0 which was good enough for fourth place last weekend

Peg 48 on the Windmill Lake dam wall at Earlswood saw me take twelve bream for 33.11.0 which was good enough for fourth place last weekend. Once again chopped worm and caster in the feeder with worm and caster or worm and red maggot on the hook did the damage. Thirty-nine pounds of bream won the match and there were six weights over thirty pounds with lots of twenties and high teens also recorded. I changed my groundbait mix for this match after a couple of successful practice sessions. I know a lot of anglers at Earlswood have been having success using fishmeal in their groundbait so with this in mind I’ve been experimenting with a mix comprising a bag of Leeda Method groundbait with three pints of fine brown crumb. Into the chopped worm and caster mix I also put a small amount of the new British Worm Breeders “Worm Dust”, a product I told you about last week. It’s really interesting at Earlswood right now trying to work out just how much feed to put in, how far out to put it, and so on. The weights are so close that to win you’ve got to get everything spot on. I think I possibly overfed my swim on this match and there may have been a case for switching to a straight lead at some stage in the match when the fish were there. By continually putting a loaded feeder in I feel sure I probably fed off a few extra fish. When you consider a lot of these fish are going three to four pounds in weight, a few more would easily have won it for me. I’m going to be experimenting a lot more with feed rates in the next few matches. I was looking forward to fishing Chelmarsh Reservoir, near Bridgnorth but my visit turned out to be a big disappointment, as I never had a bite! Fifteen pounds of skimmers and perch won the match but a lot of anglers struggled for bites. The place is so big that I think it would need a lot of regular feeding and fishing to get the best results from it. I’d go again, but not until I know it has been fished a bit more regularly.

This week I’ve got two more Earlswood visits to look forward to. I’m also deep in preparation for the new river season in a couple of week’s time. The chub outside my house are feeding well on my loosefed casters but they’re in for a bit of a shock soon!!!