PSV Match, Harescombe, 28-08-16

Back up the M5 yesterday to one on my favourite match fisheries, Harescombe, a venue where you should get a few bites all year round given the head of F1s and other species.
Only 10 of us were present, there was a contingent of the club down at Stafford Moor for a 3 day event that Lee Waller had arranged.
Today I bought along the wife as she hadn't seen the venue and it got her out of the house.

We arrived in loads of time, the trip is only minutes over an hour, so not that bad really. We went up to the café and everyone was present and some were munching on brekkie, the wife ordered a hashbrown and bacon sarnie for her, I just had a cuppa.
Alan Healey was running the show today, the owner sorted the pegs and it was to pay top 4 overall.
In to the draw with only 3 pegs left, I drew 19 which is decent enough, Rich Jones plucked 16 which the owner said would be facing down the lake once you have crossed the far bridge. Alan had the last peg and it was 29, the peg generally seen as an out and out flyer and is the near end of the lake and has the infall to your right and where the landslide has occurred in front. Always worth a good few fish.

My Peg, Peg 19 at Harescombe

For company I had Chris Gay on peg 21, he'd mostly be fishing the method feeder, and to be fair it is often hard to beat there if you have fish in the peg, but fishing it at 13/14m just isn't for me in a club match, I enjoy fishing the method, but where fish are not 1lb-ish fish and where you actually need to cast properly, but each to their own. To my left I had Rich Jones, I could see everyone except Alan Healey, so could keep an eye on all.

4 topkits assembled for the match: All on 6/8 laccy, 0.2 NG Jordans using 0.14>0.12>size 16's.
1st was a rig to fish using the topkit down each edge, meat over 4mm pellets both sides
2nd was a rig to fish maggots through the water, occasionally meat, topkit+1 distance
3rd was a pellet rig for 13.5m across to the left of a bush/tree/grass spot
lastly a shallow pellet rig for fishing across as the fish will come up and slurp against the board.
For bait I had 6mm pellets for across, 3pts of maggots for that line, some 4mm pellets and 6mm meat for the margins mostly.

At the all in I began in front at topkit+1 with maggot and was soon getting a few silvers, also the small roach were swirling at the feed, there didn't look to be any carp or f1s in amongst them so I stayed on the deck hoping they would follow the feed down rather than up.
Half an hour in and Chris Gay was on around 8 or 9 F1s/carp on his method feeder, Rich Jones was getting a few carp by fishing along to the out fall on his left.
I stuck to this line until an hour had gone and only managed 1 small carp plus the silvers, but nobody was catching much. I began to feed my left edge at the 45 minute stage with a view to try down there next.

Into the 2nd hour and I switched to my left edge with meat and did pick up a couple f1s and a barbel, but my meat was getting ragged out by small roach and gudgeon mostly. But I stuck with it hoping that the better fish would come along. Chris was getting a fish a chuck on his feeder at this point and was miles ahead, actually he was on 17 f1s/carp that I had seen and I was on 4 by the end of 90 minutes. Rich Jones was getting a few also.
I switched back to the topkit+1 line but tried meat on the hook, this gave me a run of carp and f1s before fading again, so I started flicking a few pellets across in prep for when I tried there.

The 3rd hour saw me pick up a few fish on both pellet rigs fished across, so I was starting to put some f1s/carp in the net more regularly, plus I was picking up some chub and barbel, perch and skimmers which always help.
The 4th and 5th hours were my most productive, by swapping both edges and the short line in front, feeding heavier, I was getting short bursts of fish from each, but was still suffering with baby roach whittling the meat down off the hook, but the f1s and carp were coming at a sensible rate along with some silver including add 6oz skimmer. The odd foray across also produced a few fish, but was suffering with a duck and foul hookers that trashed a couple rigs. Chris Gay had been catching all the while, even picking up a few fish from his margins when he came of the method feeder and looked to have the match sewn up. Rich Jones was still getting a few and we heard Alan had been doing steady on the method feeder from peg 29. Everyone else were only catching in small bursts and the fight for 4th and last in the money was between the rest of us, more or less.

The last hour was productive for Mark Radford over on peg 14, until this point he hadn't had too many and was suffering with small silvers, but he picked up a run of f1s and carp in this period, while for everyone else it had gone quiet, even Chris only had a handful of fish, I managed 4 f1s from in front as the margins didn't produce as expected.
The all out was called and the rain began!!
I packed up, thinking I had maybe 50lb of carp/f1s plus my few silvers, I guessed Mr Gay had 110lb and Rich Jones must have 70lb.

I loaded the car so me and Adam began the weigh in. Starting on peg 29 with Alan, he had 61lb, which I thought was, by the murmurs, less than he'd been assumed to have.
Adam weighed next, 25lb+. Then we went along the car park bank with only Ryan Radford topping the 40lb barrier. Around to peg 16 and Rich Jones, he popped his 3 weighs on the scales and came out with 75lb 3oz to take the lead.
I was next to weigh, my few silvers actually weighed 11lb and 4oz. Coupled with my f1s and carp I totalled 77lb 10oz, slightly more than my guess.
Chris Gay the took the lead as expected, nearly having my estimated 110lb, he totalled 104lb 10oz, so that 1st 90 minute spell gave him the cushion over me and Rich Jones.
Last to weigh was Matt Powell, he had 26lb+.

Results:
1st, Chris Gay, p21, 104-10
2nd, Lee Williams, p19, 77-10
3rd, Rich Jones, p16, 75-03
4th, Alan Healey, p29, 61-01

Scrawled weigh sheet.

So not a bad result for me, I feel like my results are taking an about turn after a pretty slow run of mediocrity, I had a 3rd and top silvers in Wednesday's Sedges open, though I was 1 carp away from winning and yesterday's 2nd at Harescombe was hard earned but appreciated. Granted it was not the biggest match, but it defo helps with confidence and makes me look forward to the next match.
My last 2 visits there have given me a 1st and a 2nd, so I am getting to grips with the place, but busy fishing suits me.
In hindsight, I should have fished corn not meat as I am sure I could have put a few more f1s and carp in the net, maybe I would have missed out on the silvers, which were the countable fish that boosted my weight, I had roach, rudd, perch, skimmers, gudgeon, barbel, chub, f1s and carp in my catch.
I fed 2pts of maggots, 2pts of 4mm pellets and a handful of 6mm's. Plus maybe a tin of meat.

Next weekend I think I have Acorn on Sunday, but no doubt I will get a little fishing in during the week.............I hope.

Until another day. have fun.
Lee

Psv Match, Harescombe Match Lake. 03-04-16

A last minute decision to book on for the PSV match up at Harescombe, a fishery that I like and was lucky enough to win on my last outing there. It's a good 60-odd miles each way for me, but it is a really fair venue and you are sure of a few bites throughout the day.
Results from Thursday showed that the fish, in the main, had followed the wind, but would they follow the wind today, which was blowing the opposite way to then?

I made good time on the journey up and arrived to find Matt Challenger loading his trolley.....keen bean. Nearly everyone else was up in the café chatting and eating. We wandered on up and waited to do the draw. I fancied anywhere from peg 10 up and around to 22, where the wind was pushing. The pegs at the café end were calm and I hadn't saw a fish top prior to the draw. I didn't fancy 30 round to 6, though peg 29 is always worthwhile.

Into the bag, 3rd from last, and I pluck peg 30, café end before the bridge. It has always been a peg that seems to pay second fiddle to both 29 and peg 2 as you tend to feel a bit hemmed in, I had the end of the central island 16m away off in the 11 o'clock direction, which as I am suffering from a dodgy back, wouldn't be a line on my menu.....but at 1 point I tried for 2 minutes, it hurt, I gave up.

Harescombe Match Lake peg 30.

So anyways, 4 lines for me today, all on the same lines, floats and hook size. 0.2ng Jordans on 0.14>0.10>b911f1 size 18 (or 911 standard for band).
These lines would be a left edge swim just before the infall, corn over 4mm pellets here.
2 lines at 2+2 on the diagonals, the left one for meat and maggots, the right hand one for banded 6mm pellets over 4's.
Lastly a rig for just near empty peg 1 at around 10m away from me , this would be for banded pellet over micros and 4's. I had 3 bites but no fish from here so no more on that.

Bait was live maggots, 6mm meat, corn and a few micros and 4mm pellets. Oh and some 6mm pellets for in the bands.
For company I had Ross Sewell on peg 29 to my left, and Lee Waller on peg 2, you can see him in the pic above. But I had a good view of the whole lake and could judge how I was doing.

The all in was soon called and I fed the two edge swims and began on maggots, 20 minutes passed without any activity for me, though Lee had netted a few fish. Further up odd fish had been caught.
After 20 minutes I had a random few minutes, I had a couple roach but bumped 3 better fish, so I changed the hook and hoped this solved the bumped fish issue. It had, though it was after 90 minutes that I landed my first carp/f1, a 2lb carp came to the maggots, this was followed by a couple skimmers and an F1. I was missing a few bites and did try coming shallower but this didn't have the desired effect, small roach methinks.

After a couple hours Lee Waller had done reasonably well, but most others were struggling, Matt Challenger, on the first pegged peg on the far bank (peg 18) was catching as were those from pegs 10 to 15. I had a look on the 2+2 pellet line and promptly had a skimmer and a small carp, but that was it for that line for the rest of the day.
A look down the left edge gave me a 2lb carp and a chub, then a skimmer before that area died.
So for the remainder of the match I struggled away switching between the 2+2 maggot and meat line and the left margin line. I found that meat would give me more positive bites than the maggots but I would have to wait a bit longer and the fish was less likely to be a roach or small skimmer.

As we entered the last couple of hours my clicker showed around 20lb plus I had a couple pound of silvers. Lee Waller was plenty ahead of me, he had a good few barbel alongside his F1's
I could see Steve O'Toole catching pretty much every drop on his short line, his neighbours further up from him and Matt Challenger were all catching.
It was at this point I started to catch well, both on and off the bottom on meat and maggots, picking up the occasional fish from the edge kept me busy until the end of the match, which incidentally coincided with the wind really lightening up. Maybe the fish had drifted down as the winds had eased?

The all out was called and my clicker showed 40lb, plus I had my silvers, so perhaps 48lb total. Lee Waller would have around 10lb more than me, though we probably had less than further up, especially Matt Challenger and Steve O'Toole.

I packed up and tried to get the gear away from the rain, which stopped by the time the weigh in began.
First to weigh was Ross on peg 29, he had 15lb of skimmers and a couple carp for 25lb 4oz.
I was next and my 8lb 12oz of skimmer/roach/chub was added to my slightly underestimated net of F1's and odd carp. My total was 56lb exactly.
Lee Waller popped 61lb 4oz on the scales, then Derek Lucas and Steve Burgess put 34lb and ounces on the sheet, this was between them, Steve just pipping Derek.
Steve O'Toole then took the lead with a cracking 83lb 4oz net, well fished that man.
Matty Taynton had 2oz less than Lee Waller then Lionel Legge had exactly 49lb.
Last up on the car park bank was Chris Szakacs who had 58lb 7oz from peg 15.

I left the scales at this point to go back and get my nets together and finish loading the car.
I caught up with the weigh sheet after the weigh in and Matt Challenger had taken 2nd spot on the day fishing worm over caster, he had 71lb 5oz. The rest had 24lb, 39lb and 44lb.

So a fair enough day, plenty of bites, though my first 2 or 3 hours were tough as it seemed the fish had followed the wind. But the last couple of hours were very enjoyable.
I wish there was somewhere as similar to this nearer home as it can give a cracking days sport, you don't need 100lb+ weights for a good match, just decent nets which give a close contest.
My largest fish was maybe 2lb today.

Results:
1st, peg 8, Steve O'Toole, 83lb 4oz
2nd, peg 18, Matt Challenger, 71lb 5oz
3rd, peg 2, Lee Waller, 61lb 4oz
4th, peg 10, Matt Taynton, 61lb 2oz
5th, peg 15, Chris Szakacs, 58lb 7oz
6th, peg 30, Lee Williams,56lb

Weights.....ignore Steve's results maths.!!

I have this week off and will try and squeeze a match in during the week, Viaduct on Saturday for the Fisho qualifier and then a silvers match next Sunday at Sedges.

Until then, take care and tight lines.

Lee

Psv Match, Harescombe Match Lake, 24-01-16

Eleven of us fishing today, a venue that I have yet to get the better of, but a venue I really enjoy fishing as you generally need to work to keep the fish consistently coming. Plenty of bites are usually the order of the day, which after my last few weeks will make a bloody good change.

The weather was mild after a few frosts and cool temps, in fact it was 13 degrees when I left home just after 7am, almost Summery!!
I made it in good time and we were soon onto the draw, an end type peg would be my favoured pick, 15, 16, 25, 29 and 30, with 29 the usual hotspot. I have yet to fish the far bank pegs, usually I am confined to a peg in front of the car park.
I waited until near the end of the queue after last weeks decision to go in early.....I managed peg 20 today, Mr Burgess drew corner peg 16, after I told him he would get a corner, but I was pleased enough with my peg, it is a consistent peg going by previous results on the lake.
Lionel Legge drew to peg most wanted, peg 29 by the in fall and landslip.

I walked my kit around to the peg and set about sorting my kit and bait. For company I had Steve Burgess on peg 16, Lee Waller on 22 and I could see everyone else except Lionel on peg 29. Everyone had a bit of room, Steve with more than most.

Peg 20 Harescombe Match Lake,  left, centre, right.

3 tops were put together, a rig for 2+1 section at 2 spots, this rig was also suitable for 11m in front, a rig for banded pellet down to my left at topkit length and almost right over at 13m. The last rig was identical to the last but with a non-banded hook for across at 13m and down to my right against the grass. All rigs were 0.2g floats with 0.14>0.10>B911F1 size 18.

Baits were 4mm pellets, corn, pinkies, maggots and a few micros, I did have some bread which remained unused. But really I wanted to base my attack around the maggots and corn.

At the all-in  I didn't cup any bait in but opted to fish in the 11am direction with single maggot and fed 5 maggots every minute. It was 10 minutes for my 1st bite, this gave me a usual 8oz F1, a few more followed over the following 40 minutes before I lost one off the hook and it died. But I wasn't the only one catching, Steve B was getting a few as was Matt Challenger on the other bank. Keith Ray also had a couple.
I switched to 11m in front and tosspotted some corn and micros here, I had a few indications and bumped a fish, so I cupped in a semi-decent amount of micros and corn here before coming back short on maggots.
All the while I was feeding both edges, pointlessly in hindsight as I never had a fish from either all day. I also feed a half cup of corn and 4mm pellets in front of peg 19 as there seemed to be a good shoal of fish up that way between me and Steve, I say seemed to be, when in fact it was rather aquarium-ish in front of peg 17 and 18!!

So I was back short and picked up a couple skimmers and a gudgeon before a couple F1s were netted, I was still feeding regularly, the 11am direction with pinkies, the 1pm direction with maggot due to it being upwind.
I spent the next hour picking up odd silver and F1 from both 2+1 lines and just before the midway point of the match I was on 12 or so F1's and a 2lb carp along with a smattering of little silvers.
It did start to die away so I looked down by peg 19 on banded 4mm pellet and had a small F1 immediately, this was a false dawn so I went out in front at 11m.  A good move as 3 or 4 more F!s to 1lb or so came my way before another lost fish spooked them.
I decide to go across, around 12 inches off the far bank, toss potting maggots and 4mm pellets, this gave me a nice flow of F1's and odd chub and I was doing okay. Although it seemed that Steve Burgess and Will Dearlove (p15) were plenty in front of me, Matt Challenger was also doing well enough and I would suggest the 2 guys on the far end bank would be catching.

1pm signalled a quiet spell for me and over the following 90 minutes I only managed 2 or 3 F1's and a small carp. Plus odd roach, I did try upping the feed and cattied some maggots in the rough vicinity of the far bank and I was soon back over there, which is generally where I stayed for the remainder of the match, only coming on the short lines to give the 13m line a rest.
As the last hour was under way everyone could see Keith Ray plundering his right margin, taking a carp or F1 every drop in, he looked like he could go close to winning, but these F1's can vary from 8o to 3lb+ plus the carp are always a welcome bonus at over 2lb each, running to 4lb or so.
I plodded away picking up a few F1's and skimmers before Will shouted the all-out at 3:30pm.

I finished with around 30 F1's and 2 baby carp plus a couple pounds of silvers, maybe 25lb I thought, I thought that Steve had 50lb+ just ahead of Will and Keith. Matty Challenger also had a late flurry of edge fish, but I wasn't 100% sure how the rest of his match went. To my right, Lee Waller struggled to catch many F1's as he was getting bites from small silvers and odd 4oz skimmer.

I packed my gear up and loaded the car before the weigh in got under way, starting at peg 25 and Ross Sewell had a couple of pounds then Lee Waller struggled his way to 16lb+. Next to weigh was me and my '25lb', my miss-guided estimate weighed 45lb 15oz, next up would surely be the winner, or at least 2nd spot. Steve Burgess, he only had 1 net in and to my surprise he totted up 44lb 4oz moving him to second place, then Will weighed in next and he had put a tidy net of 30lb 8oz. Keith weighed 39lb+ then we saw varying weights between 16 and 39lb until we got to the last one to weigh, Lionel Legge, he reckoned on 30lb, but his neighbour, Chris Szacaks, said he had more that that and so it proved when he totalled 40lb 2oz. This meant I had won on the day despite my array of lean spells.

Results:
1st, peg 20, Lee Williams, 45lb 15oz
2nd, peg 16, Steve Burgess, 44lb 4oz
3rd, peg 29, Lionel Legge, 40lb 2oz
4th, peg 6, Matt Challenger, 40lb
5th, peg 30, Chris Szacaks, 39lb 12oz
6th, peg 12, Keith Ray, 39lb 3oz

Weights....

So at least a day with plenty of bites, I do enjoy these closer contests with lots of bites, I just wish Harescombe was 50 miles closer!! My 1st win of the year under my belt, which is earlier than 2015....onwards and upwards.

No match for me next weekend as it stands, so I may well go and try something different. We shall see.

Until next time, take care.

Lee

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

PSV match, Harescombe Fishery. 01-02-15

Today saw 11 of us up on the hills of Gloucestershire as we visited the scenic Harescombe Fishery. It is a lovely venue that I have fished once before, last autumn. But at times it is rather exposed to the elements and today would be no different with a strong north-westerly pushing along the lake from right to left as you look from the car park. F1's and bonus carp would be the target species, plus there are skimmers, roach, chub, barbel, perch and gudgeon are present.

No Steve Burgess to 'organise' the day, that was left to Alan Healey, more or less, to arrange the pools and pegging. With the draw meant to be at 9am, we waited for Lionel Legge to arrive, he duly didn't so we stayed at 11 anglers.
Plenty of banter ensued, a lot aimed at Adam Caswell, or as Darren North pointed out, A well mad sac (anagram of Ad's name, lol). The odd of him fishing the whole 330 minutes was slim, he rarely does!

Anyways with the weather looking set fair, the 6% chance of snow was given the turned up nose treatment by Simon Belcham who insisted it wont happen, I fancied either a peg with the wind either directly behind or directly into me, so that'd be one of the 4 end pegs then! Other than that, peg 24  by the landslip would be ok. In the most part, the pegs along each straight would be hard work with the strong cross wind.

I picked my peg out about 2/3rds of the way along and plucked peg 13, which is a couple pegs from the far end. For company I had Ryan Radford and Alan Healey on my right on the end bank. I had Brian Shanks on peg 11 to my left. Across from me was Darren North on around peg 19.
I carried my kit to the peg and set about sorting my kit out, everything had to be put down sensibly with some weight to it as the wind would surely blow it away, as Alan found out a couple hours into the match when his net bag 'jumped' into the lake and needed rescuing.

View of peg 13, Harescome Match Lake.

View along Harescombe Match Lake from peg 13

I set up 4 rigs today and I did have a lead rod with me which stayed in the bag.
The 1st rig would be for down to my left margin by some grass, this rig would do for tight over should the wind drop, it didn't so the rig was just used down the edge. It was a NG Jordan pattern in 0.2g. 0.14>0.10>B911 f1 size 18.
The second rig was the same but had a banded hook, but remained unused.
The 3rd and 4th rigs were again the same but one banded hook (unused) and one not. These were 4x12 Maver pole floats on the same lines/hooks as above. This rig would be used for 2+2 line and again at 11m which was realistically the further I could managed sensibly in the wind.
Baits were simply wetted micros and maggots, I did have some expanders and pinkies, but these remained fishless and stayed in the tubs barring the odd look.

The all in was officially called at 10:01, which was a couple minutes after Steve Burgess had texted 'all-in', so I guess his tackle was ready and we were dealt the hand of knowing what he was about to do......or was he?
I began down the edge without feeding and never had an indication, Ryan however, managed a small carp 1st drop towards the end of the island. I stayed in close for 10 minutes before venturing out to 11m, then into 2+2 then into the edge again. I rotated this for 90 minutes and never had a bite, I did feed a small toss pot of micros and maggots every so often, but it was slow.
Actually this end of the lake was slow, Brian had managed a few little roach, Alan a nice 3lb+ carp and Darren (opposite) had a few f1's and silvers. The other end of the lake seemed busier though and from what I could see, Mark Radford, Chris Szakacs, Lee Waller and Si Belcham all seemed to be regularly netting fish, but this can be a bit misleading as anything other than plip roach must be netted.

At just after 11:30 I had a couple of bites, one of which gave me a plip roach, a 4oz skimmer followed before another plip roach. These all came from the 11m line on maggot.
All the while I had been drip feeding micros and maggots down the left hand edge.
My 1st f1 came just after 12pm and was a nice 1.5lb fish from the edge, it was a solitary one though and no more fish followed immediately after.
All I could see up my end was Darren and Brian picking up a few silvers and f1's, Alan and Ryan were really struggling. The other end looked, from my viewpoint, a bit more fishy with landing nets being used more often than us lot. Oh, Adam was doing a fair bit of non-fishing from either Ryan's or Alan's pegs.

As the day went on I started to pick up a few skimmers, some fell off as they were lightly hooked. I also managed a couple gudgeon, a few roach and a chublet. But more importantly the 11m line gave me 3 or 4 small f1's under 1lb and also a 2lber.
Oh we also managed the 6% chance of snow, much to mine and Simon's amusement.
A look down the edge at 2pm gave me my best fish of the day a 2.5lb f1 was duly netted, a 1.5lber came a few minutes later.

The last 90 minutes saw Darren North and Brian Shanks pick up a few fish, Alan packed up at 3-ish and tipped his couple of fish back, Ryan soon followed but kept his 6 or 7 fish for weighing. Adam already had his kit by Lee Waller's van ready to go and Derek, who was on peg 21 had began to pack up.
I continued to pick up the odd f1 and skimmer, I did bump a couple, but most anglers did as they seemed finicky for most of us.

At the all-out I had 11 f1's over 1lb and probably 5lb of fish under 1lb, so perhaps 18 to 20lb-ish. I reckoned that both Darren and Brian had more, but the top 4 (payout spots) would come from the other end.

I packed my kit away and waited for the weigh in to start. Lee Waller and Simon (then Alan) began with Darren's net as Adam and Derek dnw'd. Darren's nets went around 22lb, less than my guess of 27lb. Alan dnw'd and then Ryan dropped his fish on the scales, he weighed just under 10lb.
Next up for me, my fish gave me a suprising 26lb 14oz to put me into a temporary leading position.
Shanksy weighed in 19lb 5oz, so he had mostly smaller f1's compared to me.
At this point I was still convinced that the top 4 would still be the remaining 4 anglers to weigh, so next up saw a very good catch of 35lb+ for the amiable Si Belcham, Lee Waller's 24lb net was a lot less than what I thought it would be (landing every fish = pain in arse guessing what others are catching).
Chris Szakacs, most peeps favourite to win, was on peg 30, he managed to net a few, including a decent nr 5lb f1. His total of 39lb 8oz took the lead with only Mark Radford to weigh from landslip, hot peg, flyer, peg 29. His net came up short with 30lb 14oz putting him 3rd on the day.

Results:
1st - Chris Szakacs - 39lb 8oz
2nd - Simon Belcham - 35lb 14oz
3rd - Mark Radford - 30lb 14oz
4th - Lee Williams - 26lb 14oz

So although the wind was a pain in the butt and only 2 of the predicted 4 pegs framing, most of us had a few bites (not all though!!) and it made a nice change to catch actual f1's as a specific target species rather than the odd one in mostly carp or skimmers nets. They certainly pull well for their size which is good. But down here in Somerset we rarely see the species as a main player in catches.

You can read the PSV blog here... to see how the winner caught his fish and the full results.

Next week sees me and the rest of the PSV guys on Sedges, specifically Tile lake. Hopefully we'll have less windy and more settled conditions.

Take Care.
Lee

That was the year 2014.......continued

Moving on to the second part of my round up,  what happened in the warmer months and through to the end of the year...??

July, August and September
The 1st weekend of June began with the Pawlett Club's Silvers' Winners final, this was held at a lake I have never seen before, Quantock Lakes at Nether Stowey. It was a busy match catching small fish and hoping for a bonus skimmer or tench, alas I never had any and the day was won by Dave Nash (who chose the venue himself). Some guys, especially Jamie Cook, had carp problems all day, thankfully I never hooked one.
Moving on, the following week's match was a PSV arranged one at Sedges, on the Brick lake. Chris Davis won on the day and had over 60lb of silvers in his net, me, well I had 40lb of them to take the Silvers money.....Brick Lake Silvers showed up!!.
Avalon gave me second spot with the Clevedon match, caught mostly on the pellet waggler, my 89lb was almost half of the winners' net and I'd doubled 3rd spot's weight. I lost a good few fish in the reeds on the day to.

Paul Nicholl's and part of his 175lb+ Avalon net

The month ended with yet another poor showing for me at Viaduct, Campbell lake, with a Tourettes induced Chris Davis sacking over 200lb despite getting through net handles and topkits during the 6hr contest.
As we moved into August the weather warmed up considerably and it began with another win for Chris Davis as PSV had a match on the Match Lake at Landsend, I managed a late run of fish to take 4th spot, first out of the money. But I really enjoyed the match but a length of very strong line caused me to lose a fish that cost me 3rd on the day.
I was really looking forward to the Pawlett match on the Huntspill River at Withy Grove, a venue I had spent a lot of my youth fishing but hadn't fished it must in the last decade or so. It was pretty well attended and 22 of us all caught fish. The highlight of my day was a 3.5lb hybrid, a stunning looking beast, sadly I never got a photo, but everyone commented on it at the weigh in.
My 7lb managed to pick up section money and 5th on the day. The match was won with over 20lb by Keith Clapp.
Before that match I fished a match that was a Clevedon vs Frys contest held on Durleigh Res, a venue I feel that doesn't get enough matches on it, I managed just over 20lb of mostly roach for nowhere on the day but the roach sport wasn't fully exploited by me as I tried to catch bream and carp on the feeder with no joy!!
Last match of July was at Sedges, Brick Lake, and I finished one out of the money again in 4th spot, but it was a good day fishing as is the usual scenario at one of the best fisheries around.
As the kids headed back to school, September looked to be a month of travelling with Pawlett's club day out being held at Ridgeway Fishery aka Walters Lake up on the Cotswold Water Park area, a snake style lake that has produced big nets in the past, but seems to have less hectic in the last 12-18 months. I did manage to scrape 4th or 5th and win my section money on the day. The top 2 were separated by an ounce, Jamie Cook taking the honours ahead of Eric Fouracre.
Another Campbell lake blow out for me was followed up with the annual PSV weekend away, this was held in gorgeous surrounds, but the fishing was very tricky over the 3 day/3 lake event.

Nice Views

Stunning Venue.....

Over the 3 days I got lucky enough to take a 2nd spot and 2 match wins to secure the overall event.
I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend, read how it went.........Holgan Farm Weekend.
Lastly in September was another match at Viaduct, a not so great draw for me again, peg 130!! was made worse when the 2nd ticket I picked out at the draw I gave to Steve Fouracre. He went on to win from peg 80 with just over 200lb.
I managed to secure some money with a late run of fish giving me a net of 108lb or so and 6th over the Cary and Campbell lakes.

October, November and December
As we moved into the rear end of the year, as temps were due to drop, fishing was being patchy everywhere with the lack of rain and it seemed that no venues were truly fishing to how they should.
My October began well when I drew peg 7 at Sedges, on Brick Lake. I managed to catch 32lb+ of silvers, which was the best on the day, but my carp boosted my net to 83lb, finishing 3rd on the day, which was won from a true flyer of a peg...peg 10..!!
The following week was my 1st trip up to Harescombe, a venue I heard had lots of F1's and skimmers with carp being bonus fish.
The venue is set in a gorgeous valley, but we had murky , cold and fog all day, but I enjoyed it despite coming nowhere on the day.
Shiplate Main Lake peg 15 was my home a week later, a brilliant draw usually and so it proved with me putting a good few fish in the net in my winning 156lb+ was 100lb clear of the next best on the lake and around 90lb clear of the best Westpool weight. If you want, take a look at this blog...!!
I dnw'd at the last match of the month, as temps dropped and fish moved, I drew peg 130 on Campbell lake. I got home in time to watch some footy though!!
November began over at Landsend, peg 1, with the PSV guys, I struggled to 46lb or so and I wasn't the only one. Chris Gay won fishing maggots and worms over groundbait in the margins from peg 16.
Trinity Wildmarsh provided a 3 peg battle for the silvers and framing places, except 1st spot as that was sewn up by Brian Shanks. I came out 3rd in the battle with John 'the gimp' Bradford and Darren North, they had both caught bonus fish where as I hadn't, but I took home some money so it wasn't all bad. I really enjoyed that match and made a nice change away from carp.
A match on the Bridgwater/Taunton canal was fished with Pawlett Club, it was due to be on the Parrett, but rain put paid to that, but I had a nice day and finished 5th.
I followed this up with a DNW at Shiplate and the month of December was soon upon us.
The month of Christmas began with PSV's Christmas match on Bitterwell Lake in Coalpit Heath near Bristol.

Bitterwell Lake

If you want to read how the day panned out and see that I came 5th, read PSV Xmas Match blog.
Pawlett held their annual Christmas match at Sedges a week later, I plucked a peg I didn't fancy in the form of peg 30. But I fished ok to take the section money with 45lb, the best weight off that bank.
Acorn Paddock Lake was the venue for Clevedon's xmas match, it was bloomin hard and I managed a couple late carp to go with my silvers money winning 2lb 12oz skimmer. I drew peg 1 in that match, only to be told that it is very rarely put in the draw,!!
I did manage to squeeze two open matches in either side of the Clevedon match, 1 on Brick where I had peg 11 and on the other match I plucked peg 27, both times I managed to finish 4th and a couple of envelopes to add to my holiday funds.  So I had picked up in 5 consecutive matches after that result.
My year ended how it began with a match at Summerhayes, this was on Longs lake. It wasn't the busiest of days when it came to actual fish catching, my 8lb 15oz was 6th or 7th out of 15, but I really enjoyed it.


So that was a (sort of) brief summary of my 2014 match fishing, some decent results along the way, but best of all I had enjoyed it. I learned loads and found that I was pretty consistent.
I managed to pick up in 26 or 27 of the 61 matches (except White Acres week) so a 45% ratio isn't too bad.
For 2015 I hope to improve on my pick-up ratio and hopefully bag a few decent draws at the MMT's and Fisho qualifiers. A good result at Viaduct and Sedges Tile lakes wouldn't go amiss either. Also trying to squeeze in another festival at White Acres may be on the cards.

Here's to 2015, Have a Happy, Prosperous and Enjoyable year.

Take Care and Tight Lines.

Lee

PSV Match, Harescombe Fishery - Match Lake. 12-10-14

A new venue for me today, Harescombe Match Lake near(ish) Gloucester.
I knew it was a canal style lake with around 14m to the island and that it was a small fish match as you generally don't see many fish over 2 or 3lb, most being 1lb or less. But plenty of bites were expected. There are carp, roach, F1's, chub, barbel, perch and odd tench in the lake, with the carp and F1's being the main target.
The venue is rather exposed but is set in a beautiful valley and I am sure that there are not many better settings for a fishery.

View of Harescombe Match Lake

The trip up went ok, stopping at Mcdonalds for a Double Sausage and Egg Muffin. Lee Waller was here too so I followed him to the fishery which is around 10 minutes off jct 12 of the M5.
It was rather foggy and this never cleared until the early afternoon. It was rather nippy too and I should have wore something a bit more seasonal.

Anyway on to the draw, 14 of us down to fish and we were paying top 2 overall along with the top 2 in each 7 peg section.
I waited until 3rd last to draw and into my hand came peg 7, this peg is in the car park (in front of the van in the above pic). But it looked like most of the other pegs on the lake, with only peg 24 and 29 different due to a landslide that had wiped out the pegs in between those pegs. These 2 pegs were regarded as the pegs that everyone wanted and expected to do well and looked fishy.

I got to my peg and sorted my kit out, the pegs are pretty comfy, if not slippy and not level, they are spaced ok enough too, unlike some canal type lakes.
For company I had Lee Waller on peg 5 and Adam Caswell on peg 7, directly opposite me is 'retiring' PSV match secretary Steve Burgess, he had again drawn a flier in the form of end peg 24 by the landslide. He had club chairman Mike Wilson on peg 22 to his left.

Harescombe Match lake Peg 7.

I set up 4 rigs for the day, all on 0.14 mainline to 0.10 to size 16 hooks couple with soft no.8 solid elastic.
2 rigs would do for 14m across tight to the island/boards and down to my edges at 2+2. One had a band on a hair for 6mm pellet while the other had a bare B911f1 for using maggots or caster. Both of these floats were maver 4x8's.
The other 2 rigs were 4x14 versions of the same float and again 1 had a band the other didn't.
I plumbed up  in front and settled on a line just shy of 2+2, which coincided with the bottom of the near shelf, this is where the heavier floats would be used.

For bait I had 4mm and micro pellets, plus some 6's for the band. A couple pints of live maggot and a pint of caster completed my tray.

The all in was called and I cupped some bait at the 2+2 line plus some pellet went down my left hand edge and a little more against the boards in a couple spots.
I began across and I immediately lost a foul hooked fish, 10 minutes later I had a small f1 in the net. This was followed by a 1/2oz roach. A 2.5lb carp also soon found it's way to my keepnet.
In this time Lee had a fish as had Alan on peg 4. Mark Radford too had a couple carp.
It was still quite foggy and cold but odd fish were topping all over.

The 1st hour dragged and I only managed a few small roach on maggots, it was hard going for most, though the two Radfords had started well and Mr Burgess was starting to benefit from his peg, especially as he'd acquired a swim full of fish munching on some floating casters that'd drifted to his end bank.
It was at this point Adam Caswell decided to pack up and head off to one of the other on-site lakes as we all presumed that he hadn't found any fish that fancied his 6mm pellets or paste. Everyone had a laugh at that.

The 2nd hour was hard going, with maybe 4 small f1's and a few small skimmers graced my net along with a few baby roach, all these fish coming from my 2+2 line in front on either caster or maggot.
The far bank was dire and I couldn't buy a bite, my left hand margin never gave me a bite all day but I kept trying.
The 3rd to 4th hour was soon upon us and I took a look on my right hand margin at topkit distance gave me the false dawn of a f1 around a pound. Though a couple 4oz chub and a nice roach came from this spot.
Elsewhere Steve and Mark Radford were doing well, though Chris Szakcas and Chris Gay on pegs 14 and 30 respectively had been catching well, so had Ryan Radford. Mike Wilson was amassing a few fish but nobody was 'bagging'. Lee Waller was struggling on his peg and had just come in short with his worm attack and was starting to put a few fish together. Alan Healey on peg 4 probably was a few pounds ahead of me at this point thanks to a few early carp/f1's.
Rich Jones had gone for a walk and returned to his peg too find fish lined up for him, he spent the rest of the match catching a good few fish mostly from his short line.

By the 4th hour I had generally stopped fishing across but continued to feed it as it could switch on if we got lucky!! There was the odd swirl at the feed so I tried my shallow rig on my 2+2 line and this gave me a couple small f1's and a chublet, but not enough action to get excited.
Then it went dead for me, the 4th hour and most of the 5th was spent trying to pick off the odd fish from my 2+2 line and right hand edge, but it was slow.

Into the last hour and things improved a little with a couple of small carp from my 2+2 line on triple maggot or double caster, a run of 4oz skimmers helped boost my weight too. A couple carp shallow across in the last 10 minutes was also a welcome boost, but I knew I was mile behind most on the lake, but I had enjoyed the match even though I was rather cold!!
The all out was called and I soon packed my kit away. We all knew that Steve Burgess had been doing well as had Mark Radford, though Chris Gay next to him had been prolific in the last hour or so. But with weights being relatively low and the fish small, we couldn't pin down anything or anyone with how they'd done. Although I was sure I hadn't won bum all yet not come last!!

Onto the weigh in, we started in the corner, peg 29 on one side of the landslide area, Mark Radford was on this peg and began the day catching plenty including half a dozen barbel. He weighed a very decent 51lb 4oz.
Mark was sure that Chris Gay had caught more but he was proven wrong with Chris putting 43lb 11oz on the board, Ryan Radford followed that with 40lb exactly.
Alan Healey on peg 4 amassed 39lb 8oz. Lee Waller DNW'd but probably had 15-20lb.
Next up was me and I didn't worry anyone with my 35lb 8oz, but I was pleased with that considering I'd not seen the place before.

I left the scales to go and sort my nets and stuff out before catching up with them as we got to Mike Wilson, his steadily caught net of fish weighed a little less than I expected at 35lb. Prior to him the sheet showed Chris Szakacs and Rich Jones had done okay.
Last to weigh from the flier peg 24 was Steve Burgess, he'd been putting fish in the net for most of the day and looked good for the win. This was proven correct as his catch of 61lb exactly was enough for 1st on the day.
He mostly caught shallow along the 'end bank' that is the landslide. Well done him.

Steve Burgess, match winner, with some fish...!!!

Results:
1st Steve Burgess, 61lb, peg 24.
2nd Mark Radford, 51lb 2oz, peg 29.
3rd Chris Gay, 43lb 11oz, peg 30 (section win).
4th Chris Szakacs, 43lb 7oz, peg 14 (section win).
5th Ryan Radford, 40lb, peg 2.

Weigh Sheet

So a decent day and plenty of bites if not many from f1's and carp. I have a lot to learn with f1 fishing but today  I learned a good deal of stuff and take that with me next time I head up the M5 to Harescombe.

Next week it is less of the low diameter lines and small fish, unless I target silvers, as I am fishing Shiplate Farm on either the Main Lake or Westpool.

Until then take care.
Lee.