Sunday 21 December 2014

21 December 2014, Richardson's Lake (Marsh Farm)

After a record breaking eight weekends in a row without fishing it was about time I got back on the bank – and what better way to do so than with the highlight of the season that is the Godalming Angling Society Christmas match!!!

3 blanks and 2 victories in the last 5 years

My record in this match over the last five years reads: 2009 blank, 2010 blank, 2011 winner, 2012 winner, 2013 blank so I went into today’s match knowing that a conclusive result was almost certainly on the cards! In all fairness a lot of people expect to finish this match with a dry net but some great prizes and a raffle in the pub after the match normally guarantees a good turn-out – today’s event saw 36 keen anglers grace the bank of Richardson’s Lake at Marsh Farm, the match having been moved from the River Wey due to some heavy rain during the week.

Not the number I wanted to see!!!

Marsh Farm is a decent enough venue, but the nature of the stocking means that it only really fishes properly from late spring through to early autumn. At this time of year very few anglers fish here, and those that do tend to sit on the single digit pegs opposite the car park/tackle shop at the entrance to the venue and to a certain extent create a virtuous circle between themselves and the fish.

In complete contrast the pegs at the far side of the venue don’t normally see an angler for months and as a result are devoid of feeding fish! As a result I inserted my hand into the bag of dreams looking for a nice low number – so you can imagine my feeling of doom when 31 stuck to it! (This peg is in the middle of ‘Cyanide Straight’, two along from where I (and the rest of the section) blanked last year.) To say I wasn’t happy was the understatement of the year!!!

Like a mill pond ...

Despite stating otherwise after the draw I did actually go to the peg and was pleasantly surprised to find that compared to the rest of the venue the Johnson’s bank was very sheltered – whereas it was blowing a gale on the rest of the venue, the pegs in the 30s were like a mill pond. The fish at Marsh Farm famously follow the wind in the summer, so perhaps the polar opposite would be true in the winter?

Before the all in I set up two rods – a 1/3 ounce straight lead with an 18 inch tail of 0.13 Guru N-Gauge into a size 20 LWG and a 3g loaded insert waggler with a similar 20cm hooklength (down the line I just had a tiny micro swivel and tow number 9 stotz). The intention was to ping a few white maggots towards (but not tight to) the far bank and to rotate between the waggler and bomb in the unlikely anticipation of avoiding yet another blank!!!

Sensible gear for the tip and waggler

Just before the 10 o’clock I dived into my bag for my phone and took a few quick photos of the peg – in doing so my battery went from fully charged to empty in a matter of seconds. I was now faced with the prospect of blanking and not even having Facebook to keep myself amused – shocker!!!

On the whistle I fed a few maggots and flicked out the waggler – I repeated the process every few minutes and before I knew it 45 minutes had passed without so much as the faintest dip of the float. However, even though I was feeding towards the far bank, on a couple of occasions I’d thought I seen a little dimpling down the middle. With nothing to lose I reeled my waggler to the midpoint of my peg – and it only went under! I can honestly say I’ve never been so happy to slip the net under a rather emaciated two ounce skimmer in my entire life!!!

Looking to the left from peg 31

Thinking it must’ve been a one-off I tried the trick again – and the float dipped for a second time! As the spot I was dropping on to was only about 12/13m out I decided to abandon the waggler and hastily set-up the pole. Whilst doing so I decided to flick my straight lead rig with a single maggot onto the area that I had been feeding – yes, you’ve guessed it, whilst I was putting my seventh section into the sixth the tip flew ‘round and am unexpected 2lb skimmer was soon in the onion bag!

To make things even better the first two casts on the pole saw two more 2lb skimmers in the net (one might’ve been foul-hooked in the fin but keep that to yourself) and things were getting serious!!! (The pole rig in question consisted of a 0.2g SconeZone v8 shot with 5 number 10 stotz on 0.11 main line to a hooklength of 0.10 with a size 22 Tubertini 808. Elastic was yellow Hydro.)

The SconeZone v8

Following this frantic action things did slow a little with only small roach, hybrids and skimmers falling to the pole – however given the time of year it was nice to be getting (fairly) regular bites. In an attempt to keep pace with Brian Stevens on peg 33 (who was absolutely motoring with a constant stream of big skimmers) I kept trying the tip – I did manage another big skimmer on the bomb and 6mm pellet, plus another smaller one on the pellet feeder – but with 45 minutes to go I decided not to gamble and sit it out for big fish but stuck to catching small fish on the pole in an effort to consolidate a place in the frame.

All the gear ...

In the end my fish went an unexpected 15-4-0, good enough for third overall behind Brian’s whopping thirty plus pounds and Chris Kampa’s excellent 18-13-0.

Top 6:
  1. Brian Stevens, 31-4-0
  2. Chris Kampa, 18-13-0
  3. Phil Morris, 15-4-0
  4. Dave Woolgar, 9-5-0
  5. Ray Carter, 8-0-0
  6. Nigel Calverley, 7-12-0

Interestingly all of the anglers in section where I had wanted to draw blanked apart from John Wilkins who managed a solitary fish – just goes to show what I know!!!

The Team Bagger AGM

Conclusions: The obvious point I have to make here is that fish do have fins and the pegs that the so-called ‘venue experts’ think are the fliers aren’t the best pegs every day – though having said that I’m looking forward to sitting on Twin Oaks 16 a couple of times next year!!!

Until next time ...


Sunday 19 October 2014

19 October 2014, Richardson's Lake (Marsh Farm)

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Sunday 5 October 2014

05 October 2014, Richardson's Lake (Marsh Farm)

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Saturday 4 October 2014

04 October 2014, Gold Lake (Gold Valley)

My first visit to Gold Valley since April and a very successful one too! The match itself was an invitational event organised by local legend and matchangler.com head honcho Dave Johnson for a number of German and Dutch anglers visiting Gold Valley for a taste of British commercial style fishing - they'd spent the previous day being coached by England international Will Raison and had apparently bagged some typical Gold Valley munters on the pellet waggler and down the edge later in the day. As well as our fellow Europeans the match also included some top UK anglers in the form of Will Raison himself, Claire (Bagger) Hollis, Ian (Dicko) Dixon and co-inventor of Hydrolastic Micky Hughes!!!

Peg 17 is opposite the tiny island

My draw saw me on peg 17 on Gold Lake - this is pretty much in the middle of the canal bank and slightly to the left of a small island that is situated halfway to the rope. (Interestingly Gold Lake is essentially a rectangular expanse of open water with only three randomly spaced islands the only visible features.) I'd actually hoped to draw an open water swim so I could focus on the pellet waggler so I was slightly disappointed to draw an island swim - however in my experience it normally doesn't pay to ignore an obvious feature if you are presented with one!

As ever, robust gear for big carps!

Before the all-in I set-up 3 rods - pellet waggler, straight lead and pellet feeder - the basic plan being to fish the pellet feeder to the island and the pellet waggler/straight lead into open water at 25m slightly to the left where I would be feeding 8mm pellets pretty heavily. As ever I'd be using robust gear - 0.22 Guru N-Gauge hooklengths on the straight lead/pellet feeder and 0.19 on the pellet waggler, coupled with 8 and 6lb Daiwa Sensor mainlines.

Trusty pellet feeders!

As the island was a little to my right and essentially a sharp rectangular shape parallel to my bank I had access to both it's near and far sides - I started the match fishing to the near side with my small, 30g Preston Innovations pellet feeder and second cast a reasonable carp picked-up my 6mm hookbait that was immediately impaled on the size 16 QM1 it was hair-rigged to via pellet band. Even though I was off to a decent start the first hour on the pellet feeder flattered to deceive and ended with only 3 carp in the net for no more than 15 pounds.

No bites on the straight lead today

During that first hour I'd been pinging 8mm pellets into the open water to my left at about 25m via my trusty catapult whilst waiting for the tip to wang 'round, so as the island swim was less than hectic I decided to give both the straight lead and the pellet waggler a bash. Given the cool, showery conditions it was little surprise that the pellet waggler didn't fire but I was rather concerned when half an hour on the straight lead yielded nothing either. A switch to the pellet feeder over this line did lead to a few bites however, and by the end of the second hour I'd added another small carp and about 8 pounds of not very big skimmers to my tally.

Yours truly and Mr William Raison

Given the size of the skimmers and the lack of any real carp action from the open water swim I switched back to the island at the start of the third hour. By once again casting to the near side I was soon into a run of 3 or 4 carp on the bounce - however this soon dried-up and when a return to the open water swim returned nothing I was starting to get a little worried that I was going anywhere fast!

Luckily the turning point in my match was just around the corner and came when I started casting slightly beyond the back of the island. This basically led to a bite a chuck and my only challenge was ensuring that any hooked carp swam away from the island into the open water and not further around the back of the island across a rather sharp underwater obstacle - I did so by standing-up on my footplate, holding my rod above my head and praying during the initial stages of each battle! Most of the time this worked well, but I did lose the lot 3 times - not that I'm tight, but those pellet feeders are £2 a pop!!!

Brown envelope time!

Luckily come the end of the match my 128-8-0 was enough to clinch victory from Gold Valley regular Malcolm Bond by about 15 pounds - though it had to be said he did have something like 79-8-0 in one of his nets so was mighty close to falling foul of the strictly enforced 80 pounds net limit and finding himself DQed!

Until next time ...




Sunday 28 September 2014

28 September 2014, Richardson's Lake (Marsh Farm)

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Sunday 14 September 2014

14 September 2014, Richardson's Lake (Marsh Farm)

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Sunday 24 August 2014

24 August 2014, Busbridge (Godalming AS)

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Sunday 17 August 2014

17 August 2014, Pond 3 (MBK Coloured Ponds)

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Sunday 10 August 2014

10 August 2014, Busbridge (Godalming AS)

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Sunday 3 August 2014

03 August 2014, Richardson's Lake (Marsh Farm)

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Sunday 27 July 2014

27 July 2014, Richardson's Lake (Marsh Farm)

Regular followers of this blog will know that Marsh Farm (near Milford in Surrey) is very much my home venue. It is about a 15 minute drive from my house and it has all of the amenities we come to expect from a modern commercial fishery – a decent tackle shop, toilets, secure car parking and easy access to every peg. However at times the fishing can be hard and the place can seem devoid of fish – in fact on my previous visit to Marsh Farm (in early June) I blanked!!! (To make matters worse I was hammered off the next peg by Dave Johnson who smashed-out a couple of roach and a jammy skimmer for a good pound or so!!!)

Team captains queuing for the draw

Having said that there have been some good match weights recently, especially in the Wednesday opens and the Friday evening Apollomania – the most recent of which was won with nearly 90lb. However individual glory wasn’t the aim today as this match was the first of the 2014 Godalming AS Teams of Four series – so for Team Bagger (Claire Hollis, Dave Woolgar, Sam Beswick and myself) the aim of the game would be those all important section points …

Looking left from peg 7 on Richardson’s Lake



Those of you who are familiar with my Picasso-esque drawing abilities will not be in the least bit surprised to hear that I managed to draw the very peg from which Russ Berryman won the most recent Wednesday open with a whopping (for Marsh Farm) 88-10-0!!! This was peg 7 on Richardson’s Lake – a pretty decent looking swim, fairly close to the tackle shop with the usual central island at about 22m with a nice set of overhanging trees.

The Guru pellet feeder

As per usual my main plan of attack would centre on the pellet feeder fished towards the overhanging trees rooted on the central island. In fact my swim had a nice little gap slightly to my left that would allow me to cast pretty tight to the island and inside the typical line of overhanging trees – hopefully right on the patrol route of any fish circling the margin of the island.

However, rather than using my usual Preston Innovations pellet feeder I was giving the 24g Guru equivalent a first go today – the Guru pellet feeder is by no means a new bit of kit but for one reason or another I’ve never gotten around to trying them. On the surface the stem and the front loading of the main weight should provide better stability and accuracy – but the proof of the pudding is in the eating after all!!!

In order to complement the feeder approach I also set-up a pole rig for fishing 4mm expander pellets over micros on a top kit plus 4 sections – this rig consisted of a 0.2g SconeZone V8 on 0.11 main line to a 15cm hooklength of 0.10 with a size 20 Tubertini 808. Elastic was pink Hydro.

Looking right from peg 7 on Richardson’s Lake

I started the match by feeding a pinch of micro pellets on my pole line and then casting my loaded pellet feeder into the gap between the trees on the far bank. No signs during the first few casts but it wasn’t long before a few tell-tale liners started to appear and before I knew it the first tench of the day had caused my tip rod to double over!!!

All-in-all the first hour and fifteen minutes of the match progressed nicely and by eleven fifteen I had a total of seven tench, one crucian and one nice skimmer in the net – but even though I had 9 fish in the net the tench were of the smaller stamp found in this lake so my clicker had only clicked onto 14lb.

All of these fish fell to a hard, 6mm pellet on the hook (hair) – I did try my new favourite Bait-Tech Micro Pop-ups a couple of times but no pulls were forthcoming. Interestingly a number of the tench nearly pulled the rod in as I was sinking the line – this is very unusual behaviour for Marsh Farm where bite time is typically between 2 and 4 minutes after casting in. (Was this down to the change of pellet feeder? Do the Guru feeders discharge much quicker than the Preston ones? Looking at the design of the Guru pellet feeder there are certainly more gaps in the body of the feeder for water to be able to push the pellets out quicker so this is certainly possible.)

The SconeZone V8 0.2g, perfect for Marsh Farm

The next two hours (i.e. from 1115 to 1315) also went pretty well and I was able to click another 21lb on my clicker – the feeder line started to falter and I was only able to add a further four tench (which interestingly came along as ‘two in two chucks’ twice), but the pole line proved a useful back-up and contributed a further 10/12lb of skimmers, crucians and two bonus tench that gave a good account of themselves on light gear.

At this point I must add that (not for the first time this season) I had my feeder rod dragged into the lake by an angry fish! Luckily this time the rod dropped onto the top of my keepnets about 4 feet from the bank so I was easily able to jump in the water and retrieve my rod (and land the fish) – though I did spend the remainder of the match with wet feet and boots full of lake water!!!

Would my mid-week tackle preparation be worth it?

As is often the case the final two hours or so of today’s match seemed tortuously slow – things weren’t helped by the weather ‘improving’, with the sun coming-out and the wind dropping completely to leave the surface of the lake resembling a mirror. However I managed to winkle-out a few more fish on the pole and a couple on the tip – including a nice tench in the last five minutes after the feeder had been in the water for precisely 14 minutes and 37 seconds!!!

(During these final few hours I did open a new pole line at TK+4 to the right and I tried dropping the feeder at different spots along the tree line, but neither led to any bites/fish.)

Those all important results

In the end that last gasp tench had pushed me up to a total of 43-15-0, often a weight good enough to win such a match but not today as it was only good enough for second overall (and second in section) as Darren Dodge on peg 9 had managed to fish a brilliant match a drop an amazing 75lb plus onto the scales!

Team result:
  1. Matchangler.com, 6 points
  2. Brian's Bandits, 14 points
  3. Chertsey Bait, 16 points
  4. Guildford Angling Centre, 17 points
  5. Team Bagger, 17 points
  6. Buster's Bandits, 20 points
  7. Trev's Tornadoes, 22 points

Top 3 individuals:
  1. Darren Dodge (Matchangler.com), 75-10-0
  2. Phil Morris (Team Bagger), 43-15-0,
  3. Ian Dixon (Matchangler.com), 43-12-0

Section winners:
  • Darren Dodge (Matchangler.com), 75-10-0
  • Alan Chadbone (Chertsey Bait), 31-4-0,
  • Ian Dixon (Matchangler.com), 43-12-0
  • Claire Hollis (Team Bagger), 31-9-0

As you can see Matchangler.com started where they left-off last year and won the team event with a brilliant 6 points (2 section wins and 2 seconds) from Brian’s Bandits in second on 14 points. Team Bagger had mixed fortunes – Bagger did well to win her section (and beat the legend that is Dave ‘Johno’ Johnson off the next peg in the process), but unfortunately Dave and Sam struggled leaving us on 17 points.

Guru pellet feeders – not new, but very impressive!

Conclusions: a pretty typical Marsh Farm match really! The headline plan of looking to catch the bulk of my weight on the pellet feeder backed-up with a few on the pole is still working well, though as ever the latter part of the match was a struggle. Tackle-wise the Guru pellet feeder certainly worked well and it is a distinct possibility that they will replace the Preston version as my weapon of choice!!!

Until next time ...


Sunday 20 July 2014

20 July 2014, Match Lake (Sumners Ponds)

Following a two week stint at White Acres today was to be my first match in over three weeks. That previous match was on the Cornish bagging Mecca that will be forever Bolingey and today’s was on the West Sussex equivalent – the mighty Match Lake at Sumners Ponds, home to some proper big fishes!!!

Welcome to Sumners Ponds …

My one and only previous visit to Sumners Ponds was back in September 2013 – incredible really as this venue is actually closer to home than venues such as Gold Valley and Willow Park. That day saw me draw an end peg flyer (for a change) and win the match with a personal best 189-2-0 – and to think that when I started fishing on the upper Thames all those years ago 20lb seemed an unreachable target. How times have changed, eh?

Looking through the gap in the islands to the far bank



Today’s match was a combined Woking DAA and Godalming AS affair and hence saw a decent turn-out of roughly 30 anglers – talk before the match was that this would be too many and would impact the quality of the fishing. Anyway, my draw saw me on peg 8 (on the day, no permanent pegs at this venue), sited on the near side of the lake (to the car park) and was on the far end of the first island with a nice gap between the two islands slightly to my right. The peg looked fishy and an absolute nightmare in equal proportions – there was a nice bare bank of an island to chuck to but there were also two fallen trees lying in the water, a recipe for disaster when you could be dancing the tango with twenty pound carp!!!

Plenty of SconeZone V6s tied and ready to go!!!

Prior to the all-in I primed one of my 10’ tip rods with 8lb Daiwa Sensor main line and a small, 30g Preston Innovations pellet feeder for fishing to the island – hooklengths were 4” of 0.22 Guru N-Gauge with either size 14 or size 16 QM1s with a hair-rigged pellet band. My other tip rod was set-up with a 1/3 of an ounce Guru square bomb and 12” of 0.22 Guru N-Gauge with a size 14 QM1 and a hair-rigged pellet band for fishing the bomb & pellet into the gap between the islands.

I also set-up two margin rigs, both consisting of 0.3g SconeZone V6s on 0.22 line direct to a size 12 Guru MWG and red Hydro – one for fishing in 12” of water in the cut-back to my right, the other for fishing tight to the bank to my left where the depth was about 18”.

Bait was essentially some soaked 2mm pellets and a variety of hookbaits for the feeder, 8mm pellets for loose feeding over the straight lead and a combination of Sonubaits Supercrush Green groundbait, dead red maggots and worms for the edge.

Looking along the island to my left

I started the match (which itself was rescheduled to 1030 to 1630 due an incident involving match organiser Stuart’s car and the AA) by casting my pellet feeder fairly tight (2’) from bank of the island directly in front. A few iffy liners were followed by a couple of proper pulls from small tench and crucians, before the inevitable happened and the first proper carp of the day swam straight into the tree in the water to my left and shed the hook.

This seemed to kill the island line stone dead and a switch to the bomb & pellet saw loads of fizzing but no proper bites, so with half an hour gone I was fearing the worst! A return to the island line was also fruitless – however after a while I figured out (due to the lack of a discernible drop between the feeder hitting the water and the bottom of the lake) that the water tight to the island was probably less than 12” deep. With nothing to lose I took five turns out of the clip and cast short of the island – this looked awful but led to a run of fish (not big carp but some decent tench, crucians and chub) meaning that by the end of the first hour I’d clicked my clicker round to 22lb so at least I was up and running.

Just as I was figuring that 22lb an hour for 6 hours with a bumper last hour would put me on 150lb and a match win the peg died a death once again and by the end of the second hour I’d only clicked up to 24lb – don’t you just love it when that happens?!?

The KC Carpa Force

The third hour was equally as poor, the only reassuring factor being that the whole lake seemed to have switched off as everybody else seemed to be moaning and walking about!!! By this point I have to admit I was becoming pretty frustrated and was seriously thinking about giving-up fishing and trying my hand at golf so I decided to stop fishing and give my gear and bait a bit of a tidy-up – this may seem a little OCD but when things are going badly I find it better to actually stop fishing for a while and have a proper think about what to do next.

The plan I came-up with was to consciously not start fishing down the edge for as long as possible (not before two thirty, if possible not until 3 o’clock) and to swap between a new line at 5m with hard pellets and the odd chuck on the feed to the island until then. To this end I set-up a KC Carpa Force 4x12 on 0.19 Guru N-Gauge to a 15cm hooklength of 0.17 with a size 16 MWG and a hair-rigged pellet band (with purple Hydro) for fishing 8mm pellets on the deck at top kit plus 2 slightly to the left.

This led to a couple of decent carp and a big (4lb) tench virtually straight away before foul-hookers became an issue – I foul-hooked two, one of which fell-off pretty quickly but somehow I managed to land the other even though it was hooked halfway along its flank! In order to try and get around the foul-hooking problem I dropped the pellet feeder over the 5m line and less than ten seconds later I was attached to another decent (8lb) carp that found its way swiftly into the net. Once again this proved to be a false dawn and I didn’t manage another bite on the 5m line (either on the pole of pellet feeder) during the match.

However those fish from the 5m line and a few more tench, crucians and chub from the island swim saw me finish the fourth hour with about 55lb and a sniff of a chance going into the final two hours.

An inviting looking cut-back to my right, but very shallow

By two forty-five I could wait no longer and fed four full 250ml cups of groundbait into the margin to my right – as noted above this area was essentially a cutback into the main bank, but was only 12” deep. However in my experience big carp are more than happy to feed in such shallow water if the fancy takes them and at the back of my mind I knew this could be a match winning line if it went off properly! So rather than fishing another line to allow the groundbait to settle I decided to go straight in with two full dendrabenas and ten seconds later a huge carp cruised into the swim – I could see every scale as it came in with its back virtually breaking the surface!!!

Fortunately it headed straight for my bait and the float shot under – game-on!!! The fish was quickly subdued (I wasn’t fishing for roach on 0.22 straight through to red Hydro after all) and safely in the net – there is a rule at Sumners Ponds that you have to weigh and return ‘big’ fish straight away so that was a nice 15-13-0 on the board in a matter of minutes!!!

Despite feeding more and the sight of some churning this was to be the only fish from this line – though I did manage three smaller specimens from a new margin line opened tight to the back in slightly deeper water to my left. Unfortunately I spent too much time in the margins without the response I was hoping for – though it is very tempting when any minute a 15 or 20 pounder can come along.

Fortunately a spell on the feeder to the island with about half an hour to go saw a good run of tench and chub hit the net – though my match ended badly when another decent carp ran straight into the sunk tree to and snapped me up!!!

The scores on the doors …

After what had seemed a rather disappointing and frustrating match, my two weighs (and the 15-13-0 of margin munter already on the board) totalled a surprising 97-5-0 – one fish away from the magic ton, within touching distance of second overall (well, kind of) but miles behind the winner Billy Marchant two pegs to my left!!!

Top 4:
  1. Bill Marchant (Woking DAA), 173-5-0
  2. Andy Love (W), 130-14-0
  3. Dave Steer (W), 125-1-0
  4. Nick Stunt (W), 123-11-0

Section winners:
  • Stuart Kendall (W), 70-7-0
  • Phil Morris (Godalming AS), 97-5-0
  • Trevor Haskell (G), 81-13-0
  • Claire Hollis (G), 86-0-0

Well done to the Woking boys on taking a clean sweep of the podium places and to Bagger for keeping up her good form!!!

The Match Lake at Sumners Ponds


Conclusions: after a couple of weeks off it was nice to be back on the bank again and what was on the surface a frustrating match saw nearly 100lb in the net so it couldn’t of been that bad. With hindsight I’d have ignored the bomb & pellet between the islands and have only fished the margin in brief spells (after all when they are there in the margin the spot goes under more or less immediately). Plus I should’ve tried paste made from 11 year old pellets on the pole at 6 or 7m – after all that was what Billy Marchant caught all of his fish on!!!

Until next time ...


Friday 27 June 2014

27 June 2014, Bolingey (White Acres)

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Thursday 26 June 2014

26 June 2014, Jenny's Lake (White Acres)

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Monday 23 June 2014

23 June 2014, Pollawyn (White Acres)

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Friday 20 June 2014

20 June 2014, Bolingey (White Acres)

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Thursday 19 June 2014

19 June 2014, Trelawney (White Acres)

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Monday 16 June 2014

16 June 2014, Trelawney (White Acres)

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Sunday 1 June 2014

01 June 2014, Harris Lake (Marsh Farm)

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Thursday 22 May 2014

22 May 2014, Twin Oaks (White Acres)

Really, really heavy rain before the start then heavy showers throughout the match meant a damp end to the 2014 Garbolino Spring Classic festival at White Acres - but nonetheless a happy one for me personally as you'll read about in a minute or two!!!
  
Simplistic pegging this week!
  
  
  
Today's dip into the bag of dreams saw me placed on peg 25 on the high numbered arm of Twin Oaks - certainly not a favoured swim, though the pegs on this lake a pretty much of a muchness apart from the end pegs (which themselves can be feast or famine).

I spent the first five minutes of today's match looking for a big, mug fish from the margins to get my match up and running with - this seems to be a popular tactic on these lakes but is one I've never had any joy with (today not being the exception), so I was soon back onto my usual pellet feeder approach and into a good run of decent sized fish to finish the first hour feeling pretty confident of a good result.

The middle three hours of the match were then very slow with just a few more carp on the feeder plus a single skimmer on a 5m pole line where I'd fed some groundbait, dead maggots and chopped worms. Luckily things picked-up in the final hour where I caught a few more on the tip and two bigger carp late on down the edge on double dendrabena over groundbait.
  
Presentation time!
  
In the end those last gasp margin carp gave me a weight of 43-14-0 - not a big score by usual standards, but remarkable in many ways as it gave me exactly the same weight as Andrew Cunliffe and enough for a third straight section win in a row (well technically two section wins and a joint section win, but either way that's 27 points in this festival)!!!
  
Bradley Hancock (3rd), Harry Billing (1st) and yours truly (2nd)

As is traditional with all White Acres festivals the week is finished-off with the prize giving and a bit of a booze-up in the bar on the final night where I was very surprised yet very pleased to discover that I'd managed to leapfrog Steve Evans and Bradley Hancock to end-up second overall with 33 points behind the legendary Harry Billing's perfect score of 4 straight section wins and 36 points!!!
  
Final top 10:
  1. Harry Billing, 36 points, 308-9-0
  2. Phil Morris, 33 points, 285-5-0
  3. Bradley Hancock, 32 points, 192-15-0
  4. Steve Evans, 32 points, 253-6-0
  5. Dale Hancock, 30 points, 290-1-0
  6. Adam Playford, 30 points, 254-3-0
  7. Jon Cook, 30 points, 252-12-0
  8. Sammy Davies, 30 points, 247-0-0
  9. Jason Wellington, 30 points, 216-3-0
  10. Danny Edwards, 29 points, 270-12-0
   
So congratulations to Harry Billing on yet another White Acres festival win and a big thank you to the White Acres staff (Lorna, Clint, Karl and Steve) for organising a great week once again!!!
  
Gratuitous trophy shot!!!
  
Conclusions: well after a terrible start three great draws/results really made the difference and the thought of a podium finish was the last thing on my mind on Monday night! Having said that the pegging this week (the use of every peg on each of the lakes) has made the fishing tough but very fair (as everybody was in the same boat with no spare pegs floating around) and had the effect of pushing the fish to the far bank and hence onto my favoured pellet feeder line.
  
Until next year ...
  
  

Wednesday 21 May 2014

21 May 2014, Trewaters (White Acres)

Today was day three of the 2014 Garbolino Spring Classic festival down at White Acres, and for once I can say it's been sunny White Acres!!!
   
The day 3 draw - make or break for most
     
This week I've been in D section meaning my rotation is Trewaters (bottom lake), Twin Oaks (low numbers), Trewates (top lake) and Twin Oaks (high numbers), so after my iffy start to the festival was looking for a flyer on the top lake at Trewaters today - and once again the bag of dreams didn't disappoint and one duly appeared in the form of peg 30!!!
   
A nice sunny day at Trewaters
      
   
   
Peg 30 is a decent peg on the far side of the top lake at Trewaters, it's unique feature being a set of rushes in the margin of the island that seem to be a magnet for the fish - though of course such a feature can be a nightmare if you can't keep the fish out of them once hooked!
  
All the gear ...
  
Luckily I was able to do so and my 72-0-0 was enough for a second lake and section win in two days - once again (nearly) all on the pellet feeder, though I did catch one small carp on the bomb & pellet during a very quiet spell, the only fish I've caught during 15 hours of festival fishing not on the pellet feeder!!!
   
Tackle-wise I used a 30g Preston Innovations pellet feeder again today and once more most fish fell to a 6mm pellet on a size 16 QM1 to 0.22 N-Gauge line - even though the fish were small (2 to 3lb) I had to be firm when steering them away from the snaggy reed bed to my left so the heavier line was justified.
   
The view to the left from Trewaters 30
   
Top 10 after day 3:
  1. Harry Billing, 27 points, 224-5-0
  2. Bradley Hancock, 27 points, 168-13-0
  3. Steve Evans, 25 points, 232-9-0
  4. Phil Morris, 24 points, 241-7-0
  5. Mark Pollard, 24 points, 198-0-0
  6. Adam Playford, 23 points, 154-8-0
  7. Dale Hancock, 22 points, 221-0-0
  8. Danny Edwards, 22 points, 215-4-0
  9. Jason Wellington, 22 points, 140-2-0
  10. Kevin Smith, 21 points, 189-10-0
  
Today's result has somehow moved me up into fourth place overall - still three points short of leaders Harry Billing and Bradley Hancock (with three section wins out of three each), but with top weight after three days that first day blow-out is now a thing of the past and it's all to play for on Twin Oaks (high numbers) tomorrow!!!
   
Until next time ...
   
   

Tuesday 20 May 2014

20 May 2014, Twin Oaks (White Acres)

Well if yesterday was a bitter disappointment then today started to even things out - fancy drawing Twin Oaks 16 (one of the best pegs in the country) when the final three pegs left in the bag are 1 (rubbish), 3 (awful) and 16 (a bigger flyer than Easy Jet)!!!
  
Twin Oaks 16 - a dream draw!
   
     
  
All fish today again fell to the pellet feeder - a 30g version this time as it was a reasonable chuck into the bay on the far bank. The best hookbait by far was a 6mm White Acres pellet (which would be more like a conventional 7mm if such a thing existed) and my take-no-prisoners hooklength was made-up of a size 14 Guru QM1 hook mounted on 10cm of 0.22 N-Gauge with a hair-rigged pellet band.
   
The view to the right
 
The secret today (apart from drawing like Picasso) was rotating between 3 spots on the far bank and not wasting time in the margins - even though there were lots of swirls and churning-up of the bottom despite not feeding more than a handful of pellets! In the end my 123-15-0 of feeder caught carp was enough to win the section and the lake, nicely ahead of Steven Bee's 97-5-0 from peg 15 to my left.
   
Top 10 after day 2:
  1. Harry Billing, 18 points, 166-11-0
  2. Bradley Hancock, 18 points, 111-13-0
  3. Danny Edwards, 17 points, 129-15-0
  4. Jon Cook, 16 points, 154-3-0
  5. Steve Evans, 16 points, 150-1-0
  6. Mark Pollard, 16 points, 141-6-0
  7. Dale Hancock, 16 points, 124-8-0
  8. Sammy Davies, 16 points, 85-1-0
  9. Phil Morris, 15 points, 169-3-0
  10. Kevin Smith, 14 points, 139-6-0

So today's result has seen me move into the top 10 and ninth overall with 15 points, but still well behind Harry Billing and young Bradley Hancock who are topping the table with perfect scores of 18 points each.
   
Until next time ...
  
   

Monday 19 May 2014

19 May 2014, Trewaters (White Acres)

Gutted!!! That's the only word for it - absolutely gutted!!! So why am I gutted? Well my 45-4-0 was beaten by a 45-6-0, a 46-14-0 and a 47-6-0 - just one more carp and I would have gone from fourth in section to a section and lake win!!!
   
Everybody was excited for the day 1 draw

Today was the first day of the four day 2014 Garbolino Spring Classic festival at White Acres, with 72 keen anglers split into four sections of 18, with the fishing spread across Trewaters (both lakes) and Twin Oaks (both lakes).
  
Day 1 saw me on the bottom lake at Trewaters
  


My first dip into the bag of dreams for the week saw peg 45 (on the bottom lake at Trewaters) bubble to the surface, and ultimately the tight pegging (every peg on each of the four lakes is being used very day this week) and the oppressive weather made the fishing tough. The central island has become very overgrown, but luckily I had a clear spot to cast to and all my fish today fell to a 6mm pellet and a 20g small Preston Innovations pellet feeder. I started on a size 16 QM1 to an 0.19 hooklength but after getting cut-off by two carp (mistakes that cost me the match) I stepped-up to 0.22.
   
The view to the right
   
As noted at the very top of this blog entry my day ended in disappointment, my 45lb plus (which I felt was a decent weight on the day), leaving me with a poor fourth in section - I don't think Bagger has ever seen me so upset over a fishing match and I didn't say a word in the car on the way back to the lodge!

Top 10 after day 1:
  1. Mark Pollard, 9 points, 104-10-0
  2. Harry Billing, 9 points, 89-15-0
  3. Danny Edwards, 9 points, 73-5-0
  4. Paul Carnwell, 9 points, 58-7-0
  5. Bradley Hancock, 9 points, 49-13-0
  6. Matthew Chapman, 9 points, 47-6-0
  7. Scott Smith, 9 points, 43-2-0
  8. Simon Gould, 9 points, 41-4-0
  9. Jon Cook, 8 points, 98-7-0
  10. Mal Runacres, 8 points, 62-0-0

As this is a four day festival there is no concept of dropping your worst result, so I now have a mountain to climb (I'm currently 26th out of 72) and I'll be looking for better luck on the low numbered Twin Oaks tomorrow!
     
Until next time ...
   

Monday 5 May 2014

05 May 2014, Richardson's Lake (Marsh Farm)

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Saturday 26 April 2014

26 April 2014, Bowsaw Lake (Bowsaw & Billhook)

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Sunday 20 April 2014

20 April 2014, Richardson's Lake (Marsh Farm)

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