26/10/25 - Rood Ashton

Weight - 15lb

Catch - 2 Carp, 5 Roach

Weather - Cold, breezy & sunny start, rain later.

Match - Charity Open (22 fished) - 13th overall

Today’s match was a charity event in aid of Ian Barker who passed away earlier this year from cancer. All proceeds, which amounted to £800 would be donated to Prospect Hospice in Wroughton where Ian spent his last days.

The match was fully booked with 22 anglers. As such I knew it would be hard, not helped by a deterioration in the weather as a cold, wet and windy front came in. Therefore, a draw with some open water was required, so I was really disappointed to see p10 staring back at me. A proper no hoper in the top corner of the lake which is usually never used. I’ll be honest I nearly didn’t bother and had it not been a charity match I would have gone home.

Anyway at the peg I checked the water temperature which read 8.4c, a drop of 4c in a week just confirmed what I feared.

As expected, plumbing up revealed 4ft water up to 5m, before it shallows up further out. In the first hour I tried the method and straight lead cast as far as I dare but never had a liner. I even tried a maggot feeder, just to a get bite without success.

I had brought some maggot, just in case and had fed my short line with maggot over BMGX hoping to catch some roach. Well not even the roach were feeding, which can be a real pest in the summer.

With 2hrs gone I eventually caught a roach on my short line and then a carp much to my surprise that I gingerly played on 0.09 bottom. I did catch another carp with an hour remaining, again on maggot as I couldn’t get a bite anywhere else.

Matt Greaves had drawn p9 and we decided to have a pound, that I took, just beating Matt by 9oz thanks to my collection of roach.

1.    57-10 – Luke Sherman – p7

2.    49-10 – John Pearce – p18a

3.    38-  7 – Dave Keen – p12

4.    33-  0 – Steve Venn – p20

5.    32-15 – Andy Pegler – p11

6.    31-  7 – Dan Barnett – p19

19/10/25 - Woodland View - Barley

Weight - 50lb 3oz

Catch - 11 Carp, 5 F1

Weather - Wet and windy

Match - Tackle Den (23 fished) - 10th overall, 4th in section

I’ve only been to Woodland View a couple of times, but had never fished Hay or Barley, which are 20m wide strip lakes. We had 12 anglers on Barley and 11 on Hay.

I managed to get advice from a couple of sources and was told to focus on the pole with maggot and pellet, targeting F1s and stockies. I was also told the winner would come from Hay and the middle of the lakes were best.

Well, I drew p5 on Barley, right next to the car park, so the wrong lake and the wrong end. I was then told I would probably lose the first hour due to car doors slamming etc.

As I was setting up, I realised I wouldn’t be fishing long on the pole due to the otter fence behind me which meant even fishing at 11m would mean breaking down twice.

On all-in I fed a few fishery 4s at 6m and started on a small method with fishery micros (groundbait is banned) with Coco Squid or Baninion Smog, cast into a rat hole on the far bank. Initially I tried a 6mm pellet but didn’t get a bite until I tried a 5mm yellow gofter.

After 40mins I had 2 carp for 5-6lb and was doing ok as the lake was fishing hard and it was now raining (and it never stopped). A switch to the short pellet line didn’t produce a bite which was a surprise.

A move out to 11m over micros and maggot, produced an F1 on maggot, but I wasn’t happy with the left to right wind which was starting to increase, causing the lake to tow. I set up a new rig (chimp 0.4g) which sat better in the tow, catching 3 F1s, before I started experiencing missed bites. I had thought about sorting out some shallow rigs, but couldn’t feed maggots accurately in the wind, plus heavy rain and maggots don’t make good bedfellows!

I tried coming shorter without success and began to wonder where my next fish was going to come from.

With 2 hrs remaining I decided to try the method again catching 4 or 5 carp tight to the far bank, which made me feel happier. In the meantime, I started cupping maggot at 5m and when the method line slowed, I tried the short line catching a couple of carp, but the  action was short lived.

My margins didn’t produce a bite, so back on the method to finish the match and I caught my best fish, an 8-9lb carp.

At the weigh in, as expected Hay Lake provided the top 5. The results on my lake were extremely tight as I finished 4^th with 50-3, but the lake winner weighed 52-14, so just the one fish. In hindsight, I think I spent too much time trying to make my pole line work.

1.    121-  4 – Andy Burns – p13 (Hay)

2.      92-  7 – Steve Venn – p4 (Hay)

3.      82-  3 – Kev Perry – p6 (Hay)

4.      79-13 – Matt Greaves – p11 (Hay)

5.      54-  7 – Bobby Moore – p8 (Hay)

6.      52-14 – Nicholas Wilson – p8 (Barley)

18/10/25 - Harescombe - Match

Weight - 31lb 10oz

Catch - 8 Carp, 5 F1, 3 Skimmers, 1 Gudgeon

Weather - Cloudy, windy at times

Match - Open (14 fished) - 6th overall, 3rd in section

No fishing last weekend as I was up north seeing the in-laws.

I drew p20 on the far bank and thought it might be OK, although unsure whether the fish had started moving out of this shallower end of the lake.

On the all-in I started across by the boards, fishing a 4mm expander, over small nuggets of Top G groundbait and baninion micros. I only caught 3 F1s and a try at the bottom of the far shelf only produced another F1 and a couple skimmers.

At the halfway stage I only had 4 F1s, but no one was catching on my side of the lake. Simon Duke to my right on p22 was getting plenty of bites on maggot, but no quality, catching mostly small roach and skimmers.

I got the feeling that some carp had moved

into the area and decided to feed more positively to make something happen, cupping in some micros and 4mm baninion pellet along the far bank. This produced some carp and I felt I was starting to put myself in a good position.

I had also fed my margins with pellet and a short line with meat but only had 1 carp.

I also started pinging 4mm pellet off to my left at 14m. With 45mins remaining I tried the pinging line and caught a carp straight away on a hair rigged 6mm baninion pellet but couldn’t get another. I kept pinging pellet, switching from 4s to 6s and tried my other lines. When I returned with 15mins remaining I had 3 fish in 3 put ins, then hooked another 2 fish both of which I pulled out of at the net!

At the all-out, Simon was convinced I had beaten him and I would have, but his 7lb of maggot caught bits and 2 late carp proved decisive as he weighed 35lb to claim 3^rd overall. I didn’t even pick up the section default as p15 weighed 34lb, so those 2 lost fish proved to be costly.

1.    74-  1 – Steve Ford – p12

2.    63-15 – Chris Cameron – p8

3.    35-  4 – Simon Duke – p22

4.    34-10 – Steve Partington – p15

5.    32-12 – Gary Townsend – p29

07/10/25 - Rood Ashton

Weight - 54lb 9oz

Catch - 16 Carp

Weather - Cool and blustery.

Match - Tackle Den (14 fished) - 3rd overall

Only 14 today for various reasons, which meant some of the worst pegs could be left out.

More than happy with p21 as it was the end peg on the far bank. The only concern was yesterday’s heavy rain and the impact it would have. Taking the water temperature (11.7c) revealed it had dropped a couple of degrees from last week, which suggested it would be tricky.

On all the all-in I started on a small 30g method feeder cast 30m loaded with Top G groundbait and baninion micros and a 6mm pink gofter. After an hour I had 3 carp for about 5lb. It was a relief to catch as no-one on my bank had a bite yet, however I was a little disappointed with the stamp as usually I would expect to have 10-15lb.

I had intended to fish meat on the pole, however when I realised it was going to be hard I decided to set up a pellet rig with 0.14 bottom to an 18 B960, which is lighter than I would normally go, but there didn’t appear to be many snags in the swim. If the carp rocked up properly, I could still switch to a heavier rig.

After an hour I switched to fishing 10m to my left where I had been pinging 4mm baninion pellets, fishing a hair rigged 6mm baninion pellet. Bites were tentative but at least I was catching, nothing bigger than 3-4lb, plus a couple of 1lb fish and I knew I was beating those along my bank.

I also started feeding 8mm meat (covered in Sludge) and 4mm pellet into my right margin, which was 3ft deep, soon catching a 6lber and then losing an 8lber at the net.

With 2hrs remaining I had 13 fish in the net, mostly from the 10m line and thought I would get a run of proper fish down the margin or over a 25m line where I had been pinging 6mm pellet.

Well, those last 2hrs were extremely frustrating. Over the right margin I was getting liners, losing a couple of foul hookers and only landing one more fish. I never had a bite over the 25m line, fishing the straight lead which to be honest was a surprise as its usually worth a couple of fish.

Fortunately, I managed a couple more fish over the 10m line, but a lost a proper fish at the net. As things weren’t going as well as expected I cupped groundbait, micros and a few bits of meat 10m down the left margin in 2ft of water. This produced 1 carp, before the roach moved in.

At the all-out I knew I had beaten the anglers down my bank, but I was concerned the stamp of fish might leave me short, as normally 16 carp would go 65-80lb and I’ve probably missed out on 2^nd place.

Picking up 3^rd place meant that is now 8 straight pick-ups, which is my best run of results.

1.    72-14 – Vince Grillo – p6

2.    64-  1 – Simon Collins – p14

3.    54-  9 – Ken Rayner – p21

4.    49-  6 – Pete Phillips – p4

5.    45-15 – Matt Greaves – p5

02/10/25 - Harescombe - Doughnut

Weight - 53lb 10oz

Catch - 21 Carp

Weather - Cloudy with sunny periods. Breezy at times.

Match - Charity (13 fished) - 1st overall

Today was a charity match for the Huntingdon disease organised by Cliff Dutton who was also celebrating his 70^th birthday.

I haven’t fished Doughnut Lake since August and was a little unsure how it would fish as recent results suggested it would either fish brilliantly or hard. I was handed p4 and there were plenty of fish moving around and I fully expected a good day.

On the all-in I decided to start a metre off the far bank in 2ft of water where I found a flattish area fishing 6mm pellet or corn. 40mins later I had hooked 2 fish and lost them both. It was a real head scratcher as the fish were coming to the feed but weren’t feeding and I wasn’t the only one suffering, as very little had been caught.

A switch to fishing tight to the far bank in 12in of water, toss potting So Simple Top G groundbait and maggot, with maggot on the hook resulted in another 2 lost fish!

I even tried fishing paste thinking the fish just wanted to feed on the groundbait but I didn’t have a bite. Eventually, I netted my first fish after 1hr 40mins, by just toss potting groundbait with a few baninion micros, fishing worm on the hook.

Have to say it’s only the 2^nd time I have used the Top G groundbait and its excellent. Due to its smell, you don’t need to feed much to get fish in the swim.

I spent the next few hours fishing the far bank and ended up feeding a second swim to the right, bouncing between to the swims to keep the fish coming. To rest the swims, I would periodically try my margins (fed with groundbait, micros and maggot) and a short meat line without success.

With 40mins remaining I noticed some carp had moved into my margin and immediately caught a carp but couldn’t get another.

Another try over the meat (7mm meat covered in Sludge) line produced 6 fish in the last 30mins allowing me to win the match.

1.    53-10 – Ken Rayner – p4

2.    50-13 – Andy Bartlett – p14

3.    49-  3 – Gareth – p24

4.    41-  5 – Nick Hancock – p8

5.    38-11 – Roy Booth – p10