Lewy's Lines

The start of the main event!  It was certainly a bit of a late night, the Lodge of Plenty had the usual visitors and there were a few sore heads for a Monday morning. An expect crowd gathered in the new fantastic looking tackle shop, no need for a queue in here, plenty of space for us all to gather round and listen to our leader, Herbie! The lakes we had for the festival were Willow, Oaks, Tanners and Woodpecker. The Draw Today was an open draw with all lakes in the drawbag.  My lot home for the day, Peg 32 on Woodpecker.  This peg hadn't been included in yesterdays Champions League match and I've been here on a previous festival and didn't do very well from it... Set-Up Pole lines at 6 and 12 metres fishing at both 10 o'clock and 1 o'clock positions. Bait was an array of options... Worms, Red maggots, expanders, micro pellets, pinkies and groundbait. All-In Speaking to my team captain, Wayne, aka O'Dribbill Jnr he advised starting short with ex

Finally it is here, Stafford Moor 2016!  The invitational event that see's 34 plus anglers descending on Devon to see Jo, Paul and family at Stafford Moor fisheries. It's been a year since we last saw Jo and Paul and the work they have done in that time is inspiring! There has been major work on Pines with it drained, fish removed and desilted.  A new island in the middle of the lake will house the pegs and fishing will be from the island outward, so something different and new. Lakes have been renamed: Emily's is now Willow Sophie's is now Oak A new tackle shop was in the process of being completed and wow, it is huge!  Impressive shower and toilet facilities for the carp anglers. Chatting with Paul and Jo, it is clear their vision is for a beautiful looking fishery as well as an exciting venue to fish! Fantastic job Paul and Jo and plenty of pictures can be found on the Stafford Moor facebook page and linked account with Jo ( Joanne Coombes ). Today&#

The Legal Requirements Disclaimer, this is not legal advice, you need to verify with the relevant authorities before fishing In the UK anglers need to have a Rod License, the same is true for The Netherlands, so here is my experience to help any anglers coming over the water to fish here. UK Rod Licence = VISpas A VISpas is required prior to fishing any waters in the Netherlands.  More information can be found here (English version) http://www.sportvisserijnederland.nl/vispas/vispas-english/ There is a very handy PDF guide to which type of VISpas you require, that can be found here: http://www.sportvisserijnederland.nl/files/11631-vispas-broch-eng-v03definitief_4885.pdf How to order your VISpas:  https://www.vispas.nl/?lang=en-GB Another useful guide that I found was one by blogger, MasterBlanker, here is a link to his blog, please note these pages are from 2010 and are centred mainly around Amsterdam. http://www.masterblanker.com/2010/12/10/fishing-in-holland-an-

Well it's been a few months since my last fishing trip and a lot has happened in that time.  Christmas and New Year have been and gone for another year and I moved to the Netherlands with work. I'll still be back in the UK for some of the festivals I fish with the Match Fishing Scene and Maggotdrowning lads and hopefully later this year I'll be experiencing some Dutch Lakes, polders, commericals and rivers. With this new country I'm luckily enough to live with a canal right outside my front door and of course the latest big thing in fishing is "dropshotting".  So my Christmas present to myself was a dropshotting set up. I'll keep you all up to date with my adventures here in the Netherlands and hopefully the capture of my first Zander! Happy New Year all, tight lines for 2016! Lewy

The final day and the Munkees have it all to do today in order to claim victory.  The night at the Longshoot was quiz night and one team named themselves, "Munkees Nil"... that was a Shandie team.  There was plenty of cheating going on with google and shazam but hey we'll ignore that.  The highlight of the night was definitely the quiz masters version of Bruce's Play Your Cards Right.  Poor guy had to content with very loud cries of "higher", "lower" and "you get nothing for a pair in this game"! Those leaving after the quiz were all given a warm, "Good byyyyeeee" by the lads! Again, Pool 1 was were most wanted to draw and weights yesterday on the other pools were still down. The Draw I drew for Sconey and managed to bag him a peg on Pool 1.  My home for the day would be pool 4, peg 73 which saw a low weight of 30lb yesterday.  My Shandie match up was with Andy Day.  It would be a tough ask but I'd give it my best s

Day 2 and a few sore heads after a long night at the Longshoot.  Pool 1 had fished very well yesterday with all but one angler getting a 100lb plus net.  Weights on the other pools were well down  with some top anglers catching low weights from know good pegs. Again, Sconey had the draw all ready and today would be the 2 vs 2 round.  Paired with Sconey against the ever lovable Pikey and Hathers. The Draw As expected everyone wanted to draw on Pool 1.  I drew for our 4 pegs and we were all really pleased to see Pool 1 on our peg numbers.  I was very pleased to be on Peg 12, the peg next to my previous days fishing. Set-Up The feeder rod was still clipped up and the right distance.  I decided to also set-up a bomb rod for bomb and pellet as Chris Martin caught well on it yesterday.  Again, 5 metre line and a lovely looking margin line to my right. All-In Taking a learning from yesterday and Neil's (NS69) great start from the 5 metre line.  I started there and bagged a fe

It was with great excitement when the alarm went off at 6am that is was time for the Munkees vs Shandies at the Glebe in Peckleton.  The journey up the M1 was a pain especially the 50mph "average" tax, sorry speed scamera's.  It was great to see so many of the lads at the draw and the competitive spirit was alive and well with plenty of banter. Calum had baked another Munkees / Shandies MFS carrot cake... top job matey! The Draw Sconey ran through the draw, already organised all the pegs with an 'M' on for Munkees and an 'S' on for Shandies... simples!  Today would be a 4 vs 4, section of 8 competition. The envelope that we drew was for Pool 1 and Peg 11 would be my home.  My neighbours for the day Neil and Chris Martin so there would be plenty of banter. Set-Up My match plan was going to be keeping it simple revolving around the 5 metre line, margin and feeder. The bait list was a little long but to cover the options.  Sweetcorn, hemp, dead