29/11/25 - Harescombe - Doughnut

Weight - 33lb 13oz

Catch - 13 Carp, 1 Perch

Weather - Wet start, sunny later

Match - Winter League rd3 (14 fished) - 2nd section, 6th overall

The 3^rd round of the Winter League and we were down a man, however they had paid their pools which is appreciated.

I drew p3, which to be honest I wasn’t overly excited about, particularly as it came last in section during the first round. Plumbing up revealed why it’s not the best area of the lake in the winter, as its little narrower (14m) and shallower. That said, I would have been disappointed not to get at least 2^nd in section.

I had intended to start the match dobbing bread or maggot, however the far bank plumbed up like a scrap yard and was much shallower than expected. So, I decided to try the lead and bread off to my right where a fish had shown itself whilst setting up, however without success.

I eventually caught my first fish after 45mins, fishing a metre off the far bank slightly the left in 3ft of water where it was flatish, initially feeding a small ball of groundbait (Top G:Crushed Expander) and then tapping in maggot (covered with So Simple Red Dye) and a few baninion micros, with maggot on the hook. A further 3 followed and I was leading the section, with Tom Driver on p1 being the only other angler to have caught in my section.

After that burst of fish, the swim slowed and I tried the straight lead and maggot off to my right where I been pinging maggot but never had a bite all match over this line. Returning to my ‘3ft’ swim produced another 2 fish before the swim died again.

So far, I had ignored fishing tight to the far bank, trying not to put any fish that were in the swim under too much pressure, but I now felt I had no choice. After feeding a little groundbait and maggot I caught 2 carp quite quickly on maggot, but again the action didn’t last. In the meantime, Tom’s peg had sparked into life, and he was catching a better stamp of fish.

I had fed a 2+2 line with groundbait, loose feeding maggot over the top. With an hour to go I dropped in on this line and caught 2 carp straight away and thought here we go but couldn’t catch another.

I had another 2 fish from a new ‘3ft’ water swim to the left of the original, but that was it. During the last 15mins I had another carp over the short line on maggot but couldn’t get another.

By the all-out I knew Tom had one more fish than me, so I was looking at 2^nd in section. Fortunately, the rest of my section struggled with 8lb being the next best.

So, at the halfway point I’m lying 4^th in the league and after having 2 ‘iffy’ draws, I am at least still in with a shout making the top 3, although Chris Cameron now has 3pts and is proving difficult to beat.

1.    60-  1 – Chris Cameron – p21

2.    59-  7 – Nigel Reeves – p22

3.    51-  5 – Simon Duke – p26

4.    49-  3 – Tom Driver – p1

     5.    48-  3 – Andy Fry – p17

23/11/25 - Ivy House - Moorhen

Weight - 38lb 8oz

Catch - 16 Carp, 6 F1

Weather - Cold start and bright

Match - Tackle Den (20 fished) - 4th overall, 3rd in section

We had 20 booked on today, 12 on Kingfisher and 8 on Moorhen, and virtually every peg in. I drew p33 on Moorhen which was OK.

I took the water temperature which showed 5.2c, compared to 12c 2 weeks ago. Combined with recent heavy rain (which brought the levels up a little) and a cold snap it was likely to be a hard day.

I started across tapping in a few maggots and didn’t have a bite. In the meantime, Alistair to my left started catching immediately dobbin bread, and I had to follow suit, eventually catching my first fish 30mins into the match.

It was noticeable I was on the edge of the fish as Alistair kept catching and most of my fish came by fishing to my left towards Ali. I only had 1 fish to my right all match.

Over an hour I caught 8 carp all on bread, but my catch rate was slowing, so I switched to fishing at the bottom of the far shelf (13.5m) fishing a 4mm expander over tiny nuggets of fishery micros boosted with Baninion and groundbait (Top G & Crushed Expander). I had to move to my left to stay in contact with the fish, but at least I was catching albeit more F1s which were a smaller stamp than the carp. I tried maggot on the hook to see whether I could catch quicker, however this just resulted in a roach which fell off.

With 90mins remaining the swim was fading and decided to try across tight to the far bank fishing 4mm expander feeding nuggets of micros and groundbait. This resulted in more carp, bouncing between 2 swims to keep them coming.

The last 30mins slowed down, as had the whole lake. I had tried a short maggot line but only gave it 5mins when I couldn’t get a bite.

On the all-out I knew Alistair had won our lake and I missed out picking up the section as Andy Burns on the end peg (p35) weighed 43lb.

1.    55-13 – Alistair Tilney – p32 (Moorhen)

2.    53-  9 – John Brady – p42 (Kingfisher)

3.    43-  8 – Andy Burns – p35 (Moorhen)

4.    38-  8 – Ken Rayner – p33 (Moorhen)

5.    38-  7 – Andy Bartlett – p48 (Kingfisher)

6.    31-  8 – Steve Venn – p47 (Kingfisher)

15/11/25 - Harescombe - Match

Weight - 24lb 0oz

Catch - 7 F1s, 2 Carp (5 Skimmers, 4 Roach, 2 Rudd, 1 Gudgeon)e 

Weather - Grey & overcast. Northerly breeze.

Match - Winter League - rd 2 (15 fished) - 7th overall, 3rd in section

The 2^nd round of the Winter League and after all the rain yesterday thanks to Storm Claudia I was expecting loads of water to be to running into the lake from the spillway. Surprisingly, as the lakes are interconnected, the expected extra (and much needed) water just filled up the lakes above match lake.

I drew p7 which isn’t the best and honestly thought I would be up against it as my section included Chris Cameron on p4, plus pegs 2 and p29.

On the all-in I started on corn boosted with baninion, tapping in a few baninion 4s and micros a metre off the far bank. After 30mins I had 2 F1 and no one else had caught in my section yet.

As expected, the match proved to be hard going. I tried fishing maggot over a 2+2 line fed with BMGX but only caught tiny silvers which weren’t adding a real weight. I also tried my right margin with corn or pellet without success, and maggot only produced more small silvers.

Therefore, I spent most of the match trying to catch tight to the boards (without success) or a metre of the far bank where I had 2 swims, left (fed with nuggets of Top G and micros) and right (fed with micros and a few 4s), fishing a 4mm expander.

The left swim was best and it wasn’t until I fed a nugget of groundbait over the right swim that I caught.

With 90mins remaining I cupped some 4s and micros long to my right at 16m pinging 4s over the top. This produced 2 more fish late, 1 on corn and the other on 4mm pellet.

By the weigh in I thought both Tom Driver on p6 and Chris on p4 had beaten me, and they did as I finished 3^rd in section. I think I was little unlucky as we all had similar number of fish, however I caught mostly F1s, whilst both Tom and Chris both had carp including 2 better stamp fish that made the difference.

1.    59-14 – Andy Fry – p16

2.    33-  8 – Nigel Reeves – p15

3.    30-11 – Simon Duke – p20

4.    30-  7 – Chris Cameron – p4

5.    29-  4 – Steve Ford – p11 

13/11/25 - Harescombe - Match

Weight - 23lb 9oz

Catch - 6 Carp, 3 F1, 1 Skimmer

Weather - Mild & sunny.

Match - Open (14 anglers) - 3rd overall, 2nd in section

Fished todays open in preparation for the 2^nd round of Winter League this Saturday and I drew p29, an interesting peg as it has loads of features, but can be a bit boom or bust.

Initially, I wasn’t sure whether it would be boom, as the wind has been blowing down the other end of the lake for a few weeks which has been the place to draw. However, on arrival I saw 2 carp sitting under the aerator and plumbing around I bumped into a couple of fish.

On the all-in I started down the right margin

fishing the other side of the spillway, tapping in a few baninion 4s and micros fishing corn boosted with baninion. After 15mins I had 2 carp, increasing to 4 by the end of the hour and thought 50/60lb may be on the cards.

Well, the next 3 hours was tough. I only caught 1 tiny skimmer in open water on expander over micros. The real surprise was I was unable to catch properly from the point of the island and down the left-hand bank.

There seemed to be plenty of fish, but they just didn’t open their mouths, and I lost a couple of foul hookers.

In the last hour I managed 3 more carp from the right margin all on corn. Looking down the lake, I could see that not much had been caught and fortunately I manged to sneak into 3^rd overall with the better weights coming from the other end of the lake.

1.    48-  5 – Simon Stacey – p12

2.    41-12 – Tony Rixon – p16

3.    23-  9 – Ken Rayner – p29

4.    22-  9 – Allan Oram – p14

5.    17-15 – Mark Wooldridge – p24

09/11/25 - Ivy House - Kingfisher

Weight - 84lb 14oz

Catch - 35 Carp, 9 F1s

Weather - Mostly cloudy, occasional shower and blustery at times.

Match - Tackle Den (17 fished) - 1st overall

Today’s match was on the canals, Kingfisher and Moorhen. Both lakes, along with the Old Match Lake have recently been stocked with the fish from Heron Lake, which has now been sold.

The draw put me on p45 on Kingfisher, which normally isn’t the best area, however I did have a spare peg to my left. I was also surprised at how low the lake was and made the decision to set up in the margin. What I didn’t realise until it was too late was shipping out to 14m was going to be awkward as I was sat so far below the bank.

Plumbing up revealed only 2.5ft of water down the middle and 2ft tight to the far bank.

On the all-in I started on a 4mm expander tapping in fishery micros & 4s boosted with So Simple Baninion at 14m. I caught small carp immediately, but felt the micros were bringing in too many small fish.

So, I switched to hair rigging a 4mm pellet over toss potted 4s and the stamp of fish immediately improved, rotating 2 swims at 14m.

After 2hrs I was up to 16 fish and switched to tapping 4s at 16m tight across to keep putting fish in the net. I had a quiet 30min spell after a fish snagged me in some roots on the far bank.

A brief look over a short maggot line didn’t produce a bite, and I never tried this line again.

The 14m lines continued to produce, but it wasn’t until I went to 14.5m over 2 swims that my catch rate increased, still tapping in 4s. I occasionally tried the 16m swim where I tried pinging pellet, but that resulted in too many liners so I stuck with tapping in pellet, but could only catch 2 or 3 fish before having to rest the swim.

Late on I also caught down the bottom of the left-hand margin, again on pellet.

In the end a lovely day’s fishing.

1.    84-14 – Ken Rayner – p45 (kingfisher)

2.    76-  4 – Matt Greaves – p28 (moorhen)

3.    61-  1 – Steve Venn – p48 (kingfisher)

4.    58-14 – Steve Broadhurst – p49 (kingfisher)

5.    52-10 – Luke Sherman – p31 (moorhen)

01/11/25 - Harescombe - Doughnut

Weight - 39lb 10oz

Catch - 14 Carp

Weather - Showers to start, dry later. Breezy at times.

Match - Winter League rd1 (15 fished) - 3rd overall, 1st in section

Today was the first round of the Winter League. There were 15 booked on and it will be very competitive with some very good anglers fishing, spread over 3 sections of 5.

At the draw I was convinced we were starting on Match Lake, so I was a little surprised when it was announced we were on Doughnut. I was just thankful I had at least brought 1 bomb rod with me, but I had no live maggot.

I drew p21, which is a great draw, but I was in the middle of a line of 5 and my section ran from p20 to p26. Despite the wind I could just about fish the far bank at 16m and started on corn over micros but never had a bite. In fact, no one had caught in my section for an hour, until Simon Dukes on p20 caught a micro perch. There were obviously fish in the area, but they just weren’t feeding.

Simon kindly let me have a handful of live maggot and I started feeding small balls of groundbait (50:50 mix of Top G & Crushed Expander) with a few baninion micros.

90 minutes into the match I caught a carp, followed by 2 more on the method (groundbait and dead maggot) as the wind was getting a bit leary.

With 2hrs remaining I was winning the section with 4 carp, as no one else had caught one so far! However, the fish finally decided to have a feed and the wind had died down.

Simon started catching over short line with maggot and soon eroded my lead, going 2 fish ahead of me.

I had a brief look over my short line that I had fed with groundbait and meat (as it was 6ft deep) but I didn’t have a bite on maggot or meat. Fortunately, I started to catch properly over my far line continuing to feed small nuggets of groundbait and a few maggot, fishing double reds.

With 15mins remaining Simon was still 2 fish ahead of me. Fortunately, I caught 2 more as Simon’s swim had dried up, to claim the section win.

1.    55-11 – Steve Ford – p19

2.    52-  5 – Chris Cameron – p9

3.    39-10 – Ken Rayner – p21

4.    34-  7 – Simon Duke – p20

5.    34-  5 – Gary Etheridge – p11 

30/10/25 - Harescombe - Match

Weight - 36lb 9oz

Catch - 14 Carp, 2 Skimmers

Weather - Sunny, windy at times.

Match - Open (17 fished) - 2nd overall, 2nd in section.

I decided to fish todays open in preparation for the start of the Winter League this Saturday.

We had 17 booked on, which meant there wouldn’t be much room and it was likely to be tough going. So more than happy with p14 as it offers a few options.

As we were setting up the wind was blowing left to right and looking like it was going to be a pain. On the all-in I wasn’t quite ready so cast out a mini cage feeder with double dead reds as I finished sorting out my pole rigs and caught a carp quite quickly.

A switch to fishing at the bottom of the far shelf was tricky due to the wind, which necessitated a new heavier rig, but 90mins into the match I had only added 1 small skimmer.

Fortunately, the wind dropped and I was now able to fish the shallow water (2ft) on the island. I chose 2 spots, 1 slightly to my left and the other by the boards at the end of the island. Cupping in a small amount of loose groundbait (50:50 mix of So Simple Top G & Crushed Expanders), with a few baninion micros and 4mm pellet, fishing corn I started catching.

It was slow going but at least I was now catching and confident of framing if I could keep going as very little was being caught around me.

In the last hour I started pinging 4mm pellet at the bottom of the shelf towards the end of the island and caught 4 more carp on hair rigged 6mm baninion pellet. I had also fed meat over short line but I only gave it 10mins without success.

1.    43-  2 – Simon Stacey – p9

2.    36-  9 – Ken Rayner – p14

3.    24-  1 – Phil Stone – p12

4.    17-  9 – Gary Townsend – p4

5.    17-  1 – Andy Taylor – p29