Plantation Lake Saturday 26th March

I managed to get a guest spot in this popular Saturday series, as a couple of the regulars have gone to Whiteacres for the week. At the draw, I was hoping for an island chuck, as its been a long time since I had one and as a one off appearance, I had only to go for the win. I didn’t fancy 12 or 23, so of course, I drew 23, a peg I’ve had some dismal results from and one framing place, but that was in the summer, with lumps down the edge on paste.

I was nearly pissed off enough with my continued run of crap draws, to not bother, but I decided to give it ago, just in case, by some miracle, the fish had moved into that corner.  I left the waggler & lead rods in their bags and set up 4 topkits, one with a shallow rig for carp – more in hope than expectation, a margin rig for carp, a full depth rig to fish dead maggot / pellet at 13m full depth and a Sensas pencil float for fishing close in with caster.

At the all in, I cupped some groundbait and dead maggot in at 13m, started feeding caster at 3m and fed 8mm pellets by catapult into the RH margin, just past peg 22.

First put in on the 13m line with double dead maggot saw a 8oz skimmer in the net, shortly after a roach joined it, then that was it, no more bites in the next 20 minutes. I started to feed 4mm pellet over the top with a catapult and switched to a banded 6mm on the hook, a carp took that and was soon in the net, a smaller skimmer joined it and then the peg went quiet again.

A switch to the short caster line saw a run of decent roach, so I kept on this line and the fish kept coming for an hour or so, when the line went quiet, I rested it and had a look in the RH margin, I took 3 carp straight off and then no more bites. The water temp was 12°C, not quite warm enough to get the fish staying confidently in the shallow margins.

I could see Kev Perry and Rich Lovering catching well, so I knew that I was a long way behind, with no realistic chance of catching them up, their island chuck pegs producing fish as expected.. Mike Owens on peg 25 had been steadily plugging away at the silvers, but his fish seemed to be of a smaller stamp than the roach and rudd I was catching, so I decided to have a push for the silver coin.

I caught reasonably well on the short line again, after its rest, but the next time it went quiet I set up a top four to hand to fish shallow, this produced some decent rudd and roach. A 7lb carp took the single caster on a 22 63-13, it took a while, but that was subdued by the middy purple 4-6 elastic.

The last hour saw me back on the short line and a few more decent roach, the largest one being well over 1lb. I wasn’t confident that I had enough roach and rudd to beat anyone who had managed to find the skimmers and so it proved to be, my 25.01 beaten by two nets of skimmers, although I did scrape into 3^rd in silvers and last in the money. The 5 carp went 22.02 giving me a total of 47.03, which I have to admit, was better than I expected from the peg. I guess my messing about for carp and skimmers cost me, had I fished caster for the roach exclusively, I may have managed another 3lb of fish.

1)      Mark Bromsgrove 194.09 peg 7

2)      Craig Tucker 82.13 peg 38

3)      Rich Lovering 80.01 peg 26

4)      Kev Perry 77.03 peg 27

5)      Brian Slipper 76.08 peg 31

6)      Rod Wotton 73.00 peg 29

Silvers

1)      Rod Wotton 28.00 peg 29 (Mainly skimmers10oz – 1lb 8oz)

2)      Ivan Currie 27.02 peg 18  (Skimmers, loads of 2oz –6oz fish)

3)      Chris Fox 25.01 peg 23 (Roach & Rudd)

A Bit Of Fluff Chucking

Its been a while since I got out and did any fly fishing, so was keen to make my first visit to Hawkridge, at Spaxton, to reacquaint myself with the dark arts of fluff chucking. On my way home from the match at Trinity, the van was playing up, but I limped home and called out the RAC. The patrolman sussed out that it was the EGR stuck open, which he duly freed off, so I could get to Kev Perry's house this morning to travel down with him.

Kev had just bought himself a high density sinking line the week before, taking a few fish on it last Tuesday and was explaining to me over the phone about how it worked and using boobies - which were new to him and I'd never used them before.

A trip to Veals on Saturday to get a pint of maggots turned into, a new Greys XFlite 9' 6" #8 rod, a high density line, a reel, some boobies, minkies and a few other odds and sods.

I was glad I did, Hawkridge is fairly deep and once we'd bought our tickets and walked to the area Kev likes, it was nigh on 11.00 before we both started on the floating line with gold head flies to no avail.

A switch to the new rod, high density line and a black booby saw me christen my new gear with a Rainbow around the 2lb mark, this was after Kev had taken one nearer 3lb. A really good day out followed, Hawkridge is in great surroundings on the Quantocks, we fished until about lunchtime, stopped for a bite to eat and a chat - how civilised - we retried the floating lines, Kev managed one Rainbow on a weighted gold head lure, nothing for me.

A return to the high density sinking line and white Booby saw three more fish come to the net, before another bash with the floating line, once again to no avail. I went back on the HD line and with a white minky, took my last fish, making my limit of 5.

Kev then had a go on my new rod and landed his 5th and final fish on the white minky that accounted for my last fish. We weighed the fish back at the lodge, my biggest was 2.01, Kev had on around the 2.14 mark, smallest fish we both had was 1.08.

A really nice change from the hustle and bustle of the match scene, a lovely venue in a great setting and fishing with a mate who gave me some confidence that I was using the right gear and fly. I'll certainly be back before too long.

The 5 trout after being cleaned, looking forward to tasting them.

Trinity Waters Sunday 20th March 2011

Back to one of my favouite venues today, although for how much longer I don't know!! Once again I drew on the car park bank and peg 31 again, I knew it would be a struggle unless the fish had woken up and moved around, the heavy frost overnight Friday, the bright sun & lack of ripple seemed to ensure that didn't happen.

To make matters worse, there was a no show and that left pegs 11, 12 & 13 empty, giving Rod Wotton three empty pegs to his left, he made the most of it.

I started at 12.5m, fishing expander over softened 4mm, no fish from this line in the first half hour, so I had a look down the LH margin, which I was hopeful of catching from as I was the end peg. I had a 4lb carp 2nd drop into the margin and that was it, just little knocks and twitches, with little rudd taking even 6mm expanders off the hook. During the match I tried banded pellet, meat & maggot in the margin, maggot getting the only response, again little rudd.

I'd set up two waggler rods, one with a insert peacock to fish at full depth and another to fish shallow, the shallow rod produced nothing, the full depth rod managed to tempt one ghostie. That was it for carp and watching Rod bagging up on peg 10 just rubbed salt into the wound.

With half the match gone I decided to try and target the skimmers and pick up some silver coin, I started a new line with G/bait and dead maggot, this was hard going, and I ended the match with half a dozen or so skimmers up to 10oz.

Three or four to my right, were in the same boat as me, struggling and DNW, the back bank and the RH end of the lake once again being the place to draw.

1) Rod Wotton 82.06 peg 10
2) Kev Perry 52.06 peg 17
3) Dave Baker 33.03 peg 19
4) Dean Malin 30.10 peg 15
4) Steve Seager 30.10 peg23
6) Paul Elms 29.08 peg 24

Silvers
1) John Bradford 10.15 peg 3
2) Steve Seager 8.00 peg 23

Kev Perry Series 2011 - Tables after 1st match.

Kev Perry Series 2011 Overall Table

Name.... Points.... Weight
1. Mark Bromsgrove.... 7.... 19.100
2. Lewis Jones.... 7.... 8.690
3. John Osbourne.... 7.... 4.330
4. Paul Faiers.... 6.... 14.020
5. Chris Fox.... 6.... 8.170
6. Lance Tucker.... 6.... 4.170
7. Kev Perry.... 5.... 13.500
8. Clive Pettit.... 5.... 6.770
9. Sean Kitteridge.... 5.... 2.900
10. J Huntbatch.... 4.... 6.200
11. M Owens.... 4.... 6.140
12. N Vigus.... 3.... 5.610
13. Andy Hockin.... 3.... 4.320
14. Dave Wride.... 3.... 2.670
15. Charlie Barnes.... 2.... 4.240
16. Nick Harvey.... 2.... 4.140
17. Sam Johnson.... 2.... 1.000
18. Andy Hembrow.... 1.... 3.900
19. Glen Calvert.... 1.... 0.710
20. Bob Gullick.... 0.... 0.000
21. P Bartlett.... 0.... 0.000

Kev Perry Series 2010 Silvers Table

Name.... Points.... Weight
1. Paul Faiers.... 7.... 11.420
2. Chris Fox.... 7.... 6.900
3. Lance Tucker.... 7.... 4.170
4. Mark Bromsgrove.... 6.... 9.450
5. N Vigus.... 6.... 3.470
6. Sean Kitteridge.... 6.... 2.900
7. Kev Perry.... 5.... 7.900
8. Clive Pettit.... 5.... 2.700
9. John Osbourne.... 5.... 2.450
10. Charlie Barnes.... 4.... 4.240
11. Lewis Jones.... 4.... 2.020
12. Dave Wride.... 4.... 1.550
13. Andy Hembrow.... 3.... 3.900
14. J Huntbatch.... 3.... 1.850
15. Glen Calvert.... 3.... 0.710
16. Andy Hockin.... 2.... 3.020
17. Sam Johnson.... 2.... 0.500
18. Mike Owens.... 1.... 2.740
19. Bob Gullick.... 0.... 0.000
20. P Bartlett.... 0.... 0.000
21. Nick Harvey.... 0.... 0.000

A look back at the results of previous years first matches (I have records back to 2007, not 2009 as I commented in the last post) shows that this wasn't the best, neither was it the worst.

2007: 4.900KG Average (No seperate silvers league this year)

2008: 3.212KG Average
2008: 2.158KG Silvers Average

2009: 5.790KG Average
2009: 3.965KG Silvers Average

2010: 11.584KG Average
2010: 4.643KG Silvers Average

2011: 5.738KG Average
2011: 3.423KG Silvers Average

Kev Perry Series 2011 - Match One

Lets be honest about this, Paul (Faiers) and myself, were not going to run this series this year, no matter how hard you try to think about lakes, pegging, fairness of sections etc. etc. the fish, the weather, the anglers, high temps, low temps and inconsistent temps will give someone cause to moan.

So, that aside, at some point during the preceding year, we were persauded, but only if we had our own terms of a limit, that being 21, all on one lake - the match lake.

We achieved the 21, with others waiting in the wings, even after all the reports of fish deaths, especially carp. Phil has obtained some new fish ( not that, that easily, excuses the person who polluted the supply to the lakes!!)

I didn't fancy the back pegs 1-14, but thats where the swim card indicated I'd be, No10, right on the back bank. Just first match syndrome, they don't usually produce until the warmer weather. So after recording the draw and getting everyones queries sorted, I settled into peg 10. A simple approach, 3 rigs, one for maggot / pinkie, which was a 0.2g sensas pencil on 0.11 with a 0.08 hooklength and a 22 63-13 hook. A MW slim power, again 0.2g on 0.11with a 0.10 hooklength and a size 18 808. Finally a Daiwa float whose model eludes me, on 0.15 straight through to a 20 B911, for maggot in the margin.

On the all in I fed micro's and a couple of 4mm expanders to a line at 10'clock approx 10.5m and a groundbait and pinkie / caster line straight in front at 11m. I hooked and lost a decent fish first put in and could see Sean Kitteridge on peg 30 netting a fish on his first put in. I then had a couple of small fantails over the groundbait, to rest the line I had a look on the micro fed line, with a 4mm expander, this resulted in 2 more fantails and a skimmer - not much more to write about pellet, as I never had another bite on it.

Back onto the maggot and I managed to keep some reasonable skimmers coming, with a lone crucian and the occasional fantail. Interesting to see the skimmers show up - I guess there's not enough  (or enough active) carp to bully them out. With an hour and a half to go, the peg started to slow down, I'd switchwed to g/bait and maggot over the micro line and had another skimmer over that. I could see Lewis Jones on peg 12 taking carp from the margin, so had a look down to my left, that resulted in two small carp of just over 1lb each.

Paul & myself weighed in all the pegs and it was as predicted,(and bang on form for the first match of the series)with the popular pegs in the main bowl of the lake picking up all the money from the superpool. (The main pool payout is purely section money this year, £40 for a section win, £30 for second in section).

Two decent skimmers lost cost me the section, having to settle for second behind Lewis, although I took top silvers points in the section.

1) Mark Bromsgrove 19.100KG peg 25
2) Paul Faiers 14.020KG peg 24
3) Kev Perry 13.500KG peg 26
4) Lewis Jones 8.670KG peg 12
5) Chris Fox 8.170KG peg 10
6) Clive Pettit 6.770 peg 17

Silvers
1) Paul Faiers 11.420KG peg 24
2) Mark Bromsgrove 9.450KG peg 25
3) Kev Perry 7.900KG peg 25
4) Chris Fox 6.900KG peg 10
5) Charlie Barnes 4.240KG peg 22
6) Lance Tucker 4.170KG peg 28

Saturday Silvers - what a treat!!

It's been so bloody hectic, that I've not been fishing for a couple of weeks, too much work and having the kitchen completely ripped outhas stopped me getting out. (Its easy to get fed up of takeaways and microwave meals..... and its another two weeks before the kitchen is back up and fully functional!!)

As I'm working Sunday and had no time to get anything sorted for Saturday, I decided to give booking into a match, a miss and head off to Kingston Seymour for a bit of pleasure fishing. I had a walk round Bullock Farm and intended to practise for the forth coming Kev Perry series, but just didn't fancy it. So off to Plantation, although as I was a late arrival, at 09.40, there weren't too many pegs left. I settled into 33 and set up two rigs to fish for silvers, a KC Carpa Chimp for fishing topkit to hand for roach and perch and a 0.5g Mick Wilkinson pellet float to fish for skimmers at 10m.

I cupped in some dead maggot, 3mm expander and softened micro's on th 10m line and loose fed caster on the 'to hand' line, I started here just to see if the fish were already in close and had a couple of roach. I then left this line to develop, as it is best to let the fish get settled and feeding confidently before plundering it.

I started on 4mm expander at 10m, but was pestered with roach, so upping it to 6mm saw some decent skimmers coming to the net, alternating between 6mm ecpander and double red maggot kept them coming for a couple of hours. I then had another look on the topkit line and manged a hydrid, a few roach and a couple of decent perch, before it slowed up. Back on the 10m line saw a few skimmers and then a run of three decent crucians, before that slowed up.

Alternating between the two kept odd fish coming and at about 3 o'clock the 10m started bubbling, no bites until 3.15 the next hour saw 4 carp into the net for about 25lb - not what I'd come for but an interesting battle on the double No5 slip and skimmer rig. Another bite on the 10m line produced an unseasonal tench to go with some of the unseasonal rudd I had. Back onto the topkit for the last half an hour, that put another perch and a couple more roach into the silvers net.

What a lovely days fishing, Plantation is, at the moment, fishing exceptionally well given the weather. On arrival the air temp was 3°C, the water temp stayed around 5.5°C all day and the air temp was 4°C when I got back to the van.

The Perch

The Crucians, Tench, Skimmers, Roach, Rudd and Hybrids.

Trinty Waters, 16th February 2011

First match back since the carpal tunnel op. A thick coating of ice on the van greeted me and I guessed it would be another hard winters day. At the draw I fancied a peg on the far bank, but it wasn't to be, with another peg on the lodge lake bank, No31 and for company on 33 was Rich Coles, who also can't get away from this bank.

I had tried to keep things simple in the bait bag, caster dead reds, live reds and some assorted jelly pellets. I had put some hard pellets in the bag, but that was before I saw the ice on the van. A bit of groundbait and a tin of corn completed the bait line up.

It was fairly windy, so I was expecting a undertow on the lake, with this in mind I set up a 1.5g Jolly (with a hollow bristle added) and a 1g Jean Desque - again with the addition of a hollow bristle - the Jolly rig had a 0.13 hooklength finished off with a 16 B911 and the JD rig had 0.10 and a 18 Tubertini 808. I started to set up a margin rig, but that got thrown up the bank and not touched again, when I found less than 18" of water in the margin.

I also set up a waggler to fish at depth and a feeder (which got set up and put away again without entering the water, the waggler was a 3AAA with 3 No10 down the line and a 18 Middy 63-13 hoook to fish caster.

I was going to concentrate on two lines, one about 20m where I loose fed caster and another at 12m (which was about as far as I could realistically hold in the wind), this line had a jaffa of groundbait which contained dead reds and a few 3mm pellets cupped in on the whistle.

Within what seemed like seconds of th all-in, I could see Andy Hembrow on peg 7 playing a carp, whilst my float remained motionless. During the first hour, I fished dead red on the hook initially, looking for carp or skimmers and that resulted in a couple of roach, after 30 or 40 mins I switched to double caster and had a 3lb carp on the first put in, a couple more roach and then it went quiet.

I spent between 2 and 3 hours on the waggler, continually changing depth and shotting to try and increase my catch rate, everytime I thought a change had sorted it, the bites dried up soon after, how finicky are those roach??

I decided to come back over the groundbait on the pole for the last couple of hours and kept the odd roach coming to maggot/caster, at 10 to 3 the float buried and I lifted into one of the lakes decent skimmers, next put in a smaller skimmer, had they arrived?? I switched to soft pellet and was 'rewarded' with two carp in two put ins - too little, too late for carp, I needed more silvers.

I managed another couple of roach and lost a decent skimmer in the last hour and at the whistle I though I had 13 or 14lb of carp and silvers. The scales got to me with Steve Kedge's tench and roach net of 19lb easily winning the silvers, with 6.04 to beat, to pick up the second in silvers envelope. My carp went 11lb odd and the silvers 6.08, with Rich Coles last to weigh, his silvers went 4lb, so taking 2nd in the silvers, I at least had my money back and some over for a couple of beers.

Looking at the results, my pre match thoughts that the far bank (natural margins)would be the place to draw, were proven correct - I notice Tony Rixon never asks me to draw for him, as he can see that my drawing arm is jinxed.....

Here's hoping for a period of more settled (and milder) weather!!

If anyone is interested, I'm running a pole only match at Trinity (Woodlands) on Good Friday (22nd April) 09.30 draw, fish 11.00-17.00. Overall and silvers payout.


1st Tony Rixon 67.02 peg 11
2nd Jason Radford 34.14 peg 18
3rd Tom Thick 24.10 peg 2
4th Andy Curry 24.6 peg 16
5th Adrian Clark 23.14
6th Andy Hembrow 23.13 peg 7

Silvers

Steve Kedge 19.14 peg 27
Chris Fox with 6.08 31

A Thanks for good service - Matchbox Tackle.

In July 2008, I decided to change my seatbox, I fancied the idea of the tray/modular type, so I could swap trays as dictated by venue. The Matchbox looked to be just what I was after, but with no local dealer I was reluctant to order online. After a phonecall to arrange it, I was on my way up the M5 to visit Matchbox, to see the boxes. As I arrived, the owner was setting off for a trade show and left me with Jane, who couldn't have been more helpful.

I had taken my boss box with me, to get a proper comparison and Jane put up with me disecting the matchbox (and kept me plied with coffee), trying all the accessories and trays, before deciding on my final options. She chucked in a couple of freebies and gave me a really good price. I then discovered that I hadn't brought a cheque book or enough cash and they couldn't take card payment. No problem, between us I paid using their PC, from my paypal into Janes own paypal account.

In November 2008, I wanted another tray, it was dispatched promptly and arrived safely.

I unfortunately lost one of the mud feet from my box on the way back from my last match. I rang Matchbox and whilst I was asking if they would supply just a mud foot (not shown seperately on-line), I also asked if I could have a mix/match of one of their standard trays. On the website they have a river winder assembly, which comprises trays for two sizes of rig, I wanted two trays of the 27mm rig size. They readily agreed to supply this, along with the mud foot, at a very good price including postage.

This phonecall was yesterday morning, this morning I received an email, telling me the package would arrive between 11.12 & 12.12, which it duly did. Well packaged, exactly as orderd, with the addition of a Matchbox cap. (Thanks Matchbox, my old ones are looking worse for wear).

I have the S range box and apart from 2 things, I can't fault it. 1st thing is the mud feet unscreww and they do work loose, although a dash of loctite or 10 mins with a drill and roll pins would sort it. 2nd point is if you buy one, I'd definitely recommend the side plate kit, even if you don't use the side footplate, fit the bars, it stiffens up the legs by a very noticeable amount. Although I now believe they come with the bars as standard.

In this day and age it's nice to receive good service, so thanks Matchbox.

Whilst on the subject of good service, I can't not mention Tony Rixon of Avon Angling, always helpful and willing to bring bait and supplies along to a match if I can't get into the shop - thanks Tony.

Trinty Waters, 19th January 2011

With the weather warming up and the water temps on the rise, I had high hopes for this Wednesday open on Woodland - until I got up and saw that the forecast 1°C overnight was down to -4.5°C on the journey down. At least the lake remained ice free and there were some small roach topping.

Peg 27 came out of the hat, so I immediately decided to fish for skimmers and see if an odd carp or two came along, as in the winter, the lodge bank pegs often find it hard to compete with the opposite bank, when the fish come into the margins. The lodge bank is in its first full winter since being remodelled by John and whilst the ledges he created during the remodelling were very productive last summer, they seem just too shallow to get the carp on them in this cold weather. Maybe next winter, with another years growth of reeds and mother nature shaping the ledges John made with the digger, the fish will be more comfortable to come up the ledge.

Anyway, those of us on the Lodge bank would have been frozen if the high bank was still in place, as it used to block out the sun - which made its margins colder than those opposite, so even before the work often its margins weren't so productive in cold spells.

I set up two rigs, a 1g Jean Desque with a hollow tip added, this was on 0.13 and a 0.09 hooklength and a 18 808, and a 1g Jolly on 0.11 and a 0.08 hooklength with a 20 gamma black. I initally only fed one line 14m and put in two jaffa's of groundbait, micro pellet and dead reds. First put in and the float settled, then buried, a spirited fight ensued, but the double 6 preston slip with a pulla bung saw me net a decent carp after 10 minutes, it took double dead red.

Next put in with a soft pellet saw another carp in the net and just before the first hour was up, a much smaller cyprinid joined its big brothers in the keepnet, my first carp since 18th November!!

As the hands of the watch passed into the second hour, there was some bubbles and activity in the peg, I lost two foul hookers and landed a couple of decent skimmers, then the wind got up, blowing across the lake from the far corner (6) towards the top corner (23), that killed off the sport for myself, Rich Coles on 29 (and I won't elaborate on the defamatory comments made about Rich, by Mr Rixon - who claims he's a silverfish hasbeen :-) ), Andy France on 26 and Paul Lock on 24, the last 3½ hours saw only odd fish, mainly small roach caught on this middle section of our bank, whilst we watched fish coming from the pegs opposite. My 3 carp went 17lb odd, with 5lb odd of silvers.

Pete Sivell took advantage of his end peg (6) with no one on the bottom bank (1-5) and put just shy of 60lb on the scales to win. Jason Radford had 14 & 16 empty either side of his draw on the culvert (15) and again made good use of that situation.

1) Pete Sivell 59.07 peg 6
2) Jason Radford 42.13 peg 15
3) Martin Lengahan 37.15 peg 17
4) Tony (lets leave the good pegs with plenty of room) Rixon 37.07 peg 19
5) Andy Curry 36.14 peg 23
6) Chris Fox 22.14 peg 27

Silvers
1) Leighton Palmer 15.14 peg 10
2) Steve Kedge 11.02 peg 13

Thats it for about three weeks now, no fishing, as I've had the carpal tunnel op on my left wrist this morning (Friday) (its a right pain in the arse typing this out one handed!!) although you may see me bank walking once I can drive, I get stir crazy in the house.

Viaduct Teams of Five Sunday 16th January 2011

First team match of the year, first visit to Viaduct in 2011, which on the whole, was good to me last year, especially in my first full season fishing it.

Arrived at the Globe for the buffet style, help youself brekkie, not bad, so I was all set for a decent day, when back comes my draw, peg 8 on Spring, another bloody corner, which aren't my favourite pegs in winter. With peg 7 in as well, that left little water to fish, except a 14m line for silvers and the margin for carp (which I had no confidence would show) or a big perch or two.

At the all in I fed some caster at the end of the boards to the RH side and a few dead reds at 14.5m along the margin. At various times throughout the match I tried these lines, with maggot, caster, corn, meat & worm as hookbait, all to no avail, not so much as a twitch on the float.

Starting at 14.5m, with some groundbait and dead reds, I had 3 skimmers in 3 put ins - great, a day on the skimmers, but no they had other ideas and they were the only three I caught all day. The wind was making it difficult to fish the 14.5m line, so I started a line at 9m. This produced a 8oz perch to caster first put in and then a ruffe and a couple of very small rudd.

Once again it was a struggle to get bites, not just for me, peg 7 was struggling, so I had the chance to avoid being last in the section! I started to loose feed caster over the 9m line and shortly after had a tench that saved me from last in section, my hard won 4.08, just beating the couple of decent perch from peg 7 by 5oz.

I can't fish all the matches, but I'm looking forward to some warmer weather and a peg with some water to work at in the next one I fish. Sadly the rest of the team struggled as well and to make the day worse, I lost a screw on foot from my Matchbox walking back to the van, retracing my steps failed to find it. Although that wasn't as bad as Lance (Tucker) who managed to lock his car keys in his car, with no spare.


1. Jason Radford 82-0-0 peg 3
2. John Gray 78-02-0 peg 132
3. Will Bohnie 54-0-0 peg 113
4. John Howell 45-10-0 peg 53
5. Chris Davis 43-12-0 peg 40
6. Alan Oram 35-03-0 peg 110

1. Chris Davis 24-04-0 peg 40
2. Tony Rixon 16-05-0 peg 88
3. Jamie Parkhouse 14-04-0 peg 39
4. Nick Collins 14-02-0 peg 102
5. Steve Kedge 13-09-0 peg 52

Plantation Lake Saturday 15th January

I was intending to go to football, but a phone call from Paul Nicholls saying there was a place going in the Saturday match at Plantation, allied with the warmer weather, had me booking in.

I was fairly disappointed with my draw, peg 12, its a bit like peg 1, win the match or come nowhere, there just doesn't seem to be any inbetween position on the pegs at either end of the lake. I had Rod Wotton on 11 and fellow Ashton Gate absentee, Pete Sivell on peg 8 as my nearest company.

I did set up a margin rig, but had my doubts that I'd catch on it, never had a bite, except on single or double maggot from small roach, so thats all there is to say about that. That left a roach rig for close in, a Malman Winter Wire on 0.11 to a 0.08 hooklength and a 20 gamma black and a MW Diamond on 0.13 with a 0.12 middy hooklength and a 18 808 hook, this for for the skimmers and any odd carp that may show up.

I fed a groundbait line at 14m, two tangerine size balls with some dead reds in and a roach line at topkit range.

The match followed the usual pattern of late for me, my Carp net once again going unused - may as well put them on ebay - and a battle round three lines (one at 6m, loose fed caster started after an hour or so)to keep silvers coming, albeit slowly. The roach were heavier than the skimmers, which backed off after catching two and took 20 minutes or so to come back. A decent F1 from the skimmer line and a reasonable Perch on the topkit caster line helped me to a weight of 11-12, just seeing off Rod & Pete who had 8lb & 10lb weights. We couldn't compete with the opposite corner of the lake, where Rich Lovereing took 53lb to win from peg 33.

1) Rich Lovering 53lb peg 33
2) Simon Carvello 32lb peg 19
3) Kev Perry 29lb peg 27
4) Mark Bromsgrove 27lb peg 31
5) Lance Tucker 22lbpeg 29
6) Lewis Jones 21lb peg 39

Silvers

1) Mark Bromsgrove 27lb peg 31 (Skimmers)
2) J Page 17lb 12oz
3) Glen Calvert 17lb 06oz peg 4

Avalon, Sunday 2nd January 2011

All work and no play lately, hence the late writing of this blog entry. After the reasonable days fishing at Trinity on New Years Eve, I assumed that it would be best to stick to another lake with a bit of depth. With confident assurances from Mr Rixon that Avalon was ice free, I booked in.

The sight that greeted me on arrival at Avalon was bank to island ice on the LH side of the lake and ice free water on the RH bank, two hardy souls were thrashing around in a boat, trying to break the ice on the LH side. (Andy Bush and Paul Elmes).

I drew 29, which was miraculously ice free, with Andy Bush on my RH side and Vince Brown on my left. I'd decided to fish two lines on the pole, 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock at 14.5m, one line feeding with dead maggot and one with micropellet. A straight lead and a waggler completed the set up. Vince started at 20m and stayed there most of the day, I did go out to 19m for a short while, but I need a few months in the gym or a bucket of steroids to be able to stick with it when bites are scarce.

After 30 minutes I had a 6oz perch, apart from a 2oz roach on the lead, that was the extent of my days sport, Vic and Leigh walked past a couple of times and said "this seems to be the worst bit" - why didn't that surprise me!!

Not much point in writing any more about a non-eventful day, suffice to say perhaps the ice free areas aren't always the best, during the thaw.

See Tony's blog for the result, I can't get out now until the teams of five at Viaduct on Sunday 16th.

Trinty Waters, 31st December 2010

As I have been working all over Christmas, I was hopeful that a few others would fancy a day at Trinity, especially as the ice breakers could stay in the van. As it was there were six of us, so a decent little knock up, with £40 & £25 to fish for in the overall and a silver payout of £25.

I was pacing round my garage before I left, convinced I'd forgotten to put something in the van, but I walked round it half a dozen or more times and couldn't think what it could be...... until I got to Bridgwater, my dead maggots. So that was the plan down the pan before I started.

We had pegs 9-15 and peg 12 left out, I took the last card from the hat and opened it to reveal 15, not a bad draw, but on such a cold day, I'm not convinced the draw was crucial, all the pegs in can produce fish. Water temp was 2.5°C at the start and didn't vary all day.

I set up two rigs to fish at 12m, both Jean Desque wire stemmed floats, one standard, one with a hollow tip added to it. 0.9g and 0.13 to 0.11 and a 18 808 for the one with hollow tip and 0.75g 0.11 and a .08 flourocarbon hooklength and a 22 B611 on the standrd float rig. A margin rig on 0.15 and a 18B911 completed th pole set up. I did set up a straight lead, but it stayed on the bank and was put back into the holdall unused at the end.

I fed some softend 4mm, caster and micro at 12m on the whistle and waited half an hour for a bite, which was a small roach. Not much to tell about the day, it was hard work to keep the bites coming, alternating between soft pellet (couldn't catch on 4mm, but had some skimmers on 6mm) and maggot at 12m. The margins didn't produce, the peg died for 10 or 15 minutes after every bait top up, except when I just fed maggot, then I was plagued with microscopic Rudd.

I did chop a few worms and tried worm on the hook, but that was just a waste of time and worms, as the float didn't offer any indications of hungry fish when a worm was on the hook.

I could see Mike West on peg 13 and knew he had a couple of carp and a few silvers, I didn't have any carp, nor any sign of them, Andy Hembrow had also caught carp, to go with his silvers, along with Darren 'Noddy' 'Nuddy' Vowles who had two carp and a skimmer on the brain dead lead.

1) Andy Hembrow 21.14 peg 10
2) Mike West 12.14 peg 13
3) Chris Fox 9.07 peg 15
4) Darren Vowles 4.14 peg 9
5) Glen Calvert 4.01 peg 14
6) Dave Baker DNW peg 11

Silvers

1) Andy Hembrow 14.04
2) Chris Fox 9.07
3) Mike West 5.10

Happy New Year

Well, the snow and ice have really hit the match calender, I've been fortunate enough to have spent some of December in Goa, basking in the sun (34°C), drinking Kingfisher and cocktails and filling my face with Goan seafood and curry. We even had three extra days holiday at Thomsons expense, as Gatwick was closed.

Anyway, Happy New Year to those of you that follow my inane ramblings, lets hope for plenty of success stories in 2011, I'm looking forwrd to April/May and the warmer weather already!!

Just a reminder, if anyone is interested, there is an open at Trinity Waters (Woodland Lake) on Friday 31st Dec 2010, 08.45 draw, fish 10-3, so plenty early enough to get home and start the New Year piss up. Ring me on 07973 790719 if you want to fish. (The forecast looks like we'll have had three days warmer weather by then)

Lunacy at Landsend, Wednesday 8th December 2010

Eight hardy souls (or bloody lunatics) braved the icy conditions to fish Landsend today. I arrived and there was already an advance ice breaking party, Dean was throwing a 30lb dumbell in to break the ice, which was over 2" thick in places. Some pegs were thicker than this and left alone, it would probably take Mike to get down there with the slew machine to break some of it.

Three corners in, as 11/12 were in the corner which was thick to break, but I managed to pull peg 3, not my favourite peg on the lake, but if we'd catch at all was more relevent than what would be a decent peg in normal conditions. It's thanks to Tim Clark that I got there at all, the alternator packed up on my van last week and Tim came out in the ice and snow last Friday to fit a new one - thanks Tim.

I managed to finish off Dean & Tony's good work, breaking myself a LH margin and a channel in front. Tony had peg 5 drawn for him and was soon into a small hybrid, I followed this with a roach on pinkie and thought that I'd get a few bites, that was the only one for a long time. About 11.30 I got my thermometer out and put it about 15" deep into the water, the water temp was probably the coldest I've ever fished, at 0.5°. Tony was catching odd perch by swapping from in front to his margin, whilst a few others were blanking.

The cat ice kept forming over the clear area, meaning constant clearing, all the while I still could not get a bite, at around 1pm, Mike Duckett appeared, bearing gifts of hot coffee and twix bars, very much appreciated, thanks Mike. I managed two small perch from the margin, as by just after 2pm the channel in front was unfishable. The general consensus was that the 4pm finish was overly optimstic, as the lake would be frozen over again by then, the air temp was -2°.

So with everyone agreeing, well nearly everyone, Dean was sitting it out for a carp - thats real optimisim - the match was shortend to a 3.30pm finish, at 20 past I landed fish No4 and my best perch, but I was a long way behind Tony, John Bradford on peg 1 who foul hooked a chub (not that I'm bitter...)and Matt Tomes on peg 7. I was determind to weigh in, as I'd sat there, but I knew there'd be no beer tokens for tonight.

I do wonder as to the sanity of going fishing in these conditions, but its better than working.

1) Tony Rixon 5.12 peg 5
2) Matt Tomes 3.12 peg 7
3) Alan Oram 2.13 peg 21
4) John Bradford 1.10 peg 1 (Did I mention that was a foul hooked chub and 1 2oz perch!!)
5) Chris Fox 13oz peg 3
6) DNW

Shivering Silvers @ Landsend, Sunday 28th November 2010

I left it late to book into this one, waiting to see what the weather would do, as it was just going to be cold (very cold) with no snow, I weighed up if fishing or staying at home/pub and sky footie would be best - fishing won.

Supposedly 15 today, but a couple of no shows knocked the numbers back, that saw both match & speci lakes used, I once again drew the match lake, peg 11. The ice breaker made its first appearance of the season, although the ice was that annoying thickness, you know, the one that shatters when you chuck the ice breaker in. Nice thick ice you can cut into sections, the thinner stuff shatters into loads of pieces. The thermometer in the water didn't change from 2°C all day and the air temp didn't get above 0°C, it was -5.5°C getting out of the car and -3.0°C getting back in.

I had a nice area cleared, that gave me a 9m line toward my right and similar length lie to my left, by the time the all-in was shouted, most of it had frozen back over.

I also cleared the RH margin up to the next pallet and to save posting loads of waffle, thats where my fish came from, 8 of them all perch, taken mostly on caster, but one or two on maggot. Frustratingly I lost 8 fish, all perch, they seemed to be only just hooked.

By 13.30 the margin had refrozen to the point of making it necessary to rebreak the ice, I went for a stroll round the lake after and came back to add three more perch (and the biggest ones) to my net.

The lost perch probably cost me, not sure if it was the hook (couldn't see anything wrong and it was sharp), the fact that the elastic was freezing in the pole couldn't have helped. I managed 5lb 2oz for fourth place and enough money back to have a couple of beers on the way home.

1) Dean (Chub Slayer) Malin 8.14 peg 40 (6 chub)
2) Tony (corner peg) Rixon 8.11 peg 24
3) John Bradford 5.11 peg 19
4) Chris Fox 5.02 peg 11
5) Martin Lengahan 4.02 peg 3
6) Martin Pettifer 1.12 peg 15

Going to try an open on New Years Eve this year and see if its worthwhile, so if anyone fancies it it give me a ring or let Misha at Trinity know and she'll ring me. Trinty Waters, Woodland Lake draw 08.45, fish 10.00-15.00, usual format, overall + silvers payout.

Viaduct Costcutter. 18th November 2010

13, unlucky for some was the number for todays Viaduct Costcutter Open, all pegged on Campbell, which like many other venues has seen the colour drop out over the last week or so - although Cary appeared to be holding a bit more colour.

Todays dip into the hat, (not exactly a hat, Paul Greenwood, pleading poverty as its a Costcutter, put the unstapled swimcards face down on the counter)peg 126 was my reward. I wasn't disappointed, as Saturday before last, Ray Hayward won from this peg, trebling my weight from 115 which is nearly opposite, so an opportunity to see if I was that far behind, or did the peg have some influence on the result.

I had brought some 8mm cubed meat and if I hadn't had 3 pints of caster left over from yesterday that would have been all. The caster tempted me to set up a rig to fish it and mix some groundbait - I might as well not have bothered, a quick look on this line saw some micro roach which bumped off the doubled 8 elastic.

I fancied the waggler and meat to produce a few fish, I didn't think that they'd come close due to the water clarity and that proved to be the case, the 14.5m line I tried with meat on the pole, to no avail, not so much as a liner. The wind and subsequent surface skim put paid to decent presentation on the waggler for all but the first and last hour. 6 fish falling to the lead and 5 to the waggler,

The straight lead was on 6lb Daiwa TDR reel line and a 0.17 hooklength with a 16 PR36 hair rigged, the waggler had 4lb sensor reel line, a 0.15 hooklength and a 18 B911 buried in the meat - although this changed to a 0.15 and a PR36 18 hair rig after a duck took the meat on the 18 B911 and at full flight towards Somerton Town Centre managed to snap the hooklength.

Before and after the match I tried to draw some info on feeding at this time of the year, but all I spoke to were very cagey or claimed to be as clueless as myself - not sure about that!!. I started on the lead, not feeding at all, just a tiny liner or two to show for that, three cubes of meat fed and the waggler produced 6 or 7 consecutive bites resulting in 3 fish in the net. I upped the feed and had two more, then endured a quiet spell - too much feed??

Switching between the lead and the waggler for the rest of the match (as the wind and surface skim allowed) I managed 11 Carp and 1 Brown Goldfish, I guess I used about 1/3 of a tin of meat.

I could see that 111 had a few fish, John Green on 115 had take a few on the lead - no silvers for John today!! and Colyn Dyer had a few on 112, I thought my fish were of a better stamp and so they proved to be, 60lb 10oz being enough to take topspot.

1) Chris Fox 60.10 peg 126
2) John Green 50.02 peg 115
3) D White 46.12 peg 128
4) P Homewood 44.10 peg 111
5) Colin Dyer 43.10 peg 112
6) J Williams 30.13 peg 123

Silvers

1) John Bradford 14.00 peg 110
2) C Pinker 10.04 peg 125
3) J Williams 9.06 peg 123

Landsend, Wednesday 17th November 2010

The BBC weather forecast wasn't too good, heavy rain and high winds, so I plumped for Landsend today, as the trees would hopefully give some shelter. As usual. the BBC forecast was over dramatic, light rain and some breeze was all we experienced (or was that the trees doing their job??).

Match and Speci lakes in today, my dip into the swimcards brought me peg 21, I was surprised by the clarity of the water, the frosts of the last few days have obviously done their worse.

I set up two rigs, both Malman winter wires, a 4x14 on 0.13/0.11 and a 16 6313 for soft pellet/double caster and a 4x12 on 0.11/0.09 and a 20 6313 for single caster or maggot, these were matched to double 6 and double 5 elastic respectively.

I fully intended to fish really tight and sensible for silvers...... but got a bit waylaid. I started fishing at ¾ the way across, straight in front, feeding caster, I also fed a line at 2 o'clock with micro and a couple of expanders. A roach a chuck for the first four chucks on caster then it slowed down, an odd fish after that, then after 45 mins I had a look over the micro, the float shot under and I lifted into a large leaf - how do they give such positive bites??

Back onto the caster line, but I was getting lured by the large shapes, several of them ghosties, that were swimming along the far shelf, to be accurate they were swimming just off the shelf about 12" deep. I stuck at the caster line and was rewarded with a carp, but then it went dead. I put another couple of sections on and pushed across to the bottom of the shelf, this resulted in two carp in two put-in's, happy days. Then two foul hookers in the next two put-in's, both of which came off.

This resulted in the peg going very quiet, I had looked up the shelf to where the carp had been showing themselves, but everytime I went near the shallow water with the pole, they disappeared - I'm not surprised, the water was very clear. Its then I had the soup disaster, I poured a full cup of tomato soup and then managed to knock it between the side tray and my box. The result made the side of my box, the pallet and a few bit and pieces under the box, look like a scene from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre - what a waste of Heinz's finest.

I had a walk up to Tony Rixon, he was catching silvers, the lake was fishing pretty hard, so after a decent time to rest my peg after the two lost foulers, I returned and carried on, adding a couple more perch and roach to the silvers net, but not a sign of another carp, apart from one lone ghostie who was patrolling the far shelf, but didn't seem to be feeding.

I didn't have anothe bite on soft pellet, so the leaf was my only end product for that, my silvers went 4lb+ and the three carp went 17lb+ for a weight of 21lb+, not enough on the day to frame.

The Speci lake provided four of the top six, but even that was a struggle.

1) Chris Davis 48.04 peg 31
2) A Clark 35.14 peg 32
3) Kev Molton 30.02 peg 24
4) A Jones 29.00 peg 33
5) Martin Lengahan 26.05 peg 19
6) Tim Ford 25.12 peg 35

Silvers

1) Tim Ford 25.12 peg 35
2) Tony Rixon 21.00 peg 17

Plantation Main Lake

I nearly thought about the poppy match for Sundays outing, but the prospect of drawing 'one of those walks' saw me heading towards a easy walk on Plantation and hopefully a few fish. It was a 21 pegger today and the cafe was open for the draw and I had a coffee whilst chatting to a few faces I haven't see for a while. Bridgwater raider Andy Hembrow was looking worse for wear and muttered something about vast quantities of vodka the previous evening.

I had actually stayed in on a Saturday night to prepare my gear for this match, as soon as I drew, I knew that I would have been better going out for a few beers, peg 33 in the bay, the wagglers and lead rods I'd set up might as well stay in the van along with the pellets, meat & corn.

I did have some worm and caster and a couple of pints of maggot, so I set up two silvers rigs and one rig for the margin, just in case there was a lost carp or two in the bay. The margin only got looked at for 10 minutes and the float remained motionless. I had a MW pellet float to fish worm/double maggot/soft pellet at 11m over groundbait, CW&C. A slim Mosella pattern to fish caster a whatever depth the roach were feeding at and that was it, nice and simple.

I cupped in some GB loaded with CW&C at the start and went over it with ½ a worm, nothing, so a switch to double red maggot saw a few skimmers in the net, until I lost a decent bream. This killed the peg for 20 minutes or so, I refed groundbait, but this time with no worm, just dead maggot, they didn't seem to want the worm. This brought a couple more skimmers, but they wouldn't keep coming with any great regularity.

I switched to the caster line I'd been drip feeding, just topkit to hand and this produced a nice run of roach to 12oz and a couple of perch, one which was 1½lb. Switching between this and the 11m line, I kept fish coming until the end, not exactly one a bung, but a pleasurable day, a nice bonus was a roach at least a 1lb from the 11m line.

I only hooked one carp, a foul hooker at mid water over the 11m line and that snapped the 0.12 hooklength, the decision to fish for silvers was justified, when the scales got to me, the top silvers weight was Kev Perry, 10lb 4oz, he caught skimmers on pellet, my mixed bag went 18lb 14oz and took the silver coin.

1) Andy Hembrow 104.13 peg 7 ( The hangover wasn't too bad then, Andy) Pole/pellet
2) Lewis Jones 80.10 peg 4
3) Rich lovering 80.06 peg 28
4} Rich Healy 59.08 peg 38

Silvers

1) Chris Fox 18.14 peg 33
2) Kev Perry 10.04 peg 25

Oh, I nearly forgot, the pre match entertainment was Mark Walsh testing the water temperature in his peg (39) by falling in, he also lost a couple of trays from his box, full of winders. The peg are in a bit of a state, the pleasure anglers banksticks causing loads of erosion. He didn't see the funny side at the time, but he went home and changed and could at least smile at the banter by the end of the match.

Viaduct Open. Saturday13th November 2010

The fine winter run of getting spanked, which all started since I had the op on my hand(thats my excuse), continues.

Peg 115 for me today, I've not drawn it before, but it does have some form, so I expected a few fish. I did myself no favours by taking worm & caster, corn & meat and maggot. I had some half baked plan where I'd fish for silvers initially and then carp, as other venues I've fished recently haven't been producing carp from the start.

Once I saw John Green on 116, I started to change my mind and confused myself, doing myself no favours with either silvers or carp. I fed a line at 7m with groundbait and caster, one at 14.5m with caster & corn and some corn via the catty at lead/waggler range towards the middle.

I set up a straight lead, 6lb Daiwa TDR to a 0.17 hooklength and a 16PR36 with a quickstop. A waggler with 4lb sensor, a 0.13 hooklength and a 18 6313 and three pole rigs, a Mosella slim float (model unknown) to fish caster on the 7m line, with a 18 6313 on .011, a MW diamond to fish corn, double caster or maggot on the 14mm line, with a 18 808 on 0.13 and a Durafloat to fish meat/corn at either distance on 0.17/0.15 and a 18 Xedion hook.

I started on the waggler with meat, over ½ a dozen grains of corn, that produced nothing for 25 minutes, the 7m line with double caster yielded a fish a chuck, but it was roach of an identical stamp, lucky if they went ¾oz each. Some carp were being caught on the waggler and at least its easy to see when others are catching on meat. So out with the lead and a 6lb fish first put in, then 2 fish lost, one definite foulhooker. A quiet spell and then another 6lb fish followed by an 8lber, the bites followed the same pattern, no indications, then a liner or two, before a rip round. It seemed as if there were just individual fish coming in to the peg and finding the bait.

The middle of the match saw a very quiet spell, I set up a margin rig as 114 was taking fish from his LH margin (the pallet of 113) and Dick Bull on 112 was catching in the margin fishing back towards 113. I may have well as saved the effort, as I didn't have a bite or any indication in either LH or RH margin. There were still carp being caught on the waggler, I didn't manage to get one single bite on it in 6 hours, apart from one foolish cast with double maggot (another pea in the pod ¾oz roach).

In the last hour I had a few more fish on the lead/meat, I'm pretty sure the fish were shoaled up, in certain pegs, but not to the extent that other pegs were virtually barren, I just couldn't work out how to feed/how much to feed. In the last hour and a half, I upped the feed to ½ a dozen or ten cubes of meat every cast/bite and I caught more, but was that just last hour syndrome?

This was my first experince of an open on Viaduct where the pellet is banned (apart from a Carps AC Xmas match where the lake was frozen over at least 1" thick) and I've got a lot to learn about how to fish it during the winter, I reckon its back to the Thursday costcutters for a bit of experimentation and learning curve, at least it cheaper to be pools fodder in these matches.

I managed a lowly 56.03 (not a bad winter weight in my book, but not good on the day). The middle 3-3½ hours were where I fell by the wayside and the answer lies in the feeding (I think!! although I had no liners or indications during this time).

1) Ray Hayward 156.09 peg 126 waggler/meat
2) Roland ? 123.03 peg 123
3) M Wright 111.01 peg 114 waggler/meat, LH margin/meat
4) Trev Huth (??) 94.04 peg 110
5) D Cockayne 93.11 peg 118
6) Dick Bull 73.15 peg 112

Silvers

1) Steve Hutter 21.03 peg 131 (including 4 perch for 10lb)
2) John Green 16.06 peg 116
3) S Denner(??) 10.10 peg 129