Fennes fisheries and Rayne lodge

The last few weeks have resulted in a lot of Ice breaking, not the most fun thing to do before you fish but it certainly warms you up.
I fished a match at Rayne lodge last Saturday, I drew peg 13 on the Middle lake, this is the 2nd best peg on the lake in cold conditions, so I knew I had a chance of some fish.
Having fished silverfish matches here I knew I could catch about 10lb of silvers relatively easily by fishing to hand, and I also knew the carp were quite manageable on the same gear. I broke the ice down my right margin and straight out in front, this way I had a propper long pole and margin line, as well as 2 areas I can fish to hand, as previously id found bigger silvers to hang around the edges, so maybe the carp would too?
I finished the Match with 257fish, including 9 carp, 4 of which were caught on my line to hand down the edge, 4 on my proper edge line, and 1 on the long pole. My total weight was 26lb, which won me the section and put me 2nd on the lake, as peg 15 the real flyer in the cold, had caught 38carp for 64lb and won the match!
Sunday I fished at Hobbs croft down the Fennes, I love the Fennes in the winter as you can catch good bags of roach anywhere. I drew peg 78 which I actually fancied before the draw, After breaking 2inches of ice I set my gear up and was ready to go. I Fed 8 balls of joker on my long 8meter line, and 1 golf ball sized ball at 5meters, this was to give me a start before the long line built up.
The day started brilliantly and I put a 1lb of fish in the net in no time, after about 45minutes I was able to catch over the long line and I caught with a good catch rate, unfortunately my fish were relatively small compared to what I would normally catch on this lake, but There was nothing I could do to bring in better fish, so I carried on catching what I could. Bites really tailed off for the last 2 hours as the sun was no longer on my part of the lake, I had to scrap around for bites, eventually ending up with 147fish. Unfortunatly my slow end to the match had cost me, and I finished 3rd in the match with 9lb 4oz, but won my section, the worst thing was my rival Mark Banks had weighed in 9lb 10oz, which meant I had to give him another £1!

Next week Im off to the Fennes on Ash grounds, before the Ice 5 consecutive matches have been won from peg 55 where the f1s ball up, this is also the peg I fished when I wrote my article on the pellet cone, so ill certainly be hoping to draw this peg, and if I don't hopefully 15-20lb of roach will be on the cards! Maybe the sudden rise in temperature might even get the bream on the feed? Who knows! One thing for sure is ill be on for a good day fishing!

Thanks for reading and ill see you next week!