Rd-11-2025-Summer League - 30th August- Grange Park - Heron

[Leo Martin]

Big Bash Summer league round 10 Grange Park Heron 30.8.25

Weather now on the change from the 4th heatwave to normal temperatures, wind and some much needed rain. The forecast looked like if we were lucky we may just miss any serious downpours for the match but it was due for 4pm  weigh in time.

A later than usual Friday night draw as Jasper continues to add his  stamp to the "Kermitmobile". Paint jobs on the front grill, large black sticker on rear doors, Aliens on wing mirrors,  also yes an Alien gear stick knob! The search for new front seats failed, so the quest moves on. I reckon he should change his horn noise to a frog's croak but not sure that will happen. 

Draw conducted and I was handed peg 19, my memories of 19 were poor however I was assured it was a decent draw so the pressure to deliver was on again. The full lake was booked for us and it was disappointing to only have 11 members in attendance however we were joined by 2 guests, regular Codders and we welcomed Luke Barker to the fold. Luke acting as Scott's chauffeur and not fished for about 4 years, fully tackled up so hopefully will join us again soon.

Arrived at Grange Park in full sunshine, light breeze and the fishery car park full as the fishery continues to be fully matched up with its reputation of regular 200 lb plus weights now spreading.
Everyone had loads of room so we were expecting some more than decent weights to be caught today.
Peg 19 located on  Curlew end bank opposite the Merrys side corner of the island. My neighbours were Paul Whitehouse on 17 to my left and Rich Cooke on Peg 21 to my left when he had been evicted by Scott from peg 23 where Rich had taken a fancy to.

Not fished Heron for a while so adopted my planned approach as per previous visits. Method and bomb to island, margin lines and 2+2 lines.

Whistle tooted from Gino Lanelly who had been primed with Benson and Hedges finest snuff.
First fish award goes to Scott who was closely followed by our own fishfinder, then Jasper.
Method chuck to island and tip wrapped round after 5 minutes for a 3lber to grace the net. A couple of smaller ones followed, then some gaps and the tip twitched but did not go round. I had primed a bomb line to the right of island and 8mm fishery pellet went out on bomb to corner of island and also to the right of it. Few more fish off island but nothing to its right. 
At 10:30, my margin to my right was now full as this also hade been primed using pellets. The depth was 4 inch deep so hook bait was laid in and the fish went everywhere around it except taking hook bait. Pellet in margin ditched and paste tried. A couple did take this but they were a smaller stamp and the fish bites still very slow and poor. Back on bomb and primed up my 2+2 line. Bites were slow so tried 8mm pellet on 2+2, a couple of smaller fish and the bites were form very small carp. Paste tried on 2+2 few fish from this but bites were from small fish also. Margins again as bigger fish present and bites very hard to come by and connect to. Previously seeing the fish in the margin would have been too much for me to avoid and I have lost hours trying to engage these fish. Today I binned them off to move onto lines for better bites and fish instead of a frustrating afternoon. Note to self, need to practise margin fishing in shallow water as this is where the bigger weights are, Heron, I will be back to play.
Swapped and changed 2+2, bomb and method picking up odd fish trying to catch up Paul on 17 who had had a good start on his feeder rods. About 2pm I had switched off paste onto pellet on the 2+2 line and started to catch fish.  The 2+2 line gave a good presentation and at 3feet deep cover for the fish. 8 and 6mm oiled fishery pellets ( thank you Nigel Cooke) , also red coloured fishery pellets. Feeding 8mm very regular over the top the fish were now feeding and giving positive bites and fish were being put in the net. Happy days. Bites reduced around 3.30 so I had to switch things around again but catch rate dropped off. I need to calibrate my internal scales as I had clicked 70lb but the pleasing weight was 82-15 and I had done enough for a section win.

Peg 4 John Lanelly 59-13
Peg 6 Phil Codlin ( another venue expert) 102-3 and section win
Peg 8 John Utting 86-9 2nd in section
Peg 11 Steve Fishfinder Curtis 265-3 match win and different gravy. Well done
 
XXX

Peg 17 Paul Whitehouse 75-10. Paul started off really well chucking to corner of island however the fish stamp reduced on size. Paul then went onto his margin to his right where he snared a few but nothing consistent enough so swapped and changed searching for bites. Late on he also dropped onto 2+2 where his stamp of fish seemed to improve.
Peg 19 Leo 82-15 section win
Peg 21 Richard Cooke 33-14. Rich fair to say struggled to locate fish regularly. Short line, long line, shallow, mugging, and feeder lines all tried but no consistent bites.
Peg 23 Scott Barker 45-11. Having evicted Rich from the peg Scott set up and fished short pole most of the match. Set off well with a couple the fish never came in and settled on his feed. His day went from bad to worse when he was to loose the bragging rights to Luke for the journey home.
Peg 36 Andy Waite 77-2 and 2nd in section. Andy unusually started on short pole and struggled a little so the rods came out. Caught better on this and tried to pull the island across to him on a few occasions resulting in new terminal tackle. Ended on margin lines where a few lumps were snared.

xxx

Peg  28 Jasper 94-11 and 2nd in section. Started off very well on rods to island before moving onto close in and margins.
Peg 31 Luke Barker 46-3 and a good result to say his tackle has not been out for a few years. Main target was the bragging rights for the journey home which was achieved by 8 ounce.
Peg 35 Indian 90-3. Kev seems to like this end of the lake as he draws it regularly.
Peg 36 Michael Roche 112-14 and a section win. Mike has taken up fishing on mussels this year and continues to frame on them. Well done.

Everyone caught a few fish, everyone lost a few as well with foul hookers a big problem. Not the same weights as the open matches but up good average weights for our club when compared to other fisheries.
 
We were unusually lucky with the weather also. A few small showers however the threatened rain held off. I was able to unpack at home before the downpour started, hope everyone else was as lucky.

Next match is on Long Island lake at Lodge farm September 13th. Please confirm and pay on to help admin. Also match open to guests so please ask friends and family to try fill the spaces and help club finances.

Winter league names being taken as well and approaching pay on time.

[Leo Martin]

results

[fishfinder]

Great write up again leo,peg 11 for me,was not bothered where i drew.Even though it is my local venue it was a bit strange today and had to fish it a bit differantly to lately,started across but was not really working,had a few but wind and undertow made it difficult,came shorter and had a good run on feeder,decent fish for over an hour,swapped to differant swim bit further to my left and caught again really well,lost a few but kept putting fish in the net.Fed my edges all match and did not see many signs until last hour,had a few on paste in the edge in the last hour.At the weigh in found it had fished a bit harder than recently but some decent weighs,think the wind and undertow made things tricky and edge fish were difficult to catch.Well done to all.