Lewy's Lines

Second day of the MFS Silvers Festival at Stafford Moor.  Again we all gathered at the tackle shop for 9am. Team A, needed a result today as we were languishing in last position! I drew peg 30 on Tanners at the end of the section on the far bank.  The wrong end of that bank according to the locals. The Set-up 13 metre line - groundbait, caster. dead red maggot 6 metre line - groundbait, caster. dead red maggot 8 metre line to peg 29, chopped worm Top two for the bush next to me - hand fed with caster After plumbing up the 13 & 6 metre line I had 6 inches difference in depth, so marked the top kit with both depths and would use the same rig, adjusting the depth when changing swims. The chopped worm and bush swim were the same depth, so one rig for those two. The All-In Andy G had tipped me off how to fish these pegs, so following his advice, I cupped in one ball of groundbait on both the 13 metre and 6 metre and cupped in so...

The long awaited Match Fishing Scene Stafford Moor silvers festival sponsored by Marukyu . Stafford Moor has 22 acres of lakes set in the Devon countryside with 30 of Match Fishing Scene's "characters" all staying at the lodges this is going to be a memorable week! Marukyu had kindly sponsored the event by sending three cases of their EFG130 groundbait , including a Marukyu cap for all anglers.  Other sponsors of the event include SconeZone floats and Haines Angling. First day of the MFS Silvers Festival at Stafford Moor.  Again we all gathered at the tackle shop for 9am. The teams had been drawn the previous night, I was with Rolly, Jim McD and Animal.  The teams weight on the day would be for the team event and your own weight for section and/or lake win. I drew peg 16 on Woodpecker, this peg won the lake yesterday with 52lb of silvers so I was hopeful of a good day on the bank... how wrong would I be! Peg 16 is a corner peg.  After speakin...

After the madness of the first night with the Matchfishing Scene lads, well 28 of them, waking up the head was a little thick to say the least! Herbie had organised a knock up match which would count towards the MFS Champion League.  The group eventually congregated at the tackle shop for a 9am draw. I drew peg 3 on Woodpecker, Andy, fishery owner said it was a roach peg, he wasn’t going to be wrong! Peg 3 is all on it’s own at the top end of Woodpecker, in a bay of it’s own.  Plenty of carp where topping, but that’s not the quarry today... shame, because this peg has plenty of carp holding areas. The Set-up Inside Line - top 3 sections - depth 6 foot, Sconezone Jadz on 0.12 Shimano Silkshock to a size 20 carp maggot, 0.10 hooklength 13m Line - depth 7 foot - Sconezone Jadz on 0.12 Shimano Silkshock to a size 16 Gamma Green No rods were broken out, it was going to be pole all day long. With plenty of time to set-up I was ready 30 minutes before...

The weather in February has been a little harsh, so taking advantage of some improved weather forecasts and in order to get some silver fish practise in before my week at Stafford Moor with the Match Fishing Scene crew I decided to head to Kingsland Reservoir, Coates, Peterborough and have a session on the Silverfish lake. As usual, my mate Mark joined me, so this was going to be a battle for a point in the 2012 Mark vs Mark competition. My home for the day Kingsland Reservoir allows the use of keepnets during pleasure fishing sessions, so I purchased a proper match weigh sling for us to record more accurate weights for the 6 hour session. The weather for the day was overcast and the mecury was hitting a massive 8 degrees C with quite a blustery wind.  We both decided to fish with the wind at our backs and selected two pegs dividing the middle of the silver fish lake.  The aerator split our pegs and was an area that we would both target as potentia...

In the latest edition of  Pole Fishing Magazine and Match Fishing Magazine  both Jon Arthur and Alex Bones have asked for guest blogger submittals, so I sent Jon Arthur a quick email. Jon picked out a summary I had made about why Gold Valley matches where successful and posted it as guest blog up on Pole Fishing Magazine, here: http://www.polefishingmagazine.com/weekly-blogs/item/401-great-gold-valley Tips to improve this blog Jon Arthur gave me some great feedback, so future blogs will contain more anecdotal information such as strange, interesting and unusual things that happened on the day with some more interjections of humour to turn each blog entry from a diary of what happened on the the day into a story about the day. More explanation around why I chose to fish a certain way rather than what I actually did on the day, for example why did I choose maggots, why did I switch to the feeder, why did I choose a particular brand of groundbait...

 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...