Drennan Acolyte Ultra - First outing

Worthington Lakes - Arley Reservoir

Monday 6th April 2015

Now, I love waggler fishing, in particular, I love waggler fishing for silvers but with so little of my time spent doing it due to fishing matches dominated by pole and feeder techniques I have never been able to justify a really good rod for the method. So, with a bonus coming my way I decided it was time to treat myself. After much deliberation (and I mean more than I have done for any other rod purchase before) I settled on the Drennan Acolyte Ultra at 13ft. As you can imagine, once the rod was in my possession, I was keen to get it in use so I settled on a visit to Worthington lakes where I have had good days previously fishing the waggler up in the water - what better way to give it try.

At the venue I decided to fish Arley Reservoir which is the middle of the 3 lakes on offer at Worthington. The red arrow on the image shows where I pegged myself and I had a light but cold wind blowing in my face.

The venue was very foggy as I arrived which made it very cold. I expected the fog to lift as the sun got up but the reality was that I had to wait until midday before it had cleared and started to warm up a bit. 

The view I had for most of my session

Tactics for the day were going to be quite simple. I set up a 4g loaded waggler at around 5ft deep and cast it just as far as I could comfortably catapult my loose feed, which was a good tub of mixed maggot. It doesn't get much simpler than that. On previous sessions, I have been fishing this method here and had  large numbers of Roach, Perch and Hybrids so I was hopeful for a good day - I even took my keepnet in the hope that I could get a nice bag picture for the blog. The fish however had other ideas. After a slow start I managed to christen the rod with a nice Roach.

The Acolyte popped it's cherry with this Roach.

Sport was slow though with long gaps between bites. Eventually, after taking my eyes off the float for a second to pour a coffee, my float was under again and this time there was a bit more resistance at the other end and a short but spirited fight saw me land this 1lb+ skimmer.

Skimmers up in the water

By midday, I had added another 2 Roach and a nice Hybrid to bring my tally to 5. Not exactly the busy session I was hoping for but enough to demonstrate the performance of the wonderfully light and responsive Acolyte, that was truly a joy to use. 

A great piece of kit - Drennan Acolyte Ultra

This was followed by a long baron spell and as I searched the depths between 3 and 7/8ft, the only reward being a brief moment where I hooked one of Arleys resident Carp. I think I foul hooked it to honest as I was sinking my line but after an initial run towards me, the carp just about put a lovely bend in the rod before shooting off like a rocket and straightening the hook. The battle lasted all of about 12 seconds. As I was getting ready for leaving, I decided to empty the keepnet and allow it to dry for an hour whilst I had a few 'last casts'. Disaster struck though as clumsy old me managed to stand on my Daiwa Tournament landing net handle and truly flattened it - well done me. Luckily it was the butt section and I still had a usable landing net as one of the last casts resulted in a final Roach to bring the closing tally to 6.

All in all, an enjoyable day even if it wasn't as productive as I would have initially hoped. The session did however serve its purpose and I am pleased to say that I am the owner of a wonderful piece of kit in the Drennan Acolyte Ultra and I am looking forward to giving it more use in future sessions.

Next session for me will see me back on the match scene as Pemberton Central make their way to Old Hough fisheries to tackle 'Big Max' and I have a winning streak (of 1) to maintain so the pressure is on.

Rosemary Wood - Moss Lake

Rosemary Wood Fishery - Moss Lake

Saturday 28th March 2015

After missing Pem Centrals first match of the year through being on a mates stag do, I was looking forward to this session as being my first match of the year. 

On arriving at venue the though, it is clear that this was to be a match with 3 big challenges. The obvious one being the match itself but also the weather was against us with strong winds and heavy rains battering us right from the off. The final challenge would be the bad head that I was nursing from my pals wedding the night before (don't worry folks, I didn't drive today - good man Alex kindly picked me up).

At the draw we had only 12 turn up for the match but this allowed us to spread out a bit. With the wind blowing straight into the 'board' pegs, I was praying for a peg along the far bank where the wind would be coming from the right so I'm sure you can imagine my delight when I pulled out peg 40 on the boards. This was going to be a long day.

My first thoughts on arriving at the peg was that the boards seemed to have improved somewhat since my last visit here but that was quickly overruled by the thought of feeling sea sick and a little bit wobbly - could have been something to do with the previous nights activities.

With wind in my face and constant rain, I decided to keep the day as simple as I could and just try to get a respectable weight. So I set up just the one rod which was my feeder rod and fished this with a banjo feeder. For the feeder I had dampened some 4mm pellets to squeeze in the feeder and I had a selection of normal pellets and bandums for hook baits. This was probably the fastest I had ever set up for a match in my history of match fishing.

My peg - taken during a respite from the rain.

Some other notable draws in the match was Alex Yates and Mark Anglesea who yet again find them selves next to each other on this venue and in the same area from which they came top 2 the previous year and with the wind in their favour (as much as it could be today) I fancied those 2 to be leading the chase again. Dennis Darby, John Ruddy and Mark Thomas were also pegged on that side so a middle of the pack placing was going to be my target.

At the all in, I went straight out with feeder and braced myself for a tough day ahead so I was very surprised when my tip shot round within a couple of minutes of being in the water. A small carp of around 1.5/2lb was the prize and whilst not a huge fish, it filled me with hope that it could be a good day ahead despite the conditions.  Thankfully the rain blew over and just left us with the wind in our faces which made the day a bit more comfortable and was good drying weather for my saturated gear, sadly though the early positive signs appeared to be false hope as it took a while to get any more fish into the net and when they did they were small skimmers. Fortunately though, I did manage to land a nicer carp of around 6/7lb along the way so felt I was doing well as I wasn't seeing many others catching. Mark Jordan to my right had a few skimmers and George Derbyshire to my left was steadily landing small roach on the pole so at the very least I felt I was competing for my section. I hadn't seen many others catching on the other bank but much of the time my head was tucked into my jacket so didn't want to read too much into that. I continued to plug away with the banjo and was eventually rewarded with a nice carp that was into double figures. This fish, I felt put me firmly in the chase for a top 3 place but I had started to see Mark Anglesea's landing net get some use so I knew I had to keep going. I continued to catch steadily for the rest of the match with only odd quiet spells but the fish I was catching were skimmers and whilst enjoyable to fish for, I knew that if the other guys had been catching carp, I would struggle to compete despite the fact that a few of my skimmers were over 1lb.  In typical fashion the rain returned for the last half hour just in time to get us all wet through again before we had to pack up.

At the all out, I had only managed to land another 1 carp and this was only about 2lb. Once packed up, which was also my fastest on record, I walked up the bank and there was talk of nets of carp but nothing's bags. I was confidently estimating a net of around 30lb, as I felt my 4 carp between them were at least 20lb and reckoning on around 10lb of skimmers.

At the weigh in, we started on the other bank so all my main competition for the day would weigh in before me. Some good weights were recorded quite quickly with Dennis Darby putting 34lb 4oz on, Lee Roper 32lb 8oz and alex Yates 32lb.  With 3 weights over 30lb in quick succession, I was already thinking that a section win was going to be my best hope. There were no other weights recorded that I thought would be better than mine, which was quite surprising with the amount of action I had seen from Mark Anglesea but he says he lost a lot of fish at the net, much to his frustration. It was soon my turn and lifting my keep net out of he water, I knew it was going to be close but I didn't expect the scales to record the 39lb 2oz they did. So either the carp that I caught were bigger than i estimated, or the skimmers were worth more than the 10lb, either way I was very happy. Late runs from George Derbyshire and Ste Green didn't do enough as they each recorded 18lb. So I was very happy, on my first match of 2015 I have recorded a win.

Top 3:

1st: Stuart Rourke 39lb 2oz

2nd: Dennis Darby 34lb 4oz

3rd: Lee Roper 32lb 8oz

Sections (by default):

Section 1 (pegs 24 to 30): Alex Yates 32lb

Section 2 (pegs 31 to 43): Ste Green/George Derbyshire 18lb

Couple of points to note, I have fished here quite a few times now and I have always found that a stand out hookbait seems to work better on the feeder than one that blends in with the feed, this was further reinforced by the fact that my top hookbait was a white bandum on which all but 2 of my fish were caught on.

The final point to note is that despite nursing a hangover I managed to win this match. I have thought about this over the last 24 hours or so, was it coincidence, luck, do I fish better when slightly under the influence of alcohol? However the conclusion that I have come to is simple. As I wasn't feeling great, I made the decision to just 'chuck out the tip rod and see how it goes' but in reality what I did was kept it simple and stuck to the plan and allowed it to work on the day, I didn't confuse matters by trying this and trying that to make it work which I have often been guilty of. Normally on this water I would set up 2 tip rods, a pellet waggler rod and sometimes a pole as well so I am thinking now, how many times in the past have I ended up not giving a method chance to work in the search for that instant reward. Food for thought and I will definitely be taking these thoughts into future matches.

Tight Lines

Day Bream Believer.........

Worthington Lakes - Arley Reservoir

Sunday 8th March 2015

This was a session that had been on the calendar for a while as me and my old mate Martin managed to find a mutually agreeable day to get on the bank together.  As the day approached, fellow Pem Central member Paul managed to get a day pass off her indoors and so the three of us found ourselves on Arley Reservoir, which is the largest of the 3 waters available at Worthington lakes. We pegged ourselves in a new area for me, on the bank between Arley and Worthington, taking up the section to the right of the towers up to the overflow. Martin was closest to the towers, I was in the middle and Paul was on the right next to the overflow.

View from my peg. It was an overcast day for the most part with showers dominating the day.

We all fished the feeder for the day. My set up was slightly different than I normally do on here, opting for a running feeder rig over my normal paternoster set up. I started on a 2ft hooklength to a size 14 Drennan Carbon Feeder hook. I had to make a further variation on my normal tactics as the tackle shop was out of my favourite Omen groundbait so I went for the Sensas Magic sweet fishmeal groundbait this time. Sensas Magic is a groundbait I have a lot of confidence in having used it extensively but this was the first time I have tried the sweet fishmeal version. To complete my bait tray, I had some red/white mixed maggot and half a pint of caster.

Once set up I started off with a large feeder and no hooklength to put a carpet of feed down. As I wasn't sure how the venue had been fishing I was slightly cautious and restricted my initial bombardment to just 5 feeder fulls before switching to a smaller feeder and adding the hooklength.

The obligatory £1 side bet was placed on the first fish between me and Paul. Martin was non-committal which back-fired on him when he caught the first fish of the day and missed out on the valuable golden nugget. Incidentally, the first fish for Martin was a nice Roach.

The heat was on between me and Paul, so I could feel the tension in the air as my tip shot round and I tentatively played my first fish to the net. The result was a nice Roach, but more importantly I had claimed bragging rights and that all important golden nugget (for now).

First fish of the day for me

As it happened Paul only just missed out on the golden nugget as he reeled in his first fish shortly after me.  Losing the quid had obviously hit Paul hard as he was soon to suggest a double or nothing second bet on the first to catch a Bream - feeling greedy from my earlier victory I immediately accepted the challenge without considering the fact that despite not blanking at the venue, I had yet to catch a proper Bream and Paul had bagged them in every session we had on there last year. My luck soon ran out as Paul was soon landing the first proper Bream of the day, quietly giggling to himself as he did so. So the bets had cancelled themselves out and from this point on, it was only pride at stake.

First Bream of the day for Paul

My second fish of the day turned out to be a small skimmer, which I am certain would not have counted as a Bream anyway. Martin had also added a second fish to his tally so we were having a 3 way tie on the fish count. As the day went on from this point, Martin was getting steadily frustrated with missing what was obviously Perch bites, but at least he was intermittently getting some of the Perch to the bank. I also had started to catch Perch, many of which didn't even register a bite on the tip and I only noticed when I was winding in to refill the feeder. Paul however was much slower on catching but when he did, he made up for it by sliding more slabs over the net. The longer the day went on, my dreams of catching the elusive Bream were fading fast as even the Perch had stopped biting at this stage. Not surprisingly the banter was also escalating as my bragging rights were taken away by Paul. I was clutching at any straw available to explain away my lack of success but none would be accepted. Eventually I managed to get into a few more fish, sadly they were the ever willing Perch that I was hoping to avoid. (Quite ironic really that I had spent the winter lure fishing on the canals, hoping for a Perch and getting nothing, now when I don't want them, they were more than happy to oblige). I managed to sneak a second nice roach before Paul slammed the final nail in the coffin with what was probably his biggest of the day.

Not a bad end to the day.

3 o'clock was soon upon us and that was when we called time on the day. Another good days fishing on Worthington with good company, good banter and no dry nets. Sadly the Bream evaded me and Martin today. Martin managed a good number of Perch and probably had the most fish on the day, Paul was master Bream slayer and yet again I was left missing the slab I am longing to find on this venue.

Couple of points I'll consider going forward from here:

1. Generally, I end up casting further than Paul when we go to Worthington and feeder fish. He also always out fishes me on this method too. So I think in future sessions I need to make a conscious effort to cast slightly shorter than usual.

2. Confidence makes a difference and whilst it probably had nothing to do with the groundbait mix I was using, I will definitely be making sure I get some Omen for my next session on here.

3.  The pegs on this bank were quite snaggy, especially for Martin who was closest to the corner. 

4.  The deeper water seemed to work better today. On my swim, I had a 13 count on the cast whilst Paul claimed to have a 20 count. Could this have been a contributing factor to Paul's success today?

Not sure when my next outing will be now as I have a few personal commitments over the next few weeks, through which I am going to miss the first match on Pems calendar this year but at worst I should be out for Pems second match on Rosemary Wood on the last weekend of the month.

Mersey Charter Boat Fishing - Tuskar

Well, the sea fishing session scheduled for 27th Feb didn't half turn out to be a faff. Due to forecast strong westerly winds, our planned session on Blue Mink didn't go ahead.  We had already had one session cancelled in January, and now at the end of February we were really on last chance saloon for some Winter Cod fishing so we were determined to get out somewhere. Danny had managed to do some ringing around and got us availability on a boat out of the Mersey. Only 4 of us this time as 2 had dropped out from the original party but we arranged a day, slightly shorter at 5 hours but still enough time.

We had booked aboard Tuskar, skippered by Stan Dickinson. We arranged a 9:00 AM pick up and after a bit of running round to pick Dez up in Preston, via a McDonalds breakfast, we arrived at Priory Wharf for collection around 8:30. We were all anxious to get on board and as we were setting up waiting for Stan to arrive, we were getting ourselves psyched up for a good day. Stan arrived bang on time to get us, first impressions were great, nice sized boat with plenty space to move around and get comfy. Once loaded we were off into the Mersey to our first mark.

View of Priory Wharf as we made our way into the river.

Our first stop saw us on the outside of the main river channel, close to the Bonded Warehouse, the tide was on its way out so was pulling a bit so we went in with 16oz weights on a running leger with a trace of about 4/5ft long to a single 2/0 Aberdeen hook. Danny was first into fish on the day and first strike was a small codling, but still a keeper.

First fish of the day for Danny

Danny added a couple more to his tally before anybody else got in there but eventually Craig and Dez got off the mark with a Dab each

A Dab for Dez

I was left trailing behind with no fish, and I wasn't shy about letting folk know, but after a change of tactic that saw me switch to a shorter trace and pennel rig I eventually got off the mark with what turned out to be probably the biggest fish of the day

Codling for Me

As the tide slowed a bit we moved into the main channel of the river for a bit, hoping the fish will have moved in there where there was a bit more pull. First drop in here for me resulted in another codling although this one was too small to keep so went back safe and sound.  Strangler though that seemed to be the only fish to show on this line.

Once at low water, Stan moved us across to the other side of the river, roughly outside Wallasey Town Hall steps where we would fish until home time as the tide turned and started to come back in. This proved to be a slow line and I think a solitary undersize Codling by me was all this line produced on the day. Stan explained to us that by this time of year we had missed the best of the Mersey Cod fishing and that Nov/Dec was probably the best time for it. We knew that really but wanted to give it a go anyway. As Stan called time I think we all had a good day, some nice views on the day too, especially of the Liverpool skyline.

So, final tally of the day. 

Danny - 3 Codling (2 in size), 2 Dab

Craig - 1 Dab

Dez - 1 Dab (plus about a million crabs and the worlds smallest starfish)

Me - 3 Codling (1 in size)

Final thought of the day - poor Dez doesn't have much luck with the target species. Of the last 3 times we have been out, once for Tope and twice for Cod, whilst not blanking, Dez has failed to catch the target species. Next time he comes out, I think we'll target Pouting and at least give him chance of catching something he wants!!

I would recommend Stan for a days charter fishing in the Mersey, knowledgeable and nice guy - check out the details at http://www.charterboats-uk.co.uk/tuskar 

Getting back in the swing - Horns Dam and Woodshaw Reservoir

As I have previously mentioned, I had been on my little break from fishing but as the new year arrived I was ready to get back into the swing of things. However, the weather and other factors have been against me and so far I've only managed 2 outings.

Horns Dam 

The first session I had was a first visit to Horns Dam in Goosnargh, this was also my first session with my old pal Martin for a while so I was looking forward to it.

After a nice breakfast at a local cafe, we arrived at the fishery. We fished on the dam itself and pegged ourselves on the dam wall end.  We both decided to fish the feeder for the day. My set up was a basic running feeder rig with an 18 inch Hooklength to a size 20 Drennan Silverfish match hook. My groundbait was a mix of brown crumb and bait tech special g. A few loose offerings of hemp and pinkies were in the mix with maggot or pinkie on the hook.

Martin was the first to catch and I had a much slower start but we both caught reasonably steadily throughout the day. Martins stamp of fish was noticeably larger than mine and he seemed to be catching more frequently. He was using a different groundbait mix to me but he was also casting a bit further than me. Who knows what was giving him the edge.

I did chuck together a waggler rod for a bit of a change and had a good run of small roach to keep me busy. 

It was a good session to get back into it and a new water for me that I liked and will defo go back to in the future.

Woodshaw Reservoir

The next session I had was on one of the Warrington Anglers waters that I now have available to me, Woodshaw Reservoir.  Having never been to this reservoir before, the little homework that I managed to do indicated that it was known as a good tench and crucian water in the warmer months but less information was available for winter. The information I could find said that there are roach and bream present so with little else to go on I decided to target the skimmers and bream with a pole approach. I fed 2 lines at 13 metres, one fed heavy and one fed sparingly. My groundbait mix is one that I have used on my local canals with good success and that was sensas Magic mixed with brown crumb and then darkened with a bit of black tracix. I took only maggots with me for hookbait but I did have a tin of corn available in the bait bag if necessary.

Woodshaw Reservoir peg 21

The venue is quite shallow but reasonably consistent depth so I was able to use the same rig for both swims which made it much easier. After feeding both lines as described, I started on the lighter fed line, potting in 10 - 15 maggots. I wasn't expecting a prolific session but with no indications after an hour I switched to the heavier fed line in the hope that some fish had moved in. Sadly, this didn't work either as I still had nothing to show after a further hour. A switch back to my lighter line saw me hook and land a small roach but I was confident it was more fluke than design. By midday I had only the one fish and decided that a stretch of my legs was in order.  As I walked around the lake I had a chat with one of the other anglers (who later turned out to be one of the venue bailiffs) and he told me they had been catching on punch. He was even kind enough to give me a slice of bread and a small ball of liccy to get my swim going. I went back to my peg and set up a short pole line for the punch and fed the liccy on this before re-feeding my other lines in the hope that leaving them a while will see something move over them later.  Despite the local advice, the punch line didn't produce anything for me on this day, despite giving it a good go. I must admit I was contemplating an early exit from the fishery but what was meant to be a last look on the longer lines saw me hit a run of Roach that took my tally to about 15 fish. This restored my faith and I carried on until about 3:30pm and ended the day with 20 nice redfins.

Outlook

After this little dip back into coarse fishing I've got another boat trip planned aboard Blue Mink. After that I'll be on full on prep mode for the years match calendar. Until then.........tight lines

What happened next?

Its been a while since I last posted on here. My 'break' from fishing continued with only odd sessions here and there.

Let's get up to speed.

Pem Central finished the league as I mentioned in my last post. As I write this I don't have a copy of the final results to hand but I do remember that following a close fought battle and a worse score deduction, Wayne Fairhurst came out on top with Alex Yates pushing a very close second. Mark Anglessey claimed 3rd place to complete the top 3. I was next in line in 4th place, which I am very happy with in my first year back with the club and gives me a target for next year - top 3. As a bonus, my team consisting of Alex, me and Paul McCann came out on top of the team league. A good year for the club, tipped off nicely with an AGM held at a local Chinese with a few beers. Good times. 

I have managed a couple of sea fishing sessions since my last post as well. The first of which was a trip aboard Blue Mink in November where we were hoping for a few cod to show. Sadly, the cod didn't show in numbers and we were 'dogged' out by ravenous dogfish. A few whiting showed as well with only 9 cod boated, compared to the 43 Andy had on the boat on his previous outing. I managed 2 of those 9 cod and they were both keepers so kept me fed for a day or two. The second session was on the 29th December when I teamed up with Danny Lancaster and headed to Otterspool prom for a spot of beach casting. Was a good session to dust off the cob webs as I hadn't been casting from from the shore in a good few years. A very positive start saw both me and Danny catch on the first cast each. Danny had a small pin whiting but my fish was a cod, just in size and was potted the day after for my dinner. That was it though on that sessio. With no further fish showing for either of us. A few lessons learned for our next visit to the area so hopefully we will have a better return.

I have also been plugging away with the lure fishing (sorry for the terrible pun). This is becoming a real live hate relationship for me as I love the method but I am really hating the fact that I am struggling to get into any fish. I am confident that I am not doing anything massively wrong, just need to get that first proper fish and confidence will rise and I am sure that will also see the fish count rise as well. Watch this space!!!

Do what's planned for 2015? One thing that I observed towards the back end of 2014 was that I was getting a bit fed up of fishing commercials. It's something I am beginning to notice a lot lately and I think is becoming quite a common thing. So I've decided to try to remedy this issue for 2015. I'm still going to fish te commercials with Pem Central and no doubt for pleasure sessions as well but I've decided to join Warrington Angers this year to get access to some new waters with more variety. I'm also going to stick at the lure fishing and continue my sea fishing revival that I've had going on. Fingers crossed that this will keep the interest going throughout the year. I'm also going to try to update this blog a bit more often in 2015.

So that's up to date. It's New Years Day 2015 and as the chaos of 2 young kids on Xmas holidays continues, I'd like to wish all my blog readers a very happy new year and all the best fr 2015.........may your lines be tight and your keep nets full.

Cob House

It's been a few weeks now since we made our trip to cob house fisheries. After the visit, I went on a self-imposed break from fishing for a few week, I've still not been out since actually. I never intended for the break to include my writing on here but as it happens it did.

So to catch you all up, a few of the lads from Pem Central plus some others known to the trip organiser went for a 3 day jolly boys outing to cob house fisheries from 24th to 26th September. We had all been looking forward to this trip as with a lot of talk of massive weights, expectations were high.  Unfortunately the fishery was having some trouble with one of the lakes we were supposed to be on for the Thursday and Friday, so a last minute change saw us move from Wyatts lake to a match across 2 waters, oak and laurels, with the idea being that we would split across the 2 waters and then swap round the following day. However, on the Wednesday we were on Laugherne Island.

Wednesday 24th September. Laugherne Island.

With the expected tactics of short pole apparently dominating the other waters, the option of fishing the feeder on Laugherne Island was not to be refused. If nothing else but to give me a bit of variety on the trip.

My peg was a nice looking one with the point of an island within casting range.  With my main focus of the trip bring fun rather than serious competition, I planned on a simple approach.  Pellet feeder to the island, pole down the edge with corn and groundbait and finally pole at 6/7 metre with corn and pellet.

I started on the pellet feeder and had one carp early but it was slow and only one other had shown by the end of the first hour.  I had started feeding groundbait down the edge from the start and with the slow going on the feeder I decided to take an early look down the edge.  A single grain of corn on the hook produced a few small roach, not quite the intended quarry so I tried a switch to double corn on the hook but the roach were persistent and still all I could manage from the edge.  The other pole swim produced one carp and one roach but never felt right for reasons I can't explain so I quickly abandoned it and went back to persevere on the feeder. A golden hour on the tip boosted me to 10 carp before it slowed again and left me waiting.  2 more carp followed in last hour. The massive weights we were expecting didn't materialise and only 2 weights over 100lb were recorded on the whole match. My 78-8 was enough to win my section.

Thursday 25th September. Oak

Day 2 and my draw saw me on Oak lake and I must be honest, it didn't thrill me as the lake didn't look nice and was nothing more than a square hole.  Not a huge water and my peg was close to a corner so my tactics were simple. Margin pole line at 5 sections in deeper water and 5 section pole line in front.  I had heard that the fish in this lake were larger than we had seen the day before so it planned on corn down tbe edge swim and pellets on the short line - feeding 6 mm and using banded 6 or 8mm on the hook.

The match was quite a simple one to be honest and doesn't make much to write about.  Rotating through the swims kept fish coming but corn line was by far the best. Generally the best tactic was to hook a fish and feed straight away before playing and landing the fish.  A steady match saw me put 152 lb on the scales, a good weight but only enough for 4th on the lake.

Friday 26th September. Laurels.

After match talk on Thursday described similar fishing on laurels as I experienced the day before only a much smaller average stamp. My draw saw me pegged next to a wooden jetty style platform. On the Thursday, Mark had fished this peg and he had told me he caught between the platform and a bush to his left, in a small hole but he said he had to stand up a lot to see his float. With this in mind, I based my attack on the same area with back up swims to my right margin. This match was another straight forward one and from the all in I settled into a rhythm of 'stand up, lay rig in, bite, fish on, feed, sit down, land fish'. This was simply repeated for near enough 5 hours. I had a couple of issues where some fish had gone to the jetty and I was wrapped up but steady pressure saw me get all those fish out bar one. I must say that is not really my preferred style of fishing and I got a bit bored at one stage and went for a little walk. Even with that break, as soon as I sat down the same rhythm was off again. At the end of the match, I was knackered and knew I was in with a good weight but with the average stamp being about 2lb, and my biggest only being about 4lb, I didn't expect my weight to go as big as it did. I weighed in 248lb to set a new personal best match weight and win the match. A red letter day? Maybe but not a way of fishing I could cope with all the time.

Now what?

So, to bring us up to speed. Since the cob house trip I've had a break, I was ready for it but in honesty it was largely born out of other commitments.  Pem Central have also since had their last match at Heronbrook - I'm not sure who won but will do a run down of final results when I know. 

So it's all down to my winter campaign now. Not sure what my plans are yet but a sea fishing trip is defo next on the agenda and then I'll see where I go then.