Tuesday 28/04/2026 - Hob Knobs - Harescombe - Match Lake

Back to Harescombe with angler and good friend who needs  no introduction other than looking at his roost - pictured.

The day before the match the temperature was comfortable enough to sit in the garden tying hooks. Looked at the forecast for today and it did say expect the temperature to be 5 degrees colder. Should have considered the wind chill factor as arriving at the fishery there was a very cold NE wind blowing. It was bloody freezing.

Head Hob Knob wasn't available today so Katherine did the honors with the draw etc...

After a nice breakfast, into the draw bag and peg 18 for me. Luckily Glen was next peg 20 so parked behind empty 19. My other next peg was 16 occupied by matey Chris Gay. The fish were attempting to spawn - certainly going through the motions particularly in peg 16. Sat on my box to find the wind blowing it at me at 11 0 clock - bloody freezing.

Glenn and I haven't been here for a good few months so were well out of touch and will be fishing with good bunch of anglers that fish the venue two to three times a week.

Had paste, maggots. micro and GB. I was doubtful about the paste. Fish spawning up edge of the sedges, so didn't bother with a margin rig as thought it would only lead to fouling. So a short Ronnie rig, 4x12 Winter to initially fish top set plus three barrels and a 0.3 gram paste float to also fish long to the left of the Winter rig.

Fed some GB and Maggot on the right Winter line and loose fed some maggots on the Ronnie rig line. Started with a small ball of paste over some micro and had a bite first put put in, well not a bite exactly but a fouler that came off. Never mind gave some enthusiasm for the paste. Well an hour in and having lost seven foulers and nothing in the net except a speared micro Ronnie, so gave it up. Tried double maggot on the Winter line and lost a Skimmer which might have also been foul hooked! Plenty of moaning going on about how cold it was and how poor the fishing was. The wind was a pain long to sulked on to top set plus one and batten down the hatches. Fished double LR's with GB and experimented with different feeding and started to catch some F1's, some skimmers and one decent Roach and was surprised when a Bream (not a Skimmer) flew off the hook, indeed if it was hooked, Learnt a bit about the feeding for next time. The Ronnie rig was left in the roost today due to the poor presentation due to the strong wind.

Weighed 12 lb 12 oz for seventh from bottom, lost 10 foulers - final score 10 - 7 to the Carp -  duh. On hindsight should have set up a margin rig.

The match was won by regular Phil Auger (pictured with his catch) from peg 11 with a great weight on the day of 42 lb 15 oz. Phil caught mainly long over to the island at 14 metres fishing either maggot or caster hook bait fished over loose fed same. Well done matey.

Back to the pub with John S, Pete G and Glenn B for the usual moans.

Weigh Sheet:

Thursday 16/04/2026 - Avalon Open - Match Lake

Had a call from Kev Winstone offering a lift to Avalon. Definite yes otherwise I would have spent the day tearing my hair out setting up a new phone. Happy to put that off.

We had breakfast in Lillypool Cafe. It's had a complete refurbish since last there. The breakfast was excellent especially the sausage. Expensive, but only get what you pay for.

Didn't expect the need to give Kev instructions on how to get to Avalon from the cafe. Yep, he took the wrong turning - Duh. Never a dull moment with Kev's driving - very exciting white knuckles come to mind.

Nice to catch up with Vic Bush, Steve Kedge, Incognito and others

Twenty four fishing so every peg in on the far in on the far bank where you can now park behind every peg. I was being over watched by a large Heron, it didn't come down after my flying Ronnie's - pictured

Into the draw bag and peg 40 for me. Arrived at the peg which was on the end of the second island and thought might have a day on the pellet waggler but was deterred by the wind. So silvers it would be.

Set up a 4x16 winter to fish for skimmers at top set plus three, short Ronnie rig (Mutterless rig?) and a 4x12 for tight into the edge which is very deep hopefully for a bonus Perch or two.

Potted a few casters down tight to the RH margin, fed the long line with a ball of hard GB laced with caster, micro and chopped worm. Started down the edge with double caster and had a few small Ronnie's with no sign of Perch went out long with a worm and although the wind was strong presentation was good. However no signs, not even from a Ronnie. Looking around a fair few were fishing for silvers and all struggling early doors, so fed the long line again a kept an eye open for any sign of a blow. Meanwhile started on the Ronnie rig with single caster over loose fed caster. It was a bite a chuck from mainly small Ronnie's and the odd decent Rudd and bloody loads of Mutterless Minnows. Kept trying the long line with worm but no signs and topping up afterwards. The upshot was I don't have the ability to sit 6 hours for 5 bites so with no signs of Skimmers spent the last last couple of hours on the Ronnie rig trying different feeding etc.. to avoid the Minnows.

Had around 300 fish for 12 lb 4 oz. which surprisingly left me one out of the silvers pool.

The match was won by Incognito (pictured with the silvers winner) with 73 lb 5 oz from peg 26. Howard caught on his usual Tea Bag method. Well done matey.

The silvers was taken by Phil Dodds with 21 lb 8 oz from peg 34. Phil caught on the cage feeder with micro and worm feed with worm on the hook. He caught four big Bream and one Perch. Well done matey.

Well done to Kev for second in the silvers with 19 lb 3 oz. Kev got platformed by a foul hooked Bream using knicker elastic.

Back to Wells Spoons for a couple or three pints of Guinness's with the usual lads.

Weigh Sheet:

Sunday 12/04/2026 - Bela Bakos Open - Westerleigh - Shipp's and Taylor's

After a short break was looking forward to today's match. Usual twenty pegs and hoping for a peg on the far side of Taylor's. Into the draw bag and peg 4 Shipp's again! This peg can throw up a Carp weight once in a while but not of late, so no need to cut up meat or mix paste today. However, it's an OK silvers peg - so that will do. Nice to have fishery manager next door on peg 3.

Simple set up 4x14 winter to fish two barrels, Short Ronnie rig and a 6" slim bodied drake.

Plan was to initially fish the two barrel line for Skimmers then switch to the Ronnie rig and if things got hard onto the waggler for again Ronnie's. Every time I fish this peg the first 30 minutes is spent catching F1's and can guarantee one first put in. So fed a knub of GB laced with Pinkie and yes the Winter rig hadn't settled and a F1 took the double Pinkie and was soon in the net. Kept topping up every fish and after four F1's had two small Skimmers and a couple of Crucians (which don't count as silvers). Had a couple more Skimmers and some Ronnie's before it was time to test for the Ronnie's on the short rig. Had a good couple of hours regularly catching 1 - 2 oz fish. Thought I would rest it and try the waggler with single LR over lose fed same. First couple of cast was getting indications, then the heavens opened with a barrage of hail stones making the waggler invisible, so abandoned that and went back on the Ronnie rig. Last hour thought I would have an experiment on the two barrel line by dumping a big pot of LR's in. With single LR on the hook and had two instant F1's and foul hooked two decent Carp.  Experiment over - thinking paste might have worked today. Spent the remaining time on the Ronnie rig had slowed but did add two better Skimmers.

F1's weighed 12 lb 4 oz and the Silvers 8 lb 13 oz for the lake silvers win. Mission accomplished.

Shipp's and the match was won by Vince Shipp (pictured) - AGAIN - with 90 lb 1 oz from peg 8. Vince struggled early on fishing soft pellet and micro (thought I heard some moaning) . He later switched to corn hook bait over micro fishing short down his right margin and caught decent Carp. Vince had also had a go with meat which didn't produce much - guessing it was due the highly coloured water. Well done matey.

Taylor's was won by Mike Etheridge (pictured) with 74 lb 10 oz from peg 20. Mike tried catching long which didn't produce switching to both his margins fishing meat in both. Well done matey.

Taylors silver's was won by Matt Tainton with a decent weight of 14 lb 12 oz from peg 25. Matt caught mainly Skimmers on either maggot or worm over chopped worm. Well done matey.

Now here's a thing Ricky Mills was on peg 11 which was on my sight line and his yellow topped float was a right distraction. Then relised Ricky must of borrowed some of Geoff Francis special floats also explaining Geoff's absence.

Well done to Bela for running the match today and thanks for putting peg 4 in 😉

Weigh Sheets: