17/12/23 - Ivy House - Moorhen

Weight - 26lb 14oz

Catch - 17 F1s, 8 Carp, 4 Skimmers, 3 Roach, 2 Chub, 1 Perch

Weather - Mild and overcast, with a south westerly breeze

Match - Winter League - rd 4 (48 fished) - 1st in sectio

No fishing last weekend, as my car had developed an electrical issue and it’s now in the garage. Fortunately, Volvo organised a hire car so I could at least fish this weekend and hopefully I will have my car back before the next weekend.

Today was the 4^th round of the Winter League, which so far hasn’t gone my way, and it was my turn for Moorhen, which is a 9 peg canal lake. Typically, in the winter you need to draw either end of the lake and avoid the middle, so I was less than impressed to draw smack in the middle which is also the narrowest part at 13m and so far this series 5^th in section has been the best result.

The only solace I could take was the space peg to my left. The first 30mins was spent dobbin firstly bread and then maggot along the far bank, catching 1 tiny chub. I tried feeding maggot, but this only produced a roach. In the meantime, everyone to my right were catching from their far banks and to be honest I thought a bad day was on the cards.

A switch to fishing at 13m to my left at the bottom of the far shelf, feeding a tiny nugget of Uzit Crushed Expander and micros, fishing a 4mm expander flavoured with Uzit Pineapple Cloud (a new product with 8 flavours). After a slow start, I started to catch a few F1s and the occasional bigger carp, feeding a tiny nugget of feed every put in. I was starting to enjoy my day and whenever the swim started slowing, I would move slightly further left.

With 2 hours remaining I felt I was doing OK as everyone had stopped catching, except for Andy Burns to my left on p29 who was catching across by the reedbed, including some better sized carp and was probably ahead of me.

My swim had slowed, so I tried my short maggot line which I had been feeding since the start, but this only produced a couple of silvers and felt I needed some carp to catch up with Andy.

I started fishing tight to the reeds, again fishing pellet over crushed expander/micros and fortunately started catching until the end, again moving further left to stay in contact with the fish.

It was a pleasant surprise to win the section as Andy came 2^nd with 22- 6 and Jamie Durrup on the end peg 35 had 21- 3.

1.    71-  8 – Matt Hamilton – p21 (heron)

2.    58-  2  - Rob Guppy – p20 (heron)

3.    57-  0 – Dave Strafford-Way – p2 (heron)

4.    54-  4 – Phil Godding – p46 (kingfisher)

5.    52-14 – Nigel Reeves – p39 (kingfisher)

6.    52-  6 – Steve Martin – p22 (heron)     

03/12/23 - Ivy House - Heron

Weight - 10lb 10oz

Catch - 4 Carp, 2 F1

Weather - Light rain to start, cleared later.

Match - Winter League rd 3 (48 fished) - 19th overall and 4th in section

The 3^rd round of the Winter League and my turn for A section (top and bottom bank) on Heron Lake.

Yesterday’s freezing conditions had been replaced overnight by rain, but I still expected the fishing to be tough going. That said I was still confident of catching a few, as I really like this lake in the winter, although I was really disappointed to draw p17 as it has come 7^th & 8^th in section in the first 2 rounds, so not a great draw.

I had also arrived without my bib & brace, so a big thank you to Abi for driving over with it, plus a dry pair of trousers and some lighthearted abuse!

Back to the match, I started on the usual lead and bread without any bites, so tried maggot over a little Uzit crushed expander, flavoured with bubblegum for no bites. This wasn’t going well, and another hard match was on the cards.

After an hour I eventually caught a 3lber on the lead & bread, which is a good size fish for the lake and other than Roy Booth next to me who had a tiny carp no one else had caught along my bank!

The rest of the match was simply a struggle, I just picked up the odd fish on maggot over crushed expander at various points along the bottom of the far shelf at 16m.

I finished with the best weight along my bank, but unfortunately got beat by 3 pegs along the bottom bank to only come 4^th in section, which is the best I could have hoped for to be honest.

1.    46-  1 – Jason Crump – p46 (kingfisher)

2.    41-12 – Gary Herman – p21 (heron)

3.    38-  8 – Jamie Dixey – p10 (heron)

4.    34-  0 – Graham Spiller – p37 (kingfisher)

5.    33-14 – David Stafford-Way – p10 (old match lake)

6.    32-  4 – Steve Waters – p22 (heron)

02/12/23 - Todber Manor - Ash

Weight - 21lb 8oz

Catch - 6 Carp

Weather - Overnight frost. Freezing fog all day

Match - Christmas Open (50 fished) - 6th in section out of 12

50 of us at Todber for their Christmas match across Hillview, Homeground and Ash. To be honest I wanted to avoid Ash, as I felt the other 2 lakes were likely to fish better, based on last week’s match. Therefore, I was disappointed to see Ash 67 staring back at me and the general feeling was I would be on the edge of the fish, with p69-75 likely to best area.

Despite the heavy frost there was only a little bit of ice around which was a relief and meant the ice breaker stayed in the car.

On the all-in I cast the lead and bread to the far bank without success. So, after 15mins I came onto the pole at 14m where I tapped in some micros and fished corn over the top and again no bites. In fact, very little was being caught, therefore I decided on a complete change of tactic and quickly set up a maggot feeder, cast 5m off the far bank for 45mins but again no bites. I even tried the pole and maggot at 16m, which at least produced a bite, but lost a large skimmer as the elastic had frozen in the top kit.

A few fish were now being caught to my right, but very little to my left. After 2hrs I eventually caught my first carp on the maggot feeder, quickly followed by another on double maggot sprayed with Uzit P-Nut.

In the last 90mins I had 4 more fish, 2 on the maggot feeder, then 2 more on the straight lead and corn.

I was definitely at the wrong end of the lake today as P62 & p63 both blanked which included Pete Upperton, Ash Tomkins managed one carp 30mins from time, so really hard. The further you moved up the lake, the better the weights, with only 58lb needing to win the lake, so well done to Simon Stacey who caught on the lead and bread.

Despite not getting above freezing all day the fishing was excellent on the other 2 lakes. I didn’t hang around for the prizes and got a surprise text from Mark when I got home to say I picked up £30 for 3^rd in the section super pool.

1st: Pemb Wrighting 242lb 6oz (78 HG)

2nd: Martin Rogers 236lb 0oz (49 HV)

3rd: Gary O'Shea 214lb 10oz (87 HG)

4th: Mark Poppleton 214lb 4oz (58 HV)

5th: Roger Hayton 207lb 6oz (48 HV)

Section A: Pete Neate 204lb 12oz (47 HV)

Section B: Adam Tester 166lb 4oz (55 HV)

Section C: Simon Stacey 58lb 6oz (74 ASH)

Section D: Tony Gilbert 157lb 0oz (84 HG)

30/11/23 - Ivy House - Heron

Weight - 53lb 14oz 

Catch - 25 F1s, 11 Carp

Weather - Overnight frost. Cold & grey.

Match - Open (5 fished) - 1st overall

I booked a day off to fish the Thursday open on Heron to practice for Sunday’s winter league. However, due to the freezing conditions only 5 turned up, although I was pleasantly surprised to see the lakes weren’t frozen.

It probably didn’t matter where we drew, but I was happy with p10 which is my favourite winter peg as you can reach the bottom of the far shelf at 14m. Also, the F1s seem to migrate into this area for the winter.

I started on the lead and bread cast to the island and caught an F1 on my 2^nd cast. Over the next 90mins I would catch a couple of fish and then have to cast a bit further along the bank to stay in contact with the fish catching a further 11 fish.

When bites dried up on the lead, I switched to the pole at 15m over crushed expander flavoured with Uzit bubblegum, toss potting maggot over the top. To keep the fish coming I had to set up new swims right and left, moving out to 16m, still feeding a little crushed expander and toss potting maggot over the top.

Other than a 30min spell when I couldn’t get a bite, I had a lovely day despite the freezing conditions.

1.    53-14 – Ken Rayner – p10

2.    31-  8 – Tim Hadland – p8

25/11/23 - Todber Manor - Hillview

Weight - 253lb 0oz

Catch - 78 Carp

Weather - Hard overnight frost. Bright, sunny and flat

Match - Open (28 fished) - 13th overall

Only the one match this weekend. I settled on Todber’s open, which Mark Poppleton had organised and pay-outs would be based on sections only. As a result, 30 had booked in over Hillview and Ash (although 2 dropped out) and it would also serve a practice for next weeks Christmas match.

I was happy enough with p54 and following the first hard frost of the year, combined with bright flat conditions I was expecting it to be hard going, targeting 150-200lb as a winning weight.

As I didn’t expect to catch short, I started on the lead and bread, but after 5mins p49 already had 2 carp in the net by fishing short and other anglers were also catching in the same way!

I soon switched to fishing at 13m tapping in 4mm Uzit p-nut pellets, pinging pellet over the top. Due to the conditions, I expected those that started short to only catch a few fish before having to move out longer.

As it happened those fishing short kept catching and I probably stayed on the 13m line too long, however after 45mins I started catching at a better rate than those around me so decided to stick at 13m (still hoping those catching short would soon stop), with corn being better than pellet, until the line slowed up at the end of the 2^nd hour.

The remaining 3hrs I spent down each margin, starting down the left on 6mm meat soaked with Uzit bubblegum yellow dye and then double corn over 2mm Uzit p-nut pellets to my right.

In the last 2 hours I probably had 120/130lb and felt I had caught up with those around me, although I could see anglers further down the lake catching much better. I had beaten all the pegs opposite on the spit and peg 55 beat me by a pound, however all the better weights were further down the lake.

It was ridiculous how well the lake fished and in hindsight I should have fished shorter and probably caught 300lb. It will be interesting to see whether it will fish this well next week as a cold week is forecast with the prospect of sleet later in the week.

1.   547-  0 – Perry Stone – p48

2.    512-14 – Pemb Wrighting – p60

3.    448-  4 – Adam Burrow – p42

4.    428-  2 – Rob McCann – p47

5.    388-  4 – Greg Welsby – p34

19/11/23 - Ivy House - Old Match Lake

Weight - 16lb 8oz (4lb - silvers)

Catch - 4 Carp, 23 Roach, 4 Skimmers, 1 Perch

Weather - Showery and very windy.

Match - Winter League rd 2 (48 fished) - 6th in section.

The 2^nd round of the Winter League and my turn for the Old Match Lake which has been fishing very hard recently, so a decent draw was required. Based on yesterday’s match and the prevailing wind I fancied either p8 or 10 at the bottom of the lake, so was a little disappointed to pull p3, where the angler yesterday tipped back 2lb of bits. That said following yesterday’s match I was still confident of catching. 

Like yesterday, I started on the pellet cone, again using Uzit P-nut cloud flavoured fishery micros and soon caught a skimmer on corn. I stuck with it for an hour fully expecting the tip to go round again, but it never did. The only angler I could see catching was Jamie Durup on p16 opposite and Roy Booth on p10.

As I couldn’t catch on the tip, I tried the 11m line where I fed groundbait and caster but was getting pestered by small roach. My margin was better, catching some chucky roach on maggot, but there seemed to be very few skimmers around.

In the last 2 hours I knew I needed some carp and stayed on the pellet cone. I managed 4, but 2 of them were very small. I also tried corn down my margin, but it was obvious there was still loads of small silvers in the peg despite putting in 2 pots of feed.

In the end a really disappointing day where I fished the same as yesterday, but there just wasn’t any volume of feeding fish in front of me. P8 won the section with 47lb and p10 came 3^rd.

1.    95-14 – Gary Knight – p6 (heron)

2.    78-12 – Martin Thomas – p48 (kingfisher)

3.    69-12 – Carl Mulford – p13 (heron)

4.    63-  6 – Dwayne Seed – p2 (heron)

5.    61-  6 – Chris Telling – p16 (heron)

6.    60-15 – Stu Foale – p24 (heron)

18/11/23 - Ivy House - Old Match Lake

Weight - 32lb 3oz (4lb 3oz - silvers)

Catch - 9 Carp, 12 Roach, 7 Skimmers

Weather - Grey and blustery

Match - Open (9 fished) - 2nd overall

As my rotation for the Winter League put me on the Old Match Lake I booked in for a practice. Over the last few weeks either end of the lake seemed to be the place to draw, so I wasn’t sure when I drew p5 in the middle, however it is 1 of my favourite pegs, so I had fingers crossed.

The tea bag has continued to frame and feedback received suggested not a lot was being caught close in. Having previously tried the tea bag with limited success, I decided to try the pellet cone using fishery micros flavoured with Uzit P-Nut cloudy which added a bit of stickiness to the pellet.

Casting between the islands I netted 3 carp on triple dead reds and a skimmer on corn during the first 90mins. This I felt put me 2^nd behind Richard ‘Tea Bag’ Rogers on p10, so a good start.

As I couldn’t catch anymore on the tip I switched to the pole, where I had fed groundbait with micros and dead maggot at 13m but caught very little. Then I tried 14.5m just tapping in a few micros and fishing a 4mm expander and had a skimmer first put in, but it was a loner as I could only catch roach.

Back to the 13m line I had a few more skimmers, but it was slow going. I did try the pellet cone periodically to see whether the carp had returned and kept feeding the swim with small balls of micros whenever I was fishing the pole.

During the last 90mins the carp returned with 6 fish, losing 2 all on triple dead reds sprayed with Uzit P-nut to finish 2^nd overall.

1.    39-  7 – Richard Rogers – p10

2.    32-  3 – Ken Rayner – p5

3.    25-  4 – Stu White – p12

4.    17-  7 – Dave Strafford-Way – p9

Silvers

1.    20-12 – Stu White – p12

2.    12-  4 – Phil Gooding – p2

3.      7-15 – Dave Strafford-Way – p9