29/12/24 - Harescombe - Doughnut

Weight - 56lb 12oz

Catch - 26 Carp

Weather - Cloudy with sunny period.

Match - Open (20 fished) - joint 1st overall

With the upcoming teams of 4 I booked into todays match. With 20 booked on, the pegging was going to be a bit tight and p21 was in the right area, although a little concerned as I was in middle of 5 anglers.

 
As I was setting up it was obvious there was a few fish in front of me, although the water was quite clear and hoped they would feed. On the all-in I tried dobbin bread across, but couldn’t get a proper bite, whilst Nigel Reeves to my left and Andy Fry to my right were catching straight away dobbin maggot. I tried catching on the deck by a clump of sedges tapping in maggot with a little

crushed expander, which produced 5 fish, but I wasn’t catching as quickly as Nigel, who got off to a flying start.
 
I did catch one carp dobbin corn skins, but it just wasn’t right and after an hour I set up a light 4x10 rig to fish maggot.
 
It was a relief to start catching and I spent the next 3hrs dobbin maggot along various areas of the far bank.
 
The last hour slowed down. I had fed maggot at 2+2 and at the bottom of the far shelf, but never had a bite, from either swim. Fortunately, I managed to catch a couple more carp, dobbin maggot, including one on the all-out.
 
At the weigh in, I knew I had been catching up Nigel, but thought he was just ahead of me, so was a little surprised when we both weighed the same to jointly win the match.
 

1.    56-12 – Ken Rayner – p21
1.    56-12 – Nigel Reeves – p22
3.    41-11 – Martin Pettifer – p7
4.    40-13 – George Organ – p5
5.    39-  3 – Gary Townsend – p19

28/12/24 - Todber Manor - Hillview

Weight - 129lb 5oz

Catch - 43 Carp, 4 Roach, 1 Perch

Weather - Grey, overcast and cold.

Match - Open (11 fished) - 5th overall

After a tough month of not catching a lot, I decided to fish todays open to get a few bites and looking at yesterdays result the bulk of the fish appeared in front of pegs 58 & 56 which were first and second with 486lb (Martin Rogers) & 446lb (Jack Stamp) respectively.

I wasn’t disappointed to draw p48 and speaking to Lee Jan who drew it yesterday, he weighed 262lb for 4^th mostly catching down the margin on maggot over micros.

I started at 4m on 6mm bubblegum pellet over 6s. After 45mins I had 11 fish and looking around it seemed to be on par with everyone else. I had an early look down my margin, but had no bites and my short pellet line was now fading.

As there were fish boshing by the island, I tried fishing the method, hooking 4 fish, but only netting 2 and by the end of the second hour I had added not a lot as I chopped and changed. In hindsight I was trying to force the peg too much, expecting 200lb+, when the fish weren’t really having it.

I wasn’t the only one struggling and decided to change tact slightly. I set up a new line at 10m, feeding 4mm pellet, instead of 6s and started catching again, but just as I thought I was lining a few up, the swim faded again. Fortunately, the margin swim started to show signs of life where I caught for the last 90mins fishing dead maggot over micros, although the last 15mins the fish had backed off.

Overall, the lake fished harder than yesterday, and I didn’t get my feed right and should have fished a different match, but at least I caught a few fish which was welcome.

1.    237-  0 – Tony Gilbert – p44

2.    184-14 – Alfie Rhodes – p54

3.    157-  2 – Adrian Drew – p49

22/12/24 - Shiplate - Hawthorns

Weight - 18- 0

Catch - 4 Carp, 1 Ruffe

Weather - North westerly gales. Cold, mostly sunny

Match - Winter League (14 fished)

I agreed to fill in for Luke Fothergill for this final round of the Winter League. I must admit I questioned why, as 50mph winds were being forecast. Fortunately, as we were on the canals, the north westerly would be mostly blowing from behind.

Peg 5 on Hawthorns was my home for the day and to be honest not a lot happened.

The far bank plumbed up horribly, not helped by the far bank shrubbery as I couldn’t get tight to the far bank. I did manage 2 carp dobbin bread in the first 15mins and thought it might be ok, however those fish were a false dawn.

I managed 1 more carp on maggot, fishing the bottom of the far shelf and 30mins from the end caught another carp in front of peg 6 on meat over micros.

Despite the tough run I’ve been on, I have always felt I’ve done OK, however today, it was obvious I had got something wrong as there was a 52lb to my left and 37lb to my right.

1.    124-  3 – Mark Poppleton – p7 (West Pool)

2.    117-  2 – Gary Flinders – p13 (WP)

3.      96-  4 – John Mills – p1 (WP)

4.      90-  9 – Mark – p5 (WP)

21/12/24 - Sedges - Tile Lake

Weight - 20lb 12oz

Catch - 3 Carp, 2 Skimmers

Weather - Mostly cloudy, strong westerly

Match - Uzit Bomb & Feeder League - rd 4 (33 fished) - 2nd in section, 15th overall

As the 4^th round of the league was postponed 2 weeks ago due to Storm Darragh, today was effectively the 4^th round (and the final round is now 1^st February).

I was lying 7^th in the league, but there are 5 of us on 5pts and I have the lowest cumulative weight, so today I really wanted to draw a corner and to put a decent weight in the net.

I was a little disappointed with p33, which to be fair is a decent section peg, but I was always going to be fishing for 2^nd as venue regular, Paul Homewood turned up on p31.

It rained heavily yesterday which meant today was going to be tough and I started the match cautiously, trying the lead & bread towards the island, then corn without success. In the meantime, Paul had caught a couple of carp and the writing was already on the wall.

After 30mins, I decided to try the pellet cone (80:20 mix of bubblegum micros and 2mm P-Nut pellet) and double corn and 10mins later I netted my first carp, which was a relief.

I had my 2^nd carp an hour later, again on the pellet cone and corn, but it was fair to say that it was hard going, and other than Paul no one else had caught a carp in my section.

As a backup I had fed groundbait and maggot at 16m in case I needed some skimmers, but I only fished this swim for 15min without success and I didn’t waste too much time trying, as I had already caught a carp, I wanted to concentrate on catching another one or two.

I tried pinging corn halfway to the island, but it was spreading too much in the strong head wind, so I switched to 6mm pellet. Unfortunately, I only caught 1 skimmer over this line. I also tried fishing the method tight to the island and unsurprisingly never had a bite.

With 30mins remaining I eventually caught my 3^rd and final carp, again on double corn and the cone. I did have another bite 5mins before the end on double corn, but it was only a skimmer.

As expected, Paul won the section with 47lb and I was pleased to finish 2^nd in section, which pushed me into 6^th in the league. Fingers crossed for a corner peg and a boat load of fish in the final round.

1.    82-13 – Pete Sivell – p39 (Tile)

2.    78-  3 – Jamie Cook – p9 (Brick)

3.    74-  4 – Dave Wykes – p40 (T)

4.    49-11 – Phil Phelps – p11 (B)

5.    47-  2 – Paul Homewood – p31 (T)

6.    46-10 – Chris Higgs – p27 (T)

15/12/24 - Lavington - Ellis Lake

Weight - 13lb 3oz

Catch - 7 Perch, 5 Roach, 2 Carp

Weather - Mild,mostly cloudy with sunny periods. Breezy at times

Match - Club Christmas Match (14 fished) - 12th overall

With 14 anglers, this Christmas match was always going to be tough one. P25 put me in an area I thought would be Ok and I at least avoided the shallower end of the lake.

 

Starting on the lead and bread produced a small carp straight away. With no further bites on bread or corn, I tried my 11m line where I fed a 50:50 mix of Black ReAct & Black Bubblegum groundbait, a few 2mm p-nut pellet and dead reds. This produced some roach up to 12oz and then another small carp.
 
The rest of the match was just a struggle. I managed a handful of perch to my right at 8m on maggot, but I really needed to catch some carp.
 
I had expected to catch by the island late on where I had been pinging 4mm pellet and corn, but never had a bite. In fact, I tried various areas of the swim without success.
 
By the all out, I was in a row of 6 pegs, that were bottom of the standings, so obviously the fish didn’t want to be in the area. My peg was 8ft at 6m and just over 9ft at 11m, which in hindsight was too deep and the fish didn’t want to come in too close the bank.
 
As it turned out the shallower end of the lake was the place to be.
 
1.    38-  1 – Tim Lynch – p11
2.    29-  6 – Martin C – p17
3.    25-12 – Terry Fell – p7
4.    23-  7 – Mark Cartwright – p5
5.    23-  4 – Tom Ince – p13   

08/12/24 - Hillview - Moorhen

Weight - 18lb 9oz

Catch - 3 F1s, 3 Skimmers, 1 Perch

Weather - Northerly gales, rain later

Match - Tackle Den (18 fished) - 10th overall, 5th on the lake

The 4^th round of the Bomb & Feeder league at Sedges fell victim to Storm Darragh with 70mph wind gusts forecast and a met office red warning issued.

The wind for today had reduced to 40mph gusts blowing in from the north, so a cold day was likely.

Today was the final Tackle Den match of the year and we would be on Moorhen and canal 2. I drew p6 on Moorhen which is normally a good peg, however I had the wind blowing straight into my face and an uncomfortable day was on the cards.

I started on the straight lead towards the island, firstly with bread and then corn without a bite. I then tried the maggot feeder, but halfway into the match I was still fishless.

I had also been cupping in maggot at 2+2, expecting to catch a few Ide, but felt in hindsight I had fed a little too heavily, so set up another swim to my right were it started to shelve up, feeding more negatively with micros and maggot.

The 2^nd half of the match was better, as I eventually caught an F1 on the maggot feeder, then caught a couple of skimmers and an absolute beast of an F1 weighing 8lb 10oz over my negatively feed pole line. I caught my final F1 from the right margin over dead maggot.

I was surprised not to catch any Ide, but it was bitterly cold in the wind and all the better weights on the lake were to my right, with Matt Greaves winning our lake from p9. However, canal 2 was the place to be as it offered some shelter from the wind. Another day for me to forget, but it was tough for most due to the poor weather conditions.

I finished the club aggregate league in 2^nd behind Andrew Black who deservedly won and Matt finished 3^rd.

1.    65-  9 – Alistair Tilney – p60 (Canal 2)

2.    54-  2 – Jason Crump – p65 (C2)

3.    38-  6 – Pete Phillips – p67 (C2)

4.    35-13 – Matt Greaves – p9 (M)

5.    32-10 – Paul Stafford – p62 (C2)

1/12/24 - Harescombe - Field Lake

Weight - 4lb 14oz

Catch - 1 Carp, 4 Skimmers, 1 Roach

Weather - Sunshine and showers

Match - Open (10 fished) - 7th overall

Another trip to Harescombe, this time on Field Lake and I really thought it couldn’t be any worse than yesterday.

Peg 1 put me on the first peg after the Willow tree on the left bank and I fancied it for a few particularly late on meat. Well, another disappointing day. I started on bread into the right-hand corner and then the lead & bread 20m out, without success.

As very few carp had been caught, I tried catching some silvers at 13m and then 14.5m om maggot over groundbait for a few skimmers. To be honest I thought I would at least catch a few more than I did.

With 2 hours remaining, I needed to catch some carp and started pinging corn and pellet at 16m. I had hoped I would catch on a 3+2 line with meat and to be honest I couldn’t believe I couldn’t get a bite. I eventually caught a small carp on meat fishing into the right-hand corner late on.

Overall, the whole lake fished very hard. The top 3 all caught fishing single baits against features. Very little was caught over any feed. Ed Bryant to my left and Luke Seabrook on the dam wall tried catching through the water, which both are very good at without success.

A frustrating day and I’ll be glad when the fish settle down and we can catch a few fish.

1.    25-  3 – Aaron Nash

2.    24-13 – Allan Oram

3.    20-  3 – Andrew Black

30/11/24 - Harescombe - Match Lake

Weight - 4lb 15oz

Catch - 1 Carp, 1 Skimmer

Weather - Mild and cloudy. Breezy at times

Match - Open (14 fished) - 10th overall

I was looking forward to fishing Match Lake as I haven’t fished it since September and some new fish were added a few weeks ago.

Although I expected a tricky day, I was happy with p22 as it has been a good area recently. I started dobbin bread across to the island, I hooked a foul hooker, which soon came off. Next put in I had a proper bite and it was a good fish, which then snagged me in some near bank sedges. The 3^rd put in I foul hooked another fish, which also came off.

So, not the best start, and no more bites.

I just couldn’t get a bite. I had 2 swims set up to fish against the island, toss potting maggot in one and a little groundbait over the other, where I had 1 skimmer. I also fed my margins with maggot and meat over a short line, sure I would at least get a couple of late fish, but nothing. I even tried pinging pellet to my left, but I just couldn’t catch any fish.

My one and only carp came on the all-out dobbin bread against the island. Liam next to me on p24 only had 2 carp, so a classic case of aquatic bingo as the fish seemed to have shoaled up in other areas of the lake.

1.     79-  4 – Allan Oram – p29

2.     54-15 – Steve Partington – p4

3.     41-  4 – Mick O’Brien – p20

4.     34-  5 – Jerry Wiggett – p10