24/04/22 - Durleigh

Weight - 2oz

Catch - 1 Skimmer

Weather - Moderate North easterly wind. Mostly sunny.

Match - So Simpe League - rd 3 (18 fished) - 3rd in section

After the last practice match everyone wanted to draw the top end in the shallows, as that seemed to be where most of the fish seemed to be. Unfortunately, I drew p2 which was the first peg on the lawns and I knew another hard day was on the cards.

To be honest I was just glad to be out fishing, as I went down with Covid last weekend and was quite ill, losing 10lb in weight as I couldn’t eat and barely drank for 3 days which knocked the stuffing out of me. Have to say by the time I got to my peg I was blowing a bit.

As for the match there is not much to write about. Initially set up 2 lines, the first at 66m fed with micros & 4s and another line at 40m fed with groundbait, hemp and dead maggot.

With 2hrs remaining everyone was blanking, although Dave Wykes next to me managed a 6lb pike which didn’t count, not that he was unhappy about it!

I kept chopping and changing trying to get a bite, I even fished an 8mm orange gofter on the method and left it for 45mins hoping for a carp, without success.

With 45mins remaining I hooked a small fish at 72m on a cage feeder and long tail, which came off and thought I had blown my chances, as a couple of fish had now been caught. Fortunately, next cast a little knock on the tip produced a 2oz skimmer, which secured 3^rd in section, avoiding the dreaded blank.

Needless to say, I’m not sure anyone really enjoyed the fishing. The water is crystal clear at the moment and we were probably a month too early.

1.    13-12 – Gary Dennis – p12

2.    10-11 – Chris Ware – p17

3.      7- 6 – Andy Seery – p16

4.      5- 9 – John Crotty – p15

5.      3-14 – Ken Cocks – p14

15/04/22 - Shiplate Farm - West Pool

Weight - 80lb 8oz

Catch - 16 Carp, 4 Skimmers

Weather - Warm & sunny

Match - Pairs (20 fished) - 5th overall, 4th on lake.

There were 10 pairs including myself and Mark Poppleton, the defending champions, spread over Hawthorn and West Pool; Mark would be on Hawthorn and I took West Pool, and the winners would be based on combined weight. At the draw neither of us were very impressed, with Mark on p13, which was too far up the lake and p14 for me, which is only 1 of 2 pegs without a spare peg.

The fish on the far bank are notoriously difficult to catch and with the improved weather I decided to fish paste (Kriller : Blue Ice) giving them a target bait. During the first hour, I had 4 carp, losing 2 to snags. However, p12 & p10 had both started well.

After that first hour the fishing became really difficult, so I pulled back to fishing next to the aerator where I had fed meat, but never had a bite. A switch to fishing 13m over micros with a 4mm expander quickly produced 4 skimmers before they disappeared, however I needed carp.

Giving the far bank a rest helped as I caught another 5 fish on paste and by the halfway point probably had about 45lb but was still behind the 2 pegs to my right and to be honest I was struggling to pull the fish to my side of the aerator rope. I tried pellet and meat across, but simply couldn’t get a proper bite

I had also been feeding micros down both margins and started seeing fish down the left margin which produced 1 carp. Unfortunately, as soon as p15 fed his margins I never had another bite.

I managed a couple more fish from the far bank, but it was no longer in the shade and bites were really at premium, which just left my short meat line. Despite periodically trying the meat line, it wasn’t until the last 30mins that I caught 3 fish.

In the end I was quite pleased with my effort but I didn’t quite have enough as Mark managed 75lb from Hawthorns and we finished 4^th in the pairs missing out on 3^rd place by 8lb. Well done to Mark & Dan on winnng.

1.    114- 4 – Tom Thick – p11 (W)

2.    113- 8 – Mark Jones – p13 (W)

3.    108-14 – Mark Wynne – p8 (H)

4.      99- 0 – Dan Squires – p9 (W)

5.      80- 8 – Ken Rayner – p14 (W)

Pairs

1.  207-14 - Mark Wynne (108-14) & Dan Squires (99- 0)

2.  164-  0 - Alan Quantrill (50- 8) & Mark Jones (113- 8)

3.  163-  4 - Tony Thick (49- 0) & Tom Thick (114- 4)

4.  155-10 - Mark Poppleton (75- 2) & Ken Rayner (80- 8)

14/04/22 - Durleigh

Weight - 6oz

Catch - 1 Skimmer, 1 Roach

Weather - Cloudy, hazy sunshine, light winds

Match - So Simple Open (18 fished) - 9th overall & 2nd in section

With 18 angler’s, todays match would serve as a useful practice for next weeks So Simple league as we would be using the same pegs.

At least it wasn’t as windy as last week, however reports suggested the fishing had been hard during the week due to the bright, flat conditions

The draw put me on peg 2, with Elliot on peg 1. We were effectively pleasure fishing as peg 3 was 50-60m away, however we were probably at the wrong end, with the majority of fish coming from the shallows, so a hard day was expected.

I started at 66m, fishing a method and a conventional feeder, but never had a bite and pushing further out was unsuccessful. In fact, Elliot was the only one in our section who had caught, catching small skimmers on a cage feeder and maggot at 40m.

Being quite deep close in, I regularly fed small balls of groundbait and dead maggot at 16m, fishing a cage feeder over the top, but surprisingly no bites. With 90mins remaining I eventually caught a roach at 40m on maggot and I’ve never been so happy to catch a roach. A small skimmer followed, and I at least avoided a blank.

Out of sheer boredom I also fed 2pts of 8mm pellet at 25m hoping for a rogue carp or big bream late on, but it never happened. Well done to Elliot for winning the section with 2lb 14oz and there was a total of 9 blanks. Hopefully it will fish better next week.

1.    49- 6 – John Brown – p17

2.    24-15 – Simon Poynter – p13

3.    17- 0 – Colin Butler – p18

4.    10- 9 – Nigel Franks – p9

5.      6- 1 – Gord Meers – p15

09/04/22 - Ivy House - Moorhen

Weight - 78lb 0oz

Catch - 54 Carp, 30 F1s, 4 Skimmers

Weather - Cold start. Bright & sunny, light breeze.

Match - Open (13 fished) - 1st overall

Today’s match was on the canals but following another cold night the preference was to be

on Moorhen, as there are more smaller fish and therefore more bites to be had.

Fortunately, I drew Moorhen p30, which is roughly in the middle of the lake. At the start I

cupped a small ball of FA1 and BMG boosted micros at 6m, plus a bigger ball off to left in 

case I needed it to catch skimmers later.

Due to the cold start, I decided to start at the bottom of the far shelf, rather than fishing tight 

to the far bank, tapping in baninion boosted 4s with a hair rigged 4mm kriller pellet. After an 

initial slow start the swim just got better and stayed on this line for just over 2hrs.

Dropping back to the 5m line which I kept topped up with nuggets of FA1 & micros, quickly produced 3 skimmers, but it didn’t feel right.

Switching to fishing tight against the far bank, again tapping in 4s with a 4mm expander 

produced another run of fish for another 2hrs, and the average size was a little better.

When this swim slowed, I switched back to the margin, but this only produced 1 fish. I had 

also been pinging 4s slightly to my left, again at the bottom of the shelf, which produced 

another run of fish, but it wasn’t quite as good as I hoped. Fortunately resting the far bank

swim proved beneficial, as I had a strong last 45mins.

An enjoyable match, with plenty of bites and I felt I made all the right decisions at the right 

time for a comfortable win.

 

1.    78- 0 – Ken Rayner – p30 (moorhen)

2.    69-10 – Jim Butcher – p41 (kingfisher)

3.    62- 2 – Chris Timms – p49 (kingfisher)

4.    51- 8 – Fluff – p33 (moorhen)

5.    49-10 – Baggy – p34 (moorhen)

Silvers

1.    18-10 – Andy Lord – p47 (kingfisher)

2.    18- 0 – Gary Dennis – p28 (moorhen)

3.      9- 8 – Baggy – p34 (moorhen)

07/04/22 - Durleigh

Weight - 27lb 4oz

Catch - 6 Bream

Weather - Cold start. Bright and sunny, and very wind

Match - So Simple knock Up (8 fished) - 2nd overall

What started as a couple of us having a bit of a practice, soon turned into an 8 peg knock up. The only issue was the wind, and it was certainly blowing when we arrived.

I didn’t care where I drew. I just wanted to try a few different things, such as trying a new 13ft Freespirit Power Feeder Special rod, but I’ve never really used braid and thanks to Roy Worth for helping me look at using power gum as a shock leader which was really helpful.

I drew p8 and fortunately a big tree provided me with some shelter from the wind. However due to that wind which was forecast to get stronger I decided to fish a sensible 55m, to keep it accurate and just build up a single swim.

At the start I fed about 2pts of FA1 groundbait and RTG’s, plus corn. I started on 45g window feeder with corn on the hook, however I soon realised it wasn’t man enough as the tow was pulling it out of position, and I didn’t have any heavier window or cage feeders. So, a trip to the tackle ship will be required.

The good news was I at least had some 60g large ICM Banjo feeders, so that’s what I fished for the rest of the match, casting every 10mins to build the swim.

2hrs in I eventually had a positive pull on 3 dead maggots soaked in BMG and a 5lb lid was safely netted. 2 more followed before it went quiet. By this point Andy and Chris who had drawn in the deeper water were walking the bank. Apparently, the wind and tow was so bad they couldn’t hold a 60g feeder!

It turned out my 3 bream put me 2^nd so far with no else catching more than 1 fish except for Rich above me on p9, who had 6.

With no more bites I decided to feed another 5 big feeders full of bait and 30mins later I had another bream, again followed by 2 more on dead maggot, before it went quiet. I did hook another with 10mins remaining but pulled out of it.

As it happened it didn’t affect the result with Rich very comfortably winning the match and watching him fish it was obvious he is very good at this long distance feeder flinging. I was pleasantly surprised to come 2^nd and more importantly picked up a number of tips for next week’s match.

1.    115-11 – Rich Phillips – p9

2.      27- 4 – Ken Rayner – p8

3.      10- 0 – Roy Worth – p6

4.        9- 6 – Colin Butler – p7 

03/04/22 - Shiplate Farm - West Pool

Weight - 36lb 0oz

Catch - 7 Carp, 4 Roach, 1 Skimmer

Weather - Frosty start, warm in the sun, but cold when cloudy.

Match - Open (23 fished) - 11th overall, 6th on the lake

With the forthcoming pairs match over Hawthorns and West Pool in 2 weeks’ time, Mark and I decided to get a little practice in, as we are the defending champions. We both drew the lakes we wanted, and I ended up on the same peg as I drew last year, peg 4 (West Pool) which is in the narrow end of the lake, being only 13m wide. 

It was -2c when I left home and apparently -5c overnight at the venue meaning a hard day was likely. At least with a match on the main lake opposite, there wouldn’t be any anglers walking or running up and down the far bank.

I started cautiously feeding a small ball of groundbait and maggot at 5m and went straight over to the far bank toss potting a small nugget of groundbait and micros with a 4mm expander. With no bites I tried maggot and still nothing. I had a few liners but no fish, whilst the anglers either side of me caught.

In the meantime, I kept the 5m line topped up with maggot in the hope of some skimmers or carp as a back-up line. After an hour I saved the blank catching a roach on maggot, but this line only produced roach proving to be an unnecessary distraction.

An hour later I eventually caught my first carp from the far bank on a 6mm baninion expander over baninion boosted micros. An hour later I caught my 2^nd & 3^rd carp and it is fair to say it was slow going!

The frustration was Steve Smith to my left on p5 had 4 or 5 carp in this time from that far line. With 2hrs remaining I knew I was behind p1 and p5 and decided to big pot micros and some groundbait to make something happen – it didn’t, although I did manage another carp off to my right at the limit of my swim, but the fish weren’t really feeding with all fish being hooked around the mouth.

I had been feeding meat at 6m to my right, but it wasn’t until the last 30mins that it produced 3 fish for 18lb. As for my margin, it wasn’t until very late that I saw any movement by which point I was concentrating on the meat line, but no one had more than 1 carp from the margins, probably not helped by the cold weather.

Overall, a bit of a head scratcher as I felt I should have caught more from that far bank. Had I, I would have been able to push for the section. That said a few lessons learnt for next time.

1.    84- 2 – Shawn Kitteridge – 11W

2.    75-10 – Mark Poppleton – 5H

3.    59- 0 – Daryl – 14H

4.    51-14 – Andy Myers – 14W

5.    51- 8 – Steve Smith – 5W