Ramblings driven by boredom.

The operation on my wrist seems to have been a success, its still healing, but I did manage a few hours at Bullock Farm today - more of that later.

Wednesday 6th saw me able to drive, but with the stitches still in, not ready to fish, so I went and walked the match at Landsend, just to try and see what I'm doing wrong there. I learnt a few things watching Tony (Rixon) and Dean (Malin), but also saw others struggling as I have in the past - still not sure what the answer is, except to draw on a peg full of fish.

I have cleaned all my gear up, checked and changed as necessary all my topkit elastic, stripped all my rigs off and will retie some fresh ones, hooks are tied, tackle box has been emptied, cleaned and all items cleaned and returned to box. (Or binned, if I haven't used them in a coulpe of years.)

I use powerline and decided to get the micrometer out, its quite a revelation, the actual dia is way over the stated, I intend to try out some other lines for silvers/winter carp hook lengths, so mic'd up all the lines I had in the garage. This is how they came out.

Powerline:
Stated.....Actual.....Stated BS(lbs)

0.05.......0.0584.....10oz
0.06.......0.0685.....12oz
0.07.......0.0889.....1.0
0.08.......0.106.....1.12
0.09.......0.116.....2.02
0.10.......0.127.....2.10
0.11.......0.142.....3.06
0.13.......0.162.....4.12
0.15.......0.180.....5.14
0.17.......0.205.....6.12
0.19.......0.231.....7.06
0.21.......0.256.....8.15

Ultima Silk
Stated.....Actual.....Stated BS(lbs)
0.10.......0.104.....2.01
0.12.......0.127.....2.08
0.14.......0.152.....3.08

Middy Lo-viz
Stated.....Actual.....Stated BS(lbs)
0.12.....0.132....3.2
0.14.....0.157....4.4

Browning Cenex
Stated.....Actual.....Stated BS(lbs)
0.14.....0.139.....4.0

Daiwa Sensor
Stated.....Actual.....Stated BS(lbs)
0.205.....0.205.....4.0
0.235.....0.231......6.0

Shimano Technium
Stated.....Actual.....Stated BS(lbs)
0.26.....0.279.....8.0

Maxima
Stated.....Actual.....Stated BS(lbs)
0.15.....0.157.....3.0
0.17.....0.203.....4.0

Told you I was bored.........

I've bought one of those Preston Monster Carryalls, that fold out and hold all rollers etc, it's certainly cut down on all the loose luggage, although it hasn't a side pocket for trays etc. Time will tell if it's a good buy. I've also ordered a set of Halkon Hunt Goretex waterproofs after getting wet at Viaduct a few weeks ago, thay won;t be with me until November, as they have pretty full order books.

Sunday saw me at Trinity Waters, Woodland lake, walking the Clevedon club match, It's painful to watch the method feeders going in, even more painful to see the fish being caught on them..... The Northerly wind made things tricky, that and a monster hangover for Paul Faiers. Dave Baker won with 98lb odd from peg 10ish, Kev Perry second from peg 23 with 60lb+ and a couple of high 50's made up the frame. At least the fish were caught up in the water and the margins later in the match, with the method chuckers failing to keep the fish coming.

Stitches came out Tuesday, so I thought it maybe best to pleasure fish Wednesday, I ventured to Bullock Farm today, it was pretty busy, but a new platform was just being finished on peg 24, so I jumped on that. Keeping it simple I had soft pellet, maggot and a tin of corn, I set up one rig, a MW slim on 0.13 powerline to a 0.12 Middy Lo-Viz hooklength and a 6313 size 18. (Thats my first time with the Lo-Viz and it seems OK, but I was using light elastic (doubled No5) so we'll see how it stands up on a couple more trips).

Fishing at a comfortable 11m, I had a double figure carp on the first put in with 4mm pellet - much to the annoyance of the rest of the anglers on the lake, who hadn't caught whilst I was tackling up....

What was nice to see, was the 25lb net of silvers I had was made up of 50% skimmers, up to 2½lb, these fell to red maggot, whilst the crucians and fantails would only take the 4mm pellet, a 6oz roach and a couple of goldfish completed the species.

I had several other carp up to 8lb and ended the day with around 65lb, not bad in 5 hours, stopping to rest my wrist and to rescue the No5 section of my pole, which fell off behind me. (For those that know peg 24, you ship back over the lake behind you.)

Worst bit is back to work Saturday, what with the operation and holidays, I have only worked one day since Sept 9th, its going to be a bit of a shock!!

Lastly, Paul and myself have decided to run the Kev Perry series again in 2011, see seperate post for details.