Lansdend League Final Round Sunday 23rd February

Final round of the league today and with the overall frame being just out of reach, it was a day to concentrate on the silvers, a section win was necessary to win the silvers, but with 4 or 5 silvers anglers on the my lake today a decent draw was essential,  I would have liked to open the drawcard and see 5, 15 or 17 looking back at me.  The main contender with me for the silvers title was Bob Gullick, he was looking pleased as he came away from the draw, with peg 5 grasped in his hand.

I managed to pick out peg 20, which didn't fill me full of optimism and with the rest of the silvers anglers in my section, it was going to be tough to get the section win.  I tried to cover all the options and set up four topkits, a MW slim which would do to fish bunches of maggots or a prawn, down to the pallet of 21 and quite conveniently, the same depth across on the island shelf - nice theory, but as I only hooked and lost two carp across on this rig, no more to say about it.  The next rig was even less successful, not even a bite, this was a NG Decker, with a bulk, two droppers 4" apart and a 4" hooklength of 0.10 and a 18 63-13, this was to fish soft pellet or dead maggot, again a great theory, but it never once dipped below the surface.

Next rig was a 0.3g NG Gimp XT, on 0.16,  fairly standard bulk and two droppers, finished off with a 0.12 hooklength and a 18 Drennan Carp Maggot hook.  Next and final rig was a NG Gimp, this time on 0.14, with a 0.10 hooklength and a 18 63-13.

The bait tray had caster, maggot, pinkie, dead maggot and floating maggot, as well as soft pellet, micros and a few prawns.  More than I would have got out had I had a peg I was confident in and with an empty peg to my right, it gave the opportunity to try a couple of variations.  On the all in I fed  caster and a few maggots at the bottom of the far slope, a groundbait and caster line down the track at 2 o'clock to my position and a micro and 4mm pellet line at 6m, just short of peg 21.  Some maggots to the pallet of 21 and right across in front of me, as well as some on my usual short line, completed the feeding.

Letting the lines settle, I dropped in short and the expected roach, didn't show.  A look down to the pallet and across with a prawn was just as unproductive, a switch to the loose feed line saw a 3oz roach take the maggot, which I promptly dropped back in missing the net.  By now Bob Gullick on peg 5 had landed 5 or 6 F1's and I had one roach in the net.  The Gimp was on peg 24 and catching perch, so it wasn't looking good for my required section win.

After 31/2 hours I had added a couple more roach, two 10oz perch and another getting on for 2lb, all caught short, none of the longer lines produced more than an odd roach.  Bob was still plundering the F1's on peg 5, when my float buried and a decent skimmer more than doubled my weight, in the next half an hour, four more joined him in the net, a couple of them are already rough and covered in spawning tubercules - not really surprising given the mild weather.

Just as I had something to build on and hope for the silvers section 1st, the next bite was a carp, as were the next three.  This saw the back of the skimmers and a look round the other lines, which I had kept topped up all match only produced the odd small roach. Another carp landed and two that obliterated the 0.10 hooklength brought the match to a close.  I was pretty sure that the lack of back up to the skimmers, would cost me winning the silvers, as it was pretty obvious Bob had a netful of F1's.  Now if he had any sort of conscience and decency, he'd have weighed the 31lb of F1's in as carp and his 4 or 5lb of roach and perch as silvers.......

My silvers went 15.12, which was joint second in section with Nige Bartlett on 22, Tony Thick had 17lb odd, so one more skimmer would have done it for me.  The carp added to the silvers gave me 41.01 which was enough for a section win, some small consolation to being beaten to the silvers title by (F1) carp...... (Not that I'm bitter about it. :-)  )  I was probably in the top ten overall, with 1 section win, 3 seconds, a third and a fourth.

Thanks to Ken Rayner for organising it, can't quite believe I fished a series on my bête noire and picked up money in all but one round and a framing position.

The results on the day:

1) Paul Elmes 166.05. Peg 34
2) Mark Poppleton 110.03  peg 11
3) Adrian Jefferies 81.10  peg 33
4) Gary O'Shea 62.12  peg 58
5) Mark Brennan 55.10  peg 50
6) Ken Rayner 51.15 peg 68

Silvers

1) Bob Gullick 36.12 peg 5 (Did I mention this was mainly F1 CARP!!!!)
2) Tom Thick 22.03 peg 31

Overall winner was Mark Poppleton, he had some decent draws, but made the most of them, no series will ever be won from the poorly performing pegs.

1) Mark Poppleton
2) Ken ("there were loads of witnesses to the draw") Rayner
3) Craig "Trigger" Edmunds
4) Paul Elmes

Silvers

1) Bob (Cypry) Gullick
2) Chris Fox
3) Nigel Bartlett

Viaduct Winter League, Sunday 16th February

Guesting today in this popular league for the MFS team, as the anglers rotate around the sections I knew I would be on match lake or the pegs 1-6 on Spring.  This necessitated two lots of prep, as the target fish would be very different sizes, so a few hooklengths tied up for the 'munters of spring' and the trusty old Normark Microlight rigged up with a waggler for a draw on match lake.

Team mate for the day, Ken Rayner travelled down with me and we had a reasonable breakfast at the pub, before getting down to Viaduct and finding out what the draw would be.  I was disappointed, but not surprised to draw one of the pegs on match lake without an island chuck, Ken was off to peg 94, with not too much enthusiasim, as it had been last in section in the previous rounds.

Setting up at my peg, I was fairly convinced that the weeks rain followed by a bright sunny day and a frost, albeit a light one would make the margin a non starter, but without an island chuck and limited to how far out I could fish (by peg 45), I had to hope my instincts were wrong.  I set up a NG finesse float to fish at 13m, this on 0.14, with a 0.08 hooklength and a 20 hook. Plumbing up it was evident that the bottom was covered in dead, black leaves and other tree debris. I put some maggots and pinkies in sparkling water to get them floating, so the would sit on top of the debris.

For down the edge, I had two rigs, one for dobbing bread, starting about 6" off bottom and another rig for maggot and caster.  I did set up a rig with a MW F1 slim, for a line at 6m where the peg was at its deepest - no more about this as it was a non starter.  On the all in I fed two jaffa's of groundbait, with a few casters and dead maggots in at 13m and then spent some time dobbing bread down the margin, with not so much as a liner to show for it - I felt my instinct that the carp wouldn't be in the margin, was proven to be correct.

Dropping in over the groundbait, I had the float dotted right down and was rewarded with a couple of bites, they were tiny little dinks of the bristle tip amd resulted in a couple of roach, a skimmer, a carp just over 2lb and a reasonable hybrid.  Then the wind got up a bit, this made seeing the float impossible and taking a shot off didn't help, as the bites were such small dinks.

A look down the margin brought a run of perch to maggot, before that went quiet, by now the sun had come round and with the ripple had made seeing anything out in front really difficult, so picking up the waggler rod, I put a bit of line of the bottom and fished double caster, this produced a couple more decent skimmers and a few roach, but no sign of the much needed carp, whilst those with island chucks were taking carp on the lead/feeder.

A late look down the margin with a prawn saw the float bury and a big perch was shaking its head, then it got tangled in some line and a yellow topped waggler popped up, slid down my rig line and neatly disgorged the hook from a 2lb+ perch.......

I was beaten by all but two the pegs with an island chuck, so only 8 points returned from my 15.12, of which 13.00 was silvers, best silvers weight in the section, but meaningless apart from personal satisfaction, that and I beat the pegs either side, so perhaps there just weren't many carp and f1's in this corner of the lake.

See Mike Nicholls blog for full result and weigh sheets.

Ivy House Wednesday Open, 12th February

I had booked into Todber Manor for my first visit to the venue, but got a phone call from Tony on Tuesday to say that due to the weather forecast, the match had been cancelled.  Also, Viaduct had cancelled their match, so it was Ivy House or stay at home.  With the forecast as bad as it was, there was a significant temptation to stay at home, but they usually exaggerate it, don’t they……  and Ivy House was a new venue for me as well.

Wednesday dawned and it did seem that the forecasters might, for once, be near the mark, but with the gear loaded into Tony’s van, off we went full of optimism.  It looks like Andy is undertaking a bit of work at the venue, with plenty of freshly felled trees, undergrowth cleared and some new pallets evident.  A decent breakfast and some conversation about the pegging, which I abstained from, having no valid input. Only 6 hardy souls turned up and with hindsight, all of us could and should have had pegs with the wind off our backs, unfortunately, two anglers had a side on wind, one L to R and the other on the other end of the spit, had it R to L. 

Hardly any need to say, that given the remarkable consistency of my drawing arm, I managed to draw 36, the peg with the L – R wind, the other unfortunate was Gabriel Skarba (I bet that’s not right..)on peg 43.  Sat with their backs to the wind, fishing in comparative luxury, were Tony Rixon, Martin Lenaghan and Alan Oram.  One of the venue locals who braved the weather, a gentleman called Magoo, was on peg 6.

My initial idea was not to get the pole out of the bag, but as I set up a lead rod, watching the ‘sheltered three’ setting up their poles had me reaching for my rod bag and getting 13m of pole out.  Two topkits were enough, one with a MW diamond to try and get some stability in the windy conditions, this was finished off with a 0.12 hooklength and a 18 63-13, with the idea of fishing soft pellet at 10m.  The other rig was a wire stemmed NG Gimp, this was for fishing at the bottom of the near shelf, about 6m out, a 0.10 hooklength and a 20 Drennan Carp Maggot hook completed this set up.

On the all in I managed to feed the 10 line OK, this was with micros and dead maggot, the 6m line was fed with two balls of groundbait with caster and dead maggot. Leaving these to settle, I had a few chucks round the swim with popped up bread, but not even a liner from that.  By now the wind had increased and for the first time ever, I had a large flat roller blown over, complete with pole, luckily no damage.  So the 10m line was unfishable with the pole and it stayed that way for the rest of the match, I did try a couple of times, but it was a pointless exercise.

Dropping in on the 6m line, I had a roach first put in, the float was racing through the peg, against the wind, a massive undertow was going from R to L, letting it run through and gently holding it back produced a couple more roach, then 6 small carp, so it was looking promising. The roller blew over again, as the wind got worse. Then the roach came back, several finding the maggot before the carp.  I had a rummage in my bag and found a tin of corn, I fed a few micros and 4 or 5 grains of corn, in an attempt to get the carp back, first put in with a single grain of corn resulted in the biggest (and last) carp of the day at about 2lb.

A particularly strong gust lifted the tin of corn off my side tray and deposited it far out into the lake, so would corn have been the answer, I’ll never know……..

That was it, one and a quarter hours into the match I had a couple of pound of roach and 7 small carp, which is exactly what I tipped back at the 4pm all out.

I did swap the bread rig for a small groundbait feeder, this produced on roach and I did hook a large carp that made short work of the 0.12 hooklength.  With about ¾ of an hour to go, yet another violent gust picked up sections 4,5 & 6 of my pole and deposited them into peg 37, luckily, without (visible) damage and within reach of the bank.  That was enough of that.so the pole went away and I watched a motionless tip for the last ¾ of an hour.

I knew Alan had me well beaten and Tony, so my 8 or 9lb was tipped back, as I was cold and not a little fed up by now. Magoo on peg 6 DNW, Gabriel on peg 43 had two fish and DNW, whilst the sheltered 3 took the money (well two of them) and glory.

I look forward to going back and fishing the venue when the conditions don’t dictate.

11)      Tony Rixon 52.00 peg 41 (included 11lb skimmers and a 10lb carp)

22)      Alan Oram 32.00 peg 39 (including a 16lb+ ghostie)

33)      Martin Lenaghan 10.00 peg 40

The other 3 DNW.

Landsend League Round 5, Sunday 9th February

 Another week of wind and rain to precede this match, I don't seem to have any spare time lately as the weather is impacting hard on the railway system and keeping me busy, as diversionary routes and unusual terninating points are now becoming the norm....  anyway, enough of that, onto the fishing.

Today saw the opportunity for me to virtually wrap up the silvers title with a section win, but I needed Nigel Bartlett and Bob Gullick in the section to make it possible.  Part of the scenario was achieved, with Nigel drawing peg 25 and myself 29.  Bob Gullick drew the opposite section, peg 40 and with the rest of his section being inclined to fish for carp, I had my work cut out with two silvers specialists in my section, the Gimp drawing favoured peg 32.

Pegs 28 and 29 had thrown up 1^st and 2^nd silvers on the lake last match, big skimmers caught late on, so there was that positive thought, although with no feature in the peg, I guessed the bonus perch wouldn’t be in evidence.  Four rigs to try and ring the changes, as this side of the lake has been hard in all the matches so far and today proved to be no different.  Two NG Gimps, one with 6” 0.14 hooklength and a 16 63-13 hook, the other with 4” of 0.12 and a 18 Drennan carp maggot. A rig to fish down to the pallet of peg 30, this also covered a flat shelf at the same depth at 15m, about ½ a metre off the island.  Finally a MW F1 slim to fish short, for roach and hopefully any bonus fish, this had a 18 Drennan carp maggot on 0.10.

I intended to start as I had in the other rounds, but given the poor form of the peg I fed the two lines I hoped to catch skimmers from and instead of looking straight over them, I left them and had a quick look to the pallet of 30 and across with a piece of prawn on the hook, but as I expected, there wasn’t enough cover to hold perch. I always feed a short line and it often produces a couple of bonus silvers, first drop into it saw a perch around 6oz in the net, then a roach, which wasn’t far off a pound, quickly followed by a 6oz roach.  This line doesn’t often last long and todays bonus fish were much smaller than the hoped for bream or tench, that often show up. Next bite was a lot more positive and a big carp powered across the lake, I played it for a while and got it back in under the topkit, when another run broke the 0.10 hooklength.  Why in a silvers only match can you pull and tug double figure carp and they come meekly in, or fight through the silvers line!! But still land them on 0.10, yet in a match when they count, the line seems to miraculously derate to 0.05……

After 35 minutes I had a first look over the micros at 11m, which was the deepest part of the peg, first put in with a soft pellet produced a small skimmer, sadly it didn’t open the floodgates and the rest of the match only 3 more small skimmers were forthcoming, this achieved by swapping lines and working hard to try and get a bite. I could see that today wasn’t going to be my day, as the Gimp was catching big perch and the odd decent skimmer and a couple of pegs to my left, Tony Thick landed 3 skimmers that dwarfed mine. I changed  the hooklengths down to 01.0 and the 0.10 went down to  0.08, all to no avail, often this will bring bites from wary fish, this side of the lake seems to contain very few fish this winter, let alone wary ones....

The roach wouldn’t settle and feed anywhere in the peg, so trying to catch a weight of them wasn’t an option, a line fed with groundbait didn’t produce a fish and all the while, I was for the second time on this lake sat opposite Mark Poppleton who was catching well. Trigger was also netting plenty of fish from that side of the lake (pegs 36 and 33 respectively), whilst as has been the story of the series so far, this side seemed to be devoid of carp and very thin on the ground of silvers.

Walking round the lake with the scales, Trigger weighed 89lb, Mark P 88lb and Bob Gullick winning the silvers in that section with 13lb odd.  It didn’t take nearly as long to weigh our side, Nigel on 25 had thrown back his 6 small roach, Tony’s 3 skimmers went 7.08, Beanie had a tench and 3 or 4 better skimmers for 11lb odd, my hard won roach and stunted skimmers went 7.08, the Gimp won the section with 15lb of perch, F1’s and skimmers.

With hindsight, the time I spent trying to get the roach to feed, might have been better spent with double caster or maggot over the skimmer lines and maybe, given how hard the lake has fished, even my meagre, negative feeding was too much, as neither the negatively or positively fed lines really fished at all. It looks as if  my joint third in section silvers might not be enough now, it will all be down to the draw on the last match.

1st 89- 5 - Craig Edmunds - p33
2nd 88- 7 - Mark Poppleton - p36
3rd 69- 0 - Paul Elmes - p42
4th 60-10 - Martin Lenaghan - p58
5th 59-15 - Nick Duckett - p50
6th 39- 0 - Adrian Clarke - p13

 Silvers
1st 17- 0 - Mark Brennan - p17
2nd 15-11 - John Bradford - p32
3rd 14- 3 - Darren Fordham - p70
4th 14- 0 - Tom Mangnall - p7
5th 13-14 - Bob Gullick - p40
6th 11- 7 - Ken Rayner - p15