And now for something completely different....!

The forecast wasn't good. Brisk Easterly winds were set to make things difficult yet again...

Rather than sit indoors waiting for the winds to abate, and not fish, I formulated another plan.

Being the allrounder that I am, I had a hankering to do some Coarse fishing for Tench, which is almost as nice a way to while away a summer evening as Fly fishing for Bass. So snatching the opportunity I purchased a ticket for My local lake, which is only a few hundred yards away from My front door.

The Plan was to Float fish for the Tench on reasonably light balanced tackle, but with the chance of the odd bigger Carp putting in an appearance I couldn't go ultra light.

I settled on using a 13ft stepped-up Match Rod, 6lb mainline to a 5.2lb flourocarbon hooklink and size 12 hook. This would hopefully be a versatile enough set up to provide reasonable sport with smaller species but give me a fighting chance should something bigger come along!

I have fished this venue for many years and know it quite intimately, so locating where the target fish where was quite easy, but avoiding the Carp in the lake proved to be a bit more tricky!

I caught some very nice Tench to over 5lb, Roach to well over 1.5lb, and had 'nuisance' Carp to 24.14lb (a float- caught personal best),that really tested the tackle I can tell you!! But it just goes to show what can be done with carefully balanced tackle.

Whilst it has been an interesting and fruitful diversion, of course I really want to be out on the coast chasing Bass on the Fly, and save the best of the Coarse fishing for the Winter months, so as soon as possible I'll be back out there making the most of it and hopefully catching plenty of

Bass and other species.

A lovely Summer Tench (Above)

The 'Nuisance' 24.14lb Carp!