Gold Valley 20/02/11

Gold Valley's Gold Lake.

First team practice for the upcoming winter league semi final, and my first trip to Gold Valley. (forgot the camera again sorry!) I didn't know really what to expect. Meeting the rest of the squad for a particularly good breakfast bap in the on site cafe over looking Gold Lake, some of them dressed in there new Browning attire, (very Smart!). There was a good turn out as you would expect with 11 teams, and the buzz and excitement that goes with a big match. The draw took place and Dave Tuck was at the front as usual and the first to draw! I was quite a way down and the draw took a bit of time to do with the large numbers of anglers fishing. I finally stuck my hand in the pot and pulled out peg 42, on the causeway bank of Gold Lake, along with a few others from the team! I made my way to my peg and found out that I was pegged right next to Kieth, after a bit of a chat with him we decided we would fish it slightly different from each other to see what would work best.

A couple of the lads had been down to the mid week match earlier in the week, so we had an idea, but it was still a bit of trial an error. I set up a method rod on 8lb main line to 0.20 hook length and 14 hook. This was for fishing towards the rope that splits Gold lake in 2, meanwhile Kieth went for a bomb and maggot feeder approach. On the pole lines again we tried slightly different tacks, to see which would work best, I plumbed up at 14.5m and had about 7ft. I set up 2 rigs for this line a heavy rig in case the carp showed up and this was a Karpa Carp 1, 4x16 to 0.16 straight through to a 911-16 to a green hollow. I also set up a lighter rig which was a Karpa Chimp 4x16 on 0.12 straight through to a 18 hook on yellow hollow. I plumbed at 16m also and found it slightly shallower, a go to area in case the fish backed off. The last line was a line at 5-6m which again was good depth at 6ft. A Karpa Chimp 4x14 on 0.12 - 0.10 to an 18 hook married to pink hollow.

Kieth an I decided on a slightly different approach, I was going to put in micros with minced luncheon meat on the 14.5m line, while he put micros on one line and some chopped worm on another, as he had a blank peg to his right. At the all in I fed three good size balls of the micro meat mix, and went out onto the method. It was quite a cold day and it was obvious from the early proceedings that it was going to be a tricky day. Not much early indications on the method just a few small movements of the tip, not the full blown wrap around was hoping for from the size able carp that live in Gold Valley. The odd carp was coming out further down the lake. Kieth was not doing much better on the bomb. About an hour had past before the tip flew round and a 1lb skimmer was in the net. Kieth had now switched to the maggot feeder and was getting the odd roach. No further fish followed in the next half an hour so I went onto the pole. After having a quick look on the 5-6m line which I had been trickling maggot over with no indications.

Out to the 14.5m line with a couple of maggots on the hook, after a couple of minutes the float slipped away and a skimmer of a 1lb came to the net. Next put in this time with a bit of meat on the hook and the float slipped away again this time it was a better fish of 2.5lb. Out again with the meat but nothing for a bit so I went back onto the maggot, the next fish was a lumpy beam of 5lb. Kieth was struggling for bites next door, as was the guy to my left. The swim seemed to die for a while so I fed a small cup of micro meat mix and went back on to the method. Not much doing out there so leaving the 14.5m line to settle for twenty minutes I went back onto it. Some nice size roach and a couple of nice big perch followed in the next small spell of catching. Again it died, I just couldn't seem to keep them going. A small re-feed and out onto the method.

It was well into the match now, no carp but I seemed to be doing OK on the silver's side of things. Again not much doing out on the rod, so back onto the pole. Again a small run of fish, skimmers and roach, before the bites stopped. Into the last hour and I decided to feed once last time, going on the method for half an hour before coming back onto the pole. A couple of fish this time on the rod was a bonus, nothing big but it was adding to the weight. Switching back to the pole for the last half hour and it was slow, so I pushed it out to 16m, I did have a nice skimmer but that was it for me at the all out. At the scales I weighed in 25lb 4oz, for 4th in section not to bad, but a carp or 2 would of helped out. Kieth struggled all day next to me, as did the guy to my left. It was generally a tricky day for most, just the odd angler doing well or catching a couple of bonus carp, I seemed to do quite well on the silver fish, just need to try a couple of things out in the next match that I observed during quiet spells, it might just catch some of those elusive carp!

Silver, But No Golden Delicious At Orchard!

A very wet and windy day was in store at Orchard's Match lake on 13/02/11. I arrived at the venue early and seeing the wind blowing down the the lake, the favoured pegs were definitely going to be those at the entrance end, Orchard is windy at the best of times and these pegs seem to offer some sort of calm water. I made my way into the dry of the hut where a warming cup of tea was the order of the day before venturing out into the abyss! The golden peg was up for grabs and with it being won from this venue last year from one of the favoured end pegs. After everyone had arrived suitably dressed in various waterproofs, the draw was done for the golden peg. Peg 33 was drawn out of the hat, one of the favoured end pegs! A good chance with the conditions that it could go! I stuck my hand into the hat to draw for the peg for today, and pulled out peg 33! I made my way to my peg, along with the other hardy ( fools! ) souls and couldn't help thinking about the comfort of my nice warm bed, and now it was my intention to sit out in the wind and rain for 5 hours! I got to my peg and my thoughts turned to my peg, the golden peg! My first impressions was it looked nice despite the rain hitting off my face! I decided to put all my eggs into one basket and to fish down to my left next to the reeds, and to not bother fishing across to the island, my back was aching and I didn't fancy battling with the pole in the wind! Plumbing up I found that I had good depth next to the reeds at 9m, about 3 foot, not tight as there was some rubbish and roots there, about 18" from the reeds. I set two rigs up, nice and simple, one on yellow hollow which was 0.12 - 0.10 18 hook. And a green hollow which was 0.14 - 0.12 16 hook. Two rigs to cover the same line. Bait was nice and simple too, corn, some meat, and micros and 4mm pellets mixed. I was going to fish corn on the hook and feed a little corn and pellet mix through a toss pot.
The all in sounded, and I slipped a grain of corn on to the hook and a few into the toss pot before lowering the rig in, after a few seconds the float shot under and I lifted into a small carp of 1/2 lb. The bites and fish were coming thick and fast, most of the fish were on the small side, with the odd bigger specimen thrown in for good measure. I could see Dave catching on the other end peg flier and judging buy the elastic he had out he was catching fish of a bigger stamp than I was, the thing was I seemed to be catching a lot faster than him, I was just hoping it would be quick enough. About 3 hours had past and Mike came walking past on the way to a comfort brake, ( I think he wanted out of the rain for 5 minutes! ) He asked how I was getting on, and I said I had 60 fish, mostly still small. The wind and rain had not eased at all, in fact it seemed to be getting worse, the thing was my hands were getting that cold I was struggling to hook the bait and to unhook the fish. Going into the last quarter of the match and the bites were slowing down, so I put another section on, this seemed to do the trick as the fish had just backed of a bit. I was still getting plenty of bites, mostly small still. The all out came and I had 102 fish on the clicker, so putting all the effort into 1 swim had paid off, but would it be enough to beat Dave? At the scales I weighed in 121lb 8oz, a cracking weight and I was hoping it would be enough for the golden peg. Dave was next and he put 127lb odd on the scales! beating me into second, and the golden peg survives for another day! I don't think I did anything wrong as I caught plenty of fish, Just that Dave caught a better size stamp of fish than I did! On the whole we all had a good day's fishing despite the foul weather! De-robing and the rain had found it's way in slightly, and I was a bit damp in the nether regions! Along with most others! It will take a week to dry everything out! I must order some sun for next time!

Foxcotte Lake 23/01/ 2011

Foxcotte Lake from the top bank.


My first trip to Foxcotte for a while and I was looking forward to some roach fishing. The weather had been changeable the week before and with a few hard frosts the fishing could be tricky. I pulled 17 out of the hat and made my way there. With Nick for company on 16 hopefully there would be some fish in the area as Nick always draws on fish!





Peg 17 on the left with 16 in close proximity.



The water had a slight tinge to it, and whilst plumbing up I found a lot of weed in the peg and it was very difficult to find a clear area to fish. Nick on the other hand caught a fish on a bare hook, I knew he would have a load of fish in his peg! With so much weed in the area I decided to fore go any rods, and set up a couple of rigs on the pole. I found a small hole to fish in at 12m straight in front of me, and one at an angle to my left. I set up a 0.3 gram DS9 0.10 to 0.08 611-20 to a pink hollow, and a 0.4 gram DS9 0.12 to 0.10 611-18 to a yellow hollow. I also plumbed up next to the tree on my left at 6m. I decided to fish over groundbait in front of me and to put some chopped worm and caster in on the left angled swim. A 50/50 mix of black lake and match blend well riddled was the mix. I had worm, caster and maggot as bait. At the all in i cupped in three balls of groundbait with some caster in straight in front of me and half a pot of chopped worm each on the other 2 swims.
The first ten minutes were a bit of a disaster, with me faffing about, the float wasn't quite sitting correctly and I was putting on and taking shot off! I managed to settle down and hooked a couple of small roach. Nick was getting a few, with some netter roach in there for good measure. The bites were slow in coming and the weed was a problem, I did manage to catch another couple of fish when I decided to fetch a finer elastic out of the bag as the pink hollow was to heavy for the small roach that I was getting. I took off the rig from the pink hollow and put it onto a top set with 3 elastic. After I did that I couldn't get a bite! Swapping to the other lines didn't improve matters, with nothing forthcoming. I dropped a down to a finer hook and hook length but it didn't make a difference. A good hour and a half had passed before I caught another small roach. Nick was still getting a few but the whole lake seemed to be fishing hard with some anglers walking. I could see James catching steady on the sluice, and Buzz next to him catching the odd fish. I was struggling now with the weed, so when Nick went for a walk I fetched an on the drop rig out of the box and attached it to the 3 elastic, with the plan to fish above the weed.
I started pinging caster and maggot and kept lifting and dropping the rig in, this worked to a degree and I started to string a few fish together, only tiny but at least it was something. I would get a couple then it die for some time, it was difficult to keep them coming. I did this for the remainder of the match as it was the only way I could get a bite!

Hard work for not a lot.

The scales came round and I weighed a massive 1lb 2oz, 21 small fish, good enough though to take the section by double default! Nick had 2lb 8oz for third, and James and Buzz either side of the sluice were 1st and 2nd respectively, all in all a very hard day for all.

Greenridge Farm. 16/01/2011

Having not been out for a couple of weeks due to work/snow ice/ Christmas etc. I was looking forward to the match which was on lakes 3 & 4. I had heard that a few fish had been coming out in the regular Saturday matches, but it was patchy. Whilst taking my gear down to the lakes prior to the draw I managed to tread in some dog dirt, hmmm nice! Time would only tell if this was a good sign, or I was going to have "one of those days! ". At the draw I pulled out peg 36 on the middle of lake 4, not quite what I was hoping for as it is quite narrow and shallow. The end pegs had been quite kind to me on lake 4 in the past, and was hoping for a nice end peg! I did have the next best thing as peg 35 to my left hadn't been put in, so I had a nice margin to fish, if they were to come in.

I was going to fish three lines, tight across at 11.5m, down the middle at 6m, and to my left just before peg 35's platform. Whilst plumbing up I had forgotten how shallow it was and couldn't find much more than 2ft anywhere in the peg, actually it was pretty even, which made it easy as far as rigs would go. I set up 3 rigs, an image dibber on 0.10 to a barbless 611-20, to a pink hollow. A slightly heavier image dibber on 0.12 to a pr32-18, to a yellow hollow, and a heavy rig which was a Carpa cube on 0.14 to a 911-16, to a green hollow, for the margins. As the depths were similar I could use any of the rigs on any swim. I had corn, maggots, micro pellet and some 4mm expander's, At the all in I cupped a few grains of corn to my left into the margins, and half a small pole pot of micros and corn at 6m. I was going to feed the far swim with a toss pot. My intentions were to have a look on the corn first off, before switching to the maggot if the corn didn't work.

I slipped a grain of corn on the 0.12 rig and a few in the toss pot and had a look at the far bank swim, after 5 minutes the float dipped and the first small carp of a 1lb was heading it's way to the net, a good start, perhaps the dog pooh was a good omen! Ten minutes later and number 2 of a similar size to the first was in the net. Then almost instantly number 3 this time slightly bigger. Then nothing! For a good 20 minutes or so. Stu to my left on peg 34 had had a couple and Simon to my right on peg 37 had had one. I had a look on the 6m swim but there was no bites there to be had, so I went back to the far swim, this time on maggot. There was not sign on the far line except by small fish towing the bait about. By now Stu was fishing in the margins and almost instantly he had a lump on, I kept an eye on him whilst trying to get the far line to come back to life. Stu then had another couple of lumps out of the margins, so i fed the far line with some corn and micros and decided to have a go in the margins myself.

A few minutes had passed before the float wobbled before burying, and a nice fish of 2lb had graced my landing net, not the size of fish Stu was catching, but welcome none the less. I had a few more reasonably sized fish, before I hooked one of Stu's lumps, which I promptly lost underneath the platform! This sort of killed my margins for a bit, I so re-fed and went back over to the far line. Stu was still getting the odd lump in the margins, and by now was well in front on the lake, and as far as I could tell I was second. Back out onto the far swim with corn and a small dip in the float resulted in a 1lb carp. Another couple followed before it died again. Back onto the margin line, again a small carp of a 1lb or so, followed by another couple, again nothing like the size Stu was catching! After having a look on the 6m swim, again with no bites, I went back onto the far line. After a bit the float dipped and I hooked into a fish of a decent size, I played it carefully across the lake before messing about to much and it dived under my net and I lost it ! Total Clampetry! The two best fish hooked and both of them lost!

The last 45 minutes of the match and swapping from the margins to the far line kept some fish coming, nothing big and not frequently enough to catch up Stu. At the all out I had 18 carp, not to bad, I think I had more fish than anyone on the lake but they were all of the small size! The scales came round and I weighed 29lb 14oz good enough for second on the lake and another nice pick up, Stu Weighed 52lb lump fishing, I think I cleared the small fish out of the way for him! Now where's that DVD on catching big fish....!

Upper Thames Winter League Final Round. ESKIMO FISHING! 05/12/10

The final round of the Upper Thames Winter League on The Kennet & Avon Canal at Devizes had come around, after some heavy snow the previous week and some severe frosts prospects looked hard for the match. Whist the snow had gone, several days of brutal frosts were going to make conditions and fishing very tricky. At the draw the team was on peg 2, and I was on b2 on a section up at Allington. I had not fished this bit before so new territory for me. After a long walk to the canal, I was greeted with a frozen canal and the prospect of an ice braking session, whilst I knew it would be frozen, I just didn't realize quite how thick it would be. My section was split either side of a swing bridge, with B1,2,3 one side and 4,5,6,7 the other. I got to my peg and dug the ice breaker out of the carryall. The first three chucks with the ice breaker did not go well, bouncing across the surface of the ice! After a few expletives about how thick the ice must be, I started attacking it from the edge first.

After 10 minutes of furiously swinging the ice breaker over my head I finally managed to break through, the ice was 3-4 inches thick! This was going to turn into a mammoth ice breaking session, one way of working off your breakfast and keeping warm! It was extremely hard and exhausting work chipping away at it, after 2 hours and the match due to start and a couple of huge blisters on my hands, I had managed to break to a distance of 6 meters, that would have to do! Talking to Simon from Blackmore vale next door he arrived at the same conclusion! A few minutes with the net to clear all the broken ice and I was ready to set up! I had just put my box in position when someone shouted the all in, hmm I was going to be a bit late in starting fishing! I set up 2 rigs, both 0.9 to 0.7 on 1-2 elastics, one had a 511-22 and one a 511-24, plus some finer hook lengths should they be needed. Whilst I was setting up the ice was forming in the hole I had just created, and had to swirl the pole cupping kit to keep it ice free. I was going to fish at 5m, and at 6m, as far as I had broken. I did touch the ice with one of my rigs whilst setting up, and there it stayed glued to the ice! ( note to self don't touch the ice with your rigs! )

Just before 11 o'clock and I was ready to fish, I cupped in some punch crumb on the two lines, hopefully I would get a few on the punch. I kept alternating between the two lines but nothing, not even an indication, no one had caught to my right either, but the guy to my left had 2 small perch. After 45 minutes the float moved sideways slightly, I lifted and felt resistance, I carefully played it and slipped the net under a 2oz skimmer, phew! I hadn't blanked! Back out on the punch but no more bites, so I decided to turn the 6m swim into a worm line, as the chap to my left had another small perch. I chopped up a lobby and a few dendrabena and included a pinch of squatt and minced it up. I fed this, and had another cat ice clearing session, which was forming every few minutes. Out with a squatt on the hook, after a few minutes the float buried but I missed it! I wasn't quite expecting such a positive bite! Back out again with squatt and the float dipped, this time I hooked it, it turned out to be a netter roach, as far as I could tell I was doing well! No more bites for twenty minutes or so, time for a re-feed. Again a lobby, a few dendra and a pinch of squatt minced up.

After a phone call from Dave Tucker using Kieth's phone, ( cheapskate! ) I went back out on the squatt, the float dipped again and another nice netter roach, I was beating the guys around me as Simon was still blanking and the guy to my left was only catching the odd tiny perch. The ice was forming quicker now and keeping my hole clear was becoming a problem. I had a few small roach and a tiny perch, then the bites slowed. Another re-feed again not to much, buy now it was 2.30pm. It was getting colder buy the minute, and so was I. After 10 minutes or so after the feed the fish had switched on, catching tiny roach with the odd bigger one thrown in, even missing a few bites. I was catching well when the all out came even catching a few on flouro pinkie. Simon blanked next door and I knew I had beaten the guy to my left, just had to wait for the scales to see how the other side of the bridge had done. Following the scales the ice the other side of the bridge was a lot thinner, at the weigh in I put 2lb 1oz on the scales, this was made up of 23 fish, for 3rd in section, not to bad a day after all.

Back at the pub for the results, the team had done it! Second on the day with 50 points, and winning the league! A superb result for the whole squad. A nice trophy and medals for the squad, and an individual champion in the guise of Stu Dabbs. A hard day for everyone but a thoroughly enjoyable one for every body, and a semi final to look forward to at Gold Valley in March, lets hope it's warmer!

Round 5 Upper Thames Winter League 21/11/2010

No post for a bit due to not going fishing, ( circumstances beyond my control ) sorry about that but normal service is now resumed! You can tell I haven't blogged for a bit because I keep forgetting to take the camera! Oops! Words will just have to paint the pictures for me! ( I hope I don't bore you to tears! ) Having walked the bank last week, and with Andover still leading the league, I was looking forward to it especially having not going out for a bit. The canal around Bedwyn had fished well the previous round, with some good weights, just a couple of sections seemed to be fishing hard. I had prepped my gear, tied numerous rigs, and loads of hook lengths, all systems go.
At the draw Barry had pulled peg 4, all the team on 4 just different sections, A4, B4 etc. I had F4, in a section known as the Beeches, it had fished well the previous week, with the winner coming from this section, catching some sizable perch, and with good back up weights of small fish. When I got to my peg I was next door to the match winning peg from the previous round, I had reeds at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock on the far bank, with a gap in between that went back to metal piling's. Info from the John who was in this section last week was that it would be a fish race, apart from the end peg flier. Plumbing up I found no depth at the piling's, I had 18" at the reeds at 2 o'clock and 2ft at the 10 o'clock reed swim, both theses swims were at 14.5m. These 2 swims I was going to fish positively with chopped worm and caster, hoping that some of the big perch in the area would make an appearance! I set up an Image dibber on 0.10 straight through to a 611-16,to a nice soft pink hollow elastic. I had two other swims, one at 5m in front of me which was for the punch, a Garbolino 0.4 gram DS9, 0.9 to 0.7, 511-22 to a 1-2 elastic, and a squatt and ground bait line at 11.5m at 10 o'clock so to speak, a 0.3 gram Preston classic, 0.9 to 0.7 511-22, to a 3 elastic.
At the all in I fed a small pot of liquidized bread at 5m, 3 balls of ground bait laced with squatt and a few caster at 11.5m and both the two reed swims got half a pot of chopped worm and caster, I was going to have regular looks on the reed swims all day so I decided to feed it from the off. In on the punch line, bites straight away from small roach, but it was not as quick as I was hoping, a couple of bites and then nothing for a few minutes, I soon realized what the problem was when I had strike from a pike! After a few bite less minutes I re-fed and left it, by this time either side of me were catching a lot quicker than I was. A quick look on the reed swims produced a couple of small perch, so I fed those again and went onto the squatt line. This proved to be crucial as I started catching very quickly, catching up the two anglers either side, I was loose feeding squatt regularly and getting a bite a chuck. After 45minutes I fed a small ball of ground bait and had a quick look on the other lines.
I had a look on the 5m punch line, whilst I had a few fish it was nowhere near as quick as the squatt line, even so I kept feeding just in case that pike showed up on the squatt line! Over to the reed swims, I had half a dozen 2 oz perch, before it went quiet, not the size I was hoping for but not to be sniffed at. I re-fed these 2 swims and went back onto the 11.5m squatt line. The squatt line was still fishing well and I caught regularly for the next hour before this slowed a little, I gave it a couple more balls of ground bait before having a look at the reed swims. Just over half the match had gone and I was doing ok, I think I was still behind those either side of me but only just. First put in on the 10 o'clock reed swim resulted in a small perch, I shipped back out with another half a worm on and the float buried, and this time I was met with something a lot bigger. Playing it carefully I slipped the net under a perch of just over the pound, back out again and the next bite resulted in a perch of similar size, it is funny how they come along in two's! The chap to my right had just landed a big perch to, I was now well up in the section, only a couple of small perch off the other reed swim so I re-fed and went back onto the squatt line.
I was still getting regular bites off the squatt line, putting a few fish in the net, I kept having regular looks on the reed swims but this only resulted in small perch, I kept feeding hoping for another couple of big uns! The chap to my right had another couple of big perch, putting me second in section as far as I could tell. I kept swapping between the squatt line and the two reed swims for the rest of the match, a minute before the all out I hooked a lump on the squatt line, I played it carefully shouting fish on at the whistle, a couple of minutes later I finally saw it, a 5lb Pike, I was hoping for another big perch! I pulled for a break and that was that. At the scales I weighed in 8lb 11oz for second in section, very pleasing for my first match for a while. The chap to my right won the section and finished second overall, the peg is the proverbial flier! Another great team performance saw us third in the match, still first in the league overall with one round left, looking good!

Greenridge Farm MCC 1. 13/06/10

Lake 1 at Greenridge.


Greenridge Farm's lakes 1&2 was the venue for the first of Andover's MCC matches, the weather was warm and I was hoping for a better day than I had at Greenridge a couple of weeks earlier. At the draw I didn't really fancy the middle of lake 1, as it is not a noted "flier" area, unfortunately I pulled peg 5 ! Smack bang in the middle of lake 1 ! When I got to my peg I had an empty peg either side of me, which hopefully would aid me . The water in the lake seemed to be down a bit, which would make fishing the margins tricky as they would be very shallow.



Peg 5.


I set up two rigs tight across at 14.5m, one on the deck but as the lake was down a bit, I only managed to find about 18 inches of water, both rigs were KC carpa cubes on 0.16 to 911-16, one set at depth and one at half depth, both were attached to green hollow Garbolino elastic. The next line was at 5-6 meters, at the bottom of the near slope, I decided to plumb here as the margins were shallow and I felt that the fish wouldn't come in to the inside. This was a 0.3 gram DC6 0.16 911-14 to Orange garbolino. I did set up a rig for the margins either side of me, this was a 0.2 gram durafloat on 0.18 to 911-14 to orange Garbolino, it was a similar depth to that across, although I am happy to fish in that across I felt it would be to shallow for the margins to work well, if they did move in I would see them as they would certainly stir the bottom up. On the bait table I had three pints of caster, two of maggots and corn, the caster was mainly for across and in the margins, the maggot would also be loose fed in the margins and the corn was for the 5m swim. At the all in I fed half a pot of corn on the 5m line, and half a pot of caster and maggot on the two margin swims. I went across on the depth rig with caster on the hook and a toss pot full of caster, it took about 15minutes and a few tosspots later before I had my first fish, it wasn't that big but it did give me a scrap. A few minutes past before I had another bite, this time I lost it at the net, not a brilliant start but Greenridge is notorious for starting slow, although Paul in peg 3 was catching the odd one or two, I could see fish milling about against the far bank in his swim and not in mine, which was a bit ominous. I could see most of the lake and no one else was doing allot so I wasn't to perturbed. About an hour had past and no more bites so I picked up the catapult and stated to ping in the caster at the far bank, a couple of foul hooked fish later was enough to convince me to use the shallow rig, this resulted in a couple of good size carp. In the mean time I was loose feeding the 5m with corn every few minutes, and the margins with caster and maggots. One more fish on the far side on the shallow rig and that was it for the far swim it died completely. Half way through the match and as far as I could tell I second behind Paul who was beginning to empty his peg, and not content with catching fish he catches a terrapin as well! After having a look in the margins, which resulted in no bites I switched to the 5m line. Slipping a couple of grains of corn on to the hook and dropping the rig in resulted in an instant bite, which I missed. Out again this time a foul hooker which I pulled out of. I knew there were a few fish on the 5m line and I couldn't work out the best way to feed for a proper bite. After a couple of missed bites I finally hooked one in the mouth, a good sized fish of 5lb. I decided to feed the peg with just 6 grains of corn in the toss pot, and not feed again until I hooked one properly. I was still missing good bites and foul hooking a few but I was beginning to hook a few more properly, which was building the weight slowly. Into the last hour and I could see fish being caught further up the lake. I carried on catching, missing bites and foul hooking fish until the all out. It was clear that Paul had easily won the lake, but I wasn't sure how I had done against the rest of the field. In the end I weighed in 36lb 10oz. good enough for 3rd on the lake, not to bad but to many missed bites and foul hooked fish had cost me, but that's fishing!


My 36lb 10oz. catch.