14/06/26 - Witherington Farm - Cottage

Weight - 112lb 15oz

Catch - 18 Carp

Weather - Warm, sunny and muggy

Match - Tackle Den (12 fished) - 1st on lake, 2nd overall

We only 12 fishing today as 6 dropped out during the week, which was a shame. At least we had plenty of room, with 6 on Cottage and 6 on Sellwood and everyone had an island chuck.

I drew p3 on Cottage and to be honest I wasn’t that concerned where I drew. I expected a day of being patient, as apparently otters and cormorants have been a problem.

On the all-in I started on the method loaded with kriller micros and cocosquid groundbait, with a 6mm pink gofter, cast tight to the island. Within 2mins the tip rapped round and a 6lber was safely netted.

It took another 40mins before I caught my next carp, again on the method. As I couldn’t get another bite, I tried fishing cocosquid paste at 12m just feeding a few 4mm baninion pellet in with the paste and caught 2 carp quite quickly. I did try fishing worm over the top without success.

By the halfway stage of the 6hr match I was up to 6 fish and winning the lake, closely followed by Vince Grillo who was foul hooking most of his fish.

I had also been pinging 6s to the island and caught 1 carp on the straight lead and 6mm expander, but I spent most of the 2^nd half of the match fishing either at 12m or down my right margin.

Over the 12m line I switched to catapulting 2 half pouches of 4s every 5mins to spread the feed around a little, whilst I fished the margin. This worked well as I caught fish up to 10lb.

As for the margins I didn’t bother with the left side as Simon was too close on the next peg, so I concentrated on the right. When I plumbed up, I was a little surprised to find it was only very slightly shallower than at 12m. Therefore, I decided to feed 8mm meat covered in So Simple Sludge, initially with some micros to kick start the swim.

When I switched to fishing the margins with 2.5hrs remaining I cut out the micros and just fed a few bits of meat, fishing double 8mm meat. This worked well as I only foul hooked 1 fish and lost another in a snag but I managed to catch 7 carp up to 13lb.

I also had another couple of fish at 12m and by the all-out knew I had won the lake.

1.    159-  4 – Alistair Tilney – p16 Selwood

2.    112-15 – Ken Rayner – p3 Cottage

3.    112-11 – Andy Burns – p1 Selwood

4.    103-14 – Bobby Moore – p9 Selwood

28/09/25 - Witherington Farm - Inner Snake

Weight - 20lb 7oz

Catch - 3 Carp, 1 Roach

Weather - Drizzly start. Warm & sunny later.

Match - Tackle Den (20 fished) - 6th overall, 2nd in section

The last time I fished the Inner Snake Lake was 13 years ago and the feedback when requesting up to date information was not to bother!

We had 20 today and I would have been happy with any of the 3 corners of the triangular lake. I ended up on peg 2 (permanent peg 68) which had some reeds on the far bank and I was hopeful of a few fish.

As the lake was down by 2ft, plumbing up revealed only 40cm (16in) on the far bank and the deepest spot I could find was down the near margins at 55cm (22in) deep.

Not much to write about. After an hour and no bites, despite trying the pole, method and straight lead, I started feeding maggot at 6m. I eventually caught a roach on maggot and thought about sticking with it, but the fish was tiny. Brian to my right had already caught a few roach but had nothing of any size and I decided to return back to focusing on the carp, as I just couldn’t see me building any weight.

As not much was showing anywhere, I decided to focus with fishing paste on the far bank. I caught my first carp 2hrs into the match, my 2^nd with 45mins remaining and the 3^rd 20mins later.

I also tried meat over a short line and groundbait/dead maggot down the margins, but no signs of any fish. I have to say this is probably the worst commercial lake I have fished in a long time.

On a positive note, I tried a new So Simple groundbait called Top G, which has a garlic smell. In the later stages of the match, I fed some loose groundbait in with the paste to create some scent in the water and caught the 2 late carp. As there were no carp caught either side of me, I did feel feeding quite negatively along the far bank and using the paste as a target bait was the right on the day.

I had the best weight on my bank, finishing 2^nd in section and as expected 2 of the corners were the place to be.

1.    39-  3 – Bobby Moore – p7

2.    34-  4 – Vince Grillo – p12

3.    24-  7 – Stuart Sutton – p13

4.    22-  4 – Matt Gale – p14

5.    21-  6 – Pete Philips – p17

6.    20-  7 – Ken Rayner – p2 

 

 

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)

23/06/24 - Witherington Farm - Cottage

Weight - 58lb 10oz

Catch - 10 Carp

Weather - Warm & sunny

Match - Tackle Den (20 fished) - 3rd on lake, 8th overall

I was looking forward to this match, as I won the corresponding fixture last year with 186lb on paste and planned to do the same again regardless of which lake I drew.

However, since last year the fishery was underwater for most of the winter thanks to the river being flooded, which resulted in lost fish. More recently, I found out after the match, there was an algae problem on Cottage that resulted in an oxygen crash last week!

Even without knowing that I wanted to be on Selwood, but I drew p10 on Cottage, which was opposite the island. When I arrived, there were plenty of fish blowing and I thought I might catch a few.

Well, it was a struggle. I started at 8m on paste (Uzit GLM), feeding 4mm p-nut pellet and was surprised not to get a bite, although I eventually netted a foul hooker.

Jason Crump to my left caught a couple of fish on the straight lead cast to the island and after his 3^rd fish it prompted me to try the method. This resulted in an immediate response netting a 4lber. The hook pulled out of the next one, but then I couldn’t get another bite. Neither could Jason, although Dave Keen on the right-hand bank was catching casting a method to the island.

I kept pinging 6s to the island and I managed another carp on the straight lead and 8mm pellet later. I did consider whether to set up a meat rig, but decided against it preferring to stick with the paste hoping the fish would get their heads down, particularly as no one was really running away with it and most were struggling.

That said, in hindsight I wish I had brought some worm, as Crumpy caught a few fish on it during the middle part of the match, when the fish were really moody. There was plenty of blowing in the peg, but it just felt like the fish didn’t want to feed in the silt.

Eventually, with 90mins remaining I started to get clean bites on my 8m paste line and caught 6 carp before the end of the match. The surprise was I never had a bite from either of margins, despite feeding them from the start.

I finished the match 3^rd on the lake, just behind Jason and as expected Selwood was the better lake to be on.

1.    103-  8 – Andrew Black – (Selwood)

2.      81-  8 – Dave Keen – (Cottage)

3.      78-10 – Dan Barnett – (Selwood)

4.      70-  5 – Bobby Moore – (Selwood)

5.      66-10 – Cliff Dutton – (Selwood)

6.      65-12 – Matt Greaves – (Selwood)

25/06/23 - Witherington Farm - Selwood

Weight - 186lb 5oz

Catch - 48 Carp, 2 Skimmers

Weather - Warm and sunny, strong southerly breeze

Match - Tackle Den (19 fished) - 1st overall

Todays match was over Selwood and Cottage lakes, neither of which I had fished before, having only fished the canal 12 years ago. 

I really fancied any peg with the wind blowing in and was a bit disappointed to draw p13 on Selwood which had the wind blowing from behind and was close to the corner I was told to avoid.

I had a rough idea of how to approach the match and started at 14m just slapping a pellet, but only caught 1 carp after 15mins, whilst everyone else started short and was catching.

I soon switched to a 3+2 line where I had fed a few 4s, fishing paste and caught straight away. As the match progressed, I stayed on the paste moving between the short line and both margins, keeping all lines topped up with a few 4s, only switching whenever the swim faded.

So quite a simple and enjoyable match in the end. The top 4 came from Selwood, whilst the top weight on Cottage was 120lb.

1.    186-  5 – Ken Rayner

2.    183-10 – John Pearce

3.    166-  7 – Ian Barker

4.    151-  0 – Alistair Tilney

5.    120-14 – Matt Greaves 

10/03/12 - Witherington - Outer Snake

Weight – 36lb 2oz (23lb 0oz – silvers)
Catch – 33 Goldfish/Brown Goldfish, 29 Skimmers, 6 Carp, 2 Roach
Weather – Mostly sunny, slight breeze.
Water Temp – 10.3c – 11.3c
Match – Match Fishing Scene – 3^rd out of 17 overall (2^nd out of 9 section)

Another new venue for me. Witherington is one of those venues I have heard a lot about, which had been very popular, although recent reports suggest its best years are behind it and the snake lake had been fishing hard.

Sue was due to meet an old school friend in Christchurch, so on Friday Sue dropped me off at the fishery so I could at least see the venue, whilst she went off to see her friend. I fished peg 91 on the Inner Snake and actually had a good days fishing, catching about 44lb, which included carp up to 8lb 9oz, goldfish and skimmers. Casters seemed to be a waste of time and maggot just brought the attentions of small roach, so I caught mostly on 4 & 6mm expander over micros.

The next day was the match, which I took over the running of, since the original organiser is hopefully banged up for fraud. The pegging of the match caused a few issues, since 1 side of the triangle on the outer snake is nicknamed cyanide straight due to its lack of fish (although there seemed to plenty topping), whilst putting everyone on the inner snake, it was suggested the fish would disappear through the gaps back out into the outer lake. In the end I managed to secure the whole lake so spread out everyone, with 1 section of 8 on inner and a section of 9 on the outer lake.

I found myself on p48 which was halfway down the outer snake on the right hand side. Pete Newman who is a regular was the next peg down near the interconnecting gap, suggested we were in the best part of the lake, however I thought I would up against it since I was told the corners were usually the best pegs.

Plumbing around I found the outer lake is slighter deeper than the inner, as well as being a metre or 2 wider. Based on my experience yesterday, I decided to ignore the inside line and started off sprinkling a pinch of micros about a metre off the far bank slightly to my right. I also put a big toss pot of bait to my left, plus a big pot of caster & pellet 13m to my right down the track, where it was slightly deeper.

Only 3 rigs today, all of them were HB frosties. A 0.2g float, .10 bottom and 18 silverfish pellet for fishing across, another 0.2g with .13 bottom and 18 B911 for the margin and fishing across if the carp moved in on mass. Finally a 0.3g for down the track with .10 bottom and 18 silverfish pellet.

The first 90mins of the match I got off to flyer catching from the off, mostly from the right hand swim on 4mm expander. I had nothing over a pound, but 20 fish was a great start. With so few carp showing I stuck with it. Steve Martin to my left had managed a couple of 2 & 3lb carp down the track and was probably winning from the pegs I could see. I had kept my down the track swim topped up, but only had small fish all match.

I concentrated on the far right hand swim, only swapping to the left when it needed a rest. With regards the left hand swim, I switched from feeding it a big toss pot every 15/20mins to catapulting 4mms every 5 hoping to pull in a few carp.

Half way into the match, Steve was still catching and Pete had a few carp dobbin bread tight across, so all very tight. I started to feed my margins under the pallets, caster & 4mm to my left and micros and 4mms to my right.

I had thus far resisted the temptation to go tight across next to the reeds and it was only slightly shallower and since my main swim was waning with fish getting smaller thought it was time to get tight, however after 3 initial decent fish I was back to the small stuff again.

With 2 hours to go I knew I needed a few carp and decided to completely rest the far side and switched to my margins. The next 30mins produced 2 carp and 3 1lb skimmers on 6mm expander. All from the right hand margin and about 8-9lb in the net.

Back out to my long line, the rest seemed to had done it some good and I started feeding again with a pinch of pellet, landing some better goldfish and skimmers, plus a couple of carp.

Pete to my right in the meantime had landed a couple of carp, including a better fish of 6lb and I thought both he and Steve were ahead of me. With 15mins to go I hooked a lump on my long line, played it for 5mins or so, before the hook pulled. I went straight out again and soon landed a black/gold koi. With very little time left, it was quicker to go down the margin, when I hooked another carp on the whistle, unfortunately as I was shipping back I bumped the pole on the roller and pulled the hook. I suspected that would cost me.

I was convinced Steve had beaten me, however my silvers (& gold) net was much more than expected with 23lb (the next best silvers weight was 14lb), so ended up with 36-2. Pete had a few late carp to beat me with 38-7, so yes that last carp did cost me. Steve managed 34-12, so very close.

The inner snake fished about the same as the outer, Richard Wyatt winning with 50-6, which included 40lb of carp down the edge in the last hour or so.

Overall pretty pleased with how the match went, except for the last 15mins and today was my 5^th pick up on the bounce, my 6^th out of the last 7 and I don’t think it’s any co-incidence that it has co-incided with me sorting out my soft pellet fishing.

It was good to put a few faces to names from the site. No fishing for me next week, since it’s my birthday and I need finalise some revision for an exam on the Monday. So my next match will be at Greenridge Farm, yet another new venue!

1^st 50-6 – Richard Wyatt (inner snake)
2^nd 38- 7 – Pete Newman (outer)
3^rd 36- 2 – Ken Rayner (outer)
4^th 35- 3 – Bryan Jackson (inner)
5^th 34-12 – Steve Martin (outer)
6^th 26- 2 – Craig ? (inner)