30/08/14 - Glebe - Uglies (Pool 3)

Weight - 128lb
Catch - 13 Carp, 3 Skimmers
Weather - Sunny, cloudy period & breezy
Match - Angling Trust Masters

It’s that time of year again for the Angling Trust (formerly ACA) Masters at the Glebe, fishing under the South West Match Group banner. Fortunately this year the big lake at Mallory Park which I hate wasn’t included, but it did mean that 2 sections of 14 would be on Pool 1 so that would be 2 sections to avoid.

Tony Rixon picked me up at 5.30 and 2hrs 20mins later we were eating a decent breakfast at the Mallory Park café. An anxious looking Mark Poppleton was waiting for us, although I probably didn’t help matters by suggesting we were 70 miles further away than we actually were. And that set the tone for the rest of the day.

As well as being a member of the Angling Trust, there was also a requirement for each team to bring a “big” team prize and each individual must bring a small prize for a raffle draw. The other 3 members of our team, Tom Thick, Dan White and Nick Merry, were travelling up together, however they had left there prizes at home, so stopped off at Morrison’s to make their purchases. Mark was presented with a fresh mackerel and a horseradish! Toms mind works in a different way!

Prior to the draw Tony and I walked around Pool 1 and Uglies (pool 3). Tony quite fancied peg 1 on Pool 1, which was sheltered from the brisk breeze and I fancied a draw on Uglies, simply because I have never fished it. Come the draw, we both got our wishes.

I was reliably informed my peg 48 on the narrower side of the island was a good shallow peg, fishing 17m swinging a shallow rig towards the far side bushes. Unfortunately today there was a brisk breeze blowing across me right to left, which would meant fishing shallow was unlikely, but still set up a long line rig just in case and a pellet waggler rod was already setup. However I wasn’t too impressed with the platform (see picture) and it took a little while to get settled.

The other advice was Uglies was full of big fish and I might be only need 12 fish or so do well. With this in mind a rig to fish corn at 7m (Ackoo Powertrap 0.4g 0.2g > .17 > 16 carp feeder), a margin rig (Ackoo Carrat 0.2g > .17 > 16 carp feeder), and a cage feeder rod were also set up. 10mins before the all-in a carp rolled on the far side and I decided to start on the feeder, whilst letting my 7m line rest after cupping in a pot of corn and hemp.

30mins later the feeder only produced 1 small skimmer and I didn’t want to waste any more time on it, particularly since my 7m line was fizzing already. The following 60mins proved to be incredibly frustrating, hooking 6 carp, but losing 5 due to hooks pulls, although 1 was definitely foul hooked. A minor rig adjustment adding a no 10 shot closer to the hook and I landed 6 of the next 7 fish. Whether the increased ratio was due to the rig adjustment or the fact I got my feeding right, potting a ¼ cup of corn & hemp I’m not sure, but at least I was catching.

A couple of casts with the straight lead didn’t produce anything from the far side over loose fed 8s, I even tried the pellet waggler and shallow pole, without success. When the wind did drop to a sensible level late into the 5hr match, I was already fishing the margins.

As well as plenty of corn, hemp and pellet, I also brought all 10pts of my frozen caster today, just to make room in the freezer, which was going to fed somewhere and the right hand margin was the place.

Since the start I had been cupping caster and a little corn into the right margin and groundbait into the left margin, fully expecting the left margin to be the best. As it turned out the right margin proved to the most productive with 5 carp, whilst I only had 1 over the groundbait, all on double corn, including a proper munter of 19lb, missing out on my personal best by 8oz.

So a really strong last 45mins and I was left wishing the match was longer and also regretting losing so many fish at the beginning. It was just one of the days. Had I landed just half the number of fish lost, I would have probably come 2^nd or 3^rd in section, instead of finishing about half way.

Back at the Mallory Park café food was provided free of charge which was very welcome before the long journey back. The results revealed we finished 6^th overall, which is respectable bearing in mind the calibre of angler fishing. Diawa won and MAP finished a close 2^nd.

Remember the mackerel? Well someone decided it was a good idea to put into the front grill of Marks car. Apparently it’s now somewhere on the A417, after a brief period being stuck in the wiper blades – well it was funny at the time when I received the following picture from Mark. 

25/08/14 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 71lb 5oz (7lb 10oz - silvers)
Catch - 13 Carp, 3 Skimmers, 3 F1s, 2 Roach, 2 Perch
Weather - Rained all day
Match - Garry Wall Memorial - 9th

Must say I was a little disappointed to see only 16 turn up, when I thought we would have at least 20 plus, but then again the weather forecast for rain was bang on, as it didn’t stop until 45mins from the end.

Speaking to Rod at Shipham Café, it sounded like Match Lake was still fishing well, except for the bottom end where Rod had struggled for 49lb from peg 1 during Saturdays match. Come the draw I had the penultimate ticket, which was peg 2, leaving Pete Nurse with 19. Doh!

To be honest I didn’t think I would compete from the peg, but you never know. Pellet was catapulted to the far bank, micros/4s left & right at 13m and meat at 5m. Actually started on my top 2 plus 1, fishing paste under the tree and I had a carp within 5mins. Unfortunately it was a mad ghostie, which eventually did me under the platform. No more followed, so time to try the meat line, which produced 1 carp, but that was it.

Some carp were now showing themselves by the island and I soon had 6 on 8mm pellet, but they won’t stay in the shallow water. Even a switch to paste failed to produce a proper bite.

Soft pellet at 13m to my right produced 2 small skimmers and 2 F1s quite quickly, but it was slow going after that adding only a couple of roach and another F1. A big skimmer on double caster from under the p3 platform, where I had been feeding caster and meat was my only other silvers. In hindsight I spent too long hoping for a run of skimmers that never turned up.

Some meat fish at 5m and under the p3 platform during the last 90mins bolstered my weight and had I spent less time in search of silvers, I would have probably had a 100lb, but on the day it still won’t have been enough.

1^st 178-13 – Tony Rixon – p13
2^nd 154- 2 – Tom Mangnall – p22
3^rd 121-10 – Mark Poppleton – p11
4^th 114-15 – Pete Nurse – p19
5^th 105- 1 – Rod Wootton – p32
6^th 99- 1 – Bob W – p31

Silvers
1^st 28-10 – Rod Wootton – p32
2^nd 28- 2 – Martin Pettifer – p31
3^rd 24- 8 – Dave Sawyer – p8

24/08/14 - Rood Ashton

Weight - 119lb 12oz
Catch - 25 Carp
Weather - Bright & sunny, but cool.
Match - Marks Stag Do - 6th out of 16

Instead of having a conventional stag do prior to his wedding in October, Mark decided to have a stag match. The format would be a randomly drawn team match with 4 teams of 4, with Mark, Nick, Hippy and I as team captains. The 3 best weights from each team member would count and the top 2 teams would be paid out, plus a prize for the biggest fish, which meant everyone, had a chance of a pickup. After completing the draw, Steve Ince, Calum Craig and Bryan Neale became part of Team Rayner.

Prior to the draw for pegs Mark organised a BBQ and as you can see from the pictures, Andy Fox took on the duties of chef, with Craig Knight as his commi. After having our fill of sausage, ½lb burger and ribs which was all very nice, it was time for the draw. Steve ended up on peg 1 behind the small island, Calum was on the far side behind the big island, Bryan was on the top bank and I was left with the top left hand corner. The team draw didn’t look too bad, with Steve and Calum on the best pegs. As for me I wasn’t too enthusiastic. It’s a peg that looks good, but only occasionally throws up weights during the day, although some big weights are possible during the evening and since we were fishing 1.30-7.30 I was hopefully of a strong finish.

 

Before talking about the match, I have to mention Allan the owner who has been busy creating some new swims, taking out trees and bushes along the top bank, creating some wider swims with long margins. He also removed a few snags, including one big branch which resembled a Christmas tree with broken terminal tackle.

Setting up I decided to keep it simple. The straight lead/meat over 8mm pellet @ 20m and the margins feeding groundbait/4mm pellet. On the all in I went straight down the left hand margin because I had seen some activity whilst setting up, but hardly had a liner. Ok, no worries the straight lead line will provide a few fish, which it did after an hour. After 3hrs I still only had 1 carp in the net, losing 2, one felt foul hooked and the other snagged me.

 

I had contemplated setting up a new line at 11/13m, but I was so far behind everyone, I really needed some big fish, which meant I needed my margins to work. So far I had been feeding hand size balls of groundbait into the right hand margin and cupping groundbait into the left side. Throughout the first 3hrs, I had tried the margins with paste, meat and bunches of maggot. There were signs of a few fish in the area with the occasionally cloud bloom, but had very few liners. Must admit I was starting to get worried about letting the team down as well the stick I was going to get for not catching – not that anyone would have done that!

 

On the 3 hour mark I had my 2^nd carp on double 8mm meat from the right side, finishing the 4^th hour of the match with 11 fish and only one of them was less than 3lb, so the come back was on. The 5^th hour was slower with a further 5 again all on meat, although I did lose a couple due to hook pulls. Another 9 followed during the final hour, including contender for the biggest fish of 10lb 12oz. The majority came from the right hand side and for some reason the left side only produced a handful of fish, which was a surprise because I was expecting it to be the other way around.

 

By the end of the match 3kgs of groundbait, 3pts of 4s and just over a tin of meat, had been fed into the margins, so I wasn’t shy about getting the fish into the swim. I was also very relieved to have at least caught and news was filtering down that both Calum and Steve had caught well, so the team result was looking good. In fact it turned out my result wasn’t required to win, which Mark enjoyed telling me!

 

Overall a nice relaxed day, with plenty of banter and good fishing.

 

1^st 203-12 – Steve Ince – p1

2^nd 143-15 – Mark Poppleton – p10

3^rd 138-10 – Rich Whitmarsh – p6

4^th 136-11 – Calum Craig – p14

5^th 127-14 – Nick Ince – p15

6^th 119-12 – Ken Rayner – p7

17/08/14 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 102lb 0oz (9lb 3oz - silvers)
Catch - 24 Carp, 8 Skimmers, 3 Roach, 2 Perch
Weather - Wet start, sunny & windy
Match - Open - 8th out of 21

With 21 anglers booked in we were split across Match and Speci but it was like a baggers convention at the draw, even Lee Werrett made the trip across the bridge.

I found myself on p11, which I don’t mind, but it would nice to fish a different peg because I have drawn it a quite a bit over the last few years. Following yesterday’s success with paste, I intended to do the same again. However, plumbing up revealed the far shelf was even shallower and there was no flat spots except in the very shallow water by island.

Eventually I found a deeper flattish spot to my left by the reeds which didn't prove very productive. I thought fishing pellet would be better, particularly since the overhanging grasses were less of an issue and less likely to catch by swing a pellet rig around. Rigs for meat to my left by p10 platform and soft pellet in open water were also set up.

Starting on the pellet across and I couldn’t get a bite over the loose feed 6s, even though I could see fish moving around, which meant I was soon on the paste rig. Even this was proving difficult to entice a bite.

In the meantime Lee Werrett on p8 was catching on pellet by the island, as was the angler opposite on p13. After 30mins, I so far resisted the temptation to fish in the really shallow off the point of the island, but felt I had no choice and sure enough had a carp almost straight away on paste. Since the water was so shallow I could only catch a couple of fish at a time before they became spooked.

After 2 hours I had to go back to the car for a bucket of 6s, giving me an opportunity to see how everyone was doing along my bank. Lee was admitting to 13/14 carp and the angler on p3 had 9. My total so far was 7 so not too far off the pace.

The remainder of the match proved to be frustrating. There was obviously fish across, but catching them was difficult. I tried the pellet rig again, but without success. I thought my 5m pellet line was going to come alive, with a few early small skimmers, before catching a couple of carp on expander. In hindsight, when it went quiet I should have just kept the little & often feed routine, but decided to dump a pot instead.

It was my meat line that proved to be the most disappointing. I really expected to catch a few proper lumps, instead it was roach or perch, plus a couple of decent sized skimmers. I had to 2x 7lbers with 20mins to go, but it was too late.

I managed to at least overtake the angler opposite and after his quick start kept pace with Lee, but ultimately I had too many smaller fish and not nearly enough of those meat fish. The water across by the island was too shallow for the fish to settle for any period and this certainly slowed my catch rate. When I caught the big skimmers on meat, I did consider sticking with catching silvers, but thought someone would have at least 20lb. unfortunately I was wrong, with only 11lb 3oz needed to claim the silvers prize. Really should have feed the 5m pellet line a little more carefully, because I know I would have picked up at least an additional 2lb of silvers.

Overall the venue fished very well with 8 tons being recorded.

1^st 165-11 – Kev Molton – p15
2^nd 157-14 – Craig Edmunds – p22
3^rd 132- 1 – Lee Werrett – p8
4^th 124-12 – Andy Hembrow – p29
5^th 122-11 – Steve Tucker – p19
6^th 114- 0 – Tony Rixon – p24

Silvers
1^st 28-10 – Rod Wootton – p36
2^nd 27- 1 – Nigel Bartlett – p27
3^rd 11- 4 – Mike West – p5

16/08/14 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 128lb 2oz
Catch - 31 Carp, 2 Roach, 1 F1, 1 Chub, 1 Skimmer
Weather - Bright & sunny
Match - Open - 1st out of 8

Originally I was booked into the open at Rood Ashton, however numbers have dwindled with only 8 turning up last week and this week’s match was cancelled due to lack of interest. Larry has also cancelled the remaining matches, which is a shame, however it presented an opportunity to return to one my favourite venues.

With only 8 of us we had plenty of space and I was pleased to draw p15, mainly because it one I tend to draw quite a bit and nothing to do with the fact it’s a good peg (tongue in cheek).

Seeing the lake for the first time in a couple of months, I was surprised to see the water level down as much as it was, with only a foot of water on the far shelf. Because I was a little out of touch with the venue I set up probably too many rigs, but at least it would allow be to change quickly if required. Since the water was so shallow, I also setup a paste rig to fish the far shelf, mainly because I felt presenting a large target bait and toss potting 6s, would be better than having the fish rushing around under the a constant rain of pellet. Also swinging a pellet rig around was likely to get caught in the overhanging shrubbery.

On the all in meat/hemp was fed to my left at 5m and pellet at 14m to my right. I did start by the P16 pallet after seeing a swirl, but a perch which dropped off was all I got and quickly changed to fishing the far shelf.

The first hour was frustrating on the paste. There was plenty of fish, but was suffering from liners and only managed to land 1 fish. I did switch to fishing meat but again only 1 fish and I was soon back on the paste.

After an hour and only 2 fish in the net I was falling behind Dave Wescott on p18 and Rich Lovering on p13. Using a really soft paste and I was spending more time shipping in and out, rather fishing, so decided to stiffen it up, which resulted in a proper bite and fish on. The next couple hours proved quite productive, catching a couple of fish, before it went quiet and they would return again after a couple pouches of pellet.

The 14m pellet line didn’t really produce anything of value despite a regular pouchful of 6s and the meat line produced the odd carp, but roach were being a nuisance.

With 2 hours left Rich was struggling and Dave had slowed, but Rod on p20 catching quickly and it looked like he would my main threat for the win. The far line kept producing, but the fish tended to be on the small side and felt I needed some proper fish.

The meat line eventually threw up 5 carp in the last 45mins, plus I had a couple more from the p16 pallet, including one hooked a minute before the all out and landed 5mins later, which proved decisive just piping Rod.

So a very pleasant return to Lands End which overall fished very well.

1^st 128- 2 – Ken Rayner – p15
2^nd 126- 9 – Rod Wootton – p20
3^rd 111- 0 – Andy Hembrow – p2
4^th 102- 5 – Dave Wescott – p18
5^th 90-13 – Mike West – p5

Silvers
1^st 15- 4 – Mike West – p5
2^nd 11- 8 – Jim Jenner – p11

09/08/14 - Fishponds

Weight - 66lb 0oz
Catch - 10 Carp
Weather - Strong wind, calming down later. Mostly cloudy.
Match - Club - 4th out of 10

Another of our clubs summer afternoon/evening matches at the club lake and I was thankful for the lay-in this morning, following 2 long weeks working on a pension’s project. Unfortunately it has also meant I had to pull out of Mondays match at the Glebe, but work has to come first at the moment.

 

Drawing p25 down the arm of the lake wouldn’t have been my first choice and I wasn’t that enthusiastic about my chances. However upon arriving at the peg the strong wind was blowing down into the arm and thought I would still catch a few. With the wind blowing down the arm, fishing the margins seemed to be the sensible option, but plumbing up revealed I couldn’t fish the top shelf, because of overhanging reeds. It also meant if I wanted to fish next to the pallet I would need to stand up, resting the pole on the reeds to see my float.

 

Fortunately the depth on the 2^nd shelf was the same left and right, so these would be my main swims to fish paste over pellet. I also set up a shallow pellet rig, because I full expected to catch a few shallow.

 

Alternating left and right, my first carp came after 30mins, but that that was it for the first hour, which was a worry. In fact everyone seemed to be struggling.

 

The next hour was much better with 5 carp, before it went quiet again, with only a single carp during the 3^rd and 4^th hours. Even after priming the long shallow line didn’t result in anything, which is very unlike this venue.

 

The final hour only produced another 2 carp, this time from the p24 pallet. The match was won by Andy with what was the lowest weight for a long time. Really not sure why the fish didn’t want to feed. Normally you see the reeds knocking around and fish generally showing themselves, but today there was very little of that. I don’t think it was any coincidence that 1^st & 2^nd came from the shallowest pegs, but it was fair to say the fish were really off their feed today.

 

1^st 113- 0 – Andy Lord – p6

2^nd 91- 7 – Andy Bradley – p16

3^rd 84- 6 – Dave Bradley – p14

4^th 66- 0 – Ken Rayner – p25

5^th 53-11 – Glen Putterill – p12

Lands End Winter League - Dates

Lands End Winter League dates - 2014/15

A few people have asked for the dates for the forthcoming league, so here they are. Priority goes to those who fished last year, however there is a reserve list and I expect/know a few who will drop out, so if you are interested please let me know.

7 Dec
25 Jan
8 Feb
22 Feb
15 Mar
29 Mar
5 Apr - reserve

36 pegs - 12 pegs on Match, Speci and Johns

03/08/14 - Sedges - Brick Lake

Weight - 58lb 5oz (46lb 0oz - silvers)
Catch - 35 Bream, 1 Fantail, 1 Eel, 2 Carp
Weather - Mostly sunny. Breezy start, becoming flat calm later.
Match - Float Only - 2nd in silvers, 2nd in section

I really wish I was able to fish this league, but had to drop out when I couldn’t make 2 of the dates, so instead I was guesting today to make up the numbers and even then 1 dropped out late. The joys of being a match organiser!

With 39 anglers spread over Brick and Tile, after yesterday’s carp fest, I really fancied a draw on the middle of Brick and hopefully some silvers action. I got half my wish with p12 on Brick, which is 1 from the end and with the wind blowing into that end my fingers were crossed for a good day. For company I had Steve Evans to my right on p11 and Clayton Hudson to my left on p13.

Having not fished the venue since last year, reports suggested paste or meat were best baits and I must admit I sat at my peg for 5mins deciding which way to go. The wind was quite strong blowing across me from 10 o’clock and I just felt paste would prove too difficult, so settled on a meat line at 5m, a groundbait line at 11.5m for the skimmers and I planned on ping 8s at 14-16m to catch shallow. I thought about setting up a pellet waggler, but decided against it with the way the wind was.

Rigs for the day:
-  Wire stem 1g > .14 > 16 B911 – worm/expander
-  HB dweezil 0.75g > .16 > 16 B911 – meat
- Shady Shallow > .17 > 16 B960 – pellet shallow

On the all-in 4 balls of groundbait (krill & natural swim stim) plus soften 4s were cupped in at 11.5m and meat/hemp at 5m.

Starting on the shallow rig I was hoping for an early mug fish after seeing a few carp boshing around, but after 15mins and no indications it was time to switch to the groundbait line. In the meantime I was beginning to question my decision not to use paste, because Clayton got off to a flyer catching mostly skimmers and a couple of carp.

I soon had my first skimmer on worm using the heavy rig and after a 2½  hours was catching consistently, finding it best to cup another ball of groundbait and 4s after every 2^nd fish. I occasionally dropped in on the 5m which was also feed regularly with meat/hemp, but as yet only had 1 missed bite.

After 3hrs the skimmer line was fading a little and thought it was time to try and catch shallow after priming the line for the last couple of hours. 5mins later I had a carp – happy days, but bugger me if the wind didn’t just drop and all that lovely ripple disappeared. I tried the waggler over the long pole line, but with the flat calm conditions I couldn’t tempt another carp.

So decision time. Do I try to catch more carp or keep after the skimmers? With Tom Mangnall winning my section I felt the best chance of a pickup was stick with the skimmers. With the wind dropping the heavy rig just wasn’t sitting right and the elastic on the meat rig was too heavy for the skimmers, so another rig was set up, this time a 0.5g HB dweezil, which I had to dot right down. This time 6mm expander proved to be the best bait and I managed to keep putting skimmers in the net, but it wasn’t as prolific as when the wind was blowing. Fortunately I managed a couple more skimmers from the 5m meat line, plus a carp.

By the all out I knew I had more skimmers than Clayton, but Ziggy came down asking about who’s caught silvers and he thought he had about the same as me. I think he was being generous because he had nearly 20lb more than me! At least I finished 2^nd in the silvers for a pick up and I also finished 2^nd in section behind Tom.

1^st - 109- 8 – Martin Rayet – p20
2^nd - 99- 6 – Martin Lenaghan – p8
3^rd - 98- 3 – Joe McMahon – p3
4^th - 92- 2 – Steve Seagar – p24
5^th - 91- 9 – Tom Mangnall – p14
6^th - 88- 1 – Tim Clark – p7

Silvers
1^st - 64- 6 – Ziggy – p18
2^nd - 46- 0 – Ken Rayner – p12
3^rd - 28- 9 – Glen Bailey – p19
4^th - 24-14 – Gary O’Shea – p5

02/08/14 - Stone End Farm

Weight - 197lb 8oz
Catch - 128 Carp
Weather - Thundery showers, becoming clear & sunny later
Match - Open - 1st out of 11

With no match at Rood Ashton, I had no plans to fish today, however a text from Larry said he booked House Pool at Stone End Farm. Originally I wasn’t going to fish but a further text from Larry stating his regulars and those who encouraged him to book Stone End Farm had let him down and there were still a few spaces available, so decided to give it a go.
 
Stone End Farm has 2 lakes just north of Gloucester and House Pool could just about fit 12 anglers around a circular lake with an island in the middle. Reports suggested it was full of small carp and in excess of 200lb would be needed to win, with the fish being caught on your top set plus 1.

I drew peg 5, which meant nothing to me and first impressions was I don’t have much of margin. To my right there was a tuft of sedges, which stopped me going right and to my left was a small reed bed, but no clean bank to fish tight against. On the plus side was the amount of fish showing themselves by my feet, I could pick which fish to catch if I wanted. To my left was Wayne and to my right was venue expert Larry who fished it once last week and proclaimed over breakfast that if you couldn’t catch a 100lb you might as well sell you your kit.

Today’s weather had changed significantly from the previous week’s hot sunshine, being replaced by heavy overnight rain. Fortunately as we arrived the rain eased and no doubt the change would impact on the fishing.

I had already decided to keep things simple replying on pellet & paste. Which meant rigs weren’t complicated.

- HB Redneck 0.2g > .19 > 12 carp feeder - paste
- Ackoo Carrat 0.2g > .17 > 16 B960 – pellet
- HB Shady Shallow > .17 > 16 B960 – shallow pellet

Plumbing up revealed a flattish spot @ 3m, before it slopped away, so decided to start here and hope the advice about fishing short was correct. In fact most people started tight to the margins.

On the all-in I went out with the paste rig with some 6s in the toss pot and caught straight away, in fact I got off to a bit of flyer. By the end of the first hour I had 25 carp, but it had slowed down a little. I tried the pellet rig and had a couple of fish, but it didn’t seem as productive as the paste. This period also coincided with a few complaints around the lake about it being slow. By sticking with the paste and feeding a small handful of 6s whilst playing a fish, I kept the fish coming regularly right up to the point when we had to have a mid match weigh in after 3hrs.

Mark was only 1 of 2 anglers I couldn’t and he reckoned he had over100lb, whilst I was hopefully my 66 carp would go 100lb, so we thought it would be between the 2 for us for the lead. However Ian on peg 1 surprised us both when he put 107lb on the scales to lead from Mark who weighed 103-12,  I was lying 3^rd with 92-8 and Carl was 4^th with 89lb, so all still to play for.

The match re-started after what amounted to a 30min break, in which time I mixed up some more paste, tied a new paste rig (because the first one was definitely showing signs of wear) and I also got a couple more section of pole out of the bag to fish shallow at 11.5m, because there was a number of fish showing themselves and felt I needed another option.

On the re-start the 3m swim got another handful of 6s and I started shallow catching a few fish, but it wasn’t prolific. After 20mins decided that was enough of that because I wasn’t catching quickly enough and was soon started catching regularly on the paste. The swim got the occasional rest when I tried the margins, which never produced a bite all match which was odd, or to fish shallow. Fortunately the stamp of fish on the paste line seemed to improve a little, although I wasn’t confident my 62 fish would beat my first half weight.

Come the weigh in Mark said he struggled and weighed 77-8 to bring his total to 181-4, then Carl put 96-8 on scales to finish with 185-8 and I honestly didn’t think I would beat that. However my stamp of fish was better than expected weighing 105-0, which put me in the lead. Ian who was the first half leader said he struggled, which he did finishing with 164lb. It’s obvious to see why the venue is popular with pleasure anglers.

I think Larry may be selling his kit having only weighed 89-12, but took some consolation from beating his son Daniel who had 85-8 off the next peg.

1^st 197- 8 – Ken Rayner – p5
2^nd 185- 8 – Carl – p8
3^rd 181- 4 – Mark Poppleton - p10
4^th 164- 0 – Ian – p1
5^th 147- 8 – Stitch – p3