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!

To be honest, I wasn't expecting too much! The only thing on my side seemed to be a warmer weather front coming and although it was raining on and off, I was really hoping it would swing things in my favour and the carp would be up for feeding.

I arrived in a downpour and after a mad dash to get the kit into the hut, slung two zigs and a bottom bait out. The zigs were at 4ft and 7ft but I varied the depth and position over the next hours and then swapped all 3 rods over to bottom baits an hour or so into darkness (although zigs do work at night, I've never had much luck with them at Follyfoot).

Over the course of the night I had 5 fish to 17lb which was a bit of a result! All the fish fell to Sticky Baits Buchu Berry Wafters in medium size PVA bags of mixed pellets.

The bites completely dried up early in the morning and although the weather changed to a sunny day, there was a stiff breeze heading down the lake and the fish at Follyfoot seem to really dislike wind and chop on the water.

So not a bad winter session! It was great to be out on the bank after such a long gap and who knows, if it stops raining sometime soon I might make it back on over to the river for a pike session sometime soon...

As they were in a pre-spawning mood and not that interested in feeding the action was slow and steady...

But I managed to bank some stunning fish on a 'special' bait including some of the amazing koi/ghosty goldfish that I always enjoy targeting when I come to the lake.

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 ;)

The weather was looking perfect as I drove down, still pretty warm with sun, clouds and very little wind. Pulling into the car park I was very surprised to find only one car, amazing for this time of year and for such a popular venue. Gazing down the lake to my chosen hut (number 19, right in the far corner) it was apparent the fish were up near the surface which was perfect! I steamed the gear round on the barrow and set about getting the rods sorted.

The carp at Follyfoot are very wise to floating baits and based on previous sessions, I've found that zigs out fish mixers. So while the left hand rod went out with a bottom bait, my other two rods were fished on zigs at two different depths: one just below the surface and the second at about 6ft (the lake is around 12ft at this end).

Although I had fish all over the surface, it was a slow start... The carp were feeding in sporadic bursts, with five or so fish slurping in mixers and then drifting off only to return again 10 minutes later. I was spodding out a sloppy spod mix of chum mixers, hemp, corn, pellets, porridge oats and rice pudding which was definitely attracting the carp to the area but they were deftly avoiding my hook baits...

The key it seemed was to switch from an imitation mixer to a bright pink trimmed down popup on a much smaller size 10 hook. The results were almost instantaneous with a bite coming on the drop! 

I had several fish over the next couple of hours on the zigs with the occasional run on the bottom bait rod. As the light levels started to drop, the wind completely died off as did the surface activity so I decided to switch all three rods to bottom baits and get busy with the spod rod. I've not had a massive amount of success with boilies at Follyfoot Fishery in the past and having emptied the bait freezer on my recent trip to France, I decided to stick to a spod mix of hemp, maize, pellets and fish the ever faithful spam in PVA bags of pellets.

Over the next couple of hours I had loads of small commons. To be honest, they're a bit of plague! I had real problems with them on my last session and the only way to combat it is to use bigger baits and hope you wade through them... It wasn't until complete darkness that the bigger fish muscled in on the action and I had a run of much better commons.

Things were really begining to hot up now, with fish coming consistently on all three rods. I was topping up with a couple of spods after each bite and between that and pre-tying new PVA bags on leaders for each rod kept me pretty damn busy, so much so that midnight rolled around very quickly... I'd just about managed to get dinner finished and was toying with the idea of hitting the sack when the left hand rod ripped off with what turned out to be the biggest common of the session.

What a fatty! This one made up for all the tiny 1lb commons I'd been catching. However the next run produced a fish I'd been trying to catch since first coming to Follyfoot, an illusive goldfish which I'd seen but never managed to hook...

What a fish! I was made up with this one, it's always good to catch something out of the ordinary. By this point I was knackered and after another couple of small commons I decided to call it a night and get my head down for a couple of hours with the plan being to wake up bright and early and get the rods out again.

It was hard to drag myself out of my sleeping bag at 6am the following morning but it was worth it for the sunrise alone. The water looked great in the morning gloom and I quickly got all three rods back on the spots I'd baited before heading off to bed. It didn't take long for the left hand rod to scream off!

Another nice common to add to the tally! The bites came thick and fast over the next couple of hours but the strange thing was I couldn't get a single taker on the zigs... All the action was coming to the left hand rod in open water. Annoyingly I missed quite a few bites so a change of plan was needed... Searching through the tackle bag produced a tub of Scent From Hell pink dumbell wafters which seemed to make all the difference as a quick succession of bites produced a fine selection of commons.

I was into the dying hours of the session now and it was a real struggle to keep the left hand rod in the water. Bites were coming seconds after the lead touched down on the lakebed so I decided to bring the other rods in and pack the gear down and just fish one rod. Amazingly, the two last casts produced two stunning fish with the second bite coming while the first fish was resting in the net!

The goldfish the previous evening would've been enough but to get this amazingly looking orange ornamental common carp on the second to last bite was an amazing end to the session.

So that's it for carping this year! It'll be pike all the way now until spring next year for me and hopefully the Bristol River Avon will be as kind as it was last year. If you've not given Follyfoot Fishery a go, head on down. They've just reduced their rates for winter and although winter carping isn't really my thing, Follyfoot can produce a good days sport even in the toughest of conditions.