Lewy's Lines

Day 1 of a two day event at Peb’s place, How End Fishery.  This weekend would see a clash of titans… MFS vs How End, although the team selection did look like it had been rigged a little ;-) How End fishery is coming on leaps and bounds with the fish getting larger and the weights steadily increasing.  This is no carp puddle, rather a well thought out venue created by a match angler who is passionate about fishing, fish and creating a great fishery.  Peb’s also has a great family who are very supportive, with Tarnya and the kids.  This two day event is a bit special as all of the lads are staying overnight at the fishery, in tents, caravan’s and sleeping in cars.  Based on last year’s events I couldn’t miss it!  Promised for later, after fishing we have a BBQ, Football and Basketball challenges as well as the obligatory beer, or three! The Draw So all of Dani’s and Yasi’s pegs would be in one bag.  Whichever lake you drew on today, you would be fishing the other lake tomor

The fish were busy with each other! It was another early start from London, 5:30am to be on the road for 6am... The drive up to Pidley in Cambridgeshire was easy given the time so I arrived at the Mad Cat Pub for our breakfast gathering with plenty of time to spare.  Colin Mercer was already at the pub car park having stayed over after a two day event close by.  The weather was glorious and there had been talk that the carp had been spawning on the saturday which made the fishing tough going for those competing with weighs well done on the normal 100-200lb bags! We all arrived at the fishery, lucky for Colbrad we caught him up on the famers path into the fishery and he looked a little bit lost but was soon in the convey to the car park.  Everyone unpacked their gear and we all head down to Magpie lake for the draw.  The fish were indeed spawning again and all you could hear was splashing of fish chasing each other and the slurping noise that car make in the margins... it was an a

Peg 30 Bury Hill Fisheries is one I've heard about a lot.   Russ Evans, The Obsessed Angler used to be the head bailiff with plenty of videos to be found on YouTube .  I was looking forward to this match where the main species to target is Bream.  I contacted Russ to get an idea of how to approach Bury Hill and he gave me some good advice about the pegs, what groundbait to feed and to be prepared to chase the bream further out as they tend to back off. Arriving at the fishery I was greeted by Ken who had obviously been set up by the southern lads.  As I walked into the tackle shop Ken says, "I'm sorry mate but it's Sunday and there is a problem", I responded, "What is the problem mate?", he says, "Yeah, Sunday and no Northerner's allowed to fish on a Sunday"... brilliant craic!  I'll thanks Brian Green (Proper Tidal Boy on MFS) for that one! ;-) The Draw George was sorting all the lads out in his usual no-nonsense style I d

After a very heavy weekend out with friends in St James Park and then in Clapham I managed to drag my butt out of bed at 6am to get ready for a day at Phil and Tarnya's place, How End Fishery in Bedfordshire organise by Colbrad from Matchfishing Scene.  Col had put extra effort in to ensure there were enough anglers competing that it would count towards MFS Champions League points!  So a big thanks to Col and the lads who came from further afield (Mark and Ruddy). Gathering round in Peb's tackle shop, we were all buying out bait, odds and sods and then there was RuddyRoach (Steve) who apparently calls Phil when he breaks tackle which he has been doing quite a lot latey!  So Ruddy turns up with a top kit that had "smashed" on him at the Glebe in the MFS Glebe pairs event...  There were at 5 pieces of carbon taped together with elastic, pulla bung and connector just dangling in the carbon wreckage.  He is a funny bloke Ruddy and he was wearing his lucky jumper... you

After returning to London to live and work there was one place I was itching to get back too, Gold Valley, home of Will Raison, former England World Champion.  I felt a bit of a "Billy no mates" as it had been a while since I had fished an Open Match and there were plenty of faces I didn't recognise.  That was soon to change when Pat Pritchard came up and said, "hello Lewy".  Great to see him and then the other lads, John Rhodes and Steve from Talk Angling.  Thanks lads. The Draw The regulars tend to know when the draw is about to take place, generally when they hear the pegs going into the cup ;-)  This is the time when the line kind of forms up... I grab the first peg from the cup and out came number 39.  So I would be on Gold rather than middle lake. The Set-Up Arriving at Peg 39 I thought to myself, "I've been here before..." and I had, back in January 2012 .  Peg 39 is on the bank between Gold and Middle Lake and has an island at about 1