Viaduct Winter League Round 2, Sunday 20th January 2019

After  the team disaster in the first round, of what in the spring, summer or autumn would be a decent set of pegs.. well, maybe except 7, we needed a decent draw and team performance to ensure we weren't out of it after two rounds.

I was going to pass the drawing duty over to someone else, but in the end took the responsibility and drew 17, which is a good draw (how did that happen!!!).  It put Paul Faiers on 131, Glenn Calvert on 100, myself on 70, Mark Broomsgrove on 51 and Rich A'Herne on 19 - we'd be disappointed not to be top three from that draw.

After the usual quick discussion and the confiscation of Paul's silvers rigs and bait..... off we went to our pegs.  I expected to catch a few skimmers and carp from my peg, without having to revert to scratching round for bits.  The dedicated silvers wagglers stayed in the bag and two 12' Daiwa Tournaments set up, one with a Middy Fat Boy waggler, 4lb maxima and 0.16 hooklength, finished off with a 18 PR16 and a band, I like to fish corn or meat by pulling the band into it.  The other with a Drake waggler, 0.14 hooklength and a 20 LWG, for maggot or caster.

4 topkits, a 0.3g silvers rig, No6 elastic, 0.10 and a 20 Guru F1, a 0.4g rig 0.12 with 16 F1, same rig but with 0.14 - just in case and finally a full blown carp rig, Malman Roob, with 0.16 hooklength and 16 LWG, that really was an optimistic set up, but I was ready with 25 minutes to go, so why not.

Bait tray was maggot and pinkie, dead and alive, corn, caster and various bits of cubed or punched meat.  A simple GB, Tom Thicks Intelligent and some Sonubaits F1 Green to darken it.  Two balls of this with caster in at 14m on the all in, then straight out wit the waggler and corn, I was really expecting some indications and bites on this, but after 20 minutes of stationary float, I did have a look over the GB and start up a loose fed caster line towards the rope that divides 70 from 69.

The caster line fishing the waggler at 20m was best for the next 40 minutes or so, as I had a quick burst of 4 perch from 6oz to 2lb.  It was typical winter fishing after that, I could describe each switch of line, each observation of what was happening (and the conversations with Gary O'Shea on the next peg, top angler, doesn't miss anything in front of him, he was seeing every minor indication of fish in the area) but it was a case of rotating between caster and corn and an occasional look on the pole, but that was never going to be right on the day.

I relied heavily on the waggler and corn, for a large part of the match, it was well under par from my expectations, I do know the straight waggler was wrong, the bites I did have were such tiny dinks, it needed an insert waggler dotted right down, that was possible today, with no wind and flat calm conditions.

I was putting odd fish in the net on caster or the occasional look with maggot, mostly on the waggler, the pole line never got going all day, finally at 14:20, the waggler just slightly dipped and a strike met with the firm resistance of a carp, a 7-8lb common came in quite nicely and was soon netted.  Next cast, similar tiny dip of the float and a bigger more angry common, maybe just over a Barny rubble was netted after a determined fight, I was then looking forward to a hectic last hour, but sadly not to be, I had a 2lb skimmer 2 minutes later and waited until 5 minutes before the all out at 15:30 before the third and final carp, also the biggest came to the net.

I ended with 38.07 for 14 points from 18 and all in all a reasonable return, beaten by one in the section on another lake and 3 corner pegs, not sure I could have done much more.  The rest of the team fared well, Paul winning Campbell with 148.06 and second in match, Glenn also with 14 points from Cary, Mark with 13 from Match lake and Richard with 12 from Spring.

That was enough to win on the day as a team and claw our way back into a framing contention place after last weeks poor start, but this is winter fishing and we are taking nothing for granted.


Team Positions on the Day:
1. 2nd Time Lucky - 71
2. Guru Viaduct - 70
3. Team Keyford - 69
4. Future Networks - 61
5. Thatchers Vets - 58
5. Team Amigos - 58
7. Preston Innovation Thatchers - 56
8. Spotted Fin - 52

Team Positions so Far:
1. Guru Viaduct - 134 (2 section wins)
2. Preston Innovation Thatchers - 130 (2 section wins)
3. Team Keyford - 130
4. Thatchers Vets - 118
5. Spotted Fin - 115 (1 section win)
6. Colmic SW - 111
7. 2nd Time Lucky - 110 (1 section win)
8. Future Networks - 106 (1 section win)
9. M5 Angling - 104 (1 section win)
10. Moaning Maggots - 101 (1 section win)
11. Team Amigos - 95 (1 section win)
12. Garbolino BVMG - 90
13. Balti Boys - 72
14. Silverfox - 71
15. Viaduct All Stars - 66
16. PR Floats - 60
17. Wyvern Anglers - 49
18. Fishing Tackle Warehouse - 45

Plantation Silvers Float Only, Thursday 17th January 2019

I was lucky enough to have a Thursday off, as Plantation is a venue with some great silvers in, not who it was who had to go in the room with the goose fat tub and various other instruments of pleasure to get these 5 matches on this lake, as its not often match fished now.....

A few met up for breakfast in the Bridge in, good bit of banter and the breakfast was OK, but let down by the sausages.  More banter at the draw, I drew peg, which wasn't peg 4 as it had been repegged for the day, it put me on permanent peg 8, not too bad.  Then it turns out there wasn't enough tickets in the tub as a latecomer arrived, so a hastily arranged redraw and I'm now looking at 14, which turns out to be permanent peg 28.

Looked ideal for a small cage feeder towards the gap in the island, but with it being float only, a waggler and pole were the only options.  So, a light rig with strung out No11's for roach, a couple of skimmer rigs, 0.3g and 0.5g - I was surprised at how much the venue has silted up and was using the same rig as I was at Viaduct last week.  I also set up a double bulk rig, just in case that was required.

The pegging to my right was fairly tight, so I couldn't really fish the standard 10 & 2 o'clock lines, more like just past 12 and just before 10.  The 12 o'clock line fed with Tom Thick's Intelligent/Sensas Lake mixed 50/50, that then mixed with about 30% leam.  The 10 o'clock line fed with micros.

Once they were fed I did try optimistically short for roach, but despite trying on and off through the match, a line fed with casters to my left, I didn't have a single indication there.

I had a fish and indications as soon as I went over the GB, I was getting liners and bumped a couple of fish, so put the light rig in the roost and tried the double bulk, less bites, but each on a fairly hooked fish - the initial flurry of bites didn't last long and I did try an expander over the micros, but that just saw roach pestering it.  I refed the micros line with a few more and included some caster and dead maggot.  This did see a couple of roach and a hybrid come to dead maggot on the hook, but the action was far from hectic.

I stared up a new line, loose fed caster as far as I could get them and tried the waggler over the top, a couple of roach, then nothing.  I swapped back to the lighter rig and spent the rest of the match rotating between the pole lines and the waggler, never taking more than 2 consecutive fish of a line before it went quiet again.

I could see pegs 1 & 2 catching and knew they had more than me, so I did push the peg trying to get some bigger skimmers in the last hour, it didn't work, but I'm not convinced it did too much harm, as the lake seemed to slow down for most in the last 90 minutes.

Quite an enjoyable day, I knew I hadn't done enough to win or frame, my 15.15 being enough to win the section and 6th place, so day paid for.

Acorn Costcutter, Tuesday 15th January 2019

First visit of the year to Acorn and after seeing the weights from the weekend, hopeful of a few bites.
14 fishing, so plenty of room, but that's not always a good thing on these snake lakes, as the fish back off under pressure.

The weather forecast was 11°C and dry, I  hope the forecasters aren't paid by accuracy, as the one who forecast that would be skint, it was a chilly wind and for a big part of the day, that fine misty rain - the sort that gets you wet, as someone said.

I had meant to bring some bread, but looking at the lake before the draw with Paul (Faiers) it was still quite coloured, so wasn't upset I'd forgotten to call in and pick a loaf up - my memory is getting terrible.  Into the draw bag and ping pong ball 13 was my reward, or as it turned out, penance.

Got to the peg and found Des Shipp on the next peg (15) so had to endure the usual moaning about his peg and the mid games of how good mine was - always a good bit of banter with Des.  The wind was blowing L to R but not too bad, wouldn't hinder fishing across to the far side.  I did consider setting up a method rod, but decided against it, so 4 topkits assembled, one a small Drennan float to fish banded pellet in approx. 2' water, a rig to fish the next shelf down, this rigged up with 0.14 and a 18 LWG hook, to try and tempt the carp.  I also set up a rig for the near margin, down to the pallet of 12, but not with much confidence, its been months since I caught a margin fish, or even anything  decent short.  Finally a 0.5 diamond homemade float to fish down the track, a catch all rig hopefully, this would do for two lines, 2 o'clock line being fed with GB and caster/maggot/pinkie, 10 o'clock with micros.

On the all-in I cupped in half a dozen 4mm pellets and 20 micros over the 2' deep shelf, dropping a 6mm pellet in a band over the top, the float had hardly settled, before burying and a decent fish on.  I got it to the net and saw that it had a hookhold that I just knew was going to give, right on the outside edge of the mouth, with the hook barely nicked through.  As expected, once the fish came near the nest and then dived down, even with me dropping the topkit down quick to reduce pressure, the hook pulled - bugger, at least 8lb gone.....

Straight back over and after a couple of liners a fish about 3.5lb safely netted, followed by one about 1lb, I was starting to think it might be a good day.  Thinking is obviously not good, as that was the last of the indications or bites from there.  Gave it another 15 minutes or so, searching along the bank, but the carp had upped sticks and moved out.  Hoping they'd dropped down the shelf, I switched to the deeper rig and expanders, nothing, not a bite.  Des was struggling, so I was fairly happy that it wasn't just me getting it wrong, in fact I couldn't see anyone catching.

I fed the 2 o'clock line at 7 joints and left it whilst I tried to make the lines across work, also fed the 10 o'clock line with micros, in the end gave up with the biteless lines across and came over the GB line.  This was slow, but at least a couple of small skimmers took the double pinkie offered, the wind had changed by now and was blowing into the faces of those of us on the 'back bank' this was frustrating, as I had to keep wiping the mist off my glasses, even the peak of a baseball cap not offering enough protection.

I refed the 2 o'clock line and then had a little run of skimmers, which was a welcome change from no bites, I had also been feeding casters by hand at topkit + 1 just to my left.  I had a couple of better roach from there, but felt I would have needed a lighter, strung out rig to make it work, rather than the skimmer rig.

By now - ha;lfway through, the wind was blowing some fairly unpleasant acrid smoke across the lake and my eyes were watering, Des had enough of it and packed up early, as did Paul on peg 2, had I not had the run of skimmers, I probably would as well. The skimmer line died off, they never settled over the micros line, I didn't have a bite on a 4mm expander, even trying to switch it to a maggot line was a dismal failure.

I did keep looking back across for a carp and down to the pallet of 12, where I tried corn and maggot, but never had any sort of indication from either area.  A couple of skimmers in the last 20 minutes completed my day and I unashamedly took the payout for second in silvers by default - feel I could have won the silvers if I fished for them all match, but hindsight is great.....  Well done to Mike Chapman, winning from unfavoured 27, all by himself down that end.

1. Mike Chapman.                 21-12 p27
2. John Mills.                         17-11 p18
3. Dave Stephenson.             16-09 p9
4. John Roberts.                    13-13 p5
5. Chris Fox.                           11-14 p13
6. Eddie Wynne.                     11-00 p30
Silvers
1. Mike Chapman.                 10-11 p27
2. Eddie Wynne.                       7-08 p30

Viaduct Winter League Round 1, Sunday 12th January 2019

This popular league seems to have come round again quickly, last I year I endured all 5 matches without even hooking a carp, so was looking for better this year.  The team has had a change of personnel, Freddie Roberts leaving and Richard A'Herne taking his place, sorry to see Fred go, but a good signing made in Richard.

18 teams this year, so a 90 pegger, good to fish matches this size, but that does inevitably mean that some of the pegs aren't the best, hoping to avoid those, I was first into the draw tub and pulled out, 115, 81, 53, 45 & 7. Not a bad draw on paper, but in the winter 115 can be tough, 81 and 53 can be feast or famine pegs and 7 had Paul Faiers borrowing margin poles to try and get a couple of bites from under the bush. Glenn on 115, myself on 81, Mark Broomsgrove on 53 and Richards debut was on Match lake 45.

I set up a silvers rig, just the one, to catch skimmers hopefully at 14.5m, a rig to dob bread along the spit and down to the monk, another rig to fish the same areas at full depth.  A rig to cover the open water, in case the carp showed up and as there was plenty of time, two wagglers and a lead rod.

Started dobbing bread along the spit, not as much as a tremor on the float bristle, same down by the monk.  I had a search further along the spit with the lead rod and into the open water without as much as a liner, I was starting to feel that there weren't any/many carp in the peg.  So I fed the silvers line with GB/leam and caster, then rested it for a spell on the waggler and corn, again, nothing on that, not any sort of indication.

To get something in the net I went onto the silvers line and started getting hand sized skimmers, not frantic action, but reasonably steadily.  The wind was getting up and there was a lot of tow, I can only assume the affect of the  wind on the main body of the lake was pulling the water out of my peg, as it was fairly sheltered out to 14m, where the ripple started.

I had got off my box to get another topkit, setting up a heavier silvers rig, as the skimmers seemed to want a static bait, when the wind blew  an 8' long branch out of the tree - out of 90 anglers fishing, whose pole would it land on, yep, mine.

So after a bout of Tourettes and being pretty pissed off, I packed what was left of the pole away, I hadn't brought a spare one, so it was rod and line for the rest of the match.  I tried the waggler over the GB, but even laying line on the bottom, the surface tow was pulling the float along and that was nowhere near good enough presentation. I did try a small cage feeder, but that wasn't right either, so I resorted to fishing for a carp for the rest of the match.  I did manage to get one at 14:55 so 35 minutes to go, a angry common that was 14lb I thought, I was hoping another couple might come along, but that was the only tip action of the day.  I did have a few spells on the waggler, but that was totally unproductive and did nothing to give me hope it might produce.

I weighed in  20.01 of which 6.8 was silvers, could have a chance of a silvers pick up until the carbon devastation….  I beat all the pegs on the Cary bank, scoring 11 points, so not brilliant, but not as bad as I thought it would be.  There just didn't seem to be any carp at this end of the lake.

Teamwise we didn't fair well, so its all to do next week!

Todber Manor Silvers, Saturday 5th January 2019

First match of 2019, 35 fishing this silvers match, I was hopeful of a decent draw, but I managed to pluck out 62 on Ash, end peg and apparently the shallowest peg on the lake, it was also the only one with a covering of cat ice before the start.

Plumbing up I could see that it may not be the ideal silvers peg in the cold weather, from about 10m out the peg shallows up, it also shallows up towards the end bank as you go to the left, so to get in the deepest water, I would have to fish 10m at the most, I did set up a rig to fish in the shallower water at 14m, but was doubtful it was right on the day.

I also set up a waggler, but that was pretty fruitless, there didn't seem to be any fish sat across the peg in the shallower water.

Not going to waffle on too long, it was a struggle, weighed 8lb odd, beating Dave Stockton to my right who had 6lb, at the end Nick Chedzoy said "I don't know why you bother to come and draw pegs like that".... I'm beginning to wonder myself if its worth the effort, time and cost!

Landsend Open, Sunday 30th December 2018

Last match of the year, I did fancy going to Ivy House, but they had a two day mini festival, which I couldn't enter, not being able to fish on Saturday, so Landsend it was.  I have a strange relationship with this venue, I love the tranquillity of it, I like the feel of the place, I just never do any good here.

I had hoped for a days silvers fishing, so a draw on the Match lake was required, I was still eating my breakfast (another plus point for Landsend, the tasty breakfast) when it was time to draw, so Tony drew for me, peg 55, I couldn't be further away from the Match lake or the silvers in lake 3.  My inability to draw on Match lake when there are two or more lakes in has now stretched for as long as I can remember.....

Still, with the next peg in being Dick Bull on 51 and Adrian Jefferies across the lake on 58, there was plenty of room, although, that's not always a good thing at Landsend, as the fish are wise old buggers and often back off into the gaps.  The island is a good 17.5m away and I wasn't going to risk my back by fishing that, so I set up a 9' Preston Carp lead rod and a tiny lead, to plop a 6mm pellet across there.

Pole for the rest of the peg, its 14m to the spit on the end bank, so a dobbing rig for there, the lake is very shallow, but I found a deeper area fishing across pointing the pole at Adrian on 58, so I set up a rig to fish soft pellet over micros here, a caster line at 7m and a hard pellet line at 14m towards the island.

Starting on the dobbing rig, I could get bites on maggot, but it was tiny roach, Adrian was suffering the same fate fishing to the island, I didn't stick with it too long as the roach were too small to be worth targeting.  Out to the soft pellet line and a couple of indications. then a positive bite and carp on, well, he knew where the snag in the peg was, a dark shape under the water that looked like a dead weed bed which had an autumn and winters worth of twigs and branches entwined in it, carp 1 me 0.

I had another bite from this area, but it was a roach and then the line was lifeless. A switch to hard pellet at 14m towards the island saw me hook and land a 1lb F1 first put in, then I hooked another that just came off.  Then a 3lb carp graced the net, before another was hooked and that came off - frustrating, pretty sure they weren't foul hooked, hooks and elastic were ones I have used without problem for a while now, so no idea why these fish were coming off.

The caster line at 7m never showed any sign of producing, not a single bite from it.  I ended the match fishing 6mm pellet to the spit, but had to wait a long time for a bite, adding 3 more carp and a decent roach all on 6mm pellet and a couple more managed to shed the hook.

I knew at the end, that Adrian had beaten me, having 7 to my 4, he had a little run of fish fishing long down top the weed bed which is the other side of the spit from me, others on the lake had beaten me and I was 100% confident the match lake would throw up some better weights, so the fish went back and I was off out the car park before most got back.  See Tony's blog for the weigh sheets, Bob Gullick won from Match lake with over a ton, well done Bob.

I felt I fished a tidy match, I wasn't convinced there were many fish in the peg, I am just hoping 2019 bring me a couple of good draws to get some confidence back, its been a poor few months for me and I just can't seem to get back on track.