Lewy's Lines

The final day of the festival and the weather look a little better, although we were not holding our breathe! We would be fishing Bonsai Lake again for the final day of the Maggotdrowning Lindholme Festival. We would also be fishing from 10am until 4pm, so an hour earlier than the previous days. The Draw I drew peg 25 on Bonsai.  The wind was definitely favourable and it was opposite the flyers, pegs 69 & 70.  I also had a peg either side of me empty, giving me plenty of scope for the island ahead. The Set-up My plan was around a single method for the day and that would be the method feeder.  I did set up  13 metre and margin pole line just in case. I'd had a chat with Chris Walker the previous night around feeding patterns he had discovered during the week and the need for swim rotation.  My plan was centred around this information. The All-In I cupped out on the 13 metre pole line and then prepared my method feeder. The plan was to cast t...

The weather didn’t look promising again today.  The gear is soaked from yesterday and it looked like today would be the same!  We were fishing Oasis today.  Oasis is a U shaped lake of uniform width, around 16 metres.  The favourite pegs would be the 40’s and pegs 2 through 10.  These pegs are were the wind blows in to. The Draw I drew out Peg 35, on the favoured side of the lake, it was also the Golden Peg for the day, so a lake win would have netted me £300, little chance of that with the stamp of anglers in the group. Parking was easy, right behind the peg with a short walk over the sodden earth. The Set-up Pole and Method were broken out.  I’d use the method if the wind got up and made it difficult fishing at 16 metres.  It’s hard enough fishing at 16 metres without the wind! Pole Lines were: 16 metres on the far shelf 13 metres to the bottom of the far shelf 5 metre line bottom of the near shelf Top 2 and 2 for the margin...

After the great weather the previous day, today would be totally different.  On waking up, it was windy, cloudy and there had been some overnight rain.  That would not be the last of the rain for the day! We would be fishing Laurel's lake today. The Draw As previous, we drew in reverse order with our festival positions, I was about 18th so I had a good bag of pegs to chose from.  Out came Laurels Peg 33, another point!  This time, the wind was blowing straight at me which would make presentation difficult at times. I didn’t have any real margin swims as this point is quite narrow, at least I had a stable platform to fish from.  It was a bit slippy and I almost slid in while setting up, luckily no-one noticed! The Set-up It would be mainly a pole attack, although I did set up a pellet waggler just in case.  The pole lines were: 13 metres straight ahead 5 metres at 10 o’clock and straight ahead, which was the bottom of the near shelf ...

After an easy night on the beer everyone was bright and cheerful for todays competition.  We would be fishing Willows Lake .  Willows Lake is a rectangle shape with 3 legs reaching  to the centre each side.  Pegging would be generous again and the points at the end of the legs were the favoured pegs to draw. The Draw Today we would draw in reverse order to our finishing place yesterday, so I was in the middle of the draw and my home for the day would be peg 14.  A point peg and favoured as it had plenty of open water out in front of me. The Set-up The pole would be the main attack and as such I set up the following 13 metre line at 10 o’clock (pellet line) and 12 o’clock (chopped worm and caster) 16 metre shallow line straight in front 5 metre line at the bottom of the near shelf Top 2 Margin line to the left I also set up a small pellet waggler in case I could not fish shallow at 16 metres on the pole. The All-In I potted in a smal...

The majority of the Maggotdrowning crew had gathered at Lindolme Lakes on the Sunday where I discovered that the vast majority of anglers where from the North East.  I immediately felt at home until I met a lad called Chris Walker who misheard my name Lewy and started to call me Lee.  Of course I bit and now all the guys are calling me Lee much to everyone’s amusement.  The craic is brilliant and Chris is a very funny lad, although he did almost fall in today which would have been just reward for my new nickname! ;-) The Sunday night we all ended up in the bar at Lindholme and myself, Tricky10 (Ricky), Col, Tony and Aaron (Neil Gratham's son) where there until the bitter end at 1:30am.  Needless to say the hangovers kicked in when waking up. The Draw Gary Street (Rambo) was well organised, there was no need for a disorderly queue at the drawbag as we would draw as our names where down on the list.  I pulled out peg 35 towards the corner of Bonsai ....

Steve May organises a match where the bait is supplied every year at Cudmore on the Arena lake.  Arena is of course famous for the Fishomania final that is televised on Sky. Arriving at the fishery around 8am I caught up with Colin (BNF), Jim (JimSpurs) and Paul (Animal).  The rest of the usual suspects turned up and the banter started as per usual. The main question on everyones mind was what bait Steve May have chosen for us all.  The match rules state that all competitors are to use the bait provided only, with no additives or colourings so it makes for a very even match. The Draw We all gathered outside in the rain and the usual disorderly queue formed.  I pulled out Peg 1, which turned out to be one of the flyers and is to the right of the aerator. It's also the peg that Shane Atkin won Fishomania 2011 from.  There was a total of 31 fishing today. My neighbours for the day would be Pete Merce and Steve.  Pete Merce is a bit of a MFS legend an...

Peg 15 on Ghost Lake Catching up with Paul and Mick from the Anglers Cabin forum  we decided to have a session at Brafferton Fishery near York.  Paul had fished there before, but Mick and I hadn't, so we would be looking for the tips and tricks from Paul. There are a number of lakes at Brafferton Fisheries, Match Lake, Ghost Lake, F1 Lake and Spring Lake.  Paul had selected the Ghost Lake and we chose Pegs 15, 14 and 12. The Set-Up Paul advised that we would not need to fish beyond 11 or 13 metres, so I decided to have two swims at 11 metres (11 o'clock and 2 o'clock).  I would also set up a margin swim towards peg 16 on my right. Rig choice was a Malman Thicko 4x16 to 0.14 line and a size 18 wide gap pellet hook from Drennan.  I chose the heavier float as there was quite a breeze on the water and I wanted a stable presentation. I opted to start with White Hydroelastic and switch down to Blue if I was bumping too many fish. Bait was simple, Pellet...

A match that was in the calendar for a while was a return to Phil Stone's fishery, How End .  Phil shuts the fishery for the month of April but had kindly offered April's fools day to the Match Fishing Scene crew for another Champion Leagues match. I was definitely looking forward to seeing how the fish had grown since my visit last May . Arriving there were already a bunch of the lads waiting outside the gate and it wasn't long before Phil came round and welcomed us all in.  The weather couldn't have contrasted the previous day any more... it was bright sunshine, not a cloud in the sky and very little wind.  I of course was wearing my "Battered by BNF" shirt so the lads would know that I was beaten by Colin at Grange Farm, so of course the banter started as soon as I got out of the car. I had a walk around Yasi's and Dani's with some of the lads to see how the fishery had come on in the 11 months since I fished it.  The grass has grown, the isla...

A forum post on MatchFishing Scene  popped up looking for two more anglers for the belated Fur and Feather Champion League Match at Grange Park Fisheries in Messingham.  A quick look at the diary, yep, free, I pay my monies and I'm on the match. It was a couple of days later when I rechecked my diary that I was going to have to leave London around 4:30am to get to Messingham in time for breakfast, that this weekend would be a 500 mile round trip for me and to help there has been mass panic at the petrol stations due to threatened strike action, perfect timing! I arrived at Grange Park Fisheries for breakfast and of course the banter was brilliant, especially as last time I was in this part of the world, even though I arrived with hours to spare I still missed out on breakfast as I was in the wrong place! The Draw After all of the MFS crew had arrived and fuelled themselves with a hearty breakfast, the draw commenced with Colin (aka Billy No Fish or BNF) drawing ...