11/08/24 - Harescombe - Doughnut Lake

Weight - 65lb 5oz

Catch - 40 Carp

Weather - Hot and sunny. Light breeze

Match - Open (15 fished) - 2nd overall

I decided to fish todays open on the Doughnut Lake for only my 2^nd visit and hoped I would do better than last time.

I drew p24 and looking at the recent results it suggested it wasn’t the best and plumbing up probably revealed the reason why. I knew I would have focus on the far bank as it was too deep down the middle, however the far bank plumbed up like an egg box, with no shelf and the bottom almost immediately slopping away. With no flat spots, I decided fish corn so it would act like a plummet, and I at least would know that I was fishing on the deck in 2ft of water.

The corn was flavoured with Uzit P-nut cloud and I toss potted some p-nut micros. I also set up a small hybrid feeder, which I only used once at the start of the match as I wasn’t quite ready on time and caught a carp whilst sorting myself out. I also found a less steep area at 2+1 to my left which was fed with 6mm pellet.

After catching the carp on the feeder, I immediately went across to the far bank and it took 10mins to get going, but as the match progressed, I got bites reasonably quickly.

From those I could see, Nick Hancock on p19 was probably the only one who was beating me and I just kept my focus on the far bank.

Whenever I felt the far line needed a rest I came in on the short line, but only had 2 fish on paste all match. However, a 10/15mins rest was worth it as I started catching again when I returned to the far line.

Coming into the 5^th hour and the sport was slowing down or was it I was melting in the heat and at times the pole was literally too hot to handle.

Going into the last hour I had hoped my short line would kick in, but it never did. As a throw away line I dumped micros and corn down the left margin at 8m. Again, no flat spots, but the other issue was there was no cover. I did catch 1 carp and lost another, but the fish just didn’t settle which wasn’t a surprise.

Fortunately, the prolonged rest meant I had a good last 30mins fishing the far bank to finish the match 2^nd in what turned out to be a very close match for the minor places.

1.    100-  3 – Nick Hancock – p19

2.      65-  5 – Ken Rayner – p24

3.      63-10 – Gary Townsend – p7

4.      62-  7 – Ronaldo – p13

5.      59-  5 – Andy Jane – p11