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Tees Valley Lakes, Urlay Nook Road, 20th April 2013

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The weather this week had started to improve so I decided to stay local and have another visit to Tees Valley Lakes near Yarm.  The previous session at this venue threw up some great roach and I wanted to bag some more of these silver beauties and hopefully some of the venues carp too.  I arrived at the fishery at 7:30am after cleaning the frost off the car, hoping that a cold overnight snap wouldn't affect the fishing too badly.  I was the only angler fishing so I had the choice of pegs, so decided to fish peg 7 which gave me the point of the island and also open water.  Before I arrived at the venue I decided not to take any rods so it would be a pole only day. The Set-Up 3 pole lines all at 13-14 metres: To the point of the island by the reeds To the left side of my swim, again to the reed Open water to the right of the island I had heard that chopped worm was working well so I took some casters, red/white maggots and worms. The Session Learning from the pr

MFS - Lawn Farm Fisheries, Elsworth, 7th April 2013

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Peg 24, right on the bend A match organised by Neil (ns69) via the Match Fishing Scene website with points counting towards the MFS Champions League at a venue I've been to a few times over the years, Lawn Farm Fisheries near Cambourne in Cambridge.  There was a good turn out of 20 anglers and it was great to see some familiar faces as well as meeting some new guys.  Today we would be fishing Honeysuckle, the snake lake. The Draw The normal non-orderly queue appeared around Neil and Neilo as they started the draw.  I drew out peg 24 which is in a good area of the lake.  Meanwhile, Mark drew peg 40 and his walk was literally 6 steps to his peg.  The Set-Up  Feed every drop in, very little! Arriving at the peg I was very happy to see that I was on the bend and as the pegging was very generous I had a lot of far bank reeds to target.  Honeysuckle is primarily a pole venue, but I decided to set up a bomb rod to help explore the peg just in case the wind got

Kingsland Reservoir, Coates, 19th March 2013

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My final day in Cambridge with Mark and the venue for today's competition was to be Decoy Lakes in Whittlesey but we changed our mind while grabbing sandwiches from the local supermarket, so drove to Kingsland Reservoir in Coates, just round the corner from Decoy Lake.  The last time we visited Kingsland was back in February 2012 . We had a wander round the small carp lake and decided to fish two middle swims giving us both an aerator as a fish holding area and as it was a Tuesday we had the entire lake to ourselves. The Set-Up We decided that today's match would be slightly different and that it would be a rod only affair, no poles.  so I set up the following rods: 10' Bomb Rod with in-line Method Feeder 10' Bomb Rod with a running bomb rig 13' Waggler Rod The All-In The aerator was the obvious target for the first cast, Mark also had the same idea so out went a small method feeder to the right of the target.  My plan was to leave this out for an hou

How End Fishery, Bedford, 18th March 2013

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Peg 19 on Dani's Mark is now 2-0 up in the Mark vs Mark 2013 competition, today's venue, How End Fishery is more to my style of fishing so I've got a good chance of getting a point back on Mark.  The journey to the fishery was a bit of a nightmare with thick fog, Monday morning traffic and a couple of accidents.  It had rained quite hard overnight and the temperature reading in the car indicated -1C.  We decided to fish Dani's lake and after speaking to Phil Stone (Pebs) owner of How End Fishery he advise that we should be on pegs 3 or 19 fishing the waggler with corn searching the far bank for the fish and to set up an 11 metre line with pinkie for the skimmers and tench. After a walk around the lake I picked peg 19 and Mark took peg 18. The Set-Up Following Phil's advice we both set up a waggler rod and also two 11 metre swims.  I intended to feed one pole line with sloppy groundbait and pinkie, the other just to dribble pinkies in. The All-In We were

Chestnut Pool, Biggleswade, 16th March 2013

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A weekend in Cambridge and a chance to try to level the score against Mark in the friendly competition.  We decided to give Chestnut Pool , Langford, near Biggleswade a go.  A fishery neither of us had been to before which holds a good head of carp to 32lb and silvers. Mark got to the fishery before me and was setting up on.  The peg he picked was on the right of the lake as you look at it just one peg down from the top of the lake.  I arrived and started to take my tackle over, the wind was blowing up the lake and my choice of peg was either one with the wind in my face, it looked like today would be a tough day. The Set-Up Mark knows a regular and he advised that we could fish top 2 and 3 sections for the silvers with the wind this looked like the only option. so I would plumb up the following lines, which were about 5 foot each: Straight ahead - groundbait and maggot line 2 o'clock - chop worm line Into the bay - margin line I also set up a bomb rod just in case the

Tees Valley Lakes, Urlay Nook Road, 8th March 2013

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Taking advantage of a Friday off work I decided to try a new local venue, Yarm Fishery, also know as Yarm Lake run by Tees Valley Lakes.  Yarm Fishery has been totally revamped by Alfy and the team at Tees Valley Lakes and what a great job they have done!  The pegs are neat and tidy and the lake is protected by an electrified otter fence which makes shipping your pole back a small challenge. Tees Valley Lakes first came to my attention about 18 months ago, they have since increased the fish stock levels substantially with some small carp, roach and tench adding to the existing stock of fish. I arrived around 8am, the weather was overcast, cold and a light drizzle of rain.  John, a member of Anglers Cabin was already there when I arrived. John had fished the lake since the revamp and also when it was owned by Albion Angling Club many years ago. John had taken peg 7 on the far side of the lake giving him the point of the island, some open water to his right and also a far margin

MFS - Stafford Moor - Open Match, 1st March 2013

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17 of us decided to stay on the extra day to fish an open match were the carp now count.  It was a welcome later draw at 9am as it was a late night on the final day of the silvers festival. I drew out peg 35 on Tanners which is over the far side of the lake and one peg off the end peg, 36.  It is a promising carp area so my hopes were high. The Set-up Last years festival the carp came to the pole line as that is where all the feed had gone in during the previous 4 days so I had the following two lines: 13 metre line at 10 o’clock, this would be the groundbait line 13 metre line at 1 o’clock which would have chopped worm on it I also broke out a bomb rod and waggler rod to fish the waggler at full depth with banded pellet. Bait was 8mm pellets, sweetcorn, 4mm expander and worm. The All-In Today would be decided by carp and not silvers, so I decided to feed positively, so I cupped in loose groundbait and on the other line half a cup of chopped worm.  These lines w