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