Monday 30 January 2017

Viaduct Winter League 2nd Round, Sunday 29th January 2015

Looking for a good team draw today, to push us up the league, left that with the normally solid drawing arm of Fred, sadly he must have brushed against me on the way to the draw and managed to pick a not particulary good draw and mine was probably the worst of the bunch., 47 on match lake, no island chuck and with the temperature and clarity of the water, the margin was unlikely to feature.  Glenn had 126, Fred put himself on 94 and Paul on 15.

I set up two wagglers, one with a hi viz top Preston peacock insert - these are great floats for visibility, one for closer in with a Drennan Glow Tip waggler, again, very visible, but much thinner.  Both on Microlight rods with a 0.10 hooklength on one and a 0.08 on the other.

I did set up a dobbing rig for down the edge, athough I was very sceptical about it working and that scepticism proved right, no bites down the edge.  A couple of rigs to fish out in front at 14m and 9m, the 9m rig was not much used as I didn't have a bite on that line.

Put 4 balls of GB at 14m at the start, didn't think there was too much point in being overly negative on a renouned poor peg.   Started on the bread, on the lead chucked round the peg - nothing.  Down the edge, nothing, then I saw a lone bubble over the GB.  I decided to go over it earlier than planned as the lake seemed to be fishing hard except 43/44 who were both catching to the island.

Rather than put the pole over their heads in the shallow, clear water I dropped the light waggler in and had a couple of roch and a small skimmer before getting a better fish about 1lb or so.  Then another decent skimmer, next up a 4lb carp and I was suddenly hopeful of a better day.  Then the angler on 45 picked up his catapult and started feeding level with my skimmer line and I didn't have another bite for 3 1/2 hours.  I ended the match by fishing as far powards the island as I dare, without breaching the limits of my peg, this brought a run of roach up to 3oz, better than nothing, but was't going to see me catching those who'd had a better stmp of fish to the islands.

I ended up with 9.09 and 7 points, I certainly didn't expect more from the peg as it usually is in the bottom 4 in section.

Team wise, it was a bit of a disaster, finishing last but one - we seem to have caught whatever afflicted Leicester after their success in the Premier league last year.....  We'll need three good draws to even finish halfway at this rate.

Viaduct Silvers, Wednesday 25th January 2015

Another go at the silvers on Spring today, it started badly and didn't improve much, I got as far as Pensford when I realised I had forgetten my ice breaker, the nose to tail commuter traffic heading towards Bristol meant there was no chance of turning back to get it.

Arriving at the fishery, an inspection of the lakes revealed a fairly thick lid, so borrowing an ice breker was imperative.  Getting my kit out of the van I went to the front set and picked up my flask, it felt strangely light, then I realised the lid hadn't been on properly and the entire contents were now soaked into the passenger seat..... maybe that should have been an omen to forget it for the day.

Peg 4 was my home for the day, with once again on the next peg, Andy Power on 5 and Scott Puddy on 3.  Andy kindly cut out my peg, as I have a knackerd shoulder and chucking the ice breaker isn't easy.  Cupped a couple of alls of GB on the all in and started just short on caster, spent about 20 minutes without a bite before swapping to a Chianti  set 6" off bottom, this brought bites, but only from small roach.  This set the scene for the rest of the day, I kept looking back on the deck for better skimmers, but as soon as I dropped back on the deck, the bites dried up.

Scott to my right had a few skimmers, but Andy was in the same boat as me, so maybe there weren't any skimmers in the area.  Ended up chucking back 6 or 7lb roach, shame I didn't have 20lb of skimmers to go with them......

1: Des Shipp 29.05 peg 25
2: Scott Russell 18.09 peg 10
3: Scott Puddy 17.09 peg 3
4: Callum Dicks 17.07 peg16


Acorn Costcutter Tuesday 17th January 2015

Chilly day today, traveled down with Tony Rixon and had a decent breakfast in the Bridge Inn, the scene of many fishing team meetings yeatrs ago, they usually descended into a drunken party.......

The lake was frozen, but top man Mark Bartlett was going round breaking the pegs out, into the tin and out comes 24, with Tony on 27, but before we got out the door, it transpired there was a ping pong ball short in the bag, so a redraw was in order, this time we ended up next to each other again, this time either side of a bridge 33 and 34.

Being next to a bridge made tidying up the ice Mark had cut out easy, so that done it was time to set up a couple of rigs, one for the second shelf, one for the track and then a dobbing rig.  Bait tray was simple, maggots dead and alive.  Opposite we could see the pegs either side of the other bridge into early action, whilst it remained quiet our side.  After 15 minutes I did get a 3-4lber on bread and not too long after another, but this one was lucky if he weighed a pound.

A long quiet spell then as I rotated round the lines, to no avail, Tony had a couple of fish, but it was quiet for everyone except peg 21.  Out of the blue I had a bite to the right of the peg against the ice and a 8lber put up a spirited fight on 0.10 before finally giving up.

Anoher look on bread saw a small F1 netted before the end and my one and only bite by the bridge saw a good fish hooked, but it kited under the bridge and snagged on something, I could feel the fish, but everything was solid, in the end the hooklength parted and that was my action for the day.  Frustrating as Tony had 3 or 4 fish from the bridge, whereas I had just the one bite, don't think I did much wrong and the North side of the 3 briges top the top three places.

1: Lee Waller 50.09 peg 6
2: Phil Cooper 39.04 peg 21
3: Tony Rixon 26.04 p34
4: Andy Gard 21.08 peg 22
5: Adge 20.08 peg 5
6: Chris Fox 15.15 peg 33


Viaduct Silvers, Wednesdy 18th January 2015

Really looking forward to this, as some nice skimmers reside in Spring lake and it's the deepest lake at Viaduct, so was hopeful of a few.  Not so hopeful when peg 12 stuck to my drawing hand, but maybe they will have moved round.  Next to Andy Power on 11 and Steve Kedge on 16, so some quaility to test myself against.

I set up a waggler and several pole rigs, a double bulk - but I haven't had much success with that for a long time now - a rig to try and catch perch down to the pallet and rushes of 13.

Groundbait in at the start, 14m and a shorter line with just caster.  Starting off on the caster line, there were roach to be caught, but too small, too slow and too far out.  A switch to the waggler was the same, as was the GB line.  The sun was the worst I have ever fished in for visibility, the ripple was making any colour of size of float impossible to see.  I could see Andy's float and after I asked what he was using, a Preston peacock wih a hi viz insert, he kindly gave me one to try.

The edge seemed devoid of perch and the peg devoid of skimmers, as I could only catch roach on every line.  Andy did have some shade from the island and caught a few skimmers on corn and waggler, but we were well off the pace of the top spots st the end which came from further up the lake.  The fish just don't want to be the river end of the lakes at the moment.

That man Des winning from Middle lake.

1: Des Shipp 25.13 peg 32
2: Chris Davis 22.08 peg 3
3: Vince Brown 22.01 peg 4
3: Matt Parsons 22.01 peg 10

Viaduct Winter League 1st Round Sunday 15th January 2015

After last years dizzy heights of winning the league and having the individual champion in the team, we had a lot to live up to.  I drew for the team, Fred on 127, Mark on 96, myself on 64, Paul on 47 and Glenn on 16.

So, the famous, or is it the infamous monk peg for me, the wind was all wrong for the peg, especially as Lodge is float only.  I set up a waggler to fish to the end bank, pole rig for dobbing bread up the edge and a couple of rigs to catch skimmers on in the open water.

I'm going to struggle to fill in much more detail or pad it out, as I sat and watched Ken catching on 66 and could see fish coming out with regularity in the opposite corner, pegs 53/73.  None of my floats moved, even a line fed with squatt did not give me a bite.  I kept giving each line - the waggler to the end bank, the bread/maggots/prawn dobbed up the edge and the skimmer line - 20 minutes each and had not so much as a tremor on any of the floats.

The last 20 minutes were spent on the waggler and I wa staring 0 points and a blank in the face, when at 15.26, 4 minutes before the all out, the waggler dipped and after the most nervy battle ever, a 6.5lb common was netted 2 minutes after the whistle and took me from 0 to 8 points.

We ended up aout halfway and considering we had several pegs at the wrong end of the lakes, we at least have somehing to build on.

Landsend Open Saturday 14th January 2014

First match of 2015, 8 fishing so more of a knock up really, but it was a reasonable day and when I drew peg 5 I thoght I might catch a few silvers. Given the clarity of the water I didn't bother with a rig for up the shelf, but did set up one for down the shelf, down the track and to fish to the pallets of 4 and 6.

I fed a few micros at 13m off to my left and began on the cater at the bottom of the shelf, the expected silvers didn't show, but I did put 3 carp in the net, the pellet line was completely non productive all day and the only bite by either pallet was a tiny perch.

I concentrated on fishing caster across and started a new line, but that too was fruitless, a look back on the original line saw 2 decent skimmers, a few roach and a decent perch netted towards the end, giving me 9.00 of silvers, to go with the initial 3 carp which went 16.08.  A tough day, but enjoyable.

1: Dave Westcott 30.15 peg 19
2: Chris Fox 25.08 peg 5
3: Rod Wootton 18.13 peg 17
4: Russ Peck 13.03 peg 11

Silvers

1: Chris Fox 9.00

Sunday 1 January 2017

Viaduct Two Dayer - Sept 2017

I have booked Viaduct, Cary Friday 1st Sept and Campbell Saturday 2nd Sept.

£13 peg fee (sooner you pay, sooner you are confirmed as fishing), £50 pools. - that gives £1000 to payout with 20 fishing.  4 sections of 5 and points then weight will decide the overall.

Friday will be anything goes within Viaduct rules, Saturday is pole only.

Only 4 places left, so you need to get in quick not to miss it.

Viaduct Open, New Years Eve, 2016

A couple of weeks off to get over the poor result at Todber and the general downturn in my fishing this year, can't put my finger on it, the wheels fell off after my faux pas at Viaduct in the winter league, losing the match win by going over in my net. The wheels seem to be still rolling away and gathering pace, hopefully 2017 will see an up turn in fortune.

28 fishing this one, so Campbell and Cary in, I bought a pint of casters, intending to fish for silvers if I drew a suitable peg, I was slightly down hearted when I opened up the ticket and saw 123, a peg any silvers angler would have run to a few years back, but not now.  Best bet I thought would be to target the few resident carp, that surely must be down in the corner and along the end bank.

Arriving at my peg the first thing that struck me was the clarity of the water, gin clear.  If it had not been a corner peg, the pole would have stayed in the holdall, but I did set it up, with a rig to fish down into the corner, a long line between pole tip and float due to the clarity of the water.  Two waggler rods, one with 2.5lb Maxima and a 0.10 hooklength, I was also trying out some new (to me) hooks - Guru F1 maggot, in size 20, a nice light gauge wire.  The other rod had 4lb line and a 0.12 hooklength and a 18LWG hook.

Two lead rods, one for popped up bread, the other for meat, corn etc. Bait tray was simple, caster, maggot, meat, corn and bread, with a few frozen prawns although I am yet to catch a fish on a prawn at Viaduct.

Starting on the lead / bread, I searched around the peg, open water and along the end bank, but without so much as a liner, I wasn't confident that there were even any resident carp in the area, walking to the peg, the carp were very much giving their location away, sat in a big ball up by the aerator.

A switch to the waggler and corn was equally unproductive and 2 hours in I was fishless, I had been feeding a line slightly to my right at a bout 20m with caster and a switch to this brought 4 good perch in the next hour to double caster and a skimmer.  Peg 125 was catching skimmers on the waggler and I couldn't seem to draw them down to me, another typical winter day.  I managed one more skimmer and 3 roach on the waggler, a look round the peg with a prawn produced nothing, with the perch being between 1.5 and 2lb, my net went 10.10 which was 4th in the silvers and one out of the money, maybe I should have fished for silvers the whole match....

The match was won by a huge margin from 130, Martin Lenaghan weighing 264lb, although that was knocked back to 180lb as he was the latest to fall foul of the net limits.

I have joined the 'ramp club' having had one for Xmas, certainly easier than  lifting a loaded trolley in and out of the van.


Todber Pairs, Last Round, Sunday 18th December 2016

Traveled down with partner Mike Walker for this one, stopped off at Cannards Well for breakfast, not been in there for a while and it was not too bad, much better than my last visit.

With us lying in 4th place going into todays match, a couple of section wins should see us into the money, well, that was the plan.......  Mike drew a decent peg and I managed to draw 41, which several people promptly told me was shit, apparently, it has come last or last but one in section everytime!! Not to worry, I have manged a few fish each match on hard pellet and was confident of doing so in this one.  To cut a long and boring 5 hours short, I didn't have a bite on pellet all day, I was reduced to fishing 0.09 flourocarbon and a 22 gamma green with a single dead maggot to get the occasional bite, mainly from the tiny tench that reside in this lake.  The island looked like it should produce a few fish, but apart from a couple of roach, it was to all intents, barren.

I put about 9lb of fish on the scales for probably last in the match, a dismal result given that Mike won his section, that pushed us down the final order to about 6th or 7th I think, which was disappointing, but that seems to be the story of 2016 for me. 

Viaduct Xmas Match Saturday 17th December 2016

I managed to pluck peg 100 from the draw tin for this match, that made up my mind to concentrate on the carp and set up a waggler to fish corn and a lead to try bread/corn/meat.  Walking to the peg, it was amazing to see the ball of carp in front of 105, which had been drawn by Dan White, the consensus was that Dan would win easily, as there were so many fish in front of him.

I also set up a pole, to feed a line with caster, meat and corn, just in case the fish would come within pole range, but as I could see evidence of fish moving right over by the end of the spit, I wasn't convinced they would.

I managed one carp all match, a small one for Cary, just over 7lb, on the waggler and corn. There were a few small skimmers on the pole line, maybe I should have fished for silvers, but I don't think I would have competed with the weight from Campbell.

1. Jamie Bowden - 109lb 11oz - peg 110
2. Tony Mackett - 91lb 7oz - peg 132
3. Roland Lucas - 49lb 7oz - peg 99
4. Dom Sullivan - 40lb 1oz - peg 128

Silvers
1. Matt Parsons - 28lb 3oz - peg 126