This blog entry is little more than a tale, nay, admission that I'm a stubborn idiot.
My record at Landsend is by anybodys evaluation, poor, I've pretty much made up my mind to only fish for silvers when I go to Landsend. This match was no exception, so what peg did I draw, bloody 19, the best carp peg on the venue. Plenty of good advice from anglers who I would normally listen to and trust, today, my stubborn streak chose to totally ignore advice from the likes of Trigger and Alan Oram -"you'll struggle to get through the carp". Of course I'd find a way to catch quality silvers, why wouldn't I?
So, I started short on the caster, this produced a couple of tench and a few small roach, before the carp moved in, so out to the 10m devils spawn line, more bloody vermin, infact in the first hour I foul hooked and lost 7 or 8. The next two hours saw a similar tale of foul hooked carp and I was at the point of trying to find an old gypsy peg seller to put a KHV curse on them.
The last three hours I gave up and fished the paste (which I had to try and make up from some pellet), I still fouled some, but I landed 12, that gave me 60lb and a pretty poor 6lb of silvers. If I hadn't been so stubborn and determind to 'beat' the carp, I could and should have won the match, but Landsend seems to be my bête noir.
Although I readily admit to fish for silvers for half the match today was a shite decision. Not much more to say, except to all those that said "I told you so", you were right.
1) Craig 'Trigger' Edmunds 101.02. peg 24
2) Paul Elmes 90.15 peg 9
3) Dave Westcott 84.00 peg 33
4) Scott Puddy 75.02 peg 40
5) D Pither 67.02 peg 21
6) Chris Fox 66.06 peg 19
Silvers
1) Tom Thick 30.00 peg 15
2) Matt Tomes 21.08 peg 1
I went to Plantation today (Monday 26th) to try a few things out in readiness for next weekends two day festival. I was told that the method would be deadly, as I have never done this I took the couple of method feeders that I've got free via the angling press to try, I managed 45 minutes before throwing it up the bank, not to touch it again - I won't be taking it the weekend. After this I started trying for silvers, but got carp'd out again, settled on fishing for them and had 150lb without trying. Its amazing how the 'proper carp fishermen' keep on saying - "he's got another" "everytime he goes out he gets one", but they can see that I'm catching shallow, but they still sit, biteless, on their lead rods.
One more practise session this week to squeeze in before the festival on Saturday, next time I'll take some waggler rods, which I purposefully left at home today. If I get a carp peg in the festival, I certainly won't be fishing for silvers........
Monday, 26 September 2011
Wednesday, 21 September 2011
Viaduct Open, Wednesday 21st Sept 2011
Back to Viaduct today, with just Campbell lake in, at least I couldn't draw the worst lake........
Nice steady drive down, so I went into Somerton and bought ½ a loaf of bread, just in case, whilst I was there I saw a couple of Chelsea Buns, so bought them as a little treat, they were in fact pretty stale and for most of the day I had the company of the tame goose - she ate the stale buns!!
I drew 115, I'd brought the tackle and bait to fish for silvers or carp and the sight of carp moving about in the middle, made my mind up to leave the silvers gear in the bag. Four topkits were set up, a margin rig on 0.20 with a 0.18 hooklength and a Xedion TXR7 hook, exactly the same lines and hook for a 6m rig to fish meat, finally a shallow and depth rig to fish banded pellet on 0.16.
I set up three rods, two wagglers, one at full depth and one shallow, as well as a lead rod - hopefully the lead rod wouldn't see much use. I started with the shallow rig and within 5 mins had elastic streaming from the pole, but just landed a big scale, another lost fouler a couple of minutes later and that seemed to be the end of the action shallow, I tried the waggler at depth, just out past the 14.5m line, but this proved fruitless (and fishless), by now an hour was gone and I was still blanking. There were fish on the 14.5m line, so out with the full depth rig and at least I had a couple of fish in the net by an hour and 10 mins, but then the foulers started. Back out with the shallow rig and apart from a few more foulers, very little to show.
I tied up a 2' hooklength of 0.18, with a 14 Guru QM1 and a quickstop, this went on the lead rod and I opened the bread - two chucks, two 7lb+ fish, thinking I'd sussed it, I was rudely reminded this wasn't a day for sussing anything, as I then lost 3 foulers on the popped up bread. The fish were up in the water, moving about, but seemingly, not feeding ravenously on masse. Back on the shallow rig and I started putting a few decent fish together, but it was a case of catch a couple then wait. It seemed as if they were backing away from the pole.
Heading into the last couple of hours, I had 13 carp and the shallow line appeared to be getting stronger, but it just died and I could see other pegs increasing their catch rates whilst mine was stalling. I had fed a line at 5m with meat & hemp and had a look over this, a couple of fish, then again, it appeared to die, I'd also fed a margin line, this produced one fish and no other bites. Back on the 5m meat line, i hooked a big fish, I'm guessing fouled, that ran, then ran some more and then bottomed out 17H elastic and snapped 0.18.
Back on the shallow rig and another fish, I'd tried upping the feed, decreasing the feed, 8mm & 6mm pellets, all to no avail, its just as if they spooked away from the pole or catch area. Last 10 minutes on the meat line and two more carp taking the total to 22, I knew it wouldn't be enough as whilst my peg seemed to get more 'fussy' as the last couple of hours drew to a close, several others got stronger.
The scales confirmed my observations, my 127.03 putting me one off a pick up for the second match running. Miles Levy won, fishing meat shallow and paste in the margins. Eight ton+ weights on the day, so Campbell once again fished well in the end, even though it wasn't easy pickings.
1) Miles Levy 186.12 Peg 126
2) Lee Werrett 156.1 Peg 129
3) Will Bohne 144.03 Peg 112
4) Chris Fox 127.03 Peg 115
5) Steve Hutter 125.01 Peg 125
6) Dan White 121.07 Peg 114
Silvers
1) Tim Pallant 32.10 Peg 130
2) John Green 22.10 Peg 123
Nice steady drive down, so I went into Somerton and bought ½ a loaf of bread, just in case, whilst I was there I saw a couple of Chelsea Buns, so bought them as a little treat, they were in fact pretty stale and for most of the day I had the company of the tame goose - she ate the stale buns!!
I drew 115, I'd brought the tackle and bait to fish for silvers or carp and the sight of carp moving about in the middle, made my mind up to leave the silvers gear in the bag. Four topkits were set up, a margin rig on 0.20 with a 0.18 hooklength and a Xedion TXR7 hook, exactly the same lines and hook for a 6m rig to fish meat, finally a shallow and depth rig to fish banded pellet on 0.16.
I set up three rods, two wagglers, one at full depth and one shallow, as well as a lead rod - hopefully the lead rod wouldn't see much use. I started with the shallow rig and within 5 mins had elastic streaming from the pole, but just landed a big scale, another lost fouler a couple of minutes later and that seemed to be the end of the action shallow, I tried the waggler at depth, just out past the 14.5m line, but this proved fruitless (and fishless), by now an hour was gone and I was still blanking. There were fish on the 14.5m line, so out with the full depth rig and at least I had a couple of fish in the net by an hour and 10 mins, but then the foulers started. Back out with the shallow rig and apart from a few more foulers, very little to show.
I tied up a 2' hooklength of 0.18, with a 14 Guru QM1 and a quickstop, this went on the lead rod and I opened the bread - two chucks, two 7lb+ fish, thinking I'd sussed it, I was rudely reminded this wasn't a day for sussing anything, as I then lost 3 foulers on the popped up bread. The fish were up in the water, moving about, but seemingly, not feeding ravenously on masse. Back on the shallow rig and I started putting a few decent fish together, but it was a case of catch a couple then wait. It seemed as if they were backing away from the pole.
Heading into the last couple of hours, I had 13 carp and the shallow line appeared to be getting stronger, but it just died and I could see other pegs increasing their catch rates whilst mine was stalling. I had fed a line at 5m with meat & hemp and had a look over this, a couple of fish, then again, it appeared to die, I'd also fed a margin line, this produced one fish and no other bites. Back on the 5m meat line, i hooked a big fish, I'm guessing fouled, that ran, then ran some more and then bottomed out 17H elastic and snapped 0.18.
Back on the shallow rig and another fish, I'd tried upping the feed, decreasing the feed, 8mm & 6mm pellets, all to no avail, its just as if they spooked away from the pole or catch area. Last 10 minutes on the meat line and two more carp taking the total to 22, I knew it wouldn't be enough as whilst my peg seemed to get more 'fussy' as the last couple of hours drew to a close, several others got stronger.
The scales confirmed my observations, my 127.03 putting me one off a pick up for the second match running. Miles Levy won, fishing meat shallow and paste in the margins. Eight ton+ weights on the day, so Campbell once again fished well in the end, even though it wasn't easy pickings.
1) Miles Levy 186.12 Peg 126
2) Lee Werrett 156.1 Peg 129
3) Will Bohne 144.03 Peg 112
4) Chris Fox 127.03 Peg 115
5) Steve Hutter 125.01 Peg 125
6) Dan White 121.07 Peg 114
Silvers
1) Tim Pallant 32.10 Peg 130
2) John Green 22.10 Peg 123
Sunday, 18 September 2011
Teams of Four, Landsend. Sunday 18th Sept. 2011
Today I guested in Charlie Barnes' team, Charlies Angels, in place of Rich Coles. The match consisted of 11 anglers on each of the four lakes, obviously, one from each team. As it was a team match, I had spent some time tying up new rigs and preparing bait, its only fair to the other members of the team to make an effort.
Out of the four lakes, I didn't fancy number four, as it houses the least silvers and smallest carp, it really suits the 'hard pellet tight to the island' experts, of which, I'm certainly not. Absolutely no surprise then, when I was told, "you're on No 4, peg 72". I headed straight off, as I really didn't want to listen to all the differing advice, or the "thats a flyer" comments.
Peg 72 has the end of an island at approx 13m, but it might as well have been 30m away, because the wind was whistling down the lake, I could see then that it would be difficult to present a bait and I'd only brought a pole. To add pressure on me, vacant corner peg 71 didn't stay long, England International Des Shipp arrived, so no pressure to try and beat him off the next peg.
I had tried to cover all bases with the baits I'd brought, caster, dead maggot, live maggot, worm, hemp, devils spawn in various sizes, micro pellet, 4, 6 & 8mm hard pellet and 6 & 8mm meat. I decided that I'd fish a line with the micro pellet, this was at 6m, devils spawn & dead maggot to be the hook bait. The obvious line accross to the island and large bush protruding from it, I set up a depth and shallow rig for this line, with a 20 B960 and hair rig band for 6mm pellet. I also set up a MW dinky D to fish the margin, this had a 18 Xedion TXR7 on 0.16, just in case a bonus fish fancied the meat I intended to fish late in the margins.
As I thought, the wind was affecting presentation and the ability to hold much more than 6m, without it waving around like a magic wand on speed. I had bites from the off accross, but it was a couple of small skimmers that graced the net, rather than the weight building pasty carp. With one hour gone, I had the two skimmers and one small carp, not good, I was also getting a lesson in angling by Des, as he was catching fish quite steadily, although they weren't big.
Hour two saw a slight improvement, with a few small carp, although the annoying growth of small branches, both above and below the waterline, cost me a few fish, a disintegrated float and if Mike had a swear box, it would have been full, just with the four anglers I could see and hear. Hour three was difficult and Des had now dropped to only taking an occasional fish, although opposite, Rod Wootten started taking a fish every put in and Mike West broke his pole, so some entertainment.
With two hours to go, I had virtually given up on the long line to the island, also the 6m line, no bites on hard pellet and bitted out on dead maggot and devils spawn. Time to start feeding the margin a bit more heavily with caster and a few cubes of 6mm meat, the last hour and a half produced a few fish, including a 5lber, all falling to meat over caster. This was enough to give me third on the lake, behind Rod Wootten who weigh approx 45lb and Des who weighed 39lb, my efforts went 33.04. The team result wasn't fantastic, with Mike Nicholls matching my third on lake, but sadly, Steve Seager and Captain Charlie came back with 3rd from last & last on their lakes.
I didn't get the results, but I'm sure they will appear on Mike Nicholl's and Tony Rixon's blogs, needless to say, lake four won't be appearing in the overall placings........
Out of the four lakes, I didn't fancy number four, as it houses the least silvers and smallest carp, it really suits the 'hard pellet tight to the island' experts, of which, I'm certainly not. Absolutely no surprise then, when I was told, "you're on No 4, peg 72". I headed straight off, as I really didn't want to listen to all the differing advice, or the "thats a flyer" comments.
Peg 72 has the end of an island at approx 13m, but it might as well have been 30m away, because the wind was whistling down the lake, I could see then that it would be difficult to present a bait and I'd only brought a pole. To add pressure on me, vacant corner peg 71 didn't stay long, England International Des Shipp arrived, so no pressure to try and beat him off the next peg.
I had tried to cover all bases with the baits I'd brought, caster, dead maggot, live maggot, worm, hemp, devils spawn in various sizes, micro pellet, 4, 6 & 8mm hard pellet and 6 & 8mm meat. I decided that I'd fish a line with the micro pellet, this was at 6m, devils spawn & dead maggot to be the hook bait. The obvious line accross to the island and large bush protruding from it, I set up a depth and shallow rig for this line, with a 20 B960 and hair rig band for 6mm pellet. I also set up a MW dinky D to fish the margin, this had a 18 Xedion TXR7 on 0.16, just in case a bonus fish fancied the meat I intended to fish late in the margins.
As I thought, the wind was affecting presentation and the ability to hold much more than 6m, without it waving around like a magic wand on speed. I had bites from the off accross, but it was a couple of small skimmers that graced the net, rather than the weight building pasty carp. With one hour gone, I had the two skimmers and one small carp, not good, I was also getting a lesson in angling by Des, as he was catching fish quite steadily, although they weren't big.
Hour two saw a slight improvement, with a few small carp, although the annoying growth of small branches, both above and below the waterline, cost me a few fish, a disintegrated float and if Mike had a swear box, it would have been full, just with the four anglers I could see and hear. Hour three was difficult and Des had now dropped to only taking an occasional fish, although opposite, Rod Wootten started taking a fish every put in and Mike West broke his pole, so some entertainment.
With two hours to go, I had virtually given up on the long line to the island, also the 6m line, no bites on hard pellet and bitted out on dead maggot and devils spawn. Time to start feeding the margin a bit more heavily with caster and a few cubes of 6mm meat, the last hour and a half produced a few fish, including a 5lber, all falling to meat over caster. This was enough to give me third on the lake, behind Rod Wootten who weigh approx 45lb and Des who weighed 39lb, my efforts went 33.04. The team result wasn't fantastic, with Mike Nicholls matching my third on lake, but sadly, Steve Seager and Captain Charlie came back with 3rd from last & last on their lakes.
I didn't get the results, but I'm sure they will appear on Mike Nicholl's and Tony Rixon's blogs, needless to say, lake four won't be appearing in the overall placings........
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Trinity Waters, Avon Angling Open Sunday 11th sept. 2011
Woodland Lake was the venue for todays match, with 20 in the draw bag. I managed to pull out 27, I'm sure that I'll be paying concil tax on that section of bank soon, as I seem to draw it in every match. I intended to fish for skimmers and then switch, if the carp came along, but I did set up a pellet waggler to start on, just in case thecarp were up in the water and hungry.
I also set up a cage feeder to fish for skimmers if the wind got too bad, as well as two 1.5g modified jolly floats, to fish at 12m on the deck, one on 0.17 with a B960 on 0.16 for banded pellet another on 0.16 with a 16 63.13 for worm, dead maggot or 4mm devils spawn. I also set up a .4g sensas pencil float on 0.14 / 0.12 with a 18 carp maggot to fish caster short. Lastly I set up a margin rig, in case the carp moved in, as they can do on the lodge lake bank.
On the all-in, I cupped in some groundbait CW&C and left it for ½ an hour, having a look on the pellet waggler, to no avail. I dropped a worm segment over the 12m line and had one small skimmer, they didn't seem to be feeding. I tried dead maggot and had another skimmer, but the bites weren't forthcoming. A quick look on the short line produced some very small roach, but al least it was bites. I wondered if the presentation was poor on the pole, as it was very windy, with a heavy tow, so the groundbait feeder was reluctantly put into action, just groundbait and dead maggot in the feeder and dead maggot on the hook. Second put in the tip twitched and steadily pulled round, initially I thought the heavy weight and steady thumps on the rod was a decent bream, but then it came to life and morphed into a 6lb carp.
Several more chucks with the feeder brought a couple of skimmers, but they were small, not worth the wait. I came back on the short line and started feeding hemp along with the caster, this increased the size of the roach, but also attracted the carp, which put the roach off. I kept chasing the roach, varying the depth from 6" to full depth at 6' to keep them coming, a 7lb carp took a liking to the single caster and ploughed up the near line.
Paul Elmes on 25 had a cracking time, a number 5 & 6 section both biting the dust in the windy conditions, I guess the overnight rain and the wind put the fish off feeding as the weights weren't huge, but it was a close & fair match, my persistence on the roach - much to Tony Rixon's disgust - paid off, giving me first in the silvers, with half the weight I expected to need.
1) Craig Edmunds 72.08 peg 7
2) Tony Rixon 66.00 peg 26
3) Chris Davis 59.07 peg 32
4) Dean Malin 57.05 peg 29
5) Rich Coles 57.03 peg 19
6) P Elmes 45.08 peg 25
Silvers
1) Chris Fox 11.15 peg 27
2) Dean Malin 8.00 peg 29
I also set up a cage feeder to fish for skimmers if the wind got too bad, as well as two 1.5g modified jolly floats, to fish at 12m on the deck, one on 0.17 with a B960 on 0.16 for banded pellet another on 0.16 with a 16 63.13 for worm, dead maggot or 4mm devils spawn. I also set up a .4g sensas pencil float on 0.14 / 0.12 with a 18 carp maggot to fish caster short. Lastly I set up a margin rig, in case the carp moved in, as they can do on the lodge lake bank.
On the all-in, I cupped in some groundbait CW&C and left it for ½ an hour, having a look on the pellet waggler, to no avail. I dropped a worm segment over the 12m line and had one small skimmer, they didn't seem to be feeding. I tried dead maggot and had another skimmer, but the bites weren't forthcoming. A quick look on the short line produced some very small roach, but al least it was bites. I wondered if the presentation was poor on the pole, as it was very windy, with a heavy tow, so the groundbait feeder was reluctantly put into action, just groundbait and dead maggot in the feeder and dead maggot on the hook. Second put in the tip twitched and steadily pulled round, initially I thought the heavy weight and steady thumps on the rod was a decent bream, but then it came to life and morphed into a 6lb carp.
Several more chucks with the feeder brought a couple of skimmers, but they were small, not worth the wait. I came back on the short line and started feeding hemp along with the caster, this increased the size of the roach, but also attracted the carp, which put the roach off. I kept chasing the roach, varying the depth from 6" to full depth at 6' to keep them coming, a 7lb carp took a liking to the single caster and ploughed up the near line.
Paul Elmes on 25 had a cracking time, a number 5 & 6 section both biting the dust in the windy conditions, I guess the overnight rain and the wind put the fish off feeding as the weights weren't huge, but it was a close & fair match, my persistence on the roach - much to Tony Rixon's disgust - paid off, giving me first in the silvers, with half the weight I expected to need.
1) Craig Edmunds 72.08 peg 7
2) Tony Rixon 66.00 peg 26
3) Chris Davis 59.07 peg 32
4) Dean Malin 57.05 peg 29
5) Rich Coles 57.03 peg 19
6) P Elmes 45.08 peg 25
Silvers
1) Chris Fox 11.15 peg 27
2) Dean Malin 8.00 peg 29
Monday, 5 September 2011
Plantation Carp Lake Open, Sun 4th Sept 2011
As there were two team matches on this weekend, Tony's teams of four and the Commercial House league on the river, there wasn't too much else on. I can't commit to fish any series or leagues, without using up loads of holiday and there was no vacant spots to fill in any of the teams.
So a chance conversation with Paul(Faiers) and I'm booked into one of Darren 'Noddy' Vowles matches, this was to be an exercise to catch as many small carp and silvers from Plantations Carp lake and after the match, transfer them to Horseshoe lake. 'Noddy' had promised us bites a plenty, he'd been down there and they were crawling up the rod....... These small carp are the offspring of the fish put into the lake 3 or 4 years ago, when it was netted and only fish 8lb or bigger were put back in.
To ensure that everyone stuck to the spirit of the match, all fish over 3lb, were counted as 3lb. I drew peg 1 (which was actually permanent peg 2) and had an island I could reach at 16m and a channel which was nearly 5' deep at 7m. I intended to keep it simple and had a couple of pints of dead reds and a pint of wriggly ones. I also mixed up a bit of swim stim groundbait and started with 3 small balls at 7m on the all in.
The first two hours passed pleasntly enough, with carp from 4oz to 1lb or so falling to the double maggot hookbait, presnted under a KC Carpa Chimp on 0.14 and a 18 808 hook. 24 of them in the net with 2 hours gone and then they just switched off. From the pegs I could see and the banter and conversation, I could tell that this was pretty much the case for everyone - although, in all fairness, for some it didn't really ever switch on. I then went out to the island and started catching again, but a lot slower. Scaling down to a 20 63.13 and 0.12 didn't increase the bite ratio, so I just kept plugging away, taking the occasional fish.
The fish I caught from the island, would not take a stationary bait, I had to very slowly drag it up the shelf, this would eventually result in a bite. Andy France on the next peg had taken a couple of better fish down his margin, so with a couple of hours to go, I got out the weed cutter, trimmed the bankside vegetation and fed some 6mm meat and dead reds into the margin.
With an hour to go, Dave Baker had hooked a big fish in his margin, but for some reason was fishing pink hydro and 0.10, there was rather a lot of unkind laughter when he lost it after about 10 minutes... Shortly after I saw a dorsal fin, then a tail over my margin and it wasn't too long before a 14lb or so fish had taken the 8mm meat and was netted.
With half an hour to go I refed some swim stim on the 7m line and took a couple more small carp - all of which were in excellent condidtion and I'm sure, never caught before - the all out was called and I had 41 carp, 2 roach and 4 perch, they went 36.06 enough for first on the day, has the "Holdall of Doom" redeemed its self?
That was 33.06 of small carp and 3lb for the 14lber.
1) Chris Fox 36.06
2) Mike Owens 27.02
3) Andy France 22.14
4) Glen Calvert 21.10
5) Andy Hembrow 19.02
6) Dave Baker 16.10
Not quite the promised 'crawling up the rod' scenario, but I enjoyed it, as I didn't put anything on the hook other than maggot and one cube of meat in the margin.
I nearly forgot, at one stage there was a great deal of splashing and commotion from Andy France's peg, I couldn't see him, but I didn't hink he'd fallen in... It turns out his landing net had ripped as he was lifting a 12lber, the fish went back into the lake, still attached to his rig, now playing it through his landing net. He had another attempt to scoop it out, this time it fell through and broke the line. Luckily, as it only counted a 3lb, it only cost him a new landing net head.
So a chance conversation with Paul(Faiers) and I'm booked into one of Darren 'Noddy' Vowles matches, this was to be an exercise to catch as many small carp and silvers from Plantations Carp lake and after the match, transfer them to Horseshoe lake. 'Noddy' had promised us bites a plenty, he'd been down there and they were crawling up the rod....... These small carp are the offspring of the fish put into the lake 3 or 4 years ago, when it was netted and only fish 8lb or bigger were put back in.
To ensure that everyone stuck to the spirit of the match, all fish over 3lb, were counted as 3lb. I drew peg 1 (which was actually permanent peg 2) and had an island I could reach at 16m and a channel which was nearly 5' deep at 7m. I intended to keep it simple and had a couple of pints of dead reds and a pint of wriggly ones. I also mixed up a bit of swim stim groundbait and started with 3 small balls at 7m on the all in.
The first two hours passed pleasntly enough, with carp from 4oz to 1lb or so falling to the double maggot hookbait, presnted under a KC Carpa Chimp on 0.14 and a 18 808 hook. 24 of them in the net with 2 hours gone and then they just switched off. From the pegs I could see and the banter and conversation, I could tell that this was pretty much the case for everyone - although, in all fairness, for some it didn't really ever switch on. I then went out to the island and started catching again, but a lot slower. Scaling down to a 20 63.13 and 0.12 didn't increase the bite ratio, so I just kept plugging away, taking the occasional fish.
The fish I caught from the island, would not take a stationary bait, I had to very slowly drag it up the shelf, this would eventually result in a bite. Andy France on the next peg had taken a couple of better fish down his margin, so with a couple of hours to go, I got out the weed cutter, trimmed the bankside vegetation and fed some 6mm meat and dead reds into the margin.
With an hour to go, Dave Baker had hooked a big fish in his margin, but for some reason was fishing pink hydro and 0.10, there was rather a lot of unkind laughter when he lost it after about 10 minutes... Shortly after I saw a dorsal fin, then a tail over my margin and it wasn't too long before a 14lb or so fish had taken the 8mm meat and was netted.
With half an hour to go I refed some swim stim on the 7m line and took a couple more small carp - all of which were in excellent condidtion and I'm sure, never caught before - the all out was called and I had 41 carp, 2 roach and 4 perch, they went 36.06 enough for first on the day, has the "Holdall of Doom" redeemed its self?
That was 33.06 of small carp and 3lb for the 14lber.
1) Chris Fox 36.06
2) Mike Owens 27.02
3) Andy France 22.14
4) Glen Calvert 21.10
5) Andy Hembrow 19.02
6) Dave Baker 16.10
Not quite the promised 'crawling up the rod' scenario, but I enjoyed it, as I didn't put anything on the hook other than maggot and one cube of meat in the margin.
I nearly forgot, at one stage there was a great deal of splashing and commotion from Andy France's peg, I couldn't see him, but I didn't hink he'd fallen in... It turns out his landing net had ripped as he was lifting a 12lber, the fish went back into the lake, still attached to his rig, now playing it through his landing net. He had another attempt to scoop it out, this time it fell through and broke the line. Luckily, as it only counted a 3lb, it only cost him a new landing net head.
The Holdall of Doom... Viaduct Open Sat 3rd Sept 2011
With the County Champs final taking place on Campbell, there was 17 of us in the regular Saturday open, all on Cary. All the omens were good, nice breakfast, decent drive down (hardly any dawdling old gits) and second in the draw queue. I drew 76, I certainly wasn't disappointed, as Anton Page had managed 190lb+ from this area last weekend.
I set up a waggler and a lead rod, tops kits for a shallow rig, a paste rig and a full depth rig with a hair rigged band. Also a rig that would suffice for worm/corn etc, this would cover the margin and open water, as there wasn't more than a couple of inches of difference.
I started on the waggler and stuck with it for the best part of an hour, to no avail, not even a liner. The story was pretty much the same on the shallow rig at 15m, which I'd been feeding, the depth rig was the same, as was the paste line. The margin also seemed devoid of fish.
3½ hours in and I'm still fishless, when the waggler dips and its 'fish on' - disappointing it turns out to be an 8oz skimmer. I decide to up the feed to see if this will attract some fish into the peg, as by now I'm fed up of seeing yellow elastic streaming from Nigel's(surname unknown, green Sensas T shirt, bait delivery man)pole on 105, as he caught regularly down the edge. It rubbed it in even more when he had to go and borrow an extra net fron John Green.....
With an hour and 10 mins to go, I chucked the lead over the waggler line and kept feeding, the tip went round and the first carp was netted, a 12lber. Next chuck another, but after fighting all the way to the net, the hook straightend - don't try out new hooks in matches, for the record it was a size 14 Guru QM1. Next chuck the tip went round before I had put the rod down and a foul hooked 8lber was netted.
And that was it, not another bite, or even liner, I packed up with half an hour to go, something I rarely do, but this must rank as one of my worst days at Viaduct, I had 4 bites, I've had more after breaking the ice.....
Its obvious where the blame must go, my new rod holdall, Bob Gullick was kind enough to get me a Garbolino rod holdall, as I'd been admiring the one he uses, today was its first outing, it has obviously destroyed the good karma of my new Avon Angling cap, its now known as the "Holdall of Doom".
I didn't hang around for the results, I'd have been surprised if Nigel hadn't won from 105, down the margin.
I set up a waggler and a lead rod, tops kits for a shallow rig, a paste rig and a full depth rig with a hair rigged band. Also a rig that would suffice for worm/corn etc, this would cover the margin and open water, as there wasn't more than a couple of inches of difference.
I started on the waggler and stuck with it for the best part of an hour, to no avail, not even a liner. The story was pretty much the same on the shallow rig at 15m, which I'd been feeding, the depth rig was the same, as was the paste line. The margin also seemed devoid of fish.
3½ hours in and I'm still fishless, when the waggler dips and its 'fish on' - disappointing it turns out to be an 8oz skimmer. I decide to up the feed to see if this will attract some fish into the peg, as by now I'm fed up of seeing yellow elastic streaming from Nigel's(surname unknown, green Sensas T shirt, bait delivery man)pole on 105, as he caught regularly down the edge. It rubbed it in even more when he had to go and borrow an extra net fron John Green.....
With an hour and 10 mins to go, I chucked the lead over the waggler line and kept feeding, the tip went round and the first carp was netted, a 12lber. Next chuck another, but after fighting all the way to the net, the hook straightend - don't try out new hooks in matches, for the record it was a size 14 Guru QM1. Next chuck the tip went round before I had put the rod down and a foul hooked 8lber was netted.
And that was it, not another bite, or even liner, I packed up with half an hour to go, something I rarely do, but this must rank as one of my worst days at Viaduct, I had 4 bites, I've had more after breaking the ice.....
Its obvious where the blame must go, my new rod holdall, Bob Gullick was kind enough to get me a Garbolino rod holdall, as I'd been admiring the one he uses, today was its first outing, it has obviously destroyed the good karma of my new Avon Angling cap, its now known as the "Holdall of Doom".
I didn't hang around for the results, I'd have been surprised if Nigel hadn't won from 105, down the margin.
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