28/06/25 - Harescombe - Doughnut

Weight - 64lb 0oz

Catch - 28 Carp

Weather - Hot, sunny and increasingly windy.

Match - Summer Series rd 3 (12 fished) - 2nd in section, 3rd overall

The 3^rd round of the Summer Series and I really needed a result to put me back in the hunt.

I drew p11, not a peg I would normally rush to, however the wind has been blowing up this end and p13 has been a good area recently. My section ran from p2 to p13 and could keep an eye on everyone with the exception of p2

Due to the water levels, I brought a platform, however due to the sharp drop off it slipped down during the match although fortunately not sufficient enough to warrant an adjustment.

Plumbing up the far bank and to be honest it was awful. I found a small flatish spot but it generally dropped off from a couple inches to 5ft within a couple of metres, so not ideal.

On the all-in I caught a carp straight away on paste fishing across, however the right to left wind had already increased making presentation difficult. A switch to fishing worm over the same line just wasn’t right as I was trying to fish over a small spot and the wind was buffering the rig around. I tried fishing the method to the far bank, but never had a bite, neither had Allan Oram (p9) to my right and the signs were a little ominous.

This meant I had to try my short paste line earlier than expected where I had fed micros and 4s. The first drop in over this line and it was obvious the wind had generated quite a tow and a slightly stiffer paste was required to stay on the hook.

It took a couple of attempts to get my first fish and by feeding a ball of micros started catching. After 2hrs I was up to 7 fish, Allan had 6 and Ronaldo on p7 also had 7.

Over the next couple of hours, I mostly stayed on the short paste line, occasionally trying the method for only 2 fish, but importantly I was gradually increasing my lead over Allan and Ronaldo.

With 2hrs remaining (6hr match), the wind had increased further which coincided with my short line fading, prompting a new short swim being fed to my left. I had also fed my left margin, which resulted in 1 carp – surprisingly this was my only fish from this swim.

With an hour remaining I stopped catching. I felt I may have overfed my short line, although the strong undertow may have been putting off the fish as Allan and Steve Partington (p13) were also struggling.

In the meantime, the wind had eased off a little allowing Ronaldo to start catching on the pole over his far line, over taking me.

My short line came back to life with 30mins remaining, but it was too late to pull back the deficit on Ronaldo who had a great last hour catching 25/30lb to win the section.

In hindsight, I was disappointed not to win the section after leading for so long, however p11 isn’t great so I was pleased to finish 3^rd overall. The result has pulled me up from 6^th to 5^th in the series.

1.    88-13 – Arthur Hicks – p20

2.    76-  6 – Ronaldo – p6

3.    64-  0 – Ken Rayner – p11

4.    58-  7 – Steve Brown – p22

22/06/25 - Witherington Farm - Selwood

Weight - 83lb 13oz

Catch - 15 Carp 

Weather - Warm, sunny, cloudy periods. Increasingly windy.

Match - Tackle Den (17 fished) - 6th overall, 4th on lake

The information I received about how to approach this match was ‘slap, slap and when you are bored slap some more’. I’ll be honest I wasn’t that excited the prospects of slapping all day.

I was asked (with Andy Burns helping) to peg the lakes with 8 pegs each on Cottage and Selwood. Having pegged Cottage, we had nearly completed Selwood, when Brian Duckett informed us, an extra peg was required. As a result, this meant there was 1 peg that didn’t have a spare peg either side – permanent peg 14, which I promptly drew and in hindsight I wish I had put an extra peg on the opposite bank, as the wind was blowing into that bank.

I didn’t mind which lake I drew so long as I was at the windward end, so I wasn’t that enthusiastic about my draw with wind blowing directly from behind, but at least I could cast to the island. I really need my drawing arm to return.

On the all-in I started on the method to the island without success and fed some 4s and micros at 5m.

A switch to fishing paste at 14m feeding a few pellets with paste, resulted in liners but no proper bites. Eventually I caught my first carp over my 5m line after 45mins.

I did try slapping a pellet over the 14m line, but whilst there were carp around they didn’t seem interested and after 15mins I got bored and never picked up the rig again.

I had been pinging 8mm pellet to the island and first cast on the straight lead with a red 8mm pellet resulted in a 2lber and a further 3 carp soon followed.

The 2^nd half of the match I caught a couple more carp on the straight lead, before concentrating on the 5m line and the left-hand margin fishing paste. I was having a frustrating time, with loads of liners and no proper bites, until I cut out feeding micros, feeding just 4s was much better.

I did try worm down the margin which resulted in 1 carp, but paste seemed to be best, catching 3 fish in the last 15mins.

In the end the draw went against me as the windward side of both lakes, proved to be the place to be. An angler on each lake lost their 1 net, Andy Burns went over the net limit and Steve Venn lost 30/40lb when his 3^rd fell in whilst doing the weigh in. Needless to say he was still very happy to have beat me by 1lb.

1.    162-  4 – Andrew Black (Cottage)

2.    116-14 – Michael Triggs (Selwood)

3.    109-15 – Vince Grillo (Cottage)

4.      89-15 – Andy Burns (Cottage)

5.      85-  9 – Pete Philips (Selwood)

6.      84-13 – Steve Venn (Selwood)

21/06/25 - Harescombe - Doughnut

Weight - 91lb 13oz

Catch - 40 Carp, 1 Perch

Weather - Warm, cloudy, light showers and windy. Hot later.

Match - Open (8 fished) - 3rd overall

With only 8 of us, we all had plenty of room. I drew p7, which hasn’t been a good area recently and a strong breeze blowing right to left was likely to make fishing the far bank awkward.

Due to the recent hot weather, the water levels were down and it was easier to set up in the water.

On the all-in I started across on paste and 3 fish in the first 20mins was a good start, but the wind as expected was a pain. A switch to fishing worm, toss potting groundbait with a

few micros produced another 4 fish before the wind got stronger.

In the end I decided to try a small method cast to the far bank with a groundbait and micros mix, with a 6mm pink wafter, produced 5 fish in 30mins, confirming my suspicions there were fish to be caught.

After 2hrs 15mins I was up to 12 fish and doing OK. In the meantime, I had been feeding 4s and micros at 3m. When I switched to fishing paste, I caught almost immediately and stayed on this line for the remainder of the match, only resting it to fish the left margin in 2.5ft of water, again on paste.

I had expected the margin swim to get stronger as the match progressed, but surprisingly the deeper swim proved to be best.

It was nice to catch a few fish and to be honest I was happy to come 3^rd from the peg.

1.    113-10 – Chris Cameron – p20

2.    111-  6 – Steve Ford – p13

3.      91-13 – Ken Rayner – p7

4.      85-10 – Allan Oram – p18

19/06/25 - Lavington - Ellis

Weight - 9lb 15oz

Catch - 1 Carp, 4 Skimmers, 3 Roach, 2 Ide

Weather - Hot during the day. Light breeze

Match - Club (5 fished) - Last

Not much to say about this evening’s match. We only had 5 turn up and since there was still a pleasure angler fishing it was decided to peg us all down the far bank.

Peg 21 for me and no island chuck. As it has been hot during the day I wasn’t expecting too much in the first hour. Fishing 8mm meat in 5ft of water to my right and 4ft of water to my left only resulted in 5 small silvers, pulling out of a bream.

The second hour was worse, only adding a couple more silvers. As for the final hour I was hoping for a late run down my margin but only added 1 bream and 1 carp.

Difficult to understand why I couldn’t catch, and the poor run continues.

1.    58-  7 – Steve Musitano – p27

2.    47-  1 – Martin White – p19

3.    44-15 – Tom Ince – p25

14/06/25 - Harescombe - Match Lake

Weight - 48lb 1oz. 

Catch - 15 F1, 14 Carp, 5 Skimmers, 5 Roach

Weather - Bright & sunny. Blustery at times.

Match - Summer League 2nd round (12 fished) - 3rd in section, 7th overall

The 2^nd round of the summer league and I really needed to make up for my first-round 4^th in section.

I’m still waiting to draw pegs 15 or 16, and today the first 2 pegs to be drawn were 15 & 16, so the wait continues. Instead, I drew p21 and immediately felt I was up against it as pegs 15 & 16 were in my section.

At the draw Gary mentioned the fish had been spawning and when I arrived at my peg there were still fish at it in the margins. On the all-in I immediately tried down my margins on paste catching 3 F1s/carp in 15mins, so a good start, but the margins soon died.

I had fed 2 shorts lines, left and right, one with pellet and the other with meat. The pellet swim didn’t produce, and I caught 1 F1 on meat.

Next, I fished paste against the island boards, feeding micros and after a slow start I caught a few F1s and carp, although the wind was a pain at times. I’ve never known a venue like Harescombe when it comes to wind, as it swirls around in the valley, blowing  one way and then the other almost simultaneously.

Another look down my margins produced a couple more fish on paste down the deeper left margin and a couple of better fish on meat from the right. However, roach were being troublesome.

I had a better run of fish from a 14m line on 4mm expander, but bumped a couple of skimmers, prompting a switch to a lighter elastic (but too late!).

In the meantime, I had fed more micros over my original paste swim by the boards and started pinging 4mm pellet to my left next to the boards, really hoping to pull in some better stamp fish. By bouncing between the 2 swims, I kept putting fish in the net, but still only stockies or F1s.

With 30mins remaining I felt I was lying 2^nd in section, but I was conscious Steve Brown on p19 had started catching some proper carp from his left hand shallow margin. I tried both of my margins but only caught 1 fish from the right.

I had hoped for a couple of fish over a short meat line, but didn’t get a bite which was a surprise and meat is not working the same as last year.

So back to the paste and I hooked a decent fish, but everything went solid when I brought the fish halfway across, snagging on some discarded kit losing the fish. I did catch 2 more fish before the all-out, but I was concerned the lack of any quality might prove costly, particularly as Steve netted another proper carp on the whistle.

At the weigh in, I’ll be honest I was bit gutted when Steve beat me by 1lb to claim 2^nd in section, behind Steve Partington on p16. It’s always close between Steve and myself and it was payback for Steve as I pipped him by 1oz last year for section.

Anyway, I was ruing bumping those 2 skimmers and that lost carp to a snag. Also, I think I was unlucky not to net any proper carp, as normally 29 carp/F1 I would expect to weigh between 55-70lb. I shouldn’t complain as I have been on a great run, but the last couple of matches have put me on the back foot. Well done to Lucas who deservedly won the match to lead the series with a perfect 2pts.

1.    92.10 – Lucas Hurcombe – p10

2.    65-  6 – Steve Partington – p16

3.    62-  9 – Ronaldo – p29

4.    52-10 – Jerry Wiggett – p5

07/06/25 - Harescombe - Match

Weight - 31lb 7oz

Catch - 11 Carp, 10 F1, 2 Skimmers

Weather - Bright & sunny, breezy and cooler later

Match - Open (16 fished) - 7th overall, 3rd in section

With the 2^nd round of the Summer League coming up next week and having not fished the Match Lake for 5 weeks I needed to get back in tune.

I was happy to draw p12, as I have done well off it in the past, however with 16 anglers’ booked on I knew it was likely to be tricky.

I started just off the boards fishing paste, feeding a few micros, hoping for an early carp, however it took 25mins before I did net a carp, but it was only a 1.5lb. A couple more carp and F1s followed but nothing of any size.

An early look over my short meat line, but never had a bite, so switched back to the paste line for a couple more fish, which eventually died.

I was hoping the far line where the bank had collapsed would be my banker, although the right side was a little deeper than I remember it being from last year at 2ft deep. I cupped in some meat and micros, and soon caught an F1, but liners and foul hookers were a problem, so I switched to fishing paste. This was much better, although I wasn’t catching as quickly as expected and I was still only catching a small stamp of fish.

As the left side of the collapsed bank was shallower, I fished meat. I tried varying my feed switching from micros to groundbait, but the fish just wouldn’t come in, in any numbers.

My short meat line produced 1 decent F1 and my margins proved to be fruitless. It was all a little frustrating and on the all-out I felt I had more questions than answers.

In hindsight, I tried to push the peg too hard as I felt I needed to catch some better stamp fish, when all I needed to do was to keep catching, regardless of the stamp of fish and potentially frame. Fortunately, and more by luck than judgement I managed to pick up the section money by double de-fault.

1.    56-  9 – Chris Cameron – p11

2.    51-  5 – Steve Partington – p25

3.    39-12 – Andy Pollard – p6

4.    36-11 – Chris Fox – p21

5.    33-  4 – Martin Pettifer – p19

05/06/25 - Lavington - Ellis

Weight - 55lb 12oz (22lb 8oz)

Catch - 10 Carp, 5 Bream, 5 Tench, 6 Roach

Weather - Cool & cloudy. Rained most of the day.

Match - Club (8 fished) - 3rd overall

We had 8 for the first evening match of the year fishing 6-9.

I drew peg 24 and to be honest I wasn’t happy as I could only fish my margins on a top kit thanks to a bush to my left and reeds to my right, and it was 4ft deep.

Over the last 12 months the silvers have been showing more, small carp have been stocked and some of the bigger carp have been moved into Merretts Lake. Therefore, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but still expected I needed to catch some proper carp to compete.

I started on the method to the island, with micros and a 6mm pink wafter. Over the next 35 mins I caught a couple roach, tench and small carp, which was encouraging.

In the meantime, I had fed 8mm meat and 4mm pellet left and right in 5ft of water at 2+2. When I switched to the short lines, I immediately caught a couple of big bream on 8mm meat and some small carp, with the left side being the best.

I stopped feeding the right-hand swim in favour of feeding the right-hand margin with micros and meat. I kept catching from the left short line, but the margin was disappointing only netting a bream and a tench.

A quick look on the method produced a couple of carp including a 3lber. Another try over the margin didn’t produce so with 30mins remaining I decided to feed 2 handfuls of micros and a handful of meat. 15mins later I went back down the margin on double 8mm meat, fortunately 2 carp for 15lb proved very useful.

I had the best weight my side of the lake, but the better stamp carp seemed to be on the opposite bank. Well done to Steve who managed the best evening weight, beating my previous record of 95lb.

1.    105-  4 – Steve Ince – p6

2.      59-  4 – Steve Musitano – p8

3.      55-12 – Ken Rayner – p24

4.      53-  0 – Terry Fell – p20                                   

01/06/25 - Rood Ashton

Weight - 22lb 10oz

Catch - 8 Carp

Weather - CLoudy with sunny periods, windy.

Match - Tackle Den (18 fished) - 9th overall, 5th in section.

A nice short drive for a change to Rood Ashton. With 18 booked in, it was nearly every peg in and with the strong wind blowing into peg 1, I fancied drawing the bottom end of the lake but ended up on p14 on the top bank with the wind coming off my back.

I started on the method feeder with micros and a little groundbait, fishing a 6mm orange or pink wafter, cast towards the island. It took 45 mins to get a bite and a further 3 carp followed over the next 30mins, losing a 4^th (and biggest) at the net.

I caught my 4^th fish on meat and straight lead at 25m where I had been pinging 6mm pellet. By the end of the 2^nd hour, I netted my 5^th fish back on the feeder and I thought I had a reasonable start.

Over the next 3hrs I never had a bite no matter what I tried. I had been feeding meat and micros down my right margin and just micros down the left. With an hour remaining I eventually had a bite on paste down the left margin but was a little slow to react and the fish successfully made it to a snag. 15mins later I had another bite on paste, and I was quicker this time and managed to net my 6^th fish. I never had another bite down the margin, which to be honest I couldn’t quite believe.

2 more carp on the straight lead and meat concluded what was a boring match, but at least I managed to top up my hooklength box! As expected, the bottom end of the lake and woodside bank proved to be best.

1.    85-14 – Steve Venn – p19

2.    72-  5 – Andrew Black – p4

3.    58-  4 – Matt Gale – p1

4.    47-  7 – Bobby Moore – p18

5.    42-  3 – Pete Philips – p21

6.    37-  7 – Matt Greaves – p2

31/05/25 - Harescombe - Doughnut

Weight - 42lb 11oz

Catch - 17 Carp, 1 Eel

Weather - Mostly sunny with cloudy periods. Breezy at times.

Match - Summer Series rd1 (12 fished) - 5th overall, 4th in section

The first round of the Summer Series and 12 had booked in. There will be 6 rounds alternating between the Doughnut and Match Lakes, with the first round being on Doughnut.

I wasn’t too disappointed with p4 and thought it would be a good section peg, and as it was only 14m wide it would be more comfortable fishing to the island, than some of the wider pegs in the cross wind.

I started across on corn, tapping in micros, but the wind had picked up a little, making presentation awkward. A switch to a heavier rig improved presentation, fishing worm over caster (as I still had loads left over from Tunnel Barn) and groundbait, I eventually caught my first fish after 45mins.

In the meantime, Allan Oram and Lucas Hurcombe either side of me were already 3 fish ahead. By sticking with the far line I caught slowly, but at least I wasn’t falling any further behind. I tried different feed patterns to catch more quickly and the most effective way to catch was to cut out the caster and just feed a small ball of groundbait with a few micros. Unfortunately, I realised this a little too late.

I had also been feeding meat at 2+2 to my right in 5ft of water and 2+2 to my left in 3ft of water. I caught 2 fish from the right and 1 from the left. However, due to the increased breeze the tow had picked up and I kept thinking I should switch to paste or switch to a heavier rig.

Based on how tight the section proved to be I was quite annoyed with myself, for being too slow to sort out my feeding to the island and not switching rigs/method over my short lines, as 2 more fish would have got me 2^nd in section, instead of 4^th.

So not the best start to the league and hopefully this will be my dropper.

1.    69-12 – Lucas Hurcombe – p2

2.    53-  0 – Arthur Hicks – p22

3.    45-11 – Steve Partington – p13

4.    44-  6 – Ronaldo – p11

5.    42-11 – Ken Rayner – p4