Silver fishing my way to success at white acres

For the last week I have been fishing the White acres garbolino spring classic, this is a 72peg, 4 day festival. Those who know White acres festivals will know that you draw a section and follow that section around the lakes each day, I was in D section which meant I would be starting on high numbers at trewaters, then low numbers twin oaks, low numbers trewaters and then finally high numbers twin oaks.

Seeing as I'd never fished the lakes before I figured on the Sunday practice day I may aswell practice on the lake I was starting on, which was high numbers trewaters. 

Being there a tad late with several pegs in use, i opted to sit on peg 44, which had wind blowing towards it and looked like it might be alright! I decided to try a few things out and had no plans on bagging, I simply wanted to see what I could catch on certain baits and areas. I decided to start at 5m on pellet and caught a 3lb carp straight away, and f1 and several skimmers, which at the time I thought were a nuisance! I caught for an hour and it then went iffy and slowed up which seems to be fairly standard on a lot of places I fish. I then decided to fish the feeder, I opted for a micro pellet feeder, I caught a few fish on this but still it wasn't great, and the bites certainly coming fast enough for me to fish the confidently in the match, I'd rather be busy in a match putting something in the net. I'd been feeding caster down the edge and decided to have a look, it was absolutely solid with roach and skimmers. I only fished this for 20-30mins and it was by far the best way to put fish and weight in the net! My team mate had fished 2 pegs away from me and concentrated on feeder all day, it was quite apparent that bites mostly came in the first hour and last hour. With this info I was set for the match, I would start at 5m to see if I could catch any early bonus fish, have a look on the feeder and then go for the roach, maybe looking for carp late if I had too.

Day 1 trewaters peg 47

Drawing close to where I had practiced was a bonus, although on arrival I noticed my margins where Barron with no sedges at all, I was unsure if I would be able to bag on the silvers like before, the wind was also horrendous so there would be no long pole options for anyone today.

I started the match at 5m a couple of hand sized skimmers in 15minutes wasn't quite the plan, so out went the tip. 

I was using a micro pellet feeder and it was very much apparent that if your feeder didn't 'kiss' the bank you didn't get a bite! I managed 3 carp on this early for about 5lb. Not quite the required stamp!

At this point I was doing as well as anyone in the section so decided to take a look for roach. I'd been feeding caster and maggot either side from the start, action was hectic to begin but it only took 45minutes or so to slow, I managed to keep fish coming by alternating between left and right margin but they were not the required stamp from the day before, and as not a lot was being caught I stuck with this till the last hour, I picked up a carp and a couple of f1s on the tip in the last hour, I ended with 21lb 2oz for a section win, 10lb of which was roach!

Day 2 twin oaks peg 11

After drawing this peg and seeing it was last in section with 17lb the day before it didn't exactly fill me with confidence, but looking at the results they seemed to just get better the further down the lake you went, with my section being peg 7-12, I still felt I was the right end of the section.

Arriving at my peg I found Simon gould on peg 12, which had won the section the day before with 61lb.

I decided to start the match on a method across, feed a 5m line with meat and feed a roach line again as a back up. There would be no long poles or wagglers out today as yet again the wind was howling.

I started on the method and caught 2 fish for 14lb in the first 30minutes. Simon to my right then caught his first fish, a 15lb carp! He then proceeded to catch another and a couple smaller ones while my tip just sat there! I was behind and up against it! After an hour Simon said here comes the witching hour, he had stopped catching, I was no longer getting liners and I decided to look for roach! This proved a great move and I managed 150roach in the next hour for approximately 20lb by this time though this line was unfortunately starting to slow so was certainly not a feasible way to catch 60lb+. In this time no one to my left caught a fish and Simon had just caught a couple of f1s. It was only when Simon brought in another Munter that I decided I really needed some more myself and chucked the feeder out again. I'd changed to a pellet feeder and was really cramming the bait in, this seemed to work a treat and bites were far quicker.

I caught odd f1s and frustratingly smaller 4-5lb carp compared to the ones Simon caught, we were probably fish for fish at this stage of the match and I really didn't know how I was going to overtake him. Unfortunately I had an issue with a snag, lost 3 fish, 9 hook links and 2 feeders in it! A bit of a mare really and even Simon said I wasn't getting a lot of luck! Coming into the last hour my catch rate increased, I'd been pinging pellets 3/4 all day and also managed 2 lumps on this. Unfortunately Simon did the same and found another huge double!

I weighed in 81lb and Simon had 110lb, I'd come second in the section and although I felt like I'd fished a good match I still felt it should have been closer. Yet again those roach had boosted my weight and made 2nd in section far more comfortable. Fortunately Simon framed so I picked up section by default.

Day 3 trewaters peg 31

This peg looked like a good peg in the section, the wind was blowing this way down the lake and I felt like I had a good chance. My team mate had been on 34 the day before and had found the lake fished very hard, with most carp caught almost straight away before people sitting bite less. On the day he fished maggot short for bites and amassed a lovely 38lb bag on roach and skimmers for a section win.

Armed with this information I saw no reason why the lake would fish any better than the previous day, the wind was similar and it still felt very chilly.

I decided to start on a micro pellet feeder cast millimetres from the island, this is something we worked out too, if it wasn't close, you wasn't getting a bite. Fortunately it didn't take long and the tip went round with a small carp followed by 2 small f1s in the first 30minutes. In this time I'd been feeding one side of my keepnet with sloppy groundbait and maggot, and the other with caster. I felt it was time to change so on with a maggot and I flicked the rig to my right. The float went under immediately and I was into chunky roach one a bung, after 20 minutes or so I found a bonus 2lb skimmer. 30minutes later and the roach started to get smaller and I was catching odd small perch, a change to the left hand caster line produced good roach straight away, I had a good 15minute spell before that also started to go iffy. I then found myself in a rhythm, fishing one side for 10-15minutes a time and it seemed a perfect way to keep in touch with the quality roach, both lines also produced another 5 decent skimmers, and a couple of f1s.

Coming into the last hour I'd not seen much caught at all so I was pretty confident I was leading the section, bites became iffy in the last hour but this was probably down to the fact the big fish were starting to move around, I actually hooked something that tore off and snapped my 0.8 bottom, I stepped up to 0.10 and interestingly sat bite less for 10minutes, I'm sure those carp and f1s are incredibly line shy on these high pressured waters. Back down to the 0.8 bottom and in the last 45minutes I managed a few more roach, along with 5 decent f1s and 2 carp, one of which was 5lb, I was using double 5 preston slip elastic and a game black hook, it's amazing what you can get in on gear like this! I ended the day with 385roach 5-6skimmers 5-6fs and 3 carp. My total weight was 57lb 10oz of which 49lb was my silvers net all caught on a top kit! I'd won the section by over 20lb, finished 2nd on the lake and had a fantastic days fishing along the way! 

Day 4 final day, twin oaks peg 19

This was easily my best draw of the week, and I couldn't have asked for a better peg today, this peg had been first or second every day this week, and I needed to catch a big weight if I was going to win the festival, this was probably one of very few pegs I could do that on this lake, as with every peg in it was fishing incredibly hard. I decided on a very simple approach, pellet feeder tight across, long pole up the margin, the maggot roach line in front of me as a back up, and a short margin line if they would come that close late. All week it had been fishing very hard with almost every fish being caught on a feeder tight across, hence why I didn't even bother with a 5m or shallow pole line today, I really just wanted to concentrate on positive methods that were working.

I started the match on the feeder and had one 3lb carp in the next 30minutes I had loads of liners in this time, but after 30minutes they just stopped, the fish were very much not obliging at this point. The guy on the peg next to me who I forget his name also had one fish, while everyone remained bite less. Even Simon gould on peg 21 only had a small roach at this point!

Now in a peg like this I really didn't want to be fishing for roach, but I had to get the section win before I could start thinking of sacking up, and with the tip completely motionless and nobody catching a fish, I decided to go for roach, I caught 86 roach on maggot in front of me on a topkit for approx 10lb as I had a bonus skimmer and a 1lb roach in this, unfortunately the last 15minutes of that hour was hard to get bites, this also coincided with the guy next to me catching an f1 on the tip, so out went mine and up the bank went the roach gear! It's worth noting at this point I fed some grounbait long up the bank to my right, as I felt I may nick a fish or two here during the next few difficult hours.

I cast my feeder out after catching those roach and it flew round almost immediately, I had an f1 of my own! Over the next couple of hours I sat on the tip catching odd f1s and small carp, this kept me ticking over nicely, especially as no one else was hardly catching. Probably an hour and a half I saw some signs on my long margin line and managed to catch an f1 and small carp on worm here, I topped the line up but unfortunately not another fish turned up here all day! This didn't matter too much though as the tip was gradually getting better. With an hour and half to go I started throwing small nuggets of gb to my right short margin, with about 40 minutes to go I saw a huge tail waving at me, so on went 2 worms! I lowered the rig in where I assumed the head of the fish would be and the rig just carried on, I wondered if I was under depth and the worms pulled it under, when I went to lift the rig it was solid, before a head started to nod and the fish wallowed out into the middle of the lake, big lump on! After a 10minute struggle I finally caught a glimpse of what was a good 15lber! Amazingly though just as I went to net it, the hook pulled and I watched it slowly swim away, proper gutted!

I had fed a few nuggets of groundbait down the edge while I was playing this fish, and there was another waiting for me, so in went the rig and I had to sit and wait frustratingly for a good 5 minutes before the float buried, this time I had a baby edge dweller of only 8lb! Although it was still best fish of the day at this point! This fish had caused a fair bit of disturbance when I hooked it, and as a result there was no tails waving at me after I'd landed it. I topped up with a pot of gb and went out on the tip.

It wrapped round with a 5lb carp, I then went out again and had an f1. There was 5 minutes left on the clock, and there was a tail waving at me, not a double but not far off, I now had to make the quick decision if I fish for it and potentially not get a bite before the whistle, or chuck the tip out for an almost guaranteed bite from what would probably be a smaller fish. I chose the feeder and it turned out to be an inspired choice as I caught 2 carp for 14 lb in the last 5 minutes! What a finish!

I ended up winning the lake and section with 78lb 10oz, a great days fishing as the next best on the lake was 40lb! Yet again I felt like I'd fished a great match, by catching plenty of silvers in a time when the bigger fish simply weren't feeding!

Unfortunately though I knew I was 60lb behind Harry billing going into the last day, so he only needed a section win and 18lb to beat me, this turned out to be the case as he won his section with 50lb.

I'd finished 2nd in the festival with 23 out of 24 points and a weight of 241lb over the 4 days, over 85lb of that was silvers! They played a massive part in the week for me and I would have been nowhere in the festival without them!

At this point I'd like to thank all the white acres team for a really well run week, and more importantly my bills tackle team mates for the great info they provided me each day! They all had up and down weeks themselves, all having some really tough draws, but also I think they all won there section or framed on the lake at least once too, including banksy who managed to pull himself up the leaderboard with a section win on the last day after a 'slow' start to the week!

Congratulations also to Harry Billing for the win and Danny Edwards for taking 3rd spot!

I had a great week and will definitely be back for more!

My latest fishing fortunes

The last few months have been very rewarding for me, I framed in my one and only fisho qualifier of the year, finishing third, I won the first round if the essex inter club league at southminster pits, came 2nd at colemans cottage on a 36pegger on wood lake, I also added another evening league tital to my name, all in all I've seen lots of brown envelopes!

Il start with the fishomania qualifier, I started the day 46th on the reserve list, wondering if I would even come close to getting on, talk at the draw as usual was you wanted to draw copse, you have more room than anyone and it's not usually match fished every week so the fish are always ready to feed, otherwise having abut of knowledge of the venue, I knew wood could throw up a weight but didn't expect the other lakes to compete. I was fortunate to get onto the match as about 20 people didn't turn up (I think) I just about squeezed in and couldn't believe it when I saw peg 8 copse, this is a good peg (supposedly) and I was very happy to draw copse because at least I had abut of room. Despite the fact I have fished the venue few times in the last year, I've never fished this lake as it's not big enough to hold an open match. A quick chat with Paul the tackle shop owner and he told me Chris vandervliet(who drew just before me in the que) conveniently drew peg 17 on copse with the wind blowing into it, and Ross Harold was also on a decent peg, Paul told me they were both better pegs than mine so I new I would have a challenge on my hands to win.

I got to my peg very late, seeing as I had to wait for 120 anglers to pull pegs out, then wait another 30minutes In case any one turned up late who had tickets, this meant I arrived at my peg with 40minutes to get ready, which wasn't ideal.

I decided on a margin swim to my right which was abut like a 5m line as it had a spit going out with reeds that looked lovely, a swim to my left in shallow water next to some over hanging sedges that looked very inviting, and long pole to the island, although on setting up it was hard to hold in the wind. 

I started on my right hand swim with the idea of kinder potting, the left hand margin was big potted and long pole left alone unless I fished it. I had a good start catching about 30lb in the first hour, more than anyone else I could see before bites slowed up, a look down the left resulted in a good run of better stamp fish to get me upto about 60lb before yet again it died, at this stage I considered going long but on first attempt I almost took off with the wind so quickly the pole came back in, I considered chucking a tip over but the angler to my right had caught about 3fish all match and it was clearly not that great, he was also only about 3meters away from where I would have been chucking, so I discarded this and went back to the right margin. To cut a long story short, I kept a steady run if fish going by swapping between right and left side until the last hour when I only managed 4fish, this was frustrating, but after the match it seemed everyone on the lake had exactly the same thing, so I didn't feel I did much wrong.

I finished weighing 103lb, I won the lake beating Chris vandervliet who had 97lbi sh I think! Talk was that I had won it, but my hopes were dashed when a weight of 129lb came from pathfield, very unexpected, I was then relegated into 3rd after Gary bull weighed 145lb of peg 38 on wood.

Although I hadn't won, I was chuffed to frame in a big match like this, and even more chuffed to win my lake against top opposition. The feeling when people were saying I had won it was indescribable, and it's left me craving that feeling again. Next year I'm applying for more tickets and il be back to go that bit better!

My last big match win was at southminster pits, which was a 60 pegged. This is my third visit to the venue as I only go once a year on the inter club match, last year I was sat on a featureless peg watching every peg on the other side of the lake sack up in carp next to reeds in corners, it looked brilliant over there, I managed 13lb of roach for 5th in section that day, which was realistically as good as I could do!

This time however my fortunes had changed and I drew a corner peg on the same lake, it looked fantastic, loads of room and fish topping in the corner whilst setting up. Last year this peg had about 40lb and the match was win with 70lb so I fancied my chances. I spent a good 20minutes plumbing every inch of my right hand margin, and finally settled on 13meters down the bank, just past a little bush and more importantly a relatively flat bottom without tree roots, the rest of the swim was horrible and full of roots and snags which would have made fishing a nightmare. I fed a cup of groundbait (this was 50/50 sonubaits krill and sonubaits sweet f1, a margin mix that works everywhere I go and have complete faith in) with some dead maggots here and chucked a tip down the corner, after 10minutes I'd had nothing so thought I'd see if I could mug an early carp on the pole line, the float flew straight under and a short scrap later a nice 6lber was in the net, I went straight back in and had another one, by this time only 25minutes had passed and I had already matched my weight from the year before, not too shabby!

I topped the swim up with more groundbait and maggots and went on my roach line as there are some cracking roach in here and felt I could catch these until the margin was really ready. After 2 minutes and 2 decent roach I saw a tail sticking out the margin. I proceeded to catch 3 carp in 3 put ins and then topped up again. I decided this time to go straight back over the top, and had another withing minutes. I got into a nice routine catching 2 or 3 carp off a pot of groundbait with a few dead reds. I had a slow spell in the middle of the match, but otherwise caught very regularly. I finished with 26 carp for a match winning143lb, beating the 'reed' peg who came 2nd with 78lb.

I had a great day and was really pleased to win by such a great margin, I had got the feeding pattern spot on all day and hardly lost a fish!

The rig that did all the damage was a  Nick Gilbert margin float, I used a heavy 0.4g as the swim was about 2.5 foot deep these also feature a 2mm bristle which helps the float stay up when you get liners, personally I am completely converted to heavy margin floats for carp, regardless of depth, I'm happy to use a 0.4g which is about 4x14 in less than 18inches if the target is carp. I see no reason to fish any lighter, I have all the shot above a 4inch hook length, so my 10 maggots are on the bottom and not going anywhere, we all know how positive margin carp take the bait aswell so there's no reason to make life hard for yourself, after all what's the point in feeding accurately with a pole cup if you fish a light float that's going to waft about when a fish comes in!

I also came 2nd a colemans cottage the other week on a 36peg match on wood lake, I weighed 154lb which would normally be enough to win with this many people on it but I got pipped by Gary bell with 164lb. I won't disclose my tactics for this match just yet as the maver match this is coming up next week on here, but more importantly my team bills tackle are in the semi final of the bait tech supercup in 2 weeks where we will be trying to make out way to the final for a second year running.

These results also mean I have 7points after the first 2 weeks of the anglers mail/preston innovations matchman of the year, which is a great start! Although I am under no illusions that I could win this competition as I fish team matches all year round, if I'm to score points it will be venues I fish once or twice a year that can be very Peggy, this is much harder than fishing 2 or 3 local commercials that run big matches in my opinion. I also don't fish a Saturday and Sunday so will most likely fish half the matches if many! Hopefully though I can score a few points and keep my name on the leaderboard a little while longer.

Thanks for reading

I will be back with more!

Colemans Cottage spring league F1 Bagging!

The last few weeks I've been fishing at Coleman's cottage in the spring league. This is run by the onsite tackle shop owner Paul chambers. This league is 12 consecutive matches, which in my opinion is a few too many as its hard for anglers to commit to that many matches in a row without having team commitments, an example being I had to miss the first round due to it being the same date as the Essex interclub league final round on Maldon canal. This meant I was on the back foot straight away and seeing as I will be missing the last two rounds, I will have no real chance of winning the league, but my goal has been to finish in the top 30, as the top 30 go through to a Final where you fish for (hopefully) a decent pay day. Being at Coleman's, which is a fantastic venue, it has drawn many top anglers in to fish, including big names like Simon Colclough, Terry Edwards, Gary miller, Tony Curd and Danny Grimsby  to name a few and with attendances so far up to 74anglers, it's not easy to frame. Sections have been 6 or 7 in a section, with a section win gaining 4 points, 2nd gets 3, 3rd gets 2, then if you weigh you get 1, yet again I personally don't favour this way, but I guess it is done so that people can't walk away with it so much and you can afford to miss a match or two.

I have fished 8 rounds of the league so far, I've drawn really poorly on some, and bang on with others, doesn't seem to be any middle ground for me so far, and I think I have 17 or 18points, which puts me roughly around 14th/15th/16th area of the league table, more importantly I think I have enough points to stay in the top 30 if I don't fish any more matches.

My most fun match of the series has to be when I drew peg 56 on stepfield a few weeks ago, this is one of the 3 or 4 best pegs on the lake, if not the best peg on there! it's fair to say I had abit of a grin on my face when I drew it out the drawbag. it's been a good section winning peg since the league started, and also framed in a couple of matches. new side of stepfield is full of small f1s, mostly averaging less than a pound. my way of fishing this lake seems to be abit different than others, most people tend to fish long or start on 2+2, but I start on a top kit! yes a top kit! providing I have at least 3 foot of water, if not on goes another section and that where I start. My aim on a match on here is to catch as short as possible for as long as possible, they always back off after a while, but you can catch very quick when you catch short, I basically catch till I can't get a bite and then add another section and start again.

I started the match on this day on a top kit plus one, as on plumbing up I had about 2 feet on a top kit, then a section further out it was like a cliff face and went down to about 5foot, although ideally id rather catch in shallower water, I couldn't find anything better short, and with such a feature underwater like id just found, it had to be the perfect place to start. I Also plumbed all the way across finding the depth, it gradually got deeper to the middle and then sloped up, and I found I could use the same rig from about 5 sections to 8 sections if I needed too, then I set up another rig where I had about 3 foot of water across slightly to my left, this peg has a lovely aerator straight  across but with the wind I never had a chance of holding the pole. I also clipped up a bomb rod next to the aerator in case I couldn't hold the pole at all (it really was blowing a gale with winds up to 50mph on the day) whilst clipping up I hooked a carp, in the mouth, it had actually taken my quick stop, must have been hungry! after that I decided the first thing I would do on the whistle was to chuck the bomb over and see if I could snag one or two quick at the start, as carp are not easy to come by on this lake, and are a lot bigger than the f1s! My rigs were all 4x14 malman slim f1 floats, these are basically a super strong Chianti float which is perfect for this type of fishing as you need the super sensitive presentation along with a strong float to withstand bagging. I dot my floats to a pimple, and then use bristle grease to hold them up, this is the best way to fish for f1s with pellet when fishing dead depth, I then use a strung out bulk of no 11s spread 1cm apart, starting from the 4inch hooklenght of 0.10 using an 18 b911 f1 hook, for me this has been the perfect rig set up. I also have 4x12s for shallower water, also 4x10s in case its incredibly hard and 4x16s for down the track in the 6- 7foot+ depths. although these floats may seem heavy for the depths of water, I have found its on the final 10-18inches of water that really matter to getting a bite, so the quicker you can get to that point the better, especially when your catching quickly.

On the whistle I put about 30micros on my top kit plus one, and chucked the bomb out with some pop up bread on a hair, I had 2 big f1s in two chucks, which was good! but not the carp I had hoped for, on my third chuck it sat for about 2 minutes before a small f1 so I came short on the pole.

I was straight into fish on the pole, catching a smaller stamp of f1s than usual, but I was putting fish in the net one a bung and from my experience of this lake it's hard for anyone to beat that even if they are getting odd carp and big f1s. I caught nonstop for the first 2 hours, feeding about 20micros in a small frenzee soft pot for every 2 or 3 fish. the reason I didn't feed every fish is quite simply because its way more time consuming filling a kinder pot up each time. I was fishing either a 4 or 6mm expander on the hook, I like using ringers expanders as they stay on the hook great just from pumping them and you don't need to add gelatine or anything silly. 6mm caught me bigger fish, but once id caught the big fish in the swim I then missed bites from smaller ones so it was important to keep changing to make the most of the peg. now a key thing I have found particularly on this lake, is how you lower the rig in, despite the fact I was catching one a bung, if I didn't lower the rig in correctly you could sit there and not get a bite, my method here is to bomb the rig so the float is out the water and a little line, maybe about 8inches in total from float tip to water, then lower it really slow, and I mean really slow, this never fails to get a bite! on the rare occasion it does, it probably means there's not allot of fish in your swim, but I don't leave it more than 10 seconds then I lift and drop again, this is a deadly tactic for f1s and one you should try if you don't already!

back to the match, after 2 hours my swim completely died, by this point the wind was so bad I had no chance of holding the pole anywhere across, I tried adding another section and I could barely hold 2+2! I knew straight away I was in mega trouble if I couldn't get the fish short again, I then decided I had to try the bread again and try my best to rebuild the short line. I simply threw 5 or 6 4mm pellets every minute over the short line whilst fishing the bomb to hopefully draw some fish back and get them confident while I wasn't fishing it. on the bomb line, I really didn't expect it to be that good, on previous occasions I've always caught a few carp on it, but only big f1s seem to have it as it seems too positive for small f1s, id also found a feeder was no good because however small a feeder you used it really was too much bait and they back off, fortunately though I had a really good hour on the bomb, catching a few carp but plenty of big f1s, I had possibly about 30lb in the hour on the bomb, which was probably more than id caught in the first 2 hours on the pole, so I wanted to get the most out of this, unfortunately id died completely and the bloke to my right started catching so I guess they had moved on.

At this point I came short on the pole again, and found myself missing bites! id clearly drawn the fish shallow by my regular loose feed, a quick try on a shallow rig just didn't catch the fish quick enough and they just didn't seem quick enough. I went back on the deck and started trickling in micros which really got the fish going again, I caught more and more as the day went on after this, especially the last hour it seemed to the best it had been all day, I kept having odd chucks on the bomb during this final spell, hoping to snag an odd carp, but only found the odd f1, and by this point they were no bigger than the pole line so just persevered for the remainder of the match, finishing with 150fish in total. A proper cracking days winter fishing that for sure!

My fish totalled 102lb so you can see what I mean by small stamp of fish! 2nd on the lake was further down the lake with 37lb. the peg to my right had weighed 21lb and the peg to the left had packed up and gone home! Id walked the lake, and section and even framed in the match taking 2ndplace payout, most fun I've had all winter!

The reason I say that was the most fun match I've had and not the best is because I was on the flyer and won easily, the best match I believe I have fished this series is when I drew peg 54, which is close to the flyer, but 55, 56 and 57 are certainly better pegs! On the day I managed to weigh in 89lb, and take the section win against some top anglers on all of the better pegs, and finish 3rd on the lake and 5th in the match. I fished identical tactics to how I fished peg 56, except on the day I actually managed to catch really well shallow on a top kit for the first hour to put 60 fish in my net before it started tailing off as the lake tends to do, 2nd in the section was peg 56 with 80lb on the day with a browning backed angler. so for me this has been my best match!

I've had a few other decent matches, but I've drawn horrible on wood lake and have been on the wrong peg on the wrong day on a couple of occasions, but I've beaten the anglers either side of me nearly every time, which is sometimes all you can do, these harder pegs have made me really work hard to get extra points, and without that extra effort i probably wouldn't be in the top 30, so I'm happy with that.

In the next few weeks my team Bills tackle will be practicing for the first round of the angling times/ bait tech super cup, we have drawn Colchester at their water so we expect it to be a tough match, but after we reached the final last year we are all going to be fighting to make it their again as it was a fantastic experience and a competition I would love to win. I will post updates once we have fished this match

thanks for reading,

Reece.

latest results

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.

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!

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.

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!

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)

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!

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

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

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

Cable Pond Clare

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

Tight Lines
Reece Hearn.

Fennes Hobbs Croft Match

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

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

Weekend matches, Rayne lodge and The fennes

This Saturday I was off to Rayne lodge top lake for an open match, this is the most consistent lake of the 3 at Rayne, and catches can sometimes reach 100lb even in winter. The weather leading up-to this was awful, with temperatures not going above 4c during the week! We had some severe frost for Thursday and Friday night so there was a possibility we might need ice breakers! Fortunately though, the lake was not frozen, although the bottom lake was completely iced over as it is a fair bit lower than the top lake down a steep hill.

The fancied pegs on this lake in these conditions are always 20 and 21, these pegs can cast right into the bowl area where the fish hold up in winter, and you can catch really well on pop up bread, 3,4 and 8 are also good pegs as they can also cast near the area.

At the draw I pulled out peg 3, not a bad peg, and also a peg id drawn the previous winter and won the match from with 94lb. I had a good angler on peg 4 to my left, and a good angler on peg 20, so I had my work cut out!

Id decided to fish a long pole line, a margin line about 2 meters out, and also a bomb rod with pop up bread. The plan was to start on the Bread in the hope that I could nick a few fish quickly, then after an hour or so hope to find some bigger fish on the long pole, and if it was really good then maybe the margins would produce a couple of lumps.

I started the match by popping up 3 punches of bread 12inches off the bottom, this is always my starting point at this lake and if it works you can stay at this depth all day, unfortunately my tip didn't go round! And after 3 chucks and 15minutes id had nothing, but nor had anyone else. I decided to try 2 punches instead of 3, as I had done on the bottom lake a few weeks back, I cast out and as I was sinking my line I felt the rod go, Carp number one was in the net. I cast out again with 2 punches only to miss a bite, possibly a skimmer I thought, so I went down to a single punch and had 2 carp in 2 chucks, but it just didn't feel right as i was getting a lot of indications and normally fishing bread your tip will whack round or drop back. I decided to try 2 punches of 6mm bread instead of my usual 10mm, this was bang on the money and the tip went round 5 times in a row, by this time the fish seemed to be a bit more confident and i was able to go back to 2 punches of 10mm bread, bites came quicker and I was hooking into everything, by the time id had 20 carp, I hadn't seen anyone else get more than about 5 or 6, so I was miles ahead at this stage. Unfortunately  things began to slow, and  my catch rate dropped, I decided to try my pole lines, but not with too much confidence as I hadn't seen a fish caught on a pole, I didn't get anything on the pole so it was back on the tip.

The only problem with this peg is that you can only chuck to the end of the island, and not into the bowl, so I had no way to follow the fish to where they had backed off to, fortunately it would prove to be too little too late for my competitors as they could only seem to catch at my pace even though I was now struggling. 

I finished the match with 34 carp, managing to pick up a few more fish on the bread, and one on the long pole! Id tried changing depth and bait sizes for the last few hours, but it didn't seem to matter what i did, 12inches off the deck with 2 pieces of 10mm punch was the most productive, I feel this was best as its big enough to provide lots of visibility but also small enough for the carp in this lake to easily suck up as they swim along.

My final weight was 76lb 8oz, which was more than enough to beat 2nd place peg 4 next to me with 50lb, there was another 50lb weight and also a few in the 30s and 40s, so the fish were still slightly spread out, just seemingly most had made the move to the bowl area.

So a good start to the weekend! Another good result and match win on a water that I just keep growing in confidence!

Sunday was a bit of a nightmare to be quite honest! Id drawn 80 on hobbs croft, which is a good perch peg in the winter, the only issue I had was that the perch didn't want to feed! I don't think a single person caught one on the lake. Another problem i had was that bloodworm and joker was banned for this match, so unless by some kind of miracle the silvers were in my peg, I was going to really struggle!

I ended the match with 32 small fish for 1lb! A lovely half ounce average :( nothing whatsoever worked on the day, and I feel I have some good experience on this lake, especially in winter as i fish here often. The lake was won from a peg in the shallow water off peg 67, he caught 14lb of skimmers on pellet, I believe the fish were here because the sun was shining on this area all day, and obviously shallow water warms up quicker than deep water! Another good weight came from behind the island on peg 74, this can be a great winter peg, in the summer we don't put this peg in as its a waste of time, you just cant compete, but in the winter for some reason the better silvers hold up here, the angler in this peg managed 13lb of quality roach and skimmers, at least some people had caught some fish and had a days fishing! The next best weight was 8lb from another shallow peg mostly skimmers as well.  99 times out of 100 id be happy with peg 80, unfortunately today was that 1 in a 100 day where is just wasn't meant to be! its about 5-6ft deep here, the shallow pegs are about 2-3ft, mind boggling, but that's winter fishing for you!

As you can see above i have poorly edited this overhead image so you can see where the winning weights came from, as expected, on ash grounds in the bowl area, the winning weight consisted of one carp, 8 f1s and a bream, the eventual winner was Dickie Carr so well done to him on a hard day.

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

Thanks for reading this week, I look forward to posting next week,

Tight lines,

Reece Hearn

Lakelands Club Match

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

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

Reece Hearn.

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