Alvechurch Fisheries - Canal Lake

Peg 11
41lb
No good (as Antony pointed out i was 7th)
14 anglers fished

14 anglers on todays match, prayed mot to draw peg 14 again..... as it is a little tight at the top, with 16, 14, 12 and 11.  Draw 11, which should be alright, a lit of fish here last week, at least I will have my own peg............

Started on 8mm bread at 13 meters..... 1 foul hooked 5lber, most people playing there second.   Went in again and pricked one.... not feedibg fish.  Then a roach, terrible sign and then a 2lb carp in the first twenty mintues.  I was getting battered either side.  So decided to feed morcos and maggots, had a carp straight away.  Then nothing but roach.  Nightmare.  With 1.5 hours gone, Sreve had 13 carp and AJ had 5 to my 3 carp.

Tried hard to catch..... didnt happen, caught a few ide on the 5 meter line, but that wasn't lasting, getting more frustrated i decided to feed a decent amount of maggots and mirco on two lines.... and last 1 hour had 5 carp, 2 barbel and 5 ide, quite productive, but i was way too far behind to come back from the dead.

Maybe my expectations / standards are too high, but i do consider 7th out of 14 anglers is a blow out.

Happy new year to you all.  Lets hope 2019 is a little better?!

ALL the weights.

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Harescombe

Peg 5
25lb
6th overall
11 anglers.
Field Lake.

Drew peg 5, which was right up the top of the lake, very shallow, a little clear, a bit concerned.  But the locals said it won last week with 70lb.  So happy days??!!

Amazing start on the lead, two carp for ten pound within 5 mintues...... 2 carp in the second hour and 1 at 12.14 and then out another bite!!!! (Well, caught three roach).  Wanted one more fish for the frame, as my 5 carp went 25lb. It was a bit gutting seeing my match slip away.  Hoped to catch in last hour and failed, a bit gutted and surprised that the fish never came back.....   a few lads catch well in last hour/ 40 mintues.

I weighed 25lb for "last" (5th overall).

96lb won it.  Peg 1
55lb second. Peg 11
30lb third.  Peg 4

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Manor Farm Leisure- Open match

Peg 7 Ash.  (Flyer)
57lb
Won section  (default)
5th Overall
16 people fished the match

Got to love Dave for spreading 16 anglers over 3 lakes.  So we all have some room, and we should HOPEFULLY all be on some fish?!

Peg 7 Ash is always a good peg, the only thing it hasn't got good is a long edge.... but still a cracking peg none the less.

I set up....

Bread and lead
Pellets at 14.5 meters
Pellets at 6 meters
Edge infront of peg 5

Mid match i set up the waggler, which caught me a few extra fish, but was miles behind Paul on peg 4, who caught down his edge on the method feeder, had a few munters.

Really frustrating, only had one carp and couple of blade skimmers on the 14.5 meter line!  I caught a few fish on lead and the life saver was two munters in the last 25 mintues at 5 meters on pellets.  6mm Spotted Fin expanders, lucky this got me the section win by default.

Liam Dennick won the match again, drew peg 6 on Island, which is a good peg ("best peg in Europe") and made no mistake by winning.  He caught on lead and the pole.  Fair play.  The lad is on fire at the moment, yeah he draws a few good/decent pegs, but don't wastes them, like i did to my peg today.  Thats the difference, some anglers make way too excuses and never their fault, even if the peg has won the last three matches.

Couple of big carp late.

All the weights.  #tellnolies

Liam Dennick on fire 

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Alvechurch - Canal

Peg 14
62lb
5th
14 fished

Im not a biggest fan of snake lakes, main reason is i'm not very good at fishing them, so this is something that I need to change.

So booked onto the Christmas Match at Alvechurch Fishery, on the Canal lake. which is truely a great venue, but with 18 booked on it was going to be a little tight, but hay ho, its Christmas.......  however only 14 anglers turned up.  Drew peg 14, which normally aint the best and on arrive to my peg, after Phil Evans laughing himself to death, it was tight.  My island was well and truely boxed in and is very shallow against the far bank and no cover.

Had one line only on far bank and no place for the fish to back off....... well in the other pegs.

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Harescombe Fisheries - Field Lake

Peg 2 (middle of dam wall)
74lb
Won match
14 anglers fished

Harescombe Fisheries today for their Christmas match, on Field Lake.  Wanted to redeme myself, as I come last on my last match here.

Started off been the good samaritan, as Paul Dicks left his keepnets at home, as he came pleasure fishing, but realised there was a match and he was lucky to get on it, as there was a couple of drop outs.  As a result the draw gods must of been smiling on me and rewarded me a decent peg.  Peg 2 on the dam wall..........

Started on the lead and bread but feed maggots at 7 meters and pellets at 14.5 meters.  Unreal, the first 5 mintues saw 2 carp in the net!! Dream start.... but no bites on anything for next 45 mintues.  Then had another on yellow meat, which is Spotted Fins, Frankfurther with some yellow die.  Closetest thing I found to Mainline NRG.   I think its important not to panic and do something silly like feeding or feed too much.  Looking around the lake, Derek was the only catching down his edge in the early part of the match.  So sat quietly, waiting for them to come back.

Quick looks on the pole proved to be unproductive, so topped them up with small amounts of bait and felt/hoped that i would catch on the pole late.... which I did.

I had 10 carp on the lead, 1 on yellow meat, and the rest on bread and 4 on the pole over pellets.  Biggest fish was 8lb common on the pole and also had 3 skimmers and a few roach on the pole. 

Lead rig

The bread was 3 x 12mm disc on 0.18 to size 14 QM1 and 30cm popped up.

Part of my catch.

All weights off today's match. Very tight for second place, only one fish in it.

Cheers to Andy Price, decent hamper.

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Ian Garner Memorial Match.

Peg 16 Staits Lake
1lb 8oz
13 points out 20.
34 anglers fished
Raised £549.30 for cancer

I drew for us, maybe not the best idea, but i drew pegs 16.  Which saw me on the "beach" (not bikini weather) and Dan on the airetor on small patch of lilies.  Now, i didnt quite know how Dan's peg was going to fair, as it was very clear and looked tough.  Just shows what i know...... 13 Tench later and 51lb!!

For me, just was praying for a bite, spent most of my time on the tip praying for a bite.  Got one, which was a 6 oz skimmer (WTF).  And had one bite on the pole, which was a slighlty bigger skimner 1lb 2oz.  Ouch.   Got beat by Andy burns, who had 2 bites for 19lb 10oz. 1 carp would of saw me and Dan to win Ian's memorial match, but wasn't to be...    gutted.  As i fancied a carp.  Also never caught any roach on the pole.  Unreal.  Top bank saw a few caught.  And Malcom caught some of the bottom bank, but the middle of match was brutel.  As you can see quite a few DNW on Staits.

Top 3 pairs

Andy Burns and Glyn Loveday

Vince Grillo and John Merchant 

Me and Dan Garner 

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Manor Farm Leisure - Winter league round 3

Peg 36 Island
32lb
2nd on lake/section

Got pgoto bombed by Gaey Watts

Island Pool fished hard 

Hoping to get Windmill Pool or a bung hole on Ash Pool.  Well that didn't happen.....  peg 36 Island.  Not ideal, wouldnt be my first choice of pegs, but is better than Peg 16 and 18 on Island.

I had 7 fish in first 2 hours on the lead..... lost one and never had another carp /F1 anywhere in my peg!!! Unreal.

Caught about 7lb of bits on the pole, mainly skimmers, was worried carp could switch on, so last hour stuck it out on lead for no bites or liners......Weighed a total of 32lb for 2nd on lake/section.

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Ivy House Lakes

Peg 28
18lb 8oz
Won Silvers
23 fished

Ivy House Lakes Christmas Match today.  Willow and Match pool now have islands in, so its changed quite alot since i was last there.   Drew peg 28, which was a little unknown, as no one had fished it since the work.   The peg used to be 6 foot deep and was only 3.5 foot deep, not 6 foot like it used to be, so i looked a bit silly with 0.75 gram rig, so that went back in the box.

I really didn't fancy it for carp and therefore decided to fish for silvers for most of the match, which I just won.   I honestly believe I wouldn't catch carp in our area.  Andy did manage 3, but he had a bit more room and depth.  And if he found it hard going, then ive got no chance.  So choose to fish for bites and had a great day.  Really enjoyed it.

I simply fished maggots and pinkies at 9 meters.   Caught all roach, apart from 4 small skimmers.  Fished 0.09 on a black gamma, size 18 hook.  I feed just under 1 pint of red maggots, quarter of a pint of pinkies and 1 kilo of Marukyu dark fishmeal....

Love catching roach 

Winner winner chicken dinner.  Gary won with 75lb

Garbolino UK1

Roach Rig
J Range 3 - 5 elastic
4x12 Jon Walker "Silm"
0.14 Garbolino Fluro Line
0.09 Black Gama size 18

Edge/long

2.1 Mosella Ozone Hollow
0.14 Garbolino fluro line
0.12 hooklength
0.2 Jon Walker slapper
Size 20 Guru Slwg


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