Lewy's Lines

A beautiful day awaited the whole of the field, blue skies, sunshine, but very little wind, which of course meant no ripple on the water.  The previous night was a big night for the lads with two lodges worth of booze consumed, this of course resulted in some very soar heads in the morning. The Draw Peg 43 came out of the drawbag for me.  This peg is at the top end of the lake in a bay on the left handside with a very short walk from the car.  Arriving at the peg the water was dead calm and there were a few carp lazing about just under the surface. The Set-up On my left I had a long margin swim but was restricted on my right handside margin with a tree in the way.  I brought out a method feeder and pellet waggler rod just in case but the main pole lines were as follows: 14 metre left hand margin swim 14 metre in open water straight ahead 8 metre left hand margin swim top 2 right hand margin swim (at my feet) Bait options were sweetcorn, luncheon meat, 4 & 6mm expa

So far my best performance in a maggotdrowing festival so I was keen to do well again today.  The bar was shut last night, so we had a few drinks in the cabins but it was a pretty early night for all concerned and as such, not too many rough faces in the morning.  Overnight it had been quite chilly but the weather was being good to us all with bright sunshine. The Draw I drew out peg 27, which is on the top left hand corner of Oasis, giving me plenty of options. The Set-up As Oasis is a snake lake, it is an all out pole venue, but I set up a method feeder rod just in case.  The pole lines were as follows: 15 metres to the bottom of the far shelf, straight ahead, 2 o’clock and 3 o’clock lines 16 metres on the shelf, the same lines as the 15 metres 8 metre track line, straight ahead and 2 o’clock Top 2 for the keepnet line Bait was sweetcorn for hookbait as it hadn’t let me down so far this week, dampened micros, 6mm hard pellets for pinging across, meat and hemp. Th

Day 2 and not many hangovers from the Monday night apart from the party boys cabin who apparently were up until 3am... Although they didn’t look too bad after a night of merriment!  Willow lake is generally a square lake with a number of legs going into the centre of the lake, looking at it from an aerial view is is almost like to ‘W’s.  The point on these legs are the sought after pegs. A big thanks to Keith (Shallowman), who lent me his Tricast Trilogy so I could use his number 5 section to replace the one I broke yesterday... it was a life saver and greatly appreciated.  Thanks Keith! The Draw As most anglers who read this blog will know the draw queue is normally a hand diving fest!  I reached into the bag and pulled out Peg 35 which was in the bay at the top of the lake.  It has an aerator straight ahead at around 16 metres which is an obvious target area. The Set-up Willows tends to be a lake suited to the pole and as such I set-up the following: 13 metre pole line t

The annual fish-in with the Maggotdrowning crewe to Lindholme Lakes in Doncaster.  A five day festival with the “usual suspects”.  I arrived on the Sunday and had a quick practice on the Loco lake which taught me absolutely nothing to be honest.  Most of the lads from last years festival where here and the abuse soon started, especially my nickname of, “Why Lee, Why”.  The weather wasn’t too bad, sunny day but the wind was gusting very heavily. The Draw 9am draw, fish 11m through to 5pm, plenty of time to set-up and a decent 6 hour match.  We had plenty of of room with only 24 fishing, four sections of six people on Bonsai lake.  Bonzai is the jewel in Lindholme Lakes’s crown and everyone looks forward to fishing it. The hand drop in the bag and I drew out peg 75, so I would be on the middle leg on the right hand side, wind would be over my back hopefully making it an easier day than most. The Set-up Definitely a bit guilty of setting up a little bit to much gear today

and the line kept on getting longer... After applying for 4 Fish O Mania tickets this year, I managed to secure only 1 ticket for the final qualifier at Lindholme Lakes in Doncaster. I arrived early, around 7am and was front and centre in the queue which as the morning progressed and the clock came around to 9am got longer and longer...  The banter in the queue was great and just goes to show what a friendly bunch of people anglers can be. Neil Grantham outlined the rules to the competitor and also paid tribute to an angler that unfortunately could not fish the event as he had been involved in an accident with a car.  That angler is none other than Nathan Watson and a collection was been made.... for the car driver... Peg 57, Laurels The Draw My hand went into the very full bag and out came Peg 57 on Laurels.  I'd fished Laurels before during the week with the Maggotdrowning crew so I had a basic idea of what to expect. Peg 57 turned out to be on the bank betwee

The final day of the festival and the weather look a little better, although we were not holding our breathe! We would be fishing Bonsai Lake again for the final day of the Maggotdrowning Lindholme Festival. We would also be fishing from 10am until 4pm, so an hour earlier than the previous days. The Draw I drew peg 25 on Bonsai.  The wind was definitely favourable and it was opposite the flyers, pegs 69 & 70.  I also had a peg either side of me empty, giving me plenty of scope for the island ahead. The Set-up My plan was around a single method for the day and that would be the method feeder.  I did set up  13 metre and margin pole line just in case. I'd had a chat with Chris Walker the previous night around feeding patterns he had discovered during the week and the need for swim rotation.  My plan was centred around this information. The All-In I cupped out on the 13 metre pole line and then prepared my method feeder. The plan was to cast to the left of the is

The weather didn’t look promising again today.  The gear is soaked from yesterday and it looked like today would be the same!  We were fishing Oasis today.  Oasis is a U shaped lake of uniform width, around 16 metres.  The favourite pegs would be the 40’s and pegs 2 through 10.  These pegs are were the wind blows in to. The Draw I drew out Peg 35, on the favoured side of the lake, it was also the Golden Peg for the day, so a lake win would have netted me £300, little chance of that with the stamp of anglers in the group. Parking was easy, right behind the peg with a short walk over the sodden earth. The Set-up Pole and Method were broken out.  I’d use the method if the wind got up and made it difficult fishing at 16 metres.  It’s hard enough fishing at 16 metres without the wind! Pole Lines were: 16 metres on the far shelf 13 metres to the bottom of the far shelf 5 metre line bottom of the near shelf Top 2 and 2 for the margin on my right The All-In It

After the great weather the previous day, today would be totally different.  On waking up, it was windy, cloudy and there had been some overnight rain.  That would not be the last of the rain for the day! We would be fishing Laurel's lake today. The Draw As previous, we drew in reverse order with our festival positions, I was about 18th so I had a good bag of pegs to chose from.  Out came Laurels Peg 33, another point!  This time, the wind was blowing straight at me which would make presentation difficult at times. I didn’t have any real margin swims as this point is quite narrow, at least I had a stable platform to fish from.  It was a bit slippy and I almost slid in while setting up, luckily no-one noticed! The Set-up It would be mainly a pole attack, although I did set up a pellet waggler just in case.  The pole lines were: 13 metres straight ahead 5 metres at 10 o’clock and straight ahead, which was the bottom of the near shelf Margin line on the right

After an easy night on the beer everyone was bright and cheerful for todays competition.  We would be fishing Willows Lake .  Willows Lake is a rectangle shape with 3 legs reaching  to the centre each side.  Pegging would be generous again and the points at the end of the legs were the favoured pegs to draw. The Draw Today we would draw in reverse order to our finishing place yesterday, so I was in the middle of the draw and my home for the day would be peg 14.  A point peg and favoured as it had plenty of open water out in front of me. The Set-up The pole would be the main attack and as such I set up the following 13 metre line at 10 o’clock (pellet line) and 12 o’clock (chopped worm and caster) 16 metre shallow line straight in front 5 metre line at the bottom of the near shelf Top 2 Margin line to the left I also set up a small pellet waggler in case I could not fish shallow at 16 metres on the pole. The All-In I potted in a small cup of 4mm and 6mm har