Weight - 48lb 3oz Carp - 11 Carp Weather - Wet & cold overnight. Cool and breezy. Match - Tackle Den (15 fished) - 6th overall, 2nd in section Following a cold wet day yesterday and more cold overnight rain, the general feeling was the lake would fish hard. The good news was the ground was still hard enough to drive around the lake, you just had to avoid some soft spots. At the draw I wanted to be around the big island or on the far bank. Unfortunately, I was disappointed to draw p3, which has been a poor area of the lake so far this year and was told I would be looking for 10 bites ..read more

Weight - 67lb 6oz (22lb 6oz) Catch - 5 Carp, 18 Skimmers, 2 Tench, 2 Perch, 1 Roach Weather - Mostly sunny, cool northerly wind. Match - Open (19 fished) - 9th overall, 6th in silvers A change of scenery this week, after spending a lovely week in Pembrokeshire. I always enjoy my trips to Shiplate and todays match was on the main lake, which I haven’t fished for 3 or 4 years. With 19 booked it also meant it would be a bit cosy in certain areas of the lake. P12 put me in a good area, although I had venue regular Gary Flinders to my left on rarely used peg 12a. Feedback was the lake had b ..read more

Weight - 25lb 10oz (8lb 1oz - silvers) Catch - 5 Carp, 14 Skimmers, 3 F1s, 1 Roach Weather - Mostly sunny, with a cool westerly breeze. Match - Tackle Den (22 fished) - 11th overall, 3rd in section Only a short write as I’m a bit late writing this blog as I’ve been away for a week in Pembrokeshire. Todays match was over the Old Match Lake and half of Willow. I really fancied drawing Willow, but got p16, which hasn’t been good recently and very few carp were caught on this bank yesterday. As expected, I struggled to string any fish together, catching a few skimmers on expanders, plus 5 ..read more

Weight - 33lb 10oz Catch - 8 Carp, 8 F1s, 2 Skimmers, 1 Roach Weather - Warm sunny start, became cooler in the afternoon. Breezy Match - Open (13 fished) - 5th overall I was happy enough with p4, as it gave me some room as peg 3 wasn’t in. Having drawn p3 last week, when I should have at least come 2nd I thought I would approach the match in a similar way. As it wasn’t anywhere near as windy as last week, I started at 16m tapping in 4s, fishing a hair rigged 6mm and it wasn’t until I switched to corn that I had 2 F1s. As there didn’t appear to be any carp on this line, I switched to th ..read more

Weight - 39lb 10oz (12lb 4oz - silvers) Catch - 4 Carp, 7 F1s, 18 Skimmers, 5 Roach Weather - Mild, mostly cloudy and windy. Match - Open (9 fished) - 3rd overall It’s been a few months since I fished the Old Match Lake and in that time Andy has stocked a lot of small F1s into the lake which will add a different dimension to the matches. With storm Kathleen due to blow through today I had mixed feelings about drawing p3, as its not the best peg, but it was sheltered from the worst of the wind. Due to the forecast wind I decided not to fish any longer than 13m, feeding a nugget of Uzit Crushe ..read more

Weight - 52lb 8oz Catch - 31 Carp, 11  F1s Weather - Mostly sunny, cool westerly breeze. Match - Arthritis Charity (20 fished) - 6th overall Only the one match this Easter weekend and it was back to Ivy House on Heron Lake for a charity match run by Louise for Arthritis. There were 20 booked in so every peg was in except for the 4 corners and I drew p21 which is normally a good area. It’s been 2 months since I fished the lake when maggot was dominate and recent reports suggested pellet was starting to work, so that was my main focus. On the all-in I started on a mini method with micros ..read more

Weight - 5oz Catch - 1 Roach Weather - Cold during the week. Bright and sunny, with a cool NW breeze Match - Teams of 3 (36 fished) - 11th of out 12 section The last round of the teams of 3 and we had a very outside chance of a top 4 position assuming we won the day and others messed up. I was on Meadow and handed p2 which was on the dam wall for the first time. Looking at the past results, it showed 1lb came off the peg in the last round and 6oz in the first round. However, there had been a 1st and 3rd off the peg, which would have mostly been caught on the waggler. When I got to the peg ..read more

Weight - 48lb 5oz Catch - 10 Carp Weather - Heavy overnight rain. Cloudy with sunny periods Match - Open (9 fished) - 2nd overall Well, I got my car back and with no guarantee that the electrical issue has been 100% resolved, I decided to part-exchange it and brought another V90! Only the one match this weekend and back to Harescombe for their open on Meadow Lake. More heavy overnight rain meant some of the roads on the drive up were flooded and it was also likely to have an affect on the fishing. My draw put me on the 2nd peg out of the corner on the left bank and when I arrived the wate ..read more

Weight - 30lb 13oz (5lb 4oz - silvers) Catch - 4 Carp, 7 Skimmers, 3 Roach, 1 Hybrid Weather - Mostly cloudy, rain late on. Match - Teams of 3 (36 fished) - 7th in section. The Teams of 3 and my turn for Field Lake. Jason handed me p3, which initially I thought was a decent draw, however when I looked at the previous rounds weigh sheets, the highest weight from the peg was 14lb and the points so far were 9, 11 and 12 (out of 12), so not a great area. When I got to my peg it was just before the lake narrows, with no real room either side and I doubted the margins would feature. After yesterda ..read more

Weight - 38lb 12oz  Catch - 11 Carp, 3 Skimmers, 3 Roach Weather - Bright & sunny. Cool easterly Match - Open (6 fished) - 2nd overall As I was due to fish Field Lake on Sunday for the teams of 3, I decided to fish todays open to give me a feel for the lake, as the last time I fished it was 17 years ago. There was only the 6 of us today so plenty of space. My draw put me on the right-hand corner of the dam wall, which had a very inviting right-hand margin. To my left was Steve Brown of Harescombe Maver, so it would be good to keep an eye on him to see how the locals fish the lake ..read more