the total sum of £3.00 and I was back down to the lakes late this morning to stock ‘my’ new ponds
All 550 fish went into lake 1, but it’ll obviously take time before they are ready to fish for, so I will be looking around for larger sized fish and different species to stock. Maybe a local commercial fishery is my best bet.

After we stocked these fish and did an hours work with machetes (too hot for much more!) we went to look at another lake on their land, which is smaller than the two here and totally overgrown. I’m sure it can be used for something though.

The 2 lakes come complete with ‘fishing hut’

We’re back next weekend for a Buddha day, so I might take a rod and have a chuck about to see whats in these lakes as a mate here reckons they might have some Snakehead fish in already. The fry will be gone by then if this is the case so I will need to re-think the plan if so, but for £3.00 I won’t complain!

30th June 2008.

Really wanted a catfish this year. First time I ever saw one was years ago when out fishing with my dad as a youngster. A guy round the lake (Tiddenfoot) was photographing his mate holding a 14lber and the image of it has stuck in my mind since. This year it was time to catch one myself.

So I went to Claydon which is about 13 miles from home. Really lovely night, full of enthusiasm, only two other guys (fishing together) there when I arrived (about 5ish).

I got the impression that the most cats came from the far end of the lake, so I went straight up there this time. It’s shady there so I think many of the cats hole up there during the day. The guys on the
other bank were fishing across to the trees, so I stayed along the bank a little way and fished one rod out into the middle, and one in the margins thinking when the cats came out in the evening they were
going to along my bank.

Had a double-figure (unweighed) carp about 30 mins in, then nothing for ages. 9.30pm had a short but aggressive pull that was dropped. Could have been a carp but thinking it might have been a cat I took
the bailarms off to give the fish a free run. Only had 30 mins left at this point because packing up time is 10pm at the mo.

Bloke on the other side of the lake had a 31lber!

9.55pm (!) a fairly gentle take which I struck and initially thought nothing was there. Then it moved. And then it woke up. And then it tried to break my arms!!

Very pleased I am at this moment. First catfish, 18lbs 12oz or there abouts, this being from a lake that’s a real favourite of mine. Also, these cats came from Woburn Abbey originally, which were the first cats to be imported into this country. So you could say they are as native as you are likely to find in this country.

Bait was double halibut boilie (thankyou Mr. Rich and Mr. Worth) on a hair, fished in a PVA bag of halibut pellets.

I hate the miserable English depressing rain. Especially as I lost my fishing umbrella last week, along with rod rests. I must have left them on the bank. Ho hum. Strange, if I was about to go trout fishing the thought of rain wouldn’t trouble me one bit - so maybe I ought to go trout fishing? But that’s a waste of good coarse fishing time…But it’s raining. Got it! I’ll acquire a new umbrella!

Had a lovely morning on the Kennet at Newbury, trotting red maggot for a mixed catch of Dace, Roach, Gudgeon, Trout, Grayling, and a very nice 4lb 7oz Chub. Apart from a couple of showers, it was a very pleasant morning to be waist deep in the river!

On the Thames: a short session on the Thames at Chertsey Bridge yesterday resulted in a blank and the other session at Bury Hill is documented here: http://www.ukfishingworld.com/index.php/fishing-articles/punting-on-the-old-lake.html

Test blog for Geoff…

Spent a few hours on a Thames weirpool yesterday. I spotted a carp of about 10lb in the margins and spent about 2 hours trying to catch it but to no avail. Eventually I gave it up and went to spend the last couple o0f hours on the backstream, a slow, meandering stretch of water that looks like it could hold some very good fish. Result was one eel - a biggish one though at 2lb 4ozs

Might as well put something then as the blog now appears to be up and running !

Had my first visit to the river Blackwater on Tuesday evening, fished for a couple of hours, legering pellet. Only bite of the evening after about 15 minutes - result an 8lb 10oz Barbel. Didn’t have another proper bite after that, couple of knocks but nothing significant.

Very pleased to catch on my first outing to a new venue!