29/06/23 - Lavington - Ellis

Weight - 95lb 1oz (7lb 13oz - silvers)

Catch - 12 Carp, 2 Bream, 1 Roach

Weather - Bright and sunny. Freasher later.

Match - Club Evening (6 fished) - 1st overall

For these evening’s match I drew p25, which was the same peg as 4 weeks ago and hoped I would catch more than last time.

I started on the method by the island but after 30mins hadn’t caught, but it was difficult to get tight and I probably stayed on it for too long. In the meantime, I had fed 2 swims left and right at 3+2 with 8mm meat and micros to my left and just meat to my right.

Starting in the left hand swim, I got loads of indications, which I think were from silvers or the recently stocked tiny carp, so I cut out the micros and just fed meat and 4s. The right hand swim produced my first carp and an hour in I added a 2^nd.

The 2^nd hour I had another 4 carp and 2 bream, by rotating left and right after each fish. This was the pattern leading into 3^rd hour

even adding a cracking roach of 1¼lb. With 30mins remaining I fed my right margin with micros and corn for another 2 carp.

Overall a pleasant evening and it was nice to catch a few.

1.    95-  1 – Ken Rayner – p25

2.    48-  2 – Martin White – p1

3.    39-  8 – Tom Ince – p10

25/06/23 - Witherington Farm - Selwood

Weight - 186lb 5oz

Catch - 48 Carp, 2 Skimmers

Weather - Warm and sunny, strong southerly breeze

Match - Tackle Den (19 fished) - 1st overall

Todays match was over Selwood and Cottage lakes, neither of which I had fished before, having only fished the canal 12 years ago. 

I really fancied any peg with the wind blowing in and was a bit disappointed to draw p13 on Selwood which had the wind blowing from behind and was close to the corner I was told to avoid.

I had a rough idea of how to approach the match and started at 14m just slapping a pellet, but only caught 1 carp after 15mins, whilst everyone else started short and was catching.

I soon switched to a 3+2 line where I had fed a few 4s, fishing paste and caught straight away. As the match progressed, I stayed on the paste moving between the short line and both margins, keeping all lines topped up with a few 4s, only switching whenever the swim faded.

So quite a simple and enjoyable match in the end. The top 4 came from Selwood, whilst the top weight on Cottage was 120lb.

1.    186-  5 – Ken Rayner

2.    183-10 – John Pearce

3.    166-  7 – Ian Barker

4.    151-  0 – Alistair Tilney

5.    120-14 – Matt Greaves 

24/06/23 - Ivy House - Old Match Lake

Weight - 109lb 1oz (6lb 4oz - silvers)

Catch - 22 Carp, 12 Skimmers, 2 Roach

Weather - Hot & sunny

Match - Open (15 fished) - 4th overall

The first trip back to the Old Match Lake for a few weeks. I was more than happy with p10, as you usually have plenty of options with the island at 16m and a long left-hand margin, although it can be a bit hit and miss. 

I started on the method, but only caught 1 skimmer, which was frustrating as Andy Dixey on p8 was catching on the method to the island. Not sure why I struggled to catch, but I did.

In the meantime, I had fed some micros and 4s at 3+2, initially trying paste, which produced a skimmer and thinking I would catch a few more on expander or worm, I only caught 2 more and didn’t waste too much time on that.

I tried mugging a few carp that started to show as well as feeding a shallow line, but neither approach yielded any success, and I was falling behind.

So far, I had resisted fishing 16m to the island, a) I thought I would catch on the method and b) my back hasn’t been great recently, however I felt I had no choice. By toss potting corn and micros with corn on the hook I started catching skimmers and the occasional carp.

Once that line died, I came back to my short line, where I had kept feeding 4s and had a carp first drop in. I stayed on this line for most of the match, trying my margins whenever it needed a rest. However, the margins only produced 2 fish, which was strange, as both sides were full of silvers, regardless of how much I fed. Fortunately the short line kept producing.

I finished the match 3lb off claiming 3^rd and the first 90mins probably cost me, as I was a little out of touch and tried to work out how best to catch. I also lost a 4lber at the net when my elastic snapped at the connector, which didn’t help.

Well done to Richard who caught everything on the ‘teabag’ and when I had a closer look at his rig after the match, he had several takeaway tubs full of teabags. He reckoned he went through 60 bags during the match.

1.    174- 0 – Richard Rogers – p12

2.    149- 0 – Flinty – p18

3.    112- 0 – Chris Timms – p7

4.    109- 1 – Ken Rayner – p10

Silvers

1.    39- 0 – Stu White – p16

2.    21- 2 – Phil Gooding – p3

3.    20- 0 – Alan Smith – p1

4.    11- 2 – Baggy – p15

18/06/23 - Shiplate - West Pool

Weight - 113lb 0oz

Catch - 22 Carp, 4 Skimmers, 1 Roach

Weather - Warm and muggy

Match - Steve Martins Summer Series rd 2 (15 fished) - 1st overall

No matches last weekend, although I did attend a 2-day group coaching session on Thursday and Friday at Tunnel Barn with Jordon Holloway, Paul Holland and Kristian Jones. The format was in the morning rotate around the 3 anglers, then fish yourself in the afternoon.

Thursday saw Jordan fishing chopped worm across, Paul the mudline fishing micros/groundbait and Kristian caster shallow in open water. Come the afternoon I wanted to fish caster shallow as I had 4pts with me and it was something I wanted to improve upon as it’s been used a lot recently on Heron at Ivy

House.

Settling on House Pool p14, I initially struggled to get going, not helped by a gusty breeze, however by putting into practise what I had learned I ended up with 94lb of F1s in just over 4hrs, most of which I caught in the last 2hrs. Great fishing.

Friday saw Jordan fish hard pellet, Paul maggot on the short line and Kristian caster shallow towards cover. Come the afternoon I had considered fishing pellet, but it was obvious pellet wasn’t really working and to be honest I didn’t fancy buying 4pts of maggot (the shop didn’t have any casters). Instead, I spent a couple of hours with Paul, which was interesting.

Overall, a good couple of days with some top anglers. Unfortunately, some of the tactics I learnt I will not be able to use at Ivy House (heron lake) due to restrictions on the length of the latch and no overshotted rigs, but still some lessons were learnt.

Today was the 2^nd round of Steve’s summer series on Shiplate canals (Hawthorns and West Pool) and I drew p13 on West pool. The plan of action was to fish to tap in meat and micros tight across, see how it goes, then fish caster shallow and then down my margins late.

Starting across I soon stopped feeding micros as the fishing were coming up too easily, instead switching to feeding meat and a few 4s. After 45 minutes I had hooked 5 carp, but only had 1 in the net. I had been really cautious with my feed, but the fish just weren’t settling. Fortunately, I wasn’t the only one struggling in the muggy conditions, with the fish being really moody.

I had 6pts of (vacuum packed) caster with me courtesy of Mark Poppleton who said they needed using before they perished. Since the far line wasn’t fishing as expected, I decided to start priming a shallow caster line. Whilst doing that, I tried a short paste line to my left at the bottom of the near shelf in 4ft of water, that I had fed 4s and micros.

This produced a couple of skimmers and 1 carp, but I still had problems with the fish not settling. Back to the caster and I never had a bite. I fed 2pts to get them going, but no indications which was a surprise and left me wondering what to do next.

The far bank line was still proving frustrating catching another carp on meat, followed by more liners and a couple of foul hookers. A switch to paste across produced 2 more, but it just wasn’t right.

With 3hrs gone I only had 5 carp for 20lb. Fortunately the last 2.5hrs the fish decided to get their heads down. Initially, fishing 8mm meat down the right margin over caster/meat for 6 carp and then down the left margin in the deep water which proved to be really productive in the last hour where I was catching a much better stamp of fish on paste feeding a small handful of 4s and nuggets of micros.

My final weight was a touch more than I thought thanks to those late bigger stamp fish and the win puts me 2^nd in the league now, behind the ever-consistent Tony with 3 rounds remaining.

1.    113-  0 – Ken Rayner – p13 (West Pool)

2.      89-10 – Tony Gilbert – p9 (W)

3.      76-10 – Noddy – p4 (W)

4.      75-13 – Nigel Reeves – p11 (Hawthorns)

5.      72-  4 – Pete Ball – p7 (W)

04/06/23 - Ivy House - Heron

Weight - 128lb 15oz

Catch - 87 Carp, 35 F1s

Weather - Warm and sunny

Match - Steve Martin Summer Series (13 fished) - 4th overall

Today was the first round of 5 of the Steve Martins summer series. Unfortunately, a couple of anglers couldn’t make this round, meaning we only had 13. Steve also decided to do the points this year based on your position in the match rather than section points, which will make it interesting!

Heron is one of my favourite lakes and it has been kind to me recently, except for p17. So when I drew p17, I was bit gutted as there are plenty of better pegs and it’s not a noted F1 area. The only good thing was the easterly breeze blowing into my bank, so I hoped a few fish had moved into the area.

On the all-in I started at 2+2 on paste and ended up staying on this line for 90mins catching 30 fish before running out of paste. I could have mixed up some more paste, but there were fish showing over my primed shallow caster line. I soon started catching on caster, although I wasn’t catching as quickly as I had hoped and I had quite a few tiny carp, which was annoying.

To try and catch a bit quicker I started feeding groundbait and micros down both margins on my top kit, which certainly brought the fish in, however I had to cut out the groundbait as it was just getting too messy as I struggled to get a proper bite. So I just fed mircos with a few 4s and corn, and started catching some better stamp fish on corn, alternating left and right. I periodically tried the shallow line to keep the fish coming, where I caught a couple of F1s, before the tiny carp re-appeared.

Well done to Tony for winning from p19, catching shallow on pellet and to be honest I was quite pleased to get 4^th from my peg.

1.    154-11 – Tony Gilbert – p19

2.    143-  4 – Noddy – p11

3.    135-  6 – Steve Martin – p8

4.    128-15 – Ken Rayner – p17

5.    118-13 – Andy Eagle – p9

01/06/23 - Lavington - Ellis Lake

Weight - 13lb 12oz

Match - 2 Carp

Weather - Bright and sunny, cool breeze

Match - Club Evening (7 fished) - 3rd overall

The first evening match of year, to be held every 2 weeks during the summer, fishing 6-9.

Following past complaints from some members, we left pegs 1-9 free for pleasure anglers (that never turned up), which meant most of us were pegged along the opposite bank.

I drew p25 right in the middle of the island which was ideal. We expected a hard match as the carp had just finished spawning and to be honest it was a lot harder than I expected.

I caught my first carp after 75mins on the method and my second an hour later on meat to my left at the bottom of the marginal shelf, missing one bite. It really was a tough evening with the top 2 coming from the shallow end of the lake.

1.    31- 2 – Brian Bennett – p19

2.    17- 6 – Steve Musitano – p10

3.    13-12 – Ken Rayner – p25

28/05/23 - Glebe - Pool 4

Weight - 89lb 10oz (17lb 8oz - silvers)

Catch - 16 Carp, 13 Skimmers, 1 Perch, 1 Rudd

Weather - Bright & sunny, cool easterly

Match - Ross Nursey Charity day 2 - 31st out of 56 (4th out of 6 section)

Day 2 and I’ve drew much better, p68 on pool 4, although I was a little concerned as the wind was blowing down the other end of the lake, plus local expert Andy Williams turned up on p69 and Dominic on p71.

I started on the feeder tight to the far bank, fishing groundbait with a few micros and 3 or 4 dead reds or whites on the hook. After 30mins of casting every 3 minutes I caught my first fish, a rudd. This was soon followed by skimmers and a couple of carp, although I lost 2 to an overhanging bramble.

I stayed on the feeder for about 90mins before the swim faded, but I was doing alright in comparison to everyone else and to be honest it’s the first time I felt confident fishing the feeder at the Glebe due to the 20in hooklength rule. In the meantime, I kept a short line topped up ready to fish paste, but never had a bite and the anglers to my right had all started catching down their margins.

I had started pinging pellet down my left margin and fished a banded 6s, catching a couple fish, but just not quickly enough and I was now falling behind. A switch to paste again down the margin produced a couple more fish, but it was a struggle to get a clean bite. In the end I fished corn over micros which was better but still not quite right.

In the end a disappointing 2^nd half to the match, particularly as the 2 middle pegs had around 200lb, both catching on dead maggot and groundbait, which I didn’t have with me.

27/05/23 - Glebe - Pool 1

Weight - 42lb (37lb 8oz - silvers)

Catch - 43 Skimmers, 1 Crucian, 1 Tench, 1 Roach, 1 Perch, 1 Carp

Weather - Bright & sunny

Match - Ross Nursey Charity day 1 - 41st out of 52 (4th out of 6 section)

Today was the first day of the Ross Nursey charity weekend. Initially when I drew p24 on pool 1 I thought it would be Ok, although I had p30 in my section.

When I arrived at my peg it was flat, calm and bright, and the expectation was for a hard day, particularly as the fish had recently spawned.

I did try the feeder, but soon binned that off when the feeder or hooklength came back covered with weed 5 out of 6 casts which meant I focused on the pole.

I was told paste had been working, but after 30mins and no proper bites it was looking like a hard day was in prospect, even the odd fish I could see on the surface which I swung a pellet at couldn’t be tempted.

Looking around I wasn’t the only one struggling, so I decided to set up a skimmer rig just to get a few bites and hopefully catch a few carp late on.

Fishing at 3+2 with corn, feeding a small nugget of micros I started to catch skimmers up to 3lb over the next couple of hours, slowing building a decent weight of silvers.

As the day progressed a few more carp started to show on the surface, although I still couldn’t mug them, I decided to try caster. This produced more skimmers, but only 1 carp.

With an hour remaining, I felt if I could catch a couple of carp I might get 2^nd in section, as it was obvious p30 would easily win, which he did with 179lb. Therefore, it was time to try the margins, which produced a few more skimmers on corn and nothing on paste. I really thought I would catch 1 or 2 carp, but they were proving really hard to tempt.

Come the weigh-in I realised in hindsight I should have stuck with catching skimmers. The angler to my left fished a similar match to me, but he stuck with the skimmers in the last hour weighing 40lb of silvers, plus 1 carp for 47-14 and the angler to my right had 48lb for 2^nd in section.

I’m pretty confident had I stayed catching skimmers I would have had 50lb, but in reality, I didn’t expect to need skimmers to pick up in the section. Looking at the weigh sheets my section proved to be the hardest of the match and this was repeated in Sunday’s match with a number of DNW’s.