05/10/24 - Harescombe - Doughnut Lake

Weight - 96lb 8oz 

Catch - 52 Carp

Weather - Bright, sunny and breezy at times

Match - Open (9 fished) - 2nd overall

As it was a while since my last visit to this lake, I was looking forward to returning. I wasn’t too concerned where I drew and ended up on peg 23. As I wasn’t sure what would work, particularly after the cold start to the day, I fed 2 swims at the bottom of the far shelf in 6.5ft of water. 2mm p-nut pellet and corn covered in p-nut cloud was deposited out in front and a ball of GLM : Crushed Expander to my left.

As it happened, I never went over the groundbait swim, as I kept catching by toss potting corn and micros, fishing corn on the hook, catching 14 carp in the first 90mins before the swim began to fade.

I knew I was slightly behind Steve on p20 and felt I needed to change tact. A switch to fishing the far bank again fishing corn over toss potted corn and 2mm p-nut pellet I kept catching, although the wind at times was a pain and I’m sure I left 10-20lb behind.

Come the last hour I needed to rest the far line and so I tried meat down the marginal slope, but in hindsight I wish hadn’t. I struggled to get a clean bite, netting only 3 fish, losing another 3, and wished I had set up a line at the bottom of the near shelf.

By the all-out I thought I was ahead of Steve on the fish count, however he had caught a few 4-5lb fish which made the difference and so took the win.

An enjoyable day and other than the wind a pleasant day weather wise.

1.    109-  8 – Steve Partington – p20

2.      96-  8 – Ken Rayner – p23

3.      77-  5 – Liam Coombley – p21

4.      69-13 – Mick O’Brien – p14