So, here it is, my first task of the new era.
I had a good idea of what I was going to do as soon as I read this task. At the back of my garden is a flower border (well, I say flower. It's more just a bush with the compost heap underneath it). Living in it, among the leaf litter and under the surrounding logs, are several baby toads. I thought they would be the perfect target for my fishing.

Now toad fishing, or toading, is an extremely popular sport absolutely nowhere, so I had to choose my own methods. I decided to completely base my sport on fishing, and to that end I made a special rod:

This was simply a stick with a string on the end. On the end of the string was a needle and some thread, to hook the bait on.
Finding the bait was simple. I lifted a log and found a slug. I then threaded it through with the needle and pulled the needle back away from the slug, so that a toad wouldn't end up with a sharper taste in its mouth that expected.

It had just been raining and the ground was damp, which I thought was perfect conditions for toading. I started to look under logs for the baby toads, waving the slug down when I lifted the rotting wood. After half an hour of searching, however, I had not found any. Absolutely typical; this was the first time I had ever failed to find one within five minutes. Giving up the search, I left the rod placed by one of the logs in the hope that there would be a bite overnight. If the slug was gone, it would at least prove that the toads were there.

The next day the slug was still there, seemingly igorant of the thread through its middle. I decided to adopt a new approach:

I went fishing throught the leaf litter with the net in an attempt to locate some toads. 15 minutes searching later, no toads had been found. I did however find something interesting: a stag beetle larva. if only I'd found that a few months ago for the New Ark...
I once again retired back to the house. At this point I was considering giving up altogether. After all, the task doesn't say you actually have to catch anything.
But no, quitting now would just be lame. Looking for inspiration, I found a helpful book I have in my possession. It has information on most species of wildlife in Britain.

The page about toads contained an unexpected snippet of information. Toads will usually rest in dry areas.
With this in mind, I searched the garden for alternative locations, although the ground had dried out a bit since the previous day, and decided that the areas under stones would be drier than under logs. I picked my second fishing site:

This was unfortunately another unsuccessful tactic.

Later I went back to get a photograph of the stag beetle larva, which I hadn't taken earlier. I heard a rustling in the leaf litter. I looked down and there it was. It's typical how these things turn up when you're not actively searching for them. I grabbed my net:

Finally, I had successfully captured a toad.

Of course, as I was fishing for sport and not for food, I released it again unharmed. I used this as a photography opportunity. At least one of the following photos is actually good, unusually for me:

I then decided it was time to release the slug. Although it had not been very helpful, I didn't need it anymore. And it would have been cruel to keep it on a thread forever.

Just as I was going back inside again after releasing the slug, there was another rustle, and a second toad appeared. I thought I'd try my luck a second time:

This time the toad managed to escape by sheltering out of reach behind a tree. But I had at least been successful with the first catch.