Friday 5th August - Bourton on the water open.

Drew peg 11.
Started at 11.5m on pellets and caught quite well early then struggled for a bite.
Came short and caught some more then fished shallow short for the rest of the match. 
Had a nice day.
Weighed 87-0-0 for 2nd overall.

Sunday 31st July

Ivy House open match.

I've only been going to ivy house for the last month or two but I am really beginning to like it there. 
It's a hard venue. But deffintly one of the fairest there is around which is why I like it so much. It is never normally won from the same peg.
Getting onto the match, with 17 people fishing and only 20 pegs on the lake it was always going to be tough.
I drew myself peg 12.
This is peg is really close to those either side than most of the other pegs but at an angle to the left you have a bit of room to yourself.
So I decided to target this area more than in front of me.

I started short on pellets at 5m which as I've written about before can produce an early carp or big skimmer. I managed 1 roach about a pound on this so a nice fish none the less. 

I then opted to feed my worm line that was straight in front of me and then go on my paste line where I'd fish to my left with a little bit of room.  I began catching a few carp on this and felt I was doing ok.

Looking round the lake no one was really catching. The guy a few pegs up had caught more carp than me and with 2 hours to go I was hoping to try and catch some skimmers to try and bump my weight up as the carp had shut up shop in my peg.

In the remaining hour I didn't really put a lot in the net at all!
I had some Ripple in my peg now and strangely I didn't catch when that came along! Normally that's a good thing when you have Ripple!

I had 9 Carp and 8 Big Skimmers which resulted in me being 2nd overall and 2nd in the silvers.
My carp went 42lb
And my Skimmers went 21lb
Leaving me with a total weight of 63lb.

29lb won the silvers which I felt I should of had as at one stage they were then they'd disappear again!

I was quite happy with that from that peg and I learnt a lot about Ivy house that day!

Until the next time!!!

Saturday 30th July.
Today I decided to go to manor farm on the open match.
There were 17 of us fishing and with us all on island pool it was going to be a struggle from some pegs.
I found myself heading towards peg 21, this peg isn't normally in which maybe can be a good thing?
but with this being on the corner of the island and pegs in either side I felt it could be tough.

Like I do with all my fishing I kept things dead simple:

14.5m of my Trustee Colmic Airon F44 pole on the deck and 3 shallow rigs.
My shallow rigs all consisted of a MAP SF1 floats to 0.16 F1 spider mainline to an 0.13 hook length. Where'd id fish a lasso'd 4mm pellet.

11ft Colmic Next Adventure 60 Rod. With a pellet feeder and an 0.15 F1 spider hook length.
11ft Next Adventure 45 Rod. Set up to fish a lead either over my pole line or 3/4 the way across if I needed to.

I began my match by feeding my pole line and chucking the feeder tight to the Island
 and sat there hoping for an early fish.... this didn't happen, looking around no one had caught and thought we could be in for a tough match. But I persevered on this for the first half an hour.

With this resulting in no bites I decided to have a look on the pole, starting on the deck.
By now the wind was making things a little difficult with an awkward cross wind but it was no match for my F44 and I could comfortably lean into it. I began catching steadily on this putting a few small F1s in the net, and then I began missing bites. All the while I had been pinging this line and I thought the fishing might of been coming shallow.

So out came the shallow rig. I caught a few on this but I would catch one then have to change depths, they weren't settling at any one depth.

By now we were just over half way through and as I've said in the past Manor Farm always switches off around this time. And sure enough everyone stopped catching.

I think I had around 30lb in the net which I felt was doing ok for the area I was in so decided to sit on the feeder for the remainder of the match and hoped id catch late on the pole. I did have quite a good spell on the feeder where I put 6 fish in the net in 30 minutes and they were a decent stamp.

So last half an hour I decided to have a look back shallow on the pole and this saw me have 3 quick F1s and then they went again. So back out on the feeder for a late fish or 2.

I managed to hook one with 5 minutes to go but it took me into a snag that I didn't know was there, which resulted in me pulling for a break.

I managed to weigh in 68-0-0 which put me 5th overall and a section win! Which from the area I was quite happy with.

I am very pleased to announce I am now sponsored by Colmic.

Feel really privileged to be sponsored by them, and to be part of there great company. I have a lot of people to thank for helping me get here and appreciate all their help. 

Feeling really optimistic in what the future will hold! 

Bring it on!!!

Sunday 24th July - Ivy House open.

I drew peg 15.
I made the decision at the start to try and catch skimmers and fish for them most of the day.
I started off catching ok on my worm mix. Then I couldn't get a bite on it???
At around 2:00 I set up a paste line which was good.
I caught some bigger skimmers on this and 2 carp. 
In hindsight I should of done it earlier. 
Weighed in 33-0-0 for nowhere overall.
Did ok in the area I was in but deffintly should have fished other things instead of just worms.
But this should lead me in good stead for when I go back.

My worm mix 

Saturday 23rd July - Manor farm leisure

Today I went to Manor farm for the open match that was held on island pool. 
With the venue fishing well I thought we were all in for a good days fishing.
A couple of areas I fancied were
Peg 6. 14 and 16 and I felt u needed to be there to win.
I drew peg 33.
It's the deepest part of the lake and with it being really warm I thought the fish would want to be in the shallow water. So with this in mind I based my approach fishing shallow on the pole, this is more of an F1 area and was geared up to catch them.
I set up the following:
Colmic Next Adventure 60 rod. 0.20 method line. To a pellet feeder. Fishing 0.13 F1 spider line to an 18 B911 and hard pellet.
Next Adventure 45 rod. Fishing a bomb with 6mm pellets.
X1 deck rig at 14.5m on the pole.
X3 shallow rigs all at different depths to help me cover all layers of the water.
I began the match feeding my pole line and chucked the pellet feeder tight against the island.
The first hour started really slow for everyone and I only had a couple of small F1s on the feeder.
2nd and 3rd hour I decided to have a look shallow and in two hours i managed to catch F1s and small carp quite steadily, having to work really hard slapping and feeding.
As always around 1 o'clock at manor farm normally everything seems to go dead. So I decided to start pinging a bomb line and stay on the pellet feeder to catch what I could.
Going into the last hour i was hoping my shallow line would get stronger as it had been rested and I kept constantly feeding it. 
I caught quite well last hour and ticked over nicely building up my weight with a few better stamp carp and bigger F1s.

As the scales came round i weighed in 101lb.
This was enough to put me 2nd overall and win my section. 
Well done to Chris Telling on winning the match with 110lb.
In hindsight I needed a few bigger stamp fish just to help me build up a bigger weight.

Sunday 17th July.

Mick Telling memorial match today at wick water.
With it being really warm it was always going to be hard.
This was the first time I'd ever seen this place and I must admit, it's a lovely looking lake!
Getting to my peg. Peg 15. It was really shallow close in so I decided to use a platform.
The colmic platforms are solid! So I set this up to give me 3 advantages:
1 - my nets are in deeper water. 
2- I get further out passed the trees as this peg has trees surrounding it.
3- I'm another metre out from the anglers next to me. Meaning when I fish long I'm automatically fishing longer than them!
I fished a positive match.
Paste short.
Pellets long. 
A method feeder
A Waggler.
I started off really slow.
Didn't have a sign for an hour then lost one on the Waggler so as it fishing hard I  decided to stay on it.
I managed 4 carp to weigh 21-0-0
I lost 3. 1 broke me and 2 just pulled out.
Came nowhere with that but still had a few bites.
I felt I didn't really do my homework and maybe should of tried a bomb over the top of this as a few fish were caught on this but this should lead me in good stead for the next time I return back. 
We managed to raise £340 for Cancer Research so that was brilliant. 
So well done to Chris Telling and everyone who came along. 
And Well done to the 6 qualifiers.  Good luck in the final!