01 July 2018, Middle Lake (Gold Valley)

Well I think it is fair to say I made a right pig's ear of that one, only really figuring-out what I should've been doing ten minutes from the end!

   

Round-up the usual suspects

   

My home for the day was Gold Valley, Middle Lake 63 a peg that can be really good as it is in among the where the islands used to be - with the water level being quite low I actually found a spot at 14.5m slightly to the right that was just 12" deep, though in the main it was hard to find more than two and a half feet anywhere in the peg. I started on paste at top kit plus one and expected to get off to a good start but after 15 minutes I was biteless and giving the 12" swim a dabble earlier than expected - I could get bites here but they were very dodgy and I ended-up losing a frustrating number of fish.

   

All the gear ...

   

All the time I'd been feeding 4mm hard pellets at 13m slightly to the left with the aim of catching shallow - this did work to a certain extent but after 90 minutes of feeding, tapping and slapping my jigga I had to sack it off as it just wasn't working well enough. (There were plenty of fish in the peg but they seemed preoccupied routing around in the silt and sending-up blooms of the black stuff every few minutes.)

   

Nice day for it

   

With little option I returned to the 12" swim and I eventually caught a few on a 4.5mm expander over potted micros and 4mm hard pellets, though as the match progressed the number of missed bites and lost fish went through the roof with the fish seemingly coming-up in the water despite it being just a foot deep! I tried my best to keep them on the deck but they just weren't having it, so towards the end I switched to fishing just 5" deep and it was one a bung!!!

   

Plenty of sun today

   

In the end I limped home with 58 fish for a level 55lb, one out of the money as Dan Cooper took the section with 69-8-0 - well done to Craig Meadows on the win and Giovanni Barbato on taking second spot. If only I'd have switched to fishing super-shallow a little earlier!

   

Until next time ...

  

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24 June 2018, Top Lake (Willinghurst)

Day two of the Angling for Heroes mini-festival and I've only gone and drawn the same peg again! Having learned some harsh lessons yesterday I was able to fish a much simpler match today, putting 99-6-0 on the scales, just short of the 100lb barrier but comfortably ahead of the 75lb that was second.

Nice bucket

   

This left me on 4 points, just a point and 30lb short of finishing second overall, something I could've managed on day one if I'd had gotten my act together a bit sooner (easily said with hindsight of course). I'll sign-off by saying a massive well done to my partner in crime Claire 'Bagger' Hollis who not only won the first day with a whopping 130lb but smashed the festival by being the only angler to finish with a perfect 2 point score - what a superstar!!!
  

Caption competition time!

   
Until next time ...

  

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23 June 2018, Top Lake (Willinghurst)

Day one of the two-day Angling for Heroes mini-festival, my home for the day being Top Lake peg 8, a pretty average peg in the main bowl. Having not fished for a few weeks, and having not fished for proper carp since the Guru festival at White Acres I was pretty rusty and spent at least half of the match fishing the wrong methods!

  

A nice photo

  

Saying that I somehow managed to put 56-8-0 on the scales, a reasonable return that got me third in section, just 2lb short of second - mildly annoying!!!

   

Until next time ...

  

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02 June 2018, Middle Lake (Gold Valley)

Another great day at Gold Valley yesterday for a WC Group Coaching day with Will Raison and Callum Dicks, this time with a focus on catching F1s shallow on Middle Lake. Without giving too much away lets just say it was a brilliant session with loads learned and loads of fish caught!!!

   

More satisfied customers

   

Until next time ...

  

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26 May 2018, Middle Lake (Gold Valley)

Well it was back to Gold Valley today for the charity fundraiser for the England ladies team - I think that over £2k was raised so well done to all involved, especially Sam Sim and the team at Gold. With 104 taking part the pegging was always going to be tight, and with Middle Lake our of sorts, like most I was hoping for a bit of room on a big fish lake so of course I drew 70 on Middle!

   

Roll-up, roll-up!

   

With half of the match gone I was convinced I was going to blank, so to end with 2 perch and the 5 smallest F1s in the lake for 3-6-0 was actually a relief! (In the end it was the wind the really impacted the weights, personally I struggled to hold 5m of pole so getting out to the required 14.5/16m was impossible.) Anyway it was a nice day out and we won a bottle of wine in the raffle so can’t complain!!!

   

Until next time ...

  

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18 May 2018, Trelawney (White Acres)

White Acres, Guru festival day 5 todday, another distinctly average peg in Trelawney 29 being my home for the day. I started by nicking a nice carp from in front of peg 30’s platform in the first five minutes then after a quick dabble on the short pole and feeder it was time to start spraying casters and fishing the long pole shallow for those pesky F1s.
 

Nice and sunny to the left

 
I gave it a good go for two hours and whilst I caught quite a few I knew I was lagging behind Tony Evans and Craig Meadows to my right and both of the anglers to my left so I decided to sack it off and focus on fishing to the vacant platform in the hope of catching some proper carp. This worked well for 90 minutes though another poor last hour left me on a slightly frustrating 65-9-0 for 6 points, miles behind Steve Clark but tantalisingly close to Phil Canning and Bryan Travis who weighed 75 and 76 pounds from the two end pegs.

   

Until next time ...

  

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17 May 2018, Trewaters (White Acres)

White Acres, Guru festival day 4 today. Finding myself on another non-flyer in the form of Trewaters 23 and with the wind blasting into 25/27 I settled on a positive pre-match plan involving catching 20lb an hour for the first 4 hours by pinging pellets to the island and fishing a mini hybrid feeder over the top then winning the match by catching 40lb down the edge in the final hour. As things turned-out I had just 6 small fish for 15lb at 15:30 so I was down the edge earlier than expected!
 

There's that bucket again!

 
By 4 o’clock I actually thought I could get back in the race as I’d landed 4 fish for 30lb in half an hour, but the wheels came off in that last hour as I never had a bite on either the pole or feeder!!! As a result I ended-up with 46lb, only beating the person that didn’t turn-up and one other. So was the plan flawed? I should’ve swapped to the long pole after an hour but ultimately it was that last hour that cost me as another 4 or 5 for 30lb would’ve got me second in section ...

   

Until next time ...

  

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