20/08/26 - Harescombe - Match

Weight - 123lb 9oz

Catch - 20 Carp, 17 F1s, 2 Roach, 1 Barbel

Weather - Cooler, sunny with cloudy periods and showers

Match - Open (13 fished) - 1st overall

As I haven’t fished this lake for 4 weeks, I decided to fish todays Thursday open in preparation of the final round of the summer series on Saturday to get back in touch with the venue.

Heavy overnight rain, the first in about 2 or 3 months, woke me up at 3am and I couldn’t get back to sleep so I was feeling a little tired at the draw. We also had some rain forecast during the day and I think Gary was hoping for more than we actually got.

Back to the draw and I was on p11 which is OK. On the all-in I tried kriller paste across to the island but only had 1 small carp after 15mins, so cupped in some baninion 4mm pellet and micros. Whilst that settled, I tried fishing a 6mm baninion pellet over 4s at 2+2 but didn’t have a bite and I suspected the fish might want to feed in shallower water and soon switched to fishing in 2ft of water, at 2+2 left and right.

After a slow start, both short pellet lines improved 90mins into the match catching some chunky F1s and a surprise 2lb barbel,

with the right-hand swim being the best.

By the halfway point, the pellet lines were slowing, prompting a switch to fishing paste by the island where I had been pinging pellet. This resulted in a couple of fish, but it wasn’t as good as I had hoped for and for about 30mins my catch rate dropped as I tried to work out the best way to catch.

With 2hrs remaining I noticed some fish moving in the shallow water (12in) down the right margin towards the p12 platform. By fishing paste, feeding a few micros and 4s, I kept catching until the end of the match, including a 20min spell where I caught 4 carp for 24lb which was very useful. Surprisingly my left margin was useless and full of tiny roach. 

By the end of the match I knew I had done well and fortunately finished with a comfortable win.

1.    123-  9 – Ken Rayner – p11

2.      89-13 – Jerry Wiggett – p1

3.      86-  7 – Gary Townsend – p15

4.      85-  4 – Rich Powell – p3

5.      77-  4 – Mick O’Brien – p20