May was a mixed month targeting various waters for different species where I caught good fish on all of them but no special ones, so return trips will be planned throughout the year.

The highlights of the month had to be my fourth place in the Drennan Cup, and the Arsenal trophy parade in North London which was an epic day.

My plans for June were Tench and maybe be a river trip to see in the new season.

As many of us do I now term the start of the fishing year as 1 April and really look forward to my Spring fishing, this year has started very well with a 4-03 Crucian on my second session in April and a first visit to Highbridge looking for a big Roach.

May had rolled round quickly and Julie and I were off on a planned trip on the hunt for a record Crucian 😊and I was really looking forward to that.

March was a much better month than most of the winter with some good barbel fishing with fish to 14-02 to finish the river season, Swan wrestling on Johnsons and a good start to Spring at Walthamstow with Bream to 12-05, with the highlight of the month picking up my new VW Transporter 😊

February was another month with not much to report other than a Feb Crucian to start my spring fishing early, the highlight of the month was paying a deposit on my new VW Transporter. I’ve always wanted one and it will be the first stage of my retirement plan, once I’ve done all the upgrades it will be perfect for fishing and all the walking and camping plans Julie and I want to make 😊

2026 had started very poorly for me with only two trips and both were blanks to start the year, I did some planning for spring and two venue recce trips so it still felt a productive month.

I hoped February would be better but with constant rain and flooding it wasn’t looking good.

December was a tough one, where despite a lot of effort I pretty much blanked all month with a last gasp 12-05 Barbel saving the day…

Xmas and new year came and went and unfortunately this year it was filled with illness and a lot of sadness with Julie’s dear mum passing away at home with her family on 7 Jan.

Fishing understandably took a big back seat, and Julie and I had some nice walks and reflective time together. I did get out a couple of times later in the month.