This was our club's first of two visits to Moat Lake at Newlands Hall for this year.
​
I drew peg 6 which is just to the right of the end of the island on the sunny side of the lake.
I started by feeding some corn and meat at 5m and tried there for a while whilst feeding some 6mm pellets out to the open water where I intended to try the straight lead.

Nothing after 20 minutes on the 5m line so picked up the rod and chucked the lead with a pellet as bait, this caught me a couple of carp fairly quick but then no bites for a while. I tried a couple different baits but still no bites.

Back to the 5m line but only one small carp caught then no bites again.
I had also fed corn to my left margin at the start and by hand whilst fishing the other lines so I had a try there for a short time but nothing happening there either.

After 4 hours of the match I had only managed to pick up the odd fish on the lead plus that 1 small carp at 5m for a total of 6 fish.

In the last hour there was some action to be had in the margin and with 40 minutes to go I was up to a dozen fish, in that last 40 minutes I doubled my catch with a good run of carp, all on corn.

I knew Stan and Alan T (opposite me) had been catching well and I presumed Allan B had done well from peg 13 so if that was all correct then the best I could hope for was 4th. This is exactly how it turned out but Brian was only 2lb behind me.

Match report and full results can be found HERE

Most of us arrived early at Redbridge Lakes to get our breakfast orders in. After a very nice breakfast came the draw, I pulled out peg 8.
Redbridge Lakes is lovely venue with very good facilities and they do a lot to educate kids about nature as well as getting them fishing.

This was my peg for the day.
​

The 2 lakes here are full of silvers, lots of ide and skimmers plus some brown goldfish and roach with only a sprinkling of carp.
My main line of attack was to be shallow on the pole at 11m, I did not dare try longer than this because the forecast was for a strengthening wind and some rain.
My other line was at 6m at an angle to my right.
​All today's rigs were finished off with a 0.10 hooklength and a size 18 hook.

At the all in (well about 10 minutes after as I was not quite ready as usual!) I fed a couple small balls of groundbait to the right swim with some chopped worms and casters then shipped out to 11m and started loose feeding casters.

It was slow going but after 20 minutes I hooked an ide and landed it only for it to escape my hand as soon as it was unhooked. After another 10 minutes I finally put one IN the keepnet.

The wind was making things awkward but fortunately with a spit on my left this blocked some of the wind so feeding was not affected too much.

I kept the casters going in and every now and then I would get a run of 3 or 4 ide one after the other then it would be no bites for a while until the next burst of action.
I found 8 inches deep was working best for me, usually they will come right to the surface so you need to fish 4 inches deep.

During a quiet spell I had a look in on the 6m swim which I had topped up occasionally with a small ball of groundbait, a little chopped worm and some casters. With caster on the hook I caught a small skimmer, I tried a bit of worm and caught a perch then on caster again an ide and a very small roach.

I fished most of the match using the shallow rigs and in hindsight I should have looked in on the 6m line a bit more often.

I had not counted but I thought I had 30 or so fish which I guessed would give me around 20lb. When the scales came round 22lb 2oz was leading and I was sure Allan on peg 5 would have more than that, I was pleased to see the scales read 22lb 5oz. Sure enough Allan had 27lb of mainly skimmers so I was 2nd of 21 in the match.

Full report and results can be seen HERE.
​

Our 2nd club outing of the season and the only one I wasn't particularly looking forward to because it involves a couple of steep hills with the gear and it tends to be very peggy, also it never fishes as well as people expect, the latter being mainly because we fish our matches earlier in the day than the open matches.

We had pegs 20-36 and I drew peg 34, I started with a kinder cup of cubed meat and meat on the hook at 5m, no bites, AllanB was opposite and I noticed him get a couple shallow on the long pole so I picked up my mugging rig, I shipped out to 12m and swung the 3m rig out past the pole tip in front of a carp I spotted and in a flash it was on, after that one I couldn't see any more cruising so I started feeding meat with the catty and picked up another 5 carp in 5 puts in and around the fed area then it went iffy, a couple of lost foul hookers then nothing. I then tried the left margin up to some rushes but it was slow going, another look at 5m but no signs there, at this stage I fed several full cups of groundbait to my right margin and a couple of cup fulls of dead maggots. To let the new feed settle I tried my other 3 areas for a while with not much luck, then impaled several dead maggots on the right margin rig to have a try there, I caught a few F1s and some carp here but it was slow going.

I ended up with 15 carp, a couple of perch, 3 F1s and a fantail for 64lb 13oz which was only 9th of the 15 that fished.

The top 5 all came from the pegs in the 20s.

Full Results and a write up can be found HERE.