Hi guys....I'm sat in bed on a very lazy Saturday morning with some rather gloomy clouds outside the window and heavy drizzle. 

I feel like we need a really good storm to clear the air to be honest as it feels very clammy. In truth I'm suffering a bit with my mental health this last few weeks....there's a few reasons it's come about again but last weekend was the icing on the cake really. 

I had to take a few days away from the new job as we had a very serious incident to deal with at home. 

On the previous Saturday evening two idiots from a local village took it on themselves to set alight to the grass area above our land and it took hold very quickly burning it's way across a large area of the hill behind our property. 

The fire brigade put the fire out to an extent but by Wednesday afternoon it was again raging and heading towards our home and our small holding!  The brigade were quick to respond and 5 teams from the South Wales area came to our aid with a helicopter flown by a fantastic pilot. 

The fire raged on for a couple of days but Wednesday night we were up till 3am with hotspots flaring up continuously. I spent the whole evening up the hill with the brigade trying to help where I could but the damage that occurred was like nothing I've seen up here from fire in nearly 20 years. 

Very sad to think of all the plants and wildlife destroyed by what can only be considered as just heartless idiocy at a level beyond comprehension! I honestly don't understand what is gained in pleasure from an act of arson? Anyway, fortunately the scene is now quiet and after some incredible work from local fire brigade, friends and loved one's, we're all back to relative normality! 

Fishing has taken a bit of a back seat this summer since starting the new job....I seem to have almost no time to go out as I'm either in work or totally exhausted from the 11-12 hour days I'm putting in. I spend the whole week looking forward to going at the weekend only to feel too tired to go or lacking in motivation by the time the weekend arrives. I have a week off in about a fortnight so I'm going to make the most of that when it arrives and go out after some carp at a very special venue I have occasional access to.

I ventured out on my own for an evening chasing hounds about 2 weeks ago at a new mark I'd only fished once before with Chris and it fished very well! I used my usual prawn approach and put two rods out as far as I could hit and awaited the action. It came thick and fast with 9 landed and 3 lost! A great evenings sport! 

I watched a young lad and his uncle walk to the shoreline on my left as I just returned one of my fish and the young lad looked amazed! As I walked back to my other rod, I saw a good pull on the rod and another decent hound was hooked up. I beckoned the young lad and his uncle over and gave him the rod to play the fish. I introduced myself and helped young Charly land his first ever fish. He looked absolutely amazed when I we banked the hound and I told him he'd caught his first shark! Well done young man!

 About a fortnight ago I also took young Dan out for the evening again, this time doing some beach fishing on the coast near home. We met up with good friends Lee and my bestie Chris for an evening on the hounds. Dan had no idea what to expect other than what I had told him about the sport. We set up about an hour before low water and sent a couple of prawns out towards the horizon. 

Chris was first up and had a bite within minutes of casting out. A nice hound of around 6 pounds. As the tide turned all hell broke loose and it was nothing short of carnage for 3 hours of fishing! We couldn't keep a rod in the water and Dan had a great time landing no less than 9 hounds! 

I had a little play landing 3, Lee had 2 and Chris had 4! It was bonkers fishing on our side! The bites were coming so quick and and so often that we had numerous double hook ups! I think Dan had a good time....

He looked exhausted from pulling in so many fish by midnight. What great sport! The river season has obviously commenced too now but all I've managed so far is a quick evening session where I didn't see any barbel at all! It was a chub fest though with around thirty finding the net. Every fish was very skinny and most full of milt! I gave up eventually as there were so many chub I couldn't keep a line in the water long enough for a barbel to find the bait. Think I'll give it a few weeks for things to settle before trying to get amongst the barbel again. 

 

It's been a rather quiet few weeks on the fishing front here with almost nothing to talk about to be honest....I've been putting the hours in on my new job and there's pretty much zero spare time for anything other than eating and sleeping. 

Chris and I hooked up with another friend Steve for an afternoon/evening session at Marcross beach a few weeks back in search of hounds, The fishing was hard going and Chris had an eel and some dogs, Steve had a couple of dogs and I had my first hound of the year and a small ray. 

I also had a day out with 3 friends from work at Dyffryn Springs. One of the guys had only fished once before and we had a great day learning the very basics of casting, striking and fish care etc. 

We all had a great timer and everyone caught a fish or two! This last few weeks I've questioned my decision to change my career and go back into employment but in truth I'm certainly less stressed out than I was working for myself. 

The money is less but I'm just being more sensible about how I spend it and trying to gather up what I do have for the times I do have free. 

This being said, I had a trip back down south to a club lake that I caught a large bream from back in April a fortnight ago and after leaving work at 12.30pm I made the 3 hour drive down for a long bank holiday weekend. Things didn't go at all to plan and I hit holiday traffic which included some terrible driving and numerous accidents. I arrived at the lakes around 8pm that evening after a horrid 8 hour drive! I found the lakes very quiet with just 2 on for the night. 

I met a very nice guy who chatted with me until around 10pm before I set up for the night. This turned out to be unproductive and I awoke at 5.30am to the sound of splashing around in the margins and the inevitable spawning going on. I met up with the clubs fishery manager and we had a walk around the complex with my drone to do some aerial footage for the club. 

Very little showed up and it was concluded that there really is not very much in the entire complex to fish for. I went back to my swim and spent a night camping with the mindset of an early drive home empty handed. 

As predicted that was the case and Sunday was a quick pack up and return drive home to a family afternoon at the beach chasing smoothound. 

The girls came with me and we had a great afternoon with the dog and some family time searching rock pools and bathing whilst waiting for a smoothy to bite. The situation was that between 6 anglers fishing there were just 2 hounds caught all day, I had one of them and lost another. Things were very slow. 

Weekend just past was a similar event with Chris and I hooking up with Steve again at Marcross. We arrived at the beach to find a match in progress and nothing had been caught all day! Steve decided to stay till 3pm but Chris and I called time and walked back to the van to go try an alternative venue a half hour west. The venue was much choppier and despite finding a cracking human free area, we stood for 6 hours without so much as a nibble! 

Tough going all round at the moment with many carp waters closed due to spawning, the river season not quite upon us and the sea species not really inshore yet either! 

Slow pickings.....I have a long weekend ahead this week starting with an evening of Cricket on Friday at Sofia Gardens watching my local squad Glamorgan take on Yorkshire in the T20 blast. Then maybe a fish or two on Saturday or Sunday.....we'll see what happens!