Plantation Lake Saturday 26th March

I managed to get a guest spot in this popular Saturday series, as a couple of the regulars have gone to Whiteacres for the week. At the draw, I was hoping for an island chuck, as its been a long time since I had one and as a one off appearance, I had only to go for the win. I didn’t fancy 12 or 23, so of course, I drew 23, a peg I’ve had some dismal results from and one framing place, but that was in the summer, with lumps down the edge on paste.

I was nearly pissed off enough with my continued run of crap draws, to not bother, but I decided to give it ago, just in case, by some miracle, the fish had moved into that corner.  I left the waggler & lead rods in their bags and set up 4 topkits, one with a shallow rig for carp – more in hope than expectation, a margin rig for carp, a full depth rig to fish dead maggot / pellet at 13m full depth and a Sensas pencil float for fishing close in with caster.

At the all in, I cupped some groundbait and dead maggot in at 13m, started feeding caster at 3m and fed 8mm pellets by catapult into the RH margin, just past peg 22.

First put in on the 13m line with double dead maggot saw a 8oz skimmer in the net, shortly after a roach joined it, then that was it, no more bites in the next 20 minutes. I started to feed 4mm pellet over the top with a catapult and switched to a banded 6mm on the hook, a carp took that and was soon in the net, a smaller skimmer joined it and then the peg went quiet again.

A switch to the short caster line saw a run of decent roach, so I kept on this line and the fish kept coming for an hour or so, when the line went quiet, I rested it and had a look in the RH margin, I took 3 carp straight off and then no more bites. The water temp was 12°C, not quite warm enough to get the fish staying confidently in the shallow margins.

I could see Kev Perry and Rich Lovering catching well, so I knew that I was a long way behind, with no realistic chance of catching them up, their island chuck pegs producing fish as expected.. Mike Owens on peg 25 had been steadily plugging away at the silvers, but his fish seemed to be of a smaller stamp than the roach and rudd I was catching, so I decided to have a push for the silver coin.

I caught reasonably well on the short line again, after its rest, but the next time it went quiet I set up a top four to hand to fish shallow, this produced some decent rudd and roach. A 7lb carp took the single caster on a 22 63-13, it took a while, but that was subdued by the middy purple 4-6 elastic.

The last hour saw me back on the short line and a few more decent roach, the largest one being well over 1lb. I wasn’t confident that I had enough roach and rudd to beat anyone who had managed to find the skimmers and so it proved to be, my 25.01 beaten by two nets of skimmers, although I did scrape into 3^rd in silvers and last in the money. The 5 carp went 22.02 giving me a total of 47.03, which I have to admit, was better than I expected from the peg. I guess my messing about for carp and skimmers cost me, had I fished caster for the roach exclusively, I may have managed another 3lb of fish.

1)      Mark Bromsgrove 194.09 peg 7

2)      Craig Tucker 82.13 peg 38

3)      Rich Lovering 80.01 peg 26

4)      Kev Perry 77.03 peg 27

5)      Brian Slipper 76.08 peg 31

6)      Rod Wotton 73.00 peg 29

Silvers

1)      Rod Wotton 28.00 peg 29 (Mainly skimmers10oz – 1lb 8oz)

2)      Ivan Currie 27.02 peg 18  (Skimmers, loads of 2oz –6oz fish)

3)      Chris Fox 25.01 peg 23 (Roach & Rudd)

A Bit Of Fluff Chucking

Its been a while since I got out and did any fly fishing, so was keen to make my first visit to Hawkridge, at Spaxton, to reacquaint myself with the dark arts of fluff chucking. On my way home from the match at Trinity, the van was playing up, but I limped home and called out the RAC. The patrolman sussed out that it was the EGR stuck open, which he duly freed off, so I could get to Kev Perry's house this morning to travel down with him.

Kev had just bought himself a high density sinking line the week before, taking a few fish on it last Tuesday and was explaining to me over the phone about how it worked and using boobies - which were new to him and I'd never used them before.

A trip to Veals on Saturday to get a pint of maggots turned into, a new Greys XFlite 9' 6" #8 rod, a high density line, a reel, some boobies, minkies and a few other odds and sods.

I was glad I did, Hawkridge is fairly deep and once we'd bought our tickets and walked to the area Kev likes, it was nigh on 11.00 before we both started on the floating line with gold head flies to no avail.

A switch to the new rod, high density line and a black booby saw me christen my new gear with a Rainbow around the 2lb mark, this was after Kev had taken one nearer 3lb. A really good day out followed, Hawkridge is in great surroundings on the Quantocks, we fished until about lunchtime, stopped for a bite to eat and a chat - how civilised - we retried the floating lines, Kev managed one Rainbow on a weighted gold head lure, nothing for me.

A return to the high density sinking line and white Booby saw three more fish come to the net, before another bash with the floating line, once again to no avail. I went back on the HD line and with a white minky, took my last fish, making my limit of 5.

Kev then had a go on my new rod and landed his 5th and final fish on the white minky that accounted for my last fish. We weighed the fish back at the lodge, my biggest was 2.01, Kev had on around the 2.14 mark, smallest fish we both had was 1.08.

A really nice change from the hustle and bustle of the match scene, a lovely venue in a great setting and fishing with a mate who gave me some confidence that I was using the right gear and fly. I'll certainly be back before too long.

The 5 trout after being cleaned, looking forward to tasting them.

Trinity Waters Sunday 20th March 2011

Back to one of my favouite venues today, although for how much longer I don't know!! Once again I drew on the car park bank and peg 31 again, I knew it would be a struggle unless the fish had woken up and moved around, the heavy frost overnight Friday, the bright sun & lack of ripple seemed to ensure that didn't happen.

To make matters worse, there was a no show and that left pegs 11, 12 & 13 empty, giving Rod Wotton three empty pegs to his left, he made the most of it.

I started at 12.5m, fishing expander over softened 4mm, no fish from this line in the first half hour, so I had a look down the LH margin, which I was hopeful of catching from as I was the end peg. I had a 4lb carp 2nd drop into the margin and that was it, just little knocks and twitches, with little rudd taking even 6mm expanders off the hook. During the match I tried banded pellet, meat & maggot in the margin, maggot getting the only response, again little rudd.

I'd set up two waggler rods, one with a insert peacock to fish at full depth and another to fish shallow, the shallow rod produced nothing, the full depth rod managed to tempt one ghostie. That was it for carp and watching Rod bagging up on peg 10 just rubbed salt into the wound.

With half the match gone I decided to try and target the skimmers and pick up some silver coin, I started a new line with G/bait and dead maggot, this was hard going, and I ended the match with half a dozen or so skimmers up to 10oz.

Three or four to my right, were in the same boat as me, struggling and DNW, the back bank and the RH end of the lake once again being the place to draw.

1) Rod Wotton 82.06 peg 10
2) Kev Perry 52.06 peg 17
3) Dave Baker 33.03 peg 19
4) Dean Malin 30.10 peg 15
4) Steve Seager 30.10 peg23
6) Paul Elms 29.08 peg 24

Silvers
1) John Bradford 10.15 peg 3
2) Steve Seager 8.00 peg 23

Kev Perry Series 2011 - Tables after 1st match.

Kev Perry Series 2011 Overall Table

Name.... Points.... Weight
1. Mark Bromsgrove.... 7.... 19.100
2. Lewis Jones.... 7.... 8.690
3. John Osbourne.... 7.... 4.330
4. Paul Faiers.... 6.... 14.020
5. Chris Fox.... 6.... 8.170
6. Lance Tucker.... 6.... 4.170
7. Kev Perry.... 5.... 13.500
8. Clive Pettit.... 5.... 6.770
9. Sean Kitteridge.... 5.... 2.900
10. J Huntbatch.... 4.... 6.200
11. M Owens.... 4.... 6.140
12. N Vigus.... 3.... 5.610
13. Andy Hockin.... 3.... 4.320
14. Dave Wride.... 3.... 2.670
15. Charlie Barnes.... 2.... 4.240
16. Nick Harvey.... 2.... 4.140
17. Sam Johnson.... 2.... 1.000
18. Andy Hembrow.... 1.... 3.900
19. Glen Calvert.... 1.... 0.710
20. Bob Gullick.... 0.... 0.000
21. P Bartlett.... 0.... 0.000

Kev Perry Series 2010 Silvers Table

Name.... Points.... Weight
1. Paul Faiers.... 7.... 11.420
2. Chris Fox.... 7.... 6.900
3. Lance Tucker.... 7.... 4.170
4. Mark Bromsgrove.... 6.... 9.450
5. N Vigus.... 6.... 3.470
6. Sean Kitteridge.... 6.... 2.900
7. Kev Perry.... 5.... 7.900
8. Clive Pettit.... 5.... 2.700
9. John Osbourne.... 5.... 2.450
10. Charlie Barnes.... 4.... 4.240
11. Lewis Jones.... 4.... 2.020
12. Dave Wride.... 4.... 1.550
13. Andy Hembrow.... 3.... 3.900
14. J Huntbatch.... 3.... 1.850
15. Glen Calvert.... 3.... 0.710
16. Andy Hockin.... 2.... 3.020
17. Sam Johnson.... 2.... 0.500
18. Mike Owens.... 1.... 2.740
19. Bob Gullick.... 0.... 0.000
20. P Bartlett.... 0.... 0.000
21. Nick Harvey.... 0.... 0.000

A look back at the results of previous years first matches (I have records back to 2007, not 2009 as I commented in the last post) shows that this wasn't the best, neither was it the worst.

2007: 4.900KG Average (No seperate silvers league this year)

2008: 3.212KG Average
2008: 2.158KG Silvers Average

2009: 5.790KG Average
2009: 3.965KG Silvers Average

2010: 11.584KG Average
2010: 4.643KG Silvers Average

2011: 5.738KG Average
2011: 3.423KG Silvers Average

Kev Perry Series 2011 - Match One

Lets be honest about this, Paul (Faiers) and myself, were not going to run this series this year, no matter how hard you try to think about lakes, pegging, fairness of sections etc. etc. the fish, the weather, the anglers, high temps, low temps and inconsistent temps will give someone cause to moan.

So, that aside, at some point during the preceding year, we were persauded, but only if we had our own terms of a limit, that being 21, all on one lake - the match lake.

We achieved the 21, with others waiting in the wings, even after all the reports of fish deaths, especially carp. Phil has obtained some new fish ( not that, that easily, excuses the person who polluted the supply to the lakes!!)

I didn't fancy the back pegs 1-14, but thats where the swim card indicated I'd be, No10, right on the back bank. Just first match syndrome, they don't usually produce until the warmer weather. So after recording the draw and getting everyones queries sorted, I settled into peg 10. A simple approach, 3 rigs, one for maggot / pinkie, which was a 0.2g sensas pencil on 0.11 with a 0.08 hooklength and a 22 63-13 hook. A MW slim power, again 0.2g on 0.11with a 0.10 hooklength and a size 18 808. Finally a Daiwa float whose model eludes me, on 0.15 straight through to a 20 B911, for maggot in the margin.

On the all in I fed micro's and a couple of 4mm expanders to a line at 10'clock approx 10.5m and a groundbait and pinkie / caster line straight in front at 11m. I hooked and lost a decent fish first put in and could see Sean Kitteridge on peg 30 netting a fish on his first put in. I then had a couple of small fantails over the groundbait, to rest the line I had a look on the micro fed line, with a 4mm expander, this resulted in 2 more fantails and a skimmer - not much more to write about pellet, as I never had another bite on it.

Back onto the maggot and I managed to keep some reasonable skimmers coming, with a lone crucian and the occasional fantail. Interesting to see the skimmers show up - I guess there's not enough  (or enough active) carp to bully them out. With an hour and a half to go, the peg started to slow down, I'd switchwed to g/bait and maggot over the micro line and had another skimmer over that. I could see Lewis Jones on peg 12 taking carp from the margin, so had a look down to my left, that resulted in two small carp of just over 1lb each.

Paul & myself weighed in all the pegs and it was as predicted,(and bang on form for the first match of the series)with the popular pegs in the main bowl of the lake picking up all the money from the superpool. (The main pool payout is purely section money this year, £40 for a section win, £30 for second in section).

Two decent skimmers lost cost me the section, having to settle for second behind Lewis, although I took top silvers points in the section.

1) Mark Bromsgrove 19.100KG peg 25
2) Paul Faiers 14.020KG peg 24
3) Kev Perry 13.500KG peg 26
4) Lewis Jones 8.670KG peg 12
5) Chris Fox 8.170KG peg 10
6) Clive Pettit 6.770 peg 17

Silvers
1) Paul Faiers 11.420KG peg 24
2) Mark Bromsgrove 9.450KG peg 25
3) Kev Perry 7.900KG peg 25
4) Chris Fox 6.900KG peg 10
5) Charlie Barnes 4.240KG peg 22
6) Lance Tucker 4.170KG peg 28

Saturday Silvers - what a treat!!

It's been so bloody hectic, that I've not been fishing for a couple of weeks, too much work and having the kitchen completely ripped outhas stopped me getting out. (Its easy to get fed up of takeaways and microwave meals..... and its another two weeks before the kitchen is back up and fully functional!!)

As I'm working Sunday and had no time to get anything sorted for Saturday, I decided to give booking into a match, a miss and head off to Kingston Seymour for a bit of pleasure fishing. I had a walk round Bullock Farm and intended to practise for the forth coming Kev Perry series, but just didn't fancy it. So off to Plantation, although as I was a late arrival, at 09.40, there weren't too many pegs left. I settled into 33 and set up two rigs to fish for silvers, a KC Carpa Chimp for fishing topkit to hand for roach and perch and a 0.5g Mick Wilkinson pellet float to fish for skimmers at 10m.

I cupped in some dead maggot, 3mm expander and softened micro's on th 10m line and loose fed caster on the 'to hand' line, I started here just to see if the fish were already in close and had a couple of roach. I then left this line to develop, as it is best to let the fish get settled and feeding confidently before plundering it.

I started on 4mm expander at 10m, but was pestered with roach, so upping it to 6mm saw some decent skimmers coming to the net, alternating between 6mm ecpander and double red maggot kept them coming for a couple of hours. I then had another look on the topkit line and manged a hydrid, a few roach and a couple of decent perch, before it slowed up. Back on the 10m line saw a few skimmers and then a run of three decent crucians, before that slowed up.

Alternating between the two kept odd fish coming and at about 3 o'clock the 10m started bubbling, no bites until 3.15 the next hour saw 4 carp into the net for about 25lb - not what I'd come for but an interesting battle on the double No5 slip and skimmer rig. Another bite on the 10m line produced an unseasonal tench to go with some of the unseasonal rudd I had. Back onto the topkit for the last half an hour, that put another perch and a couple more roach into the silvers net.

What a lovely days fishing, Plantation is, at the moment, fishing exceptionally well given the weather. On arrival the air temp was 3°C, the water temp stayed around 5.5°C all day and the air temp was 4°C when I got back to the van.

The Perch

The Crucians, Tench, Skimmers, Roach, Rudd and Hybrids.