Heavy morning rain put a chill in the air this weekend, but by the afternoon the sun had come out and I nipped down to my local Jeanes Pond at Braybrooke Park for a couple of hours. Being Saturday, I expected to see a few others fishing, but all the swims were unoccupied and with a choice, I opted for peg 18 out of the wind. There was no surface activity and guessed that bites might be at a premium.

Fishing by 3 pm, my swim was already in shadow and decided that it was time to leave my heavy 2g pole rig antenna float in the box and put on a x14, 0.4g antenna to a size 18 barbless hook. I plumbed the depth over the drop off four metres out at four feet deep, setting the float a few inches off bottom. Casting in the float with a 5 mm pellet of bread, saw no response to the bait and I plopped in a small ball of plain white liquidised bread and recast through the cloud. A few minutes later, a fine ring radiated from the antenna, then another. The crumb had activated interest. The antenna raised and lowered fractions of an inch, then slowly sank. The strike made contact with a small rudd, which I swung in.

By no means a monster, but at least it was a fish. Casting over the area again saw a repeat, the fish were slow to come on the feed today, it taking more minutes for the bite to develop enough for a strike and another small rudd.

The bites were really slow and I missed a couple after the float had sunk out of sight and assumed that the 5 mm pellet of bread was too big, going down to a 4 mm punch.

This brought more positive bites, the rudd giving way to roach as the fine crumb settled on the bottom.

I damped down the crumb to form a firmer ball that fell quickly through to the bottom. Sliding the bulk shot closer to the hook and adding to the depth brought instant bites as the rudd were bypassed to where the roach were waiting. Some were of a decent size.

A small ball of feed kept the bites and fish coming, again nothing big, but they kept me busy.

More time may have brought better fish into the swim, but the weather was already changing with the wind blowing leaves from the trees, while the blue sky was full of scudding black clouds and I packed up at 5 pm.

It was already getting dark and needed the flash on my camera for this image, reminding me that the clocks would be going back later to usher in true winter time.

It was already spotting with rain as I walked back to the van and lashing down by the time that I reached it. Pulling open the side door, I piled my tackle and trolley inside, then rushed for the shelter of the driver’s seat. Headlights on, the roads were awash . Winter has arrived.