Avon Angling Open, Landsend, Sunday 28th Oct 2012

Looking forward to a days silver fishing, but it seemed that a succession of wrongs desicions were to plague my day. Stopped at Shipham cafe on the way down and instead of putting my glasses on and studying the menu, I ordered a large breakfast, expecting two of everything - a bit of a shock when large actually means large, three of everything. First incorrect decision of the day!!

Into the draw tin and I picked two swimcards stuck together, I'm never too sure what to do in that situation, so I dropped both back in and pulled out a single one, which was peg 19, bugger, a carp peg and I had brought pretty much only silvers rigs with me - second poor decision.

I decided to try again and 'beat' the peg (I've drawn it before and dismally failed to get past the carp) and get some silvers from it, so set up three rigs, a sensas pencil float on 0.14/.10 for a close caster line, a 4x14 chimp to fish caster or soft pellet down the track, this was on 0.16 with a 0.12 hook length, Finally a rig for right across, to fish caster on the shelf, thinking that this might bring forth a carp or two, this was on 0.16. The all in saw me pot some caster right over, a few micro's down the track and caster short, starting short, the float settled and buried, a perch not far off 1lb was soon in the net, taking double red maggot, then two missed bites before a carp, which trashed the rig - that was to be a familiar scene during the day.

I had the Wincanton silver machine on peg 18 and Nicky was suffering the same fate as me, carp trashing rigs and hook lengths, we both tried upping the line size, but anything over 0.12 and the float just sat still, as if there wasn't a fish in the peg. Peg 5 was catching well, so there were some fish feeding, I switched to hard pellet over the micro's and that brought a couple of carp, 2 F1's and a skimmer, trying soft pellet brought a couple more carp, but the silvers were playing hard to get.

I had a very quiet middle couple of hours, adding nothing to either net, the close line producing nothing at all apart from the first dob in perch. The far shelf  was so deep that I ended up taking off the rig and making up another heavier, one small roach and a small carp were the only takers of some pristine caster. I had to do something so switched to fishing towards the gap in the islands at full depth, taking one carp and losing a couple of foulers on banded pellet. So modifying the shelf rig to fish 1/2 depth, saw 2 more fish in the net before that line went totally dead. Backdown the track with soft pellet and  two more carp in the last 20 minutes gave me I guessed about 55lb in total - not going to be enough as Dave Roper and Martin Pettifer both had big weights on meat - I didn't bring any, as I didn't think it would work with the cold snap - another wrong decision, but I wasn't alone, as Nicky Collins was also surprised by the catch rate of the two using meat.He like me, found that fishing caster on line that would get a snag heading carp out, wouldn't produce a bite. I made up 7 rigs on the bank, as the floats were destroyed by the eyes pulling out or the bodies becoming detached from the wire as the carp either snapped the line or snagged themselves (3 times in my own nets).

The scales saw Martin win with 108lb odd, Dave second with 104lb, I managed 59lb odd, but my catch and release policy early in the match cost me, as Mike West was last in the money with 65lb. See Tony's blog for the full result.

Viaduct Silvers League Round Three, 21st Oct 2012

 A decent draw needed as the first round has to be dropped, so how deflated was I to draw peg 74 again, the same peg as the first round, with as before, an easterly wind blowing into the peg. I was hoping that some of the perch and hybrids showed up, but wasn't too confident when arriving at the peg, as there was very little sign of life, not even the unwanted carp.

I set up 4 rigs and a waggler, a margin rig with a 16 on 0.14 for perch tench and hybrids, a rather optimistic rig to hand ,(with a new float type from float maker Nick Gilbert), with a 18 to 0.10, a 4x12 KC Carpa Chimp to fish caster at 11 or 14m and a 0.5g Preston green to fish either soft pellet or caster should the heavier rig prove better.

On the all in some micros went in at 11m, using Paul Faiers on 103 as a marker, some groundbait and caster at 14m using peg 107 as a marker and caster short. First drop in with the topkit rig and the float buried, a roach in the net, that was that, a one off. No matter where I tried in the peg, I couldn't get more than one fish from any line, with the margins seemingly devoid of fish - in fact they produced 3 bites, two carp and a 12oz perch, so no more about them.

The only way I could catch, was to fish caster on the waggler, out past the tree that extends a far way out into the peg on the RH side. This produced some small skimmers and 2 slightly better fish, had there been anyone opposite on 106/107, they would probably have said I was past halfway, it was the only place I could get bites!!

So a resounding last but one in the section with 9lb odd, same placing as last time and the section weights got better (apart from peg 77) round to 85 where the section was won by Glenn Calvert with 20lb odd. The section actually went:

85 - 1st
81 - 2nd
80 - 3rd
78 - 4th
77 - 6th
74 - 5th

See Tony's blog for the results and if I draw this peg again in this series, I doubt if I'll find the enthusiasm to walk to it.

Viaduct Sunday 14th October 2012

An Avon Angling open on Campbell and Cary was this Sundays choice, my drawing arm once again proving to be spectacularly reliable, another unfancied peg......  132. The fish have been showing around the middle of the lake and apart from one match, it hasn't got any recent form for silvers. For company on 130 I had Tony Rixon, he was fortunate in having no one opposite him, with 111,112 and 113 empty.

I set up a couple of rigs to fish soft pellet/caster, another for banded pellet at 14m and a margin rig, a waggler rod completed the set up. I fed some micros at 7m and hard pellet at 14m, starting on the waggler to the end bank, a couple of bites, but possibly liners as nothing from them.  Roland Lucas was on 110 and was catching to his end bank, it often seems that either 110 or 132 catch from the end, not too often both do.

A switch to fishing the waggler with a banded 8mm pellet straight in front brought a couple of fish, then a lull, so a look over the 7m line, hoping for skimmers and a few intrusive carp. All this line produced was blade skimmers to soft pellet, nothing to banded pellet and tiny roach to caster or 6mm meat. The same for the margin, at every attempt so no more mention of them.

Back to the waggler and I had a little spell where I had seven fish in an hour, so was hoping to put together a decent weight, but then the fish disappeared, for 21/2 hours I didn't even have a liner, with 3/4 of an hour to go, they came back and I added another 6 fish in that time for a total of 14 carp which went 89lb odd, what a costly 21/2 hour blank spell, as during this time Tony kept the fish coming, fishing out to the aerator and put 133lb on the scales, battering me good and proper.

See Tony's blog for the results.

Viaduct Silvers League 2nd Round

Last week I fished Landsend, Fabio saw me in the car park and offered me a lucky coin to ensure I had a decent draw, peg 31 came out of the hat, it was a good draw once, but the whole of the speci lake, pegs 25 - 32 fished very hard, with some good anglers struggling, I saw no point in writing about catching 18.10 lb of silvers when it came nowhere........

Onto the 2nd round of the Viaduct silvers league, first round was a disaster, peg 74 with a cold easterly wind and rain blowing into it, so a diagonally opposite draw on peg 90 was better, but still far from one of the favoured pegs. I set up a waggler, which didn't get used, a Sensas Auchy to fish to hand, a Preston green 0.5g for worm or soft pellet, a 4x14 jolly for worm/caster/maggot and a wire stemmed Preston unknown for the margin, hoping the tench or perch would feel hungry.

Suffice to say the first 2-3 hours were more of a sufferance than an enjoyment, as I struggled to put together any sort of run of fish and the skimmers I did tempt were of the 5/6 to the pound stamp. I had fed a worm/caster/groundbait line at 14.5m, caster short and micro pellets at 11m at 10 o'clock. None of the lines produced more than the odd bite, with the short lines being particularly unproductive.

As worm seemed to be the kiss of death, I tried a new line with caster / dead maggot, but this also seemed to be devoid of fish. At last, a look over the micros saw a few skimmers and one bream come to Devils Spawn on the hook, but it wasn't long before the vermin moved in, all in all I lost around 15 hooks to the greedy water pigs.

I had fed both margins with caster as well as a line straight in front, hoping for decent roach, perch and tench, it didn't produce until the last hour, when decent skimmers. perch and roach graced the landing net, joining the hard won small skimmers and one tench (taken on soft pellet at 11m), giving me a total of 29lb something. Not enough to frame, not enough to win the section, but a section second, behind Tim Pallent who caught well at the off and added some better skimmers at the end, with a better stamp of skimmers than I could manage.

1.      Tony Rixon 48-10-0 peg 100

2.      Mike Nicholls 46-00-0 peg 101

3.      Anton Page 43-04-0 peg 70

4.      Bob Gullick 36-14-0 peg 99

5.      Steve Kedge 36-05-0 peg 121

6.     Andy Neal 35-10-0 peg 77

7.      Lee Werrett 34-02-0 peg 71
8.      John Green 32-0-0 peg 128
9.      Tim Pallant 31-09-0 peg 94
10. Joe Mc Mahon 31-04-0 peg 78