Harescombe Match Lake, 13 October (18 pegs)

Last week's "match" was on Wildmarsh (Trinity Waters) but the turnout was a tad disappointing with only 8 fishing, which was a shame as it is a good venue but it's not easy fishing which probably put a few off.
I couldn't make it myself as I was away for the weekend in Krakow but the match was run very professionally in my absence as can be seen from the "weigh-sheet" below!

I've only mentioned it as Matt Taynton (sixpack) won the match and with it the £100 golden peg with 48-7 from peg 23 and that included the top silvers weight of 32-8 so well done that man (and his worms).

Anyhow, this was our third trip up the M5 to Harescombe.  The last time we were up there was back in early September which I missed due to being away on holiday but the match was won by Andy Curry with 81-8 from peg 3 and the back up weights were close with only 15lbs or so separating the top 6 anglers.
Bearing in mind that fish over a pound are a bonus that's a lot of fish and as you can see from the results below there was no particular area that was more productive which was the intention when the lake was dug a few years back.
Plenty of bites all year round and no features to hold the fish, although that has changed a bit since the landslip that filled in pegs 26 to 30 which has created two end pegs but the owners have re-jigged the pegs on either end of the lake to compensate for this.

Our first visit up there was back in February which was memorable for two reasons, firstly that it was won by myself and it was the worst weather conditions I have ever fished in which is probably the biggest drawback as the lake is very exposed, perched halfway up a hill, in a wind and rain tunnel.
(see here for the highlights of that particular match)
Which brings me round to today's match as although I had been informed in the week by our resident meteorologist, Chris Gay that we were going to have a dry day with little wind it turned out to be quite horrendous, extremely wet and windy but luckily the fish weren't put off by it.
Winner on the day was Chris Szakacs (and another golden peg win) with 75-12 from peg 2.
Chris caught on corn and soft pellet over caster and micro but it was very close as around the other side of the lake, Lionel Legge (steeplejack??) on peg 21 weighed in 74-9, losing out by 1 or 2 fish.
Lionel caught mainly on dead maggot fished shallow.
Third was Andy Curry with 70-4 from end peg 29 followed by Jason Bird with 62-2 from the other end peg 23.
It's worth mentioning though that there was a bit of a cock-up with the draw which meant there was an extra peg in the bag and as a result peg 24 wasn't drawn giving young Jason three pegs to himself (kind of) so he could have, and should have, done a lot better!
I won't bore you with a blow by blow account of my match as it didn't really go all that well and worse still I ended up adding to the pound coin collections of Pete Sivell, Jason Bird and Alan Healey but by way of a small consolation  I managed to  pick one up from my neighbour for the day, Derek Lucas and would have had another from my other neighbour, Chris Gay if I had have taken up his offer at the start of the match.
Entertainment today was provided by Kev Jefferies and Chris Gay.
For some strange reason Kev's topkit gave up the ghost on a small F1 and ended up in four pieces like a comedy magician's wand while his travelling partner Chris had his 14m butt section collapse on him presumably under the weight of the rain on his pole, the joys of buying second-hand Maver from eBay no doubt, but on the plus side "Rixons Repairs" should be busy this week!

Full Result:

And finally this week, a spot the difference competition (with thanks to Rich Jones for the inspired bit of photography)