Morning world(as I type) things somewhat sluggish and very variable at the moment. The first recorded squid of the year poked their noses out of the water Tues & Wed although none were caught yesterday & not heard of any this morning.

I took “GRUMPY1” down onto the east for a mooch yesterday, the sun was out & lovely and warm, it actually felt like a decent spring day with decent water colour a sort of shiny green and probably the cleanest Ive seen this year I had expected to see a few more out making the most of the sun but there was only a few on the wall fishing. I guess a few had given up and headed home as the general story was that people caught some herring over/around the high water & that was fairly much it bar an occasional dogfish to bother the baits.

Yesterday also delivered some sad news with NICK the warden announcing that his dog “ELLIE” had died during the night at the age of 13, she was a regular sight on the west for many and such a good natured dog & I for one will miss seeing her on the wall this year. 🙁

After leaving the east I took the wheels into the marina as maidenhead aquatics shop had rung me to say my new fish tank was ready for pick up & no it wont be used as a live bait store :), once cycled it will be to split off some of the Bristle nose plecos I have.
With letting nature do its own thing some of the babies in my main tank fall prey to the larger fish and self turn into fishfood but it seems that a few have managed too avoid that fate and as a result I had a genuine excuse too convince my wife I needed an extra tank 🙂 (Yes im already planning on a 3rd one but it may take some convincing !)

Anyhoo, I just managed to make it home (fish tank in the foot area of my scooter) when I noticed that there was a layer of fog coming down . Turned out that the fog was also responsible for the days temperatures dropping like a stone and most on the wall called it a day early resulting in nothing else to report from yesterday.. and thats why im filling the page with waffle!

Today a quick chat will mark told me that things were quiet on the wall unless you fancied having a go for dogfish ! oh joy of joys!
Finally for today I had a word or 2 with Mark about the squid comp being as 3 were caught this week so no doubt would be on peoples minds if there would be a comp this yea, especially with the current state of wall openings.

The last 2 years that “spring run” hasn’t happened or its been so little people barely noticed any Personally I suspect they are linked in with the early April run of mackerel that happen if the water state is reasonable and lasts for about 10 day pre may bloom set in. Neither occurred inshore as said for the last 2 years . Thus logic & common sense came to the conclusion of aiming the squid comp this year in the AUTUMN especially as we still have issues with water supply on the wall to get it jet washed.

With regards to space on the wall it is planned to open higher untreated sections of the wall providing there is no threat of rain nor risk of water splashing up over the untreated bay and there are numbers there to justify the opening. needless to say I cant really post here if or when those extra bays are likely to be open simply because I don’t have a crystal ball to tell me when the numbers coincide with decent dry conditions to safely open further sections. Obviously if we can get untreated bays open the angler foot fall would hugely help knock the algae back.

So to round up & confirm

SQUID COMP 2025 will be in the AUTUMN

and with that last note I will bid you all ADIEU
F