Manor Farm Leisure

Peg 26 Windmill
48lb
2nd overall
24 fished

The beauty of Manor Farm Leisure is we normally get lots of room and Dave (owner) try's to peg the good pegs and therefore you almost guaranteed a days fishing.  Like today, 24 anglers fishing and it's put on 4 lakes.  I was lucky and drew peg 26 windmill, however it's not my first choice of pegs, but Chris Cameron won the lake on Thursday...... So was hopefully.  BUT Liam Dennick was on peg 22 and Jason Morris on Peg 29, so had two great anglers either side.

I started on the bread, two 10mm discs and this resulted in two dog roach, but Jason Morris had 2 F1's and 1 carp in four chucks.  Not looking good for me.   Some shipped out the Colmic Airon F66 pole, at 17. 5 meters, and rattled a few micros and the float disappeared to my relief and caught a stocky F1 about 1lb and then caught three before bumping one, as you have to pull quite hard to get them out and 0.08 Stream is immensely strong on balanced gear.....  Unfortunately this ruined the swim.  So fished out on the pinging line and no bites and the other line.  No bites... Jason was whopping my ass and on the phone to Liam and he had 10 fish!!!

So went back onto the 17.5 meter line and resulted in 7lb common carp, on 0.08.  Was lucky as it shot out into open water, so game on.  Swapped between lines, to keep fish coming, tough but enjoyable.  Also I never got broke up today on these light lines, if you fished the Colmic hollow 1.5mm elastic to 0.09 or 0.08 Colmic Stream your know what I mean..... Look at our results, Liam Dennick has framed his last 7 matches, 5 seconds and 2 wins.  Me and Frank Donachie ain't done too bad ourselves.  Results do the talking.

Was pleased to come second overall and Liam winning again.

One thing I would to add, that we have been using the Colmic Airon F66 for over month and its true all round pole.  So strong, wouldn't be scared to fish it for 98% of my fishing.  So catching 20lb on Windmill Lake or fishing it at Rolfs lake no problem.  When it's windy, I can out fish my neighbours as they can't lean into the wind, whereas they can't as they risk snapping their poles (which already seen).

Gear Used

Colmic Airon F66 pole

1.5mm Colmic Hollow Elastic

Colmic BIG float 0.3 gram

0.135 Colmic F1 Spider line

0.09 Colmic Stream

20 Drennan carp match hook.

Island Rig

0.2 Gram Colmic Mike float

0.11 Colmic F1 Spider Line

0.08 Colmic Spider Line

20 Colmic WN501 hook

Happy new year

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Winter Expander Fishing

Alders Farm Fishery

I haven't been to Alders farm fishery for while and missed this years winter league as I decided to fish the Upper Thames winter league instead.  Unfortunately you cant do it all.  I decided to do a small feature on peg 5 Pines, where the last two winters I fished back in 2015 I had over 100lb both times and won the lake both times too.

see link if you wish.

Winter League 2015


So I knew this is a great area, and with the lakes been frozen, I was hoping for a few bites.  See video below explaining rigs and presentation.  Hope it helps.

Bream/ Skimmers love an Expander pellet

Alders Farm Fishery fish are fighting fit.

The Colmic Big Floats are great winter expander floats.

see link for Alders Farm Fishery

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Bread with the Lead

Bomb and bread fishing. 

As the weather gets colder and the water temperature drops and the lake gets clear. My go to method is the bread. For those crafty fish that dont want to feed and are just sat dormant this is a brilliant way of catching them. 

A good starting point I have found is a 50cm hooklength. Of 0.15 Colmic F1 Spider line. To a 16 Guru QM1. 

Depending on the size of the lake and how much room I have i tend to start in front of me and around half way out.   I think its really important to watch the rod tip though, if your getting liners and indications its a good clue youve got fish in the area and my next move would depend on the liners im getting. 

I think bomb and bread fishing is very similiar to dobbing on a snake lake, just because you havent caught in the one area theres no reason why you wont catch in another area. Searching for the fish is key as in winter you have to go to the fish... they wont come to you. 

Once ive had a few casts around and maybe catch one I normally hook a fish and clip up where I have hooked it and find a far bank marker where it landed. This allows me to cast straight back on the spot as I could had potentially found a littlw group of fish.  Don't get me wrong you may only catch odd fish but normally where theres one theres more!

Reading bites on the bread is definitely very key. Knowing whats a liner and whats a bite can be difficult but that comes with experience once you get bites and learn to read them.   A big percentage of your bites on bread are drop backs.   What's happened here is the fish have picked up your hook bait and swam towards you. This is why I always fish a slight bend in my rod when its on the rest to see for those drop back bites but also any little indiaction I get is going to get registered on the rod tip. 

The set up:

My number once choice for this type of fishing is the Colmic Next Adventure 45 rod in 11ft. Coupled with a 300 zartan reel. 11 ft Ive found is perfect but I can comfortably chuck a lead a long way but when playing fish under the rod tip they dont top to far out. 

Also these rods are a nice through action, with no flat spots. The last thing I want to do is pull out of a fish at the net and it go back and spook the shoal. 

My mainline is 0.20 Colmic method line. This line is really durable and sinks fast so once my lead has landed I can sink my line ensuring im fishing straight away as some bites can come instantly and if your struggling to sink your line you could miss out on some bites. 

I tend to start on a 0.15 F1 Spider hook length at 50cm like i mentioned incase there are any carp in the area but dont get me wrong, this is great if your on fish but I wont be afraid to fish a lighter hooklength if im catching F1s as I think you just get a few more bites. 

50cm is a good starting length of hook length but its not always the best. I tend shorten it to start with as sometimes

Liam Dennick's video

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Manor Farm Leisure

Peg 6 Island ( can't believe I've drawn it again)

77lb

1st Place

Won match

9 fished the match

Strange how fishing goes, especially match fishing as you have to draw your peg and therefore relies on a lot of luck and the moment I seem to be having a bit, as I find myself on Peg 6 Island.  This is the "best peg in Europe"......  I only said this statement in a bit of "tongue and cheek", but it seems to of stuck and every time anyone draws it there is a lot banter thrown your way, especially when I draw it.  So I have added some unwanted pressure on myself to do well.

The match started really slow and was wondering if Facebook was going to explode tonight with comments of me blowing out, especially as I post ALL my results, but thank god that the peg came alive on pole, and had a steady run on the pole.  All F1's and one carp.  Weighed 77lb to win the fishing match.

How I would approach the F1's at Manor is to fish as light as possible on the "hard pellet" rigs.  4mm coppins pellets, with a 20 hook and 0.09 Colmic Stream as a hook length and important of 1.5 mm hollow elastic as its soft but capable of landing BIG fish and most important thing is not to loose any fish, even netting range, as they swim back into shoal and spook the rest of the shoal.  Bad news.

Gear used

Colmic Airon F66 Pole

1.5mm Colmic Hollow

Jon Walker Pellet

0.135 Colmic F1 Spider

0.09 Colmic Stream

20 Drennan Carp match.

Marukyu

Liam Dennick is on fire at the moment.

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Manor Farm Leisure

Peg 33 Island Pool
54lb 10oz
No good (4th overall)
16 fished the match

I had a real enjoyable day today, caught some F1's and a couple of small carp on my new toy 😊 but took a big battering off the next peg though.  I could catch on the lead and only had 2 carp to Paul Cassiby's 6 carp.  So decided to go the pole, which was good for 40 minutes and 8 F1's but felt I wasn't completing so back on lead for one more carp, but 1.30pm I came to a standstilland knew I was never going to pull it back.....

Colmic Airon F66 pole very stiff, lovely smooth finish, super tough, 1000% built to last.

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Harescombe Fishery

Peg 24 match lake.

9lb 10oz

No good

28 fished

I was hoping to draw Field Lake, as this lake is more my style of fishing, however drew Match Lake and right in the corner, peg 24.   This was going to be feast of famine and to make matters worse I draw next to Liam Dennick, so he wasn't going to let any feeding fish pass him, which he didn't.  I really struggled and only managed 4 fish in the first 40 mintues and never caught anything afterwards.  Well, that's not strictly true as I caught some tiny skimmers.  

I never seem to do well on The Match Lake, but I look forward to the pairs match at Harescombe.  Can I win it with Mark Malin three years on the bounce??

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Manor Farm Leisure

56lb 14oz
1st place

Peg 33 Island Pool

7 people fished.

I was pleased with the draw, peg 33 Island pool today is a great winter peg normally.  Started on the popped up bread, 50cm and one 10mm disc of Toastie white loaf.  This went round straight away, happy days, nice start to the match.  However, it was dead and looking around people were really struggling.  So shipped out the Colmic Airon F66 pole, and waited a while for bite, and then had a steady run of F1's which was a relief.   The issue is the bites are some slight, and only pull the float down by 2mm, so you never see bites on the feeder or lead, only the ones that hang themselves.

Pleased to get sponsored by Marukyu

see the Marukyu.....

http://www.marukyu.co.uk/

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Thoughts of 2016

For me, the most important aspect of fishing is to enjoy it.  I had some success this year and had some blow outs...... The big matches were disappointing, I failed miserable on the Fish O Mania qualifiers, however I honestly believe I had no pegs that were capable of winning.   

Looking through my blog, I had 59 pick ups this year, which was mainly on commercials which was mainly 20 pegs or less. Which is a shame, big matches on my local circuit doesn't seem to exist, apart from the River Avon at Evesham..... 

Also I did fish for Devizes in this years winter league on rivers and canals for 10 weeks and had 70% pick up rate.  I did have a couple of flyers mind!!

Highlights

Manor Farm Leisure is still one of my favourite venues that I fish, and May Festival was kind apart from the first day, where unfortunately I couldn't catch on Ash Pool and the last day I caught 313lb on Windmill Pool.  I would like to win this event.

I fished for Devizes match group this year, which I used to fish for years ago, and was nice to return to the Upper Thames winter league.   We had some success , we won the league as a team and I won the individual league.  The highlight was fishing with the boys again and fishing with one of the best anglers I know, Kevin Rowles.   Kevin has helped me a lot when I was younger with my fishing.

Ivy House Lakes was kind to me again and had some regular success there. The best match I had was Friday evening match, the only one I fished,  I caught 114lb in a three hours, which was the highest weight there in three hours for this year.  26lb skimmers and 87lb of carp on £2 worth of bait, paste!!

Swindon go on Tour at Whiteacres was awesome, the fishing was tough, as always.  However, the 

banter was incredible.  I really enjoy this week.

Colmic

Colmic have continued to support me and helped some of my success this year.  Especially in the manor festival, catching 313lb of big hard fighting carp, really did push the products to the limit!!  The new Colmic Airon F66 pole will hopefully been me some success in 2017?  Only just got the pole and it's very impressive.

Fish O Mania

For me I aint going to chase "rainbows" anymore.  A lot of effort to very little return, in my opinion.  I ain't bitter, but becoming a Fish O Mania finalist again is not that important to me.  

Marukyu

I've just been signed by Marukyu for a bait deal, must honestly say was unsure to begin with, so I field tested some of the products and was so impressed.  Watch this space for more details.

http://marukyu.co.uk

Mick Telling Memorial 2017

The Mick Telling memorial 2016 was a great success and raised a load of money for cancer research, over £1700!!   Thanks to everyone involved.   For me this is the most important match I want to win, by mile.  Terry Hicks won 2016.

See video for my dads final

I'm really lucky to fish with some great lads, especially Frank Donachie, Glen Picton, Liam Dennick and Karl Stephens

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Manor Farm Leisure

Peg 14
77lb 10oz
2nd
Only 5 fished

Colmic 7401 x3

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Manor Farm Leisure

Peg 6 "best peg in Europe"

100lb 6oz

Won lake

Won March

22 fished the match.

I couldn't ask for a better start to the individual winter league at Manor Farm Leisure as I won the match off Middle Pool, unfortunatly had to miss the round 2 as I was away on business trip (the joy of two jobs).  So was well pleased to draw one of the best in Europe, but got off to a slow start, but caught on the pellet feeder and then had a great spell on the pole to win the section and the match.

Gear used

Colmic 7401 x3 pole

0.2 Jon Walker pellet diamond 

0.135 F1 Spider Line

0.09 Colmic Stream hooklength

20 Drennan Carp match.

Pellet feeder set up.

Colmic Next Adventure 45 rod

25 gram Matrix pellet feeder

0.145 Stream hooklength

18 Drennan Carp Match

I had 40 ish F1's and 2 small carp.  Great days fishing, and a nice welcome back present.  Ain't been there for ages.

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Hillview Fishery

Peg 38
53lb 8oz
No good
6 fished

Had a bit of a mare to begin with, hooked two carp and lost both of them!!!  One I came back with a length of line and shot, and the other was foul hooked and came back with a scale.  Then had 4 in a row on popped up bread..... then nothing.  So on the pole and all I could catch was brown goldfish, I was going nowhere, especially as they were catching F1's to my left. 

Shaun Gould started slow and then started caught F1's steady on the pole and maggots.  For a 99lb, impressive weight.  Second place was close bewteen Steve Rich (66lb 8) and Arthur Hicks (65lb). Steve had two late BIG carp just enough to beat Arthur by 1lb 8oz.
Me, 8 carp, 2 F1's and tiny but beautiful goldfish on the pole for a disappointing 53lb.  But everyone caught and had an enjoyable day (which is the most important thing).

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Harescombe Fishery

Peg 6
14lb
No good
Won silvers (11lb)
13 fished

Haven't fished Harescombe for ages and I was well chuffed that Ralph Hillier was running a match on Field lake.

Won the silvers with 11lb

Frank Donachie won the match, guy is on fire at the moment.

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Hillview Fishery

Peg 93
29lb
2nd in section (6 on our lake)
No good
36 fished the fishing match

I'm going to spend some time this winter at Hillview Fishery, it's close to home and is full of fish...... what more could you want?!  Don't get me wrong still love Manor Farm Leisure, haven't fallen out with anyone, just can't ignore 30 peg matches on a Saturday.

Drew peg 93' on canal 4, which didn't mean anything to me.  Gary Donachie caught well off it a few weeks ago. So he gave me some advice,  which was very welcome!  Struggled for bites, then started fishing maggots and micros and caught.  Dobbing bread was a waste of time for me.

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Angling Trust Winter League

Peg C1 (end peg with an empty)

4lb 4oz

Second in section

47 fished the match

The final round of the Angling Trust Winter league saw me draw spot on??!!  End peg, game on and C2 not drawn.  More importantly pressure is off a little as we have qualified for the final no mater what happens today, however, the boys are up for a battle and wanna win the league out right. 

For me, I want to win the individual title of the winter league, so I was keen on doing that.  So hoped for some luck with the lob worms.  As this has saw me catch the last two fishing matches and hoped that I wouldn't be third time unlucky.  No matter what happens I have enjoyed this league and forgotten how much I enjoy this kind of fishing, the matches never seem to drag on, as your constantly thinking how you can catch fish.  The down side on this winter league is the hassle of boats and walkers, I fully appreciate he River and Canal is something that we can ALL enjoy, but we people are unreal and don't have consideration for other people.  Finally carrying your gear to your peg, maybe I've got lazy or carry too much?  I'll let you decided......

Really disappointed as I came second off a framing peg?  Never caught on lobs or anything over it.  A bit gutted, couldn't line up roach.  I think the pike didn't help.  Even though I didn't get any strikes.  Hooked three got one out, about 4lb, lost a 8lber hooked in the side and pulled out of one.  All on my squatt line, 0.064 Colmic Stream is unbelievable strong!!! 

Gear used

Colmic Airon F44

Colmic Senna is my number one float for Squatt fishing in two foot of water....

Overall

Team won on the day with 39 points, and won the league with 11 points.

Individually I won the league with 30 points.

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Colmic

Colmic invited us to their annual visit to see the new products for 2017, we were eager to see the new F66 pole.  So Thursday morning I was a up at 3.50am and on the road at 4.20am for a long drive to Stanstead Airport.  Got to Italy and was greeted by Francesco (our boss) and he took us straight to restaurant for some food, music to my ears, food is always fantastic!!!

We arrived at the factory and we were all very eager to see the Colmic Airon F66 pole.  Andrea the owner, showed us the new pole and the new EC200 Top kits.  Wow.  Unbelievable stiff and a slow tamper, therefore your elastic inside your pole will work probably and not stick to the side walls.  Andrea Collini had hold of the tip section and was waving the whole of the top kit around.  It was scary.  See Richard Chave's video below.

https://youtu.be/MZI6UqnPjmQ

I've seen quite a few people break their top kits whilst playing fish over the years, as they are bent at alarming rate with thick hollows.  These super stiff top kits allow your elastic to work properly and not stick to the side walls.   Colmic already have had a few super stiff top kits already, like PK55 and PK60 which has allowed me to use heavy gear with confidence and catch some pretty big fish and massive match weights!!  The new EC200 are even better.

Colmic Airon F66 pole.

The Colmic Airon poles were a great success for Colmic and they had 0.056% return rate on broken sections and the Colmic Airon F44 had a zero return rate!!!  Therefore Colmic are so confident that the Airon F66 is going to be so good, Colmic are giving the Colmic Airon F66 pole a two year warranty and also giving twenty year spares guarantee too!!  To enhance this great product Colmic are going to supply a few different packages.

16 meter Pole only

16 meter package
8 x Top 2 EC200
1 force 3rd section
1 cupping kit
1 rod bag
3 dolly butts

Unique package

Colmic Airon F66 Pole

For me and many other anglers the Colmic F66 pole has been a great tool.  I'm writing this now 13/10/17 as an update of using this pole for over year, and could of used it for all my fishing over the last year.  I've had fish 19lb 12oz, 200lb weights, used it strong winds and used it for speed fishing on the canal catching roach.  It's been truly awesome.  If your looking for top end pole, then I'd honestly look at Colmic Airon F66 pole.  (And yes I'm sponsored by Colmic but I still have to pay for my products).

See links below for independent reviews.


http://www.anglingtimes.co.uk/new-for-2017/f66-pole-is-the-star-of-the-colmic-show-for-2017

http://www.polefishingmagazine.com/all-reviews/item/3869-colmic-airon-f66-pole


------

The Colmic Airon poles were a great success for Colmic.  Theese poles only had 0.056% return rate and the Colmic Airon F44 had a zero return rate! (To date of me publishing this post) 

Now Colmic are so confident that the Airon F66 is so good, Colmic are giving the Colmic Airon F66 pole a two year warranty and also giving twenty year spares guarantee too!!  To enhance this great product Colmic are going to supply unique package to the customer, so you have what you want.

Colmic Pole Airon F66 pole only

Complete pole

3 Dolly Butts

Pole only £2400 ssp.

_____

Colmic Airon F66 "full package"

£2900 ssp

8 spare top 2 kits

1 cupping kit

3 dolly butts

One rod bag

______

Colmic Airon F66 unique package

Also build your own package.  So the customer buys what they want, ideal for river anglers.

The Colmic Airon F66 Pole is a joy to use, for shallow fishing, slapping, very responsive and equally great down the edge for lumps.  I've had fish up to 19lb and pulled 18lbers out of the edges.  Unreal product.

Reinforcement joints.  Built to last, hence the two year guarantee.

The EC200 top kits are so stiff!!!

Frank Donachie loves his

EC200 top kits are unreal.  Super strong and stiff

Liam Dennick bagging on the Colmic Airon F66 pole

To fit a size 48 Colmic bush, you loose about 115mm off your top kit

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