Sunday 26 February 2012

Pole Only Series, Sunday 26th February 2012

The start of the series today, the draw was at Acorn, so over breakfast, Paul and myself finalised a few details and got the draw underway. There was a full house of 30, so the planned 1 x section of 10 on Acorn and 2 x sections of 10 on Plantation.

I got Mike Owens to draw for me, that'll be the last time ever, as he pulled me peg 1 on Plantation, I did fancy Plantation, but not peg 1 after my blank on there a couple of weeks ago. Contrastingly, Nick Harvey managed to be sat on peg 8, for the 3rd time in 4 matches, I know the draw gods have never been particularly kind to me, but I must have really upset them lately!!

I set up 3 rigs, a Sensas Auchy on 0.12 with a 0.10 hooklength and a size 20 hook. A Carpa Chimp on 0.14 to 0.12 and a 18 808 and a MW short diamond for the margins - which did not produce a single bite, so no more about them.

The water didn't have much colour in it and with the overnight frost I was no more confident when I sat looking at the peg, than I was when Mike handed it to me. I felt there was little point in fishing short, so fed a line at 14.5m and also the margin at that distance. I fed a few micros, with caster and dead maggot, it took 15 minutes to get a bite, which was a tiny roach, then a couple of skimmers, so I switched to 4mm Devils Spawn and instead of the expected skimmers, the small roach seemed to take a liking for them. Then a carp muscled in on the act and that was the end of the action, the middle 4 hours of the match saw me land about 8oz of fish.

Last hour and the skimmers turned up, I had a few and 1 more carp, all on the Devils Spawn. In the last 20 minutes I foul hooked 2 carp that were right up in the water, true to the way my day was going, they both shed the hook. So a crappy day and to cap it off, I lost a brand new (first day out) Zippo handwarmer and I was listening to the Cup Final on my walkman, I took the earphones out whilst I called the all out and they dropped through my footplate into the lake and stopped working. A nice expensive day and the result will need to be dropped, so no more room for bad draws or poor angling.

No overall payouts on this series, just top two in the section and top two silvers per section. Weights in Kilos.

A section Acorn:

1) Paul Faiers 19.170 peg 5
2) Rod Wootten 14.730 peg 34

Silvers

1) Paul Faiers 7.450 peg 5
2) Lance Tucker 2.750

B section Plantation

1) Lewis Walker 31.910 peg 7
2) Dave Wride 27.840 peg 12

Silvers

1) Dave Wride 12.740 peg 12
2) Matt Tomes 9.570 peg 4

C section Plantation

1) Mark Bromsgrove 18.880 peg 25
2) Rich Lovering 18.350 peg 31

Silvers

1) Mark Bromsgrove 8.250 peg 25
2) Ken Rayner 6.230 peg 38

And for those who like to see the match result.

1) Lewis Walker 31.910 peg 7P
2) Dave Wride 27.840 peg 12P
3) Nick Harvey 19.460 peg 8P
4) Paul Faiers 19.170 peg 5A
5) Mark Bromsgrove 18.800 peg 25P
6) Mike Owens 18.340 3P

Silvers

1) Dave Wride 12.740 12P
2) Matt Tomes 9.520 4P
3) G Calvert 9.180 10P

Not much point in putting up any league tables until after the next match.

Not sure how much fishing I'll get done in the next couple of weeks as I'm moving house and starting a new job, so plenty to do.

Monday 20 February 2012

Trinity Waters Open, Sunday 19th February 2012

Misha has planned a few opens this year and after my last two visits, which haven't been at all successful, I wanted to get back down to Trinity and make amends. I have two rig trays, full of floats for use at Trinity, from 0.75 up to 3g, well today I had my trolley wheels, but my Trinity rigs were in the garage 35 miles away. The wind was blowing hard up the lake into the corner peg 22. It was going to be hard to present a bait in the worst affected pegs.

Of course, because my floats were at home, I drew 26, right in the teeth of the wind, from me up to the corner (which Misha drew) there was a Huntspill-esque chop on the lake. Searching around in my box I found a couple of MW diamonds that were about 1g, I made one up on 0.14 with a 0.12 hooklength and a 16 63.13. I set up a waggler and because the wind was so bad, a straight lead. I cupped in a few micros and dead reds at 12m on the all-in, that was as far as I dare go, but it proved to be a waste of time, as I couldn't hold the rig still, the presentation was dreadful.

The waggler, even with 2' of line of the bottom moved through at a pace so quick, it wouldn't fool a suicidal motherless minnow. I fed some caster as far as I could with the catty and tried the straight lead over it, whilst that was out, I set up another MW diamond to fish at 5-6m at the bottom of the shelf, to try and catch roach, as I could see how tough it was fishing, with everyone struggling for a bite. I fed pinkies at 5m and even that didn't result in a bite.

After a couple of hours, I had one roach (very small) and was feeling a bit chilly in the wind, so I went for a walk down to see Andy Hembrow and Kev Perry, who were getting odd fish, but the contrast in the wind was amazing, they were fishing 14m+ easily. As a positive move I went into the cabin and bought a cage feeder, a big one. I went back and made up some groundbait, then chucked the big feedr out 1/2 a dozen times, before switching back to the straight lead, I also cupped 4 big balls in on the 12m line.

The tip went round and my first skimmer was netted, then another, then a roach, next the tip wrapped sharply round and a carp was the culprit, very carefully played and thankfully netted. One more small skimmer and then the bites dried up, but the wind was finally dropping the chop was reduced to a ripple and I dropped the pole rig over the groundbait. The presentation was Ok and a couple more skimmers and a bream came to the net, I topped up the groudbait and then lost another big skimmer, that seemed to spook them, as I had no more skimmers, but added a couple of 4oz roach to the net.

After 2 hours I was nearly ready to go home, but the groundbait approach changed my fortunes and my 12.01 was enough to win, thats the lowest weight to win any match I've fished here. In fact there were only 2 carp caught, mine and Ian Walvin on peg 7 had one. Still it was nice to get back to winning ways at Trinity. I caught all my fish on a white maggot tipped with a fluro pinkie over groundbait.

1) Chris Fox 12.01 peg 26
2) Paul Locke 11.00 peg 13
3) Kev Perry 10.02 peg 32
4) Nigel Bartlett 8.07 peg 17
5) Ian Walvin 8.06 peg 7
6) Andy Hembrow 5.05 peg 30

Silvers

1) Paul Locke 11.00 peg 13
2) Kev Perry 10.02 peg 32

Plantation Lake, Saturday 18th February 2012

Back to the scene of last weeks disasterous blank, surely I'd draw a form peg today. The day got off to a bad start when I realised that my trolley wheels were still in the garage, the upheaval of packing everything up ready to move contributing to the chaos in the garage.

I wasn't too happy when peg 33 stuck to my hand, its a decent silvers peg usually, but after last weeks match and cold weather, I wasn't convinced that a bay would be any good today. A simple choice of rigs saw me set up a Sensas Auchy for close in, and a couple of carpa chimps one with 0.10 and a 18 and one with 0.14 and a 16 63.13. There were a few bubbles in the bay, so I was hopeful that it was fish. I fed two lines at 14m, one at about 11 o'clock this is the usual place to catch skimmers, today I also fed a line at 2 o'clock towards the open water of the main lake.

Devils Spawn usually sort out the skimmers, so the 11 o'clock line was fed with micros, the 2 o'clock line with groundbait and dead reds and a close in line with caster. It was a slow start, with the usual skimmer line not producing a bite, the 2 o'clock line did produce a couple of fish, but I doubted that it was going to be a day for hectic sport. The 11 o'clock line produced an unseasonal tench and a carp to the Devils Spawn, but the skimmers that are usually the mainstay of the weight on this peg were conspicuous by their absence.

It was a matter of rotating lines and working at it to get the odd bite, it was so slow that Rod Wootten on peg 38 had a little nap, much to the amusement of some of the others, I must admit I was close to nodding off myself - bloody nightshifts!!

The big perch didn't show again, I managed just one, along with 3 decent skimmers, a crucian and a few roach and rudd. Although my 9lb 12oz of silvers just snuck in last in the silvers money. As predicted, the pegs in the main body of the lake dominated the overall and silvers weights, with the plastic thing chuckers catching fish from the islands.

1) Glenn Calvert 74.10 peg 27
2) Mark Bartlett 64.12 peg 29
3) Rich Lovering 59.04 peg 4
4) Rich Heatly 45.08 peg 25
5) Nick Harvey 40.14 peg 7
6) Andy France 30.12 peg 5

Silvers

1) Paul Faiers 17.04 peg 19
2) Mark Bromsgrove 15.08 peg 31
3) Chris Fox 9.12 peg 33

Tuesday 14 February 2012

Plantation Lakes Sunday 12th February 2012

Another short and sweet post, I arrived at Plantation and had a walk round the lake, some was frozen quite heavily, some was clear of ice completely and some had thin ice that would be troublesome, too thin to cut properly and it would float about once disturbed. Peg 1 was troubled by this and I mentioned I wouldn't fancy it.

So into the hat and out pops peg 1, I set up 3 top kits, one for th margins although I was very sceptical that I'd catch there and two for as far as I could clear the ice, 14.5m, one with a 20 on 0.10 under a small preston float whose name eludes me and another with a 22 on 0.08 under a sensas wire stemmed Auchy pencil float.

I started on bread punch, feeding half a thimble full of likky, when it became obvious that this wouldn't work I tried dripping a couple of pinkies in and fishing pinkie on the hook. I went down to 0.05 and a 26, still no bites. I tried a bit of groundbait, as I'd walked up to Faiersy and he had caught on pinkie over groundbait, although he was on peg 7.
 I also set up a lead rod when the ice started to melt and had a chuck around the peg with various baits, once again nothing. Mike Owens opposite me also struggled, but he did avoid the blank, whereas on the next peg (the point) round from Mike, Rod 'venue master' Wootton was catching skimmers regularly.


Try as I might, I could not get any indication that there was a fish in the peg, so first blank for a long time.

The weights from pegs that made fishing near the centre of the lake weren't too bad, a couple of low 30's one of which was Rod Wootton with 31lb odd of skimmers, several high 20s also featured, although I didn't get the final result.





Looking forward to the series on Plantation / Acorn, we have decided to lower the entrance to £50, as many are tightening their belts in the current financial climate. Details below, if anyone is interested in fishing, contact myself or Paul Faiers.




Series of Six Matches
Pole Only
Plantation & Acorn Lakes, Kingston Seymour, Somerset

A new series of six matches, 30 pegs, pole only. Best 5 from 6 results to count towards the final result. Result decided by section points and in the event of a tie, total weight.

If sold out, there will be 2 x sections of 10 on Plantation Lake and one section of 10 on Acorn Lake. The draw will rotate after the first and fourth matches, so you will fish Plantation four times and Acorn twice. The first three matches are on the Match Lake at Plantation, the last three on Horseshoe Lake. (Four of the matches at Acorn will be on Paddock, two on the small lake).

Entry fee is £50, pools are £20 per match and the last match pools of £20 must be paid up front with the entry fee. Payout on the day will be (with 10 per section fishing), £70 for section winner and £50 for second in section.  £50 for section silvers winner and £30 for section silvers second. There will be no overall payout on the day. (This will obviously be amended if the numbers are less)

Payout for the Series Overall Winners will be confirmed once final number of anglers is known, all monies paid back out except peg fees.



Dates: (All Sundays)

26th Feb 2012, 1st April 2012, 15th April 2012. 29th April 2012, 20th May 2012 and 3rd June 2012.

To enter, contact either, Paul Faiers or Chris Fox.

Thursday 2 February 2012

Trinity Waters, Avon Angling Open, Wednesday 1st February 2012

This is going to be short and sweet. What was a venue that has been pretty kind to me, seems to have turned against me in 2012, last match pegs 15 - 19 struggled and where did I draw today......17

I wasn't too confident, but the wind was off my back, maybe the fish would have moved, I set up a waggler, a margin rig and a 1g jolly to fish at 14.5m. Bait tray consisted of maggots, casters, corn, micros and Devils Spawn.

I started on the waggler, after feeding a few micros and 3 grains of corn at 14.5m, I had a couple of roach, but they were 20 to the pound fish, so onto the Devils Spawn over the micros. That produced nothing, I didn't have a bite from the margin, on either the usual banker corn or maggot.

I ended the match with a headache from the blinding sun and 5lb of roach, pegs at the top end of the lake once again being well and truly beaten by those further down the lake.

I didn't get the weights, Tony Rixon won the match from peg 7, I think Tom Magnall was 2nd from 9. Eddie Wynne 3rd  from 11. See Tonys blog for the full results and information on how to draw the right area and then catch fish!!!