Pawlett Club, Harescombe Fisheries, 05-09-15

Pawlett's annual 'day-out' is intended to take us to venues that we don't, or rather, haven't fished before. The venue is picked by Vic Bush and this year he seduced Harescombe Fisheries nr Gloucester into allowing us to go there and try and catch some fish.

I was the only member of the club to have fished the venue, and to be fair I have nothing but praise for the fishery, only wishing it was maybe 50 miles or more closer to home.
I did get the usual questions on the place as well as being labelled 'venue-expert' by a couple of guys but it was all in good jest.
Half of us met in a lay-by and I lead the convoy of us up the M5, while the ones who made their own way there would, hopefully, be at the venue in time for the brekkie; they all did except for Keith Clapp who'd waited in the wrong lay-by before journeying on up himself and then had to be directed in by phone when in arrived in the village of Harescome!!

When we arrived it was rather cool and the weather was a bit dour, cloudy and a cool breeze, thankfully no fog or rain as the weather can set-in here!
We had our breakfasts, very nice they were, even swapping my beans for extra sausage.
First impressions and comments from the guys was that it looked great, along with the scenery and lay-out. Great start. This was made better by the numbers of fish topping in the pegs by the car park (pegs 8 to 13).
The initial pay out was to include a silvers pot, this was abandoned thanks to the nature of the fish and fishing, nobody grumbled and we went with top 4 and two sections.

The draw was made and I plucked my number around 5th in line of the 18 participants and found number 5 in my hand, not the 'flyers' of 29, 30 and 24 or where the fish had been topping. Myself and Mark Sweeting on peg 6 never saw as much fish activity in our pegs all day, unlike Pete Manning on peg 29!!

Left hand view (peg 29 is the furthest peg)

Looking right from peg 5

Front view of peg 5 (samey as most pegs here)

For company I had Mark Sweeting on peg 6 and on peg 3 was Kev Crouch. I could see all those to my left and over to Derek Beards and Vic Bush on pegs 24 and 23 respectively.

Bait and tackle was simple for the day, 6mm meat for the edge, corn and maggots for 2+2 in front lightly left) and some 6mm pellets for across to the far side, I had hoped on fishing shallow down the middle as f1's do like to come up in the water, but the weather curtailed my effort on this front.
Tackle was a shallow 0.1g slapping rig, a 0.2g rig for down both sides at topkit distance. A full depth rig for down the middle in about 5ft of water plus a 0.2g rig for across using banded 6mm as bait.
All rigs were on 0.14>0.10>size 18 b911 (f1 = no band, standard = banded) and light solid 6/8 elastic.

At the all-in I potted some maggots and a few grains of corn at 2+2 plus a few 6mm's went alongside some grass by the far side wood. I also started to feed both edges, the left with maggots, the right with a few bits of meat.
I started on the 2+2 line and had a couple of indications, but it was Mark on peg 6 who had a f1 first drop. I waited a few minutes longer before a small skimmer was netted (every fish to be netted here), a second followed before a 6oz f1 and a gudgeon all found their way to my keepnets.

The first hour passed and other than the start of that period, I was struggling, unlike Vic and Derek plus Pete Manning on peg 29. But I stuck with it and come the start of the 2nd hour I had a few swirls at my maggots, so I dropped the slapping rig in and had a 1lb f1 and a nice 6oz skimmer in as many chucks before that died.
The good/bad thing about the lake is the fact every fish is being netted so it can be tricky keeping tabs on most peeps, well unless you draw peg 29 and start catching plenty of fish including a few carp around the 3-6lb mark as Pete did during the day. Also Jamie Cook, further along my bank, was catching well, as he did all day.
By the end of the second hour I had around 10lb of fish, which shows how tricky it was, it was a matter of fishing for a couple fish before swapping lines, but I found my edges and my far swims were less than active so I ended up at 2+2 for the most part of the match.
Mark had less than me at this point while Kev was doing ok fishing worms down his margin or pellet shallow across. Keith Clapp, next down from Kev, was on a similar weight, but the venue is as fair as can be, which as match anglers, is one very good attribute in a fishery.
My 3rd hour was blank, well other than a rudd and a couple of thumb sized gudgeon, this coincided with Mark having a nice run of fish down his edges.

So into the 4th and 5th hours and I noted that by feeding bigger helpings, less often, of maggots and corn were keeping fish coming in spurts, mostly skimmers and not the f1s or small carp you need to be catching, but I was putting odd fish in the net.
I was also suffering from hook-pulls, but I wasn't alone with this, perhaps the finicky f1's were being even more picky than usual??!!
I thought at this point I was perhaps 17 or 18lb, miles behind the likes of Pete and Jamie, Derek and Vic, actually me and Mark did agree that it seemed that we'd be last and second last at this point!!

The last hour was reasonable for me, a nice 1.5lb carp from my left edge was netted, but was my only landed fish from here, I did lose a couple off the hook, and I also lost a couple when my hooklengths broke on the landing net head. But I had a little spurt of fish on corn down the middle and then managed 3 or 4 fish landed by lifting and dropping against the far side, again I also lost a couple off the hook, but my limited f1 fishing has taught me that this isn't abnormal (for me).
As the end of the match was called most peeps had commented on the result being between Pete Manning and Jamie Cook, though I reckoned Vic and Kev Lock had done well, Kev having a brilliant last 90 minutes especially.

We all packed up before me and Jamie began the weigh in, and during this process I heard nothing but compliments on the fishery and that everybody had plenty of bites all day.
We began with Pete's net and he tallied up to 72lb exactly, very nice indeed. Mark Watts on peg 30 only had 16lb-ish before Keith, Kev, me and Mark weighed in with 35lb+, 30lb+, 37lb+ and 28lb+ respectively. My weight was somewhat surprising, I guess I did my usual thing of not taking much notice of my skimmers and roach!!
Next to weigh was Kev Lock, he managed to just pip me to the section with 38lb and a few ounces, then Jamie took the lead with over 75lb. Big Nick had 28lb then Mike Davis had a tidy 53lb 10oz moving to 3rd.
A good few consistent nets followed, most nets between 25 and 38lb then we weighed in Vic, he had 52lb 3oz to take 4th place. Derek had 35lb 2oz to finish of the weigh-in.

Results:
1st, Jamie Cook, p9. 75lb 5oz
2nd, Pete Manning, p29. 72lb
3rd, Mike Davis, p12. 53lb 10z
4th, Vic Bush, p23. 52lb 3oz

Sections went to Steve Fouracre and Kev Lock.

Weigh Sheet

So weights were very consistent and everyone was pleased with the day, although we never saw the 100lb+ winning weights that are not uncommon at the venue, everyone agreed that they'd come back.
Well I will be at some point with the PSV lads I expect.
Oh we saw an abundance of species caught, f1's, chub, roach, rudd, skimmers, eels, common carp, mirror carp, barbel, brown goldfish, dace (possibly) and perch to name a few.

Until next time, thanks for reading.
Lee