Sunday 15th saw me arrive at Bowood to try and shake off the effects of the Glebe! Fishing from 9:45 to 12:15 on peg 10 saw me start with the bulk set about eight inches from the 16 hook under a home made teardrop float taking 0.6g over two balls of groundbait laced with a bit of wheat and corn. Things were not frantic fishing my usual 10m and I scratched out 9 rudd, 6 roach and a hybrid for a 4-02 which gives an indication of the size I was catching!

I returned on the Tuesday to peg 10 and fishing the same way managed 28 rudd and 6 roach for 3-15, emphasising the quality of the fish on the Sunday! There was a lot of pike activity with the odd blank period when I am sure one was lying in wait in the swim. As an aside I had bought some Chinese jelly “pellets” in a variety of flavours and I tried the honey flavoured one which was a sweetcorn colour and caught on it!

The flavours minus the Honey left to right are Herb, Fruit, Milk and Fish!

Nothing further was possible as the three day event at Monkhall drew close. I was a running the event but in all honesty I had/have no illusions of me being anything but pools fodder making up the numbers. The methods at the venue are usually fishing shallow with casters, a method I do not enjoy and cannot afford to do with a gallon needed over the 3 days! Given my comments about pools fodder I approach these matches as an opportunity to fish a different venue but use methods I am comfortable with- ie fishing to my strengths.

Day 1 sees me draw Swallow peg 17, on a positive note, the day stayed dry, but the wind we had once the match started was blowing down the other end the lake starting two pegs away, so I had no ripple at all.

Yes I was end peg with plenty of room! The four rigs I set up were a paste rig for 2+2, a pellet rig for on the deck, an on the drop full depth rig and a margin rig for both edges. Elastics were 2.2mm hybrid Chinese ones with rigs mainly 0.16 to 0.14mm with hooks 16 apart from the margin and paste which were 14 and 12 respectively. No groundbait allowed so corn, paste, micros, 4mm, expanders and three week old maggots were the baits of choice! Starting at 2+2 on paste and potting in some micros it took about 10 minutes before I had a bite that resulted ion a carp of about 4lb hooked in the tail- at this point the alarm bells should have been ringing! After the first hour I had clicked 11lb and then things went to pot (literally). To cut a long story short I weighed in 23-13 after long blank spells interspersed with 14 fish hooked- all foul hooked- and 14 fish lost! My worst day at the venue and last in four peg section ! I was not alone as Herbie was opposite me and suffered a similar fate getting only one carp and a few silvers.

On to day two everyone wanted to draw Buzzard rather than Hawk, so with two discs left in the bag, Buzzard was pulled out leaving me peg 3 on Hawk! The photos are deceiving as later in rained!

Setting up same as previously except I went down to the 2mm Chinese hybrid elastic I started fast with three carp in the net for 8lb before anyone else had a fish , then disaster I bumped a fish and they disappeared Fishing out at 10m, 2+2 or margins resulted in the same thing – frustration. I was getting bites, some may have been liners but some were definite bites all of which were missed in the next 3 hours. I did manage to get a couple of fish in the net for a 26-09 total which left me last again, but on the positive side I only lost 4 foul hookers!

So the final day I was scheduled to be on Owl as we had Swallow and Owl on the first and third day, so we always swap to fish the other lake from day 1. I drew Owl 9 which if you recall from a previous blog I had fished in a practice session earlier in the year! (no photos this time!) It was the worst of the three days with one carp in the net after an hour and at times I could not buy a bite. I lost 7 foul hookers and weighed in 20-07 for last again. The overall winner had a perfect score of three points but he did have an advantage- he was next to me on all three days!

Returning home I was convinced that I had made a major blunder with the addition of the micros as it seemed that too many fish were drawn in to the peg and rooting about causing the foul hookers and liners. Reading my blog from previous visits I gave myself a good telling off as I had made the point previously that 4mm were better at avoiding foul hookers although others were using micros at times and they complained of the same. I must remind myself to reread posts if visiting venues and learn from them!

Sunday sees me head to Bowood to start my pike campaign having picked up a kilo of sardines on the Friday .Peg 10 (of course) looked a bit rough as there was debris all over it. Obviously there had been flooding (the town had also suffered from flooding) but it seemed they had opened the sluice at the far end of the lake to run the excess water off and had not closed it soon enough as the level was about 18inches lower than I expected. I set up slightly differently after ten minutes as I felt the weed might now not be such an issue after the flooding so moved the bulk about two feet up the line leaving two sets of 2 x no9 droppers. Two balls of groundbait but I did not take any wheat with me, instead I had decided to use some of the left over 4mm pellet and also took the expanders. Starting on maggot it was about 20minutes before I had a roach, after 6 more I put on a 4mm expander and apart from one rudd on corn I stuck with the expander for the rest of the session between 9:30 and 12:15 on the pole. I had cast out the pike rod with my newly acquired sardine at 9:15(chimes ringing out from the clock tower) Nd after an hour reeled in to recast to find that the sardine was not there! New sardine attached to my standard two single barbless carp hook rig to 15lb wire and cast out to 12m. Thirty minutes later the pellet waggler I use on a sliding rig disappears, a strike and a feisty pike comes to the net, except the net gets caught on the reeds and an arm comes out, so I have a pike in front of me and no net to use! Slipping the anti-reverse on I put the rod between my legs and sorted the net, picking the rod up again and anti-reverse off I finally get the pike in the net! 8-08 the first of the autumn.

October will see a silvers match at Meadowlands and hopefully more pike action!