Lewy's Lines

After nearly a month of no fishing it was back to Stockbridge Pond with Farnham Angling Society for one of the regular Sunday matches. A good turn out, with 19 fishing so both sides of the lake would be in use today. The Draw Talk was that everyone wanted the closer, shallow bank rather than the higher peg numbers. My home for the day would be lucky for some, peg 13.  One peg along from the last match I fished here. Set-up The Waggler is a must at Stockbridge so that was first out of the bag, given the days weather, warm but overcast I opted to start this at half depth.  A feeder rod was also set-up to fish over the waggler line. Pole lines where: 10 metres ahead to fish the edge of the lilly pads 13 metres to my left in open water at the same depth of the 10 metre swim 10 metres swivelled round to the left hand margin with a light rig in case the roach where there Bait all natural, maggots, casters, worms, some sweetcorn and a little bit of groundbait for the feeder.

The morning started off frosty with the need to clear the car windscreen before heading off to the lovely Stockbridge Lake with Farnham Angling Society. Arriving at the lake, the water looked pretty clear with plenty of surface activity and some turns dive bombing the smaller fish. The weather forecast was favourable too, so a good day ahead beckoned… The Draw Being last on the match sheet I actually never got chance to draw today. Peg 12 was left in the bag for me which included scales for one half of the section. 15 anglers today so we were spread out across the bank nearest the car park. Set-Up Waggler and feeder rod to fish close to the middle of the lake and I selected two other pole lines at around 13-14 metres in front of me. I managed to get a decent depth of around 5 feet and the pond is pretty uniform at this depth. Bait included maggots, casters, worms, sweetcorn and hemp. I knocked up a small amount of groundbait for the feeder and one of the pole lines.

The first match of the new Farnham Angling Society season today at Kings Pond on the Badshot Lea complex, for me anyway. The weather over the weekend was mixed with a cold snap and over cast weather on the Sunday so I felt it would be a more negative feeding approach than positive. The Draw It was a full house at Kings Pond today, 16 pegs, 16 competitors… the draw was most orderly too. Richard Cain calling out the members in the order they had booking onto the match. I was fourteenth to draw and peg 13 came out for me. For note, the first time I fished here I was on peg 12! Set-Up The far bank was calling, however the choice would be waggler or feed/bomb. I decided to set-up a small feeder and clipped up to fish as close to the protective fence as I dare. Pole lines set-up as follows: 14 metres left and right side (to the tape), finding the same depth to reuse the rig Top two and 2 left and right side trying to find the edge of the lily pads (which are still submerge

The final round of Ricky Baxters silvers series at Sumner Match Lake and what a beautiful day we all woke too. My results in this league meant I was nowhere however it was tight between the top 5 with them all having a chance at taking the crown. It would be an interesting day! The Draw Permanent peg 4… I always seem to draw in this area! Only fishing the other side once in all the matches I’ve had at Sumners late last year and this year. Set-Up As simple as possible today. Line were: Waggler at around 14 metres Whip line at 3 metres Left hand margin Bait was all natural, mainly casters, hemp, maggot and some worms. I bought some Fin Perfect silvers groundbait from Andy G at the Big One on Saturday so mixed up a small quantity of that. All-In Kicked off the margin swim with a ball of groundbait and started to flick some casters in on the whip line and fed twice on the waggler line before flicking the waggler out. The float buried and I was into roach from the

Now the final day of the festival is a leveller for all of our skill groups. We would no longer be fishing our section as we had completed the lake rotation. I had managed to get into the 3rd group, so one up from the numpties. Today was also a special day for Big Ben, it was his 40th birthday so we all sung Happy Birthday and Jo had kindly got him a lovely cake and some balloons... they never went to the peg with him... The Draw Which lake would we be on? Well Clive W drew for us as I had been banned from drawing and we would be back on Beatties. Not too bad I thought and herbie had removed peg 6 as it simply did not fish that well during the week. So I ended up still in the shallow area again, this time on Peg 8! Set-Up Pole at 14.5 metres to the island Pole top two and two on my left Waggler to fish towards the break between Beatties and Tanners Feeder rod as the island was too much a target not to fish All-In Cupped in two balls of groundbait with chopped worm

Everyone survived the Curry night with just about everyone on the festival attending. No naan breads on John Beesley’s head, 76 Trombones challenged the chefs to cook him their hottest curry (silly boy) and Darren Fisher (cannot draw for toffee) tried his first cu rry dish! The Draw Beatties today, a lake we have never fished in the silvers festival and it had been throwing up some mixed weights. It was clear though that nobody wanted the shallow end pegs 6 or 7. So, there was no surprise for me to be sat on peg 6, at least I had Alan Mac as my neighbour. Setup I seemed to be following Jamie Howarth around drawing his pegs. He told me not to even bother with the pole as it was just too shallow and to grab my wellies as it would be easier to sit in the water to clear the cast from the trees. So it ended up quite a simple set-up, one waggler rod and one feeder rod. Waggler was plumbed up in the deeper water at around 20 metres. The feeder rod I search around and found dee

Now I’m not doing very well in the competition, two days in and I’m most definitely earning my division 4 ranking! Today I’d be on the lake that is my nemesis, Woodpecker and I was hoping for a good draw. The Draw So I decided to take the final peg in the bag today and I ended up with Woodpecker Peg 12 with Big Ben and Richie Farrow for neighbours. The masked bandit Rob A a little further up the way. Set-up The weather was bright sunshine, very little wind and flat calm on the water so perfect for the waggler and pole. Waggler would be fished between 16 and 20 metres, pole lines were: + 8 metre pole lines – groundbait on the left line and pellet on the right line + Margin line on the left – slop worm and groundbait All-in After chatting with Chris Martin who mentioned that he had some proper bream close in towards the end of yesterdays match I decided to drop three balls of groundbait on the left hand line. The right pole line just a small nugget of micro pellets, stead

The lake rotation for my section meant that we would be on Pines today. Again the MFS massive gathered in the tackle shop ready for the draw. The Draw Peg 5, the bridge peg for me today. Jamie Howarth won the lake from here yesterday fishing just off the bridge, so no pressure at all ;-) Neighbours for the day, Big Nige on the left side of the bridge and Pete Merce on my right. Set-up Pole lines Across about 2 metres from the bank To the bridge above the middle stanchion To the bridge below the middle stanchion Inside margin line to the bridge The bridge lines where deep at almost a top two and with the wind blowing quite strongly I opted for a 1 gram rig. Bait was Pellets, caster, worm and maggots. All-In Today I decided that negative feeding would be the way forward so kicked off the far bank swim with a small nugget of chopped worm and the bridge swim a small amount of micro pellet starting with a dead red on the hook. The first hour I put a few fish in the

With the arrival of 2019 another visit to Stafford Moor for the MFS silvers festival comes around. Organised by Herbie, our intrepid leader supported by Kenfish and Hathers. I had arrived early on the Saturday morning having suffered some sleepless nights in excitement for the week ahead and had some opportunity to practise on both Woodpecker and Pines. Over the weekend the weather report was shaping up for a cracking week considering 2018 we suffered from the “beast from the east” this week promised to be totally the opposite and around a 20-25 degree C difference in temperature! Monday morning soon came around and we all gathered at the JoOp, “the tackle shop with everything” ready for the start of the MFS Stafford Moors Silvers. The Draw Today would be an open draw across all the lakes, Woodpecker, Tanners, Pines and a new addition for this year Beatties (the specimen lake). It would also determine the section we would be fishing in for the next 4 days. Tanners and Pe

Match two of the three series silvers league organised by Ricky Baxter. Great to see all the lads and the final time to get some fishing in before the week that is Stafford Moor! The Draw Peg 6, on the left hand bank with an island chuck for me today and the wind off my back unlike the poor souls over the other side of the lake... Set-Up Waggler and bomb rod for across. 3 metre whip line and a margin line. Bait was all natural maggots and casters. No groundbait or pellets today. All-In The far bank island was way too tempting so I started on the waggler to try and winkle any of the lakes resident chub by pinging casters across. So the first 30 minutes was spent on the waggler with some small silvers coming, however nothing of note and of course the stocky carp got involved in the action too. Meanwhile I had been feeding the whip line and knew that I could catch fish at a quicker rate than the waggler. Dropping on to the whip line and I was quickly into fish of

I joined Godalming Angling Society at Sumners Match Lake near Horsham today. Twenty anglers arrived to quite a cold and windy day. Today's match counted both carp and silvers however there was also a silvers pool, draw depend would shape my day, I aslo wanted to use the day as further silvers practise for Ricky Baxters Silvers League. The Draw Permanent Peg 4 in the bowl was my chosen peg for the day, which was also the end peg. I'd fished the bowl previously so I was definitely starting to think that my carp match was not going to happen. Set-up I grabbed a feeder rod that was setup with a modified method feeder and some pole elastic to carry a PVA bag of pellets and a white wafter for the carp. Pole Lines where: 3 metre whip 12 metre line 5 metre margin line Bait was very simple, casters, maggots together with some groundbait just in case the carp or even larger skimmers moved in. All-In I had to start the match and try to find a carp, so the feeder r

Rick Baxter announced a three match silvers series at Sumners Match Lake spread across January, February and March. With a great bunch of lads and just down the road it was too good to resist particularly as it would make great practise and preparation for Stafford Moor silvers at the end of Feb. The Draw Temporary peg 20, the first peg on the right hand side from the car park, right next to the "wedding platform". Set-up After getting some tips from Hathers and with the wind blowing straight into my face I set up the following: 3 metre whip 6 metre pole lines to my right and into the margin Bait was very simple, maggots, casters and a small amount of worm.  No ground bait mixed at all. All-In The plan was to exploit the whip line for the first hour and then to strategically take silvers from the margin and 6 metre lines.  It didn't quite work that way. The wind in the face was a pain but I soon got into a rhythm with the short whip and before long

A post Christmas silvers knock up at Sumners Match Lake was posted on friendsbook by Hathers organised by Dave Fifield.  Given I was due to fish a three match series to would provide an ideal opportunity for some practice at the venue beforehand. It was great seeing a lot of the lads, Shedders, Jaapster, Hathers, Pikey, Silvers and Rick to mention a few.  No warm bacon butties lads, not this morning anyway. The Draw Temporary Peg 5 which was on the bowl and I think permanent peg 28.  The first time I've been in this area and of course I had my old mate Shedders as one of my neighbours! Set-up The water was pretty coloured however I've been having some success on the waggler lately so that came out of the bag as well as a feeder rod, just in case. Pole lines were 14.5 metres to my right where I'd fed reasonably heavy for the larger skimmers.  Margin line covering both left and right hand sides. Bait was casters, maggots, worms and dark F1 groundbait. All-In

Since moving from London I decided to join to local clubs which basically gives me most of the waters within a 30 minute radius to me.  I've fished quite a few matches with the Farnham guys, time to fish a match with Godalming Angling Society  or "GAS". The stunning Wood Lake Christmas match was in the calendar and a quick email to the Roger, the match secretary and I was on.  Roger emailed back with the latest form from the lake and also advice on what bait to fish and methods.  Thanks Roger, very welcoming email. The Draw Gathering at GAS headquarters to pick up keep net and landing nets I drew peg 31 which is on the right hand bank from the car park.  There would be 23 anglers and once we arrived at the fishery there was very little space in the car park. Set-up Arriving at the peg the water was gin clear, I was also being watched my a demon in the trees... see picture!  Post Note:  This is Cthulhu, see more about him here  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthul

The weather is starting to close in for winter with the temperatures starting to drop and the sky constantly grey with a fin mist spray soaking everything that is outside. It would be back to Badshot Lea Little Pond for todays match with the Farnham Angling Society. The Draw It was decided that we would fish the shallow end of the lake on both sides rather than taking a full bank, so pegging would be from peg 17 on the near side bank and 23 on the far side bank where it is between three and four foot in depth. Peg 17 would be my home for the day and also an end peg! Set-Up  I had a chat with Eddie regarding the pole line, he mentioned it was pretty shallow at my end of the lake so with that bit of advice and looking at the peg I decided to keep the pole in the bag and break out the rods. Feeder rod for fishing a drennan method bomb to fish a PVA bag Feeder rod set up with a traditional running open ended feeder Waggler rod to fish the pole line Bait menu today dead

A beautiful autumn day with blue skies and a slight breeze greeted us all today at the very picturesque Lodge Pond today with Farnham Angling Society. The Draw With nine anglers it was decided to once again split the section between the two banks, five on the closer bank and four on the far bank. I was hoping to grab a peg on the far bank as I hadn't fished that bank yet. Instead, peg 1 came out, which is probably the best peg on the near bank! Set-Up The rods were an obvious choice and infact I had planned to fish the t-bag given the colder conditions. So I had two rods out, a bomb rod, that could be swapped to a small cage feeder if required and another rod with a mini hybrid feeder. I was considering a pole line for the margin and I had come armed with an appropriate elastic today unlike my last visit! I decided against the pole line and I would use either of the feeder rods to check out the margins if I needed too. Bait consisted of some dead maggots, a pint