Lewy's Lines

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, casters with a s

**Update with tickets received Today marks the first day Anglers who are members of the Angling Trust can apply for Fish O Mania 2012 tickets. It is a random computerised draw which closes on the 7th February 2012 at 1600.  After that date the Angling Trust will inform you whether or not you get allocated the tickets you have applied for, so the more the apply for the better your chances.  I decided to apply for match dates I knew I could attend, so I applied for the following: Gold Valley - Failed Messingham Sands - Failed The Oaks, Sessay - Failed Lindholme Lakes - Successful Entry to each match is £25.  Good luck to all the anglers around the country who are applying for tickets and maybe I'll see you on the bank. Cheers Mark --- To join the Angling Trust, follow this link: http://www.anglingtrust.net/page.asp?section=32&sectionTitle=Join the Angling Trust You can start the entry process by following this link: http://www.anglingtrust.net/page.asp?

The beginning of the year always starts with a Piking session.  Last years Piking session didn't go too well and I ended up blanking... So this year Mark and I decided to make a weekend of it and try some different venues.  Temperature across the weekend was 8-10 degrees C although there was a cold wind blowing. The Set-Up Both Mark and I decided that we would have a two rod approach, my Carp set-up was quickly converted to a Pike dead bait Paternoster rig and I'd recently brought back my Shakespeare Ugly Stik from Australia as my plugging / spinning rod. Saturday 7th - The Venues First stop Mark had decided to re-visit a local river at Elton, Huntingdonshire .  We fished the area down from the locke. View Larger Map Both of us put out our dead baits and then "plugged" away the rest of the river.  After about 90 minutes and no indications we moved to the main river above the locke which produced nothing for either of us. Interesting question for all t

Pikey, aka Dave Pearson had orgainsed a Match Fishing Scene Champion League match at Willinghurst on John's Lake.  As I was free at the weekend, I thought why not and put my name down for the match.  Pikey has a great blog which can be found here .  It will be interesting to read his version of events. The journey from West London to Willinghurst was around 35 miles, the temperature in the car was a warm 24 degrees C whilst outside it was a chilly 3 degrees C.  I arrived close to the fishery at 8am, the draw was 9:30am so plenty of time... it then took me another 30 minutes to find the place! I met up with most of the lads in the canteen and tucked into a Willinghurst breakfast, at £5 it was a welcome sight and also reasonably large! The craic started with Mick the Bookie, Pikey, Malcolm, Carl and Milo... it's always the same great laughs with all the MFS get togethers and great to meet more members of the site.  As everyone had gathered by 9:15, e

Mark is now 5 points down, it's all to fish for today, either bring the gap back to 4 or I extend my lead to 6 points, the pressure is on Mr Keightly today! One thing we learnt today was late going clubbing and fishing really don't mix.  We arrived at Lawn Farm Fishery at 9am both nursing a bit of a hangover. Mark's mum had kindly made us some "man" sandwiches with ham and pickle... perfect to help the hangover. We were going to fish at Manor Farm Fishery in Biggleswade, but decided on a venue change as the winter sport at Lawn Farm is normally hectic as we experienced in a freezing cold february . The larger lake, Willow was to be our lake for the day.  Mark selected his swim, open water and access to the island.  I picked the swim to his right which only gave me open water, but two spare swims on my right.  We fished with the wind at our backs and the temperature was 8 degree C. The Set-Up I set up a waggler and method rod.  Plan with the waggler

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