Bury Hill Fisheries' Russ Evans is an angling coach, fishing event organiser and runs a tackle shop. He's a match angler, competing up and down the country and, when he's not match fishing, likes to target Crucian Carp and Perch. He writes for numerous angling publications and has offered angling advice on TV. In his blog, Russ shares with us the running of a busy fishery, his angling highs and lows and his coaching tips.
"It has been a busy time for the fishery since my last blog, and below are some match and catch reports that I have noted for our customers. All three of the day tickets lakes are in fine form with plenty of good specimens being taken and it is good to see plenty of our visitors going home with smiling faces and new personal bests.
Hanwell Club Match
Bonds Lake 12th July 2010
Ton up Gary wins the day
A ton up bag of carp was needed to win Hanwell’s latest club match on our Bonds Lake last weekend, when Gary Wood on peg five fished a small groundbait feeder tight over to the island. With hair rigged pellets on a size 14s hook Gary got instant bites when he hit the right spot tight to the island margin cover and with the aid of a catapult pinged a few 8mm carp pellets over the top of his feeder line to get the carp in a feeding frenzy. With carp up to 10lbs plus and plenty in the 6-8lbs marks Gary also caught a few fish on the pole down the margins and won the day with a fine total weight of 111lbs.
Another good effort came on peg 20 where Paul Mason fished similar tactics to the winner with a nice total of 81lbs of hard fighting commons and mirror carp. Regular feeding with pellets kept the fish interested and feeding for most of the match for Paul.
Peg 11 produced a few good fish for Chris Peal and his 53lbs of pole caught carp close to the margin reed cover was good enough for third place overall.
Old Lake report
With the Bury Hill midweek opens starting soon, father and son David and Steven Walker from Horley in Surrey decided to get in some pre-match practice on the long bank fishing pegs 40 and 41. With both fishing the pole at 14 metres and using either corn or pellet on the hook over a bed of feed pellets both anglers enjoyed a combined 38 bream haul, in a short session, up to 5lbs with the average going just over 3lbs.
Regular Dave Ewing from Guildford had another busy day fishing peg 28 catching 22 bream to 4lbs on the waggler fishing off the bottom at half depth catching all of his fish on halibut pellet on the hook feeding 6mm pellets.
Mike Head from Reigate had yet another good day fishing for the bream on the front bank catching 75 bream and one tench from peg 12 mainly on the pole at 12 metres. With 6mm soft pellet on the hook over small balls of swimstim green groundbait Mike kept the bream up to 5lbs coming all session for an estimated bag of 250lbs which also included a few on the groundbait feeder.
Following some advice from Russ in the tackle shop Chris Gadstone from Cowley, Uxbridge went in search for some tincas and from peg one near the jungle helped himself to 14 tench up to and around the 5lbs mark. Helped by some overcast weather and a nice breeze Chris kept the tench coming to just past midday when finally a shoal of bream joined in on the action. Fishing a small float ledger cast underarm towards the tree snags Chris caught all of his fish on expander pellets on a size 16’s hook feeding 6mm pellet. With as many bream as tench his final weight exceeded well over 80lbs in an eight hour session.
Bury Hill midweek open 14th July 2010
Harrison leads the way in close finish
The fishery held is first of many midweek open matches last week on the old lake and with a turnout of 23, most of the Long Bank was put into action. As the match unfolded it was clear that the bream were shoaled up in pockets around the match section and where some struggled plenty were catching well including Dave Walker on peg 51 who netted nine fish in the first hour to take a early lead. Geoff Vallence was also doing well from peg 26 netting plenty of decent bream and skimmers on the pole line at 13 metres, whilst on noted peg 37 Terry Harrison was catching the odd big bream on the feeder over to the opposite island. Steve Gardner on peg 41 was fishing long pole and catching the odd fish to keep in contention but in general the first hour or two was slow fro most of the field.
On peg 51 Dave Walker found his peg slowing up but with tench, bream and two big crucians he was still having a good day and finished up with 47lbs 9oz for sixth place overall. Robbie Taylor on peg 44 was catching his fish in bursts on the feeder but still managed to weigh in 49lbs 4oz for fifth place and some section money in the process. Tony Barthomlew found himself on peg 30 and caught steady all match using hair rigged corn on the feeder and he put a nice 53lbs 2oz on the scales for fourth spot.
End peg 26 for Geoff Vallence carried on producing including an 8lbs Zander which did not count, however with numerous bream and skimmers on pole and pellet gained Geoff third place with 58lbs 6oz.
England international Steve Gardner managed to keep the bream coming in fast bursts of action on the pole and pellet cupping out small morsels of soft feed pellet and a light fluffy ground bait mix, however Steve just fell short of the winner but had a respectable 60lbs 12oz in the process.
Terry Harrison on peg 37 may not have had quantity but he certainly had quality as his bream were in the near 6lbs mark to record a good win with 63lbs. Using pellet through his feeder with either corn or pellet hair rigged, Terry was casting close to the island in the search for better stamped bream.
In general it was a good match with a quality field and although the pegs in the mid 40s did not sparkle, for most the fish were in a feeding mood despite a brisk wind blowing down the lake towards the front bank. Bream dominated this silvers only match but there was also a good scattering of tench in the weights plus the odd big crucian as well. The next open will be on the front bank on Wednesday 28th July, draw at 8.30am fish 10-3pm.
Result 23 fished:
1st Terry Harrison Dorking 63-0-0
2nd Steve Gardner Dorking 60-12-0
3rd Geoff Vallence Preston Delcac 58-6-0
4th Tony Barthomlew Anchor Croydon 53-2-0
5th Robbie Taylor Preston Delcac 49-4-0
6th Dave Walker Carshalton DAS 47-9-0
A bit of bad luck but that’s fishing
Personally I have had some ups and downs in my recent matches mainly due to some poor draws but that is the nature of match fishing and you have to take the rough with the smooth. Two Sunday’s back I was at Framfield Lakes near Uckfield in Sussex, competing in a 25 pegger and although I weighed in 124lbs of carp I was way off the pace despite finishing second in my section, Andy Goldthorpe won the match with a superb 340lbs of paste caught carp.
The recent Bury Hill midweek open was a bad match for me as I along with six other anglers drew a section of the Long Bank that was void of fish on the day but there is always another day and that’s the way to approach the situation as I know the next match could well be my time to drew well and bag up going home with a few notes in my back pocket.
A recent trip on the Rother was very successful and this weekend I will be competing in a practice match with the main event the following week to look forward to. I will be on the bank side three times in a four day period so fingers crossed the fish will be in a feeding frenzy as apart from the Rother as I have already mentioned I will be on the River Eden in Kent on the Monday filming the next part of my The Obsessed Angler series and on the Wednesday I have a couple of options that I am still deliberating over.
I look forward to reporting soon with some good news on my recent outing’s, until then.
Tight Lines,
Russ Evans."
You might also be interested in…
Cached: no
YOUR SAY
ASK THE EXPERTS
Do you have any burning questions you'd like answered? Email your dilemma to our H&C experts at:
LATEST BLOGS
Cached: miss
SEE ALSO
Cached: miss
You are not signed in. You may log in to an existing account, or create a new account.