20/07/24 - Harescombe - Match Lake

Weight - 44lb 6oz

Catch - 14 F1, 8 Carp, 4 Skimmers, 1 Roach

Weather - Warm & muggy start. Rain later.

Match - Summer Series rd 4 (14 fished) - 7th overall, 2nd in section

The 4^th round of this Summer Series and there were 5 stand-ins today, including Matty Hamilton, Glen Picton and Luke Seabrook, and I was relieved to avoid 2 of the 3.

However, Luke was on p4, the peg I won from in the last round, and I felt it would be difficult to beat him from p12, one peg away from where I was on Thursday. I can’t seem to get off this side of the lake, as I have been this side for the last 8 matches.

Following the hot sunny day yesterday, this morning was quite muggy, and rain was forecast for the afternoon.

After Thursdays match, I questioned whether focusing on meat was the right approach and decided to bring some worm as the angler next to me on Thursday caught a lot of fish on worm, although the average stamp was quite small. However, in hindsight, I felt I was a little unlucky not to frame on Thursday as I lost a number of fish and therefore decided to stick with meat covered in Uzit A-Krill cloud.

On the all-in I started at 2+2 and it became obvious it was going to be a difficult day as very little was being caught around me. After an hour I had 2 F1s, a skimmer and a roach, so not a great return.

I tried fishing worm over micros at the bottom of the far shelf and when I eventually got a bite it was a tiny F1, so binned that swim. Switching to the far bank with my usual 4x10 float the wind was being troublesome and getting decent presentation was proving difficult.

Switching to 4x12 float was better and I picked up a few f1s and carp. It wasn’t hectic, but at least I was catching, although not as quickly as Andy Burns next to me on p14.

With 90mins remaining the far swim was fading and I needed to make something happen as I felt I was lying 3^rd or worse in section. Therefore, I decided to open another tin (200g) of meat, feeding a half pot of meat at 2+2 and both margins got a regular consignment of meat and p-nut micros.

The 2+2 swim produced a couple of carp and F1s, however it was the right margin that really produced, including a couple of the original big F1s, plus a few carp to finish strongly adding 15lb in the last 45mins.

Come the end I thought Andy had easily beaten me, as he kept catching in the last 2hrs fishing worm over caster by the island. However, he was only admitting to 37lb. As it transpired, Andy was using a light elastic giving me the impression that he was catching bigger fish than he actually was. So, it was a surprise when I came 2^nd in section to Luke who won the section with 51lb.

The framing weights came from the other section which fished much better. To be honest I felt I struggled all day (which I did compared to the other section) and I was relieved to have maintained my lead in the league.

1.    118-15 – Matt Hamilton – p15

2.      85-10 – Andy Jane – p24

3.      71-  1 – Glen Picton – p20

4.      58-  7 – Steve Partington – p16

5.      51-  7 – Luke Seabrook – p4

League Standing

1.    6pts – Ken Rayner

2.    7pts – Andy Jane

3.    11pts – Steve Brown

4.    12pts – Andy Burns