Acorn Pole Only Series, Round Four, Sunday 28th April2013

Once again the weather kicked us in the teeth, as temperatures dropped overnight, shame as the day was overcast and the wind not to strong as to inhibit fishing.

We've had a few moans about the hour and a half to set up, we've listened carefully to these comments and ignored them......

It was my turn to be in D section today, I fancied anywhere except 23 and 25, that was until I saw the weigh sheets from Saturdays match, revealing that 38 and 36 had been 2nd and 3rd, on these smaller lakes, I am not too keen on drawing pegs that have produced the day before, as they often don't seem to do it two days running.  I was going to take the last peg, but the Brown Nosed Bridge Troll wanted the last peg, so I pulled out 38  for myself, leaving Bob Gullick one off a bridge on 23.

The lakes have coloured up nicely and there were a few fish moving before the start, I did have a target of 50lb, which had I achieved it would have been about right, but, there is very little to say about the day, it was one of the least enjoyable days fishing I have had in quite a while.  Every time I looked to my left, I could see Joe McMahon's elastic coming out, as he plundered the bridge peg 40, catching shallow against the bridge.  Fair play to Joe, he fished a tidy match, but it was frustrating when I hadn't had a fish for the first hour or so.

I had set up a rig to fish banded pellet shallow/1st shelf, a rig for the second shelf, another for down the track and a paste rig for the margins and tight across.  I had meat and pellet on the bait tray to start with, expecting to catch on that. Blanking after 1 hour 20 minutes saw me reaching for the maggot box and first put with maggot down the track resulted in a skimmer, that was the only bite from the deeper water.

I ended the day with a couple more skimmers, roach and a tench on maggot, but even on a light rig, with 0.10 and a 20 hook, I was still waiting 15 minutes or more for a bite.  This was enough, at 4.08 to take the section silvers money, so thats my series paid for with three pick ups, my attempt at catching carp was similarly dismal, 6 smallish fish for 14.   , that was two on maggot, three on pellet and one on paste, a pretty poor last but one in section. I just couldn't work out how to get a bite, so frustrating to have a match like that and learn nothing at all.

 At least I didn't hook enough, or big enough fish, to pull the hooks off the line today,  as I'm still waiting for Tony Rixon's knots masterclass, so one small consolation.....

1. Joe McMahon 104.07   peg 40
2. Mike Nicholls 102.10  peg 8
3. Tom Thick 68.08   peg 12
4. Matt Tomes 60.06 peg A4
5. Lance Tucker 59.14 peg 4
6. Andy France 54.13 peg 13

Silvers

1. Mark Broomsgrove 34.06.   peg A3
2. Paul Lasson 24.06 peg A5
3. Glenn Calvert 22.02 peg A8

Avon Angling Open, Trinty Waters, Wednesday 24th April 2013

Disappointing turn out today, I just can't understand why people don't support this fishery more, the fishing is good, the owners friendly and hard working and its a continual work in progress, as John tries to improve things.

Anyway, back to the match, peg 23 for me today, with Tony Rixon to my right on peg 20, as last Sunday's Clevedon match had been won from 23, with carp up in the water, that would be my main line of attack, but the flat calm water might mean that wasn't as productive as hoped.  I set up a pole rig to fish shallow and a couple of waggler rods, to cover differing depths. A margin rig, although the margins on 23 are very short, now the bushes on the points between the pegs have grown up, it means that you can't get and fish the other side of the point when there is an empty peg. Meat was to be the bait for the margin and pellet up in the water.

As I had time, I also set up a rig to fish soft pellet at 14m, under the loose feed and another to fish meat at 6m - which only produced one bite, so no more of that.  Starting on the pole at 14m, it was slow going and it took 15 mins to get the first fish, a decent carp of 8lb. Tony had asked any bites yet, as my elastic came out, seconds later he was into his first fish.  I'm not sure whether it was the lack of ripple, but the fish were slow coming on the shallow rig, having 4 in the first hour and 20 mins.  During this time I did try a soft pellet at full depth, it got ragged off the hook by small fish, the carp didn't want to be down in the colder water at those depths.

The margin produced a couple of fish on meat, but as I could see Ron Hardiman catching in the margin at 14m, I couldn't get further away than 4m, too close. The wind had now got up and the desired ripple had the opposite effect, killing both mine and Tony's open water shallow lines. I had seen some carp rolling further out, so out with the waggler and that accounted for 4 fish, before the wind strength increased and put the mockers on that.

 As I had a hour and a half spell when I caught nothing, I was well behind Tony, Ron and Aaron Britnell who was catching some decent fish. I had expected this to be the first match of the year that I didn't have any wriggly bait, but I had put a few worms in the bottom of the bait bag. Whole Dendra over the meat down the margin accounted for 3 more fish before the margin went quiet again.  I potted in some micro's and whole dendras at 14m, first put in, after a short wait, saw a double figure fish netted, then a couple of smaller ones. I then hooked (probably fouled) a big fish that managed to bottom out white hydro and snap the 0.14 hooklength, bugger.

A last look back in the margin and a decent fish hooked, it was determined to get round the point into peg 22 and in applying pressure, it I thought, came off. Looking at the rig the hook was gone, leaving the tale tell curly wurly pig tail of a knot slipped over the spade. How does this happen 5 hours and 59 minutes into a match, on a rig that has landed a few fish, up to 8lb?  I am now considering throwing all spade end hook, for use with 0.16 and above,  in the bin, as this seems to be something I cannot prevent happening, no matter how carefully I tie the hook. It doesn't happen with 0.14 and below.

So, the crappy hook knot cost me 100lb, as my fish went 96.13, which wasn't enough, that quiet 1½ hour spell, where it seemed as every fish had vacated the peg, proved to be my downfall, as the three that beat me, managed to keep the odd fish coming during this period. So frustrating, but it was nice to get back to actually being able to feed with a catapult and not be weighing up whether to feed 4 or 6 maggots or micros.

1. Aaron Britnell 126.10 peg 10
2. Tony Rixon  123.15 peg 20
3. Ron Hardiman 122.10 peg 17
4. Chris Fox 96.13 peg 23
5. John Thompson 64.00 peg 12
6. Jason Radford 55.08 peg 6

Silvers

Nigel Bartlett 35.08 peg 8

Pole Only Series R3, Acorn, Sunday 14th April 2013

First thing of note today, was the good feeling of waving the ice breaker cheerio as it stayed in the garage. With temperatures now into double figures °C I had considered making today a pellet only attack, but its tricky to go fishing without any casters, so a pint of Tony's freshly turned caster and 1/2 a pint of maggot also graced my bait bag.

After his recent run, Bob Gullick has now earned the name Bob 'The Bridge' Gullick, (or The Troll) as his run of drawing bridge pegs continues, this time the sheltered side of the far bridge, peg 21. Another drawing arm to note is that of series newcomer Pete Bartlett, who has now drawn peg 9, 8 and 12 (10 and 11 aren't in).

As this was one of the rotation rounds, we drew one section at a time, I waited and took the last peg in C section and wasn't too happy to see peg 18, not the favoured 12 or one of the two bridge pegs in the section.  C section was the only section where all the pegs offered no respite from the gusting wind, which necessitated pegging down my pole rollers to stop them blowing away. It was fairly obvious that I wasn't going to be able to fish the far shelf, but in the hope that at some time I could get over there I set up a MW Slim that takes 4x10 stotz on 0.14 with a 16 63.13 hook. The same rig would do for the near margin, down to the pallet of 17.

The main line of attack would have to be down the track at about 8m, as that was all I could hold and hope to achieve any sort of presentation. A .8 MW Diamond with a 0.12 hooklength and 18 Silverfish match hook was put on the top kit and with some line on the bottom and two back shot, I could get it to sit still, but a much heavier float than I'd usually use in these depths.  I also set one up with a band on a hair rig, just in case they went mad, that rig never got used.

A 4x18 Jolly to fish at the bottom of the near shelf completed the set up, by the time I sorted out my bait and had a chat with Bob 'The Bridge' - who kindly gave me the groundbait he'd prepared, as he was going to catch so many carp on the bridge, he wouldn't need it - before it was time for the all in.

Very difficult to present a static bait and get the float dotted down to see finicky bites, but I did have a bite first drop in and that resulted in a perch which probably weighed about double the maggot it took.  I then lost a couple of small fish, as the wind buffeted the pole, before a couple more of the micro perch joined their mate in the net. A switch to the 2+1 line at the bottom of the near shelf, with caster, resulted in a twitch of the float and a 6oz roach joined the perch, next drop in a 6oz skimmer and next a small carp, again on caster, that was to be it, not another bite from that line.

I was struggling to get a bite anywhere in the peg and in desperation, went across the far shelf, but it was physically impossible to hold the pole at that length, so back down the track, where I had fed two lines, one with Bob's groundbait and one with a few micro's - I never had a bite on pellet on any line, so a good job I hadn't gambled on it being a pellet dominated match.

I managed a couple of skimmers and another roach from the groundbait line, a small carp from the margin and with nearly 4 hours gone I must have been last or last but one in the section with not even 3lb in the net.  Thankfully, the wind dropped and I quickly put the sections on to get the MW Slim to the far shelf, feeding caster, with a couple of maggots in and double maggot on the hook saw me start to get a few bites. For the second match running I had Ken Rayner for company on the next peg and he had snuck out a couple of skimmers before landing a decent tench, he followed this with another tench and a few carp and was thinking of silvers money.

Initially going over to the far shelf brought me a rudd, a couple of roach and a skimmer, before a tench and a 2lb perch boosted my own silvers, I also managed a few carp on the maggot over caster, all up the shelf and this turned my dire weight with 4 hours gone into a section second and second silvers section, with 9.13 of silvers and 27.12 of carp for 37.09, Ken did manage his silvers money, by triple default with 9.03.  An enjoyable last 2 hours, just a shame the first four were ruined by the wind.

1) Mike Owens 83.08 peg 7
2) Pete Bartlett 75.14 peg 12
3) Lewis Jones 70.12 peg 8
4) Tim Ford 60.01 peg 30
=5) Tom Thick 54.03 peg 40
=5) Andy France 54.03 peg 9

Silvers

1) John Bradford 16.12 peg A6
2) Lance Tucker 14.15 peg A3
3) Mark Broomsgrove 12.14 peg 36

A section:

1) Joe McMahon 36.06 peg A4
2) Mike Nicholls 22.00 peg A8
Silvers: John Bradford 16.12 peg A6

B Section:

1) Mike Owens 83.08 peg 7
2) Lewis Jones 70.12 peg 8
Silvers: Mike Owens 5.03 peg 8

C Section:

1) Pete Bartlett 75.14 peg 12
2) Chris Fox 37.09 peg 18
Silvers: Pete Bartlett 10.08 peg 12

D Section:

1) Tim Ford 60.01 peg 30
2) John Osborne 53.09 peg 38
Silvers: Mark Broomsgrove 12.14 peg 36

Pole Only 2013 Overall Table
After Three Matches
Name			Points		Weight
1	Pete Bartlett		24		209	4
2	Mike Nicholls		22		76	4
3	Lance Tucker		21		67	13
4	Tim Ford		20		93	12
5	Chris Fox		19		106	8
6	Bob Gullick		19		104	8
7	Lewis Jones		17		157	5
8	Mike Owens		17		150	0
9	Tom Thick		17		106	1
10	Paul Faiers		17		94	1
11	Dave Wride		16		47	8
12	Bela Bakos		15		91	6
13	Tony Rixon		15		55	8
14	Nigel Vigus		15		44	1
15	John Osborne		14		84	10
16	Matt Tomes		14		72	13
17	Joe McMahon		14		54	8
18	Mark Broomsgrove		13		74	9
19	Andy France		11		87	5
20	Glenn Calvert		11		40	1
21	R Peck		10		69	9
22	Kev Perry		10		41	2
23	John Bradford		10		34	14
24	Paul Lasson		9		33	13
25	Eddie Wynne		8		66	15
26	Glenn Bailey		8		62	0
27	Brian Slipper		8		56	9
28	Gordon Canning		8		33	1
29	Dave Poole		8		18	6
30	Nick Harvey		7		14	6
31	Ken Rayner		6		51	7
32	Phil Harding		4		44	11

Pole Only 2013 Silvers Table
After Three Matches
Name			Points		Weight
1	Mark Broomsgrove		24		31	6
2	Glenn Calvert		20		14	5
3	Nigel Vigus		19		25	0
4	Kev Perry		18		18	8
5	Pete Bartlett		18		15	2
6	Tony Rixon		17		10	14
7	R Peck		16		13	4
8	Dave Wride		16		11	11
9	Andy France		15		24	14
10	John Bradford		15		23	12
11	Chris Fox		15		14	1
12	Mike Owens		14		7	4
13	Eddie Wynne		14		7	0
14	Tom Thick		13		45	10
15	Glenn Bailey		13		38	0
16	Lance Tucker		13		23	15
17	Paul Faiers		13		15	4
18	Joe McMahon		13		8	8
19	Dave Poole		12		15	15
20	Tim Ford		12		14	13
21	Matt Tomes		12		11	6
22	Ken Rayner		11		14	15
23	Paul Lasson		11		12	2
24	Brian Slipper		11		8	13
25	Phil Harding		9		9	3
26	Bob Gullick		9		3	11
27	Mike Nicholls		8		11	10
28	John Osborne		7		4	11
29	Bela Bakos		6		7	2
30	Gordon Canning		5		2	6
31	Lewis Jones		5		1	11
32	Nick Harvey		2		2	4