28/12/25 - Harescombe - Doughnut

Weight - 11lb 7oz

Catch - 4 Carp, 1 F1

Weather - Cold and cloudy

Match - Open (12 fished) - 9th overall, 4th in section

The first match since Christmas and I decided to fish the Doughnut Lake with next weeks winter league match in mind.

I drew p28 at the narrowest end of the lake. Although a few fish had been caught in the area during the previous weeks, I felt I might be a week late, as the wind has switched to a north easterly, blowing down this end of the lake and it was certainly feeling cold.

Arriving at my peg confirmed my fears as the colour had dropped out of the lake, the water temperature had dropped to 5.7c and water was gushing in from the inlet pipe (this was turned off before the match started).

Well, the first 3hrs was uneventful, losing 3 foul hookers fishing tight to the far bank. In fact, you could see the fish just swimming around the island but not stopping.

With 2hs remaining I caught my first carp on maggot over a nugget of groundbait (Top G: Crushed Expander) from the far bank, adding a second soon after. I had 2 more in quick succession fishing at 14.5m to the point of the island off to my right and an F1 on the straight lead.

I just felt the fish didn’t want to stay in the peg and I couldn’t compete, preferring the wider areas of the lake.

1.    60-15 – George Organ – p24

2.    53-  7 – Simon Duke – p18

3.    43-12 – Steve Ford – p8

4.    34-10 – Allan Oram – p21