Lewy's Lines

Mark at Peg 8 on Magpie Up to Cambridge for the weekend to resume the mini competition between Mark and myself .  Venue choice today was Rookery Waters in Pidley and Magpie lake , Mark's home waters. The temperature reading was 12 degrees C, winter conditions calling for winter tactics, so we would have to be patient for bites. Mark selected peg 8 which had a short cast to the island and reeds in front of him. I chose Peg 9 to his left and had the left edge of the island and an over hanging tree and plenty of open deeper water, also the sun was on this side, so a little warming from the sun couldn't harm.  I felt that the fish would be in the deeper water given the temperature. It was also slightly tactical as the peg to the right of Mark, peg 7, didn't have much of a feature to cast to.  My peg would eliminate Mark having a larger area to cast too... it is a competition after all ;-) The Set-up My home for the day, Peg 9 Both of us were set up in no tim

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 maggots and the humble dendroba

Hoppy's Memorial Match organised by the lads at Peg 32, Poplars Lake, The Oaks Anglers Cabin .  I was looking forward to meeting them all, especially after seeing the banter on the forum. The weather for the day was around 14 deg C, very little wind and quite bright.  Over the weekend the first frost had fallen so would it affect the fishing? I got to The Oaks at Sessay around 8am and quickly headed into the cafe for a bacon buttie and cup of tea.  I spoke to Tom, the owner/baliff and he mentioned that finer lines would be the order of the day, maggot or pellet as bait.  I grabbed 3 pints of mixed white / red maggots, pint of casters and some micro pellets.  My other bait choice for the day would be worm and sweetcorn.  As I'd not met the Anglers Cabin crew I proceeded to walk around the different groups of anglers in the car park if they were fishing Hoppy's Memorial match... in typical fashion it was the last group I saw that were the lads.  The banter starte

Mark's Swim As Mark had come down to London for the weekend, I decided that we should give Lake John , Waltham Abbey a go as it would be easy for him to head back to Cambridge.  I'd called Colin, the owner/baliff to check availability. The larger lake was booked for an open match, so we has to fish the smaller lake. A quick walk around the small lake which is a snake lake, we decided to fish the far bank away from the car park.  The weather was a little overcast with some rain.  Neither of us had an end peg advantage.  Mark's far bank had a large cut out.  Both of us had far bank reeds that were alive with fish... it looked like a promising day! We decided to fish a 6 hour match again and use the clicker to record an approximate weight of fish to determine the winner. We headed to the on-site cafe for a cup of tea and bacon buttie. The Setup My swim Without a doubt it was a pole venue, although I also tackled up my 8 foot carp wand with a small method fee

 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 red maggots. Mark and

Oooooosssshhh! After my day with Bob Nudd MBE and after hearing great reports about Andy May I decided to book a days fishing with Andy May .  After many email's getting round Andy's and my own diaries we eventually agreed on 7th October at Cudmore Fisheries in Newcastle-under-Lyme. It was an early start for me, leaving London at 4:30am to get to Cudmore, the traffic was kind, but the weather wasn't I arrived at Cudmore for 7am. I met Andy at 8am and we had a cup of tea, bacon sandwich and chatted about what I wanted to achieve for the day and I explain that I would like to go through a typical match scenario, brush up on pole and method feeder techniques.  As the weather hadn't been kind overnight we didn't know what to expect from the fishing.  None-the-less Andy decided to take us on Match Pool 1.  The wind had changed direction and so Andy selected peg 22 for the day with a little bit of ripple on the water. Andy went through my pole floats that

Great exercise! "Day Two at the MFS Larford Lash-up"... Day two was always going to be harder, especially after a night out with the MFS massive ! Most of us arrived at Larford Lakes looking a little worse for wear!  Today we would be fishing the Specimen lake which holds some very large carp or "horses" as fellow anglers like to shout when they have landed one... I drew peg 65 which is on the fair bank of the specimen lake and an area that is a good area for the skimmers and the odd bonus carp.  From the car park to the peg was quite a walk, especially when you have to lump all your gear on a rather small trolley come wheel barrow... My neighbour for the day would be no-other-than Scone, of sconezone and great pole floats fame. The Approach After speaking to Rob Austin, he recommended method line at 16metres, bomb and pellet further out and a meat line at 5 metres if the carp come in. So that was the approach.  Again, due to the low water levels we