23/03/25 - Lavington - Ellis

Weight - 24lb 11oz (14lb 14oz - silvers)

Catch - 3 Carp, 6 Bream, 4 Roach, 2 Ide

Weather - Mostly cloudy and cool breeze.

Match - Club (12 fished) - 4th overall

I drew p25, which to be honest I wasn’t that happy with as it 6ft deep at 2+2, going to 7ft further out, which I felt was too deep to catch properly. Therefore, I needed to catch short fishing left and right in 5 or 6ft of water or fishing tight to the island.

I started on the method to the island but overhanging branches were problematic and ended up switching to the pole lines much soon than intended. I had kept pinging 8s to the island and fishing the straight lead a couple of metres off the island, but never had a bite.

On the all in I had fed a 50:50 mix of Black ReAct : Black Bubblegum, with dead maggot and micros 10m to my right in 6ft of water. The first 2 hours were quite productive, catching 4 bream, with a few smaller fish in between. I found topping up with a small ball of feed every couple of fish was best, however as time went on I had to wait longer for bites.

I had also been feeding meat and micros to my left, catching a 6lber quiet quickly and fully expecting to catch a couple more. However, I only managed 1 bream over this line.

I had also been feeding margins, caster and corn down the right and meat and micros down the left. I never had a bite, in fact at the end of the match I scooped the margins with my landing net and the bait was still there.

The fish just didn’t want to come in too close and I regretted not bring a waggler rod as Martin to my left managed 3 carp on maggot in the last 2hrs and they were a much bigger stamp than mine.

As it happened the top 3 came from what were end pegs and probably an indication the fish preferred at the quieter ends of the lake.

1.    45-15 – Tom Ince – p1 (incl. 25- 8 silvers)

2.    37-15 – Tim Lynch – p11

3.    30-  9 – Martin White – p27

4.    24-11 – Ken Rayner – p25

16/03/25 - Hillview - Canal 2

Weight - 50lb 9oz (11lb 11oz - silvers)

Catch - 16 Ide, 8 Carp, 7 Ide, 1 Perch, 1 Roach, 1 Rudd, 1 Gudgeon

Weather - Sunny with cloudy periods. Cold northerly breeze.

Match - Tackle Den (18 fished), 1st in section, 8th overall

After packing away the woolly hat following last weekend’s warm weather, I had to get it out again as it was -2 overnight and a cold northerly breeze.

Todays match was over Canal 2,3 & 4, and I drew p56 on Canal 2. Not normally the end you want, however 90lb came off it yesterday, so no pressure.

I started off fishing the bottom of the far shelf tapping in maggot and a few micros with maggot on the hook and almost immediately got snagged on something, snapping the rig just above the hooklength! I then tried fishing tight across on maggot as I saw a couple of anglers further down catching but couldn't get a bite.

After sorting out a replacement rig, I was back down the bottom of the shelf, slightly to the left of the ‘snag’ and eventually caught my first fish after 45mins on maggot. I then had a run of fish (Ide, small F1s and a couple of Carp up to 4lb) over this line, before it dried up.

I tried the far bank again but only caught an Ide and a Perch.

A switch to fishing next to the p55 platform where I had fed maggot from the start, initially proved a bit tricky, but by tapping maggot and a few micros I started to catch a few Ide, before the F1s and Carp turned up. It was slow going but at least I was catching.

I tried other areas of the swim, but the only place I could catch properly was by the p55 pallet.

With 90mins remaining I felt I needed some of the better stamp of Carp to make up for my slow start, so started feeding the end bank with meat and micros. Although I had to wait for bites, I managed 3 Carp, plus a few more F1s/Carp from the pallet swim on maggot.

In the end I managed to win the lake by only 1lb, however the other 2 canals fished much better.

1.    102-  6 – Andy Bartlett – p88 (C4)

2.    100-15 – John Brady – p79 (C3)

3.      85-13 – Matt Greaves – p72 (C3)

4.      84-  3 – Andy Burns – p84 (C4)

5.      74-  5 – Andy Black – p91 (C4)

09/03/25 - Harescombe - Doughnut

Weight - 24lb 15oz

Catch - 13 Carp

Weather - Warm and sunny. Breezy at times.

Match - Teams of 4 (32 fished) - 1st in section, 12th overall

Today was the last round of the Teams of 4 and we knew if we came 4^th on the day, then we would win the league.

Due to the warmer weather, our team Whatsapp group debated using meat, which I suggested could be important, alas our team captain was less than enthusiastic about it. However, I cut up some meat for everyone regardless.

The draw was a bit of a mixed bag. Steve drew P1 on Meadow, which hasn’t been great this series, Andy was P1 on Field which has been very good or very poor, Alistair was disappointed with p20 on Match, however recent results have shown the fish have moved to the far side of the lake and I thought he would be Ok. As for me I drew p21 again, so I was more than happy.

Speaking to Ronaldo on p18 he thought 70lb could win. I wasn’t quite as optimistic but still felt we would be in for a good day, adding meat, corn and micros to my side tray along with maggot and groundbait (50:50 mix of Uzit Black React & Crushed Expander).

On the all-in I started off dobbin maggot across to the far bank, just to see the reaction and after 10mins I didn’t have a bite, which was a concern.

I eventually caught my first carp on maggot, tapping in maggot, a few micros and a tiny nugget of groundbait, fishing tight across. After an hour I moved to 3 carp, which was leading the lake, so it was fishing a lot harder than expected.

The next hour didn’t produce anything, and I even resorted to trying the straight lead as a northerly breeze picked up without success.

I managed 2 more carp during the third hour, again over tiny nuggets of groundbait, but then I couldn’t get a bite.

I tried the dobbin rig again and managed to find a pod of fish off to my left at the limit of my 16m pole, putting 5 fish into the net over a 30min spell.

A chat with Andy with an hour remaining suggested both he and Steve were struggling, which prompted me giving Andy a pep talk as he had nothing to lose and to put some bait in!

I had 3 more fish over tiny nuggets of groundbait and maggot in the last hour. I had fed maggot short but never had a bite.

So, a much harder day than expected, but at least I managed to win the lake.

Back at the café I went straight to Field Lake, where Andy managed 2 late lumps down his margin on the meat, much to the amusement of the rest of the team, to finish 3^rd. Steve had a tougher time coming 6^th, whilst Alistair won match lake, which meant we won the day and the league.

Needless to say we were very happy with the result and a great team effort throughtout the whole series. 

Well done to Ed Bryant for running the league and Gary & Cathryn who have been brilliant hosts.

1.    57-  7 – Alistair Tilney (Tackle Den) – P20 (match)

2.    51-  1 – Andy Jane (Maver Green) – p6 (field)

3.    48-  4 – Andy Fry (1,2,3,4) – p5 (field)

4.    43-10 – Steve Brown (Maver Green) – p18 (match)

5.    43-  1 – Mick O’Brien (Swinetown) – p16 (match)

6.    41-  1 – Jerry Wiggett (Maver Black) – p14 (match)

Team on the Day

1.    11pts – Tackle Den

2.    12pts – Maver Green

3.    15pts – Maver Black

4.    16pts – Swinetown

Final Standings

1.    10pts – Tackle Den

2.    19pts – Maver Green

3.    20pts - Fintastic

02/03/25 - Harescombe - Match

Weight - 8lb 3oz

Catch - 11 Roach, 8 Skimmers, 2 F1s, 1 Carp

Weather - -4c overnight, bright and sunny

Match - Open (12 fished) - 9th overall

I haven’t fished the Match Lake for a while and was looking forward to it, and I was happy enough with p13.

I also knew the fishing was likely to be tough following overnight temperatutres of -4c and it was bright and sunny during the match. Lovely to fish it, but not necessarily good for the fishing.

I started off cautiously just feeding a tiny nugget of groundbait with micros to the left and right at the bottom of the far shelf, fishing a 4mm expander. I soon caught a skimmer and pulled out of another from the left hand swim. A quick try over the right-hand swim didn’t produce, so returned to the left hand swim. After a couple of quick bites I thought there might be a few silvers in the swim and soon switched to a maggot rig and lighter elastic.

I caught a couple more skimmers and then the swim just seemed to be full of blippy roach. When I caught an F1, I thought I would get a few more, but just caught more roach and going nowhere fast.

Back to the right-hand swim, I caught a small carp and another F1 on expander, but these were the only fish I caught here. To try and make something happen, I tried pinging 4mm pellet over the right-hand swim hoping to catch late on, however without success.

As the upper layers of water warmed up, I was convinced I would catch fishing tight across to the island in shallower water. Despite feeding different baits and groundbait to get a response, I only had a couple of liners and no bites.

Having left my original left-hand swim alone for 90mins I went back, but the swim was still full of roach.

I had also been feeding maggot short, hoping for a carp/F1 late on, but only had more roach or tiny skimmers. As a final throw of the dice, I had meat and micros down the margin, again hoping for some carp/F1s, but never had a bite.

A really frustrating day. The fact I had so many silvers in my peg just illustrated there weren’t many carp in the swim and for what ever reason they just didn’t want to feed.

1.    40-11 – Robin Shaw – p25

2.    24-  8 – Jerry Wiggett – p16

3.    18-  0 – Steve Partington – p21

4.    17-  9 – Tom Driver – p29