03/05/25 - Harescombe - Doughnut

Weight - 26lb 6oz

Catch - 11 Carp

Weather - Sunny, cool northerly which got stronger

Match - Pole Masters Qualifer (18 fished) - 6th place

Today was the qualifier for the Pole Masters. There were 18 anglers on Match Lake and 18 on Doughnut, with the top 9 from each lake going through to the final. I would have preferred Match Lake, however I was a bit late booking on which meant there was only space on Doughnut.

Since booking in Doughnut it has been fishing hard for some reason, it’s like it hasn’t recovered properly from the winter, although a match last week showed weights had started to improve.

I have to say when I drew p14 I was pretty deflated as it’s in the worst area of the lake and I felt I would struggle to qualify. When I arrived at my peg, the wind was blowing from behind down towards the opposite end of the lake and compounded my feelings. The only crumb of comfort was I at least had spare pegs either side of me and the northerly breeze might make it awkward for the anglers fishing down each side of the lake to fish the far bank.

Plumbing up the far bank and I couldn’t find a flat spot as it was 6in deep tight across, quickly dropping away to 5-6ft!

Fortunately, I managed to find a flat spot at 2+2 slightly to my right in 5ft of water where I fed crushed expander and 2mm p-nut pellet.

On the all-in I tried slapping a pellet along the far bank, as I could see fish swimming in the shallow water, but there were no takers. I even tried swinging the rig into the very shallow water with corn on hook but still couldn’t get a bite. Then the ducks arrived and cleaned out the pellet that I had pinged across which told me the fish weren’t feeding and I didn’t bother fishing there again. Besides the wind was increasingly becoming more troublesome.

I also tried fishing corn and pellet in 3ft of water where I could find a ‘flatish’ spot at 15m, but the wind was making presentation difficult and I was beginning to fear the worst.

After 1hr 40min I eventually caught my first fish from my 2+2 line on 4mm expander. The following 2hrs were uneventful. My second fish came from my left margin on meat where I found a flat spot in 3ft of water a couple of metres off the bank.

In the meantime, I had switched to feeding meat and micros over my 2+2 line. For the remainder of the match, I alternated between my margin and 2+2 catching everything on meat.

I was relieved to have qualified in 6^th place.

1.    41-  4 – Ronaldo – p19

2.    38-  5 – Nigel Reeves – p17

3.    37-13 – Andy Jane – p21

4.    26-14 – Allan Oram – p24

5.    26-  9 – Steve Partington – p20

6.    26-  6 – Ken Rayner – p14