Avon Angling Open, Trinity Waters, Woodland. 22nd september 2013

I was looking forward to this match, but on the morning, with the warm still conditions, I wasn't convinced it would fish too well, this lake benefits from a ripple, as the fish do stay shallow for large parts of the year and with 25 anglers and no ripple, it was unlikely that the fish would stay feeding shallow for long.

I wasn't too bothered where I drew, except for 3 pegs on the top bank ( I have won and framed from both sides and the bottom bank, but have never won so much as a section from pegs 16-21).  My heart sunk as 19 stared back at me from the swimcard, slap bang in the middle of the top bank.  All of my instincts told me to go on one of the other lakes pleasure fishing, but I decided to give it a go and fish positively for carp.

The very slight skim on the water had pushed the algae bloom up to this end and there were far less signs of fish showing than the opposite half of the lake. I set up a rig which would suffice for the LH and RH margin, which due to the set back nature of the peg, is short, too close on a day without ripple and so it turned out, I didn't have a bite from either margin, not even a liner.

I set up the now obligatory meat rig, but decided to fish this at 11m, which was the bottom of a very slight slope. This didn't produce a bite either.

A shallow rig - no bites on that........

A full depth rig, to fish soft pellet over softened 4's, this produced a 4lb carp second drop in and that was it for carp, a couple of foulers which came off, but very little in the way of indications, even liners.  The line did produce a few skimmers, but most were dropping off due to having to break down twice. With 2 1/2 hours to go, I swapped topkits and landed a couple of skimmers before fouling a carp, which took the rig so far into the rushes to my right, that pulling to get it back, snapped the elastic.

With that, I packed up with an hour and 15 mins to go, went to the pub and the Indian, which was much more enjoyable than being sat on a peg which I knew I shouldn't have bothered with.  I spoke to Rich Lacey on peg 21 as I went, he had a carp, a tench and two skimmers, these pegs really benefit from a wind into them (but not in the winter) so as usual when he draws near me, we're in a poor area.

Listening to Rich and Tim Ford, returning to the rivers is becoming an attractive proposition, if only it wasn't for the long walks and fence climbing!!

With any luck, the weather will start to turn colder soon and the silverfish fishing will start to become viable, but at the moment its not consistent.

See Tony's blog for the results.