Tuesday, 14 April 2026

04/04/26 - Harescombe - Match

Weight - 45lb 11oz
Catch - 13 F1, 5 Carp, 2 Skimmers
Weather - Cloudy, increasingly windy.
Match - Open (9 fished) - 4th overall

More wind was forecast for this match! At least there was no rain forecast and I was very happy to draw p24 as that would be sheltered from the worst of the wind.

As it has been a little milder, I decided to start on a small piece of paste (So Simple Top G) to fish against the island, fishing with a long lash as the wind was still problematic. First drop in and I netted a 3lb carp, followed by 2 F1s in the next 20mins.

I probably stayed on this a bit too long. I did try pellet or meat by the island but couldn’t get any decent presentation.

In the meantime, I fed meat over a short

line and 4mm baninion pellet to my left (with the wind) over what would have been the short line for p23. The meat line didn’t produce a bite, however when I switched to the left-hand pellet line fishing a banded 6mm baninion pellet I caught 2 quick F1s, but other than a skimmer later on never had another bite over this line.

I started another pellet line to my right for no bites (and stopped feeding meat over my short line). In fact, the only place I could catch was tight to the island on paste, but there were a couple of times when the wind spun me around!

With 90mins remaining I was conscious that I was falling behind Luke on p15 and Steve on p18. Also, Andy opposite on p5 was catching a lot of smaller fish.

I was really surprised I couldn’t catch over any of my lines, including fishing by the p25 pallet. The left margin was only 1.5ft deep and I decided to feed groundbait (Top G) and dead maggot.

The first 2 put ins resulted in 2 lost fish. After sorting out my rig and I started to catch on 3 dead maggots, plus a few fish over my short line where I restarted feeding meat.

Come the weigh in I was disappointed to have missed out on 3rd by an 1oz. Andy had 21lb skimmers on maggot to help him finish 2nd and Luke caught on hard pellet. I should have finished at least 3rd as I lost a few fish and had I been able to fish longer I could have caught a few more.

I just feel I’m off the pace at the moment and have struggled a little over the last month or so.

1.    77-  2 – Luke Seabrook – p15
2.    52-  2 – Andy Fry – p5
3.    45-12 – Steve Partington – p18

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