After you read the title of this post you may well be wondering what happened, so let me explain....

I left work bang on 4pm and headed straight to Devon as planned, I completed the Journey in a little over 4 hours which isn't too bad going for a Friday night and before I knew it I was in the pub and knocking back the first of many beers. The inevitable last orders bell was rung but the party continued onto the beach, unsuprisingly I can't remember the finer details!

This pretty much set the scene for the weekend and before I knew it, Sunday morning arrived and I pointed the van in the direction of Oxford and flew up the motorway.

On arrival I was greeted by a packed car park as well as a busy lake. Pete arrived shortly after me and after a bit of cursing we headed off to another water on the complex to see if we would have more luck there.

You see, we have one of these trips every year......just a couple of nights away from our target waters to have a social and a catch up, the end result is always the same though, the lakes are always completely stitched up and we can never get on the fish so just end up camping and moaning about the bloke next door who thinks he has the right to put a bait anywhere he likes, oh the joys of day ticket waters! You would have thought we would have learnt by now!

We did however eventually find a quieter lake and we were soon set up in the same swims we fished last year, with fish showing in front of us it looked promising.

The day passed quietly and before we knew it it was time to climb into the bag and call it a night not to mention recover from the previous few days escapades!

I was awake at 5 am as normal, I fired up the Coleman for the first brew of the day and rolled a smoke. It was a very cold morning and I was the only person awake on the whole lake, the peace was fantastic......but it didn't last long! By 6am the vans started arriving in the car park and hoards of anglers started doing circuits of the lake. At about this point I noticed the fish activity in front of me had moved to the swim to the left of Pete so I quickly moved into there before someone else beat me to it.

As the day wore on the lake filled up and by mid day every swim was taken, spods flying literally all over the place, mallets thumping the ground not to mention people casting where they like! However the fish didn't seem to mind and put in a fantastic acrobatic display for most of the day so I rattled off a few snaps with the SLR, it really did look good for a take and we just couldn't understand why it hadn't done a fish whilst we were there.....to anyone!

By mid afternoon I took a turn for the worst and started feeling a bit crappy and definitely felt that I had the flu coming. We took this as an excuse to have an Indian to try and shift it, as nice as it was it didn't manage to do a thing and by late evening I literally crawled into the bag all the while wishing someone would put me out of my misery. I got no sleep what so ever that night, I was struggling to breath, banging headache and muscles I didn't even know I had were aching!

By 5am I gave up trying to sleep and fired up the Coleman once again before rummaging through my ruck sack to see if I had any pain killers, all I found was an empty packet.....typical!

As soon as it was light I started packing up just wanting to get home, I was glad I did as well as by 8am the spod & marker brigade started their bombing.....my nerves couldn't take anymore so headed for home.

I can never understand why people get their spods and markers out between dawn and 10pm then redo all of their rods, in my opinion this is prime bite time and surely it's best to keep the disturbance down to a minimum and if you need to thrash the water to foam do it after mid-day??!

So here I am sat at the laptop at home typing this up, "Lemsip" in hand praying to wake up feeling fine in the morning, with only a few days holiday left before I head back to work I've already loaded the van and will be heading down to the syndicate in the morning, quite a few of the "Big Girls" are due out so I figured instead of laying in bed feeling sorry for myself, I could do it under the Oval with a chance of a chunk too, I've already been to the chemist to stock up on drugs, no pain no gain eh?!

Hopefully I shall return in a few days feeling like a new man and with some good news,

Until then be lucky,

Smithy

Normally a Sunday would see me writing about my latest session on the bank, however because of various going ons in both my private life and work life that hasn't happened this week.

Because I'm on odd shifts at work for the next 5 days, today will see me sorting the gear out, preparing particles etc ready for the off straight from work at the slightly earlier time of 4pm on Friday.

I shall be flying down the M5 Clovelly bound ready to spend the weekend in the pub at various engagements and then on the Sunday shall be heading back up country to Oxfordshire to spend a few days chasing the "Big Girls" that lurk in the carpy waters.

The hemp is busy boiling away on the hob whilst I write this as I am preparing fresh batches of bait for the trip. I am always worried about particles going "off", I can't see it happening in this weather but being the over pre-cautious person that I am I have come up with a plan to keep them fresh whilst I am "busy" in Devon. The bait will be in the back of the van for two days before I even get to the lake, then will be on the bank for a further 3 days so I've decided to prepare the bait today and will keep it soaked in the hempy juices and put it into the freezer already bucketed. Then minutes before work on Friday will take it out and put it into the van with my theory being that the bait should be a solid block that will take at least 24 - 36 hours to thaw and still be cool, nice and fresh for my arrival in Oxfordshire.

I've taken no chances for this trip and have re-spooled my reels with the ever faithful krystonite. I absolutely love this line and to be honest I have no idea why I stopped using it at the end of last season, I'm guessing though as everybody who knows me personally will more than likely to tell you it's because I'm always looking for something better and a way to improve my presentation. Now I'm guessing a few of you are saying at this point "why use that? use ____?" Well I've tried them all and in my opinion this really does stand above the rest, it casts very well, sinks well although it states slow sinking..... it doesn't hang about and low visibility make it perfect for the angling situations I often find myself with anyway. I took all 3 reels up the "Beds Pit" last night and gave them a good chuck to bed the line in and it was fantastic, I'd forgotten just how good it really was and will be sticking with it from now on........and before you ask I have no ties with Krystonite whatsoever!

Boilie wise, I've just taken delivery of the usual FBI & Garlic aswell as some "Ninja" courtesy of Active Bait Solutions to keep them guessing, the very dark colour should give me a edge over the wariest of fish that inhabit the water and should also help combat any bird problems that I may encounter.

So for now I will sign off and continue getting myself sorted, hopefully next time I shall report back with news of a Oxfordshire lump!

Be lucky and enjoy the best time of the Carp Calender!

Smithy

After an uneventful but still very enjoyable session on the "Beds Pit" last week I decided to have a break this weekend and spend some time with the wife, which just so happened to involve a walk around a stunning little water I shall be spending the Winter on which is located in the Nene Valley.

My mind is still firmly set on the "Beds Pit" for the autumn, however once the temperatures drop and the frosts arrive the "Beds Pit" will be put to one side and I shall be spending the winter on the intimate Nene Valley Pit, there is nothing of giant proportions lurking in the water but all of the inhabitants are stunning and will still push the scales round to the low 30's so you can't really grumble at that in the depths of winter. Although saying that it's not the easiest of waters anyway so will still provide a nice challenge in the coming colder months.

Me and Trudi had a good walk round this afternoon.....walking off the 3 course lunch which we had just indulged in at an Italian restaurant! The water is crystal clear and the margins drop away nicely which will certainly suit my favorite method so fingers crossed I will have some winter action this year.

Last winter was a complete failure, the weather conditions were the worst I've seen in years, my syndicate at the time was frozen solid for over a month which always seems to be the way when you have 2 weeks off work!

Although when I did finally get on the bank I had it all to myself as most of the local lads had hung up the rods for the winter, I can never understand why people do that but then again laying under the oval in temperatures down to -10c is probably not everyones idea of fun, but I love it!

As I look out of the window whilst I write this, the leaves have changed colour and it certainly looks like Autumn is nearly upon us, this has to be my favourite part of the year as the carp begin to feed up ready for their winter slumber, so with a week booked off work from the 8th of October I shall certainly be hoping to have a slice of the Autumn action.

Before I go I must mention how impressed I am with my latest book purchase "The Forgotten Chapters" the writing and illustrations are absolutely mind blowing. I'm looking forward to spending tonight sprawled out on the sofa with a chinese and then continuing reading this fantastic book!

I shall be doing a bit of work over the winter making a few changes to the graphics on this website as well as the forum, so hopefully it will all look nice and fresh ready for the spring. I've also got a few ideas I'm hoping to put into action over the next few months so keep your eyes open for the changes!

That's all from me for now, if you're on the bank this week I wish you the best of luck and the hope the carp gods make your dreams come true.

Be lucky,

Smithy