Lewy's Lines

One of our process engineers asked over a pint one evening if he could come fishing one day as he'd love to learn to coarse fish.   Jack was certainly not a beginner as he has done a bit of fly fishing, and trout fishing using ledger and worm when he was younger.  The request was duly accepted so I started to search for a local venue that would hopefully promise plenty of bites for the day.  For Jack's end of the bargain, he would be responsible for lunch and refreshments. Tees Valley Lakes, near Eaglescliffe gave some great sport back in 2013, what would it be like nearly 9 years later?   Date and day tickets purchased, the weather forecast looked terrible with a storm bearing down on us, so we decided to postpone for a week for 20th Feb to 27th Feb.  The days weather was pretty perfect for Waggler fishing.   The Peg Walking round the lake, judging the wind, space behind the peg and the ability to get two anglers together I decided on Peg 5 on the far side of the island with p

January's outing after a family outbreak of COVID so I booked myself and Patrick on the open on The Arc at Redwood Park in York. Only 6 anglers braved todays open and the ice had been broken by the fishery from pegs 14 through to 21. The Draw The golden peg drawn was 17, my home for the day was Peg 20. Set-up Given the clarity of the water I felt that the pole line for the day needed to be long rather than short. Lines: 14 - 14.5 metres full depth and a shallow rig just in case the fish came up in the water Top two and two line at the near side shelf for dripping caster in for some roach later in the day Waggler to fish past the pole line or in case the fish didnt want the pole over their heads Bomb and bread to fish the far bank in an effort to a ball of carp Bait was a mix pellets, maggots, caster, bread and F1 sweet dark groundbait.  Clarification for another reader, the hooks used were all barbless patterns as per the fishery rules on most commercial fisheries. All-In So the ma

After a two year break, 18 months spent in New Zealand dodging Covid lockdowns, the creation of another human being, I finally got back on the bank today at Redwood Park near York. A chance to catch up with Patrick, a work colleague who is also a match angler.  Patrick has a winter silvers series coming up at Redwood Park so it proved an ideal opportunity for me to blow away the cobwebs and help sus out what methods would work on a lake Patrick had not fished before, The Lagoon . The weather was a very mild, 13 degrees C with a light wind blowing down the lake. The Draw Not actually a competition today but we decided to fish pegs 5 and 6.  I won the 50p toss and chose to fish peg 6 with Patrick on 5.  Plenty of space between the pegs. Set-up The Waggler rod was straight out of the bag to target past the pole line at multiple depths and across together with a number of pole lines as follows: Top two with a 0.4g Drennan AS4 on 0.14 line to a 0.11 bottom with a size 18 silverfish hook

A text message from Hathers asking whether I could fish the Wednesday OBH Lovers match for Big Si.  Not a problem, bait sorted, long ranger feeder rods sorted and I was ready to visit one of my favourite venues, Old Bury Hill in Dorking with the "knobs". Todays weather was miserable, rain and wind however the rain as predicted to stop around 10am so maybe it could be a great day for the bream. The Draw Peg 1, one of the favoured pegs came out of the bag for me.  Normally Big Si draws this peg and he has on most occasions however a few weeks ago it didn't produce for him with Pegs 2 and 3 taking the match win and section first. It does look a beautiful peg however the overhanging tree on the pole line doesn't allow you to get up close and personal with the reeds.  The long chuck across an obvious target. Set-up The pole line at 13-14 metres to target the tree line.  I was surprised at the difference in depth between peg 1 as I grabbed a rig that I had used

A late call went out on the OBH Lovers group on Bookface that there was a spare place on the match.  A quick phone call to Hathers and I'd secured the spot fishing as replacement for Steve Parkin. The Draw 8:15am draw, I arrived around 8am to find the front bank parking full. The lads were obviously keen today! Peg 3 for me today. Set-up After watching Greg an Simon casting out a very long way to clip up their rods I followed suit.  After clipping up I marked out the distance on the measuring sticks at 70 metres! I set-up a bomb and pellet rod at this distance that would have a t-bag of pellets with it.  I also set-up a feeder rod at 25 metres, just beyond the pole line. A single pole line at 13-14 metres at the 1 o'clock position to avoid bring fish on the feeder line over it with a light 0.4g rig and heavier 0.8g rig if the wind got up. Bait was pellets, dead maggot and sweetcorn.  Groundbait, F1 Dark. All-In The weather today was screaming Bream!  Overcast

The second round of the Bernard Parrot Memorial to be fished at Stockbridge Pond near Tilford and another very warm Autumn day with bright sunshine and no cloud. The Draw Peg 10 came out the hat for me, so I'd at least have some lily pads to target. Set-up The lily pads would be the main attack today so I chose two swims: End of the pads Shallower line towards the middle of the pads The waggler rod was also set-up as a secondary plan.  Bait was all natural casters, maggots, worms, sweetcorn together with some micro pellets and F1 Dark groundbait. All-In I decided to start quite negatively and cupped in a small ball of groundbait with some chopped worm on the long lily line and some casters on the short lily line.  Giving it time to settle a quick dabble on the waggler. The waggler was producing roach and small perch however in spells of two to three before they would back off. Trying the long lily line the chopped worm had obviously had its effect and I was bri

Wednesday match at Marsh Farm, the weather was certainly shaping up to be a lovely day so what better than to spend it fishing on Richardson Lake! The usual suspects lines up together with some old familiar faces from my MFS days namely Ian McLaren and Dave Boyd. The Draw Peg 5, right outside of the club house for me today Set-up I decided on a method to target the far bank and the following pole lines: 10 Metres left and right Margins left and right The menu today dead reds, casters, micro pellets, assorted pellets for hookers and F1 sweet groundbait. All-In A single ball of groundbait on the left hand 10 metre line and three balls on the right hand line.  I started on the method with double dead red maggot and groundbait loaded.  Five minute timed cast and pinging three to four 6mm hard pellets over the method line. It was a warm and still day with very little ripple on the water.  The first hour past without a fish on the method so I tried the pole lines.  The l