Saturday 29th October - 1st round of the manor farm winter league

Drew peg 6 middle and got it totally wrong. Struggled with foul hooking fish. Weighed 49-0-0 which beat one in the section.
Must try harder!

Sunday 23rd October - Hawford Bridge team match

I had been looking forward to this match for some time. The banks' team match. 15 teams of 4 fishing. Which last year was held at cob house fishery which we managed to win so wanted to retain our title this year!

Hawford Bridge is a venue im not familiar with. I fished it maybe 2 years but couldnt remember a lot about it.

The team consistes of me. Iain Jennings, Will Beasley and Simon Pickering.

The draw was done prior to the match and our team drew peg 9 on the 4 different lakes.

I was on Penn. Peg 9.
Iain Jennings - Broomhill Peg 9.
Will Beasley - Bridge Peg 9.
Simon Pickering - Riddings Peg 9.

After we had all had a walk round togther to look at our pegs I loaded up my trolley and was soon at my peg.

It looked really nice. The reeds as you can see above were about 14.5m away and I had my own water. The only thing I was concerned about was if the fish werent in my little bay id struggle to attract any fish in, becasuse there was pressure on the lake I thought they could back off.

The lines I set up were as follows.

Top kit plus 2. Whered id feed hard pellets by hand and fish a banded pellet.

11.5m of my Colmic Airon F44. Where again I would feed pellets via a catipult.

Top 6 to my righ down the edge. Where I had a bit of cover where id feed micros and maggots.

I began the match with half a pot of bait down the edge. A small offering of pellets short and a similiar amount long.

I began the match short where I could just to watch what everyone else was doing. With not knowing the venue I didnt know if anything I was doing was right. It was clear there were some fish there as I had indiactions straight away. I foul hooked one which came off. So cut down on the feed by hand slightly. This resulted in 3 quick carp as quick as I could get in. Then they soon disappreared.

Had a quick look down the edge without a bite so decied to look on my long line. And after 20 minutes I didnt have a bite.

By now and hour had past and a couple of people were catching off fish and the one chap I could see was really catching!

So I put my plummet on and set up a new line to my right nearer the reeds. This resulted in one quick fish and I hooked and lost 2. Didnt really know where to go from here so I potted another bit of bait on each line and decied to go back to my original 11.5m line and sit there and be patient. It tooked 20 minutes to get a bite which turned out to be a little mirror about 3lb.

It was around 12:45 now and I was reslly stuck. Id set up 2 new lines and still couldnt catch so I could only think that I caught the few fish that were there early then they disappeared resulting in no fish coming back into the peg!

As a bit of a gamble I put half a pot of pellets in on my short line, give it 10 minutes then go straight on it.

What a decision that proved to be! On the first put in my float barely settled and I was into a fish. I couldnt get in quick enough by now and I knew I was chasing the guy who had been catching all day so played my fish quite hard in a hope to narrow the gap. For the next hour and half I was flying. I must of had 25 carp in that time.
All the while I had been potting a bit of bait down my edge in a hope to catch on it late as I thought my short line might die.

With 20 minutes to go I had a look down the edge and foul hooked one. So put some more bait in to try and pin them down because it was around 3ft down there. I manged another one that was a better stamp maybe 7lb and hoped id get chance to have one more. But it wasnt to be. The hooter sounded and I didnt have another fish down the edge.

But had I done enough?
I knew id done ok but I felt I was always chasing the chap who caught all day.

I managed to weigh 102lb which was 2nd on my lake of 15. I needed 146lb to win the lake so was way off. However if I could of found a few more fish earlier on I  could of got a little bit closer. But I honestly felt there were no fish in my peg to begin with.

As a team we managed 2nd overall which I was really pleased with!

Iain came 3rd on his lake.
Will came 5th on his.
Simon came 4th on his.

I really enjoyed this match and hope to fish it again next year!

Saturday 22nd October - Larford lakes.

This is my first visit to Larford and seeing some of the recent weights its been fishing really well.

I drew peg 45 on the match lake and deiced to fish pellets short and long.
Margins to the next pallet
A method feeder and a Bomb.

Caught a few short to begin with then caught long on the deck and a few shallow.

Weighed 61lb which was 7th overall.
Will deffintly be going back though!

Sunday 16th October - Manor Farm Leisure

I knew I was up against it as soon as I drew peg 25 on island pool. Not a very good area.

Couldnt catch on the pole so had to be really patient and catch odd fish on the bomb.

Weighed 37lb which was 6th overall.

Saturday 15th October - Priory pool

Havent fished this venue much.
Had a really slow start having to rotate lines to catch one fish and then switch lines.
But a few fish turned up late on my long line.

Weighed 55lb which was 4th overall.

Friday 14th October - Alders farm team match

Today ive been to Alders Farm. We "Team Colmic" were invited to fish the Joseph James Law match amongst some very good teams.
Our team consisted of Chris Telling. Frank Donachie. Gary Donachie, Glen Picton and myself.

I drew peg 6 on pines lake. Chris was also on pines. Gary and Frank went on ash and Glen on the speci lake.

I really wanted to draw peg 5 but 6 I was still happy with.

1 hour was shocking to say the least! Didnt land a fish. Lost 3 fish. All foul hookers.

Eventually i landed my first fish on the pole on the deck at 14.5m fishing expander pellets.

A few fish had been topping at about 30m so i bagan pinging some 6mms pellets in hope to catch on the waggler. 15 casts on the waggler resulted in 2 fish, then nothing.

So i picked up the shallow rig. One thing i have learnt about pines in the couple of times ive fished it is they dont like slapping. You may catch one fish on it but there to wise. So i found laying the rig in was best and catching the "cleverer" fish. Normally a better stamp!

I tried feeding my edge line but they didnt come in on it. So I spent the rest of the match on the swinging rig.

I managed to weigh 61lb which was 5th in my section.
As a team we finished 5th out of 12 teams which wasnt to be.

Sunday 9th October - Woodland View fishery

Today I went to Woodland View. The match was held on Arles pool.
This is my first visit to the venue so didn't know where you wanted to draw.

29 of us all round Arles was always going to be a hard match. 

We all lined up waiting to take our draw.
Peg 22 stuck to my hand.
Didn't know where this was so had a quick walk round to have a look at my peg.  It's on the end of the island and towards the corner of the lake. But 21 was in so he had the long edge line.

I was told it was an out and out pellet venue so I based my approach like this:

13m of my Colmic Airon F44. 0.15 Spider line and 0.13 hook length.  To a Jon Walker .4 float. With the Yellow colmic elastic. Where I'd feed hard pellets.

Top 5. Same line and float and the same elastic. It was around 4ft deep here and maybe 5ft at 13m.

I did set up a half depth rig just in case I felt the fish were coming up off the deck slightly.
This was a Colmic Mike float. 0.15 mainline to 0.13 spider. To an 18 B911.

Next Adventure 45 rod. Set up on a little pellet feeder for chucking to the island.

I fed my short line and long line on the whistle and chucked the pellet feeder against the island. It mustn't of been in much more than 2 minutes after the tip dropped back. Just the start I needed!
Played the fish really carefully as it's nice to get off to a good start. Got it under the rod tip and it felt quite big. I managed to get his head up and it was a big mirror about 8lb which I could see hooked in the top lip..... next minute. You guessed it. Hook pull! Not what I needed!

Decided to go back on this, but didn't have any indications.
Looking round the lake no one was really catching but a few fish had been caught on the pole.

So I shipped out my long rig and began catching a few. I started off cad potting in some dampened 4mm pellets and fished a hard 6mm on the hook.  I probably caught 3 fish in a short amount of time. But they soon faded.
By now we were probably an hour and a half in so decided to have a look on my short line where I'd been throwing a few pellets. 

Had another small carp on this but it was very clear that you seemed to catch a fish on one line then you would have to do something else.

By now I had around 20lb ish which was doing ok.

From about 12:30 - 2:00 I couldn't get a bit anywhere! Everyone was struggled and the lake just seemed to switch off. But I didn't do anything stupid and kept feeding a bit of bait.

I put my plummet on and plumbed up a new line at 14.5m.

This proved to be really good. I caught steadily on this. Mainly F1s and a couple of carp.

With 20 minutes to go my long line seemed to die so I dropped in on my short line and had another 3 f1s.

My mixture of carp and F1s weighed 54lb which was enough to win the match!

Really enjoyed it. As funny as it sounds, I like fishing negative and thinking about where I'm gonna get my next bite.

Roll on next match!

Saturday 8th October - Manor Farm open

Today I decided to go to Manor Farm. With 15 fishing. 10 on middle and 5 on island.
I drew peg 10 on middle.
With the cold nights lately I thought it would have a big effect... which it did!

Decided on 2 lines of attack. 

14.5m of my Colmic Airon F44 pole where I'd fish hard pellets.

Colmic Next Adventure 45 bomb rod. Where I'd ping pellets at about 30m.

First hour I didn't have any indications then 2nd hour had a carp and an F1 on the pole.
No one was catching.
For the 3rd hour and a half I decided just to fish the bomb and catch what I could to rest my pole to hopefully catch on it later.
I had 5 fish on the bomb but they were only small F1s.
So back out on the pole for the last hour and a half where I caught steady till the end catching a few carp and some better stamp F1s.
I think coming off the pole when I did made a real difference and meant I could build it up for later on, something I do quite regularly which i think makes a big difference.

I weighed in 47-0-0 which was enough for 3rd overall and won my section.

It's official... winter is on its way!!! Feeding negative was by far best and just sitting and waiting for a bite.

Sunday 2nd October - Manor farm open

The match was on boundary pool today and with 23 people fishing it was going to be very hard!

I drew peg 22 which is in a bay that I've never been in and hoped the fish would be there as I'd struggle to attract any fish into my peg... but they weren't. 

I caught a couple of small F1s on the bomb and had to keep persevering with shallow on the pole as that's the only place I could catch???

Weighed 34-0-0 which surprisingly was enough for 3rd overall and a section win!

Roll on next time!

Saturday 1st October - Manor farm leisure

Today I went to Manor farm leisure for the open match on island and middle pool.
5 on island and 6 on middle. 

I drew peg 4 which I quite fancied for catching shallow on the pole.
Had a big common and an F1 early on the bomb and went out on the deck on the pole at 14.5m and didn't get a bite.
So picked up the shallow rig.
Caught really well on this for 2 hours catching some decent size carp and some f1s.

As middle usually does, it all completely switched off around 1:00 and probably went 40 minutes without a bite. 

I then had a few more fish shallow on the pole and managed to have 1 common and an F1 down the edge.

I weighed in 130-0-0 which was second overall.
With 146-0-0 winning so needed a few more bigger fish.