31 March 2017, Bungalow Lake (Reepham Fishery)

After what seemed like another endless winter it was finally time for the first festival of the year – not the usual White Acres but indeed a new venue, the beautifully tranquil Reepham Fishery located in the picturesque Norfolk countryside just 10 miles or so from Norwich. This is a cracking venue recently taken over by a good friend of ours consisting of 4 or 5 lakes and some excellent accommodation in the form of a series of bungalows and some top class static caravans.
  

Draw time!

  
The festival itself is to be fished over three days and contested by 42 anglers split into 3 rotations of 2 sections each. As per usual the rotations are drawn well before the start of the festival and as a result I spent today on the Bungalow Lake, a rectangular pond situated no more than 50 yards from the backdoor of the bungalow I’m staying in!!!
  

Steve Crowe on peg 8

  

  

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

  
My dip into the bag of dreams saw peg 10 float to the surface – being new to the venue this didn’t mean much to me but it turned-out to be a bit of a corner peg on the far bank with a nice looking margin to the right. Unfortunately it didn’t seem to be a flyer (the pegs on the bungalow bank get fished the most and hence seem to hold more fish) and Steve ‘Widget’ Crowe (presenter of From the Water’s Edge) was of the opinion that his peg (number 8) was the worst peg on the lake so I wasn’t overly excited!
  

The view to the left

  
The lake itself is basically a rectangle with 18 platforms spread around the perimeter with no central island, effectively making it pole only. Despite the draw being at 9 and the walk to my peg taking all of two minutes I took my usual eternity to set-up and by 11 I only had 2 rigs ready to go – a rig for fishing tight to the bank in twelve inches at top kit plus 4 to the right and another for fishing into the deeper water at various spots between top kit plus 2 and top kit plus 4.
  

The margin to the right

  
I started my match with a quick look down the edge but (not for the first time) this didn’t produce any early mug fish so it was soon out to top kit plus two with a 4mm expander over some micros (the fish in this lake apparently averaged two to the pound so this seemed like a safe bet). Things started slowly, but I eventually got a few fish in the net – I did try throwing a few 4mm hard pellets at the float but this actually sowed my catch rate, though a switch to top kit plus 3 with a larger 6mm expander did improve things for a spell. The high point of my match probably came when I feed a big pot of maggots over my margin line and caught three better fish in a row on worm hookbaits – though unfortunately the fish came and went in a blink of an eye!
  

Yours truly in action!

  
I basically spent the second half of the match rotating between various spots straight in front and the margin line – this led to some smaller fish from the deeper line and two more better fish from the margin (though neither more maggots, mushy meat nor neat groundbait seemed spectacular).
  

Daniel Brydon weighing-in

  
Throughout the match I could see the guys on the opposite bank catching really well all day (luckily they weren’t in my section), though I could also see Daniel Brydon and Reg Barrass (who were in my section) also catching really well from the other corner on my bank from the vacant platforms they each had. As a result I was fairly pleased that my 24-3-0 was enough for third in section, for once being on the right side of some tight results as I just about beat a 23, a 22 and an 18 – Daniel weighed 81-13-0 to win the lake and Reg weighed 34-15-0 to beat me to the default section money.
  
Until next time ...
  

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26 March 2017, Top Lake (Willinghurst)

Another match at Willinghurst again today and the weather forecast was an interesting one – nice and sunny but with a strong north-easterly wind blowing. Not unusual for the time of year but the pre-match talk was that this would no doubt this would knock-down the weights when compared to last weekend, especially as the number of anglers to fit around the same lakes (Top and Old) had increased from 16 to 22/23.
  

All the gear ...

  

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

   
After last week’s taste of success I had hoped for another go on Old Lake but I ended-up with peg 12 on Top Lake, not a known flyer but one that looked pretty inviting and with the change in wind direction who know where the fish might turn-up? The peg was an end peg on the day as peg 13 (which sits diagonally opposite to the left) wasn’t in and casting to the grassy bank to side of peg 13’s platform with a mini hybrid feeder was to be part of my plan of attack, as were pole lines at 13m to the left just past some marginal rushes, 13m straight in front and at the bottom of the near shelf (top kit plus three sections).
  

The Guru hybrid feeder

  
I spent the first forty-five minutes of the mach trying to sneak a fish or two from any of my three pole lines, though rather worryingly the only bites came from small roach (that are becoming an increasingly common sight when fishing with hard pellets). Luckily a switch to the feeder to the far bank led to three carp in three casts – when the following three casts were biteless I rested that line for 15 minutes and when I returned I had carp on casts 1, 3 and 4 meaning I ended the first two hours of the match with 6 carp for about 30lb.
  
Unfortunately the third hour was biteless so I also ended the first three hours of the match with 6 carp for about 30lb!!!
  

Looks fishy!

  
The fourth hour was also very, very tough but a trip to the cafe for a coffee did the trick and on my return I managed to sneak-out a carp from my short pole line on an over-sized Ringers 6mm hard pellet. The start of the fifth hour saw a lost foul-hooker on the same tactics, though I did eventually manage to hook another in the mouth that ended-up in the net.
  
So going into the final hour I had 8 carp for about 40lb, not a bad total as far as I could tell and still in with a shout with a good last hour. Unfortunately things continued to be hard and I was absolutely gutted to lose the best fish of the day (what looked like a double-figure fish snapped my 0.13 hooklength after going on a second run whilst I only had my top kit in my hand) and I could only manage one more carp in that final hour.
  

The mighty Roob Titan

  
In the end I put those 9 carp on the scales for 44-8-0, a reasonable score but somewhat off the pace when compared to Martin Johnson’s winning 79lb from Top Lake peg 6 – to be frank Martin fished a great match and I got my feeding all wrong! I was far too aggressive, feeding my margin line via a big pot, feeding my 13m line via a catapult and feeding my 5m line by hand being three massive mistakes – tapping in a few pellets or a few pieces of meat via a pole mounted pot and waiting patiently for a bite being the order of the day!!!
  
Until next time ...
  

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19 March 2017, Old Lake (Willinghurst)

Back to Willinghurst again today for the open match and after last week’s soaking I was pleased to see that if nothing else we’d be dry for the duration (something that is by no means a given at this time of year in England’s green and pleasant land). The numbers were down slightly on last week (just 16 today) but as the match was to be spread over Top Lake and Old Lake that would mean every match angler’s favourite phrase – lots of room!
  

Old Lake, peg 10

  
The pre-match buzz implied that pegs 10 and 11 on Old Lake would be plumb draws (as there seemed to be a lot of fish in this area mid-week) so you won’t be surprised to hear that my dip into the bag of dreams saw Old Lake 10 stick to my mitt! This is a swim that I’d drawn before and for my money offers three interesting lines to go at – on top of the shallow central bar (that used to be an island) at about 20m, into the deeper water beyond the bar at about 30m and the platform opposite at some 40m. (The platforms opposite pegs 10 to 13 aren’t normally pegged in the open matches and that was the case today.)
  
For company I had ex-footballer (Dartford, Gravesend & Northfleet, West Ham, Peterborough, Wigan, Fulham, Hull, Ipswich and MK Dons) and the only angler fishing today with their own Wikipedia page – Jimmy Bullard – next door on peg 11 and fellow Apollo Guildford angler Jon Radford diagonally to my right on peg 22. (Pegs 24, 26, 8, 5 and 1 were also in today.)
  

Hard pellets and hi-viz hookbaits

  
I kicked things off with a quick look on the central bar, though 5 minutes on bomb & bread followed by 5 minutes with a 10mm chocolate orange wafter failed to induce a pull so it was soon time for a switch to the feeder and a chuck to the platform opposite whilst commencing the relentless process of pinging 8mm pellets into the deeper water at 30m.
  
Two fish from the far side and one from the 30m line saw me finish the first hour with three reasonable carp in the net (not bad by Willinghurst standards as things normally start really, really slowly), though the second hour was even better with five more from the far side so by noon I had eight carp in the net and was probably ahead of Jimmy by a fish or two (who couldn’t buy a bite from his far bank but was picking-up carp on a semi-regular basis from his open water line on the bomb & punched meat).
  

Jimmy's back

  
The third and fourth hours weren’t quite as prolific – at the time the far bank line with the hybrid feeder still seemed the best bet for bite, though in reality the open water swim was just as productive as both lines yielded three fish each in this middle period of the match. (Resting the far bank line by fishing the open water swim often led to a quick bite when returning to it, so I guess it was still too early in the year for the fish to being feeding confidently in shallow water all day long.)
  
So at the end of the fourth hour I had 14 carp in the onion bag, probably neck-and-neck with Jimmy who had eroded my slender lead with more carp from his open water line.
  

Three nets!!!

  
Going into the final third of the match I was expecting sport to pick-up but from my perspective the fifth hour was my slowest with just two fish from the far side and no pulls from the open water swim – to compound things at this point Jon Radford diagonally to my right on peg 22 started to slay some real munters from his short pole line and (end peg) Jimmy opened his long margin line to his left (which turned-out to be absolutely solid).
  
So come three o’clock and with my match slipping away from me I needed another option to get me out of jail – with no obvious margin line to speak of I decided to put my faith in some fish turning-up on the bar so I stopped pinging my open water swim and instead started to batter the shallow water down the middle with copious amounts of 8mm pellets. Luckily this line came good and probably saw the four biggest fish of the day grace the net before the ‘all out’ was eventually called at four thirty.
  

Jon and Pikey improvising

  
Those four fish from the bar saw me close my account with 22 carp from 23 pulls (and the one that I lost was definitely foul-hooked as it gave a really weird bite and it kited-off to the right in an odd fashion) for a grand total of 130-5-0, eclipsing my previous Willinghurst PB by a staggering three ounces!!!
  

The top 3 on the day

  
This was just about good enough for third overall on the day – whilst I was miles behind winner Mick Keeper (178-8-0 from Top Lake) and Jimmy (who’s margin line really kicked-in to see him finish on 172-9-0), I was only just ahead of Jon Radford’s 126-9-0 and Jon Cook’s 120-odd meaning those bigger fish from the bar (coupled with a 95.65% conversion rate) made all the difference!!!
  
Until next time ...
  

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12 March 2017, Top Lake (Willinghurst)

After a couple of aborted attempts it was finally time to get my 2017 campaign underway so it was back to Willinghurst for a well attended open match including the usual stellar line-up – competing against the likes of Perry Stone, Pete Upperton, Tommy Hiller, (ex-footballer and reality TV star) Jimmy Bullard and the Apollo Guildford venue experts can only make you a better angler I guess!!!
  

The pre-match plan!

  
My draw saw me on Top lake peg 4 – for my money this can be a really good summer edge peg (as proved by Paul Holland on a coaching day Bagger and myself attended back in August last year) as you can get into some lovely shallow water tight to the bank to the right. Saying that I’m sure it can be pretty good all year around as there is also a long reed-lined margin to the left and a good amount of open water in front (though I was a little cut-off on the day as there was an angler pegged on the far bank to my right).
  
Given the presence of the angler opposite I left the tip rod in the bag and set-up three pole rigs for four different lines – the first of these was a 4x14 Roob on 0.15 Guru N-Gauge to a 15cm hooklength of 0.13 to a size 16 LWG (eyed) with a hair-rigged bait band for fishing with hard pellets on the deck straight in front at 14.5m and at the bottom of the near shelf to the left at top kit plus three (these lines were both 3’ deep). The second (a 4x12 Roob on 0.15 into a 10cm hooklength of 0.13 and a size 16 LWG (spade)) was for fishing in 2’ of water at 14.5m to my right just beyond a clump of reed roots close to the bank. The final rig (for fishing tight to the bank to my right in 18” at top kit plus 3) consisted of the same hooklength as the second rig but with a 0.4g Drennan Margin Crystal on 0.17. (All three rigs were mounted on white Hydro top kits.)
  

Looking right from peg 4

  

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

   
I kicked-off my match with a quick look at my 14.5m margin with a 7mm cube of luncheon meat on the hook and 3 or 4 samples fed via a medium Guru pole pot – after just a couple of minutes with no indications it was clear that nothing was going to happen so it was time for an immediate switch to the 4x14 Roob rig with a banded White Acres (over-sized) 6mm pellet over the line at the bottom of the near shelf to the left. After 6 or 7 minutes the float started to move in that tell-tale circular fashion (which in my mind is caused by a fish displacing the water near the hookbait) and on the twenty minute mark the float buried in the blink of an eye – there’s no mistaking the proper bites with this rig!
  
That bite led to a nice 7 pounder in the net – I’d hoped that this was the start of a bagging session but no further bites materialised in the next twenty minutes and a switch to the 14.5m line straight in front only saw a roach grace the net. A switch back to the shorter line only led to a succession of dreaded crayfish (definitely not a good sign) so I plumbed-up a third line for the 4x14 Roob rig at the bottom of the near shelf to the right to give myself another option. By rotating through these three lines I was able to snare another roach, a foul-hooked gudgeon plus a very welcome 8 pounder (again from the short line to the left) during the second hour.
  

Plenty of room to the left

  
I kept rotating through the three hard pellet lines throughout the third and fourth hours but they only yielded a solitary roach and another foul-hooked gudgeon. I also started looking at the 14.5m margin line too – this one was more productive and at one point I hooked two carp in two casts! (The first ended-up in the net but unfortunately the second one came-off after a few seconds.) I then made a fatal mistake in reaching for my cupping kit and feeding a small handful of 4mm pellets and some 7mm meat – even though the cup was probably only 10% full it killed my long margin line as I never had another bite from it!!!
  

Open water in front

  
Going into the fifth hour (today’s match was a 6 hour affair fished from ten until four) and with nothing to lose I wetted down some micro pellets and fed half a pot (with some 7mm meat mixed in) tight to the bank to the right on my top kit plus 3 margin line (18” deep here). I left it for a few minutes then went over it with a 7mm cube of meat on the hook – the float flew under straight away and I’d thought I’d cracked it but unfortunately it was a roach. Two more roach in two casts nearly saw me give-up when cast number 4 saw me attached to another (albeit) small carp. After landing that carp I really did think I was going to win the match so I fed another half pot of micros – yes, you’ve guessed it I never had another bite from this line!
  
In fact the final 90 minutes of my match were a massive anti-climax as despite rotating through my five different lines I don’t think I had another sign – unless you include those silly crayfish bites that is!!!
  

The moment of truth

  
So in the end I finished-up with four carp and a few roach/gudgeon for an unspectacular 21-14-0 and a ‘must try harder next time’. As it happened it seemed that all of the anglers on the main bowl of Top lake struggled with all of the weights coming from the feature pegs – Pete Upperton (Guru) (peg 1) 88-6-0, Pete Franklin (Apollo Guildford) (peg 29) 65-11-0 and Dave Carter (Apollo Guildford) (peg 26) 63-0-0 – but well done to those guys as you still have to work hard to catch ‘em!!!!
  
Until next time ...
    

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