Sedges Silvers Open, Monday 8th November 2021

 First trip to Sedges since the cafe and tackle shop has opened, a nice job, breakfast was nice and lovely clean toilets, shame that was the best bit of the day.

I really expected this to be a day where a few bites would be on offer, how wrong can you be.  I drew peg 23, I travelled down with Tony, he drew 29, I just cannot think of anything to write, neither of us had a bite.......  Can it get much worse!

'Pops Pairs' Sedges, Sunday 9th August 2021

 A charity match in the memory of Jamie's father (Jamie owns Sedges) and some money to a local hospice.  Traveling partner Tony Rixon said he wouldn't mind being on Brick lake, so I happily took Tile lake.  We decided (without much difficulty) that Tony would draw, both being nervous of what my drawing arm might pull out....

Tony got 9 on Brick for himself and 37 for me, not a bad draw as a pair.  I expected that I'd need a ton plus to come back with good points, so had 6 & 8mm pellets and 8mm meat.  I also had some paste, as it can work on here. Set up a method to chuck to the island, a straight lead to try bomb and pellet and topkits for meat, pellet on the deck, a shallow rig and a paste rig.

To my right I had Jamie, the owner, he had one rod set up, a method; to my left Guru backed Ben Hagg, so a tough day in prospect.  Just as last time I fished the venue, it was windy, made it difficult to hold anything over 11m, even plumbing up.

I started at 11m fishing pellet on the deck and in 40 minutes had 2 skimmers, not a lot being caught, so I picked up the method, a 6mm pellet into the band and micros/GB on it, I was pretty shocked when it went round after about 2 minutes and a carp about 4lb was the culprit.  Stuck with it for a bit, but never had another bite on it.  I could see some fish moving in front of the island, so off my box and took the waggler rod out of the bag, but that was a waste of time no bites on that.

I still hadn't seen much caught, so tried the bomb and pellet where I'd been feeding the 8mm pellets, about 5m off the island.  Not as much as a liner.

By now I was wishing I'd brought some worms and skimmer GB, I did knock up some GB and opened a tin of corn, just to try and put something in the net, the GB worked and I had a few decent skimmers, then a carp about 6lb, I was hopeful the feeding skimmers would draw some carp in, well that didn't happen, I tried the short meat line every 15 mins or so, but never had a bite on it.

Next to me Ben had persisted with slapping and did get some carp in the end, enough to win the lake, fair play to him, I just cannot do it, the monotony it of breaks me after 10 minutes or so without a bite. Jamie's single rod approach also paid off as he beat me by 8lb.

Thankfully Tony had a second on lake, my gamble on catching skimmers paid off and we ended up third overall and last in the money, with me winning the silvers as well, so a reasonably happy van on the way back up the M5.  Well done to Ben and Scott who slapped their way to victory.

Overall 1st Scott Puddy and Ben Hagg 5 points 124lb 4oz

Overall 2nd Jamie Parkhouse and Paul Homewood 9 points 147lb 4oz

Overall 3rd Tony Rixon and Chris Fox 9 points 140lb 4oz

Tony Rixon's Float Only, Sedges, Sunday 23rd May 2021

 Just looked back to see how long since I was last at sedges and it is nearly two years, where does the time go....

I like the venue, well looked after, usually a good days fishing, but it does seem a little dominated by the corners and I expected the same today, especially given the weather forecast which wouldn't have sounded out of place on the shipping forecast, with a very brisk wind and rain.

Well, I wasn't surprised when I didn't draw a corner and even more frustrating was seeing peg 28 on the drawcard, a good feeder peg!  The island is reachable easily with a waggler, but that was going to be a pointless ask today.

I did set up a pellet waggler, in the vain hope the wind would drop or the fish were so desperately hungry they'd grab a pellet as it landed or with it trotting through like the Wye with 8' on.....  Also set up a full depth waggler again to fish pellet.

Topkits were quite simple - a shallow rig that didn't get used, a margin rig, a Roob for meat short and a Roob for banded pellet at 11m - never got more than that out of the bag.

On the all in I did start on the pellet waggler, I could get to the island and get 8mm pellets there, but it was going to as pointless as I thought, even feeding a bow out to try and get the float to sit still for a few seconds didn't help and I soon abandoned it.

Onto the pellet line at 11m, took ages to get a bite and when I did it was a 2lb eel, in fantastic condition, really good to see them thriving in Sedges. I did gat a carp on it, but was finding it tough going.  I tried the meat short and had one leather carp on that, but it was the only bite, so back onto the 11m line, this did start to see some indication's as I upped the feed a little, but the wind was tricky, couple ore fish and as I could find a bit of trip against the wind, I put the waggler over the line and tried a metre past.  

Couple of fish on the waggler and the wind got up even more, that put paid to the trip, so waggler back up the bank and an 11m battle resumed, I am sure if I could have fished a bomb and pellet I'd have been catching quicker.  I gave my body a bit of respite and dropped back onto the 5m line, had three or four skimmers before that died completely.  By now it was all but impossible to fish at 11m and the fish didn't seem to want to come any closer, I managed one that I took to the scales and weighed from the margin (14.08 - you have to weigh fish bigger than 15lb and put them back), but probably spent too long there, I should have tried to persevere with the 11m line, although the pole was continually being blown round.

Anyway, end the day with 92lb second in section, so not the start I wanted, but it could have been worse, the section winner also won the silvers, so a default section pick up coming my way.  The results took ages to get out as the rain destroyed some of the weigh sheets and I don't have all the sheets, as predicted the top four weights were from corners and my 92lb was 7th overall, (40 fishing).

1. J Andre 146.10                                                                                                                                          2. Joe McMahon 140.08                                                                                                                                3. Tom Thick 139.00                                                                                                                                      4. Matt Tomes 132.01                                                                                                                                    5. Aaron Britnell 112.02                                                                                                                                6. Ryan Shipp 109.10                                                                                                                                 

Tony Rixon's Float Only, Round 4, Sunday 7th July 2019

Sedges for the fourth round of Tony's popular float only series, a venue I don't fish often, not for any other reason than opportunity, as its a tidy, well maintained fishery with a decent head of fish.

Two lakes in, Tile and Brick, I usually find myself on Brick, but not today, peg 38 was to be my home, sandwiched by the match organiser Tony on 37 and Steve Evans Tony's admin clerk for the series on 39.  Favoured corner peg 40 was drawn by Neil Mercer, who does seem to have a golden arm, winning last weeks Todber round from a corner peg - that said, you still have to catch them and with the pressure on.

I had come with options to fish for carp or silvers, I did fancy a day on the waggler, so set up a shallow and depth waggler, a 4g floats would get to the island which looked inviting.  Next up the topkits, a paste rig as this has been as and far as I am aware a successful method on this lake, a rig to fish banded pellet on the deck, this was plumbed up at 13m - as far as I was going, my back is still painful.  A homemade diamond 0.5g float next onto a topkit, this was matched with a 18 Kaizen hook to 0.14, this was plumbed up at 6 joints. A similar rig, but on 0.20 (rather than the 0.16 of the previous rig), just in case the carp action got hectic.

I also set up a light rig with strung out No11's, again with a 0.14 hooklength, this was plumbed up short, so it was well up the slope and it would also double as a 'deep shallow' rig in open water.  Bait tray was simple, Burts feed pellets in 4mm and 6mm, some 7mm meat, Burts F1 soft hookers, 8mm feed pellets and some 6mm Polony pellets.  I also had a bag of paste, made from soaked feed pellets.

On the all in, I started on the waggler (shallow) and fed 8mm pellets to the island, straight away it was obvious the wind was going to cause havoc and it only lasted 10 minutes before it went up the bank and that's where it stayed.  I fed some dampened 4mm's at 6 joints and went over that with a soft pellet, small skimmer first drop in, 10lb carp the next, so a decent start, but I had by then decided that my best way of picking up was to fish for silvers.

I stuck out the line at 6 joints, the catch rate varied, it was never manic, I came off the bottom by about 6"and caught some skimmers by doing that.  After about 3 hours it had slowed a lot and the fish had got smaller, slipping a bit of meat on the hook I waited to see if that would increase the size of the fish - it didn't, I didn't have a bite on it.  I got off my box and mixed a little GB (Burts Expander and Burts Chocolate Orange) and opened a tin of corn, I fed a ball of GB with orn and 4mm pellet in, put corn on the hook and dropped in, 2 decent skimmers in two chucks, both on corn - sussed it!!…… or not, that was the only two bites I had on corn.

The last half of the match was spent swapping and changing between the 6 joints line and meat up the near shelf, this brought 3 more carp and a few decent skimmers, it was no good leaving the rig still, the meat had to be either dropping through the water or not on the bottom longer than 20 seconds, once it was it had to be lifted out and flicked back in again.

Enjoyable day, my thoughts that I wouldn't beat Neil and then Tony when he started catching shallow/long (too far for me to hold) so my decision to fish for silvers was vindicated as I weighed 44.02 of skimmers for a silvers win.

Tony Rixon's Float Only, Sedges, Sunday 19th August

Someone pulled out of the league, so I am standing in to fill the space for this and the last round at Viaduct  No need to worry about section points, so hopefully a nice corner peg and fish to win.....

Wasn't overjoyed to draw peg 5, last visit to this fishery was August last year for the same match and I drew peg 4!!   https://maesknollmatchangling.blogspot.com/2017/08/tony-rixons-float-only-sedges-sunday.html

As with last year I didn't think I could win the match from here, but didn't really have the inclination to fish for silvers, especially as Ken on the next peg was going to target them.  I thought I had an empty peg next to me, as peg 4 wasn't occupied, but Dan White turned up late and filled the void.  I set up two wagglers, on full depth and one shallow, doing so I discovered that the bag with all my spare wagglers and 12" hooklengths was still in my garage, not a great start, but at least the rods were ready made up with wagglers on.

Top kits were readied, a paste rig, in lakes this deep I use a Middy paste float with some shot about 18" from the hook, just seems to help when there is any tow.  The next rig was to fish meat, I plumbed this up at 11m, another rig to fish pellet on the deck and a shallow rig.  Finally, not that I expected it to work, a margin rig, but there was not much room either side and it would be a bit of a throwaway line.

Looking at the lake, I did fear that it would follow the pattern it has on other occasions I have fished it, a fish or two in the first hour, a tough 4 middle hours and then a better last hour, with that in mind, I did intend to try and 'force' the peg if it wasn't responding.

Starting on the waggler shallow, I wasn't getting any indications, although there were fishing moving around the top of the lake, I had to switch to the full depth waggler to get any indications and I had one in the tail and one in the mouth for about 17lb between them.

I switched to the pole, I tried paste and pellet, before a piece of 8mm meat accounted for a skimmer of 2.09 - I know that as it was the only accidental silver I had all day!!

Well, my prediction of it being a tough middle of the match was right, I didn't have a bite, Dan on 4 managed a couple shallow on the pole, I tried, but my back was agony trying to hold the pole, so back to the van for some pain killers, even once they had kicked in, I thought it best not to aggravate the injury, so stuck to trying to get he waggler to work, feeding 8mm regularly, hoping they'd go down on the deck.  it wasn't to be.

I had to wait until the last hour for the paste line to come to life, it wasn't hectic and I wasn't catching as many as Dan, but I did up my 17lb to 55lb, including one of 15.06.  Chatting to Dan after he showed me the paste he'd been using, I am not a great believer in fancy flavourings or special pellets, but it was a much richer paste than mine, which is made with soaked Skrettings, Dan had made his from a Spotted Fin betaine GB - food for thought.

I didn't hang around so didn't get the results, had to get home to let the dogs out, I know I was 3rd in section with my 57lb odd, so no good, not sure I expected much else from the peg.  Results will be on Tony Rixons blog.

Tony Rixon's Float Only, Sedges, Sunday 6th August 2017

As I hadn't fished two rounds of this league, I had nothing to fish for except the match win today, its a fishery I don't get to too often, not for any other reason than lack of time and opportunity.  I seem to draw Brick lake much more often than Tile lake and today was no exception, peg 4 being my home.

I didn't consider that I could win the match from this peg, so decided to fish for silvers - I will say I am against paying silvers in leagues, as it can affect the overall result, but I don't make the rules and if I didn't win any silvers money, someone else would.

I set up a waggler, not sure why really, just because I carried it to the peg, the line got wet plumbing up, but that was the only time. 3 topkits out of the bag, a 10 solid to fish worm, maggot, corn on a 0.5g homemade diamond, mounted on 0.15, with a 0.12 hooklength.  A 0.6g NG Gimp to fish banded pellet on the deck and a Malamn Roob to fish meat short, as the skimmers here can be partial to a cube or two of Plumrose.  As I had time, I also set up a paste rig, as they also like paste.

Paul Faiers had drawn a peg that was more likely to throw up some carp, so he donated some nice looking casters to me, I added them to some dead maggot, pellet and corn and fed this at 11m, the 14.5m line received just GB and pellet.  The obligatory short line was where I started, with meat, this was biteless, I switched to the 11m line and double maggot, this was good for two small skimmers, so I switched to corn and this added a third small skimmer to the net after a barren spell. 

An hour down and 3 skimmers for about 9oz in the net, hardly going to plan, out with the worms, a decent handful of chopped worms in with the next ball of GB and this started a run of skimmers on worm, with red worm (again, supplied by Paul) being the best hookbait.  Whe it slowed down, I topped up and caught another straight away, but that was the end of the little run, from then on every bite was hard won and involved some patience in waiting for it.  I did hook a big double figure carp on worm, but after a short tussle, which did lead into a false hope I'd land it on 0.12, it decided to head for the rope down the middle of the lake, the 0.12 could cope with that.

I had a few looks over the 14.5m line with pellet and didn't have a single bite on it, I persevered with the 11m line but it got slower and slower, the short meat line gave me a glimmer of hope with two skimmers in two drop ins, but that was to be it, summed up a tough day.  With just under an hour to go I dumped 1/2  a pot of pellets at 6 sections and it was like introducing Alka Seltzer, this brought two carp and a big skimmer on paste, in the first three put ins, yet again this was a cruel tease, as I had not another indication off this line.

I ended with 26lb skimmers (and a few roach on caster short, which I tried, but the fish were too small and too slow in coming), I thought it would be nowhere near enough to trouble the silvers frame, but with anglers of the quality of Des Shipp struggling, it was enough to sneak into second place, behind Glenn who had 39lb on paste, the match overall was won by Trigger, with 151lb.

Sedges Mad March Pairs, Saturday 19th March 2016

Back to Sedges today to see if we could somehow get two section wins and scrape into the overall, no point in messing about, so no gossamer silvers rigs, no pinkies, not even any live maggots in my bait bag.

It was my turn to draw, my faulty drawing arm has had a few malfunctions this year and put me on a few pegs that have produced fish, it has also resolutely lived up to it's reputation on a couple of other occasions.  Today it gave us 27 and 19, so once again, no corner, but Ken was one off a corner, as he was last week - although looking at last weeks result sheets did little to cheer him up as 19 was last in section.  27 had won the section last week, the lowest weight section, but at least there had been fish in the area.

Getting to my peg, I find that I have some good company and banter to my left, with Mosella backed Tom Mangnell on 28 and the silvers legend Bob Gullick on 29, with 30 the corner not drawn.  I though we had drawn the short straw weather wise, as we had the bitterly cold easterly wind blowing at us, whereas those on the opposite bank had nice calm water and it off their backs.  By the time the draw was done and we got to the pegs, that left an hour to set up, an hour usually means I'm not ready, but learning the lesson from last week, I took waggler and lead rods pre set up, I usually make lead rods up on the bank, after a few expensive, broken quiver ips in the ready rod bag.

Two lead rods, both the same, Daiwa Tounament Pro 10', both with 8lb reel line, Daiwa TDR on the straight lead rig and Shimano Technium on the method, this also had a 10' shock leader of 10lb fluorocarbon, to try and keep it pinned on the deck.  The straight lead was set up as usual, a sliding bomb, although as it's allowed here, I did put a float stop behind it.  A 2" twizzled loop, this has another float stop behind it, to allow  lengthening the distance from bomb to hook, a 12" 0.20 hooklength with a 14 QM1 finishes this rig off.  The method was a Guru hybrid, which can be used elasticated here, so that was clipped onto a loop and a 4" hooklength of 0.20 to a 18 MWG hook.

The wind looked to have scuppered any thoughts of catching on the waggler, but in case it dropped, out of the bag came a pellet waggler,  this was set up with a 12' Titan 2000, 4lb reel line and a 0.18 hooklength, with a PR36 size 16 hook.  Initially set to 3' deep.

I didn't have a lot of faith in the pole today, given that feezing wind blowing at us, so two rigs, just in case, a 0.75g Hillbilly Dweezil, lovely floats for fishing long in deep water and windy conditions, that was on 0.20 line, a 0.16 hooklength and a 16LWG and a No10 solid elastic.  That was plumbed up at 14m, where I intended to fish pellet.  The other rig was a Roob on 0.20, with a 0.18 hooklength and a 16 Guru super strong hook, that was plumbed up to fish 7 sections, just up the slope, where I would feed 6mm meat.

Bait tray was bread, 4,6 and 8mm pellets and 6mm meat.  On the all-in I started on the bomb and bread, whilst everyone else was feeding their pole lines, I feel that this can often bring an instant response before a barrage of leads hit the water.  It didn't take long for the tip to wrap right round and for me to strike at thin air - a liner, it looked like a bite!! Another cast and a few twitches, so there were fish out there, but as yet nothing. After 10 minutes I fed both pole lines and went back on the bread, this time a near double figure fish was my reward, a couple more followed before the bites and liners stopped.  Tom had had a couple of fish as well, but they were smaller than mine, he also stopped getting liners.  3 fish for 30lb on my clicker in the first hour.

I had a cast with the method, but after 5 minutes of that tip remaining motionless, it went up the bank, I was fairly sure the fish were out in the open water, near the dividing rope that runs down the middle of the lake, so I started to feed a few pellets, I would have liked to feed 6mm, but would have had no chance of getting them out there, so 8mm it had to be.  I did have a look on the pole line at 14m, I had three bites and 3 skimmers, which weighed exactly 1lb, I wasn't at all confident that the carp would move in, so up the bank with the pole and out with the waggler.

First cast with the waggler the float landed settled and disappeared, after a spirited battle a 9lb fish was in the net and a somewhat bemused Tom was seen scrambling off his box and hastily assembling a waggler rod.  I had another smaller fish, taken by casting towards the island to my right, but the wind was really spoiling it, yet I was getting tiny indications and just had the feeling that the waggler, if it wasn't so bloody windy. would have seen me catch well.  Trouble is these wise old fish aren't likely to be fooled by a pellet whizzing through the peg.

Back on the bomb and another fish on bread, I tried punched meat where I had been pinging the 8mm pellet, to no avail.  Bread by the island accounted for the next fish, that was so fat, I thought it might be near the 15lb weigh limit, so off to the scales with it, but as usual, my guesstimating skills were well adrift, as it went 12.12.  A lull in the wind saw me pick up the waggler and take another fish on 6mm pellet, before the wind decided that it wasn't going to let me enjoy a days waggler fishing.  With an hour to go I gave the meat line 5 minutes, but had no indication, nor any feeling that I would, so binned that.

Hoping the fish would be looking for some feed in the last hour, I picked up the method rod and fished that, micros in the feeder and a 6mm pellet hidden amongst them. This produced three more fish in the last hour and I was confident of having won the section, I thought I had between 80 and 90lb and wasn't too far out with 86lb, which took the section and fourth on the day, albeit jointly with Tom Thick who weighed the same from Brick lake.  Sadly Ken's peg fished to similar form as last week and we didn't get in the frame overall.

It was an enjoyable series, some confusion over the scoring which, once it was explained I thought was an innovative way to do it.  (Pairs scores added together and the given points for placing, kept it open with something to fish for in the second match).  Not sure if most fishing realised how it was being scored until the end.  One other observation, it would be a good idea for there to be 3 or 4 spare keepnets put by each set of scales, as although I didn't need them, the disadvantage if I did, from say, peg 20 fetching one, could be one or two fish.

It's a fishery I'd like to get back to a bit more this year, hopefully I'll get the opportunity and if this is run again next year, I'll be back for another attempt.

On the day:

1: Dan White 125.08 peg 32
2: James Parkhouse 99.09 peg 37
3: Nigel Garrett 92.13 peg 9
4: Chris Fox 86.00 peg 27
4: Tom Thick 86.00 peg 17
6: Nick Chedzoy 80.07 peg 7

Overall the pairs winners were:

1: James Parkhouse and Nigel Garratt
2: Dan White and Scott Puddy
3: Dave Romain and Dave White

PS.  If anyone wants advice on method feeder fishing, then don't ask Bobby G, I think he must use 0.09 hooklengths, as the fish kept stealing them.......

Sedges Mad March Pairs, Saturday 12th March 2016

It was good to get an opportunity to fish Sedges again, a venue I like, it's well run, without loads of OTT rules and is usually a decent days fishing.  Steady drive down and met with with pairs partner Ken Rayner, not much to discuss in the way of tactics, the only decision to make was which lake to fish and in the end we did that on the toss of a coin - me ending up on Brick this week and Tile next.

Ken did the draw and put himself on 32 and me on 4. In my section I had a couple of guys who's names I didn't know and Dan White on peg 1, he was lucky enough to have peg 2 not drawn, so it was likely that he was the one to beat.

I was confident that 4 would produce a few, given that Dan had pleasure fished peg 5 in the week and had 94lb of skimmers, I set up a full depth waggler, a straight lead and a small Guru hybrid feeder, which Jamie allows to be used elasticated.  3 topkits, a double bulk rig for skimmers, 0.10 hooklength and a 18 6313 hook. A rig to fish pellet at 14m and I was trying out for the first time today Malman Roobs, one of which I set up to fish meat at 7 sections.

It was a slow start, two hours in and I had a rudd, that was it, the guy to my left had a big skimmer on a cage feeder and Keith to my right had a carp on the pellet waggler, he had that fish or second chuck on it - had me worried, as my pellet wagglers were at home in the garage, hadn't considered that an option for March, he'd also had a couple on the bomb..... Dan had a few on the waggler up on peg 1 and I could see Bob Gullick on 9 catching, Tom Mangnell on 11 was also catching well.

I had a look on the meat line and it was as dead as the rest of the peg, I decided to give it 5 more minutes when the float disappeared, lifting into the bite, it was obviously a decent fish, it tested the 0.18 Stroft and the No12 elastic to their limits and when I finally saw it, I knew it would be a 'weigher'. (Fish over 15lb have to be weighed and put straight back).  I had no idea how heavy it was, continuing my being hopeless at guesstimating fish weights and was surprised when the scales registered 25lb 8oz, a new PB for me.

There appeared to be a total lack of skimmers in the peg, then I had one about 1.08 and thought they might show up, but it was a false dawn and it was frustrating as those of us in the middle of the lake were struggling, whilst the ends were catching steadily.

The last half an hour I decided to stick with the waggler at full depth, nothing down the line and a banded 6mm pellet, this gave me two more carp and Nicky Ewers opposite who had been struggling as well managed a couple of late fish, so maybe the match finished too early!!

That gave me a total of 48.12 and second in section behind Dan who had 86lb.  Unfortunately Ken had a, in his own words, 'a bit of a nightmare' and was last in his section, not sure if two section wins next week could put us in the frame.

Float Only League, Penultimate Round, Sedges, Sunday 2nd August 2015

Reading the blogs and hearing the tales from Thursdays practise match, I decided to just take pellets and paste to this match, not sure if limiting my options like that was a good idea, but I don't think anything but a friendly trawler going round the lake for me would have given me a chance of winning it.

It was a lovely day, but once again, the wind affected the fishing, making bait presentation very difficult, oh for the chance to have fished a straight lead......

Peg 4 was my home for the 6 hours, a noted skimmer peg I was told, but then recently, apparently the skimmers have come from the opposite side of the lake. I had two waggler rods with me, one shallow and one full depth, the rule about only one No8 shot on the bottom worked against the waggler today, as a string of 5 or 6 led on the bottom might have slowed the floats pace through the peg to a gentle trot, rather than the rapid gallop. Not a bite on either, although because of the wind and its affect on them, I didn't try them for too long.

4 topkits set up, two paste rigs, one to fish at 13m - which was wildly optimistic, a rare moment of optimism for me, no idea where it came from - and one to fish at 5m. two pellet rigs, one with a band and one without for soft pellet, I didn't have a bite on a hard pellet, so little more to say about that. Trying to fish at 13m was just frustrating and i gave it up as a bad job and concentrated on the 6m line.  This would only yield tiny skimmers on soft pellet and at least half a dozen missed bites for every 2oz blade landed.

If it hadn't been for the fact that the section was fishing hard and I had given Steve Evans a lift, I might have had an early end to the day and gone for a beer and watched the Charity Shield game.

In the 4th hour I stretched my legs and had a chat with Paul Faiers, going back to my peg at the start of the 5th hour, I was somewhat shocked to see the float go under and a proper skimmer take the paste hookbait, he was to be a solo act, as I never had another, but I did manage 5 carp in the 5th hour, all on paste at 5m.  I was just starting to think that this might be a chance to win the section, with a similar number in the final hour, but that was nearly as bad as the first four, I lost a foul hooker and I also lost a decent fish that was properly hooked, the line snapped, it was all rough and abraded, I can only assume from rubbing on the fish.

So another miserable day, beaten by Steve Tucker for the section, by 19lb, as he had 6 carp and a couple of skimmers for 62lb, whilst my 5 carp, Billy no Mates decent skimmer and his tiny offspring went 43lb, the lost fish and one other might have troubled Steve's weight but not the framers. Still looking on the bright side, it wasn't the lowest weight section as per usual for me, it was the 3rd worst weight section, so going in the right direction.......

Well done to Mike Walker, drew a fancied peg, but held his nerve and had 187lb to win by a comfortable margin. Whilst the weights are better, it does feel like venues are fishing more like the winter, with fish holed up in certain areas and not foraging round the lakes.

Full Result:

1. Mike Walker 187-04-0 peg 11
2. Nick Chedzoy 146-11-0 peg 10
3. Gary O’Shea 133-01-0 peg 31
4. Chris Davis  119-11-0 peg 34
5. Tony Rixon 114-09-0 peg 12
6. Tim Ford 88-03-0 peg 40

Top Silvers:

1. Vic Bush 33-05 -0 peg 14
2. Mike Nicholls 30-06-0 peg 19
3. Leon Hubbard 19-02-0 peg 15

Tony Rixon's Float Only Series, Round 5, Sedges. Sunday 3rd August 2014

I was looking forward to this after a long week at work, finishing at 11pm Saturday night.  As any chance of a place in the league standings is long gone, I had prepared a positive approach of 8mm pellet on the waggler and paste short. This plan was slightly altered by drawing peg 10, which is an end peg, so a bank to fish to, although the margin is still a good 4' deep, deeper than I'd like ideally. I had two wagglers already set up, a 2 swan pellet waggler and a full depth waggler, I bought a couple of the blue plastic Preston wagglers last time I was at Whiteacres and used this, can't say I was impressed with how they cast, doubt if I'll be buying any more!!

Pole rigs were a paste rig for 5m, just at the bottom of the slope, a rig to fish the end bank margin, as well as a depth pellet rig and shallow pellet rig, neither of which touched the water.  I decided against putting any groundbait into the end bank swim, because of the depth and the way it quickly sloped off to deeper water, this was fed with 8mm pellets, hemp and corn, the 5m line was fed with hemp and softened 6mm pellets, before starting on the pellet waggler, I fished this towards a tree on the end bank, as this was the only area of the peg with any signs of fish in.  It didn't take too long before I had netted my first fish, although this proved to be a bit of a false dawn, as bites were hard to come by and after 3/4 of an hour I switched to the depth waggler, this produced a fish, then a couple of unhittable bites, which I am sure were liners, so back on the pellet waggler and another fish taken.  I managed to loose two wagglers to the end bank vegetation and as it was so quiet, I went round and retrieved them both, one had a fair bit of line on it and I hate leaving line trailing  around.

It was now 3 hours into the match and I had very little to show for it, the paste line had no fizzing of indication that there were fish evident, so I went to the end bank, which I had been feeding, but left alone as long as I could.  I took two fish in two drop ins from here, on double corn, taking my weight to 25lb, then the pleasure anglers on the canal, who were in close proximity to my end bank swim, decided to walk up and down and chat, they had on a white Tee shirt and one had a yellow reflective jacket on (god knows why, it was very warm!!) that was the end of that line, I had one more bite from it and that was a lonesome tench.

With 2 hours to I dropped back in on the paste line, as there was on odd bubble coming up, I had a couple of skimmers and another carp in the next hour. The bubbles started to get more vigorous in the last hour and I had a few more skimmers and a few carp, but no quality, the biggest fish was taken with 9 minutes to go and was about 9lb, the biggest fish by 4lb easily.  In the last half hour, there was bits of twig and old black leaves coming to the top as fish were rooting around in the bottom, it was a case of too little too late today and I think I ended up about 7th with 83lbish, of which 50lb was caught in the last hour.  I was pretty pissed off with the pleasure anglers, but they were real novices and obviously had no idea of the effect they had on my peg, as it would have only taken a short run of fish from there to move me into a framing position.

Didn't get the results as I had to dash off and get to the Indian for a nice curry, so I'm sure Tony will have them on his blog.

Clevedon Club Match, Sedges Tile lake, Sunday 22nd June 2014

I had put my name down as a reserve for the Viaduct Summer League, but withdrew after the short pole match, as I seem to be struggling on there lately and I can't put my finger on the reason why, so off for a match with less pressure and a quest to get some of the enjoyment back.

14 fishing this one and the corner pegs were the ones everyone was after, although having only fished the lake once before, I wasn't too bothered where I drew, the conditions were hot, sunny and flat calm, with fish showing themselves all over the lake.

I drew 29 and was then surprised to see 30 not in, when the other 3 corners were, not sure on the thinking behind that one!!  I had an island to chuck to, I had open water and the opportunity to fish with rod and line down to the end bank, the tall plants that give the venue its name, were stopping me fishing a margin, as they protrude just too far to fish parallel to the bank, but with so much water to fish, I didn't think it was a problem.

Again today, the meat stayed in the tin and I had pellet and paste on the bait table, along with a few band um's, as I set up a method feeder to fish to the island. 3 rigs were all I set up for the pole, a paste rig on 0.18 with a 12 B911XS, a shallow rig and a full depth rig, both with 16 B960 on 0.16 and a hair rigged bait band.  I thought I threw away a dodgy batch of bait bands I had, but some must have snuck into the stock I have at home, as I replaced several hooks, as I did yesterday, with the bands breaking.  I also set up a pellet waggler and a straight lead, starting on the pellet wag, as the cruisers were too far out of range for the pole, I 'mugged' three fish in the first hour, by casting at them, two double figure fish and a 3lb fish.

The longer the match went on, the less visible the fish made themselves and the blows all but stopped, so i switched to the method, tight to the island. First put in I hooked a decent fish, but under the rod tip it shed the hook, this happened 6 more times, I only landed one fish on the method, a 'squeaker' which was 1lb if I was lucky. Being a novice method chucker, I have no idea why they came off, but I was using an inline feeder for the first time, my other experiences have been with elasticated feeders and no such issues.

A switch back to the waggler brought one more fish, as did a foray onto the straight lead, but it was hard work for little reward, the full depth pole rig produced one fish, the shallow rig, nothing.  My initial look on the paste resulted in tiny roach and skimmers pecking at the bait, with a couple of them being speared. I refed the line with half a pot of pellet and went back on it for the last hour or so, the shit fish had disappeared and I added a couple more double figure fish and a couple of smaller ones to the net. An eel took a liking to the paste, it was around the pound and a half mark, as I put my hand in the net to unhook it, it sprang like a snake and bit me, holding on tight - made me bloody jump - it broke the skin and drew blood, a first for me bitten by an eel. I'm consulting injury lawyers4U, as there were no warning signs, with regard to the dangerous nature of the stock.......

The six fish lost on the method were costly, as I weighed 81.00 for 4th place, the higher weights coming from the car park corner pegs (wind,what little there was, blowing into this bank) and a peg on the opposite bank that had the advantage of some ripple on the surface.

1: Kev Perry 157.12 peg 21
2: Andy Hembrow 118.08 peg 37
3: Lewis walker 82.13 peg 40
4: Chris Fox 81.00 peg 29
5: John Wolstencroft  78.01 peg 22
6: Paul Nicholls 70.06 peg 28

Silvers

1: Ade Baker 17.10 peg 24
2: Mark Broomsgrove 15.12 peg 27

Float Only Round Five, Sedges, Sunday 4th August 2013

Not knowing this venue very well, I didn't have any preconceived  idea of where I wanted to draw, so I was neither disappointed or elated when peg 31 revealed itself.  I had tried to keep things simple and had brought 6 and 8mm pellet, 8mm meat and some paste ( I did weaken as I was loading the car and put 2 pints of dead maggots in as well, but fed them to some grateful ducks).

I set up two wagglers, but in reality, for the second match running, a strong left to right wind was going to affect my fishing, so they saw little use and not a bite was had on them.  4 topkits set up, a MW diamond to fish pellet on a shelf which is just under 12" shallower than the lake bed, it's in front of a willow tree that comes out into the peg off the end bank at about 11m. A MW cookie for shallow, but that didn't get used, a Daiwa paste float, with a .75g olivette about 18" from the hook, as the wind was causing a considerable tow in the opposite direction and a rig to fish meat in the margins and right in under the willow tree, all of which were about 3' deep.

Meat proved useless, all I had to show from trying it was two tiny skimmers, I tried it regularly throughout the match, to no avail, likewise the margins, they produced nothing except the previously mentioned two tiny skimmers.  I started on the shallow waggler out towards the aerator, but the wind rendered it a pointless exercise. I dropped in over the shelf in front of the willow with the pellet rig and a 8mm banded pellet and managed several small carp, before landing an eel which was well over 1lb, a first for me catching an eel on pellet. As the fish were up this shelf, I assumed they'd be in the shallower margins under the tree, but this was a lesson in not assuming, as I only had two fish from here, on a hastily assembled shallower paste rig, as meat was so unproductive.

I had a run of better fish up to 10lb on the bulk down paste rig, but the wind was making it difficult, I tried a couple of lines closer in, drawing a blank on all of them.  With an hour and a half to go, I had 82lb on my clicker, so made the swim killing decision to put another net in......  For the next 35 minutes the wind increased and made presentation on the only line I was catching over, virtually impossible, I went back on the 8mm pellet and had another small carp, a wait and then another one touching 10lb, the wind dropped in the last 25 minutes and I managed one more small carp on paste, before hooking and losing one (which trashed the rig) right on the death.

I had clicked 95lb, which proved to be unusually accurate, as with 4lb odd of silvers, most of which was the eel and another first, a lb+ Perch on paste, my total was 100.11, which I think was 7th on the day, not managing a pick up, due to the quiet last hour and a half - a total contrast to the last couple of matches I've fished.

I didn't get the results, so it's Tony Rixons blog for the full details, but Craig 'Trigger' Edmunds won with 160ish, Des Shipp was second with a high 140 and Scott Puddy was third with a lower 140.

Most bites and fish of the day went to Dave Haines, who weighed in 23lb odd of tiny silver things, smaller than the lumps of paste I was using, he must have been busy!!!

Avon Angling Open, Sedges, Sunday 14th July 2013

Another hot day with carp cruising and not looking interested in feeding.  I would have preferred a draw where there was some ripple, but it wasn't to be, peg 9 which was flat calm with cruising fish out of pole range.

I set up two waggler rods, one to fish shallow and one at full depth with no shot down the line. Neither of these produced a bite, the fish doing their disappearing act as soon as the float hit the water. I tried every trick I know, 4" deep and firing pellet at the float, 4' deep with all but the last 6" of line greased, to give a very slow sink to the pellet, and every depth in between.

The pole rigs were a shallow/stalking rig -  this produced nothing.  A paste rig for the margin, this again didn't see anything resembling a bite and a full depth paste rig to fish over the pellet line at 13m.  This saw me hook a lump that shed the hook after 5 mins, I think it was hooked under the chin, that was its only action. A rig to fish pellet on the deck, this produced two fish, a solitary skimmer in the first half an hour and then a carp about 6lb at 13.45. Finally a meat rig for 6m, this was as actionless as all the other lines, until the last hour, which saw two carp and a run of skimmers netted to take my final tally to 38.11, a resounding nowhere (or 8th if that sounds better) on the day, but the best weight from peg 5 - peg 10, if only the other 5 hours had produced 30lb an hour!!!! 

No surprise for me to be in the worst area, not sure why this seems to be a running theme on matches run by Tony Rixon.  That's not any sort of slur on someone who has helped me out and works hard organising the matches, but it does seem to be a recurring nightmare, quite how to shake it off, apart from not fish his matches, I'm not sure.

By the magic of the internet, save and copy, paste etc. I've nicked the results from Mike Nicholl's blog 

Viaduct Open, Wednesday 8th may 2013

It was good to get back to Viaduct and I treated myself to a breakfast at Shipham on the way down, first in the cafe so I had a choice of table and newspaper, nice relaxing start to the day.

16 fishing today, with a forces match on Campbell, we were all on Cary, where some of the fish are bigger than me now!!  Into the coffee tin and out comes peg 100, Matt Tomes filled my head with tales of 4lb bream and skimmers in abundance, I hadn't really come to fish for silvers, but if there was the chance of a big weight of them I had to set up a rig. I set up a double bulk rig with a 16 6313 on 0.14 for the skimmers, a meat rig for 6m a margin rig, a pellet rig for 14m and two rods, a waggler at full depth, with 2 No10's down the line and a straight lead.

With the wind coming lightly over my left shoulder, I couldn't help myself from starting on the waggler, as it's rare to get such perfect conditions, with the slight ripple and wind direction even allowing me not to sink the line, as the wind was not affecting it.  Sadly the fish didn't appreciate the exquisite presentation and apart from a couple of quick bites, that the strike connected with nothing, it wasn't exactly taking the lake apart.

I could see that John 'Turkey' Thompson on peg 102 had taken a couple of carp on the lead, so was I in danger of another disaster like Sunday?  By now there was some slight fizzing on the line I'd fed with 6mm pellets for skimmers, but a look with a banded 6mm met with a still float, a switch to Devil's Spawn brought some small skimmers, but there weren't many fish there as the soft pellet could lay untouched by roach or tiny skimmers for 10 minutes before a 6oz specimen took it.  A foul hooked carp decided to snap the hook length, as it charged off through peg 99, giving Roger Andonio a real wrap round on his tip as the white hydro bottomed out.

With the likelihood of a weight of skimmers looking unlikely now, it was back to the carp and by rotating between the 6m meat line, the waggler and the lead, I managed a few fish, there was some fizzing over the 6mm pellet line, not skimmers but the big round patches of bubbles produced by big carp. I set up a paste rig and went over it, promptly foul hooking a large carp that luckily shed the hook just before the orange Bazookarp bottomed out.

The margin seemed devoid of fish, as I didn't have a bite down to the pallet of 101, so my venture into skimmer fishing may have cost me a chance of 3 or more fish that might have sneaked me into some money. It was a decent match, with weights being pretty tight, I had two fish in one net that I thought would go 20lb, they went nearly 25lb, I'm no good at judging the weight of these Cary leviathan's.

I put 93.00 on the scales, of which 5.10 was my failed attempt to plunder the skimmers. At least I manged to beat the pegs either side, everyone who broke the ton picked up today, so I really should have concentrated on carp, but apart from the annoying shower just before the end, a n enjoyable day.

1) Roland Lucas 163.06 peg 97
2) Tom Thick 155.04 peg 74
3) Nick Collier 133.03 peg 81
4) Howard Webb 131.02 peg 94
5) R Brewer 128.07 peg 86
6) S Russell 113.02 peg 85

Silvers

1) S Russell 30.01 peg 85
2) Nick Collier 16.07 peg 81

Avon Angling Open, Sedges, Sunday 29th July 2012

This was a practice for Tony's float only league, so the lead rods stayed in the van, normally I'd be happy with that, but with an annoying wind that swapped from L to R, face on, R to L and all points in between, the lead, I'm sure would have offered the best presentation on the day.

This match was on Brick lake with all 20 pegs in. I drew 14 and I had already decided on a groundbait and caster approach for the skimmers and pellet/paste for carp. that decision cost me any chance of picking up, as the skimmers caught were taken on meat, as were many of the carp. I fed a line at 9m with the groundbait, caster and a few dead maggots, a line at 14m with softened 4mm and micros and a waggler line out towards the aerator, which was fed with 8mm (nothing smaller would get anywhere near).

It didn't take long to get a bite on the waggler and the first carp was hooked, it felt a decent fish and initially swam towards me, when it turn and went back to the middle, the line went slack, I thought it was a fouler come off, but the line had snapped 1" below the float. 4lb Daiwa Sensor, I have had no issues with this line breaking, except at Viaduct when there are lots of fish in the peg (it seems that if the lines hits another fish it can break). Maybe its an issue with carrying rods already set up, I hadn't checked it over since the last time it was used, at least setting up fresh every time you see line damage.

That was it for the waggler, 3/4 of an hour and only a lost fish to show for it and one other missed bite. Sa switch to the groundbait and caster line produced one skimmer, lucky if it was 2oz, nothing else seemed to fancy an caster. The 14m pellet line also produced nothing, to either soft or banded pellet. I set up a waggler to fish at depth and laid 12" of line on the bottom, to try and achieve some sort of presentation. This produced some indications that fish were actually in the peg and resulted in three fish for 18lb in 30 minutes, before the wind swung round again and even with 12" of line and 4 No8 stotz dragging the bottom, the float was being pushed back towards me, far too fast to fool a fish.

I had refed the groundbait line with some pellet and a look over that with the paste produced a carp nudging double figures, but that was to be my lot, I had less than 8oz of skimmers and the 4 carp went 28lb odd for a resounding no where on the day. The decision not to take meat was a costly one.......

See Mike Nicholl's blog for the results. http://silverfoxangling.blogspot.co.uk/

Float Only, Sedges, Sunday 17th June 2012

I was going to have another weekend off and do more stuff on the house and get ready for next weeks two day festival at Trinity, but a late call from Tony Rixon wanting to fill a space in his float only, persuaded me to get out fishing, the house can wait.

I have only been to sedges a couple of times before, both with little success and the day kicked off to a bad start when tony asked what bait I had ordered (two pints of caster and a few maggots), because he had forgotten it. Great, I had fancied a day on the silvers, thankfully Nigel Bartlett came to the rescue and handed me two pints of the finest caster I've seen for a long time, not a skin or floater amongst them - thanks Nigel.

As it was 5 peg sections and a league, there was no point in me doing anything but fishing positive and trying to win, my home for the 6 hours was peg 6, which I was informed was a great winter peg, just what you need in June, even though the weather is far from flaming June.

I set up a trusty Normark Titan 2000 for a pellet waggler to fish out towards the rope that divides the lake and three topkits, a 4x18 Jolly with a 16 carp maggot hook on 0.12, a No6 MW diamond with a 16 6313 on 0.14 and a paste rig on 0.18.

At the all in I fed a line at 7m to my left with CW&C, a line straight out at 13m with pellet and then started on the pellet wag whilst the pole lines settled, this was slow going, the first indication after about 20 minutes was a fouler, which stayed on until 6" from the net, before shedding the hook. 10 minutes later a fish around the 7lb mark graced the net, but that was it for the waggler, I tried at several times during the match, but the wind changed round and the cruising fish disappeared.

A look over the CW&C brought a big skimmer on worm and caster hookbait, perhaps I was going to have a good day on the silvers after all, but that was it on the worm and caster , caster produced nothing, nor did soft pellet.

I spent the rest of the match between the two pole lines and picked up 5 more carp to 12lb and another 4 skimmers, all on paste, the lines were fizzing, but there appeared to be little fish movement, as I had very few liners. I thought it would be a tight match and so it proved, my 5 skimmers going 10lb exactly and 6 carp 54.15, my 64.15 was enough to take third spot.

1) Phil Harding 76.07 peg 20
2) Bela Bakos  69.09 Peg 19
3) Chris Fox 64.15 peg 6
4) John Thompson 63.15 peg 23
5) Anton Page 61.15 peg 8
6) Tony Rixon 60.9 peg 32

Silvers
1) Shane Caswell 39lb peg 18 

Carps AC Wednesday Qualifiers Final. Sunday 24/10/10

Only my second visit to Sedges and it ended as the first time, a mediocre also ran! I had some information, but that didn't help me as I struggled to put a run of fish together.
Peg 36 came out of the bag and I found myself next to Rich Coles, who proclaimed it as a crap draw.... Nothing new there then, but as I didn't know wat was good or bad, I remained optimistic as I tackled up a feeder rod with a cage feeder to fish groundbait & maggot and three pole rigs, one Malman winter wire to fish maggot/caster, one MW pellet to fish worm/pellet and a Maver model unknown to fish hair rigged worm or hard pellet.

There was a slightly deeper area straight in front at 11m and after the cold night, I decided to target that as my main CW& C line, I fed a line with micros at about 8m 10'oclock and to let them rest had a chuck or three with the feeder to get some bait out to the gap in the islands. The day got off to a good start (not) when second cast I hooked a big fish on the feeder and it swam straight into a snag, fish 1 me 0.

Dropping back on the CW&C I had a couple of roach, then a skimmer, before hooking a skimmer around the 3lb mark, which rolled on the surface and shed the hook, the red maggot hookbait had gone over the point, fish 2 me 0. I had a few small skimmers and they seemed to be responding to the feed going in, so I upped it slightly - then spent the rest of the day thinking it wasn't the wisest thing I've ever done, as the fish backed off the bait and probably, by the lack of bites, the peg!!  Bloody winter fishing, I hate all this meagre feeding.

Another look on the feeder and apart from  small roach and th odd liner, it was also quiet, I did try a banded pellet, nothing doing. Back on the pole and the micro & pellet line saw another small skimmer in the net, by now my hand was hurting, a combination of the cold wind and the pole pressing into it.

I'd never fished a method feeder, but I had bought a couple, just to try, with a guilty feeling, like being caught in a married womans bedroom by her husband, I slipped the method onto the line and launched it to the gap in the islands, it gave my hand some respite, thats my excuse. I actually had three carp and a goldfish on it, nothing of any size, although it has left me traumatised, I think I need to donate them to a worthwhile cause, just in case I'm ever tempted to put one on the line again.

So well and truly battered, although not by 'venue expert' Rich Coles, who managed 10lb odd from 37, my weight boosted by the carp caught when I lost my principles, still only went 11lb odd. If you read Mike Nicholls blog, you'll see he thinks Terry Bruton was on 36, that means Mike must have been on 32 they say the first thing that goes is your mind...... I still have my swimcard with a big blue 36 on it.

It seems there were plenty of fish caught on soft pellet, I wish I could get on with it, probably my least favourite bait and one I may as well not take to matches, as I can't recall ever having done any good with it.

1. John Thompson 68-15-0 peg 19
2. Terry Bruton 44-01-0 peg 34
3. Vince Brown 35-09-0 peg 40
4. Dave Bacon 32-03-0 peg 20
5. Mike Nicholls 26-11-0 peg 32
6. Mike Owens 26-10-0 peg 18

 Silvers:

1. Mike Nicholls 20-07-0 peg 32
2. Mike Snudden 19-0-0 peg 39
3. Terry Bruton 15-08-0 peg 34