It was a bit of a slow start - there were 6 riders today which can sometimes take a bit of getting going but we headed off around 9ish. The moment we transferred from the road to dirt I remembered I'd not aired down my tires so after a quick hop off bike to let some air out we disappeared into the forest.

Which is where things started getting interesting... Wyane's bike (anther DRZ400) started playing up, cutting out and being a pain to start. Then Ian disappeared down a hole and hit the dirt and Wayne, who was following behind, grabbed a handful of brake and also ended up eating the dirt, smashing his phone, left barkbuster and rear left indicator in the process...

So we set off again but it quickly became apparent that things really weren't going well: Wayne's bike eventually died and refused to start and it appeared that something wasn't good with Ian's wrist as it had started to swell and was pretty painful.

Eventually Matt towed Wayne back to the bitchumen and we had a bit of a conflab about what to do. In the end the broken DR was left at a random house we found. Ian rode out on the back of Steph's bike and Wayne drove Ian's Yamaha YZ450 back to the car park with the plan being to hire a trailer and come back to pick up the bike!

It was only 11am and we were down to 3 riders - Luke, Matt and myself. To be honest, I was all for writing it off and heading home but luckily Matt and Luke's resolve was better than mine and off we went again...

...and I'm so glad we did! The next 3 or so hours were fantastic fun, the highlight being Luke's shortcut: an completely overgrown track with fallen logs and other obstacles to get over, loads of fun.

The other thing I'd brought along on the ride was my GoPro. It's been sat in the camera bag since returning to Australia so I figured it was time to dust it off and give it a go. Although I shot about 20gb of footage only 5 minutes or so were usable! There's clearly a learning curve to shooting interesting footage on a dirt bike... I leant some lessons though, namely to wear the camera higher on my chest, point it up and only turn it on when something interesting is happening!

It's available as a Nuget package or via the Umbraco backoffice installer:

https://github.com/KOBENDigital/bento.editor

https://our.umbraco.com/packages/backoffice-extensions/bento-editor/

Very proud to have been involved in it's development - the editor takes advantage of all the infinite editing goodness in v8, solves the problem of element based and reusable content blocks, offers multiple layouts and cell based grid designs in a single block... and its blisteringly fast too.

Give it an install and let us know what you think?

The great thing about the following bits is that it also solved the issue of relocating the ignition as I'd also put some fat bars on the bike.

DRZ400 Ignition key and USB mounting bracket - $58

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2670086546420290

Initially I was considering buying a MOTOdash MD4.1 but it's plastic construction and the fact it had to come from the states kinda put me off... It looks like a neat bit of kit but I wasn't convinced it would stand up to the abuse of offroad riding. With shipping from the USA to Australia it came in at $64 which wasn't bad, but it could end up being a pricey mistake...

Then I found a 3D printable version online which looked good but after some investigation, I found it was going to be $100 to print in tough enough plastic and again, I had no idea how accurate the 3D model was.

Eventually, I found the solution on a random search in Facebook Marketplace. Warren Fincham makes these himself and it looked spot on! Clearly a lot of R&D has gone into the design I really liked the idea of supporting a 'garage enterprize' so after a quick chat with him, I purchased a unit at $58 inc postage.

He's even knocked up a video on how to install it:

USB charging socket - $16

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/12V-24V-QC3-0-USB-Fast-Charger-Socket-Outlet-On-Off-Switch-For-Car-Motorcycle-AU/202814414112

The next challenge was finding a USB charger socket. Nearly all the units I found on eBay either had two USB sockets or no way of turning off the unit other than disconnecting it from the battery. After a lot of searching I eventually found the perfect item: 1 USB socket, an on/off switch and a bonus volt meter (which turns out to be supprizingly acurate!).

The only downer with the unit was that the orientation doesn't match the photographs which means the volt meter is at a 90 degree angle... Not a deal breaker though.

Phone mount - $17

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/360-Motorcycle-MTB-Bike-Bicycle-Handlebar-Mount-Holder-For-Mobile-Phone-GPS-AU/202827532582

This actually turned out to be the trickiest item to source... I'm not a big fan of the X-Grip style of mount as the 4 prongs seem to come into contact with the volume and/or power buttons on most phones. The Quad Lock system is probably the most solid solution which doesn't interfere with the phone buttons but it's expensive and you have to get a case that matches your phone...

Baring in mind that the phone I use on the bike is a Samsung Galaxy S6 I picked up on Gumtree for $40, dropping $100+ on a mount seemed a little excessive...

So I trawled the eBay listings for hours looking for an alternative and after 2 failed attempts (the 1st one had a really long stem so the phone stuck up higher than the bars, the 2nd one a crappy mounting kit that didn't work with the fat bars) I finally got one that was perfect.

The nice thing about the mount is the short stem so the phone sits nicely between the bar risers, it's small and it doesn't mess with the phone buttons. You can also have the phone landscape or portrait. I have mine set up in portrait mode as it means the phone doesn't bash the petrol tank.

RAM Mount Tether $6

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/RAM-mount-compatible-tether-rubber-net-harness-X-grip-motorcycle-phone-GPS-Honda/153751925065

This item wasn't part of the original plan but during my research I'd seen a lot of bikers use this with the X-Grip mounts. It works perfectly with the phone mount and at $6 it's a very cheap bit of insurance against the phone bouncing off into the bush if the phone mount screw loosens off.

Short 90 degree usb cable $1.50

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Short-25cm-Cable-Elbow-90-Degree-Type-C-USB-C-Lightning-Micro-USB-Cable/353003959219

I found that a standard usb cable stuck out to much but this one sits flush to the dash and the base of the phone without loads of cable dangling around.

Putting the whole thing together took a couple of hours as I had to remove the seat, plastics and petrol tank to run the power cable from behind the front headlamp cowl back to the battery. I used an inline fuze that I cannibalised from another USB/Cigarette lighter socket I had kicking around as I figured a little extra protection to stop anything nasty frying the electitrics couldn't halm. With all cables and terminals wrapped in electrical tape and the bike put back together I was good to go - and it works a treat!

The final piece of the puzzle was getting an app that locked the phone in landscape mode. Android seems to support locking in portrait but landscape is triggered by rotating the phone and I found that the screen would sometimes rotate when going round corners... So I downloaded the Rotation Control app from Google Play and that solves the issue. It has the added benefit of rotating the home screen too which makes navigating the apps etc on the phone loads easier.

Unluckily for me, although spring had sprung a few weeks ago the UK seemed to have gone back a month or so and the weather was cold, grey and windy - far from ideal, especially as the carp at Follyfoot Fishery love warner conditions. But hey, sometimes you just can't choose when to go and as this was to be my last opportunity I was determined to give it my best shot.

Zigs are an absolute winner at Follyfoot so I decided to fish three rods at various depths and a fourth on the bottom. And absolutely nothing happened... For hours and hours... Not a liner, an indication, a show, a nothing... It was almost as if all the fish had left the lake a decided to go on holiday!

It wasn't until late evening when I'd switched all the rods onto the bottom that the left hand rod burst into life. A solid PVA bag of pellets and a Sticky Baits Buchu Berry Wafter doing the business. A nice fight and a plump boxy common carp was in the net.

I'd love to say that the action picked up over night but despite regular recasting, baiting and switching things around I just couldn't produce a bite. I'd set my alarm for 6am and woke up to a reasonably bright but windy morning. Luckily I did see several shows over towards the aerator (which was still on) and decided it was as good a pointer as I was going to get...

It wasn't possible to cast due to the pylons that bisect the fishery so I walked the rod down the bank, cast, baited and then walked back to my hut. I did't have to wait long for a bite but unfortunately the fish shot straight into the snaggy looking bush that hangs into the margin and cut me off!

Lesson learned, this time the rod went back on the same spot but I fished it locked up and sat on the rod... And off it went!

Another common of a similar size to the first fish and then a smaller ghosty about an hour later, happy days ;)

As the sun rose and the wind got up the action completely dried up and I decided to cut my losses and call it a day at 1pm. I would've loved a few more fish, especially on the zigs but with the weather against me it was quite a result to have landed 3 fish (I'm not 100% sure if any of the other 6 angers had blanked or not but I'd certainly not seen or heard anything...).

But that's it for UK fishing for now - I don't think there'll be another chance to get out on the bank before the off and the next time you see me, it'll be in Australia with (hopefully!) a completely different species on the line!

The two dropped runs have bugged me, especially after catching on the third run following a change of tactic to a popped up bait. So the plan this time was to further tweak the rigs making them with longer traces so the bait would definitely sit above the weed and try to be even more mobile than before.

The journey down was easier this time as the closed roads had magically reopened and I arrived at the reservoir at 10am on the nose to find it completely covered in thick fog!

Luckily I knew where to start having made a note of the wall markers from the previous session so I barrowed my gear round and set about getting the gear sorted. Two baits went out, one short and the other long and I sat back to watch the fog burn off.

Over the next couple of hours I moved four times with each move being twenty or so metres down the bank. It's amazing how much difference the distance can make to the amount of weed you're fishing over but with the baits popped up I wasn't overly concerned as I felt like they'd be presented and fishing.

One thing to mention with popping up the baits is that I've found that sardines tend to be buoyant while they're still frozen. I'm guessing this is due to air trapped in the swim bladder? So the trick is when you first cast the bait out it will be suspended in the water and as it defrosts it gently drops onto the weed (carp anglers achieve the same effect using pva foam nuggets). It does mean you need to put a fresh bait on with each cast but with sardines being so soft and the casts at Cheddar being long it's not too much of an issue. Plus any old baits end up in the spod bucket!

By now the sun had burnt off all the mist and it was a glorious day with virtually no wind. Terrible conditions for pike fishing but great for sunbathing! To be honest I wasn't too hopeful of a daytime bite and when a dog walker stopped to ask about the camera I was quite happy to sit in the sun and chat - as it turns out, for quite a while...

...so it was a real surprise when at pretty much 1.30pm on the nose the left hand rod suddenly burst into life! Having worked out last time that I was fishing in some really deep water (I was counting anything from 14 to 18 seconds before a 'donk' was registering on the rod) I had a suspicion that my 'strikes' were a little weak so I after registering that there was movement on the braid I absolutely banged the rod skywards making it almost bend double - and fish on! 

I did wonder if it was a big ball of weed on the braid as it really felt like I was dragging in a dead weight but as a long dark shape moved into the shallows it became apparent this was a nice big fat pike. A bit of a tussle in the shallows and it was in the net, happy days! After such a good fight the pike was puffed out and was very docile on the unhooking mat, a bit of a godsend as the banks at Cheddar are concrete steps meaning you have to either unhook the fish in the net (always tricky with a 42" net and two sets of trebles...) or transfer the fish up above the wall.

This fish felt bigger than last weeks and although I didn't weigh it (the priority being to get the fish back in the water asap) I'd give it around 16lb or so which is a bit of a result! Resting the fish in the margin, it kept up it's docile appearance but gave me a massive shock by suddenly shooting off into the depths! Seeing it move in the clear water close to the bank was quite something...

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, despite the spot on looking conditions moving into dusk. Maybe I wasn't on the fish, maybe they just weren't hungry, who knows? As the sun slowly fell behind the horizon I made one more final move and cast but it wasn't to be so I packed down slightly disappointed not to have got another chance but incredibly chuffed with the fish I'd caught.

So that's it, last piking session in the UK for a while now! I'm glad that I found the time to do a couple of sessions at Cheddar Reservoir, it was amazing not to have blanked on such a sizable tough water and the promise that there maybe bigger fish to be had will definitely see me heading back this way sometime in the distant future...