Wednesday 19 December 2012

Cable Pond Clare

This Sunday I was off to cable pond in Clare, I've never been to this lake this late in the year before, so I had no clue as to how it would fish. I had bloodworm and joker with me in-case it was really hard, and hoped to catch a good bag of silvers over this.
My match was already looking downhill before id even got to the draw bag as I realized id forgotten my wheel kit for my seatbox! All i can say is I will never make that mistake again, and it certainly wouldn't be possible to carry my gear along a river bank like in the old days.
I drew peg 17, which I felt was down the wrong end of the lake, although we have been here only a few times, the winner always comes from the top end as they seem to get bream and the bottom end doesn't! So being the very bottom peg I didn't feel overly confident, but there's section points and matchman points to be won at every match so I was going to try my very best.
I started the match by feeding chop worm and caster on one line, and joker on a longer line, unfortunately there's not much to say now as I simply sat there for 2 hours bite less  I was working through the lines and by half 12 id managed 3 little perch and a roach, not even off the joker line!
At this point i went behind to my gear and got my bomb rod out, on three 10mm discs of bread went and I chucked it just off the island in front of me, its about 7-8 foot deep just a few feet away from the island here.
I sat for no more than 30 seconds before the tip wrapped round and I had a carp on, I couldn't believe it! After a 5 minute battle I had a nice 7 lb carp in the net, certainly not a bad thing considering I couldn't get a bite on a bloodworm.
I spent the next few hours fishing the pop up bread and having a quick look on my pole lines and just going through the motions, I picked up a few more little perch but nothing was happening.
Word came down that someone was getting a few bream and big roach up the top end, so with an hour to go I knew i had to get another carp if I was to win, I didn't feel as though anyone was going to beat me for the section with silvers, and I certainly wasn't catching any so I felt going for another carp would be the best thing to do.
I fished the last hour casting all over the swim just trying to place my bread in front of a carp, but no joy, with 5 minutes to go i reeled in and had a roach about 6 ounces hanging on the end, little bit random, it even doubled my weight of silver fish! I was left with the tricky idea of whether i should recast to where i caught the roach, which is where I caught the carp earlier, or cast into the fishy looking channel to my left, I decided to cast back to the same spot, and whack, the tip just wrapped round, 30 seconds later the whistle blew!
I took my time with this one, as it was absolutely a make or break fish, after a 8 minute battle it was in the net, a nice 8 lb carp.
I must admit, im not normally one to get lucky in these sorts of conditions, im normally the one who works hard catching loads of fish just to be beat by some lucky sod who catches a lump!
Unfortunately though I wasn't lucky enough to win, first place had caught 21 lb of bream and roach, a fantastic weight considering the lake was iced over the day before. My final weight was just over 15 lb, more than enough to win the section as 2nd in the section had caught 5 lb.
So I had managed 2nd in the match and 1st in the section, from a peg where I could have come dead last, its fair to say i had a fair bit of luck, but i fished to the conditions and unfortunately there were just no silvers in my peg, not even joker could pull them in, I had to catch some carp and I managed two, I didn't even set my rod up at the start as I just didn't think you would catch one after the lake had been frozen as this isn't a normal commercial full of fish. So Id had an extremely good result considering, I had beat all my main competitors in the overall league aswell which was a bonus. You need results like this in order to win league titles, so I hope I can keep it up for the remainder of the season.
Its off to ash grounds at the Fennes next week, which I really look forward too. You can catch some awesome bags of roach here in the winter, and if your in the right peg you can even bag up on f1s or bream on the right day, so bloodworm and joker will be the order of the day, and i fully expect to catch a good double figure bag of silverfish next week, providing the weather stays consistent.
Thanks for reading this week.

Tight Lines
Reece Hearn.

Wednesday 12 December 2012

Fennes Hobbs Croft Match

This Sunday I was off to Hobbs croft lake at The Fennes fishery, this lake can offer some awesome silver weights over the winter months, and despite last weeks blow out I was eager to get to fish this lake with my bloodworm and joker! The weather leading up to this had slightly improved, although we had freezing conditions all week, Saturday was 4c and Sunday was 8c, so fortunately the ice had melted for us to fish on Sunday!
At the draw I drew peg 69, this is a very shallow peg, no more than 2 and a half foot at 13meters, fortunately the water was up a little bit so I had more like 3 foot, and the winner had come from peg 67 last week so there should hopefully be some fish about! I didn't really know what pegs would fish, was the temperatures had been up and down for the last 2 weeks the fish could be anywhere.
My plan for most of the swims would have been a 2 line approch, an 11meter ball it in bloodworm line, and a shorter caster/ chopped worm line for some perch, but being in this shallow water id decided i would fish 11meters on the pole and also set a tip up to try a pop up boilie or bread if bites slowed down, in the hope I may hook a carp that might be moping around.
At the all in, I fed 4 loose fed pots of joker simply split with leam, I then put 3 double leam balls of joker in on top of this, the reason I didn't put it all into balls was because it was so shallow, I felt i would get a quicker start by loose feeding the first bit, and the double leam balls would hopefully hang around for a while before they broke up, in turn increasing the time I would get bites, i also added about 1/4 of a pint of casters and the same in dead maggots to this mix. I always aim to be able to catch on caster over my joker no matter where I am fishing, you always get bigger fish on caster, and on good days you will catch just as quick on caster as you will a bloodworm or a maggot, and if the fish are twice the size then why not?
I chucked the tip our for the first 20minutes to let the line settle, nothing came of it so i went over the joker, I started catching straight away on maggot, and bites were coming faster and faster, after an hour I changed to caster to straight away get into the better roach, I caught continuously until about 12:30 when bites started to dry up.
I decided i would top up with another ball on joker, and then chuck the tip out while I ate my sandwich, as i was taking my first bite of my sandwich i noticed my tip was wrapped round, picking up the rod i could feel some resistance but it wasn't quite right, then all of a sudden it shot off, foul hooked carp! I had it on for about 5 minutes before the hook finally pulled, little bit gutted but i didn't feel as though anyone was going to catch a carp today so not to worry. I had another chuck for no more bites then back onto the joker line!
Action was instant, and i was catching fish a chuck and topping up with another ball of joker every 30-40minutes for the remainder of the match, unfortunately with an hour to go I ran out of my joker, I only started with about half a match pack as i was too generous to give some away before the start! If i had have had a whole pack I'm confident i could have had another 7-8lb as the fish were really having it. Unfortunately though my bites dried up for the last hour and it was just the odd fish.
I weighed in 19lb with 147 roach, so a fantastic days fishing, but what more it could have been if i didn't run out of bait! It also cost me the Match as the bloke opposite on 76 had caught skimmers and perch from the deeper water and weighed 21lb, I'm confident I could have beat this had i not run out of bait, but such is life!
So 2nd it was, yet again some solid points!

Next week im off to cable pond in Clare ive never fished this venue in winter, but previous experience tells me there's alot of skimmers and big roach, and some great big carp, so il have to just go by what happens on the day!
Thanks for reading!
Reece.

Tuesday 4 December 2012

Weekend matches, Rayne lodge and The fennes

This Saturday I was off to Rayne lodge top lake for an open match, this is the most consistent lake of the 3 at Rayne, and catches can sometimes reach 100lb even in winter. The weather leading up-to this was awful, with temperatures not going above 4c during the week! We had some severe frost for Thursday and Friday night so there was a possibility we might need ice breakers! Fortunately though, the lake was not frozen, although the bottom lake was completely iced over as it is a fair bit lower than the top lake down a steep hill.
The fancied pegs on this lake in these conditions are always 20 and 21, these pegs can cast right into the bowl area where the fish hold up in winter, and you can catch really well on pop up bread, 3,4 and 8 are also good pegs as they can also cast near the area.
At the draw I pulled out peg 3, not a bad peg, and also a peg id drawn the previous winter and won the match from with 94lb. I had a good angler on peg 4 to my left, and a good angler on peg 20, so I had my work cut out!

Id decided to fish a long pole line, a margin line about 2 meters out, and also a bomb rod with pop up bread. The plan was to start on the Bread in the hope that I could nick a few fish quickly, then after an hour or so hope to find some bigger fish on the long pole, and if it was really good then maybe the margins would produce a couple of lumps.
I started the match by popping up 3 punches of bread 12inches off the bottom, this is always my starting point at this lake and if it works you can stay at this depth all day, unfortunately my tip didn't go round! And after 3 chucks and 15minutes id had nothing, but nor had anyone else. I decided to try 2 punches instead of 3, as I had done on the bottom lake a few weeks back, I cast out and as I was sinking my line I felt the rod go, Carp number one was in the net. I cast out again with 2 punches only to miss a bite, possibly a skimmer I thought, so I went down to a single punch and had 2 carp in 2 chucks, but it just didn't feel right as i was getting a lot of indications and normally fishing bread your tip will whack round or drop back. I decided to try 2 punches of 6mm bread instead of my usual 10mm, this was bang on the money and the tip went round 5 times in a row, by this time the fish seemed to be a bit more confident and i was able to go back to 2 punches of 10mm bread, bites came quicker and I was hooking into everything, by the time id had 20 carp, I hadn't seen anyone else get more than about 5 or 6, so I was miles ahead at this stage. Unfortunately  things began to slow, and  my catch rate dropped, I decided to try my pole lines, but not with too much confidence as I hadn't seen a fish caught on a pole, I didn't get anything on the pole so it was back on the tip.
The only problem with this peg is that you can only chuck to the end of the island, and not into the bowl, so I had no way to follow the fish to where they had backed off to, fortunately it would prove to be too little too late for my competitors as they could only seem to catch at my pace even though I was now struggling. 
I finished the match with 34 carp, managing to pick up a few more fish on the bread, and one on the long pole! Id tried changing depth and bait sizes for the last few hours, but it didn't seem to matter what i did, 12inches off the deck with 2 pieces of 10mm punch was the most productive, I feel this was best as its big enough to provide lots of visibility but also small enough for the carp in this lake to easily suck up as they swim along.
My final weight was 76lb 8oz, which was more than enough to beat 2nd place peg 4 next to me with 50lb, there was another 50lb weight and also a few in the 30s and 40s, so the fish were still slightly spread out, just seemingly most had made the move to the bowl area.
So a good start to the weekend! Another good result and match win on a water that I just keep growing in confidence!

Sunday was a bit of a nightmare to be quite honest! Id drawn 80 on hobbs croft, which is a good perch peg in the winter, the only issue I had was that the perch didn't want to feed! I don't think a single person caught one on the lake. Another problem i had was that bloodworm and joker was banned for this match, so unless by some kind of miracle the silvers were in my peg, I was going to really struggle!
I ended the match with 32 small fish for 1lb! A lovely half ounce average :( nothing whatsoever worked on the day, and I feel I have some good experience on this lake, especially in winter as i fish here often. The lake was won from a peg in the shallow water off peg 67, he caught 14lb of skimmers on pellet, I believe the fish were here because the sun was shining on this area all day, and obviously shallow water warms up quicker than deep water! Another good weight came from behind the island on peg 74, this can be a great winter peg, in the summer we don't put this peg in as its a waste of time, you just cant compete, but in the winter for some reason the better silvers hold up here, the angler in this peg managed 13lb of quality roach and skimmers, at least some people had caught some fish and had a days fishing! The next best weight was 8lb from another shallow peg mostly skimmers as well.  99 times out of 100 id be happy with peg 80, unfortunately today was that 1 in a 100 day where is just wasn't meant to be! its about 5-6ft deep here, the shallow pegs are about 2-3ft, mind boggling, but that's winter fishing for you!
As you can see above i have poorly edited this overhead image so you can see where the winning weights came from, as expected, on ash grounds in the bowl area, the winning weight consisted of one carp, 8 f1s and a bream, the eventual winner was Dickie Carr so well done to him on a hard day.

Next week I am back on hobbs, fortunately I have a match-pack of bloodworm and joker ordered as it is allowed next week, so I should have something to talk about next week! I hope! I will be hoping that I draw one of the 3 pegs that had the best weights this week, or even the shallow bank along the right hand side. the only reason this wasn't in on the match this week is because it was iced up! But I fully expect this area to hold some quality roach that will feed on the bloodworm.

Thanks for reading this week, I look forward to posting next week,
Tight lines,
Reece Hearn

Monday 26 November 2012

Lakelands Club Match

This week saw me heading to Lake-lands for another club match, I really enjoy this venue, its got a good head of carp, tench, ide and skimmers. In the warmer months you can really bag up with catches over 100lb, but in these colder months sometimes 50lb is still possible on the right day in the right conditions.
At the draw, the only peg I didn't really want was peg 8,inevitably I drew it! This peg is in the straight section of the lake, its about 20meters wide, for some reason the carp just don't seem to come into this area much, so when people are bagging its very hard to keep up with the pace, this peg has been last in its section on our last few visits so it was looking a little grim to say the least!
There were some good anglers on the better pegs, so I was already fighting an uphill battle, i felt as though i should set my self the target of getting second in the section, although i was in the worst peg in the section, i new conditions were tough as the water was up by over a foot from the rain during the week, and it was hardly warm!
At arrival on my peg I was greeted with 20 mph winds coming at me from an angle, plumbing up was hard enough let alone fishing the pole at the start of the match! The forecast was for the wind to ease so maybe I would be able to build my swims up for an hour or so before I could actually fish the pole.
Id opted to fish a 6 meter line for silvers and hopefully odd carp with chop worm and caster, and an 11 meter line for carp with corn, I would have liked to have fished both lines further, but not knowing how much the wind would ease I couldn't afford to feed up a line and not be able to fish it all day as it would be a big waste of time. I also set up a bomb rod and a banjo feeder.
I started the match by chucking out the bomb with some popped up bread, i hooked into a carp straight away and soon after a 4lb common was in the net, not a bad start! about 3 other anglers also had a fish first chuck, then nothing! I just could not get a bite, after 30 minutes of casting around with the bread i decided to try the banjo, but there was just nothing there, id expected this from this peg anyway, and with the flyers having 2 or 3 carp each with an hour gone I had to try the pole!
Although it was incredibly hard to hold the pole on the 6 meter line, I was catching fish, In fact i was catching quite well getting the odd ide upto about a pound and a half.
After about 3 hours into the match I could finally fish the long pole, this still didn't produce many fish, but I new it may be one of the only places I may catch carp. Throughout the day I ended up just going round the lines, getting what bites I could, and just maximising my chance of getting a few weight building carp, I managed 8 big ide and some other silvers on the short pole on worm, and 2 carp on the long pole, along with one on the banjo and the first fish on the bread. I even tried the margins every now and again for the last couple of hours just for one unexpected perch to jump on my hook. no carp though. If I was in a better swim I would have expected to get another 3 or 4 carp at least fishing this way, but unfortunately you cant beat the draw bag!
By the end of the Match I new id done probably as good as I could have done under the conditions on the day, I feel as though if the wind wasn't blowing a howler, I may have been able to snag a couple more carp on the long pole as I would have been able to fish it longer, possibly about 16 meters, and also not for just the last half of the match! Unfortunately that's how it goes though, and you cant have everything your own way,
When the scales arrived I was pleased to see my 4 carp and silvers went for 30lbs, which was more than id expected, I had around 20lb of silvers, which is fantastic fishing anywhere, my section was won from the best peg in the section on peg 2, he'd caught 10 carp, 2 of them being real lumps, so id managed second in my section on a peg that could have possibly seen me struggling for bites! The match was won from peg 14 with 45lb, all carp, this was one of 2 pegs I really fancied on the day as its a lot deeper here and the fish seem to go to this area when it gets cold.
The final result left me second in section and third overall, which I was really happy with under the circumstances. Unfortunately I lost my £1 to Mr banks on peg 2, Im sure I'll be able to win that back next week though.
So another good match for me, as I continue to keep the points coming in for the league, although I may have lost a few points to my main competitor this week, I had made the most of a poor draw, as a season goes on you are going to get a few poor pegs, and these are the pegs that decide league titles, you have to do your best with them. So far this season I have had my fair share of poor pegs, but I have done a good job with them all so far, hopefully I can keep it that way for the remainder of the season!
Next saturday I'm heading to Rayne lodge top lake for another open match, hopefully I will have another good day there, I'm really building in confidence at this venue and feel like I can catch good weights from average pegs now. Sunday I have The cancer research open match at the Fennes, this is always a fairly popular match with anything from 30-50 people normally attending. The match is held over the Ash grounds lake and Hobbs croft lake, unfortunately this place is extremely peggy at the moment, and I'm fairly confident the top 3 will come from the 'bowl' area on ash grounds, where the bream and f1s tend to hold up in winter, but there's still plenty of sections to win, and its for charity so it doesn't really matter if you get a poor peg! As long as you set yourself a realistic target, and try to hit that target, you'll have a really good days fishing!

Thanks for reading this weeks blog,
Tight lines and see you next week!

Reece Hearn.

Wednesday 21 November 2012

Rayne lodge weekend Matches

So this Saturday I had a match on Rayne lodge top lake, I've been looking forward to this seeing as my last few matches have been completely silvers, it would be nice to catch a bag of commercial carp again, although with the cold weather I really didn't know what to expect.
I drew peg 14 on the day, not normally a good peg this time of year, but i did have a lot of room and signs of fish topping in my peg were promising.
I kept it simple on the day, with a long pole line at 10 meters, a margin line, and a bomb line for pop up bread, this is something that can be devastating on the right day and you can literally get one a chuck in the coldest conditions!
I started the day by feeding about 20 grains of corn and a pinch of hemp on the long line, and the same in the left margin, the right margin was going to be trickled with corn all day to see if one feeding method would be more productive than the other. I then chucked the bomb out, after 2 bite less minutes I recast, still nothing.
I then went on the long pole line and had a few skimmers then a small carp, not too productive for 15 minutes into the match. I saw the person opposite me catch a carp down the edge so I thought id give it a go, I was into a small carp straight away, with a slightly better one following it up. I spent the next hour catching odd carp here, mostly small ones around the 1lb mark, I was catching the odd fish on the right that was around the 2-3lb mark, but they didn't keep coming, id get one and then they would back off and that was it.
I decided to try and dob a bit of bread about 2 meters past my left margin, as i had a bush in the water here and i felt as though this was where the fish were backing off to, this worked a treat and i spent a good couple of hours going through my lines in a nice rythm, catching one or 2 carp on the left hand corn line, then catching one on the right before dobbing some bread and catching a better 4-5lber on the end of the bush. Staying on one line was not an option today as the fish just kept backing off, probably to do with the frost we had the night before. Every time i had a quiet spell I quickly chucked the bomb out for a couple of minutes just to let the pole lines re-settle, i managed to sneak a couple of 6-8lbers this way throughout the day, but yet again it wasn't possible to get more than one at a time!
Id had quite an interesting day, found out a few things id not learnt at this lake before, and had a good weight of 117lb with 67 carp, which is certainly not bad for this time of year! I had to work for it, which you don't normally have to do down here, but I prefer it that way as I always feel as though I work harder than the rest, which in turn I believe puts more fish in my net.
Unfortunately my 117lb was only good enough for 2nd Place and a section win. Someone in a corner peg had managed a colossal 158lb, he caught mainly down one edge, and his fish were probably twice my average size! So I still felt as though id done well on the day, if I had worked out the dobbing bread slightly earlier I think I could have managed about 130-140lb, but certainly not 158. So all in all a good Saturday!


Onto Sunday, the bottom lake at Rayne. This was the match that mattered to me the most this weekend, as im leading all the championships in my club, and couldn't afford to have a disaster here. Under the conditions I knew there could be some real poor pegs on the day, where you may struggle for 10lb, while someone else will probably bag up with 100lb. The previous week id had a practice here and had 100lb of skimmers and carp, superb fishing, all down the edge and short pole, the pop up bread hadnt really worked on the day but I know its a devastating tactic down here so had a loaf Warburton toasty of bread with me.
At the draw i really fancied peg 6, I felt as though this was where the fish may hold up, unfortunately I drew 8, which isn't too far away, and I still had a gap in the islands, all be it a small gap.
I set up a margin line, 6 meter line and the bomb again today, my left margin was about 2 and a half feet deep, which is deep for this lake so felt this could produce, my right margin was only 1 and a half foot so i completely discarded this option.
I started the day by feeding my pole lines with a pinch of corn in each, and continued to feed by hand on these as i always find little and often is key to this lake, large amounts just kill it. I then continued to chuck the bomb in-between the islands, as I was sinking the line I felt a tug and out came a 8oz skimmer, not a carp but these skimmers can be weight builders! Next 3 put ins produced 3 carp all 4lb+ which is a good stamp for here, but then nothing. I tried the pole lines with no joy, just to go back onto the bread and catch another 2 carp in 2 chucks. Id not seen anyone else catch a fish at this point, so i decided to try the pole lines quick, and if they didnt bring no joy I was going to scrap the long pole and just keep the margin line and concentrate on the bomb.
As the day went on i found i was getting 2 or 3 carp one after the other, then nothing, so i was trying the margin line every 30minutes just to give the fish a chance to come back to the bomb line, unfortunately on the day i didnt catch anything on the pole, but it was the same for everyone, the fish had just backed off.
I was still struggling to keep the fish coming on the bomb line, so i was playing around with the hooklenght size and how much bread i was popping up. in the end i decided popping up 2 10mm punches of bread at 12 inches was optimal, and stuck at this for the remainder of the day. The fish did back off later on and i had to take a couple of turns off the reel and clip back up, this required extremely accurate casting as i was going inbetween 2 overhanging trees into about a foot gap, fortunately it was worthwhile as I didn't hit the trees once and I was catching one a chuck!
I finished the day with 31carp for 122lb, an awesome average for this lake, to my right the top weight was 9lb, and that was peg 6! To my left the top weight was 30lb which was peg 9 right next to me.
Id well and truely sacked up on the day, there were the usual comments on how id sat on the fish, but id seen plenty of fish in peg 9 and 10 so they wernt just bundled into my little gap in the islands! My gap was about 4 meters wide with overhanging trees to make things tricky, whereas pegs 9 and 10 have about 10-12meters, which to me would make a better swim surely?
So id extended my lead in the championship as id won the match, and my main competitors hadn't won their sections or placed in the match, couldn't have gone any more to plan really!

Next week sees me going back to lake-lands front lake, where its fishing hard at the moment with fish being fairly tightly huddled in the open water pegs, im hoping to continue my lucky drawing streak and good form, and hopefully catch some carp, ide, bream and every other fish that lives in lakelands!

I look forward to posting my report next week,
Tight Lines,
Reece Hearn

Tuesday 13 November 2012

River Chelmer Hoe Mill Open Match

It was back to the Chelmer for this weeks Match, after last weeks wash out I was hoping conditions were going to be good this time round. There had been no rain all week so I was expecting a river just come out of flood with a hint of colour and a decent flow, fortunately that was exactly what I found when I turned up at my peg!
We were fishing along the Hoe mill stretch, which is normally the more consistent area, and you can always catch a few fish, I hadn't fished this part since last year when I had a great day catching roach on hemp, I was hoping for more of the same!
I drew peg 5 from the draw bag, meaning nothing to me as ive not fished here for so long, I got my gear and started the long muddy walk to my peg. On arrival I found myself on the same peg as the year before. This is part of the river where it goes from about 17 meters wide, to about 10 meters, although this didn't concern me too much as id won the section from it last year.
I had some joker left from last week so decided I was going to fish a line down my inside to my right, about 2 meters away from the bank, just where it gets deep, and another straight down the middle with hemp, with the option of moving further across if the fish backed off.
I started the Match by feeding a golf ball sized ball of bread down the middle, the plan was to trickle hemp on this line all day with the odd ball of bread to hopefully get the bigger roach to feed, I then started fishing on my inside, fortunately the fish were on it instantly so after 30minutes id caught 40 small fish over the joker, probably for less than a pound, but it was a good start! I went over the bread line and caught instantly on bread, the fish were slightly bigger but were coming far slower, I tried some hemp only to miss a bite after 5 minutes, no good so I went back down the inside. I carried on catching here but the fish never got bigger, i had the odd 1oz specimen but not in any numbers. after about 2 hours the line down the middle was really building up, and I was managing a bite every run through on this line. I decided to stop feeding bread on this line aswell, I feel as though small fish only nose and spit out hemp so by feeding only hemp maybe I would get through to the bigger fish? Well, this didnt exactly go to plan, I did cut out the tiddlers, but didn't get onto the 4-6oz residents. The swim was constantly building though and in the last hour I caught alot of 1-2oz fish, which certainly boosted my weight, strangely enough I didn't really catch on hemp, even though this is all I was feeding. I found that if I fished 4mm bread punch I got quick bites, then after 4 or 5 fish I would put a red maggot on and I would get a bigger roach or dace every time, nice weight builders. I had a nice rythem going through the match and I new I would be in contention, unless someone got onto the bigger fish in which case I might just fall short! Id managed 205 fish in the 5 hours, and thought they would only go about 6lb at best!
I went along with the weigh in, and I was surprised to see Mr mason only weighing 3lb 10oz, he is a great angler along this stretch, and anywhere he goes in fact. The bloke to my left managed 3lb 2oz, after suffering with alot of pike trouble all day. When the scales came to me I was pleasantly surprised by the weight of my fish as I lifted them out, the scales of justice showed me 7lb 8oz, I was very pleased with that, much more than id thought! The last few blokes weighed in, including my grandad, Peter Thompson, who managed 4lb to pinch 2nd place from Mr mason.
Id had a great days fishing, even though I had to walk through 8inch deep mud to get to my peg! Thats yet another win for my season, at another venue, and another style of fishing. Ive won matches with 400lb of carp, 60lb of bream, and 20lb of roach, various mixed bags and now 7lb of river roach and dace, nothing pleases me more than to be able to win matches with a variety of fish and with different techniques, ive truly had some fantastic fishing this season, im looking forward to the winter ahead, as I love catching silvers on commercials, so much to look forward too!
Next week im off to Rayne lodge top lake on the Saturday for an open match, then on Sunday I have a club match on the bottom lake, this time of year you don't know if your targetting 50lb of skimmers and carp or 150lb of carp to win a match at Rayne, one thing I love about match fishing is on days like these having to work out the best method to catch, rather than going somewhere knowing your going to ton up in the margins.
I must confess to having had a sneaky practice on Saturday on the bottom lake, in preparation for this Sunday, I just cant help myself but go fishing when im not at work! I caught 22 carp and an endless amount of skimmers, for roughly 100lb I thought. But the weather can change, frosts can kick in and fish can swim into another peg, so bring on next week.

Thanks for reading this weeks blog, I look forward to posting next week on how my 2 matches go!

Tight Lines,

Reece Hearn.

Wednesday 7 November 2012

River Chelmer Essex Interclub league

This week saw me and the Braintree team head to the river chelmer for the 5th round of the essex inter-club league (essexinterclubleague.co.uk) Its the penultimate round, and we were going into this match leading the league by a point. Heavy rain all week meant the river was a raging torrent and the last thing we wanted was to have a blow out, so bloodworm and joker was in order! There were 3 stretches of river being used, one at Boreham where there would be 3 sections, one at Papermills where there would be 2 sections, and another at Hoe mill where there was 1 section.
Come the draw, it was already hammering it down again, the talk was that there would be a lot of blanks, not the greatest thing to hear at the draw bag. Everyone wanted to draw hoe mill, if there was a chance to winkle out a few fish then this was the section where it would happen. Our captain went to draw our peg no which was 8, yet again im yet to draw either 1 or 10, how lovely it would be to draw an end peg just once. Sections came round and I got the middle section at Boreham, not where i wanted to be as Ive not fished this bit before! But under the conditions it was going to be tough for all so hopefully peoples local knowledge wouldn't be so important.
After arriving at my peg, the river was absolutely charging through, quite simply I had nothing heavy enough to hold bottom in that, I decided to peg my keep-net back so I had some slack behind that, and also fish a small slack over the far bank. Ive fished these conditions before and caught a few fish behind my keep-net when others around me have blanked, so I felt confident fishing here.
Come the start, I decided to feed 2 balls of joker on the far side slack, i opted for 2 because I didn't really feel like this line would produce much, if anything, so I didn't want to waste all my joker, nothing wrong with saving some for the following week rather than balling it in for nothing! After this, I put a bloodworm on my hook and went behind me keep-net, 5 bite-less minutes passed so I decided to feed a pinch of joker, quite literally a pinch in-between my finger and thumb! Yet again 5 bite-less minutes! I knew I had to catch a fish before doing anything else, as the last thing I wanted to do was blank in an inter-club match! I decided to try double joker on the hook rather than bloodworm, as the bloodworm were quite big, I dropped this behind my keep-net and the float just buried, out came a tiny roach, crisis averted, I was going to score some kind of points! I gave it another 10 minutes without catching anything, so went over my main joker line, just for the wind to pick up and almost smash my pole in two. I came back down the edge and fed some more joker, nothing, back out on the long pole, nothing. This trend continued all day. At 1 o'clock an angler walked past and asked how I was getting on, I told him id caught one small roach for him to reply that I must be winning the section. A little after this the river almost doubled in pace, the water rose by about a foot, and was coming through really thick and muddy. I knew at this point I genuinely could win the section with my 1 fish, as I couldn't see a way of me catching another one, my staked keep-net was all over the place so my slack water was all but gone, far side and inside. I braved the last part of the match in the howling wind and rain, only to catch nothing else!
As the scales man walked down I think he was surprised to hear id caught a fish. I was the only person to catch a fish in my section, so 10 points and £40 made my day seem a bit better.
Papermills and Hoe mill had fished much better, with most people breaking the 1lb barrier and winning weights of 9lb and 5lb. On the Boreham stretch I was one of six anglers who caught a fish, 24 had blanked. The only surprise was the very end peg of Boreham who somehow managed 4 Bream for 20lb, 2nd place along this 30peg stretch was 1oz! It would be rare to catch those bream any time of year as there's not many bream in these rivers!
The result came through that our Braintree team finished 2nd, behind CAPS B, but more importantly ahead of Maldon and Does who are our closest rivals in the League.
We now head into the final round on the Maldon canal with a 4 point lead ahead of Maldon. They've won the league for the last 4 years in a row, we now have a great chance to beat them this year. Maldon always put on a true masterclass on the canal, so well have to put in another good team performance if we are to win.
Thanks for reading, next week im off to Hoe Mill, rather unwillingly I must admit, but I like to stick to what ive booked in for and not let people down, so rain please stay away and lets catch some hemp roach!

Tight Lines,

Reece Hearn

Tuesday 30 October 2012

Fennes fishery match

This week saw the temperatures plummet on the Thursday and stay around 0c for the next couple of nights, so Sunday was looking to be a hard day for fishing! On the morning I drew on the match lake, which is where I wanted to be, I even managed to draw peg 7 which was in the right area, or at least I thought it would be. There were only 25 pegs put in on this lake, so we were fairly spread out with 1 or 2 pegs either side of us, I felt as though this would be a big bonus on the day considering the sudden drop in temperature.

My peg is in the deep area of the lake, which is normally where the better bream and f1s head to when it gets cold, only problem was that im stuck behind an island, and the next person on my right, 3 pegs up, was in the open water swim in-between the islands, this tends to be where most fish hold up, and if anyone is going to bag up all day, its the 4 swims that have access to this area, not being one of them I knew I would have to work quite hard. The open water swims are very easy to fish, this time of year, an open end feeder with dead maggot will normally keep going round with bream, corn can sometimes pick up an odd f1, or if your sitting on top of a bunch of f1s then nothing beats pop up bread!

I started my match by feeding a chop worm, caster slop at 10 meters. I decided to fish 10 meters as this is where it drops off into the deeper water, its about 6-7 foot deep here, although you can fish further and fish on the heads of the bream at about 14 meters, where its about 7-8 foot deep i felt as though this would be hard on the day as the wind was gusting, and i wanted to catch roach in between my bream, which meant an increase in speed shipping in and out would be vital, so 10 meters felt good! I also decided to keep trickling in a few casters and hemp 45 degree to my right, because if it was hard I may have to roach bash to hand! I then proceeded to chuck the feeder out about 3/4 away across just before the lilly pads off the island, after 10 motionless minutes on the tip I decided for another cast, which equally didn't move! The bloke to my right hadn't had anything, nor to my left, so I wasn't worried at this point. After 40 minutes and 6 casts I knew I didn't have allot of bream in front of me, I tried a bomb with pop up bread to also not get a bite!
I decided for a try on the pole line, out I went with a caster and in came a roach, a 4oz roach, so I wasn't complaining! I repeated this 6 times, catching good roach each time when the float buried and my 9 hollo came flying out of my pole! Back it came and bream no 1 was in the net, my next 2 put ins produced another bream and a skimmer, then it went dead! 10 bite less minutes switching between worm and caster. So i put another pot of slop in and back on the tip. Bite less. Back on the pole, and I was back into good roach, unfortunately the bream didn't return, for the rest of the match I had a method where I basically fished 20 minutes on the pole, put another pot of slop in, and chucked the tip out for 5 minutes. I was hoping I may pick up 1 or 2 bream on the tip by doing this, unfortunately it never happened! With an hour to go I decided to feed 3 big pots of the slop on my pole line, in the hope that if there were any bream in my peg this would pull them in! I had no choice but to make this change as the bloke to my right had caught 7 good bream that id seen, and the bloke to my left had stuck on the feeder all day and had 4, I felt as though I was 2 bream Behind the guy to my right as id had allot of quality roach. So a positive approach was required. I went over the line again after 5 bite less minutes on the tip, and instantly onto quality roach, the odd 8oz one too! I was getting a bite a chuck. I had 2 decent perch pushing the 1lb mark and with 10minutes left i had a nice 3lb bream! Bonus! In the last hour the bloke to my right had caught 2 more slabs!
Come the weigh in I didn't think I had enough to beat him, I knew it was close but felt he had pipped me! He was weighed first and had 21-8, the scales then headed to me, and I was very happy with my bag of fish, another good mixed bag, and with compliments flying my way as I poured them into the weigh bag, i was happy with my efforts! I weighed 22lb! Just pipped him, and I had just 3 bream! A real solid bag of roach from what seemed like it could have been an incredibly hard day! some people blanked! many only managed a few pound!
The result was that i had won my section and was top from the 3 sections weighed so far, on the other bank someone had sat on some f1s and managed a good 57lb of them on pop up bread, the bloke to his left had managed 40lb of them, and to his right 25lb. so i was fourth on the lake. More importantly in the main payout! The results from the other lake came in and it had been incredibly hard, with only 3 people breaking double figures, unfortunately one of them had 2 great lumps for 26lb and the other had 35lb with 3 lumps!
Thats just how it goes sometimes! You cant win them all and you cant always draw a flyer, you can simply extract the best weight from your peg as you see possible, and on the day I knew id done that if not more, so I was happy with my performance. Section wins and consistency I tell myself!

Next week is off the the river Chelmer for another inter club match, hopefully I can draw the area I fished last time as I had a great day catching roach on hemp! I've not fished the other stretches that are in but I look forward to it anyway!

Please leave comments for suggestions on how I can improve my blogs, I will hopefully start to include pictures soon aswell!

Thanks for reading andTight lines,

Reece Hearn



Wednesday 24 October 2012

Summer 2012 Fishing!

To start, i will tell you a little about myself. Im a 20year old match angler from Essex, and i fish with my local Braintree and bocking angling club, along with taking part in open matches. Ive been a keen angler since the age of 6 when my grandad first took me fishing. And ive taken part in matches since i was 11. I quite litrally live to fish and couldnt see it any other way!

Now onto this summer! I have really enjoyed this years summer, its been a great success for me, ive had plenty of match wins, learnt new methods and set new personal bests.
To start with, i won my clubs evening league, winning 5 of the 8 matches, and placing in the top 3 in the ones i didnt win! We fish our evening league at 2 different venues, one being our club lake, which is full of rudd, perch, cruicians and small carp. The other being the Fennes hill and black lake, which has a good head of lumpy carp and some good bream. I managed to win all 4 of the matches held at our club lake, on the same method each time. I like to think its abit of an art form as only a couple of anglers seem to have got the grasp of it so far, is basically consists of fishing for bites, using balanced tackle so i can land the crafty cruicians aswell as make the most of the massive head of rudd and perch. A common bag of fish for me from this lake is about 20lbs of small silvers, and any added cruicians and carp i catch. I actually set the lake record with 35lb 8oz using this method, which included 18 of the cruicians! The most important part of my method is to keep busy, theres not a moment in a match when im not moving, i tend to fish on a top kit plus a short no 4 to get me into the deeper water but also keep me fishing to hand to keep my speed up, because of this, i am able to feed by hand, and feed accuratly. 
Onto the feed, very simple, 3pints of red maggots with a few whites as a change bait, whites often catch me a perch a chuck when im struggling, which soon add to your weight. Also a sloppy soil/groundbait combo. Being quite a clear lake i feel as though the cloud created by the slop really gives the fish confidence, and you can often have them in a frenzy getting a fish a chuck, which just doesnt happen if you simply loose feed the maggots.
The way in which i feed tends to be loose feed 10-15maggots, flick rig in, feed small ball of slop by hand, catch fish, repeat. Sometimes you have to alter whether you put your rig in first, maggots first, slop first etc. But as a rule maggots, rig, slop is where i start and work from there.
Onto the Rigs. I always start on the bottom, which at this lenght out tends to be 4-5ft, and work my way into the session, you tend to find that you catch bigger fish on the bottom aswell which always gives you a good start, after about 15minutes il be looking to go shallow or if im getting bites on the drop i will change sooner, as fishing shallow always produces quicker bites. I tend to start at 2foot deep in 4foot of water on my shallow line, and go up and down depending on where the fish are. my best bags of fish have been at 2foot as the cruicians dont seem to come shallower than this and they really are good bonus fish. i often have 3 shallow rigs set up at 1,2,3ft and one for on the deck. Shotting patters have a big impact aswell, sometimes you will just be missing bites galore, change the shotting patter and your into everything, often there are so many fish in the peg you can just have a bulk of shit 6inches from the hook, sometimes a bulk and one dropper or 2 droppers, sometimes a spread shirt button style shotting patter works,its different everytime i go there! Alot depends on what stamp of fish are in front of you, as there are the 8-10oz rudd then theres the 2-4oz rudd! If the big ones are in front of you then happy days, you will catch at 2 foot and catch everything. If the smaller ones are there then you have to be quick and efficient and feed heavy until bigger rudd and cruicians turn up. This method really works well and ive drawn poor pegs and struggled for the first hour, just to pull the fish in and catch like a bat out of hell for the remainder of the match.
Ive employed this method of fishing at other venues i go to and really caught very well. Some venues seem to be good with casters in the slop instead of maggot, some with worm and caster etc but its all down to the lake you are fishing and what baits work well, one thing for sure is worms work everywhere!

My Match this sunday was on the Fennes hill and black lake. I drew peg 17, which was one of 2 pegs i didnt really want! This peg is home to some big carp and not usually many silvers as its abit tucked away in the corner, i had a big reed bed that went 13meters out on my left, and the rest was open water. But being the match angler i am, im always looking to extract the best weight of fish from my peg as possible! So i set out an approach in order to do this, i fed a line at 13meters on the end of the reeds in about 5foot of water with pellets, i felt becuase of the cold nights i wouldnt catch the carp in shallow water, if they fed at all! so with my reed line here i felt as though i could get f1s carp and maybe even a bream or 2. I also fed a 6meter worm,caster,slop line, the idea of this was to catch everything that swims. i was hoping i would get into the big roach and perch and the odd bream would come along, so by fishing 6 meters i was making the most of being in deep enough water for the bream and also being close enough to catch roach quickly. I felt as though the match would be won with about 40lb becuase the cold nights had kicked in, so i was confident with my approch, even though i wasnt in a noted peg.

The Match began, and i fed a pot of slop of 6 meters, and a few pellets at 13meters. I was straight into roach at 6 meters, while everyone was out on the tip hoping to catch a quick bream or f1, i was busy getting a bite a chuck! I managed about 4lb of roach before i saw anyone even catch a bream! Every 2 fish i was feeding a small pot of slop, and every 5 fish i was feeding a pouchfull of pellets onto my 13meter line. after an hour id had 4 big bream and lots of roach and perch, quite litrally a bite a chuck! But it died off, so i potted another big pot of slop and went on the 13meter line. First put in was a 2lb f1, second put in was a missed bite and that was it. clearly regular loose feed was not the way! So i potted in a big pot of pellet and went back to the 6m line. Straight back into the action, a fish a chuck! I was finding when the bream where there, the best bait was an inch long piece of worm, but when they wernt double caster produced some really nice roach, it was just a case of swapping about! After 30mins i went back onto the pellet line and had another f1. Then nothing. I felt as though the cold had put the f1s and carp off so decided to keep pinging a few pellets with a pult and the odd pot every now and then. By the end of the session id had 1 carp of 5lb 3 f1s and a few skimmers on the pellet line, not so great, but still important fish to catch to build my weight.
My main line at 6meters was awesome sport all day, and by following the feeding pattern i explained, i had fish every single put in, be it a roach, a perch a rudd or a bream. My approach to catch all that swam was the right method of the day, and i finished with 63lb, with probably 20lb of roach in there aswell! A truely awesome mixed bag of fish! second place was 40lb of bream and f1s, So id done more than enough to win, and wouldnt have done it if i had neglected the small silvers.

My summer as a whole was superb, making my first ever ton at rayne lodge fishery, then 2 weeks later making my first ever double ton with 201lb, to break my club record! Then just 2 weeks ago i had 431lb at arrans lake in chelmford, truely fish soup! This year was my first year using method feeders and pellet wagglers aswell, and all i can say is these have transformed my catches from just framing to winning! Ive learnt alot this year! Because of this im currently leading my club championship, won plenty of matches and trophys! And had a truely brilliant summer, despite the rain!
To finish i would like to say thankyou for reading my first ever blog! Im sure theres many improvements to be made, which i will look at and improve for next time! I hope to post up my weekly match reports as i fish every sunday and opens on saturdays when they are available!


Tight lines!

Reece Hearn.