Tuesday 05/05/2026 - Hob knobs - Harescombe - Match Lake

Back to Harescombe with Glenn to fish the Hob Knobs match on the Match Lake. Sixteen fishing. Another decent breakfast which had to be devoured quickly as head Hob Knob was enthusiastic for an early draw. Effects of holidays.

Was nearly last to be called up to the draw bag. Good way to draw, no mass gatherings and time for a recorded draw.

Peg 1 for me. Hopefully peg 29 wasn't in - it wasn't so plenty of room - pictured.  The wind was blowing quite hard down to the end bank and was quite cold. 

Applying learning last match I dug out four Speedy float rigs - 4x10's and 4 x 12's to try out. Love these floats, designed for Malman by Nick Speed - not sure what he used them for but I like them for long lining in margins when windy.

Bait wise had 7 mm meat, micro, GB and LR's. Once again don't' have the patients to wait hours for fish to turn up on it and that was how it was today, so no more discussion on this. Has to be instant to keep me interested.

Set up a 4x10 Speedy. A small margin bush had attracted me on the top set and plumbing around was perfect depth and slope. Could easily reach the end bank with three barrels so chose a line with the same depth as the bush line.

Started by loose feeding micro and LR's down to the bush. But wasted time fishing out one barrel over loose fed meat and after 30 minutes gave it in. Went down to the bush with singe LR and expected to be pestered by small silvers. I was getting indications which was liners from Carp and soon had a 3 lb Carp in the net. Next put in hooked another that was really angry and took ages to get in close, thought it was fouled - it wasn't, started to pull harder which resulted in the rig line snapping above the float. Close inspection revealed I had put on a silvers Speedy with 0.12 rig line which I attached 0.16 hook length thinking it was 0.16 rig line. Duh. Set up again and back to the bush which had gone quiet so went over to the end bank where I had been loose feeding LR's. Presentation was perfect as the strong wind was causing the rig to swing round and away from the bank. I was soon in to a purple patch catching regularly decent Common's and Mirror's and the odd big F1's. Did foul hook a couple. The wind dropped leaving the rig becalmed which certainly slowed the catch rate. So back to the bush and two more there. Back out to the end bank which had really slowed but had a 1 1/2 Skimmer on the drop. Last hour was really difficult only catching one more, losing a foul hooker on the all out.

Weighed 36 lb 14 oz for a close won match. That's it now until Whiteacres in 11 days time with plenty of tackle sorting to do.

Here's a thing had a Common Carp which looked really sick so isolated it in a separate net for Gary to diagnose. Apparently it had Carp Pox and would be fine in a few weeks. Apparently similar to human Herpes.

Back to the Lamb with the usual suspects for a pint or two in my case.

 Weigh Sheet:

Sunday 03/05/2026 - Ron Hardiman's Summer League - Round One - Westerleigh - Taylor's and Shipp's

Round one of Ron's Summer League today. Weather looked reasonable, with hardly any wind which would likely effect the silver fishing. However, on the start on any league it's only sensible to start to catch the heaviest weight and get some good points. So Carp targetted.

Nineteen fishing with one "unavailable".

First round is a random draw following matches swop between the two pools. So you stay fishing with the same ten anglers throughout the league.

Into the draw bag and peg 16 on Taylor's for me. Far from being the best peg. it's been poor for some time usually last on the pool. However, you never know - staying positive. For company on 15 was Shaun T and peg 17 Tony M. Our pool had the full 10 fishing with the absentee being on Shipp's peg 1.

Well had to give the paste a go. I should know this peg well by now, drawn it a few times and fishing any closer than three barrels you are fishing over a rocky bottom and difficult to plumb. Sensibly it's best to fish just short of the bar at 13 metres. So set up a 0.4 gram PC paste float to fish top set plus three barrels. The peg does have a good margin to the left so a 0.3 gram paste float was set up for that. The usual short Ronnie rig in case! Finally set up the waggler to fish on the bar in 30 inches of water.

Fed half a pot of micro on the long paste line and plopped in the paste and had a fouler first attempt, which didn't reach the net. After which the paste was getting pestered by I think were small Tench, too small for the size of paste, so put on a small piece and had a 8 oz Tench, so refed and had a few casts on the waggler with double LR's over loose fed same and once again foul hooked a Carp which broke me. Subsequently got pestered by small Ronnie's. Meanwhile Paul Elmes opposite was catching well short (good short peg). All along our bank was struggling. So on to the Ronnie rig to put something in the net fishing single LR's over loose fed same and caught small Perch and Ronnie's for a couple of hours before trying the long paste line again but with no sign of a fizz it was soon abandoned back to the Ronnie rig. Nick S on 14 was blanking at this time Shaun T had a few F1's long on pellet. So stayed on the Ronnie rig and had three Skimmers and a couple of Tench when the rain started and the line went completely dead. It was either due to the rain or Carp had moved in. Luckily it was the latter had a 5 lb dumpy Carp on the Ronnie rig with single LR. So time to pick up the margin paste rig, so fed some micro and with great expectations as it was plopped in and it just sat there without any indications!! Shaun was now bagging in his margin on meat. So went back on the Ronnie rig and had three more decent Carp and some F1's (well F0.5's as they were so small). Shaun T and me needed another hour as Paul E opposite had stopped catching at the same time we started to catch.

Weighed 40 lb dead with 9 lb 9 oz of silvers enough for the pool silvers win. I would have settled for 6 points off this peg at the start. Very enjoyable day's fishing.

Taylor's was won as expected by Paul Elmes with 87 lb 11 oz from peg 20. Paul caught short on meat and 14.5 metres out to the bar fishing pellet. Well done matey.

That man on fire on this venue Bela Bakos (pictured with the winner on Taylor's pool) easily won Shipp's with 102 lb 8 oz from peg 11. Bela started short with meat and had a few F1's, switching to long over to the end of his right side island with pellet and started to catch better stamp of Carp. He later dropped back short on meat and was rewarded with a beautiful 12 lb Grass Carp (foul hooked apparently). he also manged to properly hook some munters that do come in close to your keep net on this peg late on and are very difficult to hook properly. Well done matey.

Couldn't help noticing a number of anglers now suffering with injuries from fishing very long. Think it's time to introduce a 13 metre limit. Even the best pole you can buy are heavy fished long.

Back to the New Inn for a pint and the usual banter.

Weigh Sheets - Rain effected: