17/12/23 - Ivy House - Moorhen

Weight - 26lb 14oz

Catch - 17 F1s, 8 Carp, 4 Skimmers, 3 Roach, 2 Chub, 1 Perch

Weather - Mild and overcast, with a south westerly breeze

Match - Winter League - rd 4 (48 fished) - 1st in sectio

No fishing last weekend, as my car had developed an electrical issue and it’s now in the garage. Fortunately, Volvo organised a hire car so I could at least fish this weekend and hopefully I will have my car back before the next weekend.

Today was the 4^th round of the Winter League, which so far hasn’t gone my way, and it was my turn for Moorhen, which is a 9 peg canal lake. Typically, in the winter you need to draw either end of the lake and avoid the middle, so I was less than impressed to draw smack in the middle which is also the narrowest part at 13m and so far this series 5^th in section has been the best result.

The only solace I could take was the space peg to my left. The first 30mins was spent dobbin firstly bread and then maggot along the far bank, catching 1 tiny chub. I tried feeding maggot, but this only produced a roach. In the meantime, everyone to my right were catching from their far banks and to be honest I thought a bad day was on the cards.

A switch to fishing at 13m to my left at the bottom of the far shelf, feeding a tiny nugget of Uzit Crushed Expander and micros, fishing a 4mm expander flavoured with Uzit Pineapple Cloud (a new product with 8 flavours). After a slow start, I started to catch a few F1s and the occasional bigger carp, feeding a tiny nugget of feed every put in. I was starting to enjoy my day and whenever the swim started slowing, I would move slightly further left.

With 2 hours remaining I felt I was doing OK as everyone had stopped catching, except for Andy Burns to my left on p29 who was catching across by the reedbed, including some better sized carp and was probably ahead of me.

My swim had slowed, so I tried my short maggot line which I had been feeding since the start, but this only produced a couple of silvers and felt I needed some carp to catch up with Andy.

I started fishing tight to the reeds, again fishing pellet over crushed expander/micros and fortunately started catching until the end, again moving further left to stay in contact with the fish.

It was a pleasant surprise to win the section as Andy came 2^nd with 22- 6 and Jamie Durrup on the end peg 35 had 21- 3.

1.    71-  8 – Matt Hamilton – p21 (heron)

2.    58-  2  - Rob Guppy – p20 (heron)

3.    57-  0 – Dave Strafford-Way – p2 (heron)

4.    54-  4 – Phil Godding – p46 (kingfisher)

5.    52-14 – Nigel Reeves – p39 (kingfisher)

6.    52-  6 – Steve Martin – p22 (heron)     

03/12/23 - Ivy House - Heron

Weight - 10lb 10oz

Catch - 4 Carp, 2 F1

Weather - Light rain to start, cleared later.

Match - Winter League rd 3 (48 fished) - 19th overall and 4th in section

The 3^rd round of the Winter League and my turn for A section (top and bottom bank) on Heron Lake.

Yesterday’s freezing conditions had been replaced overnight by rain, but I still expected the fishing to be tough going. That said I was still confident of catching a few, as I really like this lake in the winter, although I was really disappointed to draw p17 as it has come 7^th & 8^th in section in the first 2 rounds, so not a great draw.

I had also arrived without my bib & brace, so a big thank you to Abi for driving over with it, plus a dry pair of trousers and some lighthearted abuse!

Back to the match, I started on the usual lead and bread without any bites, so tried maggot over a little Uzit crushed expander, flavoured with bubblegum for no bites. This wasn’t going well, and another hard match was on the cards.

After an hour I eventually caught a 3lber on the lead & bread, which is a good size fish for the lake and other than Roy Booth next to me who had a tiny carp no one else had caught along my bank!

The rest of the match was simply a struggle, I just picked up the odd fish on maggot over crushed expander at various points along the bottom of the far shelf at 16m.

I finished with the best weight along my bank, but unfortunately got beat by 3 pegs along the bottom bank to only come 4^th in section, which is the best I could have hoped for to be honest.

1.    46-  1 – Jason Crump – p46 (kingfisher)

2.    41-12 – Gary Herman – p21 (heron)

3.    38-  8 – Jamie Dixey – p10 (heron)

4.    34-  0 – Graham Spiller – p37 (kingfisher)

5.    33-14 – David Stafford-Way – p10 (old match lake)

6.    32-  4 – Steve Waters – p22 (heron)

02/12/23 - Todber Manor - Ash

Weight - 21lb 8oz

Catch - 6 Carp

Weather - Overnight frost. Freezing fog all day

Match - Christmas Open (50 fished) - 6th in section out of 12

50 of us at Todber for their Christmas match across Hillview, Homeground and Ash. To be honest I wanted to avoid Ash, as I felt the other 2 lakes were likely to fish better, based on last week’s match. Therefore, I was disappointed to see Ash 67 staring back at me and the general feeling was I would be on the edge of the fish, with p69-75 likely to best area.

Despite the heavy frost there was only a little bit of ice around which was a relief and meant the ice breaker stayed in the car.

On the all-in I cast the lead and bread to the far bank without success. So, after 15mins I came onto the pole at 14m where I tapped in some micros and fished corn over the top and again no bites. In fact, very little was being caught, therefore I decided on a complete change of tactic and quickly set up a maggot feeder, cast 5m off the far bank for 45mins but again no bites. I even tried the pole and maggot at 16m, which at least produced a bite, but lost a large skimmer as the elastic had frozen in the top kit.

A few fish were now being caught to my right, but very little to my left. After 2hrs I eventually caught my first carp on the maggot feeder, quickly followed by another on double maggot sprayed with Uzit P-Nut.

In the last 90mins I had 4 more fish, 2 on the maggot feeder, then 2 more on the straight lead and corn.

I was definitely at the wrong end of the lake today as P62 & p63 both blanked which included Pete Upperton, Ash Tomkins managed one carp 30mins from time, so really hard. The further you moved up the lake, the better the weights, with only 58lb needing to win the lake, so well done to Simon Stacey who caught on the lead and bread.

Despite not getting above freezing all day the fishing was excellent on the other 2 lakes. I didn’t hang around for the prizes and got a surprise text from Mark when I got home to say I picked up £30 for 3^rd in the section super pool.

1st: Pemb Wrighting 242lb 6oz (78 HG)

2nd: Martin Rogers 236lb 0oz (49 HV)

3rd: Gary O'Shea 214lb 10oz (87 HG)

4th: Mark Poppleton 214lb 4oz (58 HV)

5th: Roger Hayton 207lb 6oz (48 HV)

Section A: Pete Neate 204lb 12oz (47 HV)

Section B: Adam Tester 166lb 4oz (55 HV)

Section C: Simon Stacey 58lb 6oz (74 ASH)

Section D: Tony Gilbert 157lb 0oz (84 HG)

30/11/23 - Ivy House - Heron

Weight - 53lb 14oz 

Catch - 25 F1s, 11 Carp

Weather - Overnight frost. Cold & grey.

Match - Open (5 fished) - 1st overall

I booked a day off to fish the Thursday open on Heron to practice for Sunday’s winter league. However, due to the freezing conditions only 5 turned up, although I was pleasantly surprised to see the lakes weren’t frozen.

It probably didn’t matter where we drew, but I was happy with p10 which is my favourite winter peg as you can reach the bottom of the far shelf at 14m. Also, the F1s seem to migrate into this area for the winter.

I started on the lead and bread cast to the island and caught an F1 on my 2^nd cast. Over the next 90mins I would catch a couple of fish and then have to cast a bit further along the bank to stay in contact with the fish catching a further 11 fish.

When bites dried up on the lead, I switched to the pole at 15m over crushed expander flavoured with Uzit bubblegum, toss potting maggot over the top. To keep the fish coming I had to set up new swims right and left, moving out to 16m, still feeding a little crushed expander and toss potting maggot over the top.

Other than a 30min spell when I couldn’t get a bite, I had a lovely day despite the freezing conditions.

1.    53-14 – Ken Rayner – p10

2.    31-  8 – Tim Hadland – p8

25/11/23 - Todber Manor - Hillview

Weight - 253lb 0oz

Catch - 78 Carp

Weather - Hard overnight frost. Bright, sunny and flat

Match - Open (28 fished) - 13th overall

Only the one match this weekend. I settled on Todber’s open, which Mark Poppleton had organised and pay-outs would be based on sections only. As a result, 30 had booked in over Hillview and Ash (although 2 dropped out) and it would also serve a practice for next weeks Christmas match.

I was happy enough with p54 and following the first hard frost of the year, combined with bright flat conditions I was expecting it to be hard going, targeting 150-200lb as a winning weight.

As I didn’t expect to catch short, I started on the lead and bread, but after 5mins p49 already had 2 carp in the net by fishing short and other anglers were also catching in the same way!

I soon switched to fishing at 13m tapping in 4mm Uzit p-nut pellets, pinging pellet over the top. Due to the conditions, I expected those that started short to only catch a few fish before having to move out longer.

As it happened those fishing short kept catching and I probably stayed on the 13m line too long, however after 45mins I started catching at a better rate than those around me so decided to stick at 13m (still hoping those catching short would soon stop), with corn being better than pellet, until the line slowed up at the end of the 2^nd hour.

The remaining 3hrs I spent down each margin, starting down the left on 6mm meat soaked with Uzit bubblegum yellow dye and then double corn over 2mm Uzit p-nut pellets to my right.

In the last 2 hours I probably had 120/130lb and felt I had caught up with those around me, although I could see anglers further down the lake catching much better. I had beaten all the pegs opposite on the spit and peg 55 beat me by a pound, however all the better weights were further down the lake.

It was ridiculous how well the lake fished and in hindsight I should have fished shorter and probably caught 300lb. It will be interesting to see whether it will fish this well next week as a cold week is forecast with the prospect of sleet later in the week.

1.   547-  0 – Perry Stone – p48

2.    512-14 – Pemb Wrighting – p60

3.    448-  4 – Adam Burrow – p42

4.    428-  2 – Rob McCann – p47

5.    388-  4 – Greg Welsby – p34

19/11/23 - Ivy House - Old Match Lake

Weight - 16lb 8oz (4lb - silvers)

Catch - 4 Carp, 23 Roach, 4 Skimmers, 1 Perch

Weather - Showery and very windy.

Match - Winter League rd 2 (48 fished) - 6th in section.

The 2^nd round of the Winter League and my turn for the Old Match Lake which has been fishing very hard recently, so a decent draw was required. Based on yesterday’s match and the prevailing wind I fancied either p8 or 10 at the bottom of the lake, so was a little disappointed to pull p3, where the angler yesterday tipped back 2lb of bits. That said following yesterday’s match I was still confident of catching. 

Like yesterday, I started on the pellet cone, again using Uzit P-nut cloud flavoured fishery micros and soon caught a skimmer on corn. I stuck with it for an hour fully expecting the tip to go round again, but it never did. The only angler I could see catching was Jamie Durup on p16 opposite and Roy Booth on p10.

As I couldn’t catch on the tip, I tried the 11m line where I fed groundbait and caster but was getting pestered by small roach. My margin was better, catching some chucky roach on maggot, but there seemed to be very few skimmers around.

In the last 2 hours I knew I needed some carp and stayed on the pellet cone. I managed 4, but 2 of them were very small. I also tried corn down my margin, but it was obvious there was still loads of small silvers in the peg despite putting in 2 pots of feed.

In the end a really disappointing day where I fished the same as yesterday, but there just wasn’t any volume of feeding fish in front of me. P8 won the section with 47lb and p10 came 3^rd.

1.    95-14 – Gary Knight – p6 (heron)

2.    78-12 – Martin Thomas – p48 (kingfisher)

3.    69-12 – Carl Mulford – p13 (heron)

4.    63-  6 – Dwayne Seed – p2 (heron)

5.    61-  6 – Chris Telling – p16 (heron)

6.    60-15 – Stu Foale – p24 (heron)

18/11/23 - Ivy House - Old Match Lake

Weight - 32lb 3oz (4lb 3oz - silvers)

Catch - 9 Carp, 12 Roach, 7 Skimmers

Weather - Grey and blustery

Match - Open (9 fished) - 2nd overall

As my rotation for the Winter League put me on the Old Match Lake I booked in for a practice. Over the last few weeks either end of the lake seemed to be the place to draw, so I wasn’t sure when I drew p5 in the middle, however it is 1 of my favourite pegs, so I had fingers crossed.

The tea bag has continued to frame and feedback received suggested not a lot was being caught close in. Having previously tried the tea bag with limited success, I decided to try the pellet cone using fishery micros flavoured with Uzit P-Nut cloudy which added a bit of stickiness to the pellet.

Casting between the islands I netted 3 carp on triple dead reds and a skimmer on corn during the first 90mins. This I felt put me 2^nd behind Richard ‘Tea Bag’ Rogers on p10, so a good start.

As I couldn’t catch anymore on the tip I switched to the pole, where I had fed groundbait with micros and dead maggot at 13m but caught very little. Then I tried 14.5m just tapping in a few micros and fishing a 4mm expander and had a skimmer first put in, but it was a loner as I could only catch roach.

Back to the 13m line I had a few more skimmers, but it was slow going. I did try the pellet cone periodically to see whether the carp had returned and kept feeding the swim with small balls of micros whenever I was fishing the pole.

During the last 90mins the carp returned with 6 fish, losing 2 all on triple dead reds sprayed with Uzit P-nut to finish 2^nd overall.

1.    39-  7 – Richard Rogers – p10

2.    32-  3 – Ken Rayner – p5

3.    25-  4 – Stu White – p12

4.    17-  7 – Dave Strafford-Way – p9

Silvers

1.    20-12 – Stu White – p12

2.    12-  4 – Phil Gooding – p2

3.      7-15 – Dave Strafford-Way – p9

12/11/23 - Hillview - Canal 1

Weight - 11lb 3oz

Catch - 2 Carp, 2 F1

Weather - Cold and rainy

Match - Tackle Den (17 fished), 12th overall, 3rd in section

I was looking forward to fishing this match as I haven’t been here for 8 years and enjoyed my last visit.

We were on canals, 1, 3 and 4, and was told that canal 3 or 4 had been the most consistent. However, following more rain during the week, as well as getting colder it was expected to be a little harder than of recent.

I drew p41 on canal 1 and was told it had been the best peg on the canal, so fingers crossed for a decent day.

On the all-in I started dobbin bread along the far bank fully expecting a bite, but nothing, which was a concern and the realisation it was going to be tricky. In fact, everyone on our lake was struggling.

To be honest there was not much more to say about this match, as I had 4x bites and 4x fish, on maggot tight across. I tried various areas of the swim without success and the lake had just shut down. Matt Greaves next to me on p43 only weighed 12lb 8oz and Ian Barker won our lake with only 21lb, whilst the other anglers managed 13oz and a DNW.

The open match behind us on the 2 main lakes was only won with 53lb, so winter has arrived.

1.    49-  8 – John Pearce

2.    44-  9 – John Brady

3.    38-  8 – Terry Arnold

4.    25-  4 – Cliff Dutton

5.    21-13 – Brian Duckett

11/11/23 - Goodiford Mill

Weight - DNW

Catch - 1 Carp, 1 Rudd

Weather - Bright and sunny

Match - Uzit Feeder & Lead League - rd 3

Being 3^rd in the league I was hoping for a decent draw to maintain my position. Well, my day went badly. P27 looked like a boom or bust peg being in a corner and in the last round John struggled for only 4pts and lost lots of kit to snags.

After 90 minutes I had already lost a couple of fish and rigs, and nearly packed up in frustration. The main snag was a sunken branch that had been left in after a tree had been cut down.

I decided to cast to my right in an attempt to avoid the branch and netted my first fish, but again lost more fish and kit on trailing brambles and then some discarded line, which was the final straw.

I had enough and as I was trailing everyone in my section decided to pack up in sheer frustration. I also decided to pull out of the league, as it’s a 200-mile round trip to a poorly managed venue.

5/11/23 - Ivy House - Kingfisher

Weight - 37lb 14oz

Catch - 14 Carp, 8 Skimmer, 1 Perch, 1 Roach

Weather - Mostly sunny, showers later. Cool NW breeze

Match - Winter League - rd 1 (48 anglers) - 5th in section

The first round of the Winter League and one I look forward to, not least because I have come 6^th and 2^nd in the last 2 years.

This year we had 48 anglers and with some very good anglers fishing it was likely to be very competitive. Unlike previous years, there would be 6 rounds instead of 5, so 6 sections of 8.

The section draw was held on Friday evening and my rotation would be Kingfisher, Old Match Lake, Heron A, Moorhen, Willow and Heron B.

I wasn’t sure how Kingfisher would fish as it had been affected by flooding when the brook that runs parallel to the lake burst its bank. I had expected it to be heavily coloured following the weeks rain. However, Andy had increased the height of the bank along the brook which meant the lake wasn’t at as coloured as expected.

At the draw, I pulled p37, which I was pleased with, although a little concerned with all the groundwork along the far bank to prevent future flooding. Also, the peg can be a bit hit and miss in the winter.

On the all-in I started off dobbin bread and maggot along the far end bank, apart from a couple of nips from roach I didn’t catch. A switch to fishing corn over micros at the bottom of the far shelf, only produced a skimmer, which was a concern.

I eventually found my first carp toss potting maggot sprayed with U-Zit P-Nut down the end bank, catching 2 more before that dried up. After 2 hours I switched to a 2+2 line, where I had been feeding maggot from the start and caught 4 skimmers up to 1.5lb and then a carp, but I couldn’t catch again until much later in the match when I had a couple more skimmers.

The rest of the match was spent trying various areas of the swim. I had 2 carp dobbin bread, none dobbin maggot and the best area was down the end bank toss potting in maggot, but I couldn’t catch more than 2 carp before they backed off.

I had fed my margin for later in the match and pinged pellet to my left at the bottom of the far shelf without success. I had a chat with Jason on p39 and Neil on p46 who were 1^st & 2^nd in section and they both caught on dobbin maggot across, so I’m not sure I did too much wrong, I just feel there were not too many fish in the swim.

So, a disappointing first round result, finishing 5^th in section, but at least I have 5 more matches to pull myself up the league.

1.    144-  1 – Matt Hamilton – p16 (Heron)

2.    133-11 – Neil Morgan – p46 (Kingfisher)

3.    112-  7 – Andy Dixey – p6 (Heron)

4.    110-  6 – Rob Guppy – p13 (Heron)

5.    100-  0 – Simon Duke – p21 (Heron)

6.      89-  0 – Steve Martin – p2 (Heron)

29/10/23 - Ivy House - Heron

Weight - 80lb 4oz

Catch - 77 Carp, 27 F1, 1 Gudgeon

Weather - Mostly sunny, with occasional shower

Match - Open (5 fished) - 3rd overall

Back to Ivy House to try and get back in tune with the venue with the Winter League starting next week. I had the choice of either the Old Match Lake or Heron. I chose Heron as I fished the Old Match Lake last week, which was hard going, and I at least would get a few bites on Heron.

Unfortunately, by splitting the 2 matches, it meant there was only 5 of us on Heron, so it wasn’t going to give me a realistic feel for how the lake would fish. The question was whether I should go down the pellet or maggot route and I settled on maggot, purely because maggot will feature more as we move towards winter and I bought 3 pts of live whites and 2pts of dead’s. I also set up a pellet rig just in case.

I drew peg 3, which was largely irrelevant due to having so much space. As the lake has been fishing well, I decided to target 20 fish an hour over the next 5hrs which should give me about 120lb.

Starting at 2+2 on 4mm expander it took me 10mins before I netted my first fish and after 30mins I was up to 7, however I had nothing bigger than 12oz.

Moving out to 13m where I fed some 4s resulted in more tiny carp and I was going nowhere fast. A switch to the shallow rig and I at last caught some decent F1s on 6mm pellet over pinged 4s, catching between 8 & 12in.

In the meantime, I had been feeding maggot and crushed expander down each margin, so when the shallow line faded, I switched to the margins. The right side was definitely the best as it was deeper, but tiny carp were an issue again.

I had another run on the shallow line, but couldn’t keep it going, so decided to stay focused on the margin and hope for better fish to turn. By cutting out the groundbait and just feeding maggot I did catch a few better fish.

I had also been feeding maggot on my 2+2 line, which again produced more tiny carp. Dumping maggot produced a decent carp 1^st put in before the tiny carp returned.

In the end I had more fish than anyone else, with the last hour producing 32 but far too many small fish. I think maggot was still the right approach and I think those tiny carp would have spread out a bit more had there been more anglers on the lake.

1.    106-  9 – Pete Philips – p6

2.      81-  0 – Martin – p8

3.      80-  4 – Ken Rayner – p3

22/10/23 - Ivy House - Kingfisher

Weight - 24lb 13oz

Catch - 9 Carp, 5 Skimmers

Weather - Mostly sunny. Lake was still coloured

Match - Tackle Den (19 fished) - 12th overall

With 19 of us fishing both canals were used which would mean that most pegs would be in. They were still both coloured although the water levels had dropped down closer to normal, however I still expected another hard day.

P43 put me in the middle of Kingfisher next to where Andy dug the trench from the Old Match Lake and pegs in either side of me.

On the all in I fed a small ball of Uzit crushed expander and micros at the bottom of the far shelf and started on corn at the bottom of the near shelf in front of the cut out, which produced 1 carp after 30mins.

Switching to the bottom of the far shelf didn’t produce a bite, which was a surprise as I had kept this line topped and it usually produces something. In the meantime, Dan to my right started catching tight to the far bank.

Normally, this far line can be a foul hooking nightmare as it’s nearly 3.5ft tight to the bank, but felt I had no choice to try as I needed to catch. To keep the fish down I cupped in a small ball of crushed expander and micros, and I caught 3 carp and a decent skimmer on 6mm expander or corn, before I stopped catching.

I still couldn’t catch over my negatively fed bottom of the shelf line, so decided to cup in a big ball of crushed expander with micros and plenty of dead maggot, slightly to my right.

15mins later when I went over it, I caught
immediately, but like everything I tried it was short lived.

Pinging pellet can be good on this lake and at the halfway point I started pinging 4s. With the sun making an appearance a few fish also started showing themselves and I decided to set up a shallow rig and caught a 5lber quite quickly, but again couldn’t catch another. I kept pinging the pellet, hoping the fish would settle over the feed later in the match, but never had a bite.

This just left my margins. The right margin was 4ft deep where I caught 1 carp on corn. As for the left margin, I started at the bottom of the shelf and moved up the slope, but only had 1 carp. In the end I tried tight to the bank, cupping in plenty of dead maggot, groundbait and micros, but nothing came over it. The margins were frustrating as there seemed to be loads of debris around, probably not helped by the overflow of water from the old match lake.

Another disappointing day. However, looking at the results it became obvious the weights came from either end of the lake or the pegs with a spare next to them.

1.    101-  1 – Andrew Black – p47

2.      70-  4 – Andy Bartlett – p37

3.      50-  1 – Alistair Tilney – p48

4.      49-  8 – John Brady – p40

5.      44-13 – Matt Greaves – p38

21/10/23 - Ivy House - Old Match Lake

Weight - 18lb 10oz (7lb 9oz)

Catch - 4 Carp, 20 Skimmers, 4 Roach

Weather - Mostly cloudy, drizzle at times. Increasingly colder. Lake was up and coloured

Match - Open (14 fished) - 3rd in silvers, 9th overall

With the Winter League starting in 2 weeks, I wanted to get back in tune with the venue.

On arrival at the fishery, it was obvious it had been affected by the recent heavy rains, with debris in the road and a lot of flattened grass where the brook had burst its banks. As a consequence, the lakes were heavily coloured and a difficult day was on the cards.

We were all on the Old Match Lake and some of the pegs were still underwater. I drew p8 which is a great peg under normal conditions and when I arrived Andy had dug a trench to reduce the excess water more quickly into Kingfisher which has its own overflow into the nearby brook.

As well as the colour, I was also concerned p8 is one of the deepest and with so much extra cold water I wasn’t convinced the fish would feed on the deck.

I started on the tea bag and then the method to the island without success, but I only gave it 15 minutes. I could have stayed on the tip (1^st & 2^nd caught this way), but to be honest I wanted to try some new Uzit groundbait.

An early look down the margin and I bumped a carp down the right side. Down the left margin I caught 2 small skimmers on 6mm expander, so switched to a lighter rig fishing a 4mm expander meant quicker bites and another couple of skimmers and a roach, but action was short lived.

Having tried for carp and only catching skimmers, I was happy to stick with the silvers and hope the carp would make an appearance later on. It was also an opportunity to try the Uzit 70:30 skimmer groundbait, which mixed up nicely with and takes on plenty of water.

2 balls of feed with micros and dead maggot were deposited at 13m. Whilst that settled I feed at 3+2 left and right where the lake shallowed up, feeding small balls of Uzit dark crushed expander with micros (boosted with Uzit pineapple) down the left and smalls of the 70:30 to the right. The right-hand swim was definitely better catching on dead maggot.

As I feared I only caught 1 fish over the 13m line in the deeper water and after 2hrs I just stopped catching and looking around everyone seemed to be struggling.

Eventually with 2hrs remaining I managed to start catching a few more skimmers, plus a couple of carp this time 10m to my left, over small balls of dark crushed expander & micros, before this line also died.

The last 45mins was pretty quiet hoping for a few units to turn up down my margins which they never did.

In hindsight I wish I had brought some live bait as I would have caught more silvers and potentially won the silvers. Either way, as expected the lake fished hard.

1.    84-  4 – Alan Smith – p14

2.    60-  0 – Richard Rogers – p17

3.    53-15 – Chris Telling – p12

4.    42-  7 – Andy Dixey – p4

Silvers

1.    9-15 – Chris Telling – p12

2.    9-14 – Baggy – p13

3.    7-  9 – Ken Rayner – p8