mg: Fished the top 4 of my pole against the rushes where the lillies are starting to show. 0.6g pole float in about 2.5 feet of water, fed pellets, corn, caster and maggot. First put in resulted in a bite in a few mins later from my first tench of 2017 all 5 or 6 ounces of it. 5 small carp and 20 odd skimmers. Packed up before the bailiff came round so didn't have to pay for a day ticket either. :wh
Drove up to Tring this morning in a bit of a hurry as I was running late for the draw on an open pairs match. Got there in time and met my partner for the day who had driven down from Liverpool this morning, he left home at 1:30am
The event was spread onto 2 venues, both on the Aylesbury arm of the GUC, one angler on each venue. Luckily I chose the closer venue as upon arriving at the car park I realised to my horror I'd forgotten to bring my bag containing bait, flask, food etc
One hour round trip home and back and I arrived at my peg at 9:45 with the all in at 10:30 I had time to set up. This was when I realised cock up number two had happened. As I opened the tube holding my topkits I realised I'd bought the wrong tube, all I had was 3 carp power kits with 8,12 and 16 elastic
The air turned a nasty shade of blue as I kicked my self up the towpath.
My immediate thought was go home and stay home but I had a partner to consider so I set up with the 8 elastic and hoped I could get away with not bumping any fish off...
I then reached for my catapult bag and the lighter of the two was missing, I nearly cried, then to cap it all I didn't get a bite for the entire 5 hours.....
I tried everything to no avail...
TBH everyone struggled and there were other blanks too. Back at the pub I waited for my partner to arrive from the other venue and he'd struggled too weighing in just 6oz.
An expensive day out all told and definitely one to forget....
I am sure you will not take this the wrong way Steve, but it is reassuring to an old incompetent that even the experts struggle occasionally
Suddenly when I blank I am in good compay
The chaps that I could see on the opposite bank didn't seem to be faring any better either. There is quite a heavy weed 'problem' at the basin so I tend to fish with a minimum 3lb hook length, but out of increasing frustration [desperation?] I scaled down & finally I started to get bites; a slow succession of small roach followed, hardly any of them meriting getting the landing net wet [although I tend to net all but the very smallest as a matter of principle]. Then finally something a little more spirited & another candidate for the roach / rudd / hybrid discussion...
mg:
Just for you skippy I've awarded myself this little beauty.....
so I tackled up with a heavy waggler set nearly a foot over depth & cast into the wind but I was still being towed across to the left. Despite this, I managed a rudd & a small roach before blokey & his son decided to call it a day allowing me to switch to the 'manageable' peg 
Obviously it was a greedy (very) little perch, but hey. It was followed by a couple more slightly larger but still only an ounce or two. However the next dip of the float was met with a slightly more solid resistance & resulted in a scale-perfect, near 3/4 lb roach to balance the earlier rudd, not sure which one is the prettier...
Well the carp above is my new PB, 17 lb 7 oz, getting nearer to my target of a twenty pounder, perhaps this year, who knows.
A lovely day to be out, if anything it got too hot.it was a right suntrap, and out of the east wind it was really warm this afternoon, still dressed for the cool weather and it was a bit much.
Started on the float, close in hoping for tench or crucians, but only small roach,perch and skimmers, tried feeder nothing, so went back on the float, still only small fish, it was very bright though,sunshine and blue skies all day.
After a while I noticed a few carp cruising round on the top, so started throwing a few dog biscuits out,after a couple of hours there were a few taking the odd one, so kept on feeding them for another hour to get them confident,then I had a go, just casting to the fish that were taking them, first one was ten pounds six ounces, the next was the one in the photo, then a bit later I had another at twelve pounds exactly, so had three takes, hooked and landed all three, so,pleased with that, went back on the float after,to have a sit down, still just bits though, mick had a nice roach of 15 ozs, and bream to four pounds or so.
Fished from half eight till five, enjoyed it back on Thursday?
I had one major take which caused the quiver tip to move 45 degrees and which resulted in something large on the hook. Sadly as I played the fish it came into some weeds and I lost it. I suspect it was a carp but I didn't see it. It really was windy despite the sunshine. Another blank 