This match was scheduled to be our annual visit to the River Ouse at Felmersham, because of water levels being high and more rain forecast the match was moved to the Moat Lake at Wold Farm.
This lake has no carp so the main target species were Roach, Skimmers and Barbel and maybe a few Crucians.

I drew peg 17 which meant nothing to any of us as this was a new lake to most of us.
I found the deepest part of the open water at 12m so plumbed in front and to the left at this distance, then a line at 5m which was the same depth too. We were a bit short on time to set up so I put a couple of the new Preston F1 Slim floats into action, one was a 4x12 Maggot for the 12m lines and a 4x12 Fine for the 5m line as I was hoping to target the Roach there.

I started by potting in some micros on the two 12m spots, adding some maggots to the one in front then some hemp and maggots at 5m.

Starting on the 5m line to hopefully let some fish settle over the pellets it was a very slow start with nothing in the first 50 minutes by which time I was fishing at 12m.

A few skimmers showed up then I hooked something which tore off to the left twice before coming to the net, a great bonus Barbel of 3-4 pounds.
After this I caught skimmers and a couple of little Barbel by rotating the lines, mostly caught on maggot but had a couple of better skimmers on 4mm expander.

​I ended up with 3 Barbel, 2 Roach and 21 Skimmers, these gave me a weight of 23lb 14oz which was enough for the win.

​Full results can be seen HERE.

Our annual visit to Arrans Lake at Entire Farm was a month or so later than previous years so we were not quite sure of target weights for this one.

I started at 5m trickling in a few 6mm pellets but only managed 2 small carp in the first hour so I went on the bomb with pellet or wafter hook baits which produced 6 or 7 carp in the next hour and a half.

In the second half of the match I caught a couple more on the bomb then went back to my 5m line where I had started feeding some 4mm pellets, some carp arrived and I had a busy hour or so with 6mm expander on the hook before it tailed off a bit at the end.

I had 39 or 40 carp that went 100lb 2oz on the scales, 3rd from last of 14.

The full result can be seen HERE.

Match 9 was at Lake John, unfortunately I had a very uneventful match only catching a couple of skimmers in the last 10 minutes of the match.

For match 10 we were at our club lake, Frogmore.

I drew peg 17 which is in the very far corner of the bowl end of the lake. This bowl is deeper than the islands end and of course no island to fish to. The peg had produced a few days earlier in the midweek match so I was hopeful, although it was now colder and a lot of rain had gone in over the past few days.

Well, this was another frustratingly difficult day for me, I only managed 1 carp from my long pole line with expander and a carp and 2 F1s from the margin down to the corner on my left using corn.

My total of 5lb 13oz was way down the results, must try harder!

​The full results can be seen HERE