03/11/24 - Ivy House - Heron

Weight - 97lb 8oz

Catch - 45 F1s, 33 Carp

Weather - Grey & overcast. Light breeze.

Match - Open (6 fished) - 3rd overall

With not a lot on this Sunday, Ivy House made a late announcement they would be running an Open on Heron, so I booked in.

There were only 6 of us and Andy put in every other peg from p2 to p12. I drew p12 which was the one peg I didn’t want as it’s a corner peg that is rarely put in.

Speaking to Pete who was fishing the Winter League on the other lakes he said he caught shallow yesterday during a pleasure session. As I was unloading the car, I realised I left my shallow rigs at home, but fortunately I had a couple rigs I could adapt.

As it felt a bit chilly, I started at 14m fishing a hair rigged pellet, toss potting 4s. I caught a few carp, but it was obvious the fish were up in the water already as I struggled to get a clean bite fishing on the deck. Therefore, I switched to fishing a short pellet line, whilst I primed the shallow line at 11m with maggot.

I caught a couple more carp over the short line but couldn’t line them properly and switched to my shallow line. Whilst my rigs weren’t perfect, I was at least catching F1s mostly on an over shotted rig.

Whenever the line needed a rest I tried the short pellet line with limited success, which just left the margins. I fed the right margin with corn and micros as I wanted to target the better sized fish, but I realised a little late that maggot and groundbait was the better option. To be honest I should have come 2^nd but didn’t as I spent too long in the first hour trying to catch on the deck, I was a bit slow getting the feed right in the margins and I was unprepared to catch shallow.

Considering it’s the first week of November the lake fished really well, however, I expect it will fish differently when the lake is full next week.

1.    160-  0 – Dan Driscoll – p8

2.    106-12 – Rob McMann – p4

3.      97-  8 – Ken Rayner – p12

30/10/24 - Shearwater

Weight - 4lb 5oz

Catch - 1 Bream, 2 Skimmers, 3 Perch, 1 Perch

Weather - Cloudy, sunny later. Light breeze.

Match - Open (28 fished) - 17th overall

Managed to jump onto one of the few opens allowed at Shearwater run by Clayton and was more than happy to draw the boathouse on the lawns. However, we were met by an otter swimming around.

During the 15min pre-baiting period I deposited a good amount of groundbait, micros and corn at 61m.

After an hour I didn’t have a bite on the hybrid, but neither had anyone else on the lawns! As well as the otter we also had 2 cormorants for company, which were obviously unsettling any fish in the area.

As I couldn’t get a bite, I decided to feed a 25m line and fished a conventional cage feeder with dead maggot. This produced a couple of small fish and then a bream, but after that I struggled to get another bite.

For the rest of the match, I swapped between the hybrid and a conventional feeder at 61m for 1 perch, occasionally dropping in on the short line for a couple of small fish.

I tried waiting for up to 25mins on a cast on the long line and even tried fishing beyond 61m, but just couldn’t find any bream or carp.

A quiet day, where my section was won with only 23-15 (1 carp and 3 bream) and 4 of us only had a 1 bream, so not the area to be in.

In hindsight, I think I fed too much groundbait over my long line, it attracted too many small fish, which in turn encouraged the cormorants, but I still think I would have struggled.

1.    104-  8 – Andrew Pritchard – p15 (dam wall)

2.      69-11 – Zak Williams – p5 (road side)

3.      67-  8 – Jack Stamp – p9 (road side)

4.      40-10 – Steve Trevett – p11

5.      39-  3 – Mike Brown – p3

6.      31-15 – Andy Neal – p1

26/10/24 - Sedges - Tile Lake

Weight - 50lb 12oz

Catch - 6 Carp, 3 Skimmers, 3 Roach

Weather - Cold start. Warm & sunny, no wind

Match - Uzit Bomb & Feeder League - rd 1 (40 fished) - 8th overall, 2nd in section

Today was the first of five rounds of the Uzit Bomb & Feeder league at The Sedges, with a full house of 40 anglers over Brick and Tile lakes.

I drew p37 which was in a decent area on Tile, although p39 and p40 were going to be tough to beat for the section points.

As I felt skimmers might be important in this league, I had a little practice on the Wednesday before (on p22) just to sort out my rigs and play around with a few ideas. I ended up catching 30lb of skimmers, on dead maggot over groundbait and later on corn which proved to be really good. So, I had a plan, target the island to start and feed corn (covered in Uzit P-nut cloud) at 13/14m as a backup.

Well, it was a very slow start for everyone. I started on the tea bag and 8mm pellet, with 2x 15-minute casts, as I didn’t feel regularly casting a method was the right way to start. However, after no bites I tried the method and then the maggot feeder, eventually catching a 9lber after 1hr 40mins.

I kept plugging away but with 90mins remaining I had only added 3 roach, despite rotating methods and even trying my corn line without success. In my mini section of 5, Nige Jeffery (p36) had 1x 12lber plus a couple of skimmers, Karl Turner (p38) had 2 carp, Nick Chedzoy (p39) had 4 carp including a 15lber and Shane Padbury on p40 was struggling. So, no one was running away with it, and I knew it would be hard, but not this hard. As well as having every peg in, the bright flat conditions weren’t helping.

Returning to my short corn line produced a carp, which was very welcome and then in the remaining hour I caught a further 4 carp, plus 2 skimmers on corn and another skimmer under my rod tip on meat.

I must admit I felt I got out of jail in that last hour, and I was relieved to have finished 2^nd in section to Nick and a reasonable start to the league.

1.    104-10 – Jamie Cook – p33 (Tile)

2.      83-  0 – Luke Fothergill – p21 (T)

3.      78-  8 – Robert Dumitrescu – p23 (T)

4.      71-10 – Dave Romain – p10 (Brick)

5.      64-  8 – Chris Ware – p14 (B)

6.      63-  6 – Nick Chedzoy – p39 (T) 

20/10/24 - Ivy House - Kingfisher

Weight - 25lb 4oz

Catch - 12 Carp, 2 Skimmers, 1 F1

Weather - Rainy start, sunny later and very windy

Match - Tackle Den (17 fished) - 12th overall

After a weekend up north visiting the in-laws, I was looking forward to getting back out on the bank. However, during the week I came down with a heavy cold and was feeling very rough on Friday. Fortunately, I felt a little better for Sunday, although I was given a wide berth at the draw!

Todays, match was over both canals and having not fished either for quite a while I wasn’t sure which one I would prefer. I wasn’t disappointed with p41 on Kingfisher as it’s normally in a good area although with nearly every peg in, I knew it would be tricky.

With rain and heavy winds forecast, I thought I would start at the bottom of the far shelf, feeding micros and 4 to my left and groundbait (black bubblegum : Crushed Expander) and micros to my right. The intention was to leave the short lines for later.

Starting off on the left-hand swim with a hair rigged 4mm pellet, I caught a number of branches and debris on the bottom, which was frustrating, particularly as Matt Greaves to my left started catching short.

Moving to my right-hand swim feeding small nuggets of micros and groundbait, fishing a 4mm expander I only caught 2 skimmers, whilst Matt was still picking on the odd carp.

The forecast wind was blowing, but fortunately it was mostly from behind me, so I decided to try fishing the far bank at 16m, fishing a 6mm expander. I managed 3 small carp but couldn’t catch another after losing a foul hooker. There just didn’t seem to be any volume of fish in front of me and even my short line failed to produce whilst Matt continued to pick up the occasional fish.

As I was struggling and with nothing to lose, I started pinging 4s and eventually I started to catch on hair rigged 4s, netting 8 carp and an F1 in the last hour.

Overall, a frustrating and disappointing match. I couldn’t work how to catch early, although everyone to my right struggled as well, but either way felt I should have caught more than I did.

1.    67-11 – John Brady – p34 (Moorhen)

2.    62-  3 – Andrew Black – p45 (Kingfisher)

3.    53-  1 – Pete Phillips – p28 (M)

4.    49-11 – Alistair Tilney – p27 (M)

5.    46-  9 – Matt Greaves – p42 (K)

06/10/24 - Rood Ashton

Weight - 86lb 12oz

Catch - 17 Carp, 2 Roach

Weather - Cloudy and breezy. Rain late on.

Match - Tackle Den (11 fished) - 3rd overall

For various reasons we were low on numbers today, which at least meant there would be fewer poor pegs in the bag. The good news was we could still drive round the lake, helped by loads of wood chipping being laid down in the worst affected areas during the previous rain. The question however, was, would the forecasted rain later in the day start before or after the match?

I drew p18 on the far bank opposite the island, but I would have preferred p20 or p21, but with the wind blowing into my bank I was hopeful.

I started on the method cast ¾ of the way towards the island. I didn’t wish to cast any closer due to the various snags by the island. After 3 casts on the method without any indications, I wasn’t convinced the feeder was the right approach, so switched to an 8mm red pellet and a tea bag covered in p-nut oil, resulting in my first carp. The 2^nd hour was better adding another 5 carp, mostly on 8mm meat covered in a-krill cloud and a pellet cone with bubblegum micros.

The 3rd hour was disappointing with no more fish. In the meantime, I had been feeding meat and 4mm pellet at 11m, but only caught a couple of roach and a crayfish, so I started feeding meat and micros down the right margin.

Fortunately, the fish returned over the far line adding another 4 fish, plus 2 from the right margin, but roach playing around with the bait were being a real pain.

With 45mins remaining, I felt I was behind all 3 anglers to my left and needed to get rid of the nuisance roach and catch some margin fish. So, I opened another tin of meat and fed both margins, just as the rain started. The right side was still full of roach, however 5 fish from the left margin in the last 30mins for 30lb was really useful to win my side of the lake and finish 3^rd overall.

1.    134-15 – Pete Phillips – p6

2.    100-  7 – Matt Greaves – p2

3.      86-12 – Ken Rayner – p18

4.      83-13 – Andrew Black – p4

5.      78-  8 – Dan Barnett – p21

  

05/10/24 - Harescombe - Doughnut Lake

Weight - 96lb 8oz 

Catch - 52 Carp

Weather - Bright, sunny and breezy at times

Match - Open (9 fished) - 2nd overall

As it was a while since my last visit to this lake, I was looking forward to returning. I wasn’t too concerned where I drew and ended up on peg 23. As I wasn’t sure what would work, particularly after the cold start to the day, I fed 2 swims at the bottom of the far shelf in 6.5ft of water. 2mm p-nut pellet and corn covered in p-nut cloud was deposited out in front and a ball of GLM : Crushed Expander to my left.

As it happened, I never went over the groundbait swim, as I kept catching by toss potting corn and micros, fishing corn on the hook, catching 14 carp in the first 90mins before the swim began to fade.

I knew I was slightly behind Steve on p20 and felt I needed to change tact. A switch to fishing the far bank again fishing corn over toss potted corn and 2mm p-nut pellet I kept catching, although the wind at times was a pain and I’m sure I left 10-20lb behind.

Come the last hour I needed to rest the far line and so I tried meat down the marginal slope, but in hindsight I wish hadn’t. I struggled to get a clean bite, netting only 3 fish, losing another 3, and wished I had set up a line at the bottom of the near shelf.

By the all-out I thought I was ahead of Steve on the fish count, however he had caught a few 4-5lb fish which made the difference and so took the win.

An enjoyable day and other than the wind a pleasant day weather wise.

1.    109-  8 – Steve Partington – p20

2.      96-  8 – Ken Rayner – p23

3.      77-  5 – Liam Coombley – p21

4.      69-13 – Mick O’Brien – p14

29/09/24 - Manor Farm - Ash Lake

Weight - 51lb 9oz (9lb 13oz - silvers)

Catch - 10 Carp, 2 F1s, 21 Skimmers

Weather - Cold start, mostly cloudy, rain later

Match - Tackle Den (17 fished) - 6th overall, 3rd in section

With 17 today, we had 10 on Windmill and 7 on Ash. At least it meant we would have more space than we had the last time we were here in June when we had 22 all on Windmill.

Being the bigger lake, Windmill was likely to produce the winner, but I wasn’t too disappointed to draw p15 on Ash. I had no idea whether it was a decent draw, but it looked OK. Plumbing up revealed 7ft of water from 8m and remained flat out to 13m. To be honest I didn’t fancy catching in that depth and found 2 areas left and right at 11.5m in 5ft of water. I also had a small, submerged bush to my right.

The match could be split into 3 parts. The first 2 hours I tried catching on 6mm p-nut pellet or 4mm bubblegum pellet, over 4mm bubblegum pellet, but only caught a couple of small skimmers. I also caught an F1 and a skimmer on the method, but I was going nowhere. In the meantime, Steve to my right was also struggling, but almost everyone else seemed to have caught a couple of carp or F1s.

As I couldn’t catch any carp or F1s, I really needed to put some fish in the net and hope for a late charge. Therefore, I decided to cup a ball of Uzit Natural Re-Act and GLM (mixed 2:1), with bubblegum micros and some dead reds at 11.5m. Double dead red maggot was best and by topping up every 2^nd fish with a nugget of feed via a toss pot, I managed to keep this line going for 90 mins or so, but with 2hrs remaining I really needed to catch some carp and F1s.

I had been pinging 4s to my left in 3ft of water and meat by the submerged bush. The meat swim was a bust, hooking 2 fish, but losing both as the hook pulled on 1 and I got broke by the other. Therefore, I set up a new swim to my right at 11.5m again pinging pellet in 3ft of water

By alternating left and right, fishing a hair rigged 6mm p-nut pellet, I caught some big F1s up to nearly 6lb, plus a couple carp. I knew I had the best last hour on the lake, but felt I needed another 30mins and that’s how it worked out missing out on winning the lake by 7lb.

1.   90-14 – Steve Chandler – Windmill Lake

2.    71-  2 – Cliff Dutton – Windmill

3.    58-13 – Matthew Gale – p5 Ash

4.    56-  6 – John Pearce – Windmill

5.    56-  4 – Bobby Moore – p18 Ash

6.    51-  9 – Ken Rayner – p15 Ash