Friday 25 July 2014

Viaduct Costcutter, Thursday 24th July 2014

I was looking forward to getting back down to Viaduct and for company in the van I had Mike Walker, the journey seems to go a bit quicker with someone to talk to.  In stark contrast to yesterdays lowly turnout, there were 41 fishing today, which meant there weren't too many gaps in the pegging on either Campbell or Cary.  I got in near the start of the draw, with Mike in front of me, he pulled 119, maybe the wrong day for this peg, as what wind and ripple there was, was coming off the river banks of the lakes.  I was in for a munter hunter day, drawing 98.

When I got to the peg I was pleased to see the wind pushing into it and signs of fish at 6m, as well as further out.  Today was going to be a simple approach bait wise, 8mm pellet and paste, although I did set up a depth waggler, a shallow waggler, as well as two lead rods and three top kits, which held a simple paste rig on 0.18 with a 10 B911 XS for 7m, a shallow/slapping rig with a NG Ghandi and a depth pellet rig, which was on 0.18, with an 0.18 hooklength.

At the start I fed the paste line at 7m and then shipped out the depth rig to 14m, feeding 8mm pellets by catapult resulted in a few swirls, so I quickly swapped to the shallow rig and soon had a double in the net. I then foul hooked one on the shallow rig, which tore off and snapped (or cut through?) the elastic at the connector, frustrating as I spent a day last week cleaning all the pole sections, checking and renewing elastics, so there was no wear or obvious reason for it to snap.

In the time it took me to get another top kit and put a new rig on, the ripple that had been aiding me at 14m had gone, along with it the fish, so I swapped to the pellet waggler at about 30yds where there was still a ripple, feeding 8mm pellets here had the water erupting with fizz and the odd swirling fish and I had a couple, before the ripple subsided here and it was a lot of feeding and casting to get the odd bite, but it was worth the wait, as they were all except one, doubles.  At one stage the wind became awkward and I thought I'd be clever and set up a zig rig, with a pellet (and I tried a piece of pepperami) popped up to 6" below the surface, this resulted in one foul hooked skimmer and a foul hoked carp that was lost, so up the bank with that, so much for trying something different.

I could see that peg 76 was catching well, as the ripple had stayed on that end of the lake all day, where as with pegs 99 and 97 also now fishing the pellet waggler, the fish were becoming very wary of a hookbait.   I had several looks over the paste line and even though it was fizzing well, I had no bites, so back on the pellet wag.  I was trying a new (to me) way of attaching the float and I was pleased with the result, I had two small tangles in 4 hours of thrashing the water, one of which, I saw that the reel line had a little mark on it, but ignored it, next fish hooked, snapped the reel line - doh...  for the sake of two minutes to remake the set up and take out the damage, self inflicted numptyness.

With an hour to go the pellet waggler line had died, so a swap to the 7m paste line and this saw a fish netted first put in, with 3 more following in the final hour, giving me either 10 or 11 fish for 123.08, which was third on the lake and 8th overall,  one out of the money..... just my luck.   Travelling partner Mike, had 97.03 from 119, having a bit of a torrid time with the bush and fish going in there.....

I hadn't realised that Nick Ewers had been poorly and undergone a heart bypass, today was his first time back in a match and he looks well, one of anglings nice guys, I hope the recovery is quick and complete Nick. A good return as well, winning the silvers, beating venue owner Steve Long off the next peg.

1: R Wright 265.06 peg 76
2: Chris Kitchen 222.09 peg 105
3: Lee Werritt 205.10 peg 115
4: Tom Mangnall 172.13 peg 116
5: Jimmy Brooks 160.04 peg 111
6: Steve Openshaw 151.13 peg 132
7: Dan White 136.04 peg 121
8: Chris Fox 123.08 peg 98

Silvers

1: Nick Ewers 42.08 peg 87
2: Ziggy 38.06 peg 126
3: Steve Long 34.08 peg 88

Avon Angling Open, Landsend, Wednesday 23rd July 2014

Only 9 fishing today, so at least I couldn't draw lake 3.  21 was my home for the day and there were half a dozen cruisers on the surface when I arrived. Simple approach, pellet and paste, I didn't push a pole over and plumb up the far side, so as not to disturb the cruisers, likewise I didn't put my nets in.  All to no avail as the cruisers disappeared instantly I pushed the pole past 10m, the bright sun obviously aiding their visibility.

The match was a struggle, I had expected to catch from the island and this just didn't happen, the full depth rig at the bottom of the far shelf was equally as non productive, so I chopped up some meat and started a meat line, this produced one skimmer and one carp, I could hear plenty of splashing from the far side and could see Tony Rixon regularly netting fish. So after 2 1/2 hours I had a walk round the lake and it was fairly obvious the north bank was fishing much better than the south bank.

Back to my peg and I had two fish in two put ins from the island and that was it, nothing else from there all day, unless you count a 2oz roach on pellet.  I persisted with a short paste line and had 4 or 5 skimmers and a couple more carp from it, putting 54.14 on the scales, which was a poor weight, but the top 3 and the top silver weight all came from the north bank, so maybe it was just one of those days.

1:  Tony Rixon 163.12 peg 8
2:  Andy Hembrow   119.05 peg 11
3:  Steve Seager 102.15 peg 2
4:  Paul Attwood,  77.8 peg 19
5:  Phil Harding 68.08 peg 24
6:  Chris Fox  54.14 peg 21

Silvers:

Martin Alexander 34.08 peg 5

Monday 21 July 2014

Sort Pole Series, Second Round, Trinty Waters, Woodland Lake. Sunday 20th July 2014

After a weeks enforced break, I was keen to get back out on the bank and hopefully put what has been a dreadful run, behind me.  It was nice after a couple of weeks of solid work and driving to Worcester and back every day, to get a lift from Tony Rixon, with the usual stop off at Shipham for breakfast.

A new slim line Misha greeted us with her usual cheery demeanor, it is good to see Woodland open again and seemingly very little damage done to it by the recent KHV outbreak, John stopped by for a chat and told me of his plans for a new lake, he certainly doesn't seem to have any plans to retire and put his feet up.

I wasn't to bothered where I drew, with a couple of exceptions, I really don't get on with the pegs on the top bank,  I would prefer a peg on the back bank, but either side or bottom end would be OK.  I pulled peg 29 out, which is approximately in the middle of the car park bank, just over the bridge.

A fairly simple attack today, 8mm pellet and paste, four rigs, a MW pinger for banded pellet at full depth and a paste rig for the same line, and two AK47 margin floats rigged up for either margin, one with a B960 C/W band and the other on 0.20 straight through to a 10 B911XS. I was ready with half an hour to spare and wandered up to see Tony fishing the margin of Ash lake behind his peg, he did manage one small crucian before it was time to wander back and put the nets in.

On the all in I fed the 'long line' (which was topkit + 3 sections) with 8mm pellets and some hemp and the margins with pellet.  First drop in with a banded 8mm pellet saw a couple of indications and after a couple of lift and drops, the float buried and a 1lb+ skimmer was netted. The first hour was slow going with another skimmer and one carp being the sum total. A switch to paste saw a couple of fish netted, but there was a lot of activity and I fouled a couple of fish which came off. After a couple of hours I had a look in the margin and the float buried first put in, the culprit was a 1lb perch who took a liking to the paste.

The margins on this bank can be really productive as John created some nice flat areas when he lowered this bank, but they are best when you have an empty peg next to you, which as I had Bela one side and Paul Elmes the other, I was fishing them more in hope than expectation.  I managed 3 carp and 3 perch from the margin, for what ever reason the carp didn't come in and settle.

Paste on the long line had to be my banker and it seemed that feeding 1/2 a pot then fishing it out  was best, trying to introduce a few pellets with the paste was a waste of time.  I had two quiet spells of an hour each, where I didn't put a fish in the net, I am sure they had just backed off a bit and obviously given the limitations of the short pole rules, I couldn't follow them out.  The two quiet spells and the lack of a late margin run cost me a framing place, but I did pick up the section money by default, so that's 2 second in sections in this series so far, 2 section wins are essential to stand any chance of getting into the overall money at the end.

I ended up with two nets clicked at 53 and 23, along with my silvers, they actually weighed 55 odd and 23 odd so reasonable accurate clicking, just a shame about those two quiet spells, leaving me 3 fish off second place.

1: Shaun Townsend 121.00 peg 9
2: Tony Rixon 106.05 peg 26
3: Paul Elmes 105.06 peg 30
4: Chris Fox 87.08 peg 29
5: Steve Seager 79.03 peg 13
6: Leon Hubbard 73.12 peg 14

Silvers

Clint Wojtyle 18-06-0 peg 11

Tuesday 8 July 2014

Tony Rixon's Float Only, Round Four, Landsend, Sunday 6th July 2014

Back to Landsend for round 4 of the float only series and with three lakes in, I knew that my lot would be to trudge up to lake 3, even though I wanted a draw on Match or Speci lakes, not least, because a league framing place is out of my grasp and the Match or Specimen lake offer a realistic chance of framing in the overall or silvers on the day. (Lake 3 never seems to come up trumps in the frame when I'm on it).

Into the draw bag and with the odds 2-1 against drawing lake 3, I was not in the least surprised to see peg 41 (lake 3) written on the swimcard like a cruel taunt.  Peg 41 is an end/corner which has produced decent weights, but in my experience lately, the bigger fish seem to have migrated to the middle of the lake, leaving the ends for the smaller fish that were introduced from lake 4 and Mike's homebred stocking programme.

Well, it was a day on the bank after working a lot lately, so I set about the peg in a positive manner, this lake is a non starter when it comes to competing in the silvers, so my side tray had 6 and 8mm hard pellets on it, along with a bag of paste.  I set up a shallow and a depth rig to fish at 14m out to the aerator, where there were some signs of fish, a paste rig to fish the edge (and it would do for anywhere else in the peg, as the margin was 6" shallower than the rest of the peg) and a rig to fish at the bottom of the shelf of the spit, which is like having an island.  I also had a couple of pints of dead maggots and groundbait, with me, but the depth of the margin stopped me mixing it up.

Starting shallow at 14m in the open water, my first two fish were a 5oz rudd and a 2oz roach, both on 6mm pellet, before a small carp was safely netted.  Mike Duckett appeared with the scales and put them behind my peg, (gee, thanks Mike), he stayed for a chat, telling me about his plans for lake 4 and that pleasure anglers had been catching on paste.  Whilst he was there a couple of better fish were cruising about and I mugged one about 5lb, that turned out to be my best fish of the day!!  The fish soon backed off to the other side of the rope, where John Bradford on peg 70 was fishing short, giving the shallow fish an area of sanctuary where they sat all day.

Mike Nicholls had walked up before the start and showed me where he had 160lb on paste from, but this short margin only produced 4 fish all day.  The most productive area of the swim was tight across to the spit, but it was tricky, as the rig set up to fish at the bottom of the shelf was producing plenty of liners and the odd lost fouler, to one proper bite. I set up a shallow rig to fish between 6" and 12" deep, but it was difficult to get the pellet in where the fish were, as the bank is undercut, so a straight lowering of the rig tight to the bank, (even after a walk round there to clear all vegetation in the way) meant that the pellet wasn't tight to the bank under water.  Flicking it into the under cut wasn't effective, the presentation was wrong, as it came away from the bank as it fell.

A frustrating day, I had more fish than those who beat me on the lake, but my fish were an average stamp of 2lb, where as the pegs in the middle of the lake, as true to recent forum, had the bigger fish (double figures).  I cannot think of a way to overcome that, but I probably should have worked out a way to improve my catch rate from the spit, as I could see some fish with their noses into the undercut, feeding, but they wouldn't take a pellet 6" out from it. I put 49.15 on the scales, which beat the next two pegs to my left, before the big fish put in an appearance.  Match lake and Speci filled the top 4 places and the silvers, matching my prediction, will I ever get off that bloody lake 3???

Weigh sheet from lake 3.



PS. Thanks to Gordon Cannings and  John Bradford who took over the scales duties, as I had to get off sharpish and get to Worcester for a nightshift........ looks like it might be 20th July before work commitments see me on the bank again.

Overall:

  1. Paul Elmes 155-10-0 peg 27
  2. Shaun Townsend 131-14-0 peg 9
  3. Martin Rayett 123-10-0 peg 38
  4. Tom Mangnall 99-13-0 peg 33
  5. Bob Gullick 98-07-0 peg 50
  6. Neil Mercer 95-11-0 peg 36
Top Silvers:
  1. Paul Faiers 32-0-0 peg 32
  2. Neil Mercer 30-0-0 peg 36