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

14/10/23 - Goodiford Mill - Match Lake

Weight - 32.540 (71lb 9oz)

Catch - 20 Carp, 3 Skimmers

Weather - Cold overnight. Mostly sunny and breezy

Match - Uzit Bomb & Feeder Series - rd 2 (17 fished), 2nd in section, 4th overall

The 2^nd round of the Uzit Bomb & Feeder league. As quite a few anglers weren’t keen on returning to Trinity Waters the remaining rounds were changed to Goodiford Mill.

Must admit I wasn’t best pleased, as it meant a 200-mile round trip and the venue is a bit of a snag pit. However, the decision was made in the best interests of the league.

I drew p36, which put me in a shallow corner and to be honest I quite fancied it, although following yesterday’s heavy rain yesterday and a cold night was cause for concern.

I started on a small method to the far trees with a mixture of 2mm P-Nut pellet soaked of Green Betaine and Dark Crushed Expander groundbait with a 6mm yellow or orange wafter, pinging 6mm P-Nut pellet over the top. After 60mins I had 5 fish, before the swim died, however the cross wind had picked up and I had to feed 8s, but the swim was never the same.

I had also been pinging 6s to my left towards the end bank and caught a couple of fish on meat, but after 90mins my swim just died with only 2 fish over the next 90mins.

Up to this point I was winning the section, however Jacko next to me started catching by the small island to his left and to my right. I had been pinging 6s towards the island although so far, I had resisted the temptation to fish the swim due to overhanging branches and judging by the amount of line and rigs in the tree it looked like an anglers Christmas tree!

As I couldn’t get a bite elsewhere, I had no choice but to give it a go. Fortunately, I could get reasonably close and only caught a trailing branch once, and only pulled out of 2 fish trying to stop them making the underwater snags. Initially I fished a small tea bag filled with micros and fished an 8mm P-Nut pellet and later swapped to the method.

As a back-up I fed meat short, hoping to catch some bigger fish late on, however this only resulted in 1 skimmer. I also tried the left-hand bank a couple of times and never had another bite and only had 1 more fish from the far trees. I just felt the fish had drifted out of the corner.

In the end the lake fished harder than some expected, so I ended up 2^nd in section behind Jacko who won the match and now lie 3^rd in the league.

1.    40.920 – Steve Jackson – p34

2.    39.890 – Kev Crouch – p3

3.    39.800 – Dave Romain – p28

4.    32.540 – Ken Rayner – p36

5.    24.030 – Paul Homewood – p51

01/10/23 - Lavington - Merretts

Weight - 47lb 6oz

Catch - 4 Carp

Weather - Muggy and drizzle to start, sunny later

Match - John Lowe Memorial (13 fished) - 4th overall

Today’s club match was a memorial match for John Lowe who was an active member of the club and sadly died a few months ago following a motorcycle accident.

The match was held on Merretts rather than Ellis, as it was John’s favourite lake and 13 anglers turned up including John’s cousins.

P13 put me on the end peg at the top end of the lake by the inlet channel. Initially I was quite happy with the draw, however I was a little restricted with Tim Lynch on p15 opposite.

I decided to focus on fishing 8mm meat soaked in Uzit A-krill cloud, fed with 2mm p-nut pellet. On the all-in, 2 swims were fed left & right, at 3+2 in 5ft of water.

I hooked 1 fish to my right after 45mins which I pulled out of. 45mins later I netted a carp from the left swim, followed by 2 more over the next hour and was hopeful a few more fish would turn up. However, in the last 2 hrs it just died and I just felt the fish had moved out of this end of the lake, as Tim also stopped catching, whilst anglers further down were catching.

Due to the left hand tree I couldn’t fish the left margin, which meant I only had the right margin to target. A lot of groundwork has been completed on the lake recently to strengthen the bank and as a consequence the margins plumbed up horribly. I managed to find a flatish spot about a metre off the bank where I fed some meat and mircos.

With no bites or any signs of fish, I fed more heavily including with groundbait. I hooked 1 carp which I pulled out of, but nothing else and there were no signs of any fish.

I eventually caught my last carp 10mins from time on my top kit next to my keepnets, where I dumped some meat & micros.

So, a hard day’s fishing, but it wasn’t really about that. At the end of the match there was a presentation by Johns 2 daughters to the top 3 and £330 was raised for John’s favourite charity.

1.    85-  3 – Paul Fryer – p5

2.    75-  3 – Kev Hillsden – p9

3.    63-10 – Tom Ince – p23 (4 fish)

4.    47-  6 – Ken Rayner – p13

5.    42-  2 – Banger – p7

30/09/23 - Trinity Waters - Woodland

Weight - 9lb (4.090 kilo)

Catch - 1 Carp, 1 Roach

Weather - Sunny, with cloudy periods

Match - Uzit Bomb & Feeder League - rd 1 (18 fished) - 1st in section, 10th overall

I fancied doing something different and decided to enter the Uzit Bomb & Feeder series at Trinity Waters on Woodland Lake. I also hoped it would be a chance to improve my tip fishing.

As I haven’t fished the venue for 7 years I had a practice on Wednesday and after an initial slow start managed to catch 82lb, including fish up to 15lb, mostly at 5m or down the margins. Paul Homewood also turned up and caught well, so expectation for today was for a few fish to be caught.

Unfortunately, the lake had suffered a fish kill due to an oxygen crash last month and the fishing had been hard, but as Paul & I had caught mid-week it was hoped the fish had recovered.

Today was the first of 5 matches and points would be split over 4 sections. The league rules meant no feeding by hand, which proved to be more difficult than you would expect, although feeding by catapult was allowed.

The draw put me on p20 in the corner, which I was told is a good peg, although the wind was blowing down the other end and I felt the other end would be better.

As for the match, there wasn’t much to write about as the lake fished a lot harder than expected.

I fed 4 feeders full of Thatcher’s green and p-nut 2mm pellet soaked with green betaine towards the end bank. Whilst that settled, I fished a t-bag parallel to the willow tree, but never had a liner.

I then fished a method to the end bank and on the 3^rd cast caught a small roach on a 6mm wafter! At least that saved the blank!

I also fed a 13m line with groundbait and micros hoping for some skimmers as the carp weren’t feeding. However, other than one small skimmer caught on dead maggot which dropped off as I tried to swing it to hand, I again had no bites.

With 90mins remaining I fed meat soaked in A-krill cloud at 6m via a large bait up feeder and eventually with 30mins left caught my one and only carp. Fortunately, it was enough to win my section.

As expected, the better weights came from the windward end of the lake, however there were 3 blanks and the lake fished well below par.

All weights are in kilos.

1.    16.470 – Ken Cocks – p9

2.    15.550 – Steve Jackson – p32

3.    13.600 – Paul Rossiter – p6

4.    12.190 – Robert Dumitrescu– p26

5.    11.180 – Dan Squires – p8