Open, The Glebe, Monday 4th July 2022

A match organised on the Maggotdrowners forum, its a shame the Glebe is over 2 hours away, I'd definitely go there more often if it were an hour away.  Enjoyable day, thanks to Ian for organising.

Fancied it for a few, it was slightly breezy but I could get the waggler to fish nicely, or it looked nice to me, but not the fish.  I managed one on it, one on the lead, but I had to wait until the last 90 minutes when I could catch at 14.5m on worms over 6mm pellets, it was the only way I could catch, didn't have a bite in the margin.  If only they'd have shown up earlier.... I feel I should have won the lake at least, did I spend too long trying to make the waggler work?

Mystery Teams Of Three, The Glebe, Saturday 23rd October 2021

 A while back I stuck my name down for a mystery teams match at The Glebe, which was being organised on Maggotdrowning (forum), for the competitors it was as simple as turn up and draw a peg, just like an open, the pegs were allocated to the teams before the draw I believe so it was pot luck who you fished with.

Nice early start for the drive up tp the Glebe, its about 130 miles, but a large part of that is motorway, so not too bad at 2 hrs 15 mins.  Got there in plenty of time, as the event was a team event there was no individual payout, so I ran a superpool, which 2/3's of the field entered.

I haven't really had a chance to get to the Glebe for a few years, shame as it's a great fishery, so I had pestered Mark Poppleton for some info, which helped to cement the thoughts I had and a simple plan was formulated - hard pellets, corn and dead maggots.

Draw done and I must admit I didn't know who I was fishing with, so just my match to concentrate on, peg 7, not one I have heard of as a much revered draw, but I was sure there would be fish to be caught off most pegs.  

Set up two 10' Daiwa Tournament feeder rods, on with a straight lead and one clipped up across with a 4 square feeder,  A 12' Daiwa waggler rod with a straight waggler under which was a 0.16 hooklength and 16 PR36 with a hair rigged band.

Poe rigs were a margin rig (just in case, never expected to catch on it), a skimmer rig in case it was hard, a Malman Roob for corn short, that had a 16 Kaizen to 0.17, two pellet rigs (again, Roobs), one with LWG to 0.15, the other a 18LWG to 0.13.  

Started at 6 joints with a banded 6mm pellet, toss potting a few in, nothing, not even a liner.  Reluctantly I picked up the feeder rod and put a 6mm Coppens in the band, filled the cage with micros and dropped it just short of the far bank (think it maybe too shallow tight in).  I had two fish for about 7lb in a couple of casts, I'd started pinging a few pellets 3/4 the way across and saw some fish moving about.  Happily chucked the feeder up the bank and had a nice couple of hours fishing the waggler with either a 6 or 8mm pellet in the band, fishing at full depth with just one No8 at half depth.

With a couple of hours to go, it slowed up, I started feeding corn at 6 joints, the put the feeder over the waggler line, this time with two worms, had a couple on this, before trying the corn line, this was frustrating, one skimmer and 4 lost foulers - unusual when fishing corn.  I had another look on the waggler, nothing, I had now wasted an hour swapping and changing trying to find the fish again.   I fe a line at 14.5m and fished the pellet rig with the 0.13 hooklength over it, This brought me 4 more fish in the last 30 minutes. I should have done it for the last 2 hours, I'm sure I should have had 125-140lb from the peg.

I weighed 97.09 which was enough to win individually and my team mates (forum names) Can't Compete and Kev Coke were second in the team result, so a successful day.  Team winners were, Peter, 90's Gear and Stewie74 who pipped us by one point.  Thanks to Whisker for organising and all who took part for a match fished with a great atmosphere.  (And I finally got to meet Neil of the Nene).

Angling Trust Masters, The Glebe, Saturday 20th August 2016

A few weeks back I was perusing the MFS website and saw they were in need of an angler for the team in this match.  I offered my services and they were desperate enough to accept.  I was looking forward to this, not having fished it before, teams of 6 spread around all the lakes of the main fishery.

Shame the weather forecast appeared to point towards 40mph+ winds, which given that the Glebe can be a windy place at the best of times, would limit the majority to a couple of sections of pole and a feeder rod.  Still, it would be better than work and a chance to fish a venue I enjoy, although I really didn't shine on my last visit after some reasonable matches previously.   The drive up was uneventful, 2 hours 10 minutes so not too bad at all,

I eventually discovered my team mates at the draw, handed over my pools and waited for the draw, which was some time after the advertised 08.00.  I was handed 24, the windy bit of the main lake, I would have liked a sheltered peg on one of the smaller lakes, but maybe the BBC would be wrong on the wind.........   A rather forlorn hope!!

 Off to my peg and I spy John Arthur on 23, so some competition then..... then low and behold, who rocks up on 22, but Trigger, drive 130 miles and draw a peg away from someone from the same local match circuit.  Nice to see Glen Butler again, he was a bit further up the section and other names from the pages of the magazines graced the section.

I did have my morning brightened by Trigger, he came down and told me that "some bloke, he must be local, told me I'm on the best feeder peg in Europe".  I had to gently break the news that 'some bloke' was Roy Marlow......  These young 'uns what do they know!!

Two lead rods out the bag, both 10/11' Tournaments, one set up at 10' to fish bomb and pellet down the middle, the other at 11' to hit the far bank with a cage feeder.  Both set up fixed as is allowed and with the 20" which is required at the Glebe.  Plenty of chucks to get  the feeder clipped up, after venturing round to trim the far bank rushes.

 I hadn't brought casters, so bait tray had pellet, corn and maggot on it and a bit of GB for the feeder, I had a reasonable RH edge given that both pegs either side were in, so set up a rig for there, intending to fish G/maggot.  I had a couple of rigs (similar, one with a banded hook, one without) to fish at 9m, where I fed 6mm pellet, corn fed at topkit + 2 and the feeder.  I had an early fish on the feeder and then another, but it didn't take off and neither was it for those anglers I could see,

I chopped and changed hookbait and went from micros to GB in the feeder, I hooked and lost a couple, not sure why, maybe foul hooked?  The wind dropped a little and I tried the pole line, a decent skimmer on the soft pellet, before the wind made presentation impossible.  A swap back to the feeder and a change to GB and maggot in the feeder and maggot on the hook, tow decent fish in two chucks had me thinking I'd sussed it, but then it was back to being biteless.  A look round the lines again as the wind allowed, corn line was barren, the pellet line gave up another skimmer and two carp before the wind once again put paid to it.

Back on the feeder and a good fish took me into a snag, I had to pull for a break and lost the lot, new feeder on and back onto a 6mm pellet on the hook with micros in the feeder, I had another odd fish or two, but the wind was making it difficult to get tight, even hitting the clip, it was bowing the line.  I did hook another good fish which fought like mad all the way across and under the rod tip, managing to slip the hook at the net.... why do the bloody do that!!

The edge line looked like it might save the day for me as I had 3 fish in 3 put ins with 3/4 of an hour to go, but he last half hour resulted in 3 missed bites and no more fish.  With hindsight I should have had another feeder chuck or two  and that might have given me a couple more points. Bit of confusion over the weigh in, but it was sorted and I weighed 71.06, those lost fish would have pushed John Arthur for 3rd in the section, that a a bit more perseverance on the feeder.

At the end I had to shoot off as the dogs were at home cross legged, apparently we were 10th as a team and I will hope to fish this match again next year, with better weather conditions.

MFS / HillBilly Pairs, The Glebe, Friday 5th and Saturday 6th June 2015

My first visit to The Glebe, having heard good reports about the fishery, I managed to get into this match due to someone dropping out.  I had managed to get some information from venue regular, Chris Needham and Andy Kinder, thanks Chris & Andy, I was basing my approach around corn, pellet, dead maggot and casters, which I wasn’t going to take, but changed my mind in the run up to the match after speaking to Chris.

The match was a two dayer, 60 anglers with 30 on pool 1 and 30 spread over some of the other pools and then swap round next day.  I had Mike Walker as a travelling partner for the event and it was an early start picking him up at 5am. We made god time and got there in the 2 hours 15 the sat nav had predicted, in fact we were a little early and found a breakfast/burger van that did a very tasty egg and bacon roll.

We had a walk round lake 1 before the draw and I did fancy peg 30, it has a pipe running into it and the carp were lining up in the outflow, it looked solid, that and the wind was blowing right into that end. The draw for the pairs was made and my partner was George Tamayo.

My ever unreliable drawing arm put me on peg 28, close, but not close enough, Mike drew peg 66 on pool 4, so after dropping him off, I got to my peg and set up a 4 hole cage feeder to fish tight to the far bank, clipping up to get it tight to the rushes.  To windy to consider a waggler, I did set up a rig to fish pellet at full depth at 14m, a corn rig to fish at 6m, just up the slope, a margin rig, although I didn’t think that would be too productive with all 30 pegs in.  As I had some time, I did set up a paste rig to fish over the pellet line at 14m.

Starting on the feeder which I had been assured was the banker to get a few fish in the first 3 or 4 hours, I found it tough going, as did everyone else I could see, I managed 4 fish in the first hour, so came off the feeder and had a look at the 14m line, there were fish here, but the wind was making it virtually impossible to present a bait and I was catching odd fish, but I felt it should be more.  I had tried to find some trip back against the wind, but no matter where I tried there was none. I tried paste over this line and had a couple of fish, but the wind was making it just as impossible as the pellet rig.

I looked on the 5m corn line and this produced the odd fish and it took me longer than I would have liked to work out the feeding and the best way to lay the rig in, once I sorted this out the catch rate improved and I was adding fish to the net, although I wasn’t catching as fast as peg 30.  I had fed some maggot and GB in the margin and this did produce some fish, but wasn’t prolific, only to be expected with every peg in. 

Had I sussed the corn line out a bit quicker, I feel I should have been pushing Dave Pearson for the lake win, which he did with 166.00 from peg 25. It was close with the other top weights on the lake being 154.08 RossN peg 7,  147.00  Barry Wynn peg 30, 138.08 GotGaz peg 11, 138.04 Matt Blackmore peg 24 and myself with 137.12  peg 28.

This was a long way from the winner on the day, Andy Kinder with 306.00 from peg 92, six weights over 200.00, there were including the 300 and 200’s, 35 weights over a ton, fantastic fishing.

After the match it was back to the Longshoot, where we were staying, it wasn’t the most salubrious surroundings I’ve ever stayed in, the bathroom tiling was very late 60’s /70’s, the mattress was strangely ribbed, but as I only spent a short time in the bed, it wasn’t of great importance.  The carvery was OK for a bargain £4.95, the bar had karaoke and Andy Kinder gave a Elvis impression, which resulted in Churchy lobbing his undies on the stage……  from there on the beer flowed and it was a good night, Matt Blackmore ordered up loads of pizza’s, kebabs and cheesy chips that showed up about 1am, so a nice healthy preparation for Saturday’s round 2!!

Me and Mike decided not to wait at the shoot for breakfast, thinking we’d visit the same roadside van as the morning before, that was a tactical error, as there was a glaring space in the layby, where our breakfast should have been.  We found a corner shop near the venue, it had very little stock and we had to breakfast and survive the day on sausage rolls and chocolate, lesson learnt for next time.

Onto the draw and Mike drew peg 5 on pool 1, whilst I drew peg 67, next to where Mike had been the day before, the lake had thrown up some good weights with 3 200lb+ nets from the middle pegs and Mike weighing 171 from peg 66. 67 hadn’t faired so well, but there were obviously fish in the area.

Trying to use the advice I had been given and that Mike had caught well on the feeder I set it up again, once again the wind ruled out a waggler, so 4 topkits completed my set up. Two for the 5m corn line, one strung out shotting and one bulked.  A margin rig and as I had nearly 3 pints of casters left, I found a nice flat area about 2m from the bank to my right at a comfy topset + 1, this was about 18” deep and was going to be fed with caster and pellet, paste fished over the top.

On the all-in I started on the feeder again and started catching straight away, but these were small stockies and within 30 minutes I saw peg 69 catching bigger fish on his 5m line, today was so different than yesterday, the peg was tripping back hard against the wind on the 5m line and this led to bites, but also liners, as there were fish there, but not settled on the bottom feeding.  I had seen some swirls over the caster line and decided to have a look therewith a big lump of paste and had a nice run of fish to about 6lb, before the line went quiet. A switch back to the corn at 5m brought the odd fish and with a things slowing down all round the lake, I fed the margins with about 2 ¾ hours to go.  Leaving the margin to settle I had another fish on the paste, they weren’t queuing up for it, but patience was rewarded. 

When I dropped into the LH margin, I had an 8lb fish straight way, then one a bit bigger, I refed and lost a couple of foulers, with the reeds at this venue it is impossible to get the rig tight to the bank. I let it settle and had a fish from the RH margin, before hooking a lump from the LH edge which went 16.08. The RH edge produced a couple of fish and the LH edge was just causing me a headache with foulers, so for the last half an hour I went back on the paste line and landed 4 or 5  7-9lb fish before the all-out.  I had a couple of skimmers in my silvers net, decent ones taken on paste and a couple of squeakers, they along with the carp went 191.08 for a lake win and joint 5^th overall – this was leading with the last lakes results to come back and it had thrown up 4 200lb+ weights to knock me down the frame. Partner George hadn't faired too well in the drawbag and we finished off the pace of the top pairs.

Churchy taking the win with 252.12 from peg 99, GotGaz  248.00 peg 98, Mr Bald 222.00 peg 109, HillBilly 199.08 peg 106 with myself and Jason Elwell on 191.08, from 67 and 77 respectively.

Thanks to the organisers, Neil of HillBilly floats for sponsoring the event and to everyone who made it an enjoyable weekend, just glad I didn’t draw lake 1 on day 2, as the spawning fish meant weights were well down, with 69lb winning the lake.