Another new venue for me, Clavering Farm is a nice fishery just over the Essex border.

I started by fishing shallow at 11m with 6mm pellets and managed to catch a few in the first hour but then could not buy a bite for a while so decided to try something else.
I tried the pellet waggler for a while after feeding it whilst fishing the pole shallow but this was just not working, we could see plenty of carp cruising around but they just were not really interested in feeding it seemed. 

In between my switch from pole to waggler, I potted in a few cups full of groundbait, dead maggots and casters in my left margin, after a few minutes I could see carp tails all over the fed area so I left them for a short time before fishing for them.

After trying the waggler for a while with no luck, I started fishing the left margin. The fish really were in a strange mood, even when I could see tails in the area, a hook bait would not get touched for some time but I did manage to catch one every now and then. I also started loose feeding casters in the right margin and managed to catch a few here by fishing caster off the bottom.

As the scales came round, I guessed I might have 30lb but probably less and for a change I had guessed quite accurately as I weighed in 29lb 4oz which as it turned out was good enough for 4th from the 25 taking part.

Club match report is HERE.

A hot, sunny, still morning greeted us when arriving at the venue. I was grateful to draw the far side (from car park) of the lake as that side was fairly shaded by the trees behind the pegs and the trees and bushes between the pegs.

My plan was to catch 100lb+ of carp from  the 5m line on paste and the margins on corn or bunches of dead maggots over groundbait/dead reds/corn feed.

What actually happened was that I struggled on the paste so switched to 6mm expanders and caught lots of crucians, unfortunately I was fairly sure I would need some carp to compete so I kept trying paste or double corn without much luck.

I had a look in the margin now and then but a bunch of maggots would always get snaffled by a small roach or a tiny carp, towards the end of the match I managed a few carp by fishing paste on the margin line.

I was using one of my new Sconezone V6 line through floats in the margin, they are very well made, extremely tough and occasionally they even go under!

I could hear AllanB to my right catching well at times and it sounded like he had some better size carp.

When the scales got to me there was a 57lb and assorted lower weights, my mostly crucians with a few carp went 33-4. This only got me 9th place (must try harder!) as can be seen in the match report HERE.

My wife and I visited the VAC club stretch of the River Lea at Marford to see if I could catch my first river barbel. We arrived at this very popular venue at around 4.30pm to find most swims taken, we managed to drop into peg 11. I set up a cage feeder and a float rod with centrepin, mixed up some marine halibut groundbait to plug the feeder with and got fishing just after 5pm. 

After getting organised and making a start with the feeder, we tucked into some grub we took with us and a nice cold drink.

A few casts with the feeder of pellets plugged with the groundbait and also loosefeeding some pellets brought a couple of indications, then wallop! over went the tip and I was into my first ever river barbel.


After landing the fish I unhooked it then let it rest in the landing net submerged in the edge. My wife took a couple of quick photos and then I realised I had not packed the scales, I didn't mind too much as the fish was an average size for the venue of approx 5lb. 


After another 30 minutes with no more bites, tried the stick float for a while but only managed one chub.

Our first time on this bit of the canal.
I fed down the track with chopped worm and caster, on the far shelf with loosefed casters and in the track to my right with a few pellets.

I had a lot of problems with tree litter covering the whole swim some of the time, sometimes I could not get a bait in. I forgot to take any photos!
I managed a few roach and perch plus a small skimmer on bits of worm and one skimmer from the far shelf for a total of 2lb 6oz which put me about half way down the field.

Club match report HERE

Time for the first club match of the league season. 
The club owned Riverside Road was the venue and true to form it fished very hard in the match.
Not much to report from me, I only managed 2 fish. One crucian and one bream for a total of 4lb 1oz.

Full match report can be seen HERE