Open, Toder Whitepost, Sunday 24th April 2022

 Nice little match on Todber Whitepost, not too much to say about it, tried to catch on the deck, when I should have fished shallow I think.  Weighed 111lb for nowhere.

Acorn Spring League, Saturday 23rd April 2022

 After a section win last time, I was looking not to slip up today to get a good start, I drew 40, a bridge peg and one that is a unpredictable, sometimes winning the section with ease, sometimes struggling.

Simple approach, hard pellets across to the island, hard pellets for down the track by the third stanchion and maggots short by the first stanchion and the obligatory margin rig.  After last Monday, I did have a little bit of paste and set up a paste rig as a throwaway line off to my right.

Started by the third stanchion on hard 6mm pellet, had a couple for fish straight away, small ones, but it's not unusual for the bridges to hold the smaller carp, had another then it died off.

A switch to the island and hard pellet was, just as last Monday, a waste of time, as was the times I looked down the margin so no more about that.

I spent a large part of the match fishing maggots short to the first bridge stanchion catching tench, skimmers and carp.  I fed a line off to my right with pellets and saw some fizzing, tried a couple of times over that with paste (and worms), with just one small carp (probably just shy of a pound) on paste.

Last 45 minutes I had some fish on pellets back out to the third stanchion, I'd clicked 60lb and had some silvers, when a couple of the guys walked up to me after and said "you've got 90lb"  I did laugh and was proven right, carp went 60lb and silvers 10lb for a second in section , to Joe's 103lb on peg 31.

Still in the running after two rounds, but there are some draws to avoid....

 

Acorn Open, Bank Holiday Monday 18th April 2022

 Down to Acorn for this BH open, drawing peg 15 - a good section peg in the winter league, but probably not in an open with a good field fishing.

Usual rigs set up for across, one with a band, one without to cover hard pellet and maggot, a rig to fish up to the pallet of 14 and a couple of rigs, again one with, one without a band to fish down the track.

Staring over, I had one fish and no other indications - very unusual, I'd like to say that at some point they showed up, but they didn't and I could only catch at the bottom of the near shelf with maggots, so a nice days fishing, but a thanks for coming and nothing else.  Beaten off the next peg by a pastehead as well......

Ron's Silvers League Shiplate, Sunday 17th April 2022

  

Final round of Ron's silvers league today, I had no chance of resurrecting any sort of league position, so it was all out for the win.  Peg 7 probably wasn't the first choice for that.....

Not too much to say about this, worked hard to get 18lb, but it was a long way from what was needed, the pegs with a bit of room throwing up some decent weights, really didn't have a good league, can't really think of much I'd do differently if I could fish it over again (except draw better) roll on next year....

Acorn Spring League, Round 1, Saturday 9th April 2022

 First round of the spring league today, 10:30 draw so a leisurely start to the morning, fish 12:00-18:00, so this should see the fish caught late on.

Into the draw bag first today, 22 a bridge peg, not disappointed to be in section B, as that puts me into Section A in the third round, when hopefully it will have warmed up a bit, as another frost and bright sunny day was likely to affect the match today.  22 is one of the bridge pegs and that does give a chance to get a few bites as often the Tench and smaller carp hang around the bridges.

Had a lot of snippets of information about the last couple of matches on here, corn and paste being two of them, not baits I usually rely on, but you can't ignore good info. so Iset up a rig to fish corn down the near shelf towards the pallet of 23.  I also set up one to fish paste up on the shelf, I did think it was still a bit cold for the fish to really come up onto the shallow shelves, but just in case....

The other rigs were pretty straight forward, the usual homemade floats I use to fish across, but set for the 'second' shelf and not tight across - one with a spade hook, one with a banded hook. A rig to fish against the bridge just up the slope either side and a rig to fish straight across or to my left again at the bottom of the shelf,

Bait tray was a little more crowded than I'd like, magots, micros, 4mm and 6mm pellets, corn and a very small tub of paste.  Started across to the tall grasses adjacent to the bridge on a banded 6mm pellet, was into a fish straight away, a small tench, then had a fish a put in for a short spell, 3 tench and 3 carp, although one of the carp registered in ounces rather than pounds.

As expected after the cold start, this didn't last too long and the match took on a familiar pattern of recent matches, where it was impossible to put runs of fish together, I switched to maggot against the bridge and and had a couple of fish, then went back across and switched the pellet line to maggots, had a couple more, before starting a new line straight across at the bottom of the shelf, I had a three or four carp around the 3lb mark, but it was slow going.

An early look down towards the pallet of 23 did see me get a bite and miss it, then hook and lose a 5lber, before next drop in landing one around 3.5lb.  No more bites, rotate round again, nicking an odd fish from the bridge on maggot and then across,

I did see a fish up on the shallowest part of the shelf where I'd fed, so I dropped the paste rig in and it wasn't long before another 3lb fish was netted, but that was the only sign all match of a fish coming into the shallow water.

Ended the match switching between the deeper rig down to 23 corn over micros and maggots to the first stanchion on the bridge.  I did manage a double figure fish on the corn rig, but Glenn on 24 had one on paste and he'd had a run of fish across, so I wasn't sure if I'd done enough, also wasn't sure what had come out further up the section.

I thought I had 70lb, I'd clicked 55lb and expected 15lb silver (which I hadn't clicked), that would have been enough to win the section, but I had slightly under clicked having 60.06 of carp and 22.05 of Tench, enough to win the section.  In this league thats enough, there is no overall payout, just 1 and 2 in each section, not surprisingly after one match that leaves me third in the league, winning the lowest weight section - deja vu I think.

Given the frost and bright conditions, it fished better than most of us expected, 1475lb being caught at a median of 67lb per angler.

Rons Silvers League, R5, Shiplate Farm, Sunday 3rd April 2022

 Another frost, well at least it was a very good breakfast in the Wessex Flyer, for me the best bit of the day.

I drew peg 10, a peg I have won from this winter, a peg that threw up a 50lb of silvers last Thursday, but I had my reservations, it's probably the shallowest peg on the lake and you are limited by the island being about 17m in front of you, so no waggler or cage feeder chuck.

Set up a couple of 4x12 rigs, one with a blk and one with strung shotting and a 4x10 strung shotting in case I had to fish for roach.

Well not sure I can write much, I fed GB and maggot on one line art 14.5m, a few micros on the other long line, fed a 10m line pretty negatively.

Struggling to write much about this, I just couldn't get bites, no matter what I did, tried a new line with just pinkie, a caster line off to my left, all to no avail, whilst Joe to my left caught pretty much all day for second in the match, I have absolutely no idea what I could have done, Joe was foul hooking fish off the bottom, I never had one liner.  Absolutely last in the match, can't remember that happening for some time!

One to put behind me and move on sharpish.  One round left on this same venue in a couple of weeks,

Acorn Open, Saturday 2nd April 2022

 Last of my winter format opens today and the weather joined the party with a hard frost overnight, giving it a wintery feel.

I run an optional series alongside these open matches, just to add a bit of interest to those who are likely to fish them all.  I had already won the silvers series, but there were only two of us in that and it was very unlikely I'd be caught for the overall series, so at least a pick-up before I even started fishing.

I waited until the end of the draw and there were two pegs left, 11 and 9, Glenn drew 11, so 9 for me, it's been a consistent draw all winter, so no complaints.

Top kits for across, one for maggot and one with a banded hook for pellet.  Another for the nice flat area down to the pallet of peg 8 and a rig for open water, pretty much the same depth everywhere, so one rig would do all.

I was surprised by how much the frost affected it, it took me an hour to get a fish, I hadn't really set up to catch silvers as the carp should have been in the area, although usually you get indications/liners, but not today.

I persevered and switched lines frequently, I had a couple of decent carp in open water that went about 18lb, managing to get a few smaller ones and some skimmers which was just good enough for fourth on the day and 6oz out of the money be default.  Let's hope the warmer weather comes back soon!

1. Gareth Boycott. 64.11 peg 21

2. Paul Faiers  50.13 peg 33

3. Glenn Calvert 45.09 peg 11

4. Chris Fox 45.03 peg 9

5. Neil Morgan 43.02 peg 5

6. Chris Hamilton. 42.14 peg 6

Silvers

1. Paul Faiers 32.14 peg 33

2. Gareth Boycott 22.14 peg 21

3. Glenn Calvert 18.09 peg 11

4. Chris Hamilton 15.05 peg 6