26/10/24 - Sedges - Tile Lake

Weight - 50lb 12oz

Catch - 6 Carp, 3 Skimmers, 3 Roach

Weather - Cold start. Warm & sunny, no wind

Match - Uzit Bomb & Feeder League - rd 1 (40 fished) - 8th overall, 2nd in section

Today was the first of five rounds of the Uzit Bomb & Feeder league at The Sedges, with a full house of 40 anglers over Brick and Tile lakes.

I drew p37 which was in a decent area on Tile, although p39 and p40 were going to be tough to beat for the section points.

As I felt skimmers might be important in this league, I had a little practice on the Wednesday before (on p22) just to sort out my rigs and play around with a few ideas. I ended up catching 30lb of skimmers, on dead maggot over groundbait and later on corn which proved to be really good. So, I had a plan, target the island to start and feed corn (covered in Uzit P-nut cloud) at 13/14m as a backup.

Well, it was a very slow start for everyone. I started on the tea bag and 8mm pellet, with 2x 15-minute casts, as I didn’t feel regularly casting a method was the right way to start. However, after no bites I tried the method and then the maggot feeder, eventually catching a 9lber after 1hr 40mins.

I kept plugging away but with 90mins remaining I had only added 3 roach, despite rotating methods and even trying my corn line without success. In my mini section of 5, Nige Jeffery (p36) had 1x 12lber plus a couple of skimmers, Karl Turner (p38) had 2 carp, Nick Chedzoy (p39) had 4 carp including a 15lber and Shane Padbury on p40 was struggling. So, no one was running away with it, and I knew it would be hard, but not this hard. As well as having every peg in, the bright flat conditions weren’t helping.

Returning to my short corn line produced a carp, which was very welcome and then in the remaining hour I caught a further 4 carp, plus 2 skimmers on corn and another skimmer under my rod tip on meat.

I must admit I felt I got out of jail in that last hour, and I was relieved to have finished 2^nd in section to Nick and a reasonable start to the league.

1.    104-10 – Jamie Cook – p33 (Tile)

2.      83-  0 – Luke Fothergill – p21 (T)

3.      78-  8 – Robert Dumitrescu – p23 (T)

4.      71-10 – Dave Romain – p10 (Brick)

5.      64-  8 – Chris Ware – p14 (B)

6.      63-  6 – Nick Chedzoy – p39 (T) 

20/10/24 - Ivy House - Kingfisher

Weight - 25lb 4oz

Catch - 12 Carp, 2 Skimmers, 1 F1

Weather - Rainy start, sunny later and very windy

Match - Tackle Den (17 fished) - 12th overall

After a weekend up north visiting the in-laws, I was looking forward to getting back out on the bank. However, during the week I came down with a heavy cold and was feeling very rough on Friday. Fortunately, I felt a little better for Sunday, although I was given a wide berth at the draw!

Todays, match was over both canals and having not fished either for quite a while I wasn’t sure which one I would prefer. I wasn’t disappointed with p41 on Kingfisher as it’s normally in a good area although with nearly every peg in, I knew it would be tricky.

With rain and heavy winds forecast, I thought I would start at the bottom of the far shelf, feeding micros and 4 to my left and groundbait (black bubblegum : Crushed Expander) and micros to my right. The intention was to leave the short lines for later.

Starting off on the left-hand swim with a hair rigged 4mm pellet, I caught a number of branches and debris on the bottom, which was frustrating, particularly as Matt Greaves to my left started catching short.

Moving to my right-hand swim feeding small nuggets of micros and groundbait, fishing a 4mm expander I only caught 2 skimmers, whilst Matt was still picking on the odd carp.

The forecast wind was blowing, but fortunately it was mostly from behind me, so I decided to try fishing the far bank at 16m, fishing a 6mm expander. I managed 3 small carp but couldn’t catch another after losing a foul hooker. There just didn’t seem to be any volume of fish in front of me and even my short line failed to produce whilst Matt continued to pick up the occasional fish.

As I was struggling and with nothing to lose, I started pinging 4s and eventually I started to catch on hair rigged 4s, netting 8 carp and an F1 in the last hour.

Overall, a frustrating and disappointing match. I couldn’t work how to catch early, although everyone to my right struggled as well, but either way felt I should have caught more than I did.

1.    67-11 – John Brady – p34 (Moorhen)

2.    62-  3 – Andrew Black – p45 (Kingfisher)

3.    53-  1 – Pete Phillips – p28 (M)

4.    49-11 – Alistair Tilney – p27 (M)

5.    46-  9 – Matt Greaves – p42 (K)

06/10/24 - Rood Ashton

Weight - 86lb 12oz

Catch - 17 Carp, 2 Roach

Weather - Cloudy and breezy. Rain late on.

Match - Tackle Den (11 fished) - 3rd overall

For various reasons we were low on numbers today, which at least meant there would be fewer poor pegs in the bag. The good news was we could still drive round the lake, helped by loads of wood chipping being laid down in the worst affected areas during the previous rain. The question however, was, would the forecasted rain later in the day start before or after the match?

I drew p18 on the far bank opposite the island, but I would have preferred p20 or p21, but with the wind blowing into my bank I was hopeful.

I started on the method cast ¾ of the way towards the island. I didn’t wish to cast any closer due to the various snags by the island. After 3 casts on the method without any indications, I wasn’t convinced the feeder was the right approach, so switched to an 8mm red pellet and a tea bag covered in p-nut oil, resulting in my first carp. The 2^nd hour was better adding another 5 carp, mostly on 8mm meat covered in a-krill cloud and a pellet cone with bubblegum micros.

The 3rd hour was disappointing with no more fish. In the meantime, I had been feeding meat and 4mm pellet at 11m, but only caught a couple of roach and a crayfish, so I started feeding meat and micros down the right margin.

Fortunately, the fish returned over the far line adding another 4 fish, plus 2 from the right margin, but roach playing around with the bait were being a real pain.

With 45mins remaining, I felt I was behind all 3 anglers to my left and needed to get rid of the nuisance roach and catch some margin fish. So, I opened another tin of meat and fed both margins, just as the rain started. The right side was still full of roach, however 5 fish from the left margin in the last 30mins for 30lb was really useful to win my side of the lake and finish 3^rd overall.

1.    134-15 – Pete Phillips – p6

2.    100-  7 – Matt Greaves – p2

3.      86-12 – Ken Rayner – p18

4.      83-13 – Andrew Black – p4

5.      78-  8 – Dan Barnett – p21

  

05/10/24 - Harescombe - Doughnut Lake

Weight - 96lb 8oz 

Catch - 52 Carp

Weather - Bright, sunny and breezy at times

Match - Open (9 fished) - 2nd overall

As it was a while since my last visit to this lake, I was looking forward to returning. I wasn’t too concerned where I drew and ended up on peg 23. As I wasn’t sure what would work, particularly after the cold start to the day, I fed 2 swims at the bottom of the far shelf in 6.5ft of water. 2mm p-nut pellet and corn covered in p-nut cloud was deposited out in front and a ball of GLM : Crushed Expander to my left.

As it happened, I never went over the groundbait swim, as I kept catching by toss potting corn and micros, fishing corn on the hook, catching 14 carp in the first 90mins before the swim began to fade.

I knew I was slightly behind Steve on p20 and felt I needed to change tact. A switch to fishing the far bank again fishing corn over toss potted corn and 2mm p-nut pellet I kept catching, although the wind at times was a pain and I’m sure I left 10-20lb behind.

Come the last hour I needed to rest the far line and so I tried meat down the marginal slope, but in hindsight I wish hadn’t. I struggled to get a clean bite, netting only 3 fish, losing another 3, and wished I had set up a line at the bottom of the near shelf.

By the all-out I thought I was ahead of Steve on the fish count, however he had caught a few 4-5lb fish which made the difference and so took the win.

An enjoyable day and other than the wind a pleasant day weather wise.

1.    109-  8 – Steve Partington – p20

2.      96-  8 – Ken Rayner – p23

3.      77-  5 – Liam Coombley – p21

4.      69-13 – Mick O’Brien – p14