Hall lane , bessies pool

August 26th

Hall lane Bessies

Today was the last round of the Mosella north-west summer league at Hall lane fishery it was situated in Rufford near the bottom of Parbold hill and before the match i was lying in 11th place so would need a top two section finish if i wanted to break into the top ten , i would be really happy if i managed to do it as there was some very good anglers contesting this event plus i had missed two of the rounds due to other commitments so those would be used as my droppers but it meant all my other matches had to count which put a bit of extra pressure on myself . After only getting back from holiday late on Friday i had some rushing around to do to get my rigs and bait ready but at least i had brought the sun back home with me , as on the morning of the match i was greeted to blue skies and a light wind although as i have found out on previous visits to Hall lane the slightest breeze can turn out to be a gale when you get to the fishery as it is very open with being flat all the way to the North West coast .

As i arrived at the fishery all the usual people was in attendance plus a few lads who decided to fish it as an open to help keep the numbers up because some had decided to miss this match as they wasnt in contention for a good finishing place in the league , before the draw i had a quick look at Bessie’s pool it seemed like the wind had blown towards the car park for a couple of days as there was a lot of scum gathered in that area and on here the windward corner pegs had thrown up some huge weights on previous visits so obviously everyone wanted to draw in this area , as i got back to the cabin the queue was beginning to form for the draw and i fancied an early dip so i could have a bit more time getting ready , when it came round for my go in the bag of doom i pulled out number 14 this was situated about three-quarters of the way down the first straight with your back to Gwen’s canal  and on my arrival to my home for the next few hours i had ;

A nice mud bank cut out between the over hanging far bank reeds which was 14m away and i set up two rigs to fish this area , one in 18 inch at the side of the reeds as i felt this would offer a bit of cover from the bright sunshine and the other was the more usual 12 inch for tight to the bank , on both rigs i used a 4×12 MD diamond float with a bulk shotting pattern above the four-inch 012 garbo hook length .

As i began setting up i noticed that the wind had begun to switch around and was now beginning to blow between the gap in the islands straight into my margin , so i felt this could be a really good option for me although it had only really produced on the end pegs and on plumbing up my left hand side was extremely snaggy so that was out of the question , my right hand side was snag free but plumbed up like a cliff face so i couldn’t get in the depth of water i would have liked so i decided to put it in two foot were the bottom levelled off so all the feed would settle there as it rolled down the slope but i just hoped i wouldn’t suffer too many line bites and i used a 4×12 MD diamond float with a bulk shotting pattern above the four-inch 012 garbo hook length .

One of my mates had fished this lake a couple of days earlier doing well using hard pellets in three-foot at the side of the near reeds and when i had drawn this area in an earlier round i had caught a few carp using the same method although this close in swim had been a proper struggle all series , i decided to set up a 4×12 MD roob styled float with a staggered bulk starting above the four-inch 012 garbo hook length .

My bait for the day was ;

4 pints of Adlingtons finest white maggots

3 pints of Bagem 4mm carp feed pellets covered in a bit of Bagem pellet oil so they would keep their shape

1 bag of Bagem green margin ground-bait

When the all in sounded i fed half a small cupping kit of 4mm pellets on my top three-line then went across to the far bank , i kinder potted in some maggots then held my rig tight so that it fell up the slope and it took a couple of feeds before i got any indications which was a bit strange because you can usually catch a few mug fish straight away , i finally managed a couple of carp but it was very slow going and i decided to increase my feed to try to draw a few more fish into the peg this kind of worked but i was catching ide rather than the hoped for carp . After around an hour the wind turned around a little blowing from right to left this made controlling my rig a bit of a problem and i ended up losing a couple of rigs in the reeds plus i pulled out of a few carp + ide which was understandable after being a little rusty due to my bit of a break from fishing , i had a little word with myself and i began putting the odd fish in the net .

I noticed that there was some swirls right at the back of the reeds so i took the opportunity to switch rigs to my shallower mud bank one , just like before i started kinder potting in the maggots i was soon picking up the odd carp+ide and after two hours i had 7 carp and six ide in the net . After a while the swim began to get stronger+stronger which was no doubt down to the wind dragging a few down my end of the lake and i had a really good run of carp but if anything i ended up with too many fish as i suffered liner after liner , i was spending a lot of time putting nothing in the net and i then stupidly decided to pot in some ground-bait to see if that would settle them down but it had the opposite effect as i just ended up foul hooking fish after fish .

I just had to leave my across swim to settle down a bit and since the match began i had trickled in a few hard 4mm pellets on my top three-line , so i decided to have a look there and to be honest i expected a response straight away , when my float buried immediately i thought that i had cracked it but it was either a skimmer or a gudgeon which came my way not exactly what i had in mind . With two hours remaining i started feeding my margin swim with ground-bait+maggots and while it settled i went back across , thankfully it had quietened down and i began putting a few carp in the net , i didn’t want to get in the same situation as before by over feeding but i needed to put some bait in to get a bite so i decided to just catch a couple of fish then left it to rest while i went on my margin and for the next hour it all went swimmingly , but i didn’t have to wait long before something else went wrong and this time it was down to me foul hooking carp on my margin line because i couldn’t get into shallow enough water which was a bit of a pain .

At the all out i had managed thirty carp + six ide which when the scales arrived went just short of 90lb this was good enough for second in section missing out by less than twenty pounds and i just wished that i could have got my margin to work properly because the lad on the next peg managed 60lb in the last hour , overall the match was won with 180lb then two 150lb weights made the frame so yet another good match and of course there would always be a few dodgy areas on a lake so big . Overall i ended up on 13 points this i think put me in the top ten which i am made up with against the quality of angler in attendance , i would like to say well done to the top five in the league as well as all those anglers who picked up a few quid along the way plus Paul+Stu from Mosella North West for running a great league and I’m already looking forward to doing it all again next year .

Hall lane Bessies pool , Mosella north west summer league

August 5th

After a couple of weeks break it was time for the penultimate round of the Mosella north-west summer league on Bessie’s pool at Hall lane which was situated in Rufford near the bottom of Parbold hill and after having suffered with heavy rain plus strong winds leading up to the match ,when i arrived at the fishery i was glad to find conditions a bit more suitable with a manageable breeze blowing away from the car park  because as you know it can be a bit of a wind trap on here and to get the best weights you really need to be fishing across to the mud line which is 16m on some pegs .

As i was here a bit early like usual i had a chat with a couple of lads from the Mosella squad and we was all a bit unsure how it would fish with all the recent cold rain going in but because there was only 26 lads contesting the match we would all have a bit of room which should improve things , it was a bit disappointing that the field had almost halved in size since the start of the league especially as the weights coming out had been really good with two hundred pounds being needed to reach the frame on the last few rounds and it is probably down to the pay outs which needs looking at if they decide to run it again next year .

When it came round to draw time i had the first dip in the bag of doom and pulled out peg 35 which i was far from happy with because you had the windward end peg in your section plus the peg had finished last in section a couple of times in the league , as i arrived at my home for the next few hours i had one of the league leaders in my section as well so i would up against it to try to get some good points from here . My peg was a touch over 13m wide which is one of the narrowest on the lake so at least it would be an easier days fishing and like usual on here i had a mud bank about a meter wide surrounded by some over hanging reeds , the margins were pretty standard top kit of bare bank then some vegetation and i decided to set up ;

Margin towards my left where after plumbing up i found a bit of a flat area on the shelf in 18in which is a bit deeper than usual but i didn’t expect the carp to be feeding tight to the mud bank , i used a 0.4 MD margin float with 018 garbo main line and a four-inch 014 garbo hook length which had a size 16 guru lwg hook attached my elastic was size 15 Preston hollo .

Three foot rig for fishing in front of my right hand reeds and also across to the far bank , this is an area which i have struggled to catch on in previous rounds but i always set it up just in case and i used a 4×12 MD maggot float with a bulk plus dropper shotting pattern my main line was 016 garbo which had a six-inch 012 garbo hook length , my elastic was size 13 Preston hollo .

Mud line rig for fishing in 18 inch about a foot away from the bank and i used a 4×12 MD island float with a bulk of stotz above the four-inch 012 garbo hook length ,my elastic was size 13 Preston hollo .

Tight to the far bank in 8 inch and i used a 4×12 MD mini mag float which was on 014 garbo direct to a size 16 guru lwg hook and elastic was size 13 Preston hollo .

Bait for the day was ;

3 pints of Adlington’s finest white maggots .

2 pints of 4mm hard pellets .

1 pint of corn .

1/2 bag of ground-bait .

When the all in sounded i had a quick look onto my left hand margin to see if i could mug a carp because i had felt a few when i plumbed up earlier and after a couple of minutes my float twitched then slid under , a sharp strike resulted in a tiny gudgeon flying my way not exactly what i had planned so that went up the bank for later in the match . A switch to my across line and i kinder potted in some maggots then held my rig still over the top of it , after a couple of quick carp things got a great deal harder as i could see the fish coming into the swim with their fins breaking the surface but was struggling to get them settled in the shallow water but before i did my usual trick of potting in some ground-bait , i switched rigs to my 3ft one which was positioned halfway down the far slope in front of the over hanging reeds and i began clumping in my maggots through a large kinder pot because in this depth of water line bites could be a problem , after about ten minutes i had my first indication which resulted in a big ide hitting the net and over the next hour i managed half a dozen of them but as i feared it wasnt long after when i began getting line bites resulting in foul hooked fish .

I went back onto my mud bank catching a couple of early carp before they became spooky again and it was becoming really frustrating , i decided to pot in some ground-bait this kind of worked as i attracted plenty of fish into the swim but now i had the problem of foul hooking them and kept trashing rigs so even more frustration . I dropped onto my left hand margin where i had potted in some ground-bait and maggots for the past hour , i had seen a few signs of carp with the swim being muddied up and after an early carp i just couldn’t get another indication on it , to make things worse the ducks had emptied my mud bank of bait , i had been putting in corn+pellets onto my right hand 3ft swim and i hoped that a few fish might have settled on it but i never even had a sign , today was just getting worse + worse so with ninety minutes of the match remaining i only had 14 carp in the net plus a few ide and i was stirring at last place in the section .

With nothing left to lose i decided to up my feed so i put in two cups of maggots+ground-bait in on my margin and my mud bank swim , i picked up my eight inch rig and pushed it really tight to the far bank which i hoped would help solve the foul hooking problem , thankfully it did and my swim got stronger + stronger maybe it was the increased feed going in , or the ducks stirring up the bottom , but they had just turned up although i wasnt complaining as i managed to double my catch in the remaining time including one right on the whistle . The all out signalled the end to my worst match in a long time as i couldn’t get anything to work properly , trashing rigs + losing fish not the best of days , i ended up with 28 carp plus half a dozen ide when the scales arrived went 90lb and surprisingly this was good enough for second in section which i would have taken at the start of the contest , although i felt the peg was worth a lot more as the lad too my right won the match with 230lb so i got well and truly smashed up today but at least this gave me a default pick up , this leaves me on 11 points after removing my two droppers so if i manage a section win on the last round i might make the top ten although i never make things easy on myself after missing two matches in the league .

 

Mosella north west summer league , Hall lane bessies pool

July 22nd

Hall lane Bessies

Today i was back at Hall lane fishery for the sixth round of the Mosella north-west summer league and i was really looking forward to it because if you draw in the right areas there is plenty of fish to be caught with two hundred pounds winning the last couple of matches , although i had not been there since the last round and hoped it was going to fish the same but i heard that my old fishing club was on it the previous week with only 55lb winning so i was in two minds on how i was going to approach it . The couple of days leading up to the contest had been a bit iffy with a drop in temps and heavy over night rain which i expected would have an impact on the catches today , some of you might know that i have not been too well for the last couple of weeks and when i woke up on the morning i still wasnt feeling great but i decided to go as i usually feel better as the day progresses . On arrival to the venue the wind was blowing up towards the car park which was a bit unusual but at least it was only a light breeze plus it was still warm , i had a chat with a couple of the mosella lads while we waited for the draw to take place and after a bit of a delay due to some no shows , i joined the queue towards the front and when it came for my turn to have a dip in the bag of doom i pulled out peg 19 which was about as far away from the ripple as you could get and i wasnt even near the end peg so it looks like my golden arm had disappeared for the time being .

After my long walk to the other end of Bessie’s pool i arrived at my home for the next few hours and i had about a meter of bare mud bank in between some over hanging reeds , i also had some more reeds along both my margins which had been cut back at around a top kit distance and it was a more comfortable 14m as well plus there was quite a few carp knocking about in the margins so it all looked promising , with all the info gained from earlier rounds i decided to set up ;

Margin rig in 18 inch which was a bit further down the slope than usual as i felt the cold rain might have an impact and i could go tighter to the bank if i foul hooked any fish , i used a 0.4 MD margin hunter float with a bulk of number eight stotz above the four-inch 012 garbo hook length .

Paste rig in front of the near bank reeds and i haven’t set this up before preferring to use hard pellets but i had heard that a few people had caught well on it here , after plumbing up i found a flat area around three-foot deep so i used a 0.4 MD paste float with an inch spread bulk starting above the six-inch 012 garbo hook length .

Across rig in 18 inch depth which was found about a foot away from the far bank and i used an 0.4 MD shallow diamond float which would help keep the rig stable , all my shot was above the four-inch 012 garbo hook length

Across rig tight to the mud bank in 12 inch and i used a 4×10 MD mini mag float with 014 garbo direct to a size 18 guru lwg hook .

Bait for the day ;

3 pints of Adlingtons finest white maggots

2 pints of soaked 4mm pellets

4 pints of ground-bait

1 pint of green swim stim paste

When the all in sounded i noticed that there was still a few carp milling about near the margin even after the nets going in so i took the opportunity to see if i could mug one and i altered my rig so that all the weights was under the float so that the hook bait would fall slowly through the water , i layed in my rig at the side of margin reeds and no sooner had it settled than my elastic shot out of the pole which resulted in a 6lb carp in the net before anyone had finished feeding there across lines , i tried my luck again and after a few liners i had a smaller carp but then i caught a skimmer so it was time to change swims . The last time i drew in this area i had caught well from in front of the near side reeds and today i decided to give paste a whirl instead of hard pellets , i kinder potted in some 4mm plus a nugget of paste and it took me a few minutes to get my rig set up correct but it all went to feeding the swim , i then had a little run of five carp although i was missing more bites than i hit which is probably down to the fact i don’t do a great deal of fishing this way and it probably wasnt a good idea using it in a match , after a while the indications became a little iffy so i decided to put in a cup of bait before switching to my across lines .

ide

I began on my deeper of the two rigs at the side of the over hanging reeds and i kinder potted in some maggots before holding my rig still over the top of it , i didn’t have to wait too long before i had a carp in the net and in the first ninety minutes i managed to catch a dozen of them , it looked like i could be on for a decent weight but the constant maggots raining in had drawn too many fish into the swim and the far bank was an eruption of swirls which made presenting a bait almost impossible , a switch to my shallower far bank swim produced a few more but they was mainly ide which i wasnt really expecting but at over ten ounce a piece they was worth catching for the time being while a figured out how to get the carp back in the swim . I reduced the amount of maggots i was putting in and started targeting one carp at a time and after the mayhem had settled down a little i began attracting my target species , for the next ninety minutes i had a steady run of carp it was by no means hectic but i was fairly happy as nobody in my section seemed to be running away with it , with two hours of the match remaining the slight ripple in front of me disappeared plus it got a lot brighter and this had a big bearing on my swim as the fish certainly drifted out of my peg .

I decided to begin feeding my left hand margin with ground-bait and i hoped this would work as well as on my previous matches here , while it settled i had another look on my paste swim and as i had thrown a nugget of bait every five minutes i expected some carp to be settled there but strangely i couldn’t manage even a liner , i had not seen any signs on my margin but dropped on it anyway although all it produced was a couple of gudgeon not exactly what i had hoped for . I had no other option but to go back across and just hope that they turned up in the edge later , my long pole line had died a death as well so i made the decision to begin potting ground-bait tight to the mud bank this brought a few carp into the swim and you would often see them tail up in the peg before taking the bait , unfortunately my margin never kicked off as i failed to get an indication everytime i dropped on to it and i spent the rest of the match just picking off the odd fish .

When the all out sounded i had managed 34 carp plus half a dozen ide which seemed to be more than those anglers too my right but the end peg towards my left looked to have caught a few fish , luckily the scales started in my section and when they arrived at my peg i had 84lb to beat , my three nets went a couple of ounces shy of a ton and this gave me the all important section win i was pleased with from that draw this leaves me in 16th place in the league so hopefully a couple more good results might see me scrape into the top ten which i would be over the moon with against the calibre of angler taking part , as i expected the weights got even better down the windward end of the lake and there was lots of tons plus the top four all had over 180lb with 230lb winning the match so it was definitely fishing well at the moment .

 

Hall lane fishery

1st July

Bessies Canal

Today i was back to Hall lane fishery which was situated in Rufford near the bottom of Parbold hill for the fifth round of the Mosella summer league and after managing second overall on my last match here i was understandably looking forward to it , although the weather in the week had been pretty poor with a drop in temps plus near constant rain so i felt that it might not fish as well but how wrong was i as you will find out later . Yet again i was travelling down on my own which to be honest i prefer because its less hassle running about after people plus i know lots of anglers everywhere that i choose to fish , after my thirty minute drive i arrived at the fishery with plenty time to spare so after unpacking my gear i had a quick look at Bessie’s pool and with the wind blowing away from the car park that was where you wanted to be because even though you are targeting mainly carp they definitely follow the breeze on here , when i got back to the cabin i had time for a quick chat with a few of the mosella squad before it was time for the draw and when it came for my go in the bag of doom i pulled out number 47 which was my usual end peg , but today i didn’t really fancy my chances of catching much as it was totally flat calm in front of me and on the last round in similar conditions the two anglers up this end both packed up after two hours having hardly caught in fact the section was won with just 17lb , although to compensate the fact it was a poor area i had been given a bit of room with two empty pegs towards my right and they was able to do this as we only had 35 anglers fishing due to a few lads having a go at the Maver match this competition at Partridge lakes but as usual there was plenty big name anglers in attendance .

On arriving at my peg i had a long reed lined margin to my right and a cut out on both sides at top kit length and i also had a reed lined island with a couple of bare mud banks in between them at 16m , so bearing this in mind i decided to set up ;

Top kit towards my left where i could get tight to the bank in 12 inch as on the other side i had some over hanging reeds and you aren’t allowed to garden at Hall lane , i used a 0.4 joof float which would allow me to keep my rig still when the fish came into the swim because there are some big carp in bessies , my main was 016 garbo and i used a four-inch 014 garbo hook length which had a size 14 guru lwg hook attached so i could use four dead maggots on the hook .

Top three in front of the right hand reed bed where it was 3ft deep and i used a 4×12 maggie float with a bulk plus dropper shotting pattern as i would be fishing maggots here , my main line was the usual 014 garbo and hook length was six-inch of 012 garbo which had a size 18 guru lwg hook attached .

In front of the far bank reeds where it was 2ft and i used a 4×12 maggie float with a bulk plus dropper shotting pattern as i would be fishing maggots here , my main line was the usual 014 garbo and hook length was six-inch of 012 garbo which had a size 18 guru lwg hook attached .

I had a look tight to the mud bank in various spots but it plumbed up awful with dead reeds all along the bottom so i had to come back a foot away from the bank where i could find a flat clean area but on the down side i felt that it was a bit to deep at 18 inch , i used my usual 0.4 joof float with 014 garbo main line with four-inch of 012 garbo hook length which had a size 16 guru lwg hook attached .

Bait for the day was ;

3 pints of white maggots

3 pints of 4mm pellets

4 pints of ground-bait

small tub of 4+6mm expanders if i needed to catch some skimmers .

When the all in sounded i began across in front of the over hanging reeds because i felt that with all the cold rain going in over the last few days that the fish might have dropped further down the slope and after kinder potting in some maggots i laid my rig in then held it still over the top , it took a couple of feeds before i started getting indications and not long after i began catching hand sized skimmers , i felt that i needed to feed them off so that the carp would bully them out of the swim but i figured as i was in a poor part of the lake i didn’t want to force things so soon into the match and it took about thirty minutes of constantly kinder potting in maggots before i managed a nice f1 but they wasnt there in any numbers . My two foot swim was not really working for me so when i saw a swirl on a mud bank towards my right i took the opportunity to switch rigs but before i fished it , i fed it with a small cupping kit full of maggots and no sooner had i put it in than there was carp swirling on it which was a positive sign , in the next thirty minutes i managed four carp and i topped it up with a large kinder pot after every fish but doing this did not seem to help settle them down as they was being proper moody no doubt down to the fact it was flat calm in front of me .

I decided to start feeding ground-bait across to see if it made any difference it did attract a few fish but yet again they wouldn’t settle for me and although i was still picking up the odd carp i felt that things needed changing but i wasnt sure what , i re plumbed up a new swim at the opposite side of some overhanging reeds where i found the same depth but i could get tighter to the far bank and i started by feeding a large kinder pot of maggots , it didn’t take too long before i was catching the odd fish and it seemed like they was just moving about in pairs i tried putting in a couple of pots of maggots to try to keep them in the swim but it did not really work which might be due to the fact that there wasnt many of them in my peg .

With two hours of the match remaining i began feeding my left hand margin with ground-bait after about ten minutes there was a few tails waving at me so a quick switch of rigs before lowering my rig carefully over the top of them , it didn’t take before my float shot under with yards of elastic streaming from the pole tip and after a spirited fight i had a near double figure carp in the net but the disturbance had understandably unsettled the other carp so i re fed it with another pot , then went back across to the mud bank where i picked up a couple more fish but i was keeping a close eye on my left hand margin for any signs of fish and basically that’s how i spent the rest of my match rotating all three swims picking up carp from each .

When the all out sounded it called time on a frustrating contest as i felt that i had not got it right today even though there wasnt a lot of fish in front of me , as i was going to be one of the last to weigh in i decided to see how they had got on down the other end of the lake and as i expected there was some big weights with a couple of 200lb nets plus lots of tons , although they got gradually worse the closer they arrived to my peg and the 25 carp went 86lb which although it was more than i had expected to catch at the start i was still a bit disappointed not to break the ton plus it was only good enough for fourth in the section leaving me on 18 points after five rounds although i had missed a couple this put me about half way in the table so i need some good results in the remaining three matches if i want to move up a bit .

Hall lane fishery , Bessies pool

June 17th

Hall lane Bessies

Today was the fourth round of the summer league at Hall lane that Mosella north-west was running and after missing the last two rounds i needed a good match to move up the table because at the moment i was languishing towards the bottom of it , the weather had stayed surprisingly nice with blue skies plus a light breeze but as you all know Hall lane is notorious for being a wind trap as it is situated at the bottom of Parbold hill with it being flat all the way to the coast so i hoped that things wouldn’t change as i drove to the fishery .On arrival i was glad to see that the conditions remained the same and what ever breeze there was blowing away from the car park , as i had plenty of time to kill i had a quick chat with the Mosella lads and as usual there was a smattering of big name local anglers , when draw time came around i decided to have first dip in the bag and pulled out peg 22 which was at the end of the long stretch with your back to Gwen’s canal , a few people told me it had been poor down that end on previous rounds but today conditions were very different and i had plenty room towards my left so things looked promising .

When i arrived at my home for the next few hours i had ;

a mud line between some over hanging reeds and i used a 0.4 muddie float as when i plumbed up i managed to find 18 inch of water where on plumbing up it was quite flat , my main line was the usual 014 garbo and hook length was four-inch of 012 garbo which had a size 18 guru lwg hook .

a reed bed on either side of me the one on my left had collapsed so it gave some shelter from the sun and i used a 4×12 maggie float with a bulk plus dropper shotting pattern as it was just over three-foot deep , my main line was the usual 014 garbo and hook length was four-inch of 012 garbo which had a size 18 guru lwg hook plus a micro bait band .

a cut out in the reeds a top kit on either side were i could get really tight to the bank and i used a 0.4 muddie float after plumbing up i found it to be around twelve inch deep , my main line was the usual 014 garbo and hook length was four-inch of 012 garbo which had a size 18 guru lwg hook .

Bait for the day was ;

3 pints of white maggots

2 pints hard 4mm pellets

3 pints ground-bait

small tub of mixed hard pellets

When the all in sounded i began on my top three at the side of the left hand reed bed because when i plumbed up earlier i had felt a few fish so i expected a good response and after tapping in a few 4mm pellets i laid my rig in so that it fell up the near slope , i didn’t have to wait long before i had my first fish which was a carp around 3lb and i managed six similar sized ones in thirty minutes for some reason i began getting snagged up on some dead reeds , the next half hour produced another four carp but i also lost a couple due to the underwater obstruction and with about forty pounds in the net you could say it was a good start to the match . With one of the top guru anglers to my right catching well across to the mud bank i decided to follow suit as my near side swim had tailed off and no sooner had i cupped in some maggots across then there was tails waving at me , so i quickly shipped back out and caught some carp pretty constantly for an hour just by kinder potting in maggots after every fish , understandably things didn’t carry on this way and i had to replumb up closer to the reeds in twelve inches of water because the fish were swirling as soon as put some bait in , this new line produced a lot of fish as well including a few chub about 2lb and it looked like i was going to be on for a very good day .

With ninety minutes of the match remaining i began feeding my margin swim with ground-bait and it only took a matter of minutes before i had some proper munters down the edge so before i went on it i changed to a stronger elastic , i carefully lowered my rig in tight to the edge within seconds it buried after a spirited fight i had an eight pound carp in the net a few more quickly followed but i was getting a bit worried about my net limits because it was a strict fifty pounds and although i had already got three nets in i had to go searching for another but before i went i put in a couple of cups of ground-bait , luckily i managed to borrow one from a lad towards the top end of the lake and when i got back i carefully put my net in before settling in on my box thankfully the carp was still there , for the remaining forty minutes i caught quite constantly but i did pull out of a couple during the match which as you will find out they cost me .

When the all out sounded it called time on a really good match and i was really unsure how much i had caught but i knew i had well over a ton which would be my first for here , when the scales arrived at my peg the net which i used for the last forty minutes in the margin went 43lb in total i ended up with 161lb i was over the moon with that weight although i felt that the peg was worth a lot more but im not used to catching these big weights and did a some things wrong plus pulled out of a few fish at the net , after packing up i made my way to the car park and it turned out i had ended up second in the match behind a 169lb net from the opposite end peg to me so it seemed there was a few fish down my end , overall Bessie’s had fished well in places but yet again some sections had been a proper struggle and its in these areas that are going to make or break your chance of doing well in the league .

 

Mosella summer league at Hall lane round one

May 13th

Today i was off to Hall lanes fishery in Rufford for the first round of the Mosella summer league which was taking place on Bessie’s pool and i haven’t really fished this water a great deal so i was quite looking forward to it , even after struggling on the practice match a couple of weeks ago but that gave me a few things to work out so i felt better prepared and to be honest i needed a good performance if i was going to have a chance because the quality of angler taking part was pretty high .

On arrival to the fishery i noticed that the wind was blowing strongly towards the car park which could make fishing across to the mud lines quite difficult and after booking on i had a walk around the lake , down the opposite end of the water the wind wasnt as bad and i fancied drawing between 20-40 so quite a few to go at but just because it was suitable fishing conditions on these pegs i was still new to the venue and maybe the fish wouldn’t want to be there .

When i got back to the car it was time for the draw so i joined the queue about half way and when it was my turn in the bag of doom i pulled out peg two , not where i wanted to be because i had the worst of the wind to contend with plus it didn’t fish great in this area on the practice match but on the positive side i hadn’t far to walk . As i settled in at my home for the next few hours i decided to set up a few rigs to give me plenty options because i felt i could be scratching around for most of the match ;

Margin rig in front of the reeds where it was 3ft deep i didn’t feel that the carp would come right into the edge because it rained quite heavily over night which would have cooled the water down a bit and i decided to use a 0.3 MD diamond float with a bulk plus dropper shotting pattern i hoped that this would help keep my bait still in the rough conditions , my main line was the usual 0.14 garbo which had a six-inch 012 garbo hook length attached to it and my elastic was preston green hollo .

Top four at the bottom of the near slope which is the swim which i caught majority of my fish on the last visit here and i used a 0.4 MD wire stemmed float for stability it had a bulk plus two droppers spread along my usual 0.14 garbo which had a six-inch 012 garbo hook length attached to it and my elastic was Preston green hollo .

Three foot rig for fishing in front of the far bank reeds and i used a 0.4 MD wire stemmed float for stability it had a bulk plus two droppers spread along my usual 0.14 garbo which had a six-inch 012 garbo hook length attached to it and my elastic was Preston green hollo .

Mud bank line where it was about a foot deep and i used a 0.4 MD wire stemmed float for stability it had a staggered bulk spread along my usual 0.14 garbo which had a six-inch 012 garbo hook length attached to it and my elastic was Preston green hollo .

Bait for the day was ;

three pints of white maggots

two pint of 4mm pellets

small tub of 4mm expanders

I began the match by fishing across in front of the reeds and after feeding a kinder pot full of maggots before laying my rig in so that it fell up the slope which would help me keep the float still in the rough conditions , after a couple of feeds i had my first indication not long after i had my first fish which was an ide over a pound and in the first hour i put two carp plus four big ide in the net , things were going reasonably well i just hoped that it would continue but i had maybe put too much feed in or the better stamp had backed off because all i could catch was small hand sized skimmers .

I noticed that the lads either side of me were picking up the odd carp on the mud lines so i decided to follow suit and after picking up a carp straight away i had to wait ages for an indication , so i decided to be a bit positive and big potted maggots on my mud line , while i waited for any signs of carp i set up a new swim across in three-foot towards my left where my empty peg was and i began trickling in maggots through a kinder pot as i didn’t want to over feed the peg like on my original line ,  this produced a couple more carp and ide but it wasnt hectic by any means it just seemed like there wasnt a lot of fish present in this area of the lake .

I saw a swirl on my mud line and quickly shipped across and a picked up a carp straight away but i didn’t have another sign so put in another big pot of maggots in , while it settled i went for a look on my top four swim which i had kinder potted some maggots in every twenty minutes since the match started so i hoped that a few fish had settled on it , yet again i had a quick carp before the skimmers moved in and although it was nice putting fish in the net they wasnt big enough or coming quick enough for me to do the weight needed and when i caught an eel i choose to big pot it with maggots to see if i could get the carp back .

I had a look on my margin swim where i had thrown a dozen maggots since the match started but surprisingly i never had an indication from it and for the rest of the match i rotated between all my lines but only really caught on my three-foot across swims , i should have really put in another line at this depth but that would have meant going 16m towards my left and the strengthening wind would have made it a bit awkward controlling the pole .

The all out called time on a rather frustrating match as i couldn’t get a run of fish from anywhere and you needed to just go tight across then wait for a carp to turn up in the harder areas not exactly riveting fishing , im sure that there would be a method to work out so that you could keep putting fish in the net even if they are just silvers . When the scales arrived at my peg i had thirty pounds which consisted of eight carp plus a similar amount of big silvers , this put me third in the section getting beat by the lads either side of me so not the start to the league that i wanted and im going to miss the next round due to it clashing with the tricast festival at Weston pools over the bank holiday weekend so i need to pull my finger out if i want to do any good .

Adlington angling center

Hall lane fishery

April 30th

For the second match of my triple header of matches over the bank holiday weekend was going to take place at Hall lane fishery in rufford near the bottom of parbold hill , it was going to be my first visit here in nearly two years and with the Mosella summer league starting soon i could do with getting to grips with Bessie’s lake , the weather had taken a turn for the worse over night as we had to contend with a very strong wind  which is always a problem here but on the plus side at least it was still warm , when i arrived at the venue there was loads of people already knocking about because everybody was in the same boat as me trying to get a heads up before the league starts and i did notice that there was plenty of partridge lakes regulars plus nearly every member of the mosella squad so it could be a hard but enjoyable series .

After having a chat with a few of the lads it was time for the draw and when it came round to my turn in the bag of doom i pulled out peg 56 which according to a couple of people it wasnt a great area to be in but at least i didn’t have to walk because it was on the right hand side of the middle section of bessies lake , when i arrived at my home for the next few hours it was around 14m wide with a nice mud bank in between some over hanging reeds and i also had a reed lined margin on either side of me plus an empty peg towards my left , due to the conditions i felt that it was best to fish four meters maximum because i didn’t fancy struggling with the wind and risk breaking something , i decided to set up a few rigs to cover my options ;

Pellet rig for fishing in three-foot depth at an angle towards my right and i used a 4×14 roob float which was the heaviest that i had in my box it had an inch spread bulk shotting pattern starting above the four-inch 012 garbo hook length .

Worm rig for fishing at the bottom of the slope towards my left and i used a 0.4 MD diamond float which i hoped would help keep my rig still in the strengthening wind , my shotting pattern was a bulk plus dropper shotting pattern and my main line was the usual 014 garbo with a six-inch 012 garbo hook length .

Margin rig for fishing tight to the reeds on my left hand side where it was two foot deep although only a top kit away but it was the shallowest water that i could find and the reeds gave my rig a bit of protection , i used a 0.4 joof float which had a spread bulk shotting pattern starting above the six-inch 012 garbo hook length .

Bait for the day was ;

2 pints of 4mm pellets

3 pints of worm mix

small tub of 4mm expanders

small tub of worms for the hook

When the all in sounded i began by tapping in a kinder pot of 4mm on my pellet swim and then went onto my worm swim , i put in a nugget of worm mix onto my left hand line and after flicking my rig out i dragged it up the slope which helped me keep the float still because although the wind was blowing from left to right the undertow was going the other way , it took about twenty minutes before i had my first indication and not long later i had a hand sized skimmer in the net in the next thirty minutes i added another five of them all of which were a similar size , i was just about to give my pellet swim a go when my float shot under and this was no skimmer as it took my elastic towards the far bank before the hook pulled it was either foul hooked or a very big carp , i then had a bite less twenty-minute spell which was unsurprising with all the disturbance of the lost fish after what seemed like an age my float dipped under again it was another carp but this time i managed to get it in the net and at nearly three pounds it was a good stamp .

After another quiet period i switched to my pellet line which i had fed with a kinder pot of 4mm every ten minutes since the match started so i expected something to be present even if they was just skimmers but strangely i never had a single indication all day on it which was probably down to bad presentation due to the strong under tow , i decided to concentrate most of my remaining time on the worm swim and it was a good decision as i managed to pick up the odd carp + skimmer during the next few hours. With ninety minutes of the match remaining i expected my margin swim to kick off but even though i had seen the odd swirl i didn’t get a single bite or liner , i figured they might not want to feed that close to me and i decided to butcher my pellet rig so i could use it further along my left hand margin in 2.5ft depth but this wasnt working for me either .

With my near lines not working for me i put in another worm line to my right which i hoped would enable me to rotate the swims so as not to put too much pressure on each of them ,i did pick up the odd fish including a small eel just before the all out and i ended up with ten carp , a dozen small skimmer plus an ide and that eel which when the scales arrived went just under thirty pounds , this was about the average for those anglers that choose to fish close in as all the framing weights fished long to the island and i had close look at how it was done because one of the maver north-west lads who was at the side of me finished third with a low sixty pounds .

I felt that i had done a fair few things wrong today including using the wrong baits as it was maggots all the way today and of course that was the reason that i went to learn what worked + what didn’t ,  i just hope that the wind isn’t as bad for the first match of the mosella league in a fortnight and tomorrow i will be back at cunneries for the pairs match which should be fun .

Adlington angling center

Hall lane fishery , Merlins pool

April 23rd , peg 34 Merlin’s pool

With the weekend weather being a tad unsettled again after a glorious week with temps reaching the high teens i choose to fish on the Saturday as it looked like it would at least be dry although the winds was due to be pretty strong , i had originally planned on visiting Wrightington fishery but on arrival it was fully matched out and i will have to wait a little longer before i grace its banks so i was in a bit of a quandary on where to go as i had been informed the day before that there was a big contest on Hall lane Bessie’s which i would have liked to fish but had not seen any info about it on the social media sites so i decided to risk it hoping that the other lakes wouldn’t have club matches on them . As i reached the fishery there was cars everywhere because not only was there a sixty pegger on Bessie’s but also a club match on Gwen’s and another on the low numbered pegs of Merlin’s , luckily they had left the higher numbered pegs for the pleasure anglers but even then there was over a dozen along that side and i had a fair trek towards the bottom end before i could find somewhere that gave me a couple of empty pegs either side .

When i settled in at my home for the next few hours i decided to set up a couple of rigs one of which would cover two areas of my peg these where ;

14m line this was situated about two foot from the far-bank as the drop in temperature would have pushed the fish further down the slope , on plumbing up i was surprised to find it nearly four-foot in-depth so i used a 4×12 maggie float and as i would be using meat i used a staggered bulk with two droppers because this would give me a slower fall in the final third of the water , my main line was the usual 014 garbo and i had stepped up my hook-length to 012 garbo and a size 16 lwg hook as the stamp of carp in here was a lot bigger than on the other waters at the fishery .

Eight meter channel swim it was around six-foot deep here so i used a 4×14 maggie float with a bulk plus two dropper shooting pattern for the same reason as above , my main line was the usual 014 garbo and i had stepped up my hook-length to 012 garbo and a size 16 lwg hook as the stamp of carp in here was a lot bigger than on the other waters at the fishery , i also used this rig on my top three-line as the near side shelf dropped away quite sharply and i would loose feed a few bits of meat here hoping that some big carp would be patrolling this area .

Bait for the day couldn’t have been simpler ;

One tin of corn

One tin of hemp

Two tins of meat

With the wind forecast to get stronger during the day i began my session by putting in two pots of hemp+corn onto my channel swim which i would top up every thirty minutes before going on it after a couple of hours , i then shipped out to 14m and kinder potted a few cubes of meat before lowering my rig over the top of it , it didn’t take to long until i had my first fish which was a carp around four pounds not a bad start and for the next forty minutes i had a good run catching a proper mixed bag of fish with carp,f1s,chub,ide and barbel hitting the net . After a while the wind increased and i was finding it harder+harder to keep my rig still so i set up a 4×14 float with a longer lash , i hoped would give me better presentation which it did but it was still hard going holding the pole still so i decided to give it a rest and went on my channel swim.

I had fed my channel swim for the past ninety minutes so i was looking for an immediate response which is what i got with another carp virtually straight away and i had a little run of fish before things died down a bit , i made the decision to start feeding with a kinder pot which turned out to be a mistake as it drawed in loads of ide of course these were nice to catch at ten ounce apiece but i was struggling to get my rig to the deck , so i decided to put in two cups of feed which would hopefully get them back on the deck making them easier to catch . While it settled i gave my top three-line a whirl as i had flicked a few pieces of meat there every five minutes and it didn’t take to long before i had my first fish which was a barbel nearly 4lb , i found it best to flick my rig out directly in front of me and drag it up the shelf a bit when it had settled this helped me to present a static bait and i would often get a bite as soon as i did it .

Going back onto my channel swim i was pleased to see that the fish had settled back on the deck and i picked up a couple more carp+barbel , it became obvious to me that if i just left my bait static on the deck it would take a lot longer to attract a bite which was totally the opposite to my top three swim , if i lifted my rig out of the water around a foot i would often get an indication as soon as it settled and this accounted for a little run of three fish for twenty pounds in a twenty-minute spell consisting of a near ten pound carp , a big barbel and a five-pound f1 . I then hooked into something a bit bigger as the elastic just shot out from the pole tip and kept on going resulting in a broken hook length which was some doing when using 012 garbo , this obviously unsettled the swim so i refeed it with another pot of hemp+corn+meat before going onto my top three-line and for the next hour i just rotated between them both picking up some nice fish from each .

With the sky getting darker as some threatening rain clouds appeared in the horizon i decided to increase my feed going in to see what response this got me , i was beginning to think that i had made a big mistake and was on the verge of packing up when my float shot under for the final time , yet again i was attached to something a bit big and as headed off into the distance i managed to add some sections to my pole which helped me get back in control , after about five minutes i had it on to my top kit but i was still struggling to get it up off the deck and i was thinking that it might have been a barbel , another couple of minutes past before i managed a glimpse of it and judging by the tail pattern it was a big carp , a few more minutes past before i finally had it in the net well i had three-quarters of it in any way and it was one of the biggest carp i had captured in a long time at a very big double nearly touching twenty pounds i don’t think the picture does it justice as it had a very broad back and a fat belly it was just a shame that my video camera had run out of battery .

I have got a few extra days of work next weekend so will hopefully get in a couple of fishing trips i might even contest a match or two because it’s been awhile and i have some big events coming up , although to be honest I’m really enjoying fishing without any pressure so we will just wait and see .

Hope you enjoy reading my blogs and watching the videos .

Hall lane fishery , Bessies pool

April 17th , peg 34 Bessie’s pool

After yesterdays long day trip out to Derbyshire with the Mrs and little George I didn’t fancy booking on anywhere for the Sunday because we was up very early and to be honest, I really wasnt in the mood to contest a match preferring a nice leisurely day just catching a few fish so I decided on a couple of extra hours in bed  before heading to Hall lane fishery near Parbold at around dinner time, I choose to go here as it was somewhere that I had not visited for nearly 12 months and I always like visiting as many fisheries as I can for my blog it is also very similar in style as Herronbrook so I could try out a few things before my first Fisho qualifier in the middle of May. I had originally fancied going on Merlin’s lake but when I arrived at the venue there was a couple of club matches taking place which is unsurprising with it being a Sunday and it has always been a very popular fishery, so I settled on Bessie’s pool which is the biggest on the complex with it holding over sixty anglers it is a snake lake style water with the far bank being around 14m on majority of pegs. There was about a dozen other people scattered all over this lake and as I wanted to have a play around with my camera while I was here so I settled on peg 34 which gave me plenty of space it was half way down the long straight with your back to the field it also had a gap between the islands were the two sections of water join together and looked like it should hold a few fish but I had not been down this section before so I wasnt too sure on how things would go today.

As i would be only here for a few hours I decided to set up just two rigs ;

Far-bank swim at 14m were i managed to find a nice flat spot at 3.5ft deep and i used a 4×12 maggie float with a strung out shotting pattern along the bottom half of the rig , my line was the usual 014 garbo which i us on ninety per cent of my rigs and my six-inch hook length was 010 garbo which had a size 18 lwg hook attached .

Top three swim i found quite a big flat area near the reeds towards my right were it was about 4ft deep and i used a 4×14 malman roob float which had an inch spread bulk starting above the four inch 010 hook length , my hook was a size 18 lwg and on both rigs i used NG green 10-12 amber core elastic .

As it was a short session i decided to try something a bit different with the bait settling on ;

Two pints of 6mm cubes of meat and corn

Two pints of micros

Small tub of 4mm expanders

Small tub of white hooker pellets

The weather in the morning when I woke was very cold with frost on the windscreen and cat ice on a few puddles in the front garden but as I headed to the fishery it had warmed up a little with blue skies plus light winds although it never rose above eight degrees all day, so with this in mind i decided to take it easy with the feed and feel myself into the session until i knew just how the fish would respond, I fed half a small cupping kit of micros onto my short line and would top this up every thirty minutes before going on it later in the day, I began by fishing long with a cube of 6mm meat on the hook and half a dozen samples in the kinder pot . It took a couple of feeds before i had my first indication and not long after my first fish hit the net which was a carp around two pounds a couple more of similar size quickly followed before things went quiet, so I made the decision to increase the amount of bait I was feeding this worked very well and i was soon back catching the carp which were all like peas in a pod pristine commons around the two pound mark. In my first hour I had ten carp all caught using meat but with the wind increasing and towing my rig out of position I choose to try a piece of corn hoping this would give me a static bait which it did but surprisingly I failed to get any positive indications when using it, with the increase of feed working previously I decided to put in half a cupping kit of meat & corn onto my long line and give my top three swim a try until the wind dropped enough for me to go back on it.

I tapped in some micros through a small kinder pot then lowered my rig in among it and no sooner had my float settled then it dipped under, a sharp lift of the pole resulted in a hand sized skimmer coming to the bank six more similar samples quickly followed before it went quiet and I was wondering what I had done wrong but I soon found out when I began a run of f1s all around the pound mark , when this swim died a little i decided to rest it and try my far-bank line as the wind had subsided enough for me to present a bait properly, the rest had worked wonders as I was back among the carp again including a couple touching 4lb and when the bites tailed off I would just re-feed with half a cupping kit then I would be back catching. Every so often I would catch a couple of skimmers across and when this happened I would put in a full cup to try to feed them off I then rested it for twenty minutes, while I went on my short line for a couple more f1s and I even managed a nice bream about 4lb on it as well, before i knew it I was almost out of bait and only a couple of carp away from the forty mark so I dragged out my session until I hit this mark but it was noticeable that it took longer for me to get a bite without the feed going in.

All in all I had a really enjoyable four hour session catching forty carp between 2 & 4lb, about a dozen f1s around the 1lb mark and a lot of hand sized skimmers for about 120lb, I felt that I learned a few things that will help on other venues and also on how I played the fish which I could do with the practise on as I haven’t caught a great deal so far this year, not sure where i’m going at the weekend just yet I will probably decide on Weds hope you have enjoyed reading the blog and watching the videos.

Hall lane Bessies pool

Sept 5th , peg 23 Bessie’s pool

After having made a spontaneous decision to fish the charity match at Hall lane Bessie’s pool where every peg would be taken i had a few hours on the pool to sort a few things out a few days before as it isn’t a place that i fish a lot in fact i have only been twice in two years and after the practise i was pretty confident in my approach i just needed a good draw as usual but when fishing in match conditions things rarely go to plan as you will find out later .The day of the contest soon arrived and i headed off to the venue at eight o’clock after my short twenty-minute drive i got to Hall lane car-park which was nearly full but there wasn’t many faces i knew which i am used too but for some reason i didn’t feel to comfortable in fact it all felt a bit awkward , i just kept my head down till i saw a couple of lads that i had fished Weston with which made me feel a bit better and it soon came round to draw time so we all joined the back of the queue i pulled out peg 23 which meant nothing to me other than it was a long walk down the main straight as it was next to the end peg with the wind blowing that way .

As i settled in at my home for the next few hours i decided to fish a couple of lines across plus one in the channel and i didn’t expect the margin to work today with so many people on the complex ( how wrong was i )

My far-bank line was in front of the reeds where i plumbed up to find a touch over 3ft and as Hall lane is rather prone to the wind i decided to use a heavy 4×12 malman roob float with my usual 014 garbo main line with 012 garbo hook length which had a matrix rigger hook and a micro bait band .

My other far-bank line was just over a foot deep i found a flat area around a foot square a few inch away from the mud-bank , i decided to use a heavy more stable 0.3 matrix series three float which would hopefully enable me to pin my hook-bait to the deck my usual 014 garbo main line with 012 garbo hook length which had a matrix rigger hook and a micro bait band .

Channel swim this was an area i didn’t really plan on using but on my practice session another lad fishing was catching really well a proper mixed bag of fish using worm+caster and i figured if i drew a hard area it could get me out of trouble , i used a 0.6 malman roob float my usual 014 garbo main line with 012 garbo hook length which had a matrix bagger hook attached .

My bait for the day relied heavily around pellets with a bit of worm+caster mixed in ;

Two pints of 4 mm pellets

One pint soaked micro

One pint ground-bait

One pint caster

Quarter kilo of worms

Tub mixed hard pellets

As the all in sounded in the distance i put two cups full of feed on my six meter channel swim before going across in front of the reeds on my left hand side i had felt some fish here while plumbing up so i expected an instant response i also decided to trickle some pellets in through a kinder pot hoping not to scare them off , in the first ten minutes i had a few indications but nothing positive so i decided to increase the feed a bit to try to get them competing a bit more confidently this didn’t really work and with other people picking up the odd fish across i was left wondering what to do next . I tried the right hand far-bank incase they had settled there but still no response and my next option was going tight to the mud bank here i at least managed a few bites but the fish were tiny most were coming off on the way in , finally after forty minutes i had my first carp all 8oz of it but at least it saved my blank .

I  had seen a few bubbles coming up from the channel so with nothing else to lose i decided to give this a whirl so i put an inch segment of worm on the hook and lowered my rig over the feed it didn’t take to long before my float dipped of course i missed it but it soon went under again this time a firm lift resulted in a 4oz skimmer flying through the air and this one came of as i shipped in , a change to double caster brought more bites but all i could attract was more small silvers not what i wanted to be catching especially as other people were still picking up the odd carp . I decided to forget my channel rig to concentrate more on my far-bank as this was the area which seemed to be were the bigger fish was coming from , i had seen a few carp knocking the reeds on my left hand swim so i went in front of them using my half depth rig and began pinging a few pellets at my float but yet again i couldn’t buy a bite .

When i looked at my timer more than half the match had passed and it was really dragging as i had only two-pound in the net i was on the verge of packing up but decided to try my left hand margin swim against the rushes were after plumbing up it was only slightly shallower than my far-bank so no need for a change of rig , yet again i kicked of using pellets feeding through a kinder pot trickling the bait in and i began getting indications almost straight away but nothing positive but at least i knew there was fish in the area i just hoped they were carp . I now had the problem of trying to catch them so after getting my thinking cap on i decided to put another section on which enabled me to fish further along my margin but this time i fed my worm+caster mix and with a full worm on the hook i emptied my kinder pot and lowered my rig over the top of it no sooner had my float settled than it shot under a firm strike resulted in yards of red elastic streaming from my pole tip At last i had a proper carp in the net

I just felt that i had a few fish on this line and i began picking up the odd carp so after biting of my bait-band i got my head down to see how many i could put in the net in my remaining two hours , by changing to feeding just casters through a large kinder pot and alternating hook-baits i kept fish coming it was only when i broke a hook length by trying to bully the fish in as the fight really hard and i didn’t want to disrupt other people’s swims with the pegging being really tight , it gave me the opportunity to give my rig a proper going over shortening my lash and putting a stronger hook-length with a more robust hook this really improved my catch rate a great deal and it’s really surprising how such little details can make such a difference .

The all out sounded in the distance and it came too soon for my liking it was just a shame that i hadn’t found them sooner , i felt that i had fished the correct areas in my peg but used the wrong bait and if i had not gone for the couple of hours during the week were i caught extremely well on pellets i would have no doubt been using maggots like 80 per cent of the other anglers here . For a change i was too engrossed with my trying to get out as many carp as possible i had forgotten to use my clicker i didn’t have a clue what weight i had but after packing up and still no signs of the weigh-in i had a sly look which resulted in me thinking i had gone over my net limit , rumours came down the straight that it had fished really hard all over the lake and as it turned out my section contained some nice bags of fish with a ton coming from the end peg then a 70lb , a 60lb and my 50lb nearly all of which i caught in the last two hours .

After packing my gear into the van i went to see how my mates had got on a couple had mid twenty pound weights but one had a high 70lb which managed to get him 4th and as it turned out with him framing i somehow managed to get second in section by treble default , i didn’t really feel that i had earned it but it was my first envelope for a while so i will take it and i just hope that there is plenty more to follow , well done to Matty Ruddy for winning the charity match for the third year running with 110lb from peg eight . At the moment it seems that i am only managing to compete in half of the match but by surrounding myself in a better standard of angler i hope that i can learn enough to fish a full match for a change . My next match will be the pole+match fishing subscriber classic at Tunnel barn farm in Shrewley on Friday i think that there will be nearly two hundred fishing and every lake will be in the draw bag as you would imagine i am really looking forward to it , after that all eyes will be on the natural bait festival at Weston pools and i might have a little birthday surprise before then if i can fit it in .