Welcome to my fishing blog… April 2026
Sunday 19th April – Alcove Angling Club Match – Lido, Fishponds – A Blanker’s Paradise?
The Fishponds Lido is a very fickle venue. It almost always looks inviting, but it will only ever give up a few of its inhabitants from a small number of selected pegs. It does hold a good head of fish, including carp, tench, bream, F1s, crucians, pike and perch, along with roach and rudd, but put a match on the lake and it can be really frustrating trying to locate fish or tempt anything to feed. I can remember a match during one of the winters a few years ago, where everyone blanked and had to be given their money back. Needless to say, I’m not a big fan of the Lido. So, we had 12 turn up for the latest match and I reckoned half of those would be walking away empty-handed for sure. Those lucky enough to draw a noted peg would at least have half a chance of framing. Noted pegs on this lake are… ‘The Pontoon’, ‘Smithy’s Swim’, ‘The Island’, ‘The Tree Swim’ and ‘The Concrete Slab’ (bay). The area nobody wants to draw on is ‘Suicide Straight’, AKA ‘Cyanide Straight’.
Well, I hung back, but on reflection I should have dived into the drawbag like a man possessed, as by the time I went in for a fumble, all the best pegs had been drawn. I drew peg 11, which is at the end of Suicide Straight, so not a great start. Suffice to say, my confidence had totally drained before I even got to my peg. Well, I had to set up a number of options to ensure I could at least catch something from this peg, even a couple of small rudd would do. So, I set up a bomb/feeder rod, a waggler rod and 2 pole lines. I spent about 25-30 minutes plumbing up all over to try and find a flatish area. I finally settled on a swim at 11 metres, which was 15 feet deep. I would feed Black Lake groundbait here for bream, skimmers and roach with maggles on the hook. My other line was at 4.5 metres, where it was 10 feet deep. I would fish corn over hemp here in the hope of a tench or even a carp.
For my 11-metre line, my rig consisted of a 2-gram Chianti-style float, 0.15 mainline and a size 18 hook to 0.13 hooklength. Elastic choice was an 8-10. The rig for my shorter line consisted of a 1-gram Preston Power float, 0.19 mainline and a size 14 hook to 0.17 hooklength. Elastic was 18-20. The carp go to well over 20 lbs in this lake, so you can’t mess about. On the all-in, I dropped 2 large balls of groundbait laced with maggles onto the 11-metre line and a large cup full of hemp and corn to the short line. Then I lobbed out the waggler, set at 8 feet deep with a 10mm disc of bread on a size 14 hook. I had a few enquiries over the first 15 minutes, but they must have been small roach as the float didn’t once dip out of sight. I tried varying the depth and ended up fishing just 18 inches deep, but there were no takers on that. There was always the chance of bagging a big cruising carp, but not today.
So, with 40 minutes on the clock, it was time to try the 11-metre line with double maggles on the hook. I had a small roach on the very first put-in, so at least I was off the mark. Meanwhile, Julie Taylor, a well-seasoned match angler, (I mean that in the best possible way :)), was on the next peg and lost a big tench. So, I decided to carry on with my 11-metre approach in the hope I might hook into one too. Well, 30 minutes later, I did. It was a nice one at around 3lbs and cheered me up a bit. After that, I had a couple more roach from the same swim, before moving onto the shorter line. I had been feeding hemp and corn here since the start and so it was time to see if anything had moved in on the bait. Well, I gave it a full hour without so much as a dink, so I went back out onto the long line. There was a roach waiting for me and I had another soon after, but then nothing. Meanwhile, Kev Murch, who was drawn on the Concrete Slab (the bay), landed a 10lb plus carp. Tench had been caught by Andy Gard from Smithy’s, also a tench from the island peg and one from the green bank fell to Tony Welsby.
All I could do now was go through the motions, but bites were very few and far between. I had one or two more roach before the end, but Kev managed to find another carp to seal the win. By now, Andy had caught at least 4 tench and Jason and Tony had 3 apiece. Darren Scudamore, on the Pontoon swim, lost a double-figure carp, and Jon Amato on the Pumphouse peg lost a mega-tench while fishing with a whip. Well, Kev won by a country mile and Match Secretary, Jason Pitman, was second. I did manage a section win, so a little consolation, I suppose, although I did have to hand over a pound to Jason…again! From here on in, the lilies will begin to emerge on the surface of the Lido, making it virtually impossible to get any big carp out, unless you have specialist carp gear. Well, my next match will be at Windmill Fisheries on Thursday, 22nd. I haven’t fished the venue for a couple of weeks now, so I’ll be all fresh and raring to go…LOL! Next Saturday, 25th April, I’ll be at Whitehouse Farm for the Saturday Shield match. Looking forward to that one as I won’t have to hand over another pound to Jason… he’s not fishing it. Keep you posted!
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