What a 'topsy-turvy' month April has turned has out to be... The beginning of the month was ushered in with glorious sunshine & daytime temperatures topping 20°C, then subsequently followed by plummeting temperatures & snow the very next week! With all these unstable weather conditions & fluctuating temperatures, it will probably come as no surprise that my intended stalking plans have 'bitten the dust' in recent weeks. That said, I found it quite strange that I was unable to find more than a couple of fish during the spell of decent weather & I was extremely concerned that the canal carp were conspicuous by their absence. As is usual at this time of the year, a warm spell generally finds the canal fish grouping together somewhere & often it's just a matter of knuckling down & putting in the leg-work trying to locate them. I'm sure they won't be too far away...

My latest proper outing was during the third week of April where I attended the Black Country Carpers social at Stanwick Lakes in Northamptonshire for a full forty-eight hours - my first session for almost two months! As twenty five of us were fishing two separate lakes, there were only a handful of swims available on Elsons (the 'big fish' lake), whilst most of the available swims were on Mallard (the 'runs' water). Unfortunately, all the swims that I'd earmarked on Elsons went & by the time my name came out of the hat, there was only one swim left available. As it turned out, the clear water conditions coupled with the effects of the warm sun during both days meant the most of the fish were simply cruising around on the surface during the day & I rued my decision to leave my floater gear at home...