It doesn't really feel like spring has sprung yet and although we had a freak sunny day on the Saturday I awoke to a steady drizzle on the Sunday of my session. Damn. With Follyfoot being such a zig and floater venue I was really hoping for some bright conditions! But hey, you gotta go when you can and conditions aside, I was really excited about the prospect of 24 hours fishing.

The change over time at Follyfoot is 12pm so I try and arrive at 1pm on Sundays to give the swim a bit of a rest. But today really heavy rain and bad driving conditions meant I didn't pull into the car park until gone 2pm. I'd originally booked into hut 19 in the far back corner of the lake but after meeting with the fishery owner it appeared that they'd double booked the hut! Double damn. Hut 10 was free though (which is my 2nd favourite on the lake) and after finding out from another couple of anglers that the father and son duo who'd fished in for the previous 24 hours had caught over 50 fish between them I decided to jump in there.

Despite the bleak conditions I decided to fish one rod on the bottom and two on zigs, the first being a couple of foot under the surface and the second at about 1/2 depth at around 6ft. I had plenty of different bits of zig foam soaking in pineapple liquid so I could try lots of different depths and colour combinations until I found one the carp liked.

The bottom bait rod went out to the left in open water below the power lines and the zigs at 6 wraps directly in front of the platform. Luckily for me, the zigs were cast at showing fish as three crashed in front of me while I was lining up the cast!

I didn't have to wait long for my first bite... I'd retreated to the hut to shelter from a shower of rain and was crouched on the floor tying up another zig when I noticed the tip on the right hand rod knock. Sometimes zig bites can be pretty finicky so I decided to pick up the rod and reel down... into a fish!

It quickly became apparent this was a decent carp as it absolutely steamed off, the fish clearly hadn't realised it'd been hooked. As I was only using 8lb zig line and a tiny size 10 hook I played the fish lightly and although it managed to tangle my other two rods I finally managed to slip what looked like a 20lb common into the net.

As it turned out, I was pretty lucky to get it in - the hook was virtually straightened out!

Amazing! What a start to the session! I didn't weigh the fish but it felt like a solid 20lb which is a good size for the venue. There was a big ol smile on my face as I slipped the fish back and I eagerly set about sorting out my tangled rods to get them back out asap.

Which is when the owner arrived at the hut and explained that it was actually hut 10 that was booked out and the angler was arriving at 8am the following morning! Triple damn. How's your luck eh?! They'd phoned the chap booked into 19 and he'd agreed to not arrive till 2pm on the Monday so that left me with a choice: stay in hut 10 and then upsticks early the following morning or move to hut 19 and leave an hour or so early....

Bugger. With such a good start to the session I wasn't overkeen to move but similarly I didn't want to move first thing in the morning and watch another angler bag up in my prebaited spots from the other side of the lake!

So I moved. Hut 19 has been really good to me in the past and as time was steadily marching on I really wanted to get myself settled and sorted on some spots before it got too late in the day. The good news was that the fish were out in front of me in numbers and judging by the reaction to a couple of spombs of sloppy spod mix, they appeared to be hungry!

I've done a lot of research about spod mixes for zigging and although you can buy off-the-shelf mixes from the big bait companies, they aint cheap... So after much experimenting, I've come up with a mix that creates a nice cloud and has a good selection of floating, buoyant, semi buoyant and slow sinking food items, all of which keep the fish feeding at different levels throughout the day.

Here's the shopping the list:

• Hemp and juice
• Liquidized hemp
• Liquidized white or brown bread
• Liquidized sweetcorn
• Sweetcorn
• Porridge oats
• Liquidized dog mixers
• Dog mixers
• Canned custard
• Canned rice pudding
• Enough lake water to make it sloppy but not overly watery

It's a pretty gloopy, sticky concoction but it appears to work everywhere I've taken it! And it's cheap too as nearly all the ingredients are in the saver ranges from either Tesco or Sainsburys, which is a good thing as the key to zigging and spodding is to keep the bait going in regularly - which means you get through a lot of it in an average day session.

After getting really pissed off with the zig float, I decided to plumb the depth and tied up some zigs at 8ft and 6ft for the right and middle rod while the left hand rod went out with a solid PVA bag of pellets. Due to the surface activity, I wasn't expecting much to happen on the deck until the evening so there was no harm having a sleeper rod baiting up a spot for later.

And it worked! The zigs really came into their own over the next 5 or so hours with multiple fish on both rods.

Although the first fish in the previous swim fell to a black and yellow zig, it wasn't until I switched to red in this swim that things really took off. The zigs kept producing well into darkness and it was excellent fun! I found that if the bites dried up, changing the depth of the zig by a foot in either direction and getting some more spod mix out would kick start the action again.

The bites finally dried up when it got properly dark at which point I switched all three rods to bottom baits, namely pink Scent From Hell wafter dumbells, a hookbait I've done incredibly well with in the past at Follyfoot. The left hand rod that had been cast regularly throughout the afternoon soon started producing bites and I had a good couple of fish before finally deciding to reel in and get my head down at 2am.

The weather conditions changed again in the morning to bright sunshine and strong winds which unfortunately completely killed the fishing. I had one fish off the bottom but apart from that, the bites dried up and try as I might, I just couldn't get them going on the surface. The last fish came out of the blue on the deck and was a bit of a surprise after such a quiet morning.

Annoyingly, the anglers who'd booked themself into hut 10 never materialised meaning I could've stayed put! Would it've been a better session? Who knows... After that initial fish and the fact that the previous occupants had over 50 fish in the course of the weekend, I guess it could've gone either way? As it turned out I spent the last couple of hours of the session back in hut 10 and although I did have one pick up, the fish just weren't in the mood at all. And not surprising as the cold wind whipping down the lake was sending white tipped waves into the far corner.

But hut 19 had been kind to me yet again: I'd loved every minute of the zig fishing (once I'd stopped using the zig float that is!) and with a decent haul of sizeable fish to show for my efforts, I was a happy angler. The only thing missing was one of the ornamental koi's that live in the lake - but it's always good to have a reason to return for another go ;)

True to form, the weather was predicted to be grim with a cold start and drizzly rain all day... Far out spring, what happened?!

Amazingly there were two other anglers on the lake so by usual standards, it was rammed! I decided to hedge my bets and set up at the far bowl end and fish the died back lily pads with a feeder rod. My first bite came pretty quickly and turned out to be one of the biggest fish I've caught from the lake - result!

Over the next couple of hours I had another three fish but as the rain settled in the bites completely dried up.

In the end I packed down around 2pm as it was freezing cold, chucking it down with rain and with nothing to show for a swim move I was just plain fed up!

Looking at the weather forecast shows that there's no change on the far side of the Easter break...

The weather continues to be a challenge and today was no different: misty, rainy, windy, cold but then brightening up later in the afternoon. The drive out of Bristol wasn't too bad and after a detour to Premiere Angling to pick up half a pint of maggots I started down the twisty turny roads towards the Hunters Rest Pub and the lake.

The mist had got so bad that upon arriving I couldn't actually see the lake from the car park! It was eerily still and quiet as I borrowed the gear through the fields (two nights in a bedchair and my back was shot, so no rucksacks on shoulders today...). Not surprisingly I found the lake was deserted...

I started about setting up the gear and it was then that disaster stuck: I'd reorganised my bag after the trip away, skimming it down to day session gear and although I'd packed two rods I'd somehow only packed one reel...

Aaaarrrrg. How incredibly annoying! After turning the air blue and working through every possible idea of what to do I decided to make the hour round trip home to get the reel... Just really, really irritating.

So after another long drive I arrived back at the lake at 11:30am slightly stressed out but this time with the right amount of tackle. My idea was to do a lap of the lake but as I arrived in the point swim I'd fished in my my last session a carp jumped close to the tree island... A good a sign as any that there were fish in the area! I wasted no time getting the feeder rod set up and baited with a ball of 12 or so red and white maggots. Luckily my first cast was on the money and I set about sorting out the ledger rod which I'd decided to fish close to the second small island, again with maggots.

I didn't have to wait long for a bite as the feeder rod rattled off ten minutes later. A nice scaley mirror was on the end, nothing massive but it was a start.

And then nothing happened for quite some time... I got badly snagged a couple of times and lost a feeder (work party task, clearing snags?). The weather changed with the mist burning off and the sun coming out occasionally from behind big fluffy clouds. The big problem though was a cold wind started blowing across the lake, strong enough that white capped waves were washing into the far bank... not ideal!

So after a few hours of no action I decided to up sticks and head round to the other end of the island. It would mean fishing head on into the wind but it would be worth it if I could locate some fish.

Twenty freezing minutes later another move was on the cards as although I'd had one aborted pickup on the ledger, there wasn't anything else happening. As the fish didn't appear to be on the end of the wind I decided to try the sheltered bank near my original peg. The water was flat calm and I fancied the idea of a bit of margin stalking.

One thing that I'd started doing since arriving at the lake was to prebait some margin spots. Having had a bit of a lead around on the last session I'd discovered that the margins were straight down from the bank side and pretty deep. As I'd loads of hemp and maise left over from my fishless overnight sessions I decided to bait three spots and headed over to the first of these.

Over the next hour I had loads of liners and one aborted pickup but nothing really happened. It was fun though, sneaking around and dropping a rig into a likely looking spot, I've a feeling that once it warms up (if it ever warms up...) the margins will be very productive...

Although it had been tough going so far the action really picked up for the last couple of hours. Maybe the island spot being rested made a difference but I picked off three fish in quick succession! But the real excitement came from the prebaited near margin spot to my right. As I'd been baiting with hemp and maise I changed my hookbait on the ledger rod to two grains of maize that I'd been soaking in pineapple liquid - super sweet!

The rod was placed by hand and walked back to the rests and it took about five minutes for the first bite to come... The bobbin hit the blank and the rod ripped off with a one toner - very exciting!

I managed two more fish from that margin before packing down, a smaller common and another bigger common that had got snagged on a broken line. Luckily I managed to untether it and get the line out of the lake but I decided not to photograph the fish as it was a bit of a struggle getting it in.

So despite the weather, the reel fiasco and the later than planned start it was another enjoyable session at Hunters Lake. Unfortunately I've only till the end of May to fish the lake as the Crosshands Angling Club have decided to drop their membership of the federation meaning the access to the River Avon is being dropped. As they've also dropped Ham Green lakes but not changed their tab price so club membership isn't really an option for me now.

So I'm on the hunt for another club! It's a shame as the Holiday Inn Lake, Hunters Lake and the River Avon have all been really fun to fish over the last couple of months. I was also very keen to fish Ashlea Farm but maybe I can sneak a session in there before my ticket runs out...

It's been snowing recently and with it all melting in a couple of days worth of rain, everything was pretty soggy... Arriving at the venue, I had a quick scout around before settling in swim 2. While I'd been watching the water from the entrance, several fish poked their heads out to open water and the swim also had the added feature of an inflow pipe to the right. At this time of year, oxygen levels are pretty low and any fresh water flowing into the lake is as good a draw as any.

As it turned out, the inflow swim was the only spot to produce a bite in the 24 hours of fishing! A clean common carp of around 12lb ripped off at 4am which saved me from a blank.

Despite moving swims and giving it everything, I just couldn't get another bite... However, I will return! The lake looks fantastic and with a good head of prime condition fish, I've a feeling that once we get into late spring and early summer the fishing will really pick up. Fingers crossed, there'll be another opportunity to head down to Furnace Brook Fishery before the summer is over.

With only one stop en route to pick up some maggots, I arrived at Hunters Lake at around 9.30am to find it completely devoid of anglers... I decided to settle on the on the 'point' swim and cast the feeder to main the tree island, with the 2nd rod being fished to the small island on my left with a medusa rig of 15 or so red and white maggots.

Amazingly, the small island rod ripped off after 10 minutes! The result was a fighting fit mirror carp of around 15lb which game an amazing account of itself on light gear.

The action was slow and steady throughout the day, with definite feeding spells where the feeder rod would produce a run of fish. I worked my way through a couple of common carp, a crucian carp (my first in over a decade!) and a decent size bream which baring in mind the time of year, wasn't a bad haul.

The day finished with a prime common carp which was in immaculate condition - not bad, not bad at all!

I'm already looking forward to my next session at Hunters Lake, I've a feeling that once we move into spring proper the fishing will really pick up and there maybe some monsters lurking... Watch this space!