15/02/26 - Harescombe - Doughnut

Weight - 20lb 12oz

Catch - 9 Carp

Weather - Wet start, dried up, then rain later

Match - Teams of 4 - rd 3 (40 anglers) - 4th in section, 10th overall

Round 3 of the Teams of 4 and I wasn’t feeling well after going down with a heavy cold on Wednesday. A few uncomplimentary comments at the café ensured I didn’t feel any better.

Yesterday was the first day of continuous sunshine this year. Alas, today’s weather was back to more rain and after a cold week it was expected to be another tough day.

At the draw, the team draw looked OK, with Andy probably having the toughest one on Field Lake. As for me, I was handed p20 which is on the edge of the hot pegs p16 & p18, but I felt I had a chance of decent points.

As we were setting up the rain stopped and the wind eased.

Plumbing up the far bank revealed it was 3ft deep, which was a little deeper than I would have preferred. The bigger issue was the inlet pipe in peg 1 where water was pouring in creating some significant tow around the lake.

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.

Due to the tow, I never had a bite in that first hour, whether at full depth tight across or dobbin maggot/bread. I even tried a mini hybrid and straight lead without success. In fact, the only anglers I could see catching were Chris on p16 and Allan on p18.

Although I hadn’t caught, I had foul hooked a couple fish that soon came off, so there were some fish in the area and I hoped they might feed in the last 90mins.

With 2hrs remaining I had 3 carp in the net tapping in maggot with So Simple multi bait red dye and baninion micros, tight across. I tried feeding groundbait but I wasn’t convinced it was working today.

I caught a further 3 carp on maggot from the far bank. To be honest I was a little disappointed I didn’t catch more, but felt the tow was making for difficult presentation. Also, I think the fish were just passing through the swim rather than stopping.

I had another carp on the maggot feeder and the last 2 came at 6m to my right on maggot. I did hook a carp 2mins from the end on the short line, but the hook pulled.

I was a little concerned that I had a smaller stamp of fish and they did weigh less than I expected, missing out on 3^rd place by less than 2lb.

The team had a couple near misses that meant we finished 3^rd on the day and we now lie 2^nd in the league.

1.    47-13 – Luke Fothergill (Future Networks) – p6 (Match)

2.    37-  7 – Chris Telling (Team 1,2,3,4) – p16 (Doughnut)

3.    34-  4 – Allan Oram (Future Networks) – p18 (Doughnut)

4.    29-  3 – Nic Baggott (Maver Green) – p11 (Meadow)

4.    29-  3 – Andy Fry (Team 1,2,3,4) – p9 (Match)

6.    28-  0 – Jerry Wiggett (Maver Green) – p1 (Match)

Teams on the Day

1.    Team 1,2,3,4 – 8pts

2.    Maver Harescombe Green – 15pts

3.    Tackle Den – 17pts

3.    Future Networks – 17pts

League to Date

1.    Team 1,2,3,4 – 4pts

2.    Tackle Den – 6pts

3.    Maver Harescombe Green – 11pts

4.    Future Networks – 12pts