12th April, a full day at Alverstone Ponds saw the heavens open just after tackle up. If only I had put up my shelter first! I stood with the cover draped over me for about 15mins before it eased off allowing me to get the supports in and the mini bivvy up:

[I had come for Carp off the bottom this time and it wasn’t long before I’d hooked my first Mirror Carp of the year:

The forecast had mentioned the possibility of thunder and it started in the morning and continued on and off throughout the day accompanied by long showers:

Small Rudd to 4oz and Roach were hooked along with a couple of Dace. Later in the day I caught this little fellow, my first Gudgeon going a whopping 2 ½ oz:

15th April, no angling but we had a trip to Ventnor Haven to try the locally caught fish at their “Fish & Chip hatch” on the pier. I went for the battered “Rock Salmon” or Dogfish as we know it. No strong flavour but it was chunky and moist with no worry of annoying bones. Its definitely worth eating and too good for pot bait should you consider trying one that you catch yourself. The fish and chip wrappers had to grabbed when the Air Ambulance landed near the harbour to deal with an incident on the seafront.

During the week I spent some time replacing the rubber neck and cuff seals of my dry suit with neoprene ones. With the help of a traffic cone the neck seal was completed first. The cuffs had tins of sweetcorn stuffed down them to force the seal together. The job is done, it aint the prettiest of finishes, the glue gets everywhere, but they are sealed meaning I can now get out on the kayak when the fancy takes me. My thanks to forum member “sidewinder” for supplying all the bits and pieces!
Enough now and back to the fishing…………..
17th April, a day off  which was meant for some pier fishing to hook an early season Garfish. Unfortunately the predicted high winds and showers saw me abandon that idea and instead head for the Airport Pond at Lake. I had never fished this site before so didn’t know what to expect. I chucked out a float with maggot and bites weren’t too forthcoming. Adjusting the bait depth saw some interest and the first fish out was a 5oz Roach, this was encouraging. As soon as it went back the swinger on my Carp rod tripped and the tip nodded. Fantastic! With a boilie on this had to be a Carp, hopefully a good one. No this was tiny Carp. Well I thought it was until it came to the net. In fact it was a Roach weighing 12oz. Fancy that, taking a boilie. Blimey, I thought, the Roach here are psychos!

Well it went really quiet through the middle of the day but I was reluctant to leave my spot having been baiting it up for some time. My patience paid of with a good thump from this welcome 5lb 9oz Carp

Just before I had to leave the Roach came on the feed again so I had some sport with them but they were trickier to hook than other venues I have fished. The wind causing slack line problems possibly was too blame. Anyway this week has seen 3 new species for the year and 3 new personal bests so I’m happy.