A definite for later in the season

Flushed by the success of the sausage roll rig, when it came to solving the mystery of the Village Pond, I decide to strike while the iron's hot and have a bash on another water.

The only similarity is it's not meant to have any pike in either, although I have heard some interesting snippets which suggest otherwise.

It's been blowing a gale for the last couple of days, punctuated by plenty of rain. The idea's to go and try a few swims out to suss out its potential for later in the season. I've also got a new bit of kit I want to try, before I splash out my hard-earned.

It's a fair old walk to the bit I fancy, especially with a dodgy foot. I'm travelling light, with just a couple of rods, net and a few bits and baits in the rucker. But it's still a good 20 minute walk to the first swim. Instead of fishing, I snick a lead on the trace clip and have a plumb around.

Struggling to find more than three feet of water, I move 20 yards or so down the bank and have another go. Slightly deeper, but I don't fancy the rocky banks with a bad ankle, so I hoof it another 20 yards to a grassy bank where I should be able to net a fish without any problems if I do hook one.

It takes a few casts to get the depth right, so the floats sit up as the wind tightens the line. For years, I used swan shots pinched on the trace when float legering deads. Earlier today, I popped in the tackle shop to get a tub and paid £1.80 for nine of them. So I also picked up some of the new Guru leads, which are meant to be shaped so they hold the bottom well. These come in three sizes - an ounce, two-thirds and a third of an ounce.

If these work out on the slightly-modified rig I have in mind, it may be bye bye swan shots. The two-thirds size seemed to anchor a pencil float fairly well in five or six feet of water, attached via a safety clip. After 10 minutes or so, the float on a rod baited with a mackerel bobs and keels over.

I wind down straight away but there's nothing on the end. I begin reeling the bait in, to see if a pike's picked it up or an eel, when there's a bump on the end and the bait's gone in a swirl. That'll do for today, I decide, as the first spots of rain fall. There's definitely pike in here. Roll on Autumn.