Monday, 27 April 2026
26/04/26 - Harescombe - Match
Saturday, 25 April 2026
19/04/26 - Woodland View Front Deans
18/04/26 - Ivy House - Old Match Lake
Tuesday, 14 April 2026
12/04/26 - Windmill
04/04/26 - Harescombe - Match
Tuesday, 31 March 2026
29/03/26 - Tunnel Barn - New Pool
I always enjoy my trips to Tunnel Barn as you usually get a few bites. However, the weather was pants again with freezing overnight temperatures and a cold north westerly wind, which meant it was likely to be difficult.
Today’s match was on New Pool, which is one of the lakes I have yet to fish, although I was told p25 wasn’t the best area.
I knew meat was starting to work, however due to the recent cold weather I brought 3pts of maggot boosted with Baninion and So Simple red dye just in case. Due to the wind I decided to focus on fishing no further than 3 sections, plus a short kit.
During the first hour I got it wrong, starting down the left margin with maggot for 1 gudgeon, meat down the right margin for nothing and meat at 3 sections for 1 F1. To be honest when the margins didn’t produce, I spent too long trying to make the meat line work.
In meantime, whilst it was slow going for everyone, Andy Burns to my left started catching on maggot and I had to get myself sorted.
Fishing at 3 sections to my left (with the wind) in 4.5ft of water I found it best to feed through a toss pot, mainly because the wind was making it difficult to accurately to feed by hand.
2hrs into the match I probably had 10lb, fortunately the rest of the match went much better as I started getting more regular bites including some decent F1s.
However, it started to rain and at one point I was shivering in the strong wind.
With 90mins remaining, I started suffering from missed bites and foul hookers. A switch to fishing closer where it was 4ft proved to be the correct move reducing the number of missed bites.
To periodically rest the swim, I restarted feeding meat over my original line, however the F1s were a smaller stamp so I didn’t waste too much time on it this time. The left margin, which was slightly deeper than the right, eventually produced a few fish in the last 30mins on maggot, whilst the right margin didn’t produce anything.
I weighed slightly more than expected and was left ruing that poor first hour, as I missed out on 2nd by 2oz. I am fairly sure had it not been so windy another 10-20lb was possible.
Monday, 23 March 2026
22/03/26 - Ivy House - Kingfisher
Monday, 16 March 2026
15/03/26 - Harescombe - Doughtnut
08/03/26 - Hillview - Canal 2
There were 21 of us over canals 2,3 and 4. I was first into the bag hoping to avoid canal 2 as I’ve been on it a little too often recently, however I pulled p64 on canal 2.
As the weather has been milder, I decided to take a punt and focus on fishing meat, although I did bring some maggot and pellet just in case.
Starting by the aerator I caught a couple of carp and an F1, before switching to fishing tight to the far bank tapping in 4 cubes of 6mm meat and fishery micros. After 45mins I was up to 7 fish, before suffering a ‘dodgy’ period where I struggled to get a proper bite and the fish I was catching were on the small side.
A switch to fishing 4mm expander a metre off the far bank, tapping in micros resulted in a run of mostly F1s after a slow start.
After about 2.5hrs, Alistair on p68 was admitting to 45lb, whilst I had about 25lb and to be honest I thought I was fishing for 2nd on the lake.
When the pellet swim faded, a quick look over a short meat line, only resulted 2 small carp. So back to the far bank and I still couldn’t get a proper bite, however by reducing the amount of meat to only 2 cubes and a few micros I started to put a run of fish together.
In the meantime, I started feeding meat and mircos down each margin, where I could use the same rig as I used across down the left side, but I needed a shallower rig for the right margin.
The right side started off the better, but soon faded, prompting a return back to the far bank, before trying the left margin. I managed 25lb in the last hour thanks to a better stamp of fish to finish 2nd on the lake, behind John who fished maggot most of the day.
Monday, 2 March 2026
01/03/26 - Harescombe - Doughnut
Monday, 16 February 2026
15/02/26 - Harescombe - Doughnut
I think Jamie Durrup on p2 declined Gary’s offer to turn off the inlet pipe (that is fed from the stream). Obviously realising his error, Gary was back an hour later to turn it off.