23/02/25 - Harescombe - Doughnut

Weight - 15lb 5oz

Catch - 10 Carp

Weather - Very windy and rain

Match - Teams of 4 (32 fished) - 4th in section, 18th overall

When I woke up I received a message from Andy saying his back had given out and he couldn’t fish! After a few phone calls he managed to persuade Simon Duke to fill in – Thanks mate, it was much appreciated as it saved us 9pts!

As for my match p18 was my home and to be honest I was pleased to avoid p12 & p15.

The wind meant fishing the long pole was out of the question, so I had to concentrate on the straight lead or feeder.

Following yesterday’s match, I was conscious about putting in too much feed, so started on the straight lead and maggot tight to the far bank catching 2 carp in the first hour. As not much was being caught expect on p21 (Andy Taylor) & p24 (Chris Telling) I stuck with the lead without success, before switching to a maggot feeder. This produced 4 carp but it was slow going, whilst p21 & p24 kept catching.

As well as the wind, the rain was now hammering down, making for a rather unpleasant day. I had heavily fed maggot at 6m as a throwaway line, dropping a maggot feeder over the top, but never had a bite all match.

With 2hrs remaining I was stuck on 5 fish. I tried a tiny hybrid feeder with groundbait and fishing dead maggot, without success. Therefore, I just decided to wait it out on the straight lead, adding a blob of Uzit Worm cloud to the double red maggot and managed to add a further 5 fish.

Have to say I was pleased to hear the all-out and thought I would finish 3^rd, however the average stamp of my fish was smaller than normal so I finished 4^th.

As a team, we finished 4^th on the day, whilst our nearest challengers finished 6^th and 7^th, which meant we have a 4pt lead going into the final round.

1.    66-  4 – Nic Baggott (Maver Black) – p14 (Meadow)

2.    35-13 – Jerry Wiggett (Maver Black) – p1 (Match)

3.    33-  6 – Andy Fry (Misfits) – p20 (Match)

4.    30-  7 – Chris Telling (1,2,3,4) – p24 (Doughnut)

5.    27-  5 – Alistair Tilney (Tackle Den) – p16 (Match)

6.    26-11 – Andy Taylor (Maver Green) – p21 (Doughnut)

Teams on the Day

1.    14pts – Team 1,2,3,4

1.    14pts – Maver Black

3 – 16pts – Fintastic

4 – 17pts – Tackle Den 

League to date

1.    9pts – Tackle Den

2.    13pts – 4 Skins

3.    14pts – Fintastic

4.    16pts – Team 1,2,3,4