29/05/22 - Ivy House - Heron

Weight - 91lb 14oz

Catch - 45 Carp, 38 F1

Weather - Cool, cloudy, occasional light shower

Match - Steve Martin Series rd 2 (16 fished) - 7th overall, 3rd in section

The 2^nd round of Steve’s summer series. At the draw I wasn’t too concerned where I drew, although with only 16 today I would have preferred a peg with some space. Alas I drew p8 which was in a row of 6, however I was confident of catching a few following my last couple of matches here.

On the all in I started at 2+2 fishing pellet, but after 5mins and no bites it just didn’t feel right, so switched to fishing a small method with baninion boosted micros and a little groundbait (50:50 blue ice : kriller) tight to the island. I stayed on this for 90mins, catching 27 fish, with 4mm red gonut pellet being the best bait.

After 90mins the swim was fading, catching smaller carp and bites weren’t coming as quickly.

A switch to my shallow line fed with pellet was disappointing, in fact everyone who tried shallow struggled. An early look down my margin produced a couple of decent fish on corn over 4mm pellet & corn, before that faded as well. To be fair with every peg in and the weather being quite cool, I wasn’t surprised my margin was slow.

The rest of the match was a case of rotating my 3 swims, catching a handful of fish from 1 swim before having to switch again. I had hoped at least one of my lines would get stronger towards the end of the match, but it just didn’t happen.

Well done to Pete on my right who got it right, fishing paste all day at 6m to win the match. On the whole the better weights came from those pegs with a little space and on reflection 3^rd in section was a good result and improved my league position.

1.    118- 6 – Pete Ball – p7

2.    102-11 – Matt Banks – p6

3.    101-11 – Barry Meaden – p13

4.    100-12 – Ivan Oakley – p17

5.      99- 3 – Steve Schiers – p21

26/05/22 - Ivy House - Heron

Weight - 132lb 4oz

Catch - 58 F1, 53 Carp

Weather - Cool, cloudy and windy

Match - Open - (10 fished) - 3rd overall

With the next round of Steve Martins series due this Sunday on Heron lake I decided to book in for the mid-week open. It was also an excuse to have the day off work – not that I need much of an excuse!

With only 10 of us booked in we all had plenty of space, so I was not too concerned where I drew. P10 was OK and I hoped for a day catching shallow, setting up 3 shallow rigs to cover my options, although I thought the cool wind might have a negative effect.

I started at 2+2 on the deck with 6mm pellet and struggled to catch, only landing 3 fish after 20mins. I noticed a few swirls over my loose fed 4mm pellet at 10m, catching a couple of F1’s straight away, however it was really tricky trying to gauge how much to feed and the best depth to catch. As a consequence, I only had 10 fish in the net after an hour.

Fortunately, the 2^nd hour was better landing a further 16 fish, finding it best to cut back on my feed and really having to work the rig to get a bite.

Moving into the 3^rd hour I was struggling to get into a rhythm, snapping 2 pellet bands, a hooklength and losing fish, but still managed to add a further 19 fish. In the meantime, I started feeding pellet and corn down both margins, and by swapping between the margins and my shallow line caught another 19 fish.

So far, I felt I was some way behind those to my right, however my margins really kicked into life during the last 2hrs, catching 50 fish, only swapping to the shallow line when I felt it needed a rest and nearly stole 2^nd place from Gary.

1.    153-10 – Stitch – p16

2.    136-10 – Gary Etheridge – p8

3.    132-14 – Ken Rayner – p10

4.    127- 0 – Tim – p23

22/05/22 - Durleigh

Weight - 12lb 13oz

Catch - 2 Bream, 5 Skimmers

Weather - Sunshine and cloudy later. 

Match - So Simple League - rd 4 (18 fished) - 5th overall, 1st in section

Just the 1 match this weekend and it was the 4^th round of the So Simple league on a moody Durleigh reservoir. As usual the shallows was the place to draw, however I drew p9 just before the spillway which meant I was fishing in what turned out to be a tough section, including Karl Turner (venue expert), Simon Poynter (bloody good angler) and Elliot Fay (chief wind up merchant). 

On the all-in I spent 25mins feeding a mix of FA1 & Baninion RTGS, 4mm pellet and fizzers at 66m via a large rocket feeder. Elliot on p10 in the meantime spent nearly an hour spombing 4kgs of pellet and since we were sat quite close to each other I didn’t feel the need to feed much more! When Elliot eventually started fishing, he netted a 4lb bream 1^st cast, soon followed by a smaller one and we both thought great there are a few fish in the area.

I started on a 60g XR banjo feeder with dead maggot, but the small fish were plucking at the bait, so switched to a 6mm yellow gofter and I soon had my own bream of nearly 5lb, plus a 12oz skimmer.

It was an hour before I caught another bream of 4lb, hoping for a few more, but by the halfway point none were forthcoming. I even tried leaving the feeder in for 30mins without success.

In the meantime, I had been feeding small balls of groundbait at 25m and caught 2 small skimmers on dead maggot on a small cage feeder. A better feeder angler would have caught more, but at least it showed the smaller fish were starting to show closer as it warms up.

Within 90mins remaining I felt a few fish would be caught so switched back to the long line going 2m past where I was fishing, topping with 5 feeders of bait. This quickly produced 2x 1.5lb skimmers, but nothing else. In that time both Simon and Karl caught big bream, so I was willing my tip to go round, whilst hoping Simon and Karl didn’t catch another.

To be honest I was convinced I would catch another bream or 2, particularly as Elliot had fed enough bait to create a new underwater feature, but it just didn’t happen.

By the all-out it sounded like it would be between Simon and myself for the section and fortunately the result went my way, beating Simon by 2lb. Speaking to Simon afterwards, he adopted a negative approach, when his positive approach didn’t work, fishing a single maggot at range catching a number of hand sized skimmers and roach. Food for thought next time.

As expected, the shallows provided the top 3 weights, but by winning my section it has pulled me up to 3^rd in the league.

1.    73- 9 – Andy Seery – p17

2.    42- 5 – Gary Dennis – p16

3.    29-11 – Dave Wykes – p18

4.    20- 8 – Chris Ware – p5

5.    12-13 – Ken Rayner – p9

15/05/22 - Todber - Whiteposts

Weight - 70lb

Catch - 21 Carp, 5 Skimmers, 1 Tench.

Weather - Mostly raining

Match - Steve Martin Summer Series - rd1 (19 fished) - 9th overall, 6th in section

I decided to fish Steve Martins Summer League again, having previously come 2^nd & 3^rd, but last year’s campaign proved to be quite difficult, and I was hoping for an improvement.

Today was the first of 6 rounds and there were 19 of us spread across the 2 lakes at Whiteposts. Both lakes had received a consignment of silvers and carassios taken from Wadmill (day ticket specimen water) which could make it interesting and recent results suggested the top lake had been fishing better than the bottom lake.

I drew peg 12, which I was happy with as it was an end peg on the top lake, although it can be a bit of a tackle graveyard, thanks to the lilies and trees and the water level was down by more than a foot. However, walking the lake before the all-in it was evident there were more fish at the other end which was a concern.

Starting at 13m tapping in 4s fishing a 6mm pellet, produced a skimmer. A change to a 4mm pellet produced a couple more skimmers, before I caught a small carp and then a couple of decent sized carassios. To be honest it wasn’t the start I was hoping for as there didn’t seem to be many fish in the area and Si Davies next to me was also struggling, whilst I could hear fish being landed further down the lake.

I tried the method between the trees on the far bank, losing 1 fish and then catching a branch losing the whole rig. So, I decided to start focusing on the right margin, close to the bush but far enough away from the lilies to give me a chance for pulling the fish away.

Fishing paste (50:50 kriller & blue ice) and feeding sludge boosted micros I had to wait for bites, but at least I was catching, although I did lose 1 in the lilies and a couple more due to hook pulls.

I had kept my 13m line topped up with 4s, which produced a couple of small carp, but it wasn’t improving as expected and with 2hrs remaining binned the line. Instead, I started feeding sludge boosted meat at 6m.

By swapping between the left and right margin I manged to keep the fish coming. With an hour remaining I tried my meat line, but only caught a small tench. Coming back to the margins and they had died. With 30mins remaining I had my best period of the match catching 5 carp over my meat line.

The weigh in started at p1 and as it progressed it was becoming obvious the lake had fished well and the fish just didn’t seem to be down my end in any number, with those  that were there a smaller stamp than normal. Si came last in section with 25lb which illustrated how tough it was down my end.

Coming 6^th in section isn’t an ideal start to the series, so onwards and upwards for the next one on Heron at Ivy House.

1.    173-  0 – Tony Gilbert – p3 (top)

2.    139-12 – Matt Banks – p8 (top)

3.    103-  9 – Cosmo – p20 (bottom)

4.      98-  3 – Nigel Reeves – p10 (top)

5.    89-  5 - Dave Martin - p25 (bottom)

14/05/22 - Ivy House - Old Match Lake

Weight - 44lb 2oz

Catch - 9 Carp, 1 F1, 2 Skimmers

Weather - Warm and sunny

Match - Open (17 fished) - 10th overall, 4th in section

No fishing last weekend as I was at a wedding in Yorkshire. It was nice to get away in lovely surroundings, although the journey up on Friday afternoon was a nightmare taking 5.5hrs.

Today I decided on Ivy House, over the Old Match lake and Kingfisher, hoping to continue my good run of form at the venue, although conscious that it would come to an end at some point. Drawing p12 on the Old Match Lake was an area I didn’t want, as this side of the lake has struggled recently compared to the opposite bank, although yesterday’s evening match was won from p11 catching mostly down the margin.

Starting at 16m towards the left-hand island I found about 2.5ft of water as it shelves up. Starting on 6mm kriller pellet, tapping sludge boosted 4s I soon caught a skimmer and got a better response switching to a hair rigged 4mm kriller pellet adding 4 carp over the next hour for about 12lb.

The next fish hooked was a 5lber but lost it on the top kit when my hooklength (0.14) gave way which must have snagged on something. A switch to the method and 6mm yellow gofter soon resulted in a 3lber. Unfortunately, I wasn’t quick enough on the next bite, as I was sorting out a rig. The fish hit the clip snapping the hooklength and the wheels were starting to fall off.

I had set up 2 separate silvers line, 1 fed with BMGX and micros and the other with caster and few micros, but only caught 1 small skimmer!

Back out to the 16m line produced another carp, but it was very slow and not much was being caught on my bank. I even tried fishing shallow on pellet and later caster as there was a number of carp moving around, but just couldn’t get a bite.

In the meantime, I had been feeding micros into my right margin, fishing paste, but never had any signs of fish. To my left I fed 4s and a little corn at the bottom of the shelf about 2m off the bank and caught a couple of decent carp fishing 4mm hair rigged kriller. In the last hour I alternated between this swim and the 16m line, but lost fish which proved frustrating with fish either foul hooked or outside their mouth and it was obvious the fish just weren’t feeding properly.

My weight was the best on my bank and as expected the opposite bank proved to be better.

In hindsight I wish I hadn’t bothered taking 2pts of caster and concentrated on my normal approach. I don’t think it would have changed the result, but it would have simplified my match.

1.    96-2 – Jeff Rogers – p4 (OML)

2.    89-2 - Chris Timms – p50 (K)

3.    69-12 – Steve Waters – p2 (OML)

4.    69-10 – Ian Millichip – p48 (K)

5.    62-0 – Vince Shipp – p37 (K)

Silvers

1.    12-8 – Glynn Loveday – p39 (K)

2.    11-4 – Pete Ziminak – p42 (K)

01/05/22 - Ivy House - Heron

Weight - 113lb 2oz

Catch - 51 F1s, 49 Carp

Weather - Cool and cloudy. Rainy start

Match - Open (14 fished) - 2nd overall

Heron lake today and a chance for plenty of bites. I wasn’t too fussed where I drew and was happy enough with p21.

I was hoping to catch shallow, but today was cool and cloudy, so started at 2+2 feeding sludge boosted 4s with 4mm expander and got off to a good start catching 20 fish after an hour before it started to fade.

In the meantime, I had been pinging pellet at 14.5m. Initially I tried shallow, but it didn’t feel right, so I switched fishing on the deck at 14.5m fishing a hair rigged 4mm kriller pellet and had a good 90mins putting another 25 fish into the net.

The middle part of the match was a bit of a struggle, and I lost my way a little as I tried to work out the best way of catching. Fortunately, by keeping the pellet going in I started to catch mostly F1’s shallow on 6mm pellet which are a better average stamp than the carp and proper weight builders. The fish seemed to drift in and out of the swim, but during the good periods I caught very quickly.

During the quieter periods I would switch to the lefthand margin catching either on 4mm expander or corn.

In the end I had a lovely day’s fishing and a double pick up over the weekend.

1.    128- 4 – Stu Foale – p7

2.    113- 2 – Ken Rayner – p21

3.      96- 4 – Lee Jan – p9

4.      91- 0 – Steve Martin – p15

5.      85- 0 – Jim Bone – p20

30/04/22 - Ivy House - Kingfisher

Weight - 64lb 10oz

Catch - 31 Carp, 4 F1s, 2 Skimmers

Weather - Cold start. Bright & sunny, with light breeze

Match - Open (14 fished) - 2nd overall, 1st on lake

4 nights away in the Brecon Beacons was very welcome and well timed allowing me time to fully recover from Covid and spend time with the missus and the dog, I was keen to get back on the bank.

Today’s match was spread over Old Match Lake and Kingfisher, and I was more than happy with p41 on Kingfisher.

I don’t normally fish tight across as its 3-4ft deep and foul hookers can be a problem, but I still decided to try, however this line was soon binned as I couldn’t get a proper bite. It wasn’t until I fished hair rigged 4mm kriller pellet, tapping in 4mm baninion boosted fishery pellet at the bottom of the far shelf that I started to catch small carp over the next couple of hours.

As the day progressed a few cruisers started to appear and I caught 1, but they weren’t that interested in feeding as I dropped a pellet in front of one fish 3 times and it refused to take the bait.

Moving into the 2^nd half of the match I kept the far line swim going by moving slightly left of my original swim and starting pinging pellet. In the meantime, I started feeding pellet & corn down the left margin, corn at 3+2 to my right and finally micros into my right margin where I found 18in of water.

The far line kept producing small carp and whenever it needed resting, I would try the left margin, which only produced 1 fish all match and the right hand 3+2 line.

With an hour remaining I was doing well on the lake but felt I needed to catch some of the better sized carp to consolidate my position. I noticed a few swirls down the right margin and had 4 carp for about 18lb on paste (kriller :blue ice) which proved to be very useful securing 2^nd overall and winning the lake.

1-   83- 2 – Alan Smith – p1 (OML)

2-   64-10 – Ken Rayner – p41 (K)

3-   61-12 – Chris Timms – p7 (OML)

4-   45- 8 – Calum – p37 (K)

5-   44- 2 – Mick Lane – p9 (OML)

Silvers

1-   21- 4 – Chris Timms – p7 (OML)

2-   17- 0 – Phil Godding – p49 (K)

3-   12- 6 – Paul Baker – p39 (K)