Ivy House Lakes - Open Match Heron Lake

 Had a message in the week from Neil Mercer that a few of the lads from Bristol were going up to Heron Lake as it was Neil's birthday, Neil booked me into the open and that was my Sunday sorted. I also joined Neil and some other lads for a few ciders and a curry on Friday night, definitely had one too many but it was a laugh a minute all night.

Amongst other things on Saturday I met up with Mike Nicholls, Glenn Bailey and Geoff Francis at the White Heart in Bitton. It was great to finally sit in the sun with a few mates and a beer. After this I got home and got on making up some shallow rigs for the F1's in Heron Lake, as I assumed this would be the way to win.

Sunday morning up bright and early and with the weather forecast looking sunny I settled on a shorts and T shirt day, just made sure I had some sun tan lotion first lol. I got to the venue in good time and was all ready to go, got to draw my own peg today and pulled out peg 7, one next to where I drew on my first visit. It wasn't in my mind one of the better pegs where you have some room, but I was still looking forward to the day. Rig wise I decided to go with a few shallow rigs of varying depths (from the minimum allowed) and also a margin rig. Shallow rigs were Des Shipp Carp floats in 4x10 with 0.12 to 18 KKM-B with a band. On the margin rig I used a 4x12 F1 pellet float with 18 SFL-B to 0.12. I never bothered setting up any deep rigs, but I did set up the method feeder which was never used in the end.

I wasn't sure how to begin the match, but decided on the margins whilst feeding 4mm pellets out to 14m to get the fish shallow. I decided to throw corn to my left, and drop small balls of methodmix gbait and maggots into my right. I had a slow start but got bites in the margin so stuck with it thinking I was priming my shallow line. I think it was after about 30 mins I had to go out shallow as I could see Paul Elms, Dave Willmot and Simon Duke all catching shallow. I shipped out with the mid depth rig and gave this a go, no joy on it at all, so onto the deeper rig. This really wasn't much better, but I did get the odd indication. I tried the shallowest rig and finally I caught, a chub.. hmmm. Going deeper again I caught 2 carp of less than a pound. By now I was miles behind those anglers to my right, to my left wasn't great but I could see some fish being caught shallow. An hour and a half in and I finally caught an F1 shallow, and caught a couple more in the next 10 minutes. Just as I thought I was going to start getting them it was dead again. I switched back into the margins, although I caught a couple to the left on corn it was never great, but the RH margin on the gbait was better. I fished here with double red maggot and fed a ball of gbait in a Preston Cad pot with a few maggots too. I was starting to pick off the odd fish now, mostly carp but was still playing catch up. 

About three hours into the match all the guys to my right stopped catching shallow, and they began to really struggle. I carried on catching in the margin and was making a little headway. Simon started to catch in his margins in peg 6, but Dave Wilmott on 4 was struggling in his. I tried putting gbait into the left margin as I felt at times I needed to rest the right margin but was getting no signs elsewhere. Unfortunately the gbait in the left margin didn't work. Mike Etheridge on peg 8 was not catching in his margins, nor shallow, but he had a few deep short and long, and I realised I had probably messed up not setting up a deep rig. I carried on with the RH margin, but I was getting a little bit of trouble not getting proper bites, a change to corn on the hook worked sometimes.

Paul Elms started to catch again and was doing well it seemed, I took a few carp out of the left margin on corn over pellet feed, but again it died quickly. I realised that the fish in right side were coming off the bottom taking the maggots on the drop that I was potting in. I tipped some maggots into the gbait and just fed them like this, it did seem to improve my catch rate, but I had left it just a little to late. Once again I had really enjoyed the day, and trying to work out how to feed, what to feed, what hook baits and hooking the fish was all great fun, I like this sort of  fishing. Unfortunately I was pretty sure I was out of the running for a frame place due to my poor start.

The scales soon arrived and from peg 2 Paul was top weight with 107lb, Gordon Cannings had 50lb on 3 and then Dave Willmot 82lb on peg 4. Simon had 80lb and then my turn and I had 84lb. Mike had 60lb next to me, and then the next big weight was Joff Rogers on 11 who had 133lb and won the match.

Top 4 were paid out.

1st Joff Rogers 133lb peg 11

2nd Paul Elms 107lb peg 2

3rd Joe McMahon 102lb 8oz peg 14

4th Martin Rayet 93lb 10oz peg 16.

Some great anglers there, all very hard to beat!

I ended up in 7th place and so 9lb was all I needed to frame, those first 90 minutes did for me sadly, but I really enjoyed my day.

No fishing next weekend, hope you all enjoy the bank holiday weekend sun.  

Tony Rixon Float Only Series - Sedges Fishery

 A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by Mike Nicholls who asked me if I could stand in for him on this match. As I hadn't been to the venue for a while and I was free on that date I was happy to help Mike out. I had a decent week back in fitness training and managed two spin classes, HIT and a bodypump class, I even managed to play an hour of football on Friday afternoon. Footy really was the limit for me, and later that evening I was very slow getting out of the chair and feeling quite stiff. Still no pain no gain as they say, and I walked to the doctors Saturday to get my second Covid Jab, did some gardening to as the weather was conducive.

Got up Sunday morning and had a stiff left shoulder, felt a but dehydrated and a slight headache, hmmm thought I only had a couple of cans last night. Off to pick up Glenn Bailey as we travelled together for the first time, having the van made loading the gear pretty easy but I do need to think about the best way. Driving down the headache I had was getting worse and I felt a general stiffness, as we got to the fishery I was wishing I had some tablets, and then it dawned on me, it was the side affects of the jab I was feeling. Sedges is another fishery that provides keepnets and landing nets that must be used, the net limit is 100lb, but you are only allowed to take 2 nets to your peg, and if you need another you have to go and get it. 100lb limit is generous and not one that should cause any issues if you aim for 80lb I guess.

I paid my pools to Tony and chatted to a number of anglers I hadn't seen for a while, as ever this league draws some very good anglers. I managed to pull out a peg on Brick Lake, peg 8. Wasn't to excited by this one as I feel you need to be right in the corner, 10 and 11 but maybe it could be OK for skimmers. The weather was quite pleasant at this stage, though a little chilly, but there was plenty of rain and strong winds forecast which I was going to take into consideration for tactics. At my peg I looked back down and saw a number of good anglers, I had Shaun Townsend on peg 7 and Mark Jeffries on peg 9, couldn't really see Mark due to a tree in between us. Behind me on Tile was Kev Winstone.

I thought about what to set up, I had contacted a local angler Paul Berry who gave me some info about the lakes and I would take these ideas with me today. Although at this stage I could have fished long I decided to go with a top set plus 3 sections distance (well I was standing in for Mike lol)  and here I set up a 4x18 old Preston float with 0.13 powerline to a 16 GPM, felt this was a compromise between carp and skimmers. I set up a 4x16 rig for fishing lighter for silvers if needed, a 4x16 for the LH margin with 0.17 powerline to 16 XSH for meat. I did set up a rig for fishing really short on meat, but I never used this one.

The picture below is looking back down the lake, peg 1 is on the RH corner, the wind was blowing from that end meaning my end was affected much more by it.

Match started at 10:30 and I potted in some corn and 4mm pellets on my long line to the right, potted some in fed lightly to the left. It was a slow start for me, nothing over the LH line, then onto the RH line and after about 10 mins here I had 2 skimmers in 2 drops then nothing. I tried the LH line again and had a bite as soon as the rig settled, it was a carp about 5lb, no more bites here. I was struggling to get any indications, Mark had had a couple of carp on paste, Shaun was still blanking. I tried changing the amounts of fed, and hookbaits either corn or soft pellet to make something happen. I hooked another skimmer and lost 2 carp which were fouled. Shaun then hit a very large fish which swam off and somehow found a snag and he lost it. Soon after he was playing another carp but it was his neighbours fish that had swum into his line lol.

Two and a half into the match I had just two carp and 4 skimmers, but hooked another carp which was my best at about 8lb. Shaun only had 1 skimmer at this stage and was trying the paste now, I happened to look up as he struck and his float never moved for a couple of seconds, then slowly off went another munter. Shaun was soon sat staring at a top set with no rig after his elastic had snapped, ooops! The wind was getting stronger but still OK for me to fish where I was, but I had abandoned the LH line a while back concentrating on the right as the rig was catching an undertow and going right against the wind. I was finding the only way I could get a response was to feed a decent amount of bait in a pot, trouble was if I got a skimmer it was just the one, and if a carp came in they were hard to hook in the mouth. I just kept at it and started to feed some meat in the LH margin.

With a couple of hours to go it was getting harder to hold the pole, and the tow was now changing with the float going with the wind slightly and was to get worse. Shaun had managed a couple of carp on corn, I sneaked one (and my only one) carp out of the margin. I had taken a couple more skimmers but was now fighting a losing battle with the wind. I came into a top set plus one line right in front with the same depth as out longer. I changed the hook length to 0.17 to 16 XSH and began to feed meat here. To begin with the rig sat OK here, but despite this the first 3 carp I hooked here all came off as were fouled. I was though able to get a few more bites here and had a couple of carp and 2 skimmers. The wind was now horrendous and the rig had to be deepened off to lay some line on the deck. It didn't help presentation and I managed to lose a couple more foulers and get another carp out. The match was over, and I had 8 carp and about 10 skimmers, Shaun and Mark both had 5 carp each.

Whilst I packed up in the rain which had been relentless for a couple of hours I watched house martins and swallows flying really close to me as they searched close to the ground and lake for insects, in fact as I stood by the tree by Kev Winstone the birds flew even closer to us, within inches of us at times. It took an absolute age to get weighed in, due to the weigh sheet on our lake getting wet and new paper was required. Whilst waiting Tony Rixon came round assisting the weigh in on Tile lake. He was sporting a very fetching umberella I must say.

This was the last time I got the phone camera out it was just to wet. When the scales arrived I saw Mat Toomes on 10 have about 130lb, Mark on 9 had 5 carp for 43lb. My turn, 16lb of skimmers and 8 carp for 45lb, my carp were small it was remarked, for a total of 61lb. Shaun's 5 carp went 47lb, and with his skimmers I think he had 57lb, so I managed to beat the guys either side of me but not too many others I think. I had no chance to get the results, so I will have to look out for these on Tony's blog. I believe though that the top four would have all come from corner pegs. Silvers was between John Fuidge and Ryan Shipp on Tile I think...

Remember that 100lb net limit, well one angler managed to have 102lb in his net, meaning he lost all of that net, and he weighed in 9lb (3 eels), unlucky Paul Elms lol. The drive home was rather longer than expected due to the rain becoming torrential, you simply couldn't see the white lines on the motorway at times. Really hope this weather turns and we start to get some warmer weather, May really has been pretty awful weather wise.

Ivy House Fishery - Old match lake

 If you read my blog last week you would have seen I ended it with I am not fishing next weekend. The various events that were planned all began to fall apart and that meant I would be free Sunday and could fish a match. With not much time left to plan anything I contacted Ivy House and decided tp try the old match lake this week. I asked a couple of anglers who I had noted had fished it recently, for some advice and I was given some pointers. Although a lot of common carp have been stocked into the lake between 1 and 3lb, and there are lots of other small carp, there are also larger carp up to 10lb and plenty of skimmers.

I got to the fishery and met up with fellow Bristolians Kev Winstone, Glenn Bailey and Mike Nicholls who were also fishing this lake. The weather was pleasant to start the day, though showers were forecast. I wasn't to sure of what was a good peg, but then found out that Ryan Shipp won this lake the day before with 120lb (much more than recent winning weights here) from peg 1, and peg 18 opposite was also favoured. I didn't get either of those and pulled out peg 13, was informed this was OK but not brilliant. Peg 1 was taken by Ryan's dad Vince Shipp, and peg 18 was Mark Poppleton who has done well on this lake. Kev was on peg 15, Glenn on 10 and Mike on 8, both had lots of room as they were end pegs on the day. For some reason I forgot to take some pictures of the lake today, doh, this lake has some islands that create gaps in between them, beyond pole range where I was. 

I set up a method feeder for the islands gap, a rig for the margin to my right at top set plus one (more than this and I couldn't see the float for foliage). A 4x12 rig for 8m with 16 SFLB to 0.13, and a 4x12 for 16m with 18 KKMB to 0.13 for hard pellet. I wasn't really sure where to start the match, but owner Andy Lloyd suggested pinging pellets at 16m was the best way forward. I decided to prime that whilst starting at 8m by feeding some micros and seeing what I could catch. The match began at 10:30 and starting at 8m proved fruitless with not a single indication! Meanwhile Mark Poppleton was already catching on the long pole, and Ryan was getting skimmers on the method feeder. I went out to 16m pinging pellets, I quickly had a bite and lost a fouler, and then missed about 4 bites. Eventually I hooked a bite and soon had a carp of 2lb in the net, and by the end of the hour I had 4 carp in the net for about 12lb. Bites really dried up soon after this and I only had 1 more carp and then I came off the pole. 

I gave the method feeder a go, had 2 skimmers and a little carp, but 2 skimmers pull off on the way back. The bites and indications also stopped here. The 16m pole line gave me just 1 more carp and it was never to happen here again for me.Half way through the match and with only another skimmer on the method I was well out of it. Kev was targeting skimmers and just getting the odd one, Ryan and MArk P looked to be doing the best at this stage. I was sure my chances of coin were over, so decided to try something and put some groundbait and red maggots in at 8m to get some bites, as well as micros, gbait and corn in the margins. First try over the gbait at 8m and I had a nice 1lb skimmer. Then the float would move around a tiny bit with liners but no bites, small fish or skimmers? I refed and then noticed Glenn getting decent carp on paste, and his bites were coming quickly. The 8m line began to pay dividends for me as I began to catch some carp over it, and they would show themselves as blows would appear. It was never frantic, and I had to refeed quite often but at least I was getting something to work out.

An hour to go and struggling again so I tried my margin, first two looks in on corn brought me 2 nice skimmers. Then a wait but eventually a 6lb carp. Despite a couple of definite liners not another fish came from here. I had another carp and a couple of small skimmers from the 8m to end the match. I thought I had about 60lb in total, not enough today. I weighed 62lb of which 15lb was skimmers.

My carp net below. It was good fishing this lake, and I know I was not up to speed with how to fish it, but I got a few in the end and should have knocked the pellet on the head sooner I guess.

Winner today was Glenn Bailey with 95lb 10oz, 2nd Mark Poppleton 87lb, 3rd Elick Payne 83lb 8oz.

Ryan Shipp won the silvers with 35lb 4oz, he had a very good last hour catching them on the pole short.

Full results below, the lake fished quite well today with weights up on recent matches, and I think tit will only get better. A few of us stopped off in the White Heart for a pint, it was bloody cold sat outside, when will a bit of warmth finally arrive!

Try it Again at Ivy House Fishery

 After my previous visit to this fishery on Heron Lake I was keen to get back here as quick as possible to try to get another feel for the venue. My last match whilst successful I was only able to catch in the margin and wanted to try and catch more of the F1's on the long pole if possible. I think I was one of the last if not the last person to arrive at the fishery today, and paid my pools in the shop and it was nearly time to draw so I would have to unload the gear after. It was great to see Des Shipp back on the bank after his heart scare, although he was going to be very difficult to beat today. Along with some of the local regulars, I spied Stu Foale, Bob Gullick and fellow Bristolian (and regular) Dave Wilmott. For some reason at the draw my name was called first and Andy Lloyd pulled out peg 10, this I was informed was another good peg.

Got to the peg and realised it was going to be a tough match to get coin, with Dave Wilmott on peg 11 (large corner peg) and commercial fishery expert Bob Gullick on peg 9. It was Bob's first visit to the venue and he asked me quite a few questions, but as I was only on my second visit I wasn't sure I was full of the best knowledge lol. 

The peg was on a bit of a bend / point, and Bob was very close to me on my right and so we had to be careful with our rollers and shipping back, it also meant there was really not much of a margin to go out in between us. I had a little bit more room to my left, but I only went a top set to my left for the margin line as Dave was giving me instructions on where I could fish! Funny enough the far bank has markers on it with the peg numbers and this gives you an idea of where you can chuck to on the far bank. I notice I had a Lion on the far bank!

I set up heavier rigs today as the wind was forecast to be quite strong, so 4x14 for top set plus 2 sections, and out at 13m. 0.12 Accu Power to 18 SFLB. 4x12 for the margin, and a couple of shallow rigs as I thought there might be some F1's caught shallow. I also set up a method feeder rod again and clipped it up fishing just to the right of the Lion.

I began the match on topset plus two, I fed a little ball of micro this week and fished a soft pellet on the hook. Bob had bites before me, but lost his first 3 fish. I then had 1, lost 2, then had another. Once agin this line never got going, and Bob and Dave were also struggling here. Not long before we were all trying out longer, I went to 13m and had fed some fishery 4mm pellets and again had a sofot pellet on the hook, I had a couple of fish here and lost a couple but was missing bites. The wind was now a pain and I felt my presentation wasn't great, I decided to fish corn on the hook which would give the rig more stability. It was a good move and toss potting pellets and corn I had a run of fish on the 13m line and pulled ahead of my neighbours, but just as I was getting excited it all went quiet here again. 

I tried the margin early for no signs, whilst Dave was now getting the odd fish in his margin fishing long. A quick look back long and still no good, so I picked up the method feeder. Fishing this with some Pro Thatchers green gbait on it and red maggot on the 18 KKMB hook I had a small F1 first cast. Probably had 5 or 6 fish fairly quickly before it died. Time to move again! It was a struggle on the pole for me, but Bob had now gone shallow and was slapping like a good un, he wasn't getting many at this stage, but as I could not get any bites deep I decided to go back on the feeder and feed pellet at 14m to try to catch shallow. I had 3 more fish on the feeder and then Bob said "oh shit", his pole had come apart with a fish on and half his pole was in the lake. Luckily he was able to drop his feeder over it and get it back before it sunk, he also landed the fish! He was having a good run shallow and it forced me to follow suit. However, the wind and my ineptitude and lack of experience at this method showed, I think I only caught two fish shallow. I decided I was not going to do any good on this and dropped in over this line with the deep rig. I took a few more fish here before they went.

I went back onto the method feeder and had a run of about 8 or 9 fish, but as ever it just stops and you have to try elsewhere. Whilst on the tip I saw a lovely Red Kite soaring above us, a beautiful bird. I felt I was someway behind Dave who was still catching in his margin, although was continually moaning about the size of the fish he was catching. Bob had stopped catching shallow and was trying different things out but was struggling. I put 3 or 4 fish in the net from the margin on my left but that was it. I finished the match on the method feeder and just before the whistle for all out I had another wrap round, I landed my best fish a 3lb carp after the whistle. Today the match was completely different from last week for me, I also caught nearly all F1's where as last week I had nearly all carp.

Dave was convinced he had not beaten us, but I said he clearly had, Bob G had a £1 with Dave on this. However, as usual Dave had completely underestimated and he had 74lb which was a good weight on the day.

My turn next and my two nets went exactly 62lb, I thought I might have had 50lb so was happy with that. Bob's turn to weigh and amazingly his weight was called out at exactly 62lb as well! I had to be happy with that, but I know that a better F1 angler would have caught more out of my peg today, but I think I did the right think by fishing what I was confident in and tried to ring the changes. Photo below of Bob packing up shows just how close are pegs are together, but it is understandable as the lake widens out here and there's plenty of water in front. 

I was fairly sure that the match was going to be won by Des Shipp on peg 20, and this turned out to be correct, he had 84lb 10z. You can't keep a good man down, well done sir.

2nd Dave Wilmott 74lb 2oz

3rd Jamie Dixey peg 6 66lb 10oz 

Joint 4th Bob and myself, we shared £30.

Full results sheet is below. Dave, Bob and myself stopped off in a pub garden for a celebratory pint of Thatchers Gold, thanks Dave for the idea and getting them in. It was great to have a chat with both of them and I had thoroughly enjoyed the day, and the banter and laughs with them.

No fishing next weekend for me.

Ivy House Lakes Open Match - Heron Lake

 Sorry there haven't been any post for a couple of weeks but things got a tad difficult. First I had a date for an operation come up and not get cancelled, and that meant I had to self isolate for a week. Then last weekend after a long battle with cancer my Father in law Steve passed away. That was a hard time for all of the family and I was with him at the end. For my wife, her sister, their mother, the grandchildren, other family and friends it is of course a sad time. Steve was a life long Rovers fan, and had watched them for 70 years, he was just a very nice man and from day one he made me feel very welcome into his family. RIP Steve.

Having decided that on the bank holiday weekend I would go fishing on the Sunday I needed to find a match. My first thoughts were Hillview again, but I was told there was no match, so a message to Shaun Townsend revealed he was going to Ivy House and told me there were 4 pegs left on Heron lake. I'd never fished this lake before and so thought why not give it a go, I was well overdue visiting this venue again and got booked in. Shaun gave me some info, as did a couple of other anglers and I guessed I had a plan. Heron lake is currently stocked with lots of F1s and small carp, with no silvers at all in it.

I arrived at the fishery and was just behind Shaun's van as it happened, so I followed him once inside the gates and got to the car park by Heron lake. What a lovely looking lake!

It was good to see Andy Lloyd again and as ever he gave me a nice friendly welcome and was pleased to see me at his fishery, I could not believe how much it had changed since my last visit, simply awesome place. I paid Andy's wife Karen my pools money and bought some of the fishery pellets that you must use for feeding. It was good to see some familiar faces by the shop, Rod Wooten, Shaun and Paul Elmes, Vince and Ryan Shipp and Mike Etheridge. Some anglers were fishing Heron, others on another lake. When it came to my turn I pulled out peg 6, and I was told it was a good peg and had a lovely margin, Vince Shipp told me how he would fish the margin and that was good enough for me!

Before I got to my peg I read the fishery rules, of which there were a few but all that were fairly normal it seemed, and I grabbed two fishery keepnets and a landing net (typical I remembered my own nets today!) and went to my peg. It certainly looked nice with an island point out of reach of any pole, and the lovely long margin to my right.

Setting up I was not sure of the depths so put a deep rig on first and found it wasn't deep enough for top set plus two, but out at 13 to 14.5m it was a little shallower and was OK here. I used 4x12 rigs on everything I set up, right or not I don't know but that's what I did. 16 SFLB to 0.11 powerline for fishing pellet or corn, and 18 to 0,11 for fishing maggot. I plumbed up a margin line at top set plus two just by those first couple of reeds. I also has set up a method feeder rod for the island, but as it turned out I never used it.

The match started at 10:30, and like pretty much everyone else I started on a top set plus two feeding 4mm pellets and a pro expander on the hook. I had a bite and lost that fish, next drop I had a fouler which came off by the net, Jamie Dixey on peg 4 already had 4 in the net and I was off the pace already. I did manage to catch a few small carp here, but only had 1 F1, so either I was doing it wrong or the F1's were not here. Mike Etheridge to my left on peg 7 was struggling like me. All to soon the indications here stopped as they did for most, and I went out to 13m to see if there was anything here, two quick fish and 2 lost then dead. Jamie is fishing long, looks like 16m and is getting one a bung. I go to 14m and after a long wait get a couple more fish and then all quiet again. I was wondering what to do next, Mike was struggling like me but Jamie was giving me a severe hiding, I could see he was fishing pellets but I really wondered if going to 16m would make that much difference. Unfortunately fishing 16m would be really difficult as I had a big chicken cage behind me full of cluckers, yep I was really on Cluckers peg today lol!

I was contemplating chucking the feeder out, but I thought I was so far behind Jamie after 100 minutes I would never catch him up on this, so I decided to go in the margin, which I had fed a couple of times. I fed a little ball of Sonubaits Method mix and F1 gbait, and some maggots, and dropped in with double red maggot. I didn't have to wait that long to get a bite, and I had a few fish straight away but they were all small carp, where were the F1's? I guess in the first hour I tried to find my way in how best to feed, how often and how to put the rig in, and I was relying here on my own skills as I had no info, but to be fair I think we all have to work this out on the day when we fish. After an initial feed every other fish I went up to feeding every drop and this seemed at times to get bites quicker. Foulers or missed bites were a problem at times as the F1's made an appearance and I think this is just something you have to work through. 

I was now thoroughly enjoying myself catch these fish that average out at about 1lb each. Jamie had gone from bagging to struggling, whilst I now continued to catch steady and was clawing back some of the deficit. The margin did slow up and I tried my left margin which produced just the odd fish, but gave the RH margin a little rest. I was thinking about going longer down the RH margin, but just as I did the fish came quicker again, I caught on both single and double red maggot. Just as I thought I was really closing in on Jamie he managed to get a run of F1's shallow, it didn't last but he put a dozen or more fish in the net very quickly. I counted my fish in the last 30 minutes and I caught 11 and it was a nice end to the match.

I hadn't clicked my fish today, but I was hoping I had around 80lb based on the catch rate I had for the last 4 hours of the match, I didn't know if Jamie had beat me by a lot, but he thought I had more. Scales were soon moving around the fishery as Andy and Karen got going. Dave "magic" Wilmott on peg 2 had 70lb, all caught short and in his margins. Jamie then had 84lb 14oz. My fish were just short of that and went 81lb exactly. Mike on my left had 50lb 10oz, he had a good run down his LH margin.

Winner today was Jamie Reed on peg 11 with 88lb, I believe he caught a lot of his fish shallow.

2nd Jamie Dixey 84lb 14oz

3rd was me with 81lb. That was last in the money :-) 

I've put the full weigh sheet in below so you can see all the weights today. I am chuffed to bits to have framed on my first visit to this lake. Certainly I drew a good peg, but I feel the win was there for me with more experience, and I think the method feeder would have been better early on for a few fish. However, it's always good to go somewhere new and learn things, makes you think. After that initial poor couple of hours I have had bites all day, and that in my book is what I like about fishing. I sincerely hope this fishery goes from strength to strength, if effort equals reward then Andy and Karen will be very successful. I look forward to fishing here again and seeing how the fish grow on and this fishing develops.