Lewy's Lines

A Friday off work and a chance to have a pleasure session at Old Bury Hill Fisheries with Nathan and his Dad, John.  Button came along for the day too, she does really like birds which was to become apparent later in the day ;-) I'd phoned the fishery and they had mentioned that the sport was good with plenty of bream coming out. The Draw We had 3 pegs next to each other, two with an island chuck and the other left of the island.  John picked his peg, Nathan took the end of the island peg and I ended up on Peg 34, I think. Set-up I'd decided that it would be a rod only day for me so I left the pole and all the other paraphernalia at home.  Two rods, one feeder and one waggler. Bait wise was dead simple, maggots, pellets (hard 6mm/8mm) and groundbait. All-In Nathan and John opted to fish two rods at once to try and snare an OBH carp.  They also fished a method feeder each. 24 fish of this quality, a great day! I had my 10 foot bomb rod that could reach the i

No match this weekend so I decided to head back to Badshot Lea small pond, peg 38 to test a theory I had after my previous weeks match.  The theory?  Well more groundbait on one line to hold the larger fish  together with some hook bait changes. Weather was very similar to the previous week together with quite a few carp anglers at the bottom end which almost simulated the match conditions of the previous week. My aim was to start my "match" at 10:30am and fish until around 2pm. Set-Up Longer feeder line this time, just short of mid way. 14.5 metre lines same as the match, 11 and 2 o'clock. I set up two different pole rigs this time, one that was around an inch overdepth and the other a double bulk where the second smaller bulk where actually on the deck looking for the tell tail lift bites. Bait, maggot, caster, micro and 6mm pellet. Groundbait was a 50/50 mix of a method mix and dark sweet fishmeal F1. All-In Rather than pot in 8 balls of groundbait

Blackwater River as it's named after the river that runs through the pond. Stocking wise it's dominated by silvers, roach, tench, bream, perch and the odd crucian carp together with their larger cousins of carp to 10lb. See more about the pond on Farnham Angling Societies website, more here The Draw  The far bank is where we would be drawing pegs for with plenty of space between the anglers as the pegs in the bag went from 26 through to 40. The banter at the draw was that the lower pegs would be where the bream. My home for the day would turn out to be peg 38. Set-Up I spent around 10 minutes with the bomb rod checking the depth on what would be the feeder line and opted for an area at around 25 metres where I found some gravel although the overall depth of the lake is pretty shallow at around 4 feet. Pole lines were: 14.5 metres at 11 O'clock  14.5 metres at 2 O'clock  6 metres straight ahead  6 metres down the right hand margin  The bait menu con

Back to Boddingtons Reservoir after the success of last year’s match here. The weather had taken a turn for the better on the Saturday with lovely sunshine, could spring actually be springing? Well, we all arrived to grey skies a high water level and quite windy conditions. This year’s match was already looking decidedly different to the sunshine, sunscreen and sunburn of 2017. The Draw Brian was our match organiser today as Hathers hadn’t confirmed his calendar with number 1 wife and couldn’t risk the long journey time. Good job you did mate as the car journey home was a nightmare! Out of the hat came peg 44. Last year I was on peg 43! Again it’s the higher numbers you really want however I had a good group of neighbours with Herbie, Shedders and a little bit further away Rick, Les and Jaapster. Set-up Did I mention it was pretty windy? Well the first item out of the rod bag was my mini bomb/feeder rod setup helicopter style followed by the waggler rod. Depth on the w

The third day of the festival and the beast from the east was closing in on us fast.  Herbie had taken a measured decision that today would be our final day as the weather forecast for tomorrow could see us snowed in at Stafford Moor.  Now we had plenty of beer and food to last but it was definitely the right decision given the conditions.  After all we still had curry night to enjoy too. Today I'd be on Tanners and was really hoping for a draw on the lawns, not too far from the comfort of the lodge. Again the lakes had frozen lids on them so it was going to be a tough one. The Draw Peg 17 on Tanner would be my home for the day.  This is directly opposite the lodge, not quite next to it as I'd hoped.  I'd have Rob A and Silvers for company. Pete Bailey had drawn 18 and once he saw the lake he quite rightly said he was off home! Set-up The wind was really gusting so today was most definitely a rod only day.  The bonus of the wind was that it would shift the ice

Ice, ice baby! We were greeted to the second day with ice on the lakes and a very cold easterly wind.  The beast from the east was heading our way that was for sure. Animal was heading down for the night and he was cooking for us too, bonus!  Yesterday was a tough day for all with Captain and Col Merce leading the festival so far. Today it was our turn for Pines that mostly had a thick ice lid on top of it!  Negative feeding would be the order of the day.  I was also up against Big Nige in today's knock out. The Draw Well at least I'm not on Woodpeckers!  Peg 3 would be my home for the day however before I could even set up it was time to break out the ice breaker.  Luckily Peg 3 I was able to access from both banks so could break the ice across the lake. It took an hour of effort however I was rewarded with a lovely clear wide channel to fish.  My neighbour was John Nugent one of the new ASBO's. Set-up Pole setup today as I was guarded from the wind by the

Day 1 of the festival and a great night in the Lodge of Plenty with spirits high even though the weather wasn't looking it's best and set to get worse! Everyone gathered at the Tackle shop, Kenfish doing a great job of collecting the pools money and organising the rabble, then it was our leaders turn, Herbie.  But of course before he could speak a rousing welcome of, "Herbie is our leader, la, la, la, la" was sung in his honour. The Draw Please not Woodpecker was my thought having spent two very fruitless days on there already.  The peg came out of the bag, it was red which meant Woodpecker again!  This time I'd be again on the high back although peg 17 in the corner which was a bit more sheltered from the wind. Neighbours for the day, Chris Martin and Pete Bailey.  I mentioned to Pete I don't mind seeing him, but not on the next peg!  At least I could observe his angling approach I thought to myself. Set-up I was not going to make yesterdays mista