For our 3rd club spring warm up match we were on the match lake at Albans Lakes as mentioned in my previous post.

A cold wind was blowing towards our bank and the temperature was only in single figures.
I drew the opposite end of the lake to where I had my success two weeks previous so probably fishing for second and not in a good area to do that on recent form.

Our match time today was 10am til 4pm, at the start I fed a short feeder line at around 18m with 5 balls of groundbait, a pole line with groundbait and maggots to my right and started pinging 8mm pellets out in open water at about 30m. I started fishing a hybrid feeder further out.

After 4.5 hours trying different lines and methods I had not had a bite and it was the same for several others. At 2.40 I had a decent carp on the hybrid feeder fishing it where I had been feeding the 8mm pellets and between 3 and 3.40 I had another 3 carp from the same line, no bites in the last 20 minutes.

As expected peg 3 at the other end had produced the winner with 81lb of carp, my 4 carp went 24lb 8oz which to my surprise was enough for 2nd in the match with several people not having a bite all match, bring on the warmer weather!

We have a club match on the match lake at Albans Lakes at the end of the month so I took the opportunity to fish the open this week. 
I knew a few of the other guys fishing this match as  2 of them (Alan and Josh) are also members of VAC and I think everyone in match angling knows Dickie Carr!

After buying some pellets, ordering a bacon baguette (Yum) and paying my pools money it was time for the draw.

At the draw there was much talk of peg 3 probably being the best to draw and with 4 or 5 left in the bag in went my hand and out came peg 3 so that was a good start!

Peg 3 is at the narrow end of the triangle shaped match lake, I set up a feeder rod with a medium hybrid feeder for across to the opposite bank and a pole line a couple metres from my margin on the left and right.
I also had a pellet waggler rod ready to go.

At the start I fed a big cup of pellets to my left and the same with some corn added to the right, then loaded up the hybrid with 2mm pellets and a hard pellet hook bait and launched it to the far bank.

In the first hour I had 4 carp on the feeder, they were all about 4lb so not a bad start.
I continued to catch steadily on the feeder and after 2 hours I had 7.

All the time I was fishing the feeder I had been feeding a few 8mm pellet just over half way across to try the pellet waggler over and when after 3 hours the bites on the feeder seemed to have slowed up I gave the waggler a try at a few depths but no indications on this at all. This had given the feeder line a rest which seemed to help as I had a bite almost straight away when going back out there.

I also tried the pole lines occasionally but did not have any bites here either so I stuck with the feeder alternating between a hard pellet and a Bait-tech "The Juice" wafter, it did not really seem to make much difference which hook bait was used.
I ended up with 23 carp on the feeder for a total of 79lb 10oz which was enough to win the match.

Thank you to Andy for organising the match and for bringing the bacon baguette to my peg!

For our 2nd Spring match we return to the scene of our February league match, Road Lake at Puddledock Farm Fishery.

An overcast dry calm day forecast which would make a nice change.
At the draw we all wanted a peg down at the far corner of the lake or failing that then in the 20s somewhere as that is the right side of the lake which usually seems to produce better, I drew 14 which was near the far end on the left side of the lake.

After struggling a bit down the soggy bank with my mountain of gear to my peg I began setting up. I mixed some black F1 groundbait for the pole line, wetted some micro pellets and pumped some 4mm expanders.

I set up a light pole rig as per our previous visit to fish for the silvers, this time at 11m. The same rig could also be used at 5m for roach where I was to loose feed casters.

To start the match I potted in 6 balls of groundbait containing micros, pinkies and a few dead maggots on the 11m line, half a pot of hemp went in at 5m and out went the bomb and bread to the island in the hope of snaring a couple of carp while the pole line settled.

I had also set up a light waggler rod to try 2-3m from the island, I started feeding a few expander pellets here by catapult.

After an hour trying a few spots along the island with no fish on the bomb I tried the 5m line, a chunky hybrid first drop was encouraging but bites did not come regularly after that so time to try the 11m line.

To my surprise this did not really get going like on the previous visit, having to work the bait and wait some time for bites which were sometimes tiny roach. I kept going on this line for about an hour but it remained a struggle and most of the fish were small skimmers or roach. I then tried the 5m line for a while and this produced a better stamp of roach with the odd skimmer but certainly not as good as expected.

Time to try something different, I picked up the waggler rod and with expander on the hook out it went. After a few casts the float dipped and my strike met with resistance, it was not very big but it was a very colourful bright red goldfish and on the next cast his bigger brother came to the net but after that I could not get another bite on expander.

Due to the lack of bites on expander I decided to start feeding some hard pellets and a few grains of corn on the waggler line whilst trying the 11m and 5m lines for a time. After a while I went back on the waggler, using corn on the hook and it did not take long to start getting bites.

I ended up staying on the waggler until the end of the match as it was producing some chunky F1/brown goldfish and an occasional carp and in the last 30 minutes it was very good with almost a bite a chuck.

The scales started a few pegs to my left so I would be nearly last to weigh in, I knew Roger in the corner to my left had been catching well down the edge and was likely to be 1st in the match.

When the scales reached me the top weight so far which was from the other side of the lake was 32lb 15oz, I thought I had around 20lb so was very surprised when my weight was called at 35lb 8oz. Roger then weighed 46lb 12oz so I was 2nd again, a good result from the unfavoured side of the lake and it had been enjoyable fishing the waggler for a change.

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