Lewy's Lines

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