People are always going on about not having the time to make bait, and how expensive it is to buy readymades. But a spare hour or so a week is all you need.

I've gone back to an "old skool" attractor profile - mainly because I know that no-one else will be using it. It can work against you, because you have to establish the bait, rather than jumping on a "bandwagon" of using whatever everyone else is

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Peter Jacobs was the catalyst for my re-entry into the world of The Fly Fisher.

Having gleefully accepted his invitation to join his End of Season get together I then realised that the second day would be at Avon Springs Trout Fishery, Wiltshire.

I didn't take too long to decide to invest in some appropriate gear and suitably kitted out, I couldn't wait to get started.


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After making the bait the other night, I nipped out for a quicky last night. Then when I finished, I went angling

I popped down to Furzebray Lakes as I'm thinking of fishing it over the winter - it's important to see the lakes over the summer as you may not get to see fish movement on overnighters later in the year - you arrive in the dark, leave in the dark and if it's chucking it down with rain, you aren't going to want to sit outside watching the lake!

I bought...

With the weather and tides being all wrong, I wasn't able to get back down during the week, but with a mid morning low tide, it gave me the chance to nip down to dig some bait before going fishing.

Digging bait can be hard work, but this time of year the lug beds tend to be fairly full. Just look for the tell tale signs...



Someone else had obviously dug here before.... a few years ago!...

On a thread about how best to land barbel, Woody had commented on the fact that I'd yet to have my first barbel. He knows that my club have the Windsor Racecourse perimiter of the Thames with Boveney accross the river and of course the wier pool. There are few better spots to grab a barbel than there, so I have no excuse.

I thought to myself that he's right and I really ought to have had one. So on Saturday 8 August 2009 at 1pm, off I went.

It was a glorious day and...