We had no idea whether today, when we rolled up at Hazel Court, it would be full, empty or half way. The weather wasn’t as good as it was when the ponds were full and we had to go Jim’s Pond, neither was it that bad that most had stayed away last week. Sunny and cloudy was the forecast with rain starting at four in the afternoon so we decided on a nine o’clock start and to leave around three thirty. On arriving, before Wil could open the gate, the dogs found him and Griff seems to recognise him every week. Eventually we got parked up and could see four families or groups around the Pleasure Pond and an empty Reed Pond. For some time now, I’d thought about the Reed Pond being a rectangle, the far side of the pond being one of the short sides, and the corner of that side being completely covered in bushes for three metres either side, inaccessible, and an ideal spot for my margin pole. We carried all the gear to the chosen spot and started setting up, Wil with his familiar method feeders

I dragged Wil out of bed at seven in the morning with him complaining that he’d been up half the night creating models. He takes basic, fully-articulated models and by adding clay and cloth, turns them into characters to be used in his stop-motion videos. I think, once the character’s lives are over, they will probably all end up on Etsy or maybe they’ll be adapted into new characters. The videos, by the way, can all be seen on his YouTube channel where the most viewed is TMNTepisode3 and well worth a view. Grabbing a drive-through breakfast we rolled up at Hazel Court at eight-thirty to find no cars parked anywhere. Debbie came out of the venue’s shop and told us that every peg was free, that she wasn’t expecting many to turn up, and the weather forecast wasn’t good. Our app had shown showers but nothing too bad. We parked up and with all pegs at our mercy, Wil chose a peg on the Pleasure Pond that we’d fished before, but the peg had now been upgraded. At the end of last October, we’d

During my working days, my life felt one-dimensional, with work taking up most of my time and relaxation being a counter measure. Since retirement (I am 71 as I write) time management has been split between a number of areas. I have always written novels and used to be a member of the 5am writing club, getting words down before showering and getting to work. These days writing can come as ideas flow and that, as you can imagine, is far more fruitful. More on this in the "Novel Writing" category. Time driving around the country in a work capacity has been swapped for a three-times-a-week round trip to Llandarcy where my granddaughter trains in rhythmic gymnastics at international level as a mamber of Llanelli Rhythmic Gymnastics Association. Meanwhile, my grandson, at aged fourteen, is making his own stop-motion videos and wants to make it his career. I support this with the purchase of models that are used in the videos, by pushing things on social media and by sitting with him during

Angling Direct (Cardiff) have been good to over the year and when I rang to ask them if they had a Ten Metre Margin Monster in stock the lady said yes, and that if I called down after eleven, the pole expert would be there to show me how to put it together and to ensure it wasn’t too heavy for me. Yes, the boss had agreed on the early birthday present. The pole expert turned out to be similar to my age, Ted, and he walked me through the Edge Monster, elasticated both the top kits for me with 14 to16 elastic, and found a tube for the extra top kit, costing an extra tenner, to keep the spare top two safe. Thanks Ted. Day one of the fishing year at Hazel Court that will be our home through the summer months couldn’t come quick enough and was set for the 1st April. Wil would now inherit the two bait runner reels on the two method feeder rods with sensitive tips, on his alarmed tripod and I would fish with the new pole only. I figured that getting used to ten metres of pole, with two differ