26/08/13 - Lands End - Johns Lake

Weight - 43lb 15oz
Catch - 12 Carp, 3 Roach, 1 F1, 1 Skimmer
Weather - Warm & sunny
Match - Gary Wall Memorial - 19th out of 29, 7th out of 11-lake

With 7 straight pick ups, my run had to come to an end sooner rather than later. There was a club knock up between pegs 13-24, which meant only 5 pegs were available on Match Lake, with everyone else split between Speci & Johns Lake.

 

When the draw was called, I was still unpacking the car, so decided to continue loading my trolley, because I was going to be at the back of the queue anyway. The last peg left was 58, which I was happy enough with, although it can be a bit of a boom or bust peg, but usually reliable for a few fish.

 

For company I had Tim Ford opposite on 55 and Adrian Jeffrey was to my left on 61. Having fished this peg a few times in the past I knew silvers were out of the question and the depth all over was pretty much the same, even tight to the island and down the margin.

 

Decided on a 3 pronged approach, pellet by the island, meat/hemp 13m to my right by the brambles and meat at 5m to my left. Since there was a few fish moving around, I started on a long line swinger rig, feeding 6s by the island, which produced a few fish, but with the bright flat conditions they were proving very cagey. The situation wasnt helped by the overhanging sedges which I caught a few times in an attempt to get tight to the island, which was proving impossible. I even tried a really short rig so I could poke between the sedges, lifting and dropping, but it wasn’t right.

 

The right hand bramble swim was my most productive on 8mm meat, but I had to wait longer than expected to get a bite. After 4hrs I had 10 carp, which was probably just ahead of Tim and Adrian, but news was filtering down that they were catching at the other end of the lake.

 

Unfortunately my last 2 hours only produced 2 carp. Trying to catch shallow by the island was proving frustrating so decided to be really positive and give them a pot (in fact it got 4 pots over the last 2hrs) to get their heads down. This only produced one small carp, plus little knocks from small silvers pecking at the pellet. My right bramble swim, which I expected to get stronger towards the end, just died and again small silvers started pecking at the meat. As for my 5m line, which I feed religiously for the duration produced one lost carp when the hook pulled, which was either very big or foul hooked, plus a skimmer.

 

After his initial catch and release policy, Tim started to get regular bites over his paste line, but unfortunately for him they were only small 2lb fish. Ultimately we were at the wrong end of the lake, with the top 3 weights coming from the bottom 4 pegs. The smaller carp transferred from lake 4 are a good sign for the Winter League, so hopefully this lake won’t be quite as patchy as previous years.

 

So I couldn’t make it 8 consecutive picks up. Had I fished the match again, I would have probably repeated what I did today, with the exception of potting pellet to the island. In hindsight I should have just kept catapulting the pellet in the hope they would switch on properly late on. All ifs, buts and maybes!

 

1st 211- 2 - Craig Edmunds - p9

2nd 134- 6 - Anton Page - p42

3rd 129-14 - Tom Thick - p5

4th 114- 8 - Tony Rixon - p32

5th 101- 7 - Scott Puddy - p26

6th 99- 7 - Clint Wotlyla - p70

24/08/13 - Eden Vale

Weight - 20lb 7oz (12lb 5oz - silvers)
Catch - 10 Skimmers, 1 Tench, 1 Roach, 1 Perch, 1 Common Carp
Weather - Cool, cloudy start. Brighter & windy later
Match - West Tackle Open - 1st out of 20

I had nearly forgotten about this match until Mark reminded me. With 20 booked in we had pegs 1-24, along the road bank and down the left hand bank. I have only fished here a couple times and was looking forward to a day’s skimmer fishing on the pole, although Mark suggested I needed a feeder rod for the carp.

Peg 17 didn’t mean much to me, but it soon became apparent I had drawn one of the carp pegs opposite the island. Stuart White on p16 was so confident of carp he only set up 2 feeder rods. As for me I had gone with the expectation of skimmer fishing and drawing this peg confused matters, because I was in a potential match winning area where I needed to fish the feeder. Kev Hanson was the other side of me, so all 3 of us would be targeting the island.

Because I had brought bait for a day’s skimmer fishing, I decided to still feed a pole line, more as a backup rather than my principle swim. To my left was a big bush/tree which extended 6m over the water and it looked like it would hold a few carp, so I fed 8mm pellet to fish paste over the top.

On the drive down, it was noticeably cooler than of later with a NE breeze and just as the match started it started to rain. Fortunately it didn’t last too long, but I was glad I brought my fleece.

I was told you need to cast as tight as you dare to the island, but it was obvious that it was really shallow and snaggy with bits of debris sticking out of the water. There was also marker buoys, indicating the out of bound area for the boaters. So I cast to the right of the buoy, but hopefully close enough to the island to get bites, although I had also heard stories of anglers hooking 13 and landing none. The next 6hrs had the potential to get exciting.

After feeding the 13m pole line with groundbait and pellet, I spent the first hour on the method feeder, with pellet on the hook. I had a small tench and skimmer, but it was slow going. Stu also had a few skimmers and tench, but no carp as yet.

I kept the pole line topped up and first drop in produced a big skimmer on 4mm expander, followed by a hand size fish, but then nothing which was disappointing. An early look under the tree only produced little knocks from what I assume were small fish.

Since the pole line failed to produce and Stuart was catching skimmers on feeder, I decided to focus more time on the feeder rotating baits, between maggot, pellet and boilie. Maggot produced the most fish.

After 3 hours my rod was nearly dragged in using a yellow pop up, but that tell-tale wag suggested the fish was foul hooked near the rear end. All I will say it takes a great deal of skill to land an 8lber hooked in the tail. I’m not sure Stu agreed.

That carp now put me ahead of Stuart and reports suggested the lake was fishing very hard and I was leading. Steve was admitting to having a 12lb carp (which must have lost weight by the end of the match weighing only 9lb). The projected target winning weight of 50lb was now looking very doubtful.

As the match progressed the wind increased and bites were becoming less frequent. Another look on the pole produced a roach! I tried the dropping the feeder over the pole line to see whether those skimmers wanted a more stable bait, but nothing. A couple of looks under the tree on paste also failed to produce. Obviously the fish didn’t want to come in close today.

So it was a case of sticking it out on the feeder and just waiting for a bite and I added a couple more skimmers, but I also lost a couple as I felt the feeder snag/bump on the bottom. In the last hour Kev’s swim came alive, catching a small carp a few skimmers. It was noticeable that he was casting shorter than Stuart & I and we wondered whether the fish preferred to be in the deeper water.

By the all out I thought I had 16lb or so and really didn’t think I had enough to win. My skimmers weighed heavier than I thought, but even with 20lb, I expected Andy Fox to have won from peg 1. As it turned out Andy had lost a few carp, in what is a proper snag pit, so a surprise win on a day when the fish just shut up shop.

1^st 20- 7 – Ken Rayner – p17
2^nd 20- 0 – Andy Fox – p1
3^rd 19-12 – Dean Adams – p5
4^th 18- 3 – Kev Hanson – p18
5^th 18- 1 – Stuart White – p16
6^th 14- 0 – Mark Poppleton – p13

Silvers
1^st 19-12 – Dean Adams – p5
2^nd 18- 1 – Stuart White – p16
3^rd 13- 3 – Kev Hanson – p18

18/08/13 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 92lb 10oz (7lb 6oz - silvers)
Catch - 22 Carp, 4 Skimmers, 2 Rudd, 1 Perch, 1 Roach
Weather - Sunny, but windy
Match - West Tackle Open - 2nd out of 12

Originally this match was suppose to be on Match and Speci, but with the final total being only 12 we were all on Match. At least today was drier, but the forecast westerly wind would blow straight down the lake.

 

Along with peg 3, 24 is one of my least favourite pegs on the lake. Whilst there tends to be small resident carp, it usually difficult to compete with the middle pegs and as such I didn’t think I could frame. However, with the wind blowing in, I thought silvers might be my best option, because those skimmers like a bit ripple over there heads.

 

For company I had Tom Thick on p1 (so another quiet match!) and an angler I’ve never met before on p22. The plan was to catch silvers on soft pellet (HB chump 0.4g &; .12 > 16 B911) at 6m and 13m over groundbait and pellet. After feeding both swims, I started down the right hand edge towards the tree (HB AK47 0.1g & .17 > 16 carp feeder) with hair rigged 8mm meat, tosspotting meat and hemp, just in case there was plenty of carp about.

 

After 45mins I had 3, plus a rudd, but was hardly setting the world alight. Nick Merry on p21 got off to a flyer with some proper carp from the island and Tom already nearly had 10lb of silvers from the right hand tree.

 

Having topped up both silvers swims and letting them settle, the response was disappointing with a small roach and a hand size skimmer that dropped off. Due to the increasingly strong wind, the long line was discarded, because presentation was becoming difficult, so focused on the 6m line, regularily feeding 4s, hoping the skimmers would turn up.

 

Another try down the right hand bank, produced a couple more carp, but I had to wait for a bite and was just thinking I was going no where fast, when I hooked a fish that I thought was foul hooked. But it wasn’t, it was just big. At just under 11lb it was a scale perfect common and was a very welcome bonus.

Bob Gullick had walked past to collect something from his car and reported it was fishing hard. Mark Brennan was probably leading with 8 carp, which meant my 6 wasn’t far away.

Decision time, carp or silvers? On the basis I was struggling to catch any silvers, I struck with the carp. My 6m line proved a useful fall back swim when I needed to rest the right hand bank swim, producing 3 big skimmers and a carp.

The 2^nd half of the match was much better and I caught up both Tom & Nick. Continually toss potting meat and hemp was producing more bites, although I couldn’t catch more than 3 fish before I had to pot in more food to pull the fish back from under the tree. I did try the left hand margin, but never had a bite. Whether it was because there was angler on p22 I don’t know.

By the all out I was fairly sure I had beaten Tom & Nick who both suffered a slow last couple of hours and the post match chat suggested that Mark B had caught, but everyone else had struggled. I was last to weigh and my 92lb was slightly more than I thought. I had 12 carp in the last 2 hours weighing 35lb and my first net of 10 carp weighed 50lb.

Really pleased to have come 2^nd from the peg, although I think the wind blowing into the peg helped. Generally though the fish didn’t really want it today, with many complaining about seeing loads of fish by the island, but they just wont feed.

1st 101-11 - Mark Brennan - p15
2nd 92-10 - Ken Rayner - p24
3rd 77- 8 - Tom Thick - p1
4th 74-14 - Steve Ince - p7
5th 69-10 - Mark Poppleton - p11
6th 62- 6 - Nick Merry - p21

Silvers
1st 13- 0 - Steve Ince - p7
1st 13- 0 - Tom Thick - p1
3rd 11- 6 - Steve Musitano - p5 

17/08/13 - Fishponds

Weight - 188lb 3oz
Catch - 31 Carp
Weather - Windy & showery
Match - Club - 1st out of 11

I haven’t fished our club water much so far this summer and was looking forward to todays match which would be fished between 2-7, but I wasn’t looking forward to the forecast wind and rain. Fortunately the rain wasn’t quite as heavy as expected, but the wind was as strong as expected.

11 members turned up and I found myself on p6, which meant the wind was blowing across me from the left and any thoughts of fishing shallow were soon dismissed. The depth in this peg varies widely from just over 6ft to my right and 2-3ft to my left. So 2 paste rigs (.19 > 12 carp feeder) were set up to fish each swim.

Each swim got a pot of 8s and I started in the right hand swim with paste. 45mins later I had 4 fish, but couldnt get another bite. Due to the wind I had to mix the paste a little stiffer than normal, but I didn’t expect the swim to die so quickly.

Into the left hand margin and it was obvious the fish preferred the shallower water and I was soon getting bites/liners, but was having a mare. Typically this shallower margin has smaller resident fish under the tree, which then bolt around the corner as soon as they are hooked, which was causing a few issues. However the main problem was finding a flat spot to fish onto, due to all the stone/boulders dumped in the swim to shore up an eroding bank. Also the wind, meant I couldn’t fish too long, due to the reeds blowing all over the place. After 90mins I had lost 3 rigs and several carp, mostly foul hooked.

A change of tact was required. Instead of toss potting the pellet, I started potting in the bait to force the fish down and I also setup a pellet rig (ackoo powertrap 0.2g > .17 > 16B960) which worked much better than the paste.

As the match progressed, the only person who I could see catching well was Andy on p10. After 2hrs he had a 5 fish advantage over me and was catching some proper lumps on pellet. Now that I had sorted out how to fish my peg properly, I felt I needed to have at least 3 or 4 more fish than him to overcome the bigger stamp of fish.

For next hour we both caught roughly the same number, but in the 4^th hour I caught then overtook Andy, but was really conscious of the fact it would be close. Most of my fish still came from the left margin, whilst my right hand swim only produced a couple. The fifth hour was slow for both of us and I wasn’t confident that my 31 carp would beat his 27 and a bream. As it turned out there was only 1 fish in.

1st 188-3 - Ken Rayner - p6
2nd 183- 5 - Andy Bradley - p10
3rd 130-11 - Chris Davidge - p16
4th 123- 9 - Andy Lord - p3
5th 108- 1 - Glenn Putterill - p27
6th 85- 7 - Roger Putterill - p21

10/08/13 - Glebe - Pool 7

Weight - 149lb 4oz
Catch - 26 Carp, 3 Skimmers, 2 Perch
Weather - Warm, sunny & light breeze
Match - Angling Trust Masters - 9th out of 78 (4th in section)

Last week I received a call from Mark to say only 10 teams had entered into the Masters and its fair to say I was really disappointed to see so few teams. Last year 11 teams entered and 16 the year before, which suggested the Angling Trust were struggling to attract the big teams and big names to the event, because last year the majority of the field was made up of Marukyu sponsored Glebe members and internet teams. As a non-sponsored angler, I wanted to fish this event as an opportunity to fish against some of the best anglers in the UK, particularly since its actually quite expensive to fish the match, £30 pools, £25 to join the Angling Trust, £10 contribution to raffle prize, plus bait & fuel.

On the day 13 teams turned up, including 2 teams that Roy wasn’t aware of until the day, because the Angling Trust hadn’t told him! I know Roy is a big advocate of the Trust, but this isn’t the first time they have mismanaged a competition and for me and others based on comments I’ve seen and heard, it’s does throw into question their ability to do what they say.

Due to the original low numbers, the good news was the Big Lake at Mallory Park wasn’t in, because it’s a horrible place when there is a track day as there would be today, although had the AT told Roy about the additional teams it would have been in.

Fishing under the South West MG banner the team was Mark Poppleton (captain), Nick Merry, Pete Bailey, Tom Thick, Andy Fox and I. Having drawn once, Mark had to re-draw. Mark ended up on pool 5, Nick and Pete were on pool 1, Tom had Foundations, Andy on Uglies and I had p98 on pool 7. Andy turned up on his peg to find an angler on it! Fortunately it was sorted out with a toss of coin, but a few anxious unnecessary moments.

Back to my peg and it was the same one I had last month and like last month the wind was blowing out of the peg which meant I was the only angler with no ripple. Speaking to Chris Needham who I think holds the venue match record was guesting for Diawa was confident I would still catch and based on last month’s match I knew it was possible, but trying to compete  against top quality anglers like Chris and Paul Yates (Drennan) who had the ripple was always going to be challenging. My section also included Pool 6 with Joe Carass, Jason LeBosquet and Matt Hall.

Today’s match was only 5hrs, compared to the normal 6hrs at the Glebe and I made the decision to be really positive with my caster feed at 13m to pull in the fish shallow as quickly as possible. As I was setting up I noticed a few fish moving along the end bank and decided to start here on double corn toss potting corn and pellet, whilst I primed the shallow line.

After 15mins and a few liners, but no fish it was time to go shallow. After an hour I had 5 carp, with a further 7 added in the 2^nd hour and I was already up to 50lb, thanks to 3 proper lumps. Pete Marlow (Marukyu Black) on p100 had been struggling, but was now catching quickly on his 5m corn line and reports suggested anglers further down the lake were also catching.

Going into the 3^rd hour the fishing was becoming difficult and I had to work really hard to keep the fish in the swim, by feeding heavily, because they kept drifting away in the breeze. In fact it was becoming noticeable I was catching more by fishing downwind towards the ripple. The fish were also wary of the pole, continually shying away, also a lot of fish have been caught shallow this year and they were definitely more cagey than last month.

I tried down the margins as well and have come to the conclusion I really need to work on this aspect of my fishing next summer, because I am sure I am missing out on extra fish. I had liners, but no proper bites other from 2 tiny perch on double worm!

The last 90mins of the match was really frustrating.  There were fish in the swim, but trying to get them to take the bait was proving difficult. In hindsight I may have been better fishing 8mm pellet using the plop of the pellet to attract a few fish, but I persevered with maggot or caster on the hook and still picked up the odd fish.

By the end of the match I thought I had about 130lb, but wasn’t too sure, because I only had 3 small carp and those 3 lumps caught early on, although I could have had less had a 8lber that jumped clear of the net landed in the lake rather than on the bank! What wasn’t so fortunately was one of my nets disconnected whilst watching the weigh in, which meant I lost 2 skimmers and 3 small carp, leaving me with only 1 skimmer. I reckon I probably lost about 12lb or so, which didn’t affect the section, since I was 18lb behind 3^rd.

Joe Carass won our section with 198lb from p88 on pool 6, Chris Needham was 2^nd with 177lb and Paul Yates was 3^rd with 168lb, although he actually weighed 196lb, but went over on one net.

I was pleased to claim 4^th in section and just wish I had some ripple, because I’m sure 200lb was a possibility. As for the team, we finished 2^nd behind Diawa, which was a great result. Pete won his section, Mark & Tom were both 2^nd, Nick was 7^th and Andy 12th. I think Andy was a bit disappointed, however he did beat an England international, Stu Conroy.

I don’t have the full results, but will post when available.

04/08/13 - Rood Ashton

Weight - 69lb 14oz
Catch - 28 Carp, 1 Roach
Weather - Windy. Cloudy & odd shower
Match - Club - 1st out of 15

Today was a club match at Rood Ashton and with 15 booked in I was able to spread the pegs around the lake, leaving out the worst areas. There was a strong wind blowing into the far bank and I fancied a draw between 10 & 15 so was a little disappointed to see 1 staring back at me. Fortunately I had the foresight to put 1 between what are normally 1 & 2, so I had a bit more room than normal.

 

Mark had warned me the lake fishes differently during the day than the evening and as such I did bring a tip rod to fish the method, but the intention was not to use it.

 

I started on paste by the left hand tree and then pellet, but after 30mins and only 1 roach, plus a couple of foul hooked fish the pole line looked like it might not work. The wind which now quite strong and blowing into the small island opposite where a few fish had topped, so I had no choice but to try the method, which was loaded with groundbait and a few 4s, with 3 dead maggots on the hook.

 

Casting to the end of the island the tip went round straight away and a 6lber was soon netted. The following 5 casts produced 4 carp before the swim died. In fact this was the pattern for the day. Catch 2 or 3 quick fish, before trying somewhere else and when I went back to the original swim catch a couple more before they backed off again.

 

I kept 2 pole lines regularly topped up, 11m by the tree with pellet and meat 11m down the margin at the bottom of the shelf. Other than one foul hooker the meat line didn’t produce, whilst I managed a couple of fish from the pellet swim. I really wanted the pellet swim to work, because the average stamp of fish was much better than those I was catching on the method, which were averaging 1½-2lb. But with the wind blowing out of the bank the fish just didn’t seem comfortable coming in.

 

I nearly cost myself the match win in the last 20mins when I spent too much time unsuccessfully chasing fish I saw moving around tight in the right hand margin. Generally my bank fished poorly, although Roger provided the entertainment by not paying attention when his rod got dragged in. He eventually retrieved it, but not before stepping on a pole section – ouch!

 

As expected the fish on the far bank were a bigger stamp, but fortunately no one had enough of them, although Craig’s 16 carp for 65lb ran me close.

 

So a double win weekend and next Saturdays Angling Trust Match at the Glebe is now paid for. Just hope there are some proper teams fishing unlike last year, when 80% of the field was made up of Marukyu sponsored Glebe members and internet teams.

 

1st 69-14 - Ken Rayner - p1

2nd 65- 9 - Craig Davidge - p11

3rd 51- 4 - Chris Davidge - p14

4th 49- 9 - Andy Lord - p9

5th 48-10 - Glenn Putterill - p13

6th 45- 2 - Joe Thompson - p12

03/08/13 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 128lb 14oz
Catch - 32 Carp, 4 Roach, 2 Perch, 1 Tench
Weather - Sunshine & some thundery showers
Match - Open - 1st out of 11

I debated about whether to go to Acorns or Lands End. Checking the Acorns website I got the impression the Saturday opens weren’t as well attended as the midweekers, so finally settled on Lands End, purely because I prefer it as a fishery.

 

With 11 booked in we were all on Match Lake and reports suggested it has been fishing well, however with the recent up & down weather I wasn’t sure it would continue. Mike earlier in the week had topped up the lakes, which had stirred up the fish and the Thursday evening match had fished well.

 

I had to smile when I drew 15, as it’s a peg I spent a fair bit of time on and when I arrived there was a few fish moving around, so I was hopefully of a good day. For company I had Tom Mangnall on p13, which has been in good form recently and Nigel Bartlett on p18, who would focus on the silvers.

 

The last time I fished Match Lake was back in the spring, so I wasn’t sure what would work, so brought everything, paste, meat, pellet, caster and maggot. Conscience I could end up confusing myself, when I drew the peg I decided to focus on the carp, but still managed to set up far too many rigs and only ended up using 3 of them during the day.

 

The plan was to fish meat @ 5m to my left at the bottom of the shelf, paste/pellet to my right by the bush and pellet across. On the all-in I swung the long line rig to 8lber and it took the 8mm pellet straightaway. I swung the rig at a couple more fish without success and after 5mins they all disappeared. I had started firing 6s at the far bank to my left and tried swinging the rig into the feed, but no bites. My experience of fishing shallow at Lands End isn’t great and if you keep firing pellet, the fish just frantically swim around chasing the pellet and you end up foul hooking. So I decided to feed a pouch of pellet when I playing a fish, followed up by a toss pot of 6s. Using a 3x8 float set to fish the 8mm pellet on top of the far shelf, by lifting & dropping, I finishing the 2^nd hour with 11 carp and was a few fish ahead of Tom who was catching down the left hand bank.

 

Before the match Mike asked Tom and Mike West on p11 whether they were OK if the aerator came on for hour at 1pm, which they both agreed to do. Ultimately Mike was concerned that with the thundery weather around he wanted to ensure his fish didn’t go belly up. Unfortunately for Tom he didn’t catch during that hour. I also struggled and ended up trying further right along the island. Although I had a tench and a carp, it didn’t seemed right, so decided to dump some caster fishing double caster on the hook, which brought 1 more carp, but also a few roach, so that idea was soon binned and stuck with the pellet, finishing the 3^rd hour with 14 carp.

 

It’s always a nice feeling knowing that if you keep going you are likely to frame and I was enjoying myself, despite the rain and the odd thunder clamp.

 

After the wave machine stopped Tom started catching again, but never ask him how many he has, because according to him I was miles ahead, which didn’t really seem right, particularly when he had a run of fish down his right hand margin.

 

My meat line turned out to be a waste of time, producing only a couple perch and a roach. I don’t think the fish wanted to be down the track in the deeper water. I had tried paste close to the bush earlier in the match, but only had a couple of liners, so had decided to regularly feed pellet by the p16 platform.

 

The fourth hour produced a further 5 carp, 4 from the far bank and 1 down by the platform.  The 5^th hour was my best period adding a further 8 carp, before it slowed down during the last hour adding a couple more fish from the p16 platform.

 

On the all out Tom said he only had 17 carp – yeah right! I thought I had about 130lb, but I got a bit concerned when Tom plonked 125lb on the scales including 9lb of skimmers. So it was a lot closer than I expected, but the rest of the lake seemed to have fished harder probably due to the indifferent weather.

 

1st 128-14 - Ken Rayner - p15

2nd 125- 3 - Tom Mangnall - p13

3rd 79-12 - Scott Puddy - p1

4th 77- 0 - Dan Phither - p3

5th 67- 0 - Eric Fouracre - p22

6th 37-10 - Mike Duckett - p7

 

Silvers

1st 29- 1 - Nigel Bartlett - p18

2nd 23- 0 - Eric Fouracre - p22

3rd 13- 4 - Dave Wescott - p24

01/08/13 - Rood Ashton

Weight - 45lb 4oz
Catch - 13 Carp
Weather - Hot & sunny start. Southerly wind
Match - Wiltshire Angling Evening Series - 4th out of 10 (2nd of out 5-section)

Tonight’s match would be the last evening match of the summer at Rood Ashton and whilst I was out of contention for the series, I wanted to get back a bit of pride due to some indifferent performances. However, the league is very competitive and I haven’t quite got to grips with venues.

I arrived early so had plenty of time to walk around the lake and really fancied a draw on the far bank where the wind was blowing. I got my wish drawing the birdcage and was hopefully for a few fish.

Due to the shortening days the match would only be 3¼hrs finishing at 9pm, before it got too dark to weigh in. I decided to stick with 2 swims, 11.5m in open water and under the tree to my right where it was slightly deeper.

Starting at 11.5m with a ½ pot of 4s & 6s I tried paste initially, but after 15mins switched to a pellet rig with 10mm JPZ, toss potting 6s and soon caught 4 carp in 30mins, as well as foul hooking a couple.

The following 30mins I couldn’t catch, which was odd. I had been regularly toss potting pellet, with a few pouches of pellet and there seemed to be fish in the swim, but they just didn’t want to get their heads down, preferring to hover above the feed. In the end I started to dump ½ pot of pellet after each fish which worked and it reduced the number of foul hookers. I caught most fish on the pellet rig, lifting and dropping with most bites coming as the bait reached the bottom.

In the meantime I had kept feeding under tree, which produced 4 carp late on, on paste.

Immediately after the match, it was obvious my bank hadn’t fished well and it looked like I had the best weight, however Stu White was in my section, pegged on the end bank and he won the match fishing meat in the margins, which meant I picked up the section money by de-fault.

Funny moment of match was watching Pete Neate swimming the length of the lake to retrieve his top 6 which had been taken by a carp from peg 1. Fair shout to him, he eventually found it on the other side of the big island with the fish still attached.

1^st 98- 8 – Stuart White – p6 (end bank)
2^nd 63- 0 – Tony Gilbert – p5 (the point)
3^rd 55-12 – Ian Willetts – p2 (the lawns)
4^th 45- 4 – Ken Rayner – p7 (bird cage)
5^th 39- 0 – Gary Etheridge – p3 (the lawns)
6^th 38- 8 – Rich Brimble – p4 (the corner)