A decent turnout of 19 for our visit to the Great Ouse at Felmersham.

Not a lot to report from this match unfortunately, on a windy day when the roach did not seem to be feeding it was big perch or bust as it turned out.
I had one large perch after 50 minutes on the feeder and a very small roach on the pole in the last 30 minutes of the match for a total of 2lb 4oz, Mark in the next swim had one perch all day to beat me by an ounce, another perch of the same stamp for either of us would have been enough to win the match!

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Back to Essex again this week, this time to Slough House Lake.

As seems normal on our visits to this lake, we were in for a windy day with the effects of the tail end of storm Brian still being felt.

This time we would all be on the spit with other club bookings having the outside banks of the lake, we had 15 attendees.

I drew 41 which is a few pegs onto the spit on the right side, which meant I would have a left to right cross wind. Between the gusts the wind did not seem to be too bad so I decided to feed for skimmers at 13m,
I fed a line to the left with 4 balls of groundbait containing 2mm pellets and 1 ball of the same a little to the right. I also set up a carp rig for left and right at the bottom of the shelf where I fed pellets and corn.

I started catching little skimmers almost straight away on the right line and this continued steadily for an hour or so before it started to slow so in went a little ball of feed. Now I had a look on the left line and although I could get bites there it was nowhere near as good as the negatively fed right line so after 15 minutes I went back on the right line.

This pattern continued all the way through the match with a couple of short spells on the bomb at around 20m where I had been catapulting a few 8mm pellets producing nothing and a few looks over the short lines also producing nothing.

Half way through the match I plumbed up at 6m, it was only 3 inches shallower than 13m so I thought it would be a good idea to feed here the same way as the 13m right swim, perhaps I could catch some skimmers a bit quicker and with less of a struggle holding the pole but when I tried fishing this line a couple of times I could not get a bite so had to persevere at 13m.

Although it had been hard work fishing at 13m most of the day and at times impossible when the wind was gusting, I think I did fairly well putting 14lb 6oz on the scales. This was good enough for 4th on the day, being ounced out for 3rd.

​The Club report and full results can be seen HERE

Time for a bit of a workout compared to our other club matches, Entire Farm is known for huge weights of carp in the summer and very big weights right up to the first frosts.

I drew peg 4 for this match which was not the end of the lake I would have preferred. 
For this match we have a half time weigh in, so it was good to get off to a reasonably fast start with carp of around 1-3lb coming regular on a top kit from the off. I was fishing a top 2 in front and also feeding to my left margin for later.
Feeding a handful of pellets before each put in then a pinch of corn regularly over the float with corn on the hook seemed best on the day and at the end of the first 2.5 hours I thought I had done OK but not great.

The scales showed that my 50-ODD carp went 133 lb so not a good average size for this lake.

The second half commenced and I could not get a bite for around 15 minutes which was most strange, a few slightly bigger carp put in an appearance during this half but not enough of them. I could not seem to get them lined up, would catch a couple then no bites for 5-10 minutes.

My second weight was 111 lb so a total of 244 lb which was only good enough for 8th out of 16, as predicted the other end of the lakke produced better and with a much bigger stamp of carp.

​The club report and full results can be seen HERE

Back to Newland Hall Fishery for our second visit of the year.

14 of us on this one so plenty of room as we had the whole of Moat lake booked.
I drew peg 1 which I was not overly enthusiastic about as a low weight had come from it on our previous visit and when I drew the same peg a couple of years ago I had struggled too.

I started by feeding a good helping of corn at 11m a little to my left and a few pellets at 11m to the right, I then fished the method feeder to open water hoping to catch a few before looking on the pole lines. I caught a few small carp of around a pound or so and one around 3lb on the feeder but this then went very quiet so I started to try the pole.
No bites over the corn except a few small roach, no bites over the pellets! Back on the feeder for a while.

A couple of hours into the match I decided to start feeding the margin to my right with a few big pots of groundbait and some dead maggots. After trying the pole for a while with the same fruitless result, I could see that a few carp had arrived in the margin, I decided to leave them alone for a bit longer so tried the feeder again for a few casts, picking up another small carp or two.

NOW, time to see if my feeding and patience was going to pay off, on to the pole in the margin with a big bunch of dead maggots on the hook. I started catching steadily and potted in groundbait and maggots after every few carp, the roach were a bit of a nuisance but I just kept going. The roach issue was getting worse and I foul hooked a carp too so I decided to but a large frenzee soft pot on the pole and each put in I used this to feed with a hard ball of groundbait in the hope that it would help to keep the carp feeding on the bottom, this seemed to work fairly well and I continued to catch a few decent size carp.

In the last hour things slowed down, I only had 2 or 3 carp in this time.

I guessed I might have 70lb, when the scales reached me Stan was top with 78lb so I was hopng to be close to that but did not think I would be beating him.
​My total was 67lb which was 2nd at that stage behind Stan so now I would just have to see if I got pushed down a position or two by the other anglers on the rest of the low numbers bank, top weight for the rest was 65lb so very close but I had done enough for 2nd.

Stan's club match report and the full results can be seen HERE.