Saturday 30 April 2011

Viaduct Pole Only 29th April 2011

I’d been looking forward to this match, as the previous pole only matches have been close affairs. Not sure how many were in, but three lakes were needed, Campbell, Cary & Lodge. I think a combination of the weather and proximity to spawning has had a detrimental effect on the fishing over the last couple of weeks, so I wasn’t too bothered which lake I drew. Cary and Lodge giving more chance of building a weight in the last couple of hours if the big fish feed.

Peg 66 was to be my home for 6 hours, a new peg for me, so I listened to all the advice offered, although it ranged from the incredulous – “you’ll sack up. It’s a flier” to the miserable, “Lodge fished shit yesterday”.

I set up a meat rig for under the tree/by the platform of the overgrown peg 65, a paste rig that would cover both the 11m line and up against the tree, a meat rig for 11m, which would also suffice for 6m. A rig for hair rigged pellet completed the set up.

I started by feeding some meat in front of 65, some softened pellet by the tree and I started on the 11m line straight in front, with a 6mm banded pellet and feeding 6mm’s by catty. The float didn’t sit still, the tiny roach and motherless minnows kept plucking at the pellet until they got it out of the band. It took half an hour to get 2 skimmers in the net, I then looked over the paste line by the tree, once again pestered by the bits. The meat in front of 65 and even further past, produced nothing all match, not even a bite. I also set up a shallow rig, this produced nothing either.

Back onto the 11m line with paste and after a 10 minute wait, a cloud of bubbles erupted around the float, it bobbed and jagged under, after a tough fight a 10lb common was netted. That was it until the last hour ( apart from many gaffed motherless and roach) I had three more in the last hour on paste, including a 17lb common, giving me just over 45lb – which was 50% + short of what was required to win the lake and 2/3rds short of the winning total. Bob Gullick won the lake with 97lb including a 21lb fish and I think Nick Collier won from Cary with about 130lb, but this may not be factual as I shot off before the result, as I had to get to work.

Plenty struggled, the fish aren’t actively looking for food, lets hope the spawning is over soon and some settled, seasonal weather gets them spread out round the lakes and looking for food.

Thursday 28 April 2011

Viaduct Wednesday Open, 27th April 2011

After a couple of section wins in my last two visits, I was looking forward to this, but a bit apprehensive as to how it would fish after all the spawning action on Monday. Campbell & Cary being the two lakes in, once again 3 baits in the bag, pellet, meat & paste. Out of the tin came 126, not a bad draw, but it is in the middle of the lake and with a constant wind blowing down the lake, would the fish be there.

I had company on 127, but 125 was empty, with Dean Malin on 124, Steve Kedge was opposite and to my right on 115, fishing for silvers short, so the fish had a big area of water, sometimes its good, sometimes bad, as they get somewhere to back off into.

There were fish cruising round before the start, I was unsure if they'd stay within pole range, so set up a waggler and a lead rod, as well as shallow & full depth pellet rigs, a paste rig, and two meat rigs, one for the margin, one for 6m.

I managed to mug one fish at the all-in, with out feeding, but they backed off beyond pole range into the gap between Dean & myself. I think I confused myself by having too much set up, switching between lines, baits and methods trying to get bites. The angler on 127 was catching on the lead, so I followed suit, I had a couple of fish, but at nowhere near the rate he was catching. I tried the margin, two tench in two put ins, great, I'll fish for them, except that was the end of my silvers action.

I eneded up catching a few shallow in the last 3/4 hour, but it was too little too late and I'd caught one or two on meat at 6m, pellet at 14m, the lead and those I had shallow. The waggler only produced a couple of lost foulers, I bought a new reel (a Preston Inception 4000 to try out) and after two matches have yet to christen it with a fish, I may have to chuck it in the lake if its a jinx.

With 20 minutes to go, I knew I'd been well beaten, by the winner on 127 who had 30+ carp and some silvers to my 12 carp and 2 tench. Dean had persevered with the pole and had at least a 1/3 as much again as I had, so I packed up and tipped back around 65lb.

At least the Royal Wedding Fridays match is pole only, limiting in one way, but it makes you work at what you've got, I must do better on that one. As predicted, I was well and truly beaten by the 170+ weight, which came mainly on the lead from my RH side.

1) P Greening 171.9 peg 127
2) A Murray 154.12 peg 132
3) T Rixon 139.6 peg 119
4) N Collier 138.14 peg 129
5) Scott Russel 138.4 peg 114
6) Charlie Barnes 116.13 peg 111

Silvers
1) N Collier 38.14

Monday 25 April 2011

Viaduct Open, Easter Monday, 25th April 2011

Cary & Lodge lakes were in for todays Bank Holiday match, with 36 fishing. There was a fair bit of spawning activity on Cary and plenty of basking fish in Lodge. I'd gone with my usual positive approach, hard pellet, paste and meat being the only baits in my bag. A new area of the lake for me today, peg 105.

Inviting looking margins had me setting up a paste & meat rig, the paste rig direct on 0.19 to a 12 Mustad paste hook and the meat rig was a MW margin on 0.19 to 0.17 with a 14 TXR7 hook. I also set up two wagglers - not a touch on either, a lead rod which also saw no action. For open water I set up a paste rig, a rig to fish banded pellet at depth and another for shallow, lastly a rig to fish meat at 6m.

The open water rigs and rods may as well have stayed at home, nothing to show for any of them, apart from a snapped hooklength on the 6m meat rig - 0.15 is not strong enough for Cary fish.

I started by cupping in some dampend pellets into the LH margin, then had 15 minns on the shallow waggler to let it settle, not a touch on the waggler, so into the margin and two lumps in the next 3/4 of an hour gave me about 25lb, another fish on paste in the LH margin, before a look down the RH side with meat produced another fish. I swapped between the margins, the 13m paste laine and the 5m meat line in the next hour or so, to no avail, apart from one bite and as mentioned, snapped hooklength on the 6m meat rig.

I was hoping for a decent last 2 hours and whilst I had a tench, a skimmer and a couple more on paste, they didn't go mad, I managed 2 more on meat in the RH margin, then a real lump right at the end on paste, which took 5 or so minutes after the whisle before I could get it to the net. I lost another fish which was a big double, it managed to pick up a sunken branch, I played the fish and the branch for 5 minutes or so, before the line snapped - an expensive branch..... as that would have given me third place at least and may well have pushed second and first.

I did win the lake and therefore the section, my 9 carp went 109.09, with 5.04 of tench and skimmer, making a total of 114.13. Its been a decent week, picking up money in 3 out of 4 matches fished.

1) Terry Bruton 129.14 peg 73
2) Anton Page 128.05 peg 56
3) Alan Oram 122.14 peg 60
4) Chris Fox 114.13 peg 105
5) Paul Blake 107.02 peg 57
6) Ray Hayward 105.00 peg 62

Silvers

1) Ray Hayward 28.08 peg 62
2) Andy Lloyd 21.04 peg 59
3) Martin Preston 15.08 peg 97

Kev Perry Series Round Three. Sunday 24th April 2011.

My turn for A section, I asked Bob Gulllick to draw for me and he handed me A2, permanent peg 3, that was after drawing himself peg 26, another flier then Bob....

I guessed that I was already too far behind to compete in the overall, so decided to fish for silvers, just as well, I don't think there was a carp in the peg. I set up two rigs for silvers, a Malman float whose name I forget on 0.13/0.11 with a 18 808 for soft pellet - no more about this, I never had a bite on it. A Sensas pencil on 0.11 with a 0.10 hooklength and a 22 63-1 up 3 to fish maggot, pinkie, caster. I also set up a paste rig and a MW margin float for meat in the margin.

The signs weren't good, fish spawning, the hot sun both contributing to less than ideal conditions. I fed three lines at the start, micro pellet at 11m left, groundbait & maggot at 11m right and caster at 5m. I caught first put in over the gbait and maggot and had a few other fantails after. Then it went quiet, so a look on the pellet line - not so much as a twitch on the float.

I then caught well over the caster at 5m, skimmers, crucians and fantails, but as the sun rose up and hit the water, all the lines died, I had one small carp on caster and that was the last of the action. Nothing in the last three hours, I tried both margins, paste, meat, cat meat and banded pellet. I set up a shallow rig and went to 18m across to where there was some fish activity, I hooked and lost one fouler.

I managed to win the silvers in 3 hours, my 8.550KG being enough, my solitary carp went 0.880KG, the first three hours were quite enjoyable, the last three weren't!! K

1) Sam Johnson 26.670KG peg 22
2) Kev Perry 24.920KG peg 13
3) Sean Kitteridge 22.700KG peg 26
4) J Huntbatch 15.450KG peg 30
5) Mark Bromsgrove 14.720KG peg 12
6) Bob Gullick 12.230KG peg 25

Silvers

1) Chris Fox 8.550KG peg 3
2) Dave Wride 8.150KG peg 24
3) Sean Kitteridge 3.300KG peg 26
4) Mark Bromsgrove 3.250KG peg 12


Overall Table

1 Lewis Jones 20 42.340
2 Sean Kitteridge 18 45.600
3 Mark Bromsgrove 17 44.410
4 J Huntbatch 16 35.870
5 Kev Perry 14 44.010
6 Sam Johnson 14 42.690
7 Chris Fox 14 29.000
8 Paul Faiers 13 32.360
9 Lance Tucker 13 27.650
10 Andy Hembrow 12 28.480
11 M Owens 12 27.390
12 Nick Harvey 11 25.790
13 Dave Wride 10 22.240
14 Andy Hockin 10 22.170
15 John Osbourne 10 14.410
16 Clive Pettit 9 19.430
17 Bob Gullick 9 26.310
18 P Bartlett 8 20.310
19 N Vigus 6 18.090
20 Charlie Barnes 5 9.730
21 Glen Calvert 3 6.810

Silvers Table

1 N Vigus 19 11.550
2 Sean Kitteridge 18 13.420
3 Mark Bromsgrove 18 17.240
4 Dave Wride 18 17.150
5 Chris Fox 17 18.650
6 Lance Tucker 15 12.810
7 Kev Perry 15 12.840
8 Lewis Jones 14 7.200
9 J Huntbatch 13 6.770
10 Mike Owens 12 12.070
11 Charlie Barnes 12 7.890
12 Paul Faiers 11 13.760
13 John Osbourne 11 6.150
14 Andy Hockin 8 7.620
15 Clive Pettit 8 5.730
16 Bob Gullick 8 6.750
17 Andy Hembrow 7 6.090
18 Glen Calvert 6 4.210
19 Sam Johnson 5 4.740
20 Nick Harvey 5 3.850
21 P Bartlett 4 3.560

Friday 22 April 2011

Trinity Waters Good Friday Pole Only

I'd decided to run a pole only on Woodland this Good Friday, as I was interested to see how it would fish without pellet wagglers & method feeders being chucked into the middle. When I booked the lake, I didn't expect the weather to play such a part, the water was just over 20°C and the fish were thinking about spawning, not eating.

I got there early to sort out the pegging and had a chat with Rich Coles, we observed a Heron taking Roach and Rich was urging all the Heron population to eat carp instead - a silverfish aficionado if ever there was one.

With 18 on the lake it was just one too many to use every other peg, so give the form of them, 13, 14 & 15 were all in, all the rest were peg one, miss one.

I asked Rod Wootten to draw for me, using his left hand he pulled me peg 11, on the back bank at last!! I had kept it simple and taken hard pellet, paste & meat, although I did find some jelly pellets in the freezer and took them to try and catch a few skimmers. I set up a margin rig to fish meat by the pallet of peg 12, also a paste rig for the margin, as well as a paste rig for the 13m line and a rig for soft pellet at the same distance. Lastly a MW pea for fishing up in the water, surely they'd come up given the temperature.

I fed some softend 4mms at 13m on the all in and dropped a 4mm jelly pellet in on top, it didn't get to the bottom before a 6-8oz hybrid took it.... solid I thought, perhaps I think too much!! That was it nothing else on the soft pellet, nor a hard pellet and paste didn't even register so much as a liner. A switch to the up in the water rig brought a couple of roach to the net on 6mm pellet, before the first carp had the pole hooped over and the elastic streaming out as it dived down.

It was hard going and I had a couple more before deciding to rest the line, a look in the margins produced nothing but a sunken piece of tree, absolutely no indication of fish at all. Back on the shallow rig and a couple more fell to the 6mm hair rigged pellet, but it was slow going. I knew I was way being Rich Coles on peg 4, who was now declaring himself a carp slayer (good job the Heron left them in the lake, eh). I could also see Rod Wootten on peg 15 catching in his LH margin.

A swop to the soft pellet at 13m produced one skimmer and one carp, then nothing, the margins remained apparently devoid of life and I switched from feeding meat to corn, after I found a tin at the bottom of my bait bucket. The lake had now lost all ripple (there never was much) and I tried corn into the margin, I had my only bite in the margin nearly straight away and a small tench was in the net. That was it, not another twitch on the float.

For the last hour I dropped paste back into the 13m line and landed 3 fish, they actually started blowing over the feed, they hadn't done this in the previous 5 hours.

It looked like the corner pegs had produced, the silvers were even more reluctant to feed than the carp and many struggled, although the top overall weights were decent.
My 10 fish went 52.09 with 4.04 of silvers taking my total to 56.13, which wasn't enough to get a sniff of the payout.

1) Rich (Carp Slayer) Coles 128.05 peg 4
2) Stu Holmes 92.12 peg 33
3) Rod Wootten 76.06 peg 15 (Section Win)
4) Mark Walsh 75.01 peg 2 (Section Win)
5) Les Williams 59.14 peg 17
6) Kev Perry 58.11 peg 27
7) Chris Fox 56.13 peg 11

Silvers

1) Rich Lovering 10.07 peg 7
2) Paul Cooper 9.09 peg 19
3) Rod Wootten 8.14 Peg 15

Wednesday 20 April 2011

Viaduct Wednesday Open, 20th April 2011

With a warm day forecast, I was hopeful that we'd get a few fish, but by the time I got to Viaduct, it was so bright and sunny that is was obvious the fish were sunning themselves and not feeding. I put a thermometer in the water at the start it registered 20°C which rose to 22°C during the day. The temperature in the sun on the platform, got up to 32°C - a hot day!!

There was a club match on Campbell, so we had Cary and Lodge for the 24 of us that were about to get sun tans.

I pulled peg 85 out of the tin, so I wasn't too disappointed.... I set up two waggler rods, one for full depth and one for shallow, also a lead rod, the full depth waggler got unused and two chucks in the middle of the match was the only action the lead rod saw. I also set up 4 pole rigs, a MW paste float on 0.19 with a 12 Mustad paste hook, a MW slim power for fishing 8mm pellet on 0.17 with a 0.15 hooklength and a 16 B960. I also set up a MW pea for shallow fishing, which I didn't get a touch on. The last rig was a MW margin float on 0.19 to 0.17 with a 14 TXR7 hook.

I fed a 14m line at approx 1 0'clock (just a good place to see the float) and pinged some 8mm pellets out towards the spit - although I couldn't go too close to it, as Tony Rixon was on 81.

I started on the waggler set around 3' and only had one lost foul hooker on that, in the next couple of hours I switched between the waggler and the pole/paste, taking 3 fish on paste & 1 on the waggler, I lost two more foulers on the paste rig. The middle two hours saw me try the lead, but after two chucks without even a liner, that was soon abandoned. I tried the waggler at all depths and apart from two more foulers (both lost) that was it for the rod & line. I managed another 3 or 4 on paste but that line was drying up. In the last two hours I fed some meat at 14m in the margin, not with a great deal of confidence as I have not caught from this margin on the previous two occasions I've drawn 85.

I was using some punched meat (10mm) on the hook and had a carp first put in, I thought I'd cracked it, but no, the margin was as slow and patchy as the rest of the lake (purely due to the bright, virtually windless conditions)although I managed a decent skimmer, a tench and a perch on meat, as well as 3 more carp. I lost a decent fish when the elastic snapped at the pulla bung knot - gutted, it cost me 3rd place and I hate to see a fish going off trailing a rig and elastic. Not sure why it snapped, I'd checked all my elastics last night and there wasn't any signs of perishing or damage. I did try to snag the rig with the lead rod to no avail.

Good day for the tackle dealers as there was a loud crack and the angler on 118 in the club match snapped his pole, he didn't seem best pleased!! Followed a little later by Nicky Ewers joining in the fun, floating several sections (and a half) into the lake. Although as some consolation, Nicky won his section with 95.01 from peg 100

I was unsure what weight I had on the whistle, I thought that most of the fish were around the 10lb mark, with a couple smaller & a couple bigger, the scales showed that the 10lb average was a decent guess, as the carp weight went 122.12 and the 3 silvers 6.09 for a total of 129.05, enough to take a default section win (£45) and 4th in the match.

1) Tony Whittcomb 186.01 peg 73
2) Lewis Greenwood 166.08 peg 76
3) Tom Thick 130.09 peg 87
4) Chris Fox 129.05 peg 85
5) Andy Power 106.07 peg 94
6) Nicky Collier 103.00 peg 90

Silvers

1) John Green 44.02 peg 96
2) Tim Pallant 31.06 peg 70
3) Andy France 27.15 peg 71

Sunday 10 April 2011

Kev Perry Series 2011 - Match Two

I spent around 5 hours Saturday evening/night sorting out elastics, rigs & bait - I wish I'd gone up the pub....

That was after a trip to Avon Anglingto collect some bait, a discussion ensued about elastics, Clayton Hudson & Tony both thought they'd got a bite from me, but when I questioned how many floaters were in Tony's casters, I got a huge wrap round. He grabbed a bag from the display fridge opened it and threw some into the toilet - "look, look, there are only four floaters to a handful" - having to look at the caster in the pan wasn't the issue, it's the "I've never seen bleach" appearance of the toilet pan thats worrying.....

I was due to be in C section, the section that produced the top three last match and should produce at least a winner or framer this. I asked Team Mate Mark Bromsgrove to draw my peg - he can draw flyers for himself! - but not for me, peg 21 he managed. The peg of doom in the section, not much open water and where there used to be boards in front of the rush beds, they have now gone.

I had it in my head to fish for silvers, I set up a pencil float on 0.11/0.10 with a 22 63.13 for pinkie/maggot/caster, another rig with 0.13/0.11 to a 18 808 for soft pellet, I guessed paste would catch some carp, so I set up a rig - just in case. I also set up a rig for down the edge.

The match started slowly and didn't improve from there, the silvers (well crucians and goldfish) were spawning in the rushes and margins and the carp would not come more than 6" from the rushes to feed. I fed a couple of lines, one with micropellet & 3mm expander and one with pinkie & groundbait. The only line I caught on initially was the groundbait line and this was slow, with the odd crucian and fantail taking the bait.

I switched to the pellet line, to no avail, I had fed a line near the rushes, but felt it was suicidal and so it proved to be - the rushes and carp claimed, several hooklengths, a couple of rigs and a rig complete with double No8 elastic and a PTFE bush. By 12.15 I was ready to pack up and go home, I couldn't get a bite in open water and every fish I hooked near the reeds went deep inside them.

I took a breather for 5 mins and then reassembled the cupping kit etc I'd taken down in temper, I managed a couple of decent roach on caster before the carp (small ones, moved in for a quick burst of two fish). I thought that peg 24 was catching crucians, I couldn't see 26, but assumed he was as well - no, a total misjudgement, I should have stayed fishing for silvers the whole match, but thinking I was behind I switched to paste on a heavier rig and landed some carp - as well as losing plenty in the reeds!!

I weighed in 3.200KG of silvers, 720G short of second in section (silvers), but ended up with 3 points instead of a possible 6 (I don't think there was 6KG of silvers to had to beat the section winner, who banked 7 points).

The crucians and goldfish seemed to be spawning, the skimmers were conspicuious by their absence and the carp showed up, but small ones in general and not in great numbers. All in all, a total waste of an evening staying in preparing, I can't say I enjoyed it. I managed 11.400KG which tied with peg 22 (Nick Harvey)for 4 series points and a lowly 3.200KG of silvers for 3 silvers points.

1) L Jones 22.350KG peg 25
2) S Kitteridge 20.000KG peg 18
3) L Tucker 18.500KG peg 15
4) A Hockin 17.850 peg 3
5) S Johnson 15.020 peg 16
6) P Bartlett 14.260KG peg 26

Silvers

1) M Owens 8.400KG peg 6
2) D Wride 7.450KG peg 12
3) S Kitteridge 7.220KG peg 18
4) L Tucker 6.280KG peg 15
5) N Vigus 6.000KG peg 19
6) M Bromsgrove 4.540KG peg 8

Overall Table Top Six

1) L Jones 14 31.040KG
2) S Kitteridge 12 22.900KG
3) L Tucker 12 22.670KG
4) M Bromsgrove 11 22.690KG
5) A Hockin 10 22.170KG
6) C Fox 10 19.570KG

Silvers Table Top Six

1) N Vigus 13 9.470KG
2) L Tucker 12 10.450KG
3) S Kitteridge 12 10.120KG
4) Mark Bromsgrove 11 13.990KG
5) D Wride 11 9.000KG
6) C Fox 10 10.100KG

Thursday 7 April 2011

Viaduct Open Wednesday 6th April 2011

At last, a day off work and a chance to get back on the bank. I decided that Viaduct would be my best option and it turned out to be a very interesting match. 22 fishing, so 8 on each bank of Campbell and 6 on Cary. I only took 2 baits with me, meat & pellet (6 & 8mm) as I wanted to fish positively where ever I drew. And positive fishing was required, with 15 ton + weights and 3 silvers weights over 50lb.

111 revealed itself upon opening the swimcard, the wrong end? The wind was blowing towards the other end, but had the wind been warm enough for the fish to follow it? I set up two wagglers, one at depth and one at half depth, a straight lead and three pole rigs, one for shallow, one to fish pellet on the deck and another to fish meat at 6-7m.

I started on the waggler at depth adjacent to the areator and within 5 minutes was into a fish, although it took another 6 or 7 minutes to get a second. I was getting no liners, nor could I see any fish activity, Paul Greenwood on 112 was also finding it tough going, as we looked down the lake and saw fish coming rapidly to the pegs halfway along and towards the end bank.

110 was getting a few fish on the lead, so I bit the bullet and chucked it, again no liners at all, but a couple of wrap rounds saw 2 more fish in the net. I swapped between the waggler and lead for 3 hours, keeping the odd fish coming, but a long way behind Paul Blake and Andy Power on 114 & 118 respectively.

I'd been feeding a line about 6-7m with meat and dropped in on it, taking a 3lb fish first put in, that was it, nothing else apart from missed bites, which I suspect were silvers. Back on the waggler and an odd fish again, just couldn't keep them coming, with just over an hour to go, I switched to the 13m pole and feeding 6mm pellets, then 8's I started to catch on 8mm pellet, which was just touching bottom.

I was feeding regularly and expected the fish to come up in the water, but never had as much as a bite on the shallow rig (nor on the shallow waggler when I tried it. I was catching with the pellet on the bottom, I had a decent last hour, just a shame they didn't come that quickly for the other 5.

I am a terrible judge of fish weight and for the first time ever, instead of being ultra cautious, I relied on last years safety margin of 5lb average for the fish - wrong!! - I went over the net limit and had one net capped at 70lb. Fortunately, this didn't cost me, as I was towards the lower end of tons.

I weighed 116.10 (should have been more like 125) for nothing, except a days fishing and some things tucked away in the experience bank. What a great days fishing, Dave Ropers 38.09 of silvers was the lowest total weight weighed and Paul Greenwood chucked back around 110lb.

1) Andy Power 243.05 peg 118
2) Nicky Collier 208.03 peg 78
3) Paul Blake 168.07 peg 114
4) Steve Jackson 155.06 peg 86
5) Jim Baines 153.03 peg 127
6) Dick Bull 152.07 peg 123

Silvers

1) Dick Bull 76.14 peg 123
2) Nicky Collier 61.09 peg 78
3) John Green 58.08 peg 128
4) Dave roper 38.09 peg 116