Finding Rib Valley largely frozen, the Bartmeister and I took the short drive over to Thornwood for a first visit, having heard that the aerator there was keeping a good portion ice free.

It is an interesting setup, with three lakes in a relatively young site. Only one lake is in use right now and the aerator did have a couple of acres of that ice free. On arrival we found forumite Fazzer and a buddy already fishing, having just arrived.

I started on the floater and a heavily weighted pinkie near the aerator and hooked up on my second cast, which was encouraging but no-one else had a pull until Fazzer lost and then landed one, so I went round to see what he was doing. Answer was an orange blob twiddled along the bottom, so I went straight back and copied that using a ten foot leader and a barbless tequila blob. First chuck I had a couple of taps and got one and then casting up towards the aerator got two more and lost one in about 15 minutes.

Bart came up and thrashed that area to a foam and the shoal rapidly f@cked off. That was it, other than Fazzer having a couple more pulls and catching another.

All in all, not a bad day considering the temperature and I can see it will be nice in the summer, especially with other lakes open.

Great to have another decent C&R venue in the Northern Home Counties.

Charlie

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Sonik Sports Team Pitsford Pirates

Well done Charles.........you too will soon match Barts international status....