25/07/13 - Leechpool

Weight - 40lb 6oz
Catch - 23 Carp, 1 Skimmer
Weather - Warm, SW breeze
Match - Wiltshire Angling Evening Series - 7th out of 11

Arriving at the lake, it was obvious the recent hot weather has had an effect with the water level down at least a foot, which on a venue that’s only 3 foot deep, means a 1/3 of the water has evaporated.

Tonight there were 11, which caused much debate on how to peg the lake and it was decided to put 2 pegs in the carp park swim, instead of using the right hand corner. These were pegs 8 & 9, with peg 1 in the cattle drink working anti clockwise round to peg 11 by the house. Jon Atkins drew 9 and promptly drove off in a huff, before returning 15mins later to watch the match, which at least gave Rob some extra room to fish in p8.

I really fancied a day fishing shallow, so low number was required in the wind, however ended up on p10 and Mark was on p11. With the water level down, meant I could set up in the lake, which gave me an extra metre, but due to the wall behind me I could only fish top 3 + 2, before I would have to break the pole down, so I really didn’t fancy fishing any longer.

Due to the peg I decided to concentrate on paste, but my concern was the wind which was blowing down the over end, so expected those with the ripple to catch well. And this is how it turned out.

After a slow start I had 10 carp after an hour, but the rest of the match was a real struggle. The fish just didn’t want to settle over the feed. Mark was catching shallow, but said afterwards he was also struggling to keep the fish in the swim.

I also tried shallow, but only caught 1 fish and I even tried a full depth pellet rig, but that didn’t produce a proper bite. So it was a case of sticking with the paste in the hope and expectation the fish would settle and I would catch well towards the end. Unfortunately it didn’t happen that way, despite trying various ways of feeding, I couldn’t get the fish to settle. Towards the end I found it best to cup in ½ pot of pellet, which produced my PB fish for the venue of 8lb, but I would have to re-pot after only 2 or 3 fish and ended up feeding 5pts of pellet.

Speaking to Gary afterwards I thought his assessment was spot on, whilst there was fish in my swim, there wasn’t enough confident fish due to that lack of ripple. As expected my end of the lake struggled compared to the other end and even without Jon being sat next to him, Rob only managed 26lb, which included quite a few skimmers.

I seemed to have hit a mini run of poor form. Hopefully I’ll sort this out on Saturday at Viaduct.

1^st 131- 0 – Gary Etheridge – p2
2^nd 101- 4 – Ian Willetts – p5
3^rd 84- 5 – Pete Neate – p1
4^th 62- 6 – Tony Gilbert – p7
5^th 60- 2 – Mark Poppleton – p11
6^th 59- 0 – Stuart White – p4

Lands End Winter League 2013/14

I will running the league this year, taking over from Tony.

Dates as follow
10 Nov
8 Dec
5 Jan
26 Jan
9 Feb
23 Feb
16 Mar - reserve date

Please confirm attendance as soon as possible and priority will go to those who fished last year. I have already started a reserve list for anyone who wants to fish what is a very competitive league on a venue that usually guarantees a few bites even in the depths of winter.

League fees = £61.00 (£36.00 pegging fees & £25.00 pools for the last match). Pools on the day = £25. Either pay me or leave the money with Tony at Avon Angling.

5 out of 6 matches will count, including 1 substitution.

36 pegs - 3x sections of 12 over Speci, Match and Johns. There will be a free draw on the first match, rotating onto the other lakes during rounds 2 & 3, followed by another free draw for round 4 and the rotation will be repeated. Rotation will be Speci > Match > Johns

Full details of the pay out will be provided closer to the first match.

21/07/13 - Viaduct - Campbell

Weight - 66lb 13oz
Catch - 14 Carp, 7 Skimmers, 3 Roach, 1 Perch
Weather - Hot & sunny, NE breeze
Match - Wests Open - 8th out of 19 (4th out of 10 - section)

On Saturday I took my god son Ross fishing, who wanted to catch his first tench. Since I had a couple at Brinsham Green a few weeks ago, I thought it would be a good place to try. After setting him up with some of my kit he caught a few skimmers and a tench about 12oz, needless to say he was more than happy and another item off the fishing wish list. Whilst helping him I managed 22-12 of skimmers, tench, fantails/crucians on a day when the fishing proved tricky to catch in the hot conditions.

Back to todays match and after my last couple of visits to Viaduct I was looking forward to a few fish and drew the same peg I had last time on Campbell, p128. At the moment either end of the lake seemed to be best, but I fancied mine for few and hoped to catch shallow.

My day didn’t go quite according to plan as I really struggled, so no long winded blog today

I started a couple of metres off the spit, toss potting 8mm cubes of meat with meat on the hook and had a carp straight away, but then I was pestered by small silvers forcing me to change tact. My 5m line had been fed with 6s, but this only produced little nips on the pellet so the small fish tried to stuff a 6mm pellet in their gobs.

In the meantime I had kept feeding the long shallow line, but couldn’t get a bite, so after much thrashing of the water and swinging of the rig I still only had 1 carp and few silvers. Another go on the meat produced a couple of fish, but after 3hrs I was only up to 3 carp and going nowhere fast.

By now there was a few fish starting show after what appeared to be a slow start for everyone. Mark on p112 seemed to catching best, fishing shallow, but I simply could get my shallow line to work and was struggling to understand why.

In an effort to put something in the net I fed a pot of 6s, fishing worm over the top. At last I started to catch a few, but it was slow going and the fish generally were a smaller stamp. I did manage a couple of fish shallow, but was left perplexed as to why I couldn’t catch properly. The fish were there, the rig I was using is one I’ve caught a lot of fish on recently, but today it just didn’t happen. 

The worm over pellet was a life saver, so I at least I had a few fish to weigh, but a disappointing as well as frustrating day. Oh well back again next Saturday and hopefully catch a few this time.

1st 201- 9 - Mark Poppleton - p112 (shallow pellet)
2nd 185- 0 - Nick Merry - p119 (shallow caster)
3rd 131- 9 - Steve Musitano - p115
4th 125-13 - Steve Ince - p 124 (shallow pellet)
5th 115-10 - Lewis Fisher (10 years old!) - p132 (5m)
6th 115- 8 - Tim Martin - p111

18/07/13 - Rood Ashton

Weight - 55lb 5oz
Catch - 12 Carp, 1 Roach
Weather - Hot & sunny, slight breeze
Match - Wiltshire Angling Evening Series - 3rd out of 8 (2nd out of 4 - section)

So far this series I have found it tough going against some very good locals, however I never let this get the better of me, because I still want to learn. Speaking to some other anglers recently, it amazes me the blinkered approach some have to angling.

This year my shallow carp fishing has certainly improved from a few years ago, my meat fishing is gradually getting better, but margin fishing at the moment seems to be getting the better of me. Watching the International Fisho on Sunday, seeing Will Raison plunder his margin in the last hour was an incredible bit of fishing, pulling the England pair (with Alan Scotthorne) from 5th with 90mins to go, to win very convincingly.

Back to today, I found myself on the top left hand corner, which isn't great, however there was a NE breeze blowing towards this end of the lake, so I was hopefully of a few fish. The tree lined left hand bank looks very tempting, however those in the know, know that the right hand margin is the place to catch.

I started at 13m along the tree line after feeding a cup of 6s, pinging 6s over the top, but after an hour I only had 1 carp. I had also tried the pellet waggler casting into the ripple. There was definitely fish milling around, but just didn't want to feed, which was proving frustrating, although I wasn't the only one.

So far I had left the right hand margin alone, letting it settle. 5mins after switching I had a carp, followed by another 10mins later.

Mark turned up with his 8yr old Lucas as I landed my 3rd carp and passed on some useful tips, as well as some mickey taking!

There now seemed to be a few fish down the margin, but too many liners meant fishing the paste wasn't right, so set up a pellet rig and fished tighter to the bank in 10inchs of water. Trying 8mm pellet and 10mm JPZ, the JPZ seemed to be better. Some of the bites where ripping the elastic out of the pole, which is always nice and I thought I could start putting a decent weight together.

Unfortunately the fish backed off for 30mins, returning after potting in 1/2 cup of pellet, which I should have done earlier instead of kinder potting or catapulting feed into the margin. My last fish was a 9lber, so a decent finish.

Lessons definitely learnt today and on reflection I should have perhaps won. Overall the lake fished surprisingly hard, with many complaining about seeing plenty of tails showing in the margins but few proper bites. Tony won our section with 66-6, but Stuart won the match from the far side with 67-8, leaving Ian to collect the default section money with 28lb!

1st 67- 8 - Stuart White - p5
2nd 66- 6 - Tony Gilbert - p3
3rd 55- 5 - Ken Rayner - p4
4th 37- 6 - Rich - p1

13/07/13 - Glebe - Pool 7

Weight - 151lb 12oz
Catch - 39 Carp, 5 Skimmers
Weather - Very hot & sunny. Light breeze.
Match - MFS website (day 2 of 2) - 6th out of 36 (2nd out of 10 - section)

Day 2 and the met office issued a heat wave weather warning, advising people to avoid the mid-day sun, although unlike yesterday at least there would a be a bit of a breeze, which would put some much needed ripple on the water. I wanted to draw the middle of pool 1, but ended up with p98 on pool 7.

 

 

Apparently I was moaning quite a bit because I really didn’t fancy the draw. Pool 7 is another 12 peg strip lake, which is parallel to pool 6 and p98 is the first peg on the lake. So another end peg, however the breeze was blowing down the lake, which meant all the ripple was down that end and flat calm in front of me.

98lb came from the peg yesterday for 3^rd in section and speaking to the angler he said he caught mostly on soft pellet down the left hand bank. Mark persuaded me to take his feeder rod so at least I had another option, whilst he was quite happy with his draw in the middle of pool 6.

Yesterday, I wasn’t entirely happy with my margin swim, having feed 4 big tins of corn and hemp for only a moderate return. I decided to use baits I’m more familiar with, so settled on feeding 6s with some corn down the left hand bank, instead of hemp.

Rigs for the day were the same as yesterday, although on the shallow maggot/caster rig I changed to B911, hoping the wider gap would result in fewer hook pulls.

I started on the feeder, but after 5 casts, 2 or which caught the far bank vegetation I got bored and chucked it up the bank never to be used again. In the meantime I potted 6s and a few grains of corn 13m down the end bank and started catapulting caster hoping for some shallow fish. After Marks success with pellet yesterday I did consider going down the same route, however I still had a load of caster left and didn’t want to waste it.

During the first hour the fish just weren’t having it, although I managed to catch 4 on 8mm pellet, they just kept shying away from the pole in the flat conditions.

The next 3hrs was a case of rotating between the shallow line (maggot/caster rig) and the left hand bank which was producing fish mainly on 6mm expander, with a few on corn or 6mm JPZ. The shallow line was hard work having to really tease the fish into taking the bait. I could see a few anglers further down the lake catching and decided to keep an eye on Colin Mercer 2 anglers down, because he’s not usually far away from doing well. So far he had caught well on the feeder, but I was gradually catching him with my shallow fish.

The temperature today was 32c and a couple of times I had to run my pole though a wet cloth to cool the pole down, because it was burning my hand as I was shipping out. Fortunately with 2hrs to go there was a little more cloud cover and the sun was less intense. This coincided with my swim really coming to life with my catch rate picking up and I probably had half my overall weight in that time. In the last hour the fish were actually taking the bait properly, rather than me chasing them around the swim. Colin had suffered a bad last hour and was confident beating him, but news filtered down the anglers in the ripple had also caught well.

Colin weighed 119lb, Herbie 114lb, before Andy Day won the lake with 159lb, mostly on the pellet waggler and Rob Dickinson who came 2^nd in yesterdays match weighed 137lb. In total there were 20x tons today.

Much happier now having made the most of the peg from what I thought would be a difficult draw.

1^st 205- 4 – Ian Simpson – p14 (pool 1)
2^nd 165- 8 – Rich Bedder – p18 (pool 1)
3^rd 159-12 – Andy Day – p105 (pool 7)
4^th 159- 4 – Ian Toplis – p11 (pool 1)
5^th 152- 2 – Roland Lucas – p27 (pool 1)
6^th 151-12 – Ken Rayner –p98 (pool 7)

12/07/13 - Glebe - Pool 6

Weight - 74lb 12oz
Catch - 19 Carp, 2 Perch, 1 Roach
Weather - Very hot and sunny
Match - MFS website (day 1 of 2) - 23rd out of 36 (5th out of 8 - section)

Today was the first of a 2 dayer at the Glebe run under the MFS banner. The match itself was split over 3 lakes, Pool 1, 6 & 7, with 2 sections of 10 on Pool 1 and 2 sections of 8 on Pools 6 & 7. Pool 1 would be the favoured draw.

Mark & I had travelled down the night before staying at the Longshoot Hotel in Nuneaton with the intention of missing what can be problematic early morning traffic and hopefully avoid feeling tried due to the early start. Unfortunately, I was still suffering from the effects of a viral infection which I've had all week and consequently had a restless night. This wasn't aided by our hotel room resembling a sauna after the previous occupant left the towel rail on maximum heat. Opening the windows only marginally helped because there was no wind to expel the hot air.

Both days would be a random draw, which personally I wasn't too happy about because I would have liked to have had at least the opportunity to fish pool 1 and just hoped I wouldn't be on the same lake both days.

Today I drew p86 on Pool 6, which has the nickname of the "little girl’s pegs" because it’s a bit of flyer. Pool 6 is a 12 peg strip lake, about 40m wide at my end narrowing to about 25/30m at the other. Speaking to Rich Bedder (p87) & Gordon Parker (p89), both Glebe members my peg is a good feeder swim. The only problem here is I didn't bring a feeder rod, because the intention was to catch shallow on caster, regardless of where I drew.

The weather today, meant there was no ripple what so ever and there was plenty of fish cruising around. The question was would they feed in this heat?

Rigs for day
-       HB shady shallow > .17 > 16 B960 (hair rig 8mm pellet - shallow)
-       NB ratcatcher 2 > .17 > 16 B960 (maggot & caster - shallow)
-       Ackoo Carrat 0.2g > .16 > 16 B911 (margin)

I also set up a couple rigs to fish the 5m line, but never had a bite on these and finally I also set up a puddle chucker waggler to chase any fish out of pole range, which I had quite a bit of success using last year.

After feeding a big pot of hemp and corn at 13m down the left bank I started shallow feeding caster, using the pellet rig to try and mug a few fish. With no ripple on the water the first 2 hours was very difficult, which was compounded by the fact those that were fishing the feeder tight to the far bank were catching. By the end of the 2^nd hour I only had 4 carp and was already 6 or 7 carp behind Rich on p87.

Eventually, I started to catch shallow on the maggot/caster rig, but losing far too many. The fish seemed to be snatching at the bait and only lightly hooked which meant a few hook pulls at the net.

My left hand margin produced a few fish on corn, but they were generally a smaller stamp than the shallow fish so I didn’t waste too much time if I didn’t get a bite.

With 2hrs to go I had nearly caught up with Rich, but was aware that Gordon was catching on his favourite corn @5m line and Colin Mercer on p90 had also been catching. So after the slow start I was hoping to at least claim 3^rd in section and a brown envelope.

Despite the lack of wind, when the match started there was a lot of surface debris on the surface, but gradually as the day wore on all this drifted down the lake to the other end and I’m certain some of the feeding fish followed it, because with 2hrs to go there was certainly far fewer cruisers around. I still managed to keep the odd fish going into the net and actually thought I had caught Rich up. However, he had a few good last 30mins down his margin with 5 fish for 40/50lb and a lake win.

Ultimately I lost far too many today and couldn’t make up the early deficit on the feeder anglers, to finish 5^th in the section, when I know I should have at least come 3^rd with 89lb. Needless to say I was a bit grumpy when we got back to the hotel, although nothing could damped Marks sprits after winning the match with pellet shallow, because he couldn’t catch on caster! It appears some of the locals had got fed up of being beaten by visiting anglers using caster and have finally succumbed, so the fish are seeing a lot of the bait at the moment. Obviously Roy Marlow hasn’t been handing out as many Marukyu freebies recently and the members need to find cheaper alternatives.

1^st 172- 0 – Mark Poppleton – p24 (pool 1)
2^nd 122- 4 – Rob Dickinson - p2 (pool 1)
3^rd 121- 8 – Rich Bedder – p87 (pool 6)
4^th 111- 8 – Gordon Parker – p89 (pool 6)
4^th 111- 8 – Roscoe – p8 (pool 1)
6^th 111- 4 – Ian Simpson – p18 (pool 1)

07/07/13 - Fishponds

Weight - 75lb 12oz
Catch - 10 Carp
Weather - Very hot & sunny
Match - Club - 3rd out of 18

Well summer has finally arrived and looks like its staying for a couple weeks. The irony is this weather doesn't help with the fishing.

With 18 today on the lake, the fishing was never going to be easy and I really wanted a draw with open water, but peg 1 was my home for the day down the arm of the lake. Everyone said flyer, but I knew it wasn't, well not today. With so many on the lake the arm doesn't fish well and today the northerly breeze was blowing out of the arm, so I really fancied the pegs at the other end of the lake to do well.

Normally if there are fish about you will see the reeds knocking about, but not today, although there was the odd cruiser.

Starting on the paste, I lost my 2 carp in the opening 30mins one of which was definitely foulhooked as I came back with a scale. On the 40min mark I landed my first carp, however Andy on p25 (opposite to my right) already had 5 fishing to the spare pallet.

That fish was my one and only on paste, despite continually feeding and trying on & off during the match, which is unusual. The fish really didn't want to be on the deck.

Whilst fishing the paste and I had kept feeding 8s to the far side in preparation to fish the pellet waggler and had 2 carp relatively quickly, which  meant after 90mins I was up to 3 carp, but that was it for the next 2 hours. Without any ripple the carp where just not interested and I was starting to feel unwell. Unfortunately I only brought 1 bottle of drink, thinking I had brought more, so I was feeling dehydrated and I had a really bad sore throat that started yesterday. I had to go for a walk and lie down, also Andy gave me some of his drink and I felt a bit better - Thanks Andy.

With 2.5hrs left and still only 3 fish in the net, it was looking like a bit grim. With the pegs in the ripple doing the best I wasn't expecting to pick up and considered packing up. However, today turned out to be a case of keep going and you never know.

Feeding the pellet waggler line seems to have brought more fish into the swim, but they kept shying away from the waggler, so decided to try the pole shallow on the long line. A further 5 carp on 8mm pellet over the next 90mins was slow going, but at least I was catching, before the fish backed off. I even tried fishing maggot without success.

I had brought some frozen caster, so in the last 30mins started to feed the caster which brought some fish into the swim and I managed 2 more carp.

Since we were paying top 5 (but no sections), come the all out I estimated I might get 5th or 6th. Andy's quick start slowed down, finishing also with 10 carp, so it would be close between the 2 of us. Ian on p7 had 14, but they only went 42lb, so I was still leading until we got to Chris on p13 who had 12 carp and I was bumped down to 2nd. Everyone knew that Craig on p14 had won, catching shallow on the pole, taking advantage of the wind that was blowing into that bank. I expected Roger on p22 to beat me, because when ever I looked down the lake he was playing a carp, however it turned out he lost 11. And finally Andy was last to weigh and his carp weren't as big as mine, so a surprising 3rd place.

On the way home a quick stop for a litre of water was soon downed.

1st 138- 8 - Craig Davidge - p14
2nd 79- 2 - Chris Davidge - p13
3rd 75-12 - Ken Rayner - p1
4th 69-10 - Andy Bradley - p25
5th 60- 4 - Roger Putterill - p22
6th 59- 0 - Dave Bradley - p21

04/07/13 - Rood Ashton

Weight - 42lb 8oz
Catch - 12 Carp
Weather - Sunny, strong westerly
Match - Wiltshire Angling Evening Series - 6th out of 10

A fellow blogger stated that Rood Ashton has been destocked, which upset the owner and Allan Pike the owner’s son has commented on his blog, confirming there has been no destocking. In fact the only fish removed were about 30-35 carp which replaced fish lost from the stock pond damaged during the floods last year. As bloggers I think we need to be careful about what we say, particularly when it can effect peoples livelihoods.

The expectations for tonight’s match were high. Last week, Mark won a Friday evening match with 112lb and 108lb was 2^nd. At the draw there were 10 of us, but only 9 pegs. Fortunately, the error was noticed quite quickly and an extra peg was put in on the top bank, which would be peg 6 and I drew it.

The peg itself has had some recent form, however I didn’t fancy it this evening. The problem was there was a strong breeze blowing directly from behind into the opposite end of the lake and my gut feeling would be the fish will have followed the wind, particularly since the wind has been blowing that way for a nearly a week.

Only 2 rigs, 1x paste – HB Redneck 0.2g > .17 > 12 carp feeder & a pellet rig, but I never used that.

Those that have caught well from this peg have caught in the margins and looking at the peg it was obvious to see why. I made the decision to rotate each margin, feeding a small handful of 6s. After 20mins I lost a foulhooker coming back with a scale, then 5mins later I missed a bite, which could have been a liner, but that was it.

The only anglers I could see were on the lawns and they didn’t appear to be catching much, so decided to keep going in the margins, hoping to pull in a few fish by continually feeding 6s. After 75mins I caught my first fish and by the end of the second hour was up to 4. At last there seemed to be some fish around and a bank walker said that most were struggling.

A further 5 carp came in the third hour and 3 in the last 30mins, so 12 fish in the end. It looked like Mark would win catching 20+ carp, but the rest of my section were admitting to 12 carp, which meant it was going to come down to who had the biggest average. Unfortunately I had a couple of smaller fish, whilst Ian had some proper lumps to finish 2^nd in the section.

During that blank first hour I wish I had brought my pellet waggler rod to fish towards the island, because I felt I could catch a few shallow fish in the ripple. In the end 12 fish seemed to be par, just a shame I couldn’t catch a few better fish or even catch in that first hour.

1^st 71-14 – Mark Poppleton – p10
2^nd 58-10 – Ian Willetts – p7
3^rd 54-13 – Pete Neate – p5
4^th 45- 8 – Tony Gilbert – p2
5^th 45- 2 - Stuart White – p7
6^th 42- 8 – Ken Rayner – p6

02/07/13 - Glebe - Pool 1

Weight - 207lb 8oz
Catch - 41 Carp, 2 Tench, 1 Skimmer
Weather - Cloudy, Cool Westerly Wind
Match - Glebe/MFS - 1st out of 13

A text from Mark said he was going to the Glebe to fish a mid-weeker run by Ross who is a Glebe member as well as a regular contributor on MFS.  When Mark booked in there was 16 so far, with the expectation of 20 all fishing Pool 1. As it turned out only 13 fished, so a long way to travel for what was effectively a knock up. However, with a 2 dayer in 10 days and the Masters next month, I didn’t take much persuasion to fish and the Glebe complex has to be one of the best in the country.

Since there were only 13, most of whom were Glebe members, we had plenty of space. However the weather again tried to ruin things, with a cool strong wind blowing down the lake. Initially when I pulled p30, I wasn’t sure, because although it’s the end peg last year it wasn’t the best draw, with most weights coming from the middle of the lake and p8 has been the peg to draw recently. However, when I arrived at my peg I really fancied it with the wind blowing into the end bank and there was plenty of fish moving around.

Tactics for the day was caster shallow, with maggot, caster or worm on the hook. One area I have struggled with at the Glebe is catching consistently from the margins and at 5m. As well as the 2 gallon of frozen caster, I brought plenty of bait with several tins of corn, 6pts of hemp, 2kgs of groundbait and 6mm pellet. I was in danger of confusing myself!

At the start of the match I started firing caster at 12m and was soon catching, although I forgot how hard these fish fight, when the first fish broke me when I got it onto my top kit a bit too quickly.

After an hour I had 8 carp, mostly caught downwind of where I was feeding, I even had a few at 6m where the fish where milling around by an outflow pipe.

In the second hour I caught a further 7 carp and a skimmer, adding a further 10 in the third hour. A call to Mark who drew p16 suggested most people around him were struggling and Mark was admitting to about 80lb, whilst I thought I had about 100-120lb.

The wind was starting to get stronger and catching shallow was proving more difficult with only 7 carp in the fourth hour. I even tried the waggler and managed a couple of carp, but it wasn’t right in the wind.

After 3hours I had started feeding groundbait on a regular basis into my left hand margin and having left it for an hour thought it was time to give it a try, however without success. Since my shallow time was dying, I decided it was time to cup in some hemp & corn into the end bank.  The fifth hour produced 6 carp and 2 tench. Down the right hand bank I found it best to feed a large toss pot of hemp & corn with double corn on the hook. I did try worm and 10mm JPZs, but in the wind I think double corn just sat better.

The last hour proved to be really difficult. I had started to get loads of liners in the margin and no proper bites. Instead of cupping in a big pot of bait and leaving it 10mins, I tried to catch from the left hand margin, which proved fruitless and when the carp re-appeared on the shallow line I spent too long chasing fish who were proving very difficult to catch. In fact I didn’t catch for 30mins. In the end I went back to toss potting hemp & corn down the end bank and caught a couple more carp before the end.

On the all out I thought I had blown it, because I could see Mick Wilkinson further down the lake catching on the feeder and Mark said he had 17 fish in the last 90mins and was admitting to 160lb, which is what I thought I had, although hoped for a little more.

Walking the bank after packing up it sounded like it was between Mark & me for the win. I was first to be weighed and was delighted to weigh over 200lb, which is my best weight from the Glebe. Ross on p26 included 54lb of accidental skimmers in his 117lb. There was no surprises by the time we got to Mark, who finished with 198lb to finish 2^nd overall.

As for all that bait I brought, most of it came back with me, except for 10pts of caster, a few tins of corn and a pint of hemp.

Needless to say it was a happy car on the drive back down south, but I was still not happy about how I approached the margins and have no confidence with the groundbait approach which it very popular here, although I got the impression that this approach today attracted quite a few silvers.

1^st 207- 8 – Ken Rayner – p30
2^nd 198- 0 – Mark Poppleton – p16
3^rd 170- 4 – Andy Boffin – p20
4^th 148-12 – Mick Wilkinson – p24
5^th 143-12 – Gordon Parker – p6
6^th 121- 8 – Rich Bedder – p1