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.
Monday 26 November 2012
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
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.
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
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
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