A month since my last match due to the storms, this one was at Southend Farm in Essex.

I drew peg 22 which is a decent area and the shortest walk from the car park!
The forecast was for strong winds and light rain until around 11am at which time the winds were forecast to drop significally. With this in mind I put in a few balls og groundbait with 2mm pellets and a few casters on the 13m pole line for later and started on the feeder.

Casting a bomb out before the start to clip up I foul hooked a decent skimmer so I was thinking there might be a few in front of me, on the whistle I went straight out fishing rather than putting in several feeders full first.

Not quite as quick a start as I thought it may be but after 10-15 minutes my first skimmer was in the net and over the first half of the match I caught steadily with a couple of good size Bream in amongst them, I caught all these on double dead maggot with a 2ft hooklength of 0.12 to a 16 hook.

The second half unfortunately was not good for me, the fish seemed to have moved off. I did catch a few more skimmers including 2 in the last 30 minutes on a method feeder and wafter bait.

The wind did not really drop tthat much until the last hour, I did try the pole a few times but only managed 2 small Roach on this.

My catch totalled 14lb 11oz which was second in the section and joint 3rd on the day.
Well done to Simon who walked it with 30lb.
In hindsight I should have fed a short pole line too for somewhere to try when the feeder line died.

Here are the full results...
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For my first match of the year we were at Frogmore for a silvers only match (F1s and carp do not count).

I drew peg 5 so a short walk and an island peg, good area for F1s!
I started off by cupping in a ball of groundbait with dead pinkies and maggots in at 13m slightly to my left, this was the deepest part of the peg before it shallowed up toward the island and a few 2mm pellets with some maggots at 12m to the right where I had found the same depth as the left swim.

Starting on the pellet line with maggot on the hook I was soon into a fat F1 of about 2lb which of coaurse had to be put back, whilst fishing the long lines I began loose feeding a few maggots dowm the near shelf to my left. After a couple of F1s I caught a few small skimmers and the odd roach alternating between the two long lines but the pellet line seemed the best. 

When I felt the pellet line needed topping up with the cup I would try the short maggot line which produced a few Roach but wasn't prolific. At the end of the match I thought I might have 3lb so was pleasantly surprised when they went 4lb 14oz, a few of the Roach were obviously bigger than I realised. This was not going to win me anything but I was a respectable 7th of 22.

Full results can be seen Below..

Christmas hats at the ready for our club Christmas Match.

This was very well attended with 38 fishing. I helped with collecting the monies which included a £3 donation from each angler for charity.

I drew peg 25, not a great draw but thought I might manage a few carp plus silvers as it was quite a mild day at around 9 or 10 degrees.

I started a bit late and put in a couple balls of groundbait containing some pinkies and a few 2mm pellets at 13m then started on a deep dobbing rig with bread near the spit going out on my left. I had a nice surprise when I caught a Carp after 10 minutes then another 2 Carp in the next 40 minutes.

I thought that was a very good start, unfortunately it went downhill from there with just some small Roach to show from the remainder of the match.
My 12lb 3oz put me 10th out of 38, there were some good weights for the top 4.

Full results can be seen HERE.

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

Back to our lovely club lake at Riverside Road in St. Albans for this match.

22 on this match so we would have a bit of room with the fishery to ourselves.
I drew peg 9 which has had some good form during the summer with carp and some big bream.

I set up a carp rig and a silvers rig to fish at 5m and a rig for down the edge to my right under the trailing branches of the willow tree.

I started by feeding 2 balls of groundbait with micro pellets and a few casters at 5m and 3 balls of groundbait down the edge. Starting on the light rig at 5m with meat on the hook I foul hooked and lost a large skimmer or bream first put in so I thought I would start to catch fairly soon as there were obviously some fish came to the feed but it was hard going, it took my about 30 minutes to catch my first fish.

I had a quick go down the edge now and then hoping to find some carp and bream had arrived but this didn't really produce until the last hour or so. I had to just catch what I could at 5m, After changing to double maggot hookbait I did have a little run of decent skimmers but then nothing for quite some time.

With an hour and 15 to go I went onto the edge line, triple maggot caught me a good bream but then I was getting pestered by tiny roach and perch so on went 2 pieces of corn which resulted in another bream then a 5lb carp.

After a quiet 15 minutes I tried worm on the hook, this brought a couple of skimmers and that was it, all out!

My 1 carp went 5lb 1oz and with the silvers my total was 18lb 13oz which put me 10th on the match.

​The full results can be seen HERE.

Something a bit different for this VAC club match, the park lake at Fairlands Valley Park in Stevenage.
I do like the variety of the club matches.

The main target would be Bream and Skimmers but there are also lots of Roach and some big carp in the lake.
My main attack was the groundbait feeder at 45m with another feeder line at 24m for somewhere to start and a 4m whip line for the roach.

I mixed up 2 lots of groundbait,  a mix of Sonubaits 50:50 Green and Match Method mix for the 45m line and a more roachy mix of Sonubaits So Natural Roach with some F1 Black for the 24m line which I also fed on the whip line.

I started by putting 10 big feeders full in at 45m with casters and corn in the groundbait, then fished the 24m line for an hour or so for a few roach and a small skimmer. I then went out to the 45m line and after a while and a few casts the tip finally went round a couple of times resulting in two 1lb+ skimmers, with no more indications for 45 minutes I put in a couple more feeders full and went on to the 4m whip for a bit to see if there were Roach there in any numbers.

The whip did produce some Roach but it was a bit slow going so went back out on the feeder and soon after a nice Bream was in the net followed by another on the next cast.
This was the pattern up to the last hour, 2 quick fish then had to wait some time for the next fish.
Triple maggot on a 50cm hooklength caught me all the feeder fish.

The first half of the last hour did not produce a bite so I spent the last 30 minutes on the whip for a few more Roach.

From what I had heard I was in with a chance of the win and when my catch went 20lb 14oz this was indeed enough to win the match with 17lb 15oz in second and a good all Roach catch of 12lb 15oz in third.

​The full results can be viewed HERE.

For our 6th match we visited a new venue for me, Wold Farm.

We were on "The Oaks Lake". A very pretty lake with large lily pads in every swim.
This was my view on peg 5.​

Started by feeding a 5m line with pellets then fished in front of me with a top kit, also feeding the edge to my left. Hook bait was corn or pellet.

After 1.5 hours I only had a couple of 2lb Barbel and two skimmers so I went onto the edge and after a short time started catching some carp with a few skimmers in between. I had been loose feeding the 5m line with pellets so tried that a couple of times shallow and managed 2 carp on this but the edge carp were a little bigger so went back to the edge for the rest of the match.

The 4th hour was good, catching fairly quickly then it slowed up and just 1 carp in the last 30 minutes. I ended with 28 carp, 2 barbel and about 14 skimmers.. 

Total weight was 122lb 13oz which was good for 5th on the match.

Full result can be seen HERE.

The match lake at Albans Lakes was the destination for our 5th match.

The hot form pegs we all wanted to draw were 19 and 20, I was next to last to draw and all the favoured pegs had gone with venue expert Josh drawing 20. I pulled out peg 4 and suspected it would be tough going to put a weight together.

The peg looks nice enough with the end of some reeds to cast to on the far bank and enough open water to go at too.​

The plan of attack was to ball in groundbait at around 14-15m for later, feed 8mm pellets about half way across and a hybrid feeder to the far bank reeds.

The water level is low at the moment so most of us had to put our boxes in the water, not long after starting the match some rain arrived which was not very welcome but after a couple of downpours the sun came out.

​The only line that produced any bites was the far bank, as was the case for the anglers either side of me.
In the first hour I had two pull rounds but they must have not been hooked properly as they both came off near the net, the next hour I managed to put two carp in the net then nothing for a long time.

With 90 minutes to go I started catching a few and was up to eight with 30 minutes remaining but no more bites after that. A couple more in that last 30 minutes would have pushed me right up to 3rd in the match, my eight carp went 46lb 15oz on the scales which was 7th on the day.

Rig of the day was a 42g Guru X-Safe Hybrid feeder, 0.20 hooklength to a Guru QM1 size 12. I had a couple on a hard pellet and the rest on a small wafter bait.

Well done to Josh showing how it's done with 175lb.

Here are the full results: