Sunday 28 November 2010

Shivering Silvers @ Landsend, Sunday 28th November 2010

I left it late to book into this one, waiting to see what the weather would do, as it was just going to be cold (very cold) with no snow, I weighed up if fishing or staying at home/pub and sky footie would be best - fishing won.

Supposedly 15 today, but a couple of no shows knocked the numbers back, that saw both match & speci lakes used, I once again drew the match lake, peg 11. The ice breaker made its first appearance of the season, although the ice was that annoying thickness, you know, the one that shatters when you chuck the ice breaker in. Nice thick ice you can cut into sections, the thinner stuff shatters into loads of pieces. The thermometer in the water didn't change from 2°C all day and the air temp didn't get above 0°C, it was -5.5°C getting out of the car and -3.0°C getting back in.

I had a nice area cleared, that gave me a 9m line toward my right and similar length lie to my left, by the time the all-in was shouted, most of it had frozen back over.

I also cleared the RH margin up to the next pallet and to save posting loads of waffle, thats where my fish came from, 8 of them all perch, taken mostly on caster, but one or two on maggot. Frustratingly I lost 8 fish, all perch, they seemed to be only just hooked.

By 13.30 the margin had refrozen to the point of making it necessary to rebreak the ice, I went for a stroll round the lake after and came back to add three more perch (and the biggest ones) to my net.

The lost perch probably cost me, not sure if it was the hook (couldn't see anything wrong and it was sharp), the fact that the elastic was freezing in the pole couldn't have helped. I managed 5lb 2oz for fourth place and enough money back to have a couple of beers on the way home.

1) Dean (Chub Slayer) Malin 8.14 peg 40 (6 chub)
2) Tony (corner peg) Rixon 8.11 peg 24
3) John Bradford 5.11 peg 19
4) Chris Fox 5.02 peg 11
5) Martin Lengahan 4.02 peg 3
6) Martin Pettifer 1.12 peg 15

Going to try an open on New Years Eve this year and see if its worthwhile, so if anyone fancies it it give me a ring or let Misha at Trinity know and she'll ring me. Trinty Waters, Woodland Lake draw 08.45, fish 10.00-15.00, usual format, overall + silvers payout.

Thursday 18 November 2010

Viaduct Costcutter. 18th November 2010

13, unlucky for some was the number for todays Viaduct Costcutter Open, all pegged on Campbell, which like many other venues has seen the colour drop out over the last week or so - although Cary appeared to be holding a bit more colour.

Todays dip into the hat, (not exactly a hat, Paul Greenwood, pleading poverty as its a Costcutter, put the unstapled swimcards face down on the counter)peg 126 was my reward. I wasn't disappointed, as Saturday before last, Ray Hayward won from this peg, trebling my weight from 115 which is nearly opposite, so an opportunity to see if I was that far behind, or did the peg have some influence on the result.

I had brought some 8mm cubed meat and if I hadn't had 3 pints of caster left over from yesterday that would have been all. The caster tempted me to set up a rig to fish it and mix some groundbait - I might as well not have bothered, a quick look on this line saw some micro roach which bumped off the doubled 8 elastic.

I fancied the waggler and meat to produce a few fish, I didn't think that they'd come close due to the water clarity and that proved to be the case, the 14.5m line I tried with meat on the pole, to no avail, not so much as a liner. The wind and subsequent surface skim put paid to decent presentation on the waggler for all but the first and last hour. 6 fish falling to the lead and 5 to the waggler,

The straight lead was on 6lb Daiwa TDR reel line and a 0.17 hooklength with a 16 PR36 hair rigged, the waggler had 4lb sensor reel line, a 0.15 hooklength and a 18 B911 buried in the meat - although this changed to a 0.15 and a PR36 18 hair rig after a duck took the meat on the 18 B911 and at full flight towards Somerton Town Centre managed to snap the hooklength.

Before and after the match I tried to draw some info on feeding at this time of the year, but all I spoke to were very cagey or claimed to be as clueless as myself - not sure about that!!. I started on the lead, not feeding at all, just a tiny liner or two to show for that, three cubes of meat fed and the waggler produced 6 or 7 consecutive bites resulting in 3 fish in the net. I upped the feed and had two more, then endured a quiet spell - too much feed??

Switching between the lead and the waggler for the rest of the match (as the wind and surface skim allowed) I managed 11 Carp and 1 Brown Goldfish, I guess I used about 1/3 of a tin of meat.

I could see that 111 had a few fish, John Green on 115 had take a few on the lead - no silvers for John today!! and Colyn Dyer had a few on 112, I thought my fish were of a better stamp and so they proved to be, 60lb 10oz being enough to take topspot.

1) Chris Fox 60.10 peg 126
2) John Green 50.02 peg 115
3) D White 46.12 peg 128
4) P Homewood 44.10 peg 111
5) Colin Dyer 43.10 peg 112
6) J Williams 30.13 peg 123

Silvers

1) John Bradford 14.00 peg 110
2) C Pinker 10.04 peg 125
3) J Williams 9.06 peg 123

Wednesday 17 November 2010

Landsend, Wednesday 17th November 2010

The BBC weather forecast wasn't too good, heavy rain and high winds, so I plumped for Landsend today, as the trees would hopefully give some shelter. As usual. the BBC forecast was over dramatic, light rain and some breeze was all we experienced (or was that the trees doing their job??).

Match and Speci lakes in today, my dip into the swimcards brought me peg 21, I was surprised by the clarity of the water, the frosts of the last few days have obviously done their worse.

I set up two rigs, both Malman winter wires, a 4x14 on 0.13/0.11 and a 16 6313 for soft pellet/double caster and a 4x12 on 0.11/0.09 and a 20 6313 for single caster or maggot, these were matched to double 6 and double 5 elastic respectively.

I fully intended to fish really tight and sensible for silvers...... but got a bit waylaid. I started fishing at ¾ the way across, straight in front, feeding caster, I also fed a line at 2 o'clock with micro and a couple of expanders. A roach a chuck for the first four chucks on caster then it slowed down, an odd fish after that, then after 45 mins I had a look over the micro, the float shot under and I lifted into a large leaf - how do they give such positive bites??

Back onto the caster line, but I was getting lured by the large shapes, several of them ghosties, that were swimming along the far shelf, to be accurate they were swimming just off the shelf about 12" deep. I stuck at the caster line and was rewarded with a carp, but then it went dead. I put another couple of sections on and pushed across to the bottom of the shelf, this resulted in two carp in two put-in's, happy days. Then two foul hookers in the next two put-in's, both of which came off.

This resulted in the peg going very quiet, I had looked up the shelf to where the carp had been showing themselves, but everytime I went near the shallow water with the pole, they disappeared - I'm not surprised, the water was very clear. Its then I had the soup disaster, I poured a full cup of tomato soup and then managed to knock it between the side tray and my box. The result made the side of my box, the pallet and a few bit and pieces under the box, look like a scene from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre - what a waste of Heinz's finest.

I had a walk up to Tony Rixon, he was catching silvers, the lake was fishing pretty hard, so after a decent time to rest my peg after the two lost foulers, I returned and carried on, adding a couple more perch and roach to the silvers net, but not a sign of another carp, apart from one lone ghostie who was patrolling the far shelf, but didn't seem to be feeding.

I didn't have anothe bite on soft pellet, so the leaf was my only end product for that, my silvers went 4lb+ and the three carp went 17lb+ for a weight of 21lb+, not enough on the day to frame.

The Speci lake provided four of the top six, but even that was a struggle.

1) Chris Davis 48.04 peg 31
2) A Clark 35.14 peg 32
3) Kev Molton 30.02 peg 24
4) A Jones 29.00 peg 33
5) Martin Lengahan 26.05 peg 19
6) Tim Ford 25.12 peg 35

Silvers

1) Tim Ford 25.12 peg 35
2) Tony Rixon 21.00 peg 17

Monday 15 November 2010

Plantation Main Lake

I nearly thought about the poppy match for Sundays outing, but the prospect of drawing 'one of those walks' saw me heading towards a easy walk on Plantation and hopefully a few fish. It was a 21 pegger today and the cafe was open for the draw and I had a coffee whilst chatting to a few faces I haven't see for a while. Bridgwater raider Andy Hembrow was looking worse for wear and muttered something about vast quantities of vodka the previous evening.

I had actually stayed in on a Saturday night to prepare my gear for this match, as soon as I drew, I knew that I would have been better going out for a few beers, peg 33 in the bay, the wagglers and lead rods I'd set up might as well stay in the van along with the pellets, meat & corn.

I did have some worm and caster and a couple of pints of maggot, so I set up two silvers rigs and one rig for the margin, just in case there was a lost carp or two in the bay. The margin only got looked at for 10 minutes and the float remained motionless. I had a MW pellet float to fish worm/double maggot/soft pellet at 11m over groundbait, CW&C. A slim Mosella pattern to fish caster a whatever depth the roach were feeding at and that was it, nice and simple.

I cupped in some GB loaded with CW&C at the start and went over it with ½ a worm, nothing, so a switch to double red maggot saw a few skimmers in the net, until I lost a decent bream. This killed the peg for 20 minutes or so, I refed groundbait, but this time with no worm, just dead maggot, they didn't seem to want the worm. This brought a couple more skimmers, but they wouldn't keep coming with any great regularity.

I switched to the caster line I'd been drip feeding, just topkit to hand and this produced a nice run of roach to 12oz and a couple of perch, one which was 1½lb. Switching between this and the 11m line, I kept fish coming until the end, not exactly one a bung, but a pleasurable day, a nice bonus was a roach at least a 1lb from the 11m line.

I only hooked one carp, a foul hooker at mid water over the 11m line and that snapped the 0.12 hooklength, the decision to fish for silvers was justified, when the scales got to me, the top silvers weight was Kev Perry, 10lb 4oz, he caught skimmers on pellet, my mixed bag went 18lb 14oz and took the silver coin.

1) Andy Hembrow 104.13 peg 7 ( The hangover wasn't too bad then, Andy) Pole/pellet
2) Lewis Jones 80.10 peg 4
3) Rich lovering 80.06 peg 28
4} Rich Healy 59.08 peg 38

Silvers

1) Chris Fox 18.14 peg 33
2) Kev Perry 10.04 peg 25

Oh, I nearly forgot, the pre match entertainment was Mark Walsh testing the water temperature in his peg (39) by falling in, he also lost a couple of trays from his box, full of winders. The peg are in a bit of a state, the pleasure anglers banksticks causing loads of erosion. He didn't see the funny side at the time, but he went home and changed and could at least smile at the banter by the end of the match.

Saturday 13 November 2010

Viaduct Open. Saturday13th November 2010

The fine winter run of getting spanked, which all started since I had the op on my hand(thats my excuse), continues.

Peg 115 for me today, I've not drawn it before, but it does have some form, so I expected a few fish. I did myself no favours by taking worm & caster, corn & meat and maggot. I had some half baked plan where I'd fish for silvers initially and then carp, as other venues I've fished recently haven't been producing carp from the start.

Once I saw John Green on 116, I started to change my mind and confused myself, doing myself no favours with either silvers or carp. I fed a line at 7m with groundbait and caster, one at 14.5m with caster & corn and some corn via the catty at lead/waggler range towards the middle.

I set up a straight lead, 6lb Daiwa TDR to a 0.17 hooklength and a 16PR36 with a quickstop. A waggler with 4lb sensor, a 0.13 hooklength and a 18 6313 and three pole rigs, a Mosella slim float (model unknown) to fish caster on the 7m line, with a 18 6313 on .011, a MW diamond to fish corn, double caster or maggot on the 14mm line, with a 18 808 on 0.13 and a Durafloat to fish meat/corn at either distance on 0.17/0.15 and a 18 Xedion hook.

I started on the waggler with meat, over ½ a dozen grains of corn, that produced nothing for 25 minutes, the 7m line with double caster yielded a fish a chuck, but it was roach of an identical stamp, lucky if they went ¾oz each. Some carp were being caught on the waggler and at least its easy to see when others are catching on meat. So out with the lead and a 6lb fish first put in, then 2 fish lost, one definite foulhooker. A quiet spell and then another 6lb fish followed by an 8lber, the bites followed the same pattern, no indications, then a liner or two, before a rip round. It seemed as if there were just individual fish coming in to the peg and finding the bait.

The middle of the match saw a very quiet spell, I set up a margin rig as 114 was taking fish from his LH margin (the pallet of 113) and Dick Bull on 112 was catching in the margin fishing back towards 113. I may have well as saved the effort, as I didn't have a bite or any indication in either LH or RH margin. There were still carp being caught on the waggler, I didn't manage to get one single bite on it in 6 hours, apart from one foolish cast with double maggot (another pea in the pod ¾oz roach).

In the last hour I had a few more fish on the lead/meat, I'm pretty sure the fish were shoaled up, in certain pegs, but not to the extent that other pegs were virtually barren, I just couldn't work out how to feed/how much to feed. In the last hour and a half, I upped the feed to ½ a dozen or ten cubes of meat every cast/bite and I caught more, but was that just last hour syndrome?

This was my first experince of an open on Viaduct where the pellet is banned (apart from a Carps AC Xmas match where the lake was frozen over at least 1" thick) and I've got a lot to learn about how to fish it during the winter, I reckon its back to the Thursday costcutters for a bit of experimentation and learning curve, at least it cheaper to be pools fodder in these matches.

I managed a lowly 56.03 (not a bad winter weight in my book, but not good on the day). The middle 3-3½ hours were where I fell by the wayside and the answer lies in the feeding (I think!! although I had no liners or indications during this time).

1) Ray Hayward 156.09 peg 126 waggler/meat
2) Roland ? 123.03 peg 123
3) M Wright 111.01 peg 114 waggler/meat, LH margin/meat
4) Trev Huth (??) 94.04 peg 110
5) D Cockayne 93.11 peg 118
6) Dick Bull 73.15 peg 112

Silvers

1) Steve Hutter 21.03 peg 131 (including 4 perch for 10lb)
2) John Green 16.06 peg 116
3) S Denner(??) 10.10 peg 129

Thursday 11 November 2010

Acorn Little Lake, Wednesday 10th November

I was looking forward to this 12 peg knock up, as this lake usually produces a few fish even in the coldest weather. Once I'd drawn, I knew that I wasn't going to see any return on my pools money today (maybe a different story in the summer). I drew peg 7 which today was next to the bridge (RH side of the bridge looking towards the Carp lake). On my RH side I had Pete Sivell for company, his peg is slightly narrower than mine, but at least he had an empty peg to his RH side.

It was a cold day and the water temperature just about pushed the mercury to 6°C, I'd decided on an maggot approach, to the far bank, up to the bridge and in the LH margin. I also fed a line ½ way across with a little micro and a couple of 3mm expanders - as I suspected this didn't produce a single bite.

I had a couple of fish from the bridge, and couple from the far bank, it was fishing hard for everyone, although I could see some action towards the end of the lake (motorway end). Pete Sivell went down to th empty peg and a weed bed and had a few fish, before Dave Blakemore on the peg the other side potted in a big pot of feed, that pretty much stopped Pete, who had been getting a fish a chuck.

I did have a short spell where I lost a couple of foul hookers, I shallowed up and had another fish, but I pretty sure the fish were just passing through the peg, as the liners stopped as soon as they started. I was losing interest, I couldn't tempt any silvers (apart from a small chub and 1 roach), where have all the Perch gone? They were prolific in this lake.

At half three, with half an hour to go, the sun had gone, I was freezing cold and knew that I had no chance of sneaking into the money, so I packed up neatly and tidily (unusual for me!!) so I'd be ready for Viaduct on Thursday. Quite bizarely, the silvers were won with 1lb 9oz, most of which was a big fat goldfish.

As I sit typing this on Thursday lunchtime, I should be at Viaduct fishing, but our dog manged to lose an arguement with a barbed wire fence this morning, whilst out on his walk and I'm waiting for the phone call from Langford Veterinary College, where he is being operated on to clean up his wounds and stitch him up. So the 4 pints of pristine caster in the fridge will hopefully keep until Saturday.

1) Martin Lenaghan peg 1 with 89.03
2) Tim Ford peg 11 with 80.06
3) Phil Harding peg 2 55.00
4) Tony Rixon peg 3 44.12
5) Pete Sivell peg 8 40.10 Also top silvers with 1.09
6) John Bradford 33.12 peg 12

As the results prove, you wanted to be at either end in the 'bowls' or have an empty peg to one side.