Lewy's Lines

A pleasure session today at Gold Valley with Nathan before he went back to college.  Today my aim was to fish for the skimmers and large slabs while I Nathan was going for the carp. The Pegs Gold Lake on the canal side was our chosen area.  Permanent pegs 6 and 7. Nathan had a chuck to the island point and also in front of the island.  My peg next door had some open water to aim for. It's great to see the plant life around Gold Valley coming back after it's major hair cut some years back. Set-Up Nathan set up a 10 foot bomb rod with a hybrid method feeder on it and later he would use the pellet waggler rod. I set up the pole at 12 metres, using Nick Gilbert white amber core to a 0.6g Drennan AS2 float on 0.18 line to a size 16 pellet hook to 0.13. Baits were Gold Valley 6mm and micro pellets together with some sweetcorn.  I also decided to try some bream specific groundbait (i.e. non fishmeal). Comfortable and smiling! The Session Before I'd ev...

2 months since I was on the bank so I was itching to get out and about, so with no local MFS matches I decided to get my butt to Gold Valley in Aldershot.  The weather has turned very cold, there has been plenty of rain this week and I've heard that Gold Valley has been fishing hard recently so I wonder what today holds? The match today is on Gold Lake, Canal bank and after speaking to a couple of people, Marcus Page and Brian Green I knew that it would be a tough day and luck to drawn on the fish... The Draw Only 11 of us fishing today and the weather was pretty miserable although the car temperature was reading 10 degrees.  I drew peg 24 which was an end peg, but at the unfancied end of the lake, typical! John allowed us to drive to our pegs which was greatly appreciated and made life a lot easier. The Set-Up I decided after looking at the peg and with the wind that today would be a bomb and feeder approach only.  So I set up two identical rods one with a 1oz ...

After returning to London to live and work there was one place I was itching to get back too, Gold Valley, home of Will Raison, former England World Champion.  I felt a bit of a "Billy no mates" as it had been a while since I had fished an Open Match and there were plenty of faces I didn't recognise.  That was soon to change when Pat Pritchard came up and said, "hello Lewy".  Great to see him and then the other lads, John Rhodes and Steve from Talk Angling.  Thanks lads. The Draw The regulars tend to know when the draw is about to take place, generally when they hear the pegs going into the cup ;-)  This is the time when the line kind of forms up... I grab the first peg from the cup and out came number 39.  So I would be on Gold rather than middle lake. The Set-Up Arriving at Peg 39 I thought to myself, "I've been here before..." and I had, back in January 2012 .  Peg 39 is on the bank between Gold and Middle Lake and has an island at about 1...

Taking a day off work due to the great weather I decided to fish a Wednesday Open Match at Gold Valley in Aldershot.  There was 11 anglers taking part and we would be fishing on the Canal Bank of Gold.  With so few anglers it was an pleasant start to the day chatting to the lads, many local's so my hopes for any wins looked in doubt from the start, but it's all experience. The Draw I pulled out Peg 14 which was to open water thus giving me no islands to target. The Set-Up As the weather had been reasonably warm the previous night, there were plenty of options and as such I set up quite a bit of tackle, having the rods made up already saved a lot of time! 13' Waggler Rod, 4lb Mainline with a Drennan Puddlechucker to fish banded pellet at depth 10' Bomb Rod, 4lb Mainline with a 2/3 oz bomb to fish banded pellet 10' Bomb Rod, 6lb Mainline to fish the Method 13 metre pole line 4 metre pole line for the margin Bait for the day was fishery 8mm, 6mm and Micr...

Spoils to the Victor ;-) Mark had come down to London for the weekend so we could fish Gold Valley and also at charity match at Sivyers Lake. The weather had definately warmed up so we were both looking forward to some Gold Valley Carp. All lakes were open so we decided to fish pegs 56 & 57 on Gold Lake. Mark chose the infamous peg 57 where he could cast to the little bay outside the clubhouse steps where the water is deepest. Andy Gregory and Barry Parker came over to say hello. They were fishing a match on the Basingstoke Canal. The Set-Up We had both decided that we would have a day on the rods rather than breaking out the poles. Bait for the day was soaked micros and groundbait for the method and cage feeder, 8mm pellets, corn and dead red maggots. Method feeder, 10' bomb rod, 6lb mainline Waggler, 11'6" Float rod, 4lb mainline Bomb / Small Cage feeder, 10' bomb rod, 6lb mainline, 20" hook length Mark had also set up a method feeder...

 Permanent Peg 24 - Home for the day...  After enjoying the previous weeks match at Gold Valley and having another weekend spare I decided to enter another one of their weekly open matches. The match was a big one with 62 competitors taking part.  The lakes would be the Bungalow, Syndicate and Gold Lake. I turned up at 8am, the temperature according to the car was a low 2 degrees C.  I grabbed some bait from the tackle shop, a pint of casters and some soft hookers. Grabbing a cup of tea I bumped into Barry Parker and his mates, so sat with them to get some more information on the venue.  All tips and tricks help, thanks Barry! The draw came around and I reached into the cup and pulled out permanent peg 24 on Gold Lake which was almost opposite where I fished last the previous weeks open match  The Setup Bomb Rod with tea-bagged 6mm pellets & 8mm pellet or 10mm Boilie on the hook , cast 3 turns f...

The first match of 2012 an open match at Gold Valley fished on the Causeway Bank of Gold Lake, Speci and Bungalow Lake. The previous day we had practised on the Bungalow Lake and the lesson learnt for me is "don't forget the silvers" We got to the fishery at 8am, ready for an 8:30am draw.  Mark was a little nervous as this would be his first ever match.  The field of competitors was quite large including a certain world champion, Will Raison. We grabbed a cup of tea and a bacon buttie which kept us going.  The orderly queue to draw pegs started.  I managed to peg on Gold Lake while Mark had pulled out a peg on Bungalow Lake and he would have world champion Will Raison as his neighbour.  How about that for your first match, nothing better to help settle the nerves ;-) So we wished each other luck and headed off to our respective lakes. I was at the bottom end of Gold Lake where the wind was blowing and I had an slim island directly in fro...

Continuing the Mark vs Mark competition , Mark headed on down to London and we decided to fish Gold Valley on both the Saturday and Sunday. As we are fishing the open match at Gold Valley the Sunday which is across Bungalow and Gold, we decided to fish Bungalow Lake as we hadn't fished that lake before.  It would be a good opportunity to practise a couple of methods and to see how the fish would react especially given the very cold weather experienced in the week prior. We asked some advice at the tackle shop and they pointed out the area we should be fishing in.  Highlighted on the map of Bungalow lake.  Mark selected the peg closest to the corner and I went to his left. The weather for the day was a rather mild 11 degrees C, the wind was gusting from left to right, but our pegs were quite sheltered from the wind. Bait for the day would be fishery pellets, 8mm to be banded and 6mm in a small PVA tee-bag, krill maggots (see video below), sweetcorn, c...

6 weeks without any fishing was a tough break, so I was keen to get on the bank as soon as possible.  I decided to return to Gold Valley in Aldershot. The temperature was 10-12 degrees C, bright, clear sky with a gusting wind moving from left to right.  The Sussex Winter League match was also on so I decide to re-fish the canal bank on Gold Lake . As I walked along canal bank I noticed there was quite a bit of carp activity as I got closer to the small island, so I picked permanent peg 16, mid way down canal bank to open water.  The island in the picture was two swims across, so not in the target area. The Setup I had decided prior to getting to Gold Valley that I would use bomb and waggler.  So I set up my 10' Bomb Rod with 6lb mainline to a drennan quickstop.  I also set up my 13' Waggler road with a 5 gram loaded waggler. Baits for the day consisted of 8mm & 6mm Gold Valley pellets, 10mm Krill Boilie's, dead red magg...

 Gold Lake Resuming the mini competition between my mate Mark and myself we decided to have a weekend in London and Gold Valley Lakes , home of Will Raison  was our first venue for the weekend.  We decided to fish Gold Lake which is the first lake on the right as you enter the fishery. The lure of large Carp was an exciting prospect and one which wouldn't disappoint either of us. After a quick walk we decided on pegs next to each other that had a chuck to the main island.  Pegs highlighted on the main picture. Mark and I had decided that it would be an all out rod and reel attack for the day, so the pole stayed in the holdall. Mark's Swim, to the point of the island The Setup Waggler rod fishing a 6mm banded pellet with a loaded Drennan crystal waggler.  I also set up a method feeder and bomb rod. Bait for the day consisted of Gold Valley 6mm expander, 6mm and 8mm hard pellet, Meat cut in 8mm cubes, a small amount of Corn and dead re...