Ivy House Open, Sunday 18th August 2019

Travelled up to this one with Tony Rixon, so that meant having breakfast in the fishery café, very nice it was too.

I fancied a draw on the old and true to form, drew on the new canal, peg 25, one peg away from where I had struggled a couple of weeks ago, although that was a very hot and sunny day, so different conditions.

Decided on a simple day, a rig for hard pellet across, found a nice flat shelf which I thought would be perfect to catch carp on, this shelved fairly slowly down to full depth, so I set up a second rig to fish down this slope.

Two rigs set up for down the track, one a homemade 0.4g diamond, with a 0.14 hooklength and a 18 Kaizen hook, with a double bulk, second rig a Hillbilly chump, this with a 0.10 hooklength and a 18 F1 hook, this with a standard bulk and two droppers.  I also set up a margin rig, but apart from plumbing up, it never saw the water.

The peg looks nice and calm in the picture, but that was taken before I tackled up and the wind started!!  On the all-in I potted a few pellets onto the shelf and dropped in, had a couple of small carp straight away, but then the wind was making it just far too difficult.  I switched to plan two, which was feed two lines down the track at 8m, GB and maggots on one line, micros and 4mm pellet on the other.  Also maggots short just in front of my keepnets.

Fishery pellets only here, but you can use your own hookers and GB, I had a 50/50 mix of Burts Exander and Silver Sensation GB (this mixes up lovely and skimmers love it), and some F1 hookers.

I was getting odd small carp and roach, over the GB and I had to keep topping up to get bites, the short maggot line was no good, but sometimes it can take a while to get going.  The wind dropped a bit and I went back over, had one on the deeper rig, but the wind soon got up again.  Whilst it had dropped, I saw a few pin prick bubbles over the GB, so went in on the double bulk rig with a piece of worm, I had a couple of skimmers around the pound mark, so chopped up a few worms and fed them in the next GB top up,  I had two bream on worms, but it was slow going, a switch back to maggot saw three or four bream come to the net and frustratingly, a decent fish around the 4lb mark slipped the hook - that proved costly....

The bream went as quickly as they came, not sure if I didn't feed enough GB, but some small carp moved in after the bream vacated the peg.  I also had a few small carp, roach and a lone perch from the short line and a lively carp around the 4lb mark.  I even had a eel, haven't caught one of those for a long time,

Enjoyable days fishing, the lost fish cost me winning the silvers, but I did sneak the section, with second on the lake.  My prediction of the old canal (Kingfisher) being much better than the new canal (Moorhen) was a bit out today, but it was a good match and its not all about catching huge weights.

Norms Bagging Open, Acorn, Saturday 17th August 2019

With the weather forecast set reasonably fair, I was hopeful of a good day at Acorn, Norm's opens have an optional silvers superpool, but I declined that and had come to focus on carp.

Can't complain about my draw, peg 11, it did have the wind pushing fairly hard from right to left, but it's not a long reach across, so it should be OK.  The downside of this peg in the summer, is the depth of both margins, but I was sure I'd catch across, shallow and short, sadly my optimism (yes, optimism) was not to be bourn out.

Plumbing across, where there is a nice shelf, fish were obviously present and I started over there, pinging plain 6mm feed pellets and same in the band.  Two fish for 7lb in the first two put in's and I was thinking it could be a good day.  Well that's optimism for you, I'll be ditching it and going back to my usual pessimistic state, as I never had  another bite for 75 minutes.

Finally had a couple shallow, fishing to the corner of the island, but that was that, another 2 hours passed without a bite, before I finally put 4 or 5 fish together, pinging 6mm Polony pellets down to the tree and slapping over the feed.  This was a short burst of fish and apart from one more which hung itself on a white wafter, when I chucked the method out - in desperation - that was it.

I hooked one fish in the margin down to my left, and before I could react, it was into the tree and snagged solid, disappointing day and around 3 o'clock I did wonder if the day might be better spent, but I did stick it out and ended up with 44lb on my clicker, which went 46.07 on the scales for a resounding nowhere.

Rail Sport National, Makins Fishery, Wednesday 14th August 2019

The Rail Sport National, is unsurprisingly, a national for those employed in the rail industry, it can be entered as a team or as an individual, as a life long Billy-No-Mates, I was one of the lonesome individuals entered.

If I am honest, I am not sure how they work out the draw, as there are two queues, individual and team, there never seems to be many draw cards in the individual tub.  Last time I fished this match, I drew Phase Two, won my lake, but not my section, as that extended to another lake with much higher weights all round.

So hoping to avoid the same this year, I pulled out Phase Three, Avon peg 2, meant nothing to me, so spoke to the guy in the bait shop and he advised fish 6mm pellet across and worms down the RH edge.  Its fishery or green swim stim Dynamite pellets only here, so my Burts choice was limited to Tigernut GB for down the edge.

Fishing this match as an individual, not much point in going too cautious, the guy in the bait shop mentioned throwing a method towards the bridge and I had brought one, but it really would be last resort.  Tackling up I was surprised how shallow it was, 2'6"- 3' anywhere in the peg.  Tackling up it was getting greyer and greyer, I got the method rod set up (it laid in the grass and was packed away unused at the end) and 4 topkits, before the rain started and I fetched an umbrella from the van.  I never used to use an umbrella, but must be getting old, as I now am happy to sit under it when the heavens open.

It was 13.5m across to the far side, I set up two rigs to fish across there, a 4x12 Roob, that takes 3 No 11which were spaced a couple of inches apart, 6" above the hook. This had a 18 LWG on 0.14 with a band.  Next rig was a homemade float, a touch heavier and a 0.16 hooklength to a 16 B960.

A rig for down the track and a margin rig, completed the roost. Started across with the Roob, pinging 6mm pellets with a catapult, had a 5oz skimmer first drop in, then had 40 minutes catching a couple of skimmers, a roach, a feisty little Gudgeon on the banded 6mm pellet, before having a couple of carp.  It seemed like a decent start, but for some 'unknown' reason (the inverted commas will become plain....)

After 40 minutes, the bites dried up, I persevered, fishing two lines across at 10 and 2 O'clock, for over an hour this remained barren and I did try coming closer, down the track over some micro's with a soft pellet, but this was equally barren.  I had a spell of missing bites across, but still no fish, then I started to catch odd fish including a 9lber (most were 2lb).

I committed the ultimate match sin, whilst it wasn't hectic, I came off feeding fish and looked down the edge, where the guy in the shop had said fish.  First drop in with worm over GB, a 4lber, that cost me precious time as I stayed down the edge and ignored the far bank.

Finally sense prevailed and I went back over and picked a couple more fish off, too little too late.

I had 48lb on my clicker and told the scalesman I had 2lb of silvers, after he told me I had 100lb, the scales backed me up and 48.02 of carp and 2.0 of silvers for 50.02.  I could and should have won the lake - that's frustrating, but at least I am now feeling I knew where I'd gone wrong, earlier this year, I was struggling a lot and had no answers at all.  Today wasn't much about feeding, it was more about decision making, I can live with making the wrong call, it helps to learn.  I could and should have won the lake, someone confident and on a roll would have....

Not sure on the overall match result, but I am sure Phase one would have thrown the winner, so I didn't go back for the results as the two hour trip home was a bigger attraction.

No names on the sheet, but that's me on the top, peg 2

Tony Rixons Short Pole Series, Todber Manor, Sunday 11th August 2019

Guested as a stand-in for the final round of Tony's popular short pole series, the round being on Hillview lake, at Todber.  No stress involved in driving down, fastest I have done it so far, bang on an hour.

Fair bit of time to kill before the start, so a look round the well stocked shop, a bit of socialising and the usual discussion of who wanted to draw where - I wasn't too fussed, as I don't know it that well, so when 52 showed itself on the drawcard, I was indifferent.

Being as it's a short pole series, (topkit +3) a nice simple approach, a rig to fish hard pellet at 2+2, this was a homemade diamond 0.5g, with as it was windy and a strong tow back against the wind.  A 4x16 Roob to fish meat at 2+1 1 and a rig to fish down the edge.

Started on 6mm plain feed pellets and was soon into fish 2-3lb, but this didn't last long, after about 20 minutes the bites dried up, I decided to come short on meat and this was steady, but not hectic and I stayed on this until the midway point, when I thought I had 120lb, I then fed the LH edge with GB and it didn't take long for the fish to rock up, I dropped in the edge, but wasted 10 minutes not catching anything, I think it was too soon and they weren't settled.

Back on to the meat line, by now I had switched to feeding 50/50 8mm meat and 8mm Burts Polony Pellets, this saw me have a good 90 minutes and I had to go back to the van to get a couple more nets. I had been feeding the RH edge with pellets and there was no sign of fish, the LH edge where I fed GB and maggots was full of fish and I switched to it, I had a good run of bigger fish, up to 10lb on worms, but the last 15 minutes I kept at it too long, I should have had a look back on the 2+1 meat line, as I only put one fish in the net and that was the smallest from the edge.

Disappointed when the all out was called, this was an enjoyable days fishing, which flew by, I was admitting to 240lb, so when the scales came round and my nets added up to 258lb, I couldn't really be disappointed, but I was, as I was 30lb from winning it, as Martin Rayet had 288lb, the peg was probably worth that and more, but I was a bit rusty on catching that much.  So third on the day and could have done better.

Special mention to Fred on peg 51, Clint Wojtyla's young lad, Clint coached him through, but he was told to go away and leave Fred alone at one point, Fred has weighed 153lb an awesome weight for a youngster and I was impressed with his concentration and perseverance.

Next up, Makins on Wednesday for the Rail Sport National.

Viaduct Open, Sunday 3rd August 2019

Report to follow.

Ivy House Open, Sunday 28th July 2019

Heron for this open, I drew peg two and decided that fishing the method across would be the right approach and it would be a bit of a learning opportunity.

Well, it was a frustrating day, I had plenty of fish across, was getting bites, they were taking the pellet out of the band, if I did hook them I was bumping them, they were coming off and I was pulling my hair out.  I tried different hook sizes, different hook patterns, switch from a method to a pellet feeder and it was the same result every time.

I had persevered for the best part of 4 hours, trying to work it out, I'm sure someone who fishes the method regularly would have worked out how to catch them, but I gave up.

Last 2 hours were spent down the edge to the RH side, fishing maggots over GB and I started catching well, but too late to catch up, maybe I should have just done that all match, well beaten off the next peg by Baggy, who fished paste shallow, one to forget really.