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Got out for a night over the bank holiday. The syndi is closed for spawning so I visited a day ticket down in the Nene Valley. It was absolutely rammed as one might expect given the timing, but I managed to find a few carp in a quiet corner. It was dead hot, so I flicked a couple of zigs out just under the surface. It was clear the carp were just sunbathing, so I was expecting to have to wait for the sun to drop behind the trees for any action. So it proved with a take around 19:30 which resulted in a lovely grey linear. Onto the deck for the night and I realised I had a problem – I’d forgotten the spod rod! I found one of those Wolf X-Spod jobbies in my bag (bought it ages ago and never used it) and bodged it onto one of my carp rods. It worked a treat…. those X-Spod thingys are great! I put 2 on the deck and left one up in the water. At 02:30 I was away off the baited spot and a nice little cricket bat common was landed. Re-did the rod and 04:30 saw an awesome chestnut linear landed - worth a pic this one. Photo’s done, I was half expecting that to be it but at 09:00 the zig rod went. It kited to my right past several other anglers and the hook pulled when I over-gunned it trying to stop it. Still, a good sign. In come the rods on the bottom, zigs on all of them, and back out they go. About 10:30 I get another take and another cricket bat common is in the net. I planned to stay a bit longer after that but as the heat increased, I decided I was happy with what I’d had so called it a day. A great little session in the end.

That's what happens now on dinton pastures i think, they close for 4 weeks or so once the spawning starts. The other lakes I had tickets for had a similar policy. In fact I have kept one ticket for a lake in colne valley. Took me years to get the ticket after being proposed and seconded by a couple of mates who were members, so I may return to it one day.

Absolutely right the Pike go first then Perch so their offspring can predate on the later arrivals - very clever isn't it. 😎 Fished a few waters through the Nene valley and they all seem to spawn Late June maybe into early July, not sure if it's a depth/temp thing, the small stockies may well go for it early but the better fish seem to wait longer. On these particular fisheries closing for a few weeks once they actually start spawning works OK but not if they choose to start when the tiddlers go first. If it were my choice I'd ignore the tiddlers and close for 3-4 weeks once the proper fish start. Tough to get it spot on every time, I saw one of the big girls spawning early Aug, just that spawn bound fish and a few males - mad sight.

I think the March 15th til June 16th was because you have different species spawning at different times. Correct me if I'm wrong but the pike and probably perch spawn first early spring so that their young then predate on the fry of the fish that spawn later so the time scale was to hopefully cover all the spawning of all the species. Always certain lakes that buck this trend . My old lake dinton pastures white Swan lake nearly always spawned a week or 2 after the season opened on June 16th and the anticipation was something I looked forward to. Used to spend the close season pre-baiting, sorting gear out, rigs etc. Maybe the odd day ticket session but everything geared towards the opening night. You had to do a work party if you wanted to fish opening night and the draw for your peg was a buzz. I obviously don't fish Freshwater now but if I did i certainly wouldn't bother me if the close season was to return. When dinton scrapped the close season the fishing that first spring was insane to the point that a fair few members literally only fished it for the 3 months of what was the close season each season after that because it was so hard the rest of the season.

Just enough to redecorate the house plus new soft furnishings and a few bob left over to go towards a bit of summer pocket money, was thinking a holiday but she is still having ops so not much point, plus the prices for UK holidays are shocking.

How you getting on with it? My Trakker bucket is a perfect fit, the Ridgemonkey bucket has little tabs in the corners that prevent it going upto the rim. Planning on putting my front bag on top - first trip using this starts Thursday night 😎👍

New bucket holding front barrow bar (left) to replace existing (right). Not only is this a great idea they've fixed the 2 things my mate and I were discussing previously, too high and shelf not as low as it could be. Might help me to get round without tipping over (live in hope) 🤣

Having just got back from a blank night on the park lake, the boy and I were unloading the car when a neighbour came up and asked me if I was interested in rehoming some “old” reels and bits that she was about to chuck in the bin. I said I’d have a look, after all, I could clean them up and find a home for them (or bin them myself!) so she soon returned with 3 diawa windcasts z5000 reels, spare spools still in their boxes! One has a bent handle, but they are otherwise pristine! she also gave me half a dozen fox single sticks and a pair of what appear to be fox micron M shaped (they’re copies) alarms! She wouldn’t accept a penny for them either. the alarms will be checked that they work and I’ll gift them on to a youngster in need of a first set, the single sticks have been snaffled by the boy and the reels already have a home on my spare carp rods… just need to repair the 3rd. anyone know much about the windcasts? They seem lovely reels from what I can see.

I remember Rod Hutchinson giving a taped interview on I think his Woldview fishery. He said that the smaller carp go for it first, and the big girl would not be among them and actually avoided the warmer water until she was ready which was mid to late June. I've seen on our lake it is the younger stock fish that start the spawning motions long before the original fish, and don't necessarily use the same 'year in-year out' spots of the original fish. This year so far the dam wall was the spot, last year it was halfway along by the rushes, yet the original fish use the shallows by the island. Going back to Hutchy, he caught the big girl in the last chapter of The Carp Strikes Back (reprint) in August from memory and she was shedding spawn in the landing net, so what should have been his first 40 was 39 something. I used to think that it was temperature only, but the number of times I have seen carp start to spawn around a specific date (late May), even if it is cold, and then go again once it is warmer is pretty regular, so I am sure daylight hours has something to do with it. Even pike will go at a specific daylight hours if the water temperature is low and go again when it reaches optimum. I was on my syndicate this year watching them go first week of March, then mid April they were in a mates swim winding him up bumping lines and spawning. Totally, predators before the silvers, and no fish spawn or small silver fish are safe when the predators are eating them. Big pike bursting into a pack of roach or perch to grab a fish, or even grabbing a mouthful of fry. I do and don't on the closed season. I used to hate the Easter holidays as I couldn't fish, but it gave everything time to recover, birds to nest, banks to regrow and fish to spawn, yet proper spring fishing after the cold and wet of winter...

12 weeks garden leave and then I got made redundant 2 weeks before covid hit and lockdown happened. You would have thought after 23 years they could have furloughed me and then Made me redundant. 25k redundancy later and a new job in July on more money I think I won. 👍👍 the MD who made me and the others redundant was made to resign or get sacked 18 months later. just checked he has done 4 more jobs since “leaving”

I caught my first/ last fish just before lockdown around the 20th March first session back and caught my first after lockdown 18th May I had a 10 fish hit and the next morning whilst sitting in my bivvy, I got a call from my boss telling me I might be on a short list to be made redundant. That was a week after my dad's funeral. So it sticks in my mind a bit. I'm all for a shut down post spawning but 3 months feels excessive to me.

There was always an air of anticipation on June 16th (usually followed by disappointment ) I think it should be re introduced but as a floating shut down once any of the species starts spawning then close for the 3 months not just carp. Nature would also appreciate it. think back to covid everyone was gagging to get back to it thats how it felt way back when. and from memory it was March to June

I personally think the closed season is an outdated concept and shouldn't be reinstated. What I would like to see is fishery owners being more responsible and closing once they spawn and remain closed for a month or so to give the fish some recovery time. I think media is better in many ways, you can learn what you want, find out about products you might want and ignore the rest.

Check out temu, I just picked up this bad boy for £22.96 I've been waiting for the right deal on this for ages and they knocked off £11 for me. And it's got lid ice packs.

I was fishing last weekend when a mother and her son he must have been 12 ish turned up to fish the nx swim the wind had got up and they were struggling to hold onto the bivvy and put the pegs in, the ground was solid I popped over and between the 3 of us got it pegged down I mentioned bringing a mallet nx time, the granddad turned up late afternoon and brought them a pizza and gave me one as a thank you The gesture made up for a iffy trip 👍