I haven't blogged in a few weeks, but some of my recent results are a win at rayne lodge with 71lb, a win at arrans lake with 120lb, a terrible result in my fishomania qualifier! My bills tackle team won our 1st round in the knockout cup. And ive had a couple good days where i didn't quite manage enough, like last weeks match at rayne lodge where i weighed 102lb which i struggled for, to miss out on the section by 3lb! although im sure that's nothing on what Grant Albutt must be feeling after his 8th second place finish in a fisho qualifier. I hope when he finally qualifies he doesn't finish 2nd in the final!
I shall try get back into the blog with weekly catch reports.
Reece.
Thursday, 25 April 2013
Thursday, 7 March 2013
Long Pond fishery
This Sunday our club went to long pong fishery, this is a really scenic lake in the summer with lots of trees and Lilly pads lining the place. I've never been here in winter though so on arrival it looked like a completely different lake! more so because it was completely iced over! sods law it had been warm all week with one frost on Saturday night meaning it iced up! fortunately it was breakable with a pole pot!
I had no idea what i was to be fishing for or what pegs would be good, so i was first in the draw bag to find my destination for the day. Peg 12. This has an island to fish too, and also some open water, although it is shallower than other parts, the island is 14.5 meters away as well with reeds on the end to make for awkward playing of fish! I've actually drawn this peg before so knew it was as deep next to the island as the rest of the peg, which gave me confidence to target this area.
I opted to fish 14.5 meters to the island and start by feeding a golf ball of micros and 4 mm with a couple of grains of corn, a balled in joker line at 11 meters in the open water, and a short line where i fed one small ball of joker just to make sure i didn't blank!
I started on the short line catching 7 consecutive tiny perch in 15 minutes, at least it was fish in my net! I spotted someone hook a carp across the lake so decided to give the carp line a go in case there was something there already, the float stayed for no longer than 10 seconds before flying under and carp no 1 was on, after a 5 minute battle it was in the net. I then put the rig in again and caught another one, then again and caught a lumpy 10 lb er! Id put 20 lb in the net in the space of 20 minutes. I didn't think i was going to weigh more than about 15 lb so this certainly wasn't a bad start! I also got those 3 in before the bloke opposite got his one in, as he had it on a 20 hook on an .08 bottom!
I went in again and foul hooked one, and decided that my small golf ball of bait must be gone! so i put another 2 p sized ball in and instantly caught another one. Unfortunately no more followed and i had to work my lines for bites, which weren't coming at all! the joker lines were dead.
It seemed as though I had caught some resident fish rather than drawn anything in, which i did expect having a deep island to fish too.
I spent next 2 hours just fishing the line against the island and introducing small amounts of bait through a kinder pot, i caught 2 bream in this time so at least it wasn't wasted time. I couldn't get a bite from a roach or anything anywhere else. I decided to spend the rest of the match on this line, trickling in the bait, I eventually hooked another which was foul hooked and came off, and straight after i put another in the net.
I sat bite less for the last 2 hours, and the bloke opposite had caught 2 more in the last hour which left me wondering if i had done enough!
I finally weighed my 5 carp and 2 bream in for 31 lb 9 oz, closely followed by the bloke opposite with 30 lb 15 oz. Those bream had been the difference as we both caught 5 carp each! Certainly a close one but my peg is no where near as good as the other blokes in the summer, so maybe its better for holding carp in the winter as well. The backup weights were not so good, with one bloke weighing 18 lb of roach and clearly having a ball of them in front of him as no body else had hardly any! Other weights with 11 lb and 9 lb of skimmers, and the rest were all 6 lb or less. so it had been an incredibly hard day for most.
I was happy to bag my third win in a row though, and win the club championship in style!
Next week I am off to Arrans lake in Ingatestone again, I've grown fond of this water even though ive only been 3 times, I already feel as though I've got it sussed! Hopefully ill have a good report for next week, can I make it 4 in a row?
Thanks for reading, and ill try to remember to take photos again next time!
I had no idea what i was to be fishing for or what pegs would be good, so i was first in the draw bag to find my destination for the day. Peg 12. This has an island to fish too, and also some open water, although it is shallower than other parts, the island is 14.5 meters away as well with reeds on the end to make for awkward playing of fish! I've actually drawn this peg before so knew it was as deep next to the island as the rest of the peg, which gave me confidence to target this area.
I opted to fish 14.5 meters to the island and start by feeding a golf ball of micros and 4 mm with a couple of grains of corn, a balled in joker line at 11 meters in the open water, and a short line where i fed one small ball of joker just to make sure i didn't blank!
I started on the short line catching 7 consecutive tiny perch in 15 minutes, at least it was fish in my net! I spotted someone hook a carp across the lake so decided to give the carp line a go in case there was something there already, the float stayed for no longer than 10 seconds before flying under and carp no 1 was on, after a 5 minute battle it was in the net. I then put the rig in again and caught another one, then again and caught a lumpy 10 lb er! Id put 20 lb in the net in the space of 20 minutes. I didn't think i was going to weigh more than about 15 lb so this certainly wasn't a bad start! I also got those 3 in before the bloke opposite got his one in, as he had it on a 20 hook on an .08 bottom!
I went in again and foul hooked one, and decided that my small golf ball of bait must be gone! so i put another 2 p sized ball in and instantly caught another one. Unfortunately no more followed and i had to work my lines for bites, which weren't coming at all! the joker lines were dead.
It seemed as though I had caught some resident fish rather than drawn anything in, which i did expect having a deep island to fish too.
I spent next 2 hours just fishing the line against the island and introducing small amounts of bait through a kinder pot, i caught 2 bream in this time so at least it wasn't wasted time. I couldn't get a bite from a roach or anything anywhere else. I decided to spend the rest of the match on this line, trickling in the bait, I eventually hooked another which was foul hooked and came off, and straight after i put another in the net.
I sat bite less for the last 2 hours, and the bloke opposite had caught 2 more in the last hour which left me wondering if i had done enough!
I finally weighed my 5 carp and 2 bream in for 31 lb 9 oz, closely followed by the bloke opposite with 30 lb 15 oz. Those bream had been the difference as we both caught 5 carp each! Certainly a close one but my peg is no where near as good as the other blokes in the summer, so maybe its better for holding carp in the winter as well. The backup weights were not so good, with one bloke weighing 18 lb of roach and clearly having a ball of them in front of him as no body else had hardly any! Other weights with 11 lb and 9 lb of skimmers, and the rest were all 6 lb or less. so it had been an incredibly hard day for most.
I was happy to bag my third win in a row though, and win the club championship in style!
Next week I am off to Arrans lake in Ingatestone again, I've grown fond of this water even though ive only been 3 times, I already feel as though I've got it sussed! Hopefully ill have a good report for next week, can I make it 4 in a row?
Thanks for reading, and ill try to remember to take photos again next time!
Thursday, 28 February 2013
The Fennes Hill and Black Lake
This Sunday I was off to the Fennes on the Hill and Black lake, after my practice on the thursday I was concerned the fish may be bunched up in a few pegs out of the wind, so I felt as though not drawing this area could make it really hard!
It had been ice cold over night and there was cat ice in places on the lake, I was hoping for a draw on 15 or 16 to be out of the freezing wind and hopefully where the fish were. I ended up drawing peg 26, which in normal conditions I would consider a good skimmer peg, but being the other end of the lake to where I caught Thursday it could be a quiet day!
I decided to fish a 6 meter line where I would introduce one small golf ball of joker to start, and an 11 meter line where I decided to put about 400 ml of joker in 10 balls, with 3 really rich balls in the center. The idea being I could start by catching a few little fish, to avoid a blank and also give me somewhere to go when things were slow. The idea of feeding loads on the long line was down to how I had caught on Thursday, I really felt as though you had to get allot down there, and once the fish finally came in you should catch for the rest of the match, for some reason on Thursday the bream didn't respond to topping up after eating the initial feed, so id opted to just feed more in case they didn't respond again! I also set up a tip rod to chuck out for the first half hour in the hope of a lucky rap round.
Rigs for the day were my favorite Drennan lake 0.8g float (unfortunately they no longer make this older sensitive pattern) this was for the long line which was about 7 foot deep, tied to a 20 Drennan silverfish onto an 0.08mm hooklenght. The short line was identical except with a 0.4g float.
I started the match and fed my lines, I opted for the trusty 50/50 black lake and roach mixed in 50/50 with some damp leam. This is a reliable mix that never lets you down if you are trying to catch bream or roach when fishing bloodworm and joker.
After 2 chucks and 30 bite less minutes I was on the 6 meter line, which produced one roach in 15 minutes, id avoided a blank at least I then tried the long line and caught 2 more roach before nothing. Back on the short line and I had a small skimmer about 8 oz, this was a good sign and gave me confidence there must be a few in the area as you very rarely catch just one, I had a couple more in the next 30 minutes before topping the short line up and deciding the long line must be ready.
I caught a 2 lb bream first put in on the long line followed by 3 roach, it was good to be getting bites as no one else seemed to be able to string two bites together.
Back on the short line and I had a couple more roach, but they didn't seem to be coming very fast,so i topped up with 2 balls and then went back on the long line.
By this time it was 12 o'clock and 2 hours had passed, I felt as though I was neck and neck with the people on 15 and 16 so felt as though I still had a chance despite being in what I thought was the wrong area.
I caught 3 bream on the bounce on dead maggot before not getting any more bites, I topped up with another orange sized ball and had 2 more bream instantly. It seemed as though they were responding to the top up balls well. I decided to try 4 bloodworm as a hook bait, as sometimes this can work really well for bream, and it was the case today as it completely outclassed the dead maggot.
I refined my feeding throughout the day, finding that it was best to top up with 2 golf balls of joker after every 3 bream, the last hour was a real flier and as well as good bream I started catching skimmers in between which meant I was putting something in my net every put in.
I finished the match with 19 bream and some skimmers and roach, for a final weight of 57 lb, a fantastic weight of silvers from what can be a difficult venue in the cold! second place finished with 16 lb, and weights of 15 lb and 14 lb were recorded.
It had fished exactly the same to when i fished it the Thursday except a few roach had fed, and also the bream responded to top up balls of joker, id caught two good weights of bream from opposite ends of the lake, which makes me feel I had a good method worked out. You never know if you were sitting on a ball of fish on venues like this, and I may possibly have done, but it did take 2 hours to get one to feed so it didn't seem like it!
I certainly feel as though I've learnt something in specific for this lake to catch bream, and hope to use this knowledge in future matches, the key was certainly to put loads of joker in at the start, and not worry if you haven't caught anything for 2 hours!
Next week I am off to Long pond in Clare I have never fished this place in the winter, which makes a difficult bait menu! I've opted to try a similar bloodworm approach to what I used this Sunday and also a pellet line with the option of corn as a hook bait. there are also some swims I may be able to fish the tip, but not knowing how clear the water will be or anything makes it hard to know what to do! I will simply take my gear and work something out when I arrive at my peg!
Thanks for reading,
see you next week!
Reece.
It had been ice cold over night and there was cat ice in places on the lake, I was hoping for a draw on 15 or 16 to be out of the freezing wind and hopefully where the fish were. I ended up drawing peg 26, which in normal conditions I would consider a good skimmer peg, but being the other end of the lake to where I caught Thursday it could be a quiet day!
I decided to fish a 6 meter line where I would introduce one small golf ball of joker to start, and an 11 meter line where I decided to put about 400 ml of joker in 10 balls, with 3 really rich balls in the center. The idea being I could start by catching a few little fish, to avoid a blank and also give me somewhere to go when things were slow. The idea of feeding loads on the long line was down to how I had caught on Thursday, I really felt as though you had to get allot down there, and once the fish finally came in you should catch for the rest of the match, for some reason on Thursday the bream didn't respond to topping up after eating the initial feed, so id opted to just feed more in case they didn't respond again! I also set up a tip rod to chuck out for the first half hour in the hope of a lucky rap round.
Rigs for the day were my favorite Drennan lake 0.8g float (unfortunately they no longer make this older sensitive pattern) this was for the long line which was about 7 foot deep, tied to a 20 Drennan silverfish onto an 0.08mm hooklenght. The short line was identical except with a 0.4g float.
I started the match and fed my lines, I opted for the trusty 50/50 black lake and roach mixed in 50/50 with some damp leam. This is a reliable mix that never lets you down if you are trying to catch bream or roach when fishing bloodworm and joker.
After 2 chucks and 30 bite less minutes I was on the 6 meter line, which produced one roach in 15 minutes, id avoided a blank at least I then tried the long line and caught 2 more roach before nothing. Back on the short line and I had a small skimmer about 8 oz, this was a good sign and gave me confidence there must be a few in the area as you very rarely catch just one, I had a couple more in the next 30 minutes before topping the short line up and deciding the long line must be ready.
I caught a 2 lb bream first put in on the long line followed by 3 roach, it was good to be getting bites as no one else seemed to be able to string two bites together.
Back on the short line and I had a couple more roach, but they didn't seem to be coming very fast,so i topped up with 2 balls and then went back on the long line.
By this time it was 12 o'clock and 2 hours had passed, I felt as though I was neck and neck with the people on 15 and 16 so felt as though I still had a chance despite being in what I thought was the wrong area.
I caught 3 bream on the bounce on dead maggot before not getting any more bites, I topped up with another orange sized ball and had 2 more bream instantly. It seemed as though they were responding to the top up balls well. I decided to try 4 bloodworm as a hook bait, as sometimes this can work really well for bream, and it was the case today as it completely outclassed the dead maggot.
I refined my feeding throughout the day, finding that it was best to top up with 2 golf balls of joker after every 3 bream, the last hour was a real flier and as well as good bream I started catching skimmers in between which meant I was putting something in my net every put in.
I finished the match with 19 bream and some skimmers and roach, for a final weight of 57 lb, a fantastic weight of silvers from what can be a difficult venue in the cold! second place finished with 16 lb, and weights of 15 lb and 14 lb were recorded.
It had fished exactly the same to when i fished it the Thursday except a few roach had fed, and also the bream responded to top up balls of joker, id caught two good weights of bream from opposite ends of the lake, which makes me feel I had a good method worked out. You never know if you were sitting on a ball of fish on venues like this, and I may possibly have done, but it did take 2 hours to get one to feed so it didn't seem like it!
I certainly feel as though I've learnt something in specific for this lake to catch bream, and hope to use this knowledge in future matches, the key was certainly to put loads of joker in at the start, and not worry if you haven't caught anything for 2 hours!
Next week I am off to Long pond in Clare I have never fished this place in the winter, which makes a difficult bait menu! I've opted to try a similar bloodworm approach to what I used this Sunday and also a pellet line with the option of corn as a hook bait. there are also some swims I may be able to fish the tip, but not knowing how clear the water will be or anything makes it hard to know what to do! I will simply take my gear and work something out when I arrive at my peg!
Thanks for reading,
see you next week!
Reece.
Thursday, 21 February 2013
Arrans lake and the fennes
This weekend I had two matches booked in.
The first being a Saturday match on arrans lake, no one really new how it would fish with the cold weather.
I drew the ow near the aerator so felt I could at least snag a few on the tip if nothing else.
I had 2 fish in the first hour on pellet cone and was left wondering what to do! The corner pegs were bagging so I had a lot of catching up to do!
I managed a few on the long pole before the swim died, I struggled up until the last hour and a half when I managed to put a few more fish together, I had a good last hour, finishing with 116lb for a section win and 4th overall. Top weight was 138lb so I'd done well considering I seemed in the wrong area on the day!
Sunday was a club match on Hobbs croft on the fennes.
Is was a rod and reel match only, and with the frosts overnight it was lookin grim! On arrival the lake was frozen so it was I've breaking to begin. As it were throughout the day the ice melted as the temperature rose to 8c.
I caught well on the waggler from the start, fishing caster over the top of a bed of joker, I fed 8 balls long and one ball short and basically topped up when bites died, I managed some decent skimmers long and loads of roach short to finish with 166 fish for 26lb 13oz. This was enough to win on the day as second was 24lb. Only one carp was hooked and lost all day, so I didn't waste my time fishing my bomb line, if I had done I may not have won the match so it was a good call on the day.
Today I went to hill as black at the fennes as I had a day off work, and thought I'd see what was happening on the lake in preparation for Sunday.
I didn't get a bite in the first hour, and considering I was fishing bloodworm and joker I was fairly concerned! All of a sudden my float slid away and I had a bream! Not what I was expecting at all. I had 16 on the trott before having to top up the swim, I just couldn't believe it! I finished with 25 bream for about 50lb. I was expecting 10lb of roach at best so a fantastic surprise!
The only problem I had was that I didn't catch a single roach! This concerns me for Sunday as not everyone will catch bream, maybe two or three people. So if you don't catch bream what else is there to catch?!?!
I'm just hoping I can net a few of those slabs Sunday in my match!
Thanks for reading and il see you next week!
The first being a Saturday match on arrans lake, no one really new how it would fish with the cold weather.
I drew the ow near the aerator so felt I could at least snag a few on the tip if nothing else.
I had 2 fish in the first hour on pellet cone and was left wondering what to do! The corner pegs were bagging so I had a lot of catching up to do!
I managed a few on the long pole before the swim died, I struggled up until the last hour and a half when I managed to put a few more fish together, I had a good last hour, finishing with 116lb for a section win and 4th overall. Top weight was 138lb so I'd done well considering I seemed in the wrong area on the day!
Sunday was a club match on Hobbs croft on the fennes.
Is was a rod and reel match only, and with the frosts overnight it was lookin grim! On arrival the lake was frozen so it was I've breaking to begin. As it were throughout the day the ice melted as the temperature rose to 8c.
I caught well on the waggler from the start, fishing caster over the top of a bed of joker, I fed 8 balls long and one ball short and basically topped up when bites died, I managed some decent skimmers long and loads of roach short to finish with 166 fish for 26lb 13oz. This was enough to win on the day as second was 24lb. Only one carp was hooked and lost all day, so I didn't waste my time fishing my bomb line, if I had done I may not have won the match so it was a good call on the day.
Today I went to hill as black at the fennes as I had a day off work, and thought I'd see what was happening on the lake in preparation for Sunday.
I didn't get a bite in the first hour, and considering I was fishing bloodworm and joker I was fairly concerned! All of a sudden my float slid away and I had a bream! Not what I was expecting at all. I had 16 on the trott before having to top up the swim, I just couldn't believe it! I finished with 25 bream for about 50lb. I was expecting 10lb of roach at best so a fantastic surprise!
The only problem I had was that I didn't catch a single roach! This concerns me for Sunday as not everyone will catch bream, maybe two or three people. So if you don't catch bream what else is there to catch?!?!
I'm just hoping I can net a few of those slabs Sunday in my match!
Thanks for reading and il see you next week!
Friday, 8 February 2013
Fennes Ash Grounds
This Sunday I was off to the Fennes yet again for a match on Ash grounds lake, after all the ice had melted I wasn't really sure how it was going to fish. Previously the in form peg has been 55 as its full of F1s! I certainly wouldn't mind drawing here as if they feed your on them and if they don't then at least you can still catch roach on the bloodworm and joker.
As my luck seems to have left me at the draw bag lately, I went in to draw peg 14, basically the worst peg that was in! Roach don't seem to head up here very often, and you normally catch skimmers instead, but with the ice gone in would they even want to know?
Anyway, I decided on 2 pole lines and set up a bomb to chuck out some pop up bread or boilies just while I left the joker to settle. One line was 11meters in about 6 foot of water, ideally I would have liked to go atleast 13 for the skimmers but it was way to windy and I could only manage 11. My other line was 6 sections at an angle to my right, so about 5 sections out, just away from my other line, this was in about 4 foot of water, the reason for this line was to give me a starting point while the longer 'balled' in line could settle.
I started by putting a golf ball of joker in on the short line, and 8 orange sized balls on the long line, I then proceeded to chuck the lead out with some bread, 15 minutes was enough boredom on that so on the short line. Nothing. If you don't get a bite on this line within 10 minutes, you know its going to be hard!
No-one else had caught anything at this point from what I could see either. I gave the long line 15 minutes before chucking the bomb out again. To cut the next 2 hours out, I basically didn't get a bite until about 12 when I had a tiny perch! Over my balled in line bizarrely enough. By this point I was about 2lb of fish behind the two guys to my left on 10 and 12, these are really good roach pegs, all i could hope is that they moved up to me!
Im not one for normally walking about, but I was so bloody bored I took a wander around the lake, a few people were catching some small roach, no F1s were feeding and it was rock hard all over. I arrived back at my peg about 20 minutes later, sat down, got the long rig out with a caster on and it just buried! A nice 4oz roach! I started catching quite steadily, and found dead maggot to be the best bait, sometimes they just dont take caster confidently enough, and the fish were no smaller on dead maggot and I got quicker bites so I carried on bagging on this, after an hour it died off, so I took the risk of topping up with a small golf ball of joker, it didn't work! After 10 bite less minutes moving the rig about I decided to try my short line, I hadn't topped this up for a while cause its normally redundant after you catch on the balled in line. I dropped my rig in and it just buried roach, roach and more roach. I don't know why they moved here, maybe Id overfed the long line? Maybe they wanted shallower water? who knows! But I wasn't complaining! Everyone was struggling at this point, and I was catching within a second of my float settling, I had a fantastic last half hour, and felt as though I should have done enough to beat the guy to my left, even though hed caught 2 hours before me!
I was the first to weigh in, and I had 79roach for 8lb 9oz, a fantastic weight seeing as id only caught properly for 2 and a half hours! The bloke to my left weighed in 7lb 2oz, so the last 30 minutes was what did it for me!
I went round with the weigh in, id beaten everyone down the left bank, including my new bills tackle team mates! Thats the 4th time ive drawn this bank and the 4th section ive won, certainly got something right!
Anyway, we got round to the last peg, Mr Banks! This was the important person to beat as I could get my all important £1 back, he was owning up to 5lb, which normally means 10lb. As he pulled his fish out he failed to mention hed caught a stray 3lb bream! That with his roach and a chunky perch went 9lb 8oz, another £1 I lost! Second week on the trott hes beaten me by less than 1lb as well! Gutted!
That put me 2nd in the match anyway, and I got my section so still got good points! This match was for the Huit cup as well the huit cup was spread over 3 rounds this year, I managed to finish 1st in the first round and 2nd in the last 2 rounds, so only dropping 2 points meant I won the trophy as well.
In terms of the overall club championship, I am still leading, not sure by how much but I hope a considerable amount! Theres 5 matches left in the season, so hopefully I can hold things together and wrap it up!
Next week im off to our notley lake. My granddad went up there for a little look last week and blanked so i might not have much to look forward to! hopefully it was just the ice water that put them off!
Thanks for reading and see you next week! (providing I get a bite)
As my luck seems to have left me at the draw bag lately, I went in to draw peg 14, basically the worst peg that was in! Roach don't seem to head up here very often, and you normally catch skimmers instead, but with the ice gone in would they even want to know?
Anyway, I decided on 2 pole lines and set up a bomb to chuck out some pop up bread or boilies just while I left the joker to settle. One line was 11meters in about 6 foot of water, ideally I would have liked to go atleast 13 for the skimmers but it was way to windy and I could only manage 11. My other line was 6 sections at an angle to my right, so about 5 sections out, just away from my other line, this was in about 4 foot of water, the reason for this line was to give me a starting point while the longer 'balled' in line could settle.
I started by putting a golf ball of joker in on the short line, and 8 orange sized balls on the long line, I then proceeded to chuck the lead out with some bread, 15 minutes was enough boredom on that so on the short line. Nothing. If you don't get a bite on this line within 10 minutes, you know its going to be hard!
No-one else had caught anything at this point from what I could see either. I gave the long line 15 minutes before chucking the bomb out again. To cut the next 2 hours out, I basically didn't get a bite until about 12 when I had a tiny perch! Over my balled in line bizarrely enough. By this point I was about 2lb of fish behind the two guys to my left on 10 and 12, these are really good roach pegs, all i could hope is that they moved up to me!
Im not one for normally walking about, but I was so bloody bored I took a wander around the lake, a few people were catching some small roach, no F1s were feeding and it was rock hard all over. I arrived back at my peg about 20 minutes later, sat down, got the long rig out with a caster on and it just buried! A nice 4oz roach! I started catching quite steadily, and found dead maggot to be the best bait, sometimes they just dont take caster confidently enough, and the fish were no smaller on dead maggot and I got quicker bites so I carried on bagging on this, after an hour it died off, so I took the risk of topping up with a small golf ball of joker, it didn't work! After 10 bite less minutes moving the rig about I decided to try my short line, I hadn't topped this up for a while cause its normally redundant after you catch on the balled in line. I dropped my rig in and it just buried roach, roach and more roach. I don't know why they moved here, maybe Id overfed the long line? Maybe they wanted shallower water? who knows! But I wasn't complaining! Everyone was struggling at this point, and I was catching within a second of my float settling, I had a fantastic last half hour, and felt as though I should have done enough to beat the guy to my left, even though hed caught 2 hours before me!
I was the first to weigh in, and I had 79roach for 8lb 9oz, a fantastic weight seeing as id only caught properly for 2 and a half hours! The bloke to my left weighed in 7lb 2oz, so the last 30 minutes was what did it for me!
I went round with the weigh in, id beaten everyone down the left bank, including my new bills tackle team mates! Thats the 4th time ive drawn this bank and the 4th section ive won, certainly got something right!
Anyway, we got round to the last peg, Mr Banks! This was the important person to beat as I could get my all important £1 back, he was owning up to 5lb, which normally means 10lb. As he pulled his fish out he failed to mention hed caught a stray 3lb bream! That with his roach and a chunky perch went 9lb 8oz, another £1 I lost! Second week on the trott hes beaten me by less than 1lb as well! Gutted!
That put me 2nd in the match anyway, and I got my section so still got good points! This match was for the Huit cup as well the huit cup was spread over 3 rounds this year, I managed to finish 1st in the first round and 2nd in the last 2 rounds, so only dropping 2 points meant I won the trophy as well.
In terms of the overall club championship, I am still leading, not sure by how much but I hope a considerable amount! Theres 5 matches left in the season, so hopefully I can hold things together and wrap it up!
Next week im off to our notley lake. My granddad went up there for a little look last week and blanked so i might not have much to look forward to! hopefully it was just the ice water that put them off!
Thanks for reading and see you next week! (providing I get a bite)
Thursday, 31 January 2013
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!
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!
Wednesday, 9 January 2013
Maldon canal, Essex Interclub league final round
This Sunday it was off to maldon canal for the final round of the Essex Interclub league (www.essexinterclubleague.co.uk) Our Braintree team have a 4 point lead going into this final round, with Maldon and Does joint 2nd behind us.
Maldon are super consistent on this canal, and anywhere in fact. Being their home water of course we had to get a good result if we were to hold on to our lead.
I drew peg C8, which was just up from the bridge by the car park, my team mate Danny Mason told me this could be a match winner due to some resident bream and skimmers, so at least I had a decent peg for once!
I set up several rigs to cover different areas of the canal, but my main two lines were going to be a 6m bread line and 6meter bloodworm line and 10 and 2. I also had a rig set up for at my feet incase it was hard and I needed to catch a little perch behind my keepnet! And also a chopworm caster line up towards the bridge on the far shelf.
The whistle blew, and I started to catch steadily at 6meters on bread, after 20minutes I was happy enough, I was catching one a chuck so I couldnt be doing much wrong I thought... Well, I looked to my right down the section, and I couldnt see a pole sticking out, strange I thought, I spend a minute or so peering down through the bushes to see if I could see what was going on, and it became apparant that everyone was fishing a whip to hand! I was really annoyed with myself at this point for not considering this option, ive never fished this section before and you dont normally catch to hand, but by the number of anglers fishing this way clearly its how to fish this section!
I straight away started to feed bread short and set up a top kit to fish to hand, as I didn't have a whip on me, I caught straight away, but I wasn't getting the better fish, so I ended up using a top 4 and I got into the better fish. Unfortunately I knew not having a whip was costing me in efficiency, and to top it off when I had a nice 4oz roach coming to the net a bloody pike took it, this pike ended up staying for the long haul aswell and I lost several decent fish to it, If I had a whip I could be much quicker in striking and lifting the fish out of the water away from Mr pike! It really was peeing me off as every time I would get into a rhythm it went through the swim and would unsettle the fish for 10minutes.
It slowed down after 2 hours, and everyone was then on the longer poles catching what they can, this is when I managed to claw my way back into the section as I was catching quicker than those I could see.
I ended the day with 113fish, knowing I could have probably had over 150 if id had a whip, and who knows how many more if Mr Pike didn't show up! No bream or skimmers turned up either! Unfortunately that's the name of the game though, and I ended up weighing 3-11-8 for 5th in the section out of 10, the section was won with 5lb 8. I left my peg frustrated that I hadn't made the most of it on the day, I felt as though it would have been worth 7 or 8lb had things gone to plan, and if I could do it again im sure I could achieve this! But, that's my own inexperience, and now I have learnt, so in years to come I will always be prepared for this scenario, but knowing my luck I wont draw this area again! The positive I take from this is that I am learning from my mistakes, I spend hours running through how I have fished, how I can improve, and how others have fished and done well, not doing this would defeat the object of being a match fisherman in my opinion, so always make sure you quiz the people who have won to find out what baits and tactics were used!
When I got back to the car park I met my team mates to find 4 of them had won their sections! With my 6 points and another team mates 4 points we had a total of 50 points, which we felt was probably unbeatable, and certainly not a blow out so we had won the league for sure.
The results were called out, we won on the day, beating Maldon who finished 2nd. We won the overall league by 5 points, and our team member Danny Mason has won the individual league and also the knockout cup. I finished joint 6th in the end in the overall league, which although if my day had gone to plan I could have been 2nd, I was still happy with this being my first full season on the Interclub team, learning new waters along the way and beating some quality anglers. My target for next season is simply to finish higher up in the table than this year, and also help Braintree defend the league title! Im already looking forward to next year, Im confident I can do well as I now have experience of fishing the waters, which as shown in my last match can help a great deal!
Next week im off to Rayne lodge top lake on Saturday for an open match, id normally be looking forward to this but with the cold weather coming in I will need to have my drawing arm in gear as you need a flyer when its cold! Then Sunday im off to the river Wid, last year I caught 2 stickleback, the year before I had a 4lb bag of roach, and the year before I had 3 chub for 7lb. Lets hope this year is a good year or I may not visit this stretch of river again, id rather go to an open match or have a days practice than catch silly stickleback, thats just not fishing!
Thanks for reading my blog, come back next week to see how I get on!
Tight lines,
Reece Hearn
Maldon are super consistent on this canal, and anywhere in fact. Being their home water of course we had to get a good result if we were to hold on to our lead.
I drew peg C8, which was just up from the bridge by the car park, my team mate Danny Mason told me this could be a match winner due to some resident bream and skimmers, so at least I had a decent peg for once!
I set up several rigs to cover different areas of the canal, but my main two lines were going to be a 6m bread line and 6meter bloodworm line and 10 and 2. I also had a rig set up for at my feet incase it was hard and I needed to catch a little perch behind my keepnet! And also a chopworm caster line up towards the bridge on the far shelf.
The whistle blew, and I started to catch steadily at 6meters on bread, after 20minutes I was happy enough, I was catching one a chuck so I couldnt be doing much wrong I thought... Well, I looked to my right down the section, and I couldnt see a pole sticking out, strange I thought, I spend a minute or so peering down through the bushes to see if I could see what was going on, and it became apparant that everyone was fishing a whip to hand! I was really annoyed with myself at this point for not considering this option, ive never fished this section before and you dont normally catch to hand, but by the number of anglers fishing this way clearly its how to fish this section!
I straight away started to feed bread short and set up a top kit to fish to hand, as I didn't have a whip on me, I caught straight away, but I wasn't getting the better fish, so I ended up using a top 4 and I got into the better fish. Unfortunately I knew not having a whip was costing me in efficiency, and to top it off when I had a nice 4oz roach coming to the net a bloody pike took it, this pike ended up staying for the long haul aswell and I lost several decent fish to it, If I had a whip I could be much quicker in striking and lifting the fish out of the water away from Mr pike! It really was peeing me off as every time I would get into a rhythm it went through the swim and would unsettle the fish for 10minutes.
It slowed down after 2 hours, and everyone was then on the longer poles catching what they can, this is when I managed to claw my way back into the section as I was catching quicker than those I could see.
I ended the day with 113fish, knowing I could have probably had over 150 if id had a whip, and who knows how many more if Mr Pike didn't show up! No bream or skimmers turned up either! Unfortunately that's the name of the game though, and I ended up weighing 3-11-8 for 5th in the section out of 10, the section was won with 5lb 8. I left my peg frustrated that I hadn't made the most of it on the day, I felt as though it would have been worth 7 or 8lb had things gone to plan, and if I could do it again im sure I could achieve this! But, that's my own inexperience, and now I have learnt, so in years to come I will always be prepared for this scenario, but knowing my luck I wont draw this area again! The positive I take from this is that I am learning from my mistakes, I spend hours running through how I have fished, how I can improve, and how others have fished and done well, not doing this would defeat the object of being a match fisherman in my opinion, so always make sure you quiz the people who have won to find out what baits and tactics were used!
When I got back to the car park I met my team mates to find 4 of them had won their sections! With my 6 points and another team mates 4 points we had a total of 50 points, which we felt was probably unbeatable, and certainly not a blow out so we had won the league for sure.
The results were called out, we won on the day, beating Maldon who finished 2nd. We won the overall league by 5 points, and our team member Danny Mason has won the individual league and also the knockout cup. I finished joint 6th in the end in the overall league, which although if my day had gone to plan I could have been 2nd, I was still happy with this being my first full season on the Interclub team, learning new waters along the way and beating some quality anglers. My target for next season is simply to finish higher up in the table than this year, and also help Braintree defend the league title! Im already looking forward to next year, Im confident I can do well as I now have experience of fishing the waters, which as shown in my last match can help a great deal!
Next week im off to Rayne lodge top lake on Saturday for an open match, id normally be looking forward to this but with the cold weather coming in I will need to have my drawing arm in gear as you need a flyer when its cold! Then Sunday im off to the river Wid, last year I caught 2 stickleback, the year before I had a 4lb bag of roach, and the year before I had 3 chub for 7lb. Lets hope this year is a good year or I may not visit this stretch of river again, id rather go to an open match or have a days practice than catch silly stickleback, thats just not fishing!
Thanks for reading my blog, come back next week to see how I get on!
Tight lines,
Reece Hearn
Pellet cone fishing for F1 carp at the Fennes
This Saturday I didnt have any matches booked in, so decided to use the spare time to have a little practice session. I like being able to get out for these sessions as you can learn so much more than what you can during a match, for example, you are willing to take big risks which you may not during a match, especially during the winter months.
I set up on peg 55 on the match lake, its won the last few matches as the f1s seem to shoal up here, so yes im certainly sitting on a flyer! Thats another nice thing about a practice session, as im not normally lucky enough to draw a flyer, and if I was to try this on say peg 15 on ash grounds, this would simply not work and would leave me without confidence in the method.
My baits for the day, were hard 6 and 8mm pellet, 6mm expanders, corn, bread and various colors of 8 and 10mm boilies. I also has some 2mm micros and 4mm pellets to soak for the cone, and some method feeder groundbait to help bind them. Alot of people use the sticky pellet stuff with their pellets for method and cone work, but I couldnt find any in the shops. I normally just mix up a pint of micros with a third of a pint of 4mms, just to offer something abit different, otherwise the fish can become preoccupied with the 2mms, and then add a handfull of sticky ground bait (today im using a pellet based method ground bait, but I also like to use Special G Green) I never have any problem with this mixture when fishing the method, so didn't see why I would with the cone.
Rig wise I was simply using a 16 kamasan B911 hook, as this would be strong enough if I hooked any propper carp, but also light enough for finesse, I tied this to a 12inch hooklenght with reflo power in 0.11, yet again im confident this line can land me big carp aswell as being fine enough to not deter any f1s or bream that may show.
I started the session by putting 2 10mm punches of bread on a straight lead, this way I could see if there was alot of fish in my swim. I caught 5 fish in 5 chucks, so seemingly there were quite a lot of fish there! If I was in a match situation, i would probably keep on going until the tip didnt go round, but because I am here to learn I decided to chuck out the pellet cone, I was using the prestons small quick cone, and its really easy to use, just hook your bait over, fill it up, compress, cast out. The only issue I had was that I had to use a 1/2oz lead instead of my favored 1/4 or 1/8 ounce lead, this is because you need to cast the lead out without putting to much pressure on the cone, otherwise as I found out the cone fell my my head as I cast out! (maybe this is why people use sticky pellet?) But I had no problem after changing to the heavier lead at all, and with a bit of feathering it didn't make much commotion, which is important at times.
I then had 2 fish in 2 chucks on the pellet cone, notably quicker bites than on the bread, and much more positive pull the rod out of the rest bites! It was obviously solid out there, and in past matches they have been won with 30-50lb fishing a feeder or the bread, because of this I decided to try the banjo feeder, much more positive than the cone, and also quicker to bait up. I had a fish first chuck, but on the 2nd chuck nothing! Another 2 casts later I hadnt had a fish, I instantly felt as though the increase in bait has put the fish off, as although it is mild, its still winter! I went back to bread and lead and found the fish about 5 meters left of where id been fishing. I then caught 5 in 5 chucks again before not getting a bite, I simply had to cast about all around my bait to find the fish again, I followed this patter for the next hour or so as the fish simply didnt want to be on those pellets. I then managed to snag one on top of the area id fished the banjo, hopefully the bait had been polished up by now as it had been a while, I went back onto the cone and it was instant, I caught all day long on this method, it seemed to be the perfect amount as it was more attractive to the fish with a tiny pile of pellets compared to the banjo or just a bit of bread.
The most effective bait on the day was 6mm expanders on a hair rig, I caught on either 1 or 2 expanders, hard pellets didnt compete, nor did corn or boilies. Bread was effective on a straight lead and this would be my starting point on any match anywhere to be honest! Its just so reliable in the winter.
I finished the session with 47 f1s, they are good fish aswell, so I likely averaged 2lb a fish today, just under 100lb on a handfull of pellets. Also much more than the previous match wins on this lake, which gives me greater confidence in the cone!
To sum up, if I was to fish a match and draw this area, I would start on the bread with the idea of moving onto the cone, this way I would be working my way into the match without spooking fish. The catch rate on the cone was just insane, with bites coming as soon as the bait had settled, whereas with the bread you had to wait 5 minutes sometimes, fair enough that's still not a long time, and it shows how full of fish the peg was on the day, but in match fishing its all about making the most of your peg, and if I had fished bread all day today, I could have had 10 or 15 less fish!
One of the biggest tips I can give you when using the preston pellet cone, is to fill it up with your pellets, squish it down so they all go down the half way, then hook your bait on, fill it to the brim and push as hard as you can. If you simply hook your bait on and put the pellets in without putting half in first, then sometimes when you push the cone out it seems to fall to pieces!
I hope these tips help you catch more fish on the pellet cone!
Tight Lines,
Reece Hearn
I set up on peg 55 on the match lake, its won the last few matches as the f1s seem to shoal up here, so yes im certainly sitting on a flyer! Thats another nice thing about a practice session, as im not normally lucky enough to draw a flyer, and if I was to try this on say peg 15 on ash grounds, this would simply not work and would leave me without confidence in the method.
My baits for the day, were hard 6 and 8mm pellet, 6mm expanders, corn, bread and various colors of 8 and 10mm boilies. I also has some 2mm micros and 4mm pellets to soak for the cone, and some method feeder groundbait to help bind them. Alot of people use the sticky pellet stuff with their pellets for method and cone work, but I couldnt find any in the shops. I normally just mix up a pint of micros with a third of a pint of 4mms, just to offer something abit different, otherwise the fish can become preoccupied with the 2mms, and then add a handfull of sticky ground bait (today im using a pellet based method ground bait, but I also like to use Special G Green) I never have any problem with this mixture when fishing the method, so didn't see why I would with the cone.
Rig wise I was simply using a 16 kamasan B911 hook, as this would be strong enough if I hooked any propper carp, but also light enough for finesse, I tied this to a 12inch hooklenght with reflo power in 0.11, yet again im confident this line can land me big carp aswell as being fine enough to not deter any f1s or bream that may show.
I started the session by putting 2 10mm punches of bread on a straight lead, this way I could see if there was alot of fish in my swim. I caught 5 fish in 5 chucks, so seemingly there were quite a lot of fish there! If I was in a match situation, i would probably keep on going until the tip didnt go round, but because I am here to learn I decided to chuck out the pellet cone, I was using the prestons small quick cone, and its really easy to use, just hook your bait over, fill it up, compress, cast out. The only issue I had was that I had to use a 1/2oz lead instead of my favored 1/4 or 1/8 ounce lead, this is because you need to cast the lead out without putting to much pressure on the cone, otherwise as I found out the cone fell my my head as I cast out! (maybe this is why people use sticky pellet?) But I had no problem after changing to the heavier lead at all, and with a bit of feathering it didn't make much commotion, which is important at times.
I then had 2 fish in 2 chucks on the pellet cone, notably quicker bites than on the bread, and much more positive pull the rod out of the rest bites! It was obviously solid out there, and in past matches they have been won with 30-50lb fishing a feeder or the bread, because of this I decided to try the banjo feeder, much more positive than the cone, and also quicker to bait up. I had a fish first chuck, but on the 2nd chuck nothing! Another 2 casts later I hadnt had a fish, I instantly felt as though the increase in bait has put the fish off, as although it is mild, its still winter! I went back to bread and lead and found the fish about 5 meters left of where id been fishing. I then caught 5 in 5 chucks again before not getting a bite, I simply had to cast about all around my bait to find the fish again, I followed this patter for the next hour or so as the fish simply didnt want to be on those pellets. I then managed to snag one on top of the area id fished the banjo, hopefully the bait had been polished up by now as it had been a while, I went back onto the cone and it was instant, I caught all day long on this method, it seemed to be the perfect amount as it was more attractive to the fish with a tiny pile of pellets compared to the banjo or just a bit of bread.
The most effective bait on the day was 6mm expanders on a hair rig, I caught on either 1 or 2 expanders, hard pellets didnt compete, nor did corn or boilies. Bread was effective on a straight lead and this would be my starting point on any match anywhere to be honest! Its just so reliable in the winter.
I finished the session with 47 f1s, they are good fish aswell, so I likely averaged 2lb a fish today, just under 100lb on a handfull of pellets. Also much more than the previous match wins on this lake, which gives me greater confidence in the cone!
To sum up, if I was to fish a match and draw this area, I would start on the bread with the idea of moving onto the cone, this way I would be working my way into the match without spooking fish. The catch rate on the cone was just insane, with bites coming as soon as the bait had settled, whereas with the bread you had to wait 5 minutes sometimes, fair enough that's still not a long time, and it shows how full of fish the peg was on the day, but in match fishing its all about making the most of your peg, and if I had fished bread all day today, I could have had 10 or 15 less fish!
One of the biggest tips I can give you when using the preston pellet cone, is to fill it up with your pellets, squish it down so they all go down the half way, then hook your bait on, fill it to the brim and push as hard as you can. If you simply hook your bait on and put the pellets in without putting half in first, then sometimes when you push the cone out it seems to fall to pieces!
I hope these tips help you catch more fish on the pellet cone!
Tight Lines,
Reece Hearn
Wednesday, 2 January 2013
Christmas week of matches
Well Ive got lots to report this week, to begin, last Sunday was our clubs christmas match at the Fennes on ash grounds. The weather had been good and i was really looking forward to it!
I drew peg 6, which is normally a good area for roach, but there were no bream coming out of here lately so it was unlikely i could win the match from here, but i was confident of winning the section as the plan was to fish bloodworm and joker with caster over the top, and im getting quite handy at this lately!
I fed 8 balls of joker in a 50/50 groundbait and leam mix at the start, and every 30 minutes or so the swim needed a top up ball of joker just in leam. I fished a tidy match and weighed in 14lb 2oz with 103roach, more than enough to win the section, but some bream had come out on the other bank as expected so i finished 4th in the match.
Thursday was my next match, a silverfish match at rayne lodge, it was pegged on the bottom and middle lake. I drew peg 2 on the middle, I caught 298roach for 12lb 8oz for 3rd in the match, my fish were tiny compared to the guy who had won so I was always fighting an uphill battle, but I left satisfied id done a good job from my peg that day.
Friday was a Match on the top lake of rayne lodge, id drawn peg 21, which in normal conditions was a brilliant draw as the fish shoal up here and you can catch on a straight lead with pop up bread, unfortunately though this wasn't the case! And this is one of the worst pole pegs on the lake so I was in for a struggle! I managed to pick up odd fish throughout the day, and in the last 45 minutes my pole swim came alive, I had one a chuck and finished with 30 (unfortunately small carp) for 55lb, which put my 4th in the match and narrowly missing out on the section, good result from a poor peg on the day!
Sunday it was the teams of 4 match at the fennes, I drew peg 10 on ash grounds, I was happy with this as although i would not be able to win the match from here, i would be able to catch a good bag of roach to win the section. I fished similar blood worm and joker tactics to the last week, this time catching 129roach for 15lb 14oz, a quality bag of roach, and more than enough to win the section as 2nd was the peg to my right who weighed 10lb. Unfortunately my team had a bit of a blow out and we only managed 3rd in the match, which also meant i only got 7.50 of my winnings after splitting my section money 4 ways!
Monday I had another silverfish match at rayne lodge, this time it was pegged on the top lake, I drew peg 10, which I was fairly happy with as at least I was on the deep bank. Id opted to fish a top kit to hand with caster and groundbait, and also a long pole line.
I didn't even have to pick the long pole up as I was catching one a chuck all day, getting mainly roach and the odd bonus skimmer or hybrid, most people were only hooking carp on their long poles so I decided not to waste my time. I finished the day with 458 roach and skimmers for 30lb 14oz, a busy days fishing! I won the match, 2nd place being Danny Mason with 27lb, and third coming from the peg to my right with 26lb.
Tuesday was yet again an all in match on rayne lodge top lake, yet again I had a poor draw getting peg 14, the only worse peg on the lake on the day was peg 17! This peg is shallow on the feeder and pole line, I well and truly was out of it today! I didn't get anything in the first hour, not a bite! whilst I watched most people in the deep water catching odd carp. My swim eventually picked up and I found odd carp on the long pole on corn and odd fish down the edge by a fishy looking bush that hangs in the water, unfortunately though my stamp of fish was even smaller than the previous match, I finished with 34 carp for 56lb for 7th in the match, well below the average stamp of fish for this lake, the only consolation is id beaten half the blokes who were on better pegs! The winner had 103lb and his fish were big, as id expected from the deeper water. It was even the same pegs who won all the money as the last match, peg 4 peg 8 and peg 12, why couldn't I draw one of those?
Next week im off to Maldon canal for the final round of the Essex inter club league, our Braintree team hold a 4 point lead going into the final round, so its certainly ours to lose, Id certainly like another good result as I am only 2 points away from 3rd in the league, which I don't think is too bad seeing as I haven't fished half the venues before! It looks like Danny Mason who also fishes for Braintee is going to win the individual league, hopefully we all put in another consistent performance to take the league honors.
Thanks for reading,
Tight lines,
Reece Hearn
I drew peg 6, which is normally a good area for roach, but there were no bream coming out of here lately so it was unlikely i could win the match from here, but i was confident of winning the section as the plan was to fish bloodworm and joker with caster over the top, and im getting quite handy at this lately!
I fed 8 balls of joker in a 50/50 groundbait and leam mix at the start, and every 30 minutes or so the swim needed a top up ball of joker just in leam. I fished a tidy match and weighed in 14lb 2oz with 103roach, more than enough to win the section, but some bream had come out on the other bank as expected so i finished 4th in the match.
Thursday was my next match, a silverfish match at rayne lodge, it was pegged on the bottom and middle lake. I drew peg 2 on the middle, I caught 298roach for 12lb 8oz for 3rd in the match, my fish were tiny compared to the guy who had won so I was always fighting an uphill battle, but I left satisfied id done a good job from my peg that day.
Friday was a Match on the top lake of rayne lodge, id drawn peg 21, which in normal conditions was a brilliant draw as the fish shoal up here and you can catch on a straight lead with pop up bread, unfortunately though this wasn't the case! And this is one of the worst pole pegs on the lake so I was in for a struggle! I managed to pick up odd fish throughout the day, and in the last 45 minutes my pole swim came alive, I had one a chuck and finished with 30 (unfortunately small carp) for 55lb, which put my 4th in the match and narrowly missing out on the section, good result from a poor peg on the day!
Sunday it was the teams of 4 match at the fennes, I drew peg 10 on ash grounds, I was happy with this as although i would not be able to win the match from here, i would be able to catch a good bag of roach to win the section. I fished similar blood worm and joker tactics to the last week, this time catching 129roach for 15lb 14oz, a quality bag of roach, and more than enough to win the section as 2nd was the peg to my right who weighed 10lb. Unfortunately my team had a bit of a blow out and we only managed 3rd in the match, which also meant i only got 7.50 of my winnings after splitting my section money 4 ways!
Monday I had another silverfish match at rayne lodge, this time it was pegged on the top lake, I drew peg 10, which I was fairly happy with as at least I was on the deep bank. Id opted to fish a top kit to hand with caster and groundbait, and also a long pole line.
I didn't even have to pick the long pole up as I was catching one a chuck all day, getting mainly roach and the odd bonus skimmer or hybrid, most people were only hooking carp on their long poles so I decided not to waste my time. I finished the day with 458 roach and skimmers for 30lb 14oz, a busy days fishing! I won the match, 2nd place being Danny Mason with 27lb, and third coming from the peg to my right with 26lb.
Tuesday was yet again an all in match on rayne lodge top lake, yet again I had a poor draw getting peg 14, the only worse peg on the lake on the day was peg 17! This peg is shallow on the feeder and pole line, I well and truly was out of it today! I didn't get anything in the first hour, not a bite! whilst I watched most people in the deep water catching odd carp. My swim eventually picked up and I found odd carp on the long pole on corn and odd fish down the edge by a fishy looking bush that hangs in the water, unfortunately though my stamp of fish was even smaller than the previous match, I finished with 34 carp for 56lb for 7th in the match, well below the average stamp of fish for this lake, the only consolation is id beaten half the blokes who were on better pegs! The winner had 103lb and his fish were big, as id expected from the deeper water. It was even the same pegs who won all the money as the last match, peg 4 peg 8 and peg 12, why couldn't I draw one of those?
Next week im off to Maldon canal for the final round of the Essex inter club league, our Braintree team hold a 4 point lead going into the final round, so its certainly ours to lose, Id certainly like another good result as I am only 2 points away from 3rd in the league, which I don't think is too bad seeing as I haven't fished half the venues before! It looks like Danny Mason who also fishes for Braintee is going to win the individual league, hopefully we all put in another consistent performance to take the league honors.
Thanks for reading,
Tight lines,
Reece Hearn
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