Drennan Bordon’s Russ Grimes continues a great run of form after taking top honours in the latest round of the Colemans Cottage Individual League. Here’s the account of his latest win:

On the day I drew Peg 1 on Stepfield Lake, which is an area that always seems to have a bit of form. My quarry was mainly F1s from 6oz to 2lb and to do well you have to catch lots of them.

It was quite interesting plumbing up, as directly in front of me and to my right it was a pretty even depth of 3ft. However, a metre to my left it dropped off steeply to 7ft and rose to 3ft on the far bank. I assembled rigs to cover all depths; all with Drennan AS1s from 0.1g to 0.4g.

The wind was from left to right, which in the deeper part of the peg hampered presentation, but this is still where I elected to start, at five pole sections feeding some micros and fishing expanders on the hook.

After 15 minutes or so I started to get a few indications of a few fish present. I soon got into a steady pace, catching 40-odd F1s in the first couple of hours. Slight changes in my feeding pattern kept them coming as well as moving around the main feed area slightly.

After the early run it was beginning to fade. Adding a pole section and re-plumbing kept me in contact with the fish for the rest of the match.

I ended up with 120 fish for 89lb 12oz. I never caught a fish to my right in the shallow water. I am sure that if the wind was warmer then this area would have been good.

I also tried to catch a few ‘dobbing’ bread to the far bank at 16 metres but just could not present it properly with the wind. Jamie Taylor, next to me, kept the pressure on all day catching well on bread over for a fantastic 84lb and 2nd in the match. A good battle was had!