Tony Rixon's Short Pole League, R2, Trinity Waters, Sunday 27th June 2021

 I used to be quite a regular here, but what with other commitments and not so many opens on here, I don't get down too often. It's an old brick pit, so a bit deeper than most commercials, although some of the work done on the lake and the silting up that is impossible to avoid has reduced the depth from when I first started fishing it.

Its also not had a stocking for a while and has a head of big carp, but no smaller ones to stir them up and as we know, big carp can be moody and have days they don't really feed for the duration of the match.  With 24 on today and restricted to 3 sections + topkit, I suspected a tough day and thought 2 or 3 converted bites an hour would be enough.

Paste, pellets and dead maggots would be my mainstay baits, with some worms for the hook, you can use meat here, but I have never caught on it (although a few years back, Coshida was a decent margin bait, so catmeat was OK).

Paste rig and pellet rig for on the deck, rig for each margin, as they were different depths (small moan here - I was on peg 13, the only peg in the section without a spare peg one side..... but it's tricky to peg it any other way, so it is not a serious moan).

Well, 30 minutes in and a double figure fish in the net on past, nice, but usually on here when you feed you get the jacuzzi effect, not today. I gave it until the hour mark and switched to a line away from the paste, fishing 6mm banded pellet, another carp, so slow but steady progress.

Lets now jump several biteless hours, where I tried everything and could not get even a liner.  The Grand Prix was on in my headphones, so I at least had some entertainment, I potted a 3/4 of a big pot of dampened 4's in, shit or bust really and did get some activity in the peg, hooking a another double on worm over the pellet, hook pulled at the net, so that summed up the day, I hooked and lost a fouler and then nothing again.  Had one 5 minutes from the end on paste, so 4 bites in 6 hours, not my idea of fun really.  I couldn't even catch a skimmer on bits of worm.

The lake fished hard, back there for R3 in two weeks, so may have to rethink the approach, but in all fairness it fished hard for most.

Tony Rixon's Float Only R2, Shiplate Farm, Sunday 20th June 2021

 Shiplate Farm today for the second round of Tony's popular float only league, this is a lovely fishery near Weston-Super-Mare, right on the banks of the river Axe.

I was hoping for a draw on the main lake, big carp and a big head of skimmers, suits me perfectly. second to that, either of the two canals, what I wanted to avoid was the 5 pegs on the lake know as Squircle.  Where did I draw, yep, from a 1/8 chance, Squircle 9.

X marks the spot where my peg was, less than 10m wide, the lake holds small carp, some ornamentals and very few silvers.  I banked on pellets and set up 3 rigs to fish different depths on the far slope, from tight to the bank in 8" of water, one at about 14" and another at 18".  I did set a rig at depth to fish maggot short.

I wasn't enthused at all by the peg/lake and started short, had a couple of goldfish and two unexpected skimmers, but it wasn't ever going to be productive enough to compete.  Switched to fishing pellet over - hardly a hardship at 9m.... this wasn't much quicker and I doubt I had 4lb in the first hour,

I persisted with this, but could see Paul on peg 14 catching better fish on meat, 14 is on the opposite bank where the lake opens up a little wider.  I hadn't brought a meat cutter, but had in anticipation of a draw on the main lake, brought some meat already cut up to 8mm.  I did get of my box and set up another rig to fish this, but by now my frustration at drawing the bloody fishpond, not being able to get a signal to listen to the GP and the ducks, the f##king ducks.....  

I am usually pretty laid back with ducks, I don't think the fish mind them, because this lake is shallow and it has a head of ducks that would put a duck farm to shame, meant that it was impossible to feed any other line than that which you fished at the time.  If I fished short and fed over, the ducks would be diving and eating al the bait and vice versa.  I did have some better fish (1lb - 2lb), but I took too long to change to the meat and just lost my head with it and beat myself.  Not sure I could have beaten the end pegs, but if I had not got myself so pissed off, I could have pushed them a lot closer.

Some great weights of skimmers of the main lake, whilst the carp didn't really feed well on the other lakes.

Ivy House Open, Saturday 19th June 2021

Back to Ivy House for an open on the Old Match Lake, found a diversion set up as the road through Sutton Benger was closed, bloody hell, it was a 10 or 12 mile detour, I was so late Karen rang me to make sure I was still coming to the match! 

Peg 2 for me today, with the temperature having dropped and the threat of some rain, I wasn't sure that 2 was a favoured draw, although there were a few blows and signs of fish, so I was hopeful that I could get a few out.

With the island well out of pole reach I set up a method and a bomb - neither of which were cast in , so that's them forgotten about - those rods must get fed up coming along for the ride, being set up and then put away again at the end unused..... 😀  Also a waggler rod.

Pole rigs were a rig to fish the edges, one for pellets at 5m and one for pellets at 14.5m.  Nice and simple.

Started at 5m with 8mm as sometimes this throws up a fish or two, it did today, but skimmers not the expected and wanted carp.  After 20 minutes I switched to the waggler and gave that a good go, but never had a bite on it.  

Onto the 14m line and again. skimmers in place of carp, with two hours gone I decided to switch to fishing for skimmers and set up a new line at 11m with some GB and maggots, it wasn't manic and I had to sit and wait for bites, worm was the best hookbait and the fish were all a reasonable stamp.  I did land 3 smallish carp that muscled in on the act, but was never pestered by them.

Even though the bites weren't coming that often, I had to feed after every one or else they dried up completely.  Never felt there were that many fish over the bait, as you usually get liners and indications when you have skimmers in the peg.

Come the end, it proved to be the right decision to switch to silvers, as two corner pegs took first and second overall and I don't think I could have got to their weights.

Enjoyable day and it didn't rain!

Open, Landsend Lake 3, Sunday 13th June 2021

Yesterday should have been the final round of the delayed Acorn winter league, but with the fishery closed for a couple of weeks it was decided to end the league after 5 rounds, leaving me in second place, can't grumble a nice pick up to come and you can't keep rearranging leagues and expecting everyone to be available,

 Back to my love / hate venue today, love the tranquillity of its location on the moors, but my record there isn't the best.... more of a knock up than a match, with 12 fishing.

Travelled down with Tony, had a great breakfast at the venue and wasn't surprised when Tony drew 58 for what seems like the third time running, whilst I had 70, which doesn't often seem feature in the frame.  There is a weedbed off to your right and a spit at 14m in front, bit hemmed in, when I got there and saw the carp spawning in the weedbed, I decided to fish for silvers, which also includes F1's on this venue.  Its had a stocking of F1's and some that look like crucians, so I expected to have a few bites.

Not too much to say, its fished pretty tough, I had to tosspot in groundbait and maggots to get bites, but they weren't exactly going mad, the cap stopped spawning, then they and the ducks were slurping in the weedbed eating it all.....

I tried pellets and other lines, I expected to catch shallow, but the water was very clear - unusually so for a commercial this time of year - I certainly couldn't catch short, never had a bite closer than 11m.

Wasn't sure what weight I had come the end, but knew it wasn't a lot, but it was enough to justify the decision to fish for silvers and pocket the one payout for silvers, Tony won the match so a contented van on the way home.

Ivy House Festival, 7th - 11th June 2021

 5 days of fishing at Ivy House, I'd not had a chance to get up there so wasn't fully au fait with the current trends and what the latest developments Andy has done, as he's always tweaking something.  I decided that most lakes would be either a pellet or maggot approach, so that was my mainstay baits.

Its just under an hours drive - as long as I leave before the Bristol rush hour traffic, so an early start every day, the rotation was drawn before, so I knew which lakes on which days, Kingfisher - Heron - Willow - Heron - Old Match Lake.

Happy to start on Kingfisher, its been OK to me in the past, its a canal type lake, but it doesn't have a shelf across, so its tricky to catch over there without getting foul hookers, I tend to start over there and come off it when it dies off or the foul hookers start.  It has a decent number of skimmers in and they can be very much needed to make up the weight.  As I was so early arriving, I walked the lake and noted that 37 and 39 had plenty of signs of fish blowing, 41 and 42 are decent draws, whilst there wasn't so much activity in the higher numbers.

I drew 45, not my favourite area and I thought it would be tough to compete with Ryan on 41, as well as 37 and 39.  I started across on 6mm pellet and had a couple, but it was slow, so I switched to maggots short, this brought a run of skimmers and small carp, but was never going to last, it does come and go, like many canal lakes where you need to switch lines to keep fish coming.  I tried pellets down the middle and that was pretty much a waste of time, having just the one fish on it.

I had to go back across and I was catching odd fish, but Steve Hutter on 48 was now catching on caster, as was Ryan on 41 - problem was I didn't have any caster, I am sure if I had some and fished it shallow, I could have pushed for more than the 91.00 and 5 points I achieved.  Disappointing start and I could and should have done better, by at least a couple of points.

Tuesday and the first of 2 sections on Heron, which is the newest lake at Ivy and has a head of small carp and F1's - its a busy lake and probably the lake I'd consider my weakest, I'm not overly keen on these fish race lakes, especially when there are no lumps to drag you back in it, if fallen behind,  towards the end.

The info was you need to catch the F1's as they are a better stamp of fish, but they do live up to their reputation of pellet lickers, being the frustrating source of many, many  missed bites.  Peg 24 for me and a bit of space to my left, I set up rigs to fish pellets shallow and maggots short.  I started on the maggots short and had a run of fish on this, when it slowed up I tried for 75 minutes to make the shallow pellets work, but the bites were few and far between and I only hit 1/10.  I switched back to maggots short and putting some nuggets of GB in increased the number of bites and come the weigh-in  I was cursing the decision to spend that 75 minutes where I only put 9lb in the net, ended up with 103.04 which was equal 4th beaten by two fishing caster shallow and two fishing paste, I could/should have had more points had I not be tempted to try the shallow line.

Wednesday - Willow, this one I was looking forward to, proper fishing for bigger carp, the consensus was there were a couple of pegs you didn't want and 33 was one of them, 33 was where I ended up.  I was disappointed to find there was nigh on 4' in the margins and the bankside foliage meant that was only a topkit either side (if I had a say in it, the edges would be trimmed back to allow good access to the margins on all pegs).  The island point was within easy chuck of a feeder, bomb or waggler.

To cut a boring tale short, I managed on on the feeder and one down the edge after an hour or so, then went 3 1/2 hours without a bite and it really felt like I wouldn't get one.  Really couldn't see the point in sitting there when I could see Dave on 23 having one a bung down his edge and I knew my two 8lbers wouldn't be costing anyone any position in the section if I slipped them back and headed home 45 minutes early.  Found several cans of Double Punk (8.2%) in the fridge and polished them off.  Resounding last in section and maybe I could have fished 16m shallow all day and hoped something swimming past grabbed the bait, but that really isn't for me.

Thursday - Heron again!!  So after the caster thrashing on Tuesday, I purchased 4 pints of 'shells' and intended to empty the peg (9) of the pellet licking sods.  Peg 9 is one of the widest pegs on the lake, but I felt that only the pole would be quick enough, so rods left in the van.

Started short on maggots whilst I primed the shallow line, left it nearly an hour before going out shallow, had a F1, a couple of missed bites and then the fish backed off and were swirling just beyond the feed, added pole sections and chased them out, in the end, after a couple more fish and some wasted time, they backed off well past the 16m pole limit, so I binned it and went back on the short line fishing maggots.  Beaten again by two fishing shallow and a paste angler, although this time the shallow anglers had caught on pellets - I really didn't get this right bait wise and I either need to bin going to F1 lakes or learn how to catch them..... 100.08 for 5 points ( the sheet below is wrong...)

Friday - Old Match Lake

Peg 12, next to Venue owner Andy who was on 10.  

I suspect that as there was a breeze blowing towards the far bank, that I would have to fish to the island to catch.  I set up a waggler, a method and a straight lead, as well as a rig to fish towards the right hand corner of the island, but at 16m that was a metre or so off it.

I started short on 8mm pellets hoping for a quick fish, but all that produced was a skimmer.  Tried the waggler, feeder and lead to island to no avail, decided I needed to get as close as possible with the pole, so set up another rig and plumbed up in front of the clump of rushes.  

By fishing 16m, leaning forward on my box and holding the pole as far forward as I could manage, I did have a few fish on pellets right in front of the rushes, couldn't catch in the margins, so had to stick at it all day.  I do know I couldn't have done this with my Tournament, the Browning Sphere is a easier to fish at length.

I misjudged the size of the fish and thought I may have had 120lb, but ended up with 108lb odd, once again I cost myself points, as had I fished the same line right from the start, I'm sure I could have taken been second on the lake rather than fourth.

So, a great week for the weather, company and fishing, but not so good for being competitive, felt I was jut off the pace for four of the days and out of the game completely on the Wednesday.

Well done tp Trig for winning and the other framers, full details on Ivy House Facebook page.