Avon Angling Open, Landsend, 28th September 2014

Part two of the birthday weekend and a trip to Landsend, via the ever reliable Shipham café, I had held off any excessive celebration, so was pretty clear headed and ready for the challenge of beating a water where I have often struggled when targeting carp.  I had toyed with the idea of taking casters and fishing for silvers, but it was a fairly fleeting thought, soon pushed out of my mind, as the warm weather should see some carp caught.

I drew peg 25 a corner peg, but it has been the wrong end of the lake for a while now, but who knows, with this unseasonal weather  maybe the fish will have moved around the lake.  I had Tony Rixon on peg 40, the opposite corner, so a tough ask to beat him, as he knows the venue better than most.  With peg 26 not in, I could, should I so desire, fish to the island, but as it was 19-20m away, I left the extra extension in the holdall and set up a shallow rig to fish at 17.5m, which is hard work.

I also set up a rig to fish meat at 5m (this would also do for soft pellet as the depths around the peg varied by only 2” or so).  A rig to fish banded pellet at 14.5m and a margin rig, to fish at 13m along the end bank, where the depth was getting on for 2’, near the maximum depth I like for fishing loose groundbait.

I started on the 14.5m line, hoping to snare some decent skimmers amongst the carp, but the only bite was from a 3oz specimen, just big enough to get the 6mm pellet in its mouth.  Tony had managed to mug a cruising fish and was getting some bites by fishing 17m towards the island, so I braced myself for aching shoulders and went out there as well.  I hooked a decent fish, it came off , not foul hooked, so no idea why.  I then proceeded to lose 4 more fish, including one that was close to 18lb, I must admit that induced a mild bout of Tourettes, as it was now over an hour in and I was 5 fish behind Tony, with 5 having shed the hook.

I had been pinging a few pellets along the edge and dropped the shallow rig in, this produced a few liners and a lost foul hooker, so I decided to feed a couple of big pots of loose groundbait and try a bunch of maggots.  The fish were there, but I wasn’t convinced the maggots were a big enough target bait, so swapped to double worm, this produced a run of fish, before the margin went dead.  I had a look on the 5m meat line and this produced one bite that I missed, that was the only bite from the few times I tried it, so no more about that.

I had refed the open water at 13m, rather than the original 14.5 and this did start to fizz, I dropped over it with a soft pellet and managed a skimmer, next drop in I tried a piece of corn, this brought an instant bite and another near double figure carp. No more bites forthcoming on corn, but the fizzing was now changing into the circular patches of tell tale carp bubbles. So I found the paste and rig left over from yesterday and went in with it, this produced a couple more fish, resting that I went back into the margin, which I had kept feeding, this also produced fish again and between the two lines I kept fish coming until the all-out, which just as yesterday, came too soon.

I had never recovered the 5 fish I was behind Tony, as the fishless first 90 minutes and another spell in the middle of the match cost me, but my 123lb was my first ton at Landsend, enough for 2^nd on the lake behind Tony and fourth overall.  So a pick up two days running, two ton weights and the weekend was nicely rounded off by a couple of beers and a curry at the excellent Blue Ginger.

1: Craig ‘Trigger’ Edmunds 202.14 peg 17

2: Tony Rixon 144.02  peg 40

3: Tim Clark 129.14  peg 17

4: Chris Fox  123.00  peg 25

5: Paul Elmes 114.13 peg 38

6: Steve Seagar 110.05  peg  33

Silvers

1: Nicky Collins 29.05 peg 34

2: Nigel Bartlett 18.02  peg 12

Viaduct Open, Saturday 27th September 2014

Travelled to Viaduct with Mike Walker, who wanted to have a practice before the all-winners final,  the conversation helps make the journey seem shorter than when travelling alone, especially when he told me he’d been testing his paste in the fish tank and it sent it cloudy……

With today being my birthday, I was hoping for a good draw and a decent day, I had first dip in the coffee tin and pulled out two stuck together, this happened twice more, before at the fourth time of asking, I managed to pick up a single ticket, which put me on 86 on Cary.  Mike pulled out  125 on Campbell, so we managed  two draws that can produce. 19 fishing today, 6 on Cary and 13 on Campbell.

The weather was muggy and overcast, without a breath of wind, so no ripple; that was about the only downer, as I prefer fishing Cary when it has a ripple on it.  I set up two wagglers, one full depth, one shallow, a lead rod to fish pellet on the straight lead and 3 topkits, one to fish banded pellet at 13m, another for meat at 5-6m and a margin rig, as there was a perfect depth for the groundbait approach down to my left.

On the all in I started on the full depth waggler, to no avail, there were some fish moving under the surface, so a switch to the shallow waggler seemed to be the solution, it wasn’t, half an hour in and not a bite on either waggler.  85 was catching the odd fish on the lead, so I tried that, it produced one bite, one fish in the next half an hour.  I had brought a few slices of bread and tried this next, second put in a 14lber had fallen for it, but that was to be the only bite and as I was getting no liners or other indications, I came in on the 13m pole line.  This produced a skimmer, but was equally slow in respect of carp, a hopeful, but not optimistic look on the meat line produced two skimmers, no sign of a carp.

I did managed to tempt one back out on the 13m line, but by the halfway stage I had 3 fish for 30+lbs, not good and I fed the margin, as by now I was a long way behind peg 85, who was keeping fish coming on the lead, he had a large patch of fizzing in front of him, but the fish seemed reluctant to move.  The margin was as devoid of fish as the rest of the peg, so I kept swapping between all the lines in the hope the fish would move in on one or more of them.  I had no one to my left and the diagonal bank was also unoccupied, so the fish had plenty of space to back off into (Cary was pegged 77-86), not sure if that did me any favours.

With an hour and a half to go, I was looking at a proper battering from peg 85, when I saw some fizzing start over the 13m line, I made up a paste rig and dropped some paste in on that line, taking two fish in quick succession, another look into the margin and the float buried, an angry 15lb common was landed, I refed and went back in, float buried again and another double netted, this carried on until the all out, I was broken twice (0.20) by fish from this margin, as they all bolted towards peg 95 when they were hooked.  The final hour had saved my blushes and had it been a final 90 minutes, the rate I was catching I might have stood a chance of the win.  Given that I had 37lb in the net with 1 ¾ of an hour to go, I was reasonably pleased to end up with 146lb and fourth, taking the section money.

Afterwards, Mike told me he had had an accusatory text,  wanting an explanation of what had he put in his misses fish tank……  lol.  He had got off to a flyer on 125, catching well on the lead, but they didn’t keep coming and Campbell fished hard (by it’s exceptional standard) , Mike ending up with 72.10.

1: Jim Morrison  196.08 peg 85

2: Gary Mealing 166.03  peg 77

3: Roy Worth  165.12 peg 80

4: Chris Fox  146.12  peg 86

5: Mark Wynne 139.09 peg 116

6: Phil Cardwell 114.14  peg 119

Silvers

1: Simon Jones   44.02  peg 123

2: Bob Gullick  43.04  peg 112

3: Nigel Bartlett  42.02 peg 78

How End Fishery - Garbolino Academy Day Friday 19th September.

I entered a competition on Match Fishing Scene, much more in hope than expectation, as my luck in winning competitions, seems to be wrought from the same substance as my drawing arm.  The prize was a coaching day at one of the Garbolino Academy days, there were several venues to chose from and having read some good stuff about How End, I put my name down for that, after a quick look at a map, it didn't look too far from Banbury........

I was shocked and stunned to be drawn from the hat, although I suspect there were 5 entry's for the 5 places, as that shattered my run of never winning a prize in a competition.  In the week leading up to the day, I gleaned a little information about How End and a late visit to Tony's (Rixon) saw 3 pints of caster in the fridge ready to take.

I had put the postcode in the sat nav and it said 2 hours 35 minutes... hmm, maybe Tunnel Barn Farm would have been a better choice, still I had the results of the Sweaties vote to listen to on the radio and left home at 06.17, thinking that might get me there for 09.00ish.  Hopelessly optimistic would be an understatement, optimism is not something I am known for having an abundance of, so where it came from I'm not sure.

The journey wasn't too bad until I got near the outskirts of Oxford, 40 minutes to do a bit under 4 miles and the sat nav was increasing the arrival time at a pace far exceeding my progress.  A slow and steady drive to Milton Keynes, where my frustration went up a few more notches, what a dreadful place that is, roadworks everywhere and no soul.  The last minor annoyance was the new road layout, which showed me driving in a field and unable to get to the turning it was saying I should go down, but this added a mere 3 or 4 minutes to a 3 hour 35 minute drive!!

A warm greeting on arrival from Darren Cox and Simon Fry, which was difficult to reciprocate with enthusiasm, as I was in dire need of getting to the toilet!!  They selected a peg for me and even helped carry my gear around, a visit to the on site shop, which I didn't look round, due to my late arrival, to get some pellet and off to the peg, 15 on Danis lake.

Whilst I had brought plenty of caster and worm, I had also put a feeder rod in the bag and decided that I would learn a lot more by fishing and being coached on this, than fishing W&C - bear in mind I have fished a method feeder abou 5 or 6 times in my life!!

 I set up two pole rigs, both to fish caster/worm, a NG Gimp with a bulk and two droppers, a 16 6313 on 0.12 finished this off.  The other rig was a Chianti, strung out shot and set at 2/3 depth, same line and hook.  The feeder rod had a free running method on it and a 16QM1 with a spike to fish band um's.

Starting on the pole, as Darren & Simon were tied up, I had a nice run of fish, a real mixed bag, carp to 3lb, small tench, crucians, 6oz roach, 12oz skimmers, just loose feeding caster and fishing 1/3 dendra on the hook.  Simon then came round and the pole went up the bank and I started catching fish on the method, once he had sorted my micro's out.

This slowed, so a swap to 3 dead maggots brought a few more fish and Simon went off after we chewed the fat about fishing in the late 70's and 80's.  I had a spell of 1/2 an hour without a fish, so picked the catapult up and pinged a few pellets over to the island, the tip went straight round and next cast I hadn't even got the rod on the rest before another took the maggots.

Another quiet spell so back on the pole and the mixed bag continued, before Darren arrived and suggested some changes to the method hook/band and hook bait, this worked a treat and I was catching well until a fish broke me - this was 10lb line - but it felt abraded and I think the sliding of the feeder had damaged it.  Re set up with a new feeder on about 18" twizzled line and back into the fish, until one took me into a root and snagged me, snapping the lot off again.

I decided to have the last hour on the pole, catching carp to 4lb and then, coming in on the top kit fishing double maggot, a run of 12oz skimmers. With thunder rumbling off to the south, I decided to call it a day at 17.00 and packed up, with the best part of 30lb of silvers and (sorry Phil, fishery owner) well over the 50lb limit in the carp net, I think as I was talking and listening, I just didn't realise the number of fish I had caught.

The fishery is a pleasant looking venue, a nice variety of fish, although, even with the fishery rules of no elastic heavier than black hydro (I used white hydro) there were some of the tench and small carp with mouth damage, an inevitable consequence of fishing for small fish I guess.  I would return, if it was closer, although my personal preference is for waters bigger than this, but it would be a great place to try things out.

The journey home wasn't quite so bad, I shaved half an hour off it and rewarded myself by stopping in the chippy in Brislington, large cod and chips, with mushy peas to round off the day.

So, I learnt a few tricks, it was nice to see the fishery after reading about it, shame I didn't get to meet Phil, the owner and I would recommend a trip there if you live within a reasonable difference, a big thank you to Simon and Darren for their time and patience, it was a pleasant way to spend the day and the frustrations of the drive up, soon evaporated.

Working all this weekend, so it looks like Viaduct next Saturday will be my next day out.

Trinity Waters 2 Day Festival 4th and 5th October 2014

I said I'd post this up for Misha, she is running a 2 dayer, both on Woodland on 4th and 5th October 2014.

£50 entry which is for both days and there will be an optional superpool.

For full details contact Misha

http://www.trinitywaters.co.uk

Short Pole Series, Final round. Trinity Waters. Sunday 14th September 2014

Having got home from Gran Canaria in the wee small hours and 3 hours sleep, I was grateful for the lift from match organiser Tony Rixon.  I had got everything ready before I went on holiday and was grateful there was no delay on the flight home, as lying in second place in the league I wanted to at least consolidate that, if not win it.

My best hope of overtaking league leader Paul Elmes, was to draw in the same section as him, but that wasn't to be, as I drew peg 27 and he was on the far bank, peg 12.  Of those who could catch me up, I had Trigger and Glen Bailey in the section, Shaun Townsend on end peg 23 was in with a good chance of winning his section, so I needed to not blow out.

I had read the blogs/heard how the lake fished last week, so had added a couple of extras to the bait bag, just to give me options if it was similarly difficult.  Main attack was to be pellet, with the option of fishing paste over it, one margin was to be particle fed, just meat and corn, one to be fed groundbait/maggot and see which worked. Although the margins aren't brilliant with every peg in, being a bit short.

4 rigs today, a paste rig, two very similar rigs - MW diamonds, one with a banded hook, one with a spade end and a rig that would do for either margin.

I started on a soft pellet and had a small carp, then a couple of skimmers, before liners became an issue, losing a couple of foul hookers, which were sitting about 12" off bottom.  I tried stopping feeding, this meant no bites or liners, so I fed a bigger pot, this resulted in two fish on paste, before the liners got troublesome again.  I tried coming off the bottom, set up a shallow rig and a light 'deep shallow' rig, all to no avail.

I wasn't alone in struggling, Craig 'Trigger' Edmunds, next to me was finding it tough going, as could most I could see.  By the half way point I had less than double figures, as my three carp were small, along with three small skimmers.  Earlier than I would have wanted, I fed the GB/maggot edge and left it 10 minutes, before dropping a bunch of maggots in, only for the hordes of fry to rag them off the hook.  A switch to double worm saw a angry common that doubled my weight netted.  A look to the particle fed margin with maggot, meat, corn and worm was pointless and it didn't produce a bite all match.

The GB margin was enticing the odd fish in, which was revealed by the hordes of fry leaping out when a carp arrived, if a bite was missed, or the carp brushed the line, there was as a swirl and the fish was gone, taking up to 15 minutes for another to come back. A couple more margin carp on worm and a skimmer and carp on worm over the open water pellet line saw me end the match behind a couple of the pegs to my right, but hopefully not lower than third in section.  My 42.02 was enough for third in section (even took the section money by default) and more importantly, enough to keep me in second place on weight, so a decent serie and worth the lack of sleep.

On the day:

1: Shaun Townsend 72.11 peg 23
2: Glen Bailey 59.01 peg 26
3: Dick Bull 58.04 peg 24
4: Dave Evans 51.03 peg 9
5: Bela Bakos 50.06 peg 31
6: Tom Mangnall 50.02 peg 17

Silvers on the day.

Joe McMahon 19.03 peg 32

League Overall.

1: Paul Elmes 23 points
2: Chris Fox 20 points - 305.02
3: Shaun Townsend 20 points - 290.01
4: Glen Bailey 19 points
5: Craig Edmunds 18 points - 263.05
6: Dave Evans 18 points - 178.01

Viaduct Costcutter, Thursday 28th August 2014

I got to Viaduct and discovered that I had left my lead rods at home, oh well, that whats you get for fishing the day after an all day session, watching England get humiliated by India, in Cardiff.  Not a great loss, unless I drew Cary, which I didn't, 127 was my peg, just one along from Sunday, so at least the rigs would be just about right.... 27 fishing this one today.

Looking at the weigh sheet from Wednesdays match, it looked like I was on wrong bank, as the winning weights, four over 200lb were all from the Cary side of the lake.  A phone call to Yesterdays winner, Tony Rixon,  gleaned me a bit of information, I set up a shallow rig, but this didn't get used, a rig to fish meat short, another to fish it at 13m and a margin rig, although with 126 and 128 in, that was more in hope than expectation.

Two waggler rods completed the tackle set up and I was sat ready for the off, starting at 13m with meat, saw a foul hooker lost and lots of missed bites, the wind got up and I abandoned the 13m line, I had a couple short on meat, but Chris Rolfe on 126 was catching on the lead, so I switched to the full depth waggler and had one first cast, I had one more and there were a few swirls when the pellets landed, so a switch to the pellet waggler brought a fish straight away, but that was to be my only bite on it.

A pattern was forming, switch lines, bait or method and get a fish, then nothing, by the half way point I had about 50lb and even switching lines  had stopped working, bites were hard to come by.  I fed the margins and went back to trying to catch in the open water, but within 10 minutes I tried the margin, this produced the biggest fish of the day, a 12lber and then a 3lb bream and following the pattern, that was the end of the margin.

The short meat line started to fizz again and this did produce a run of fish, although the bites on meat were a bit 'iffy' and difficult to hit, a switch to worm over the meat feed saw the bites become much more positive and resulted in a properly hooked fish every time. As seems to happen a lot lately, the all out came just when I was in a good spell of catching, the last hour had seen me add a few lbs to the net and the nets went 146.01 for 3rd on the day.

1: Dave White 190.04 peg 77
2: Giles Cochrane 155.12 peg 119
3: Chris Fox 146.01 peg 127
4: Andy Eagles 145.14 peg 125
5: P Nut 128.05 peg 132
6: J Guy 123.11peg 130

Silvers

1: Glenn Calvert 33.00 peg 85
2: Martin Preston 32.08 peg 111

Float Only League, Final Round, Viaduct, Sunday 24th August 2014

As I was too far from the leaders to make the section points count, this last round of the float only league was in reality for me, a 40 peg open.  A decent draw on either Campbell or Cary would suit and whilst I wasn’t running to it, 128 is not the worst draw on the complex, although it has a varied record.

I set up two wagglers, one shallow and one full depth, which was wasn’t deep, I had little over 2’ anywhere in the peg, so not too much difference between the shallow and depth rigs. The pole rigs consisted of a meat rig to fish at 6m, a shallow pellet rig (which didn’t come out of the roost), a full depth pellet rig, a margin rig to fish up against the spit and a paste rig, as I wasn’t sure which would be better, paste or meat.

I started on the depth waggler, double pouching 8mm pellets to try and keep the fish on the deck, I had a 3lb fish on this within the first few minutes, but it was a false dawn and 2 ½ hours later I had managed one more fish on paste, it was almost a case of Déjà vu from yesterday. 

I had a conversation with Tony Rixon earlier in the week and we had agreed that 100lb was an achievable weight from virtually every peg on Campbell during the summer months; that discussion point was looking like biting me firmly on the ass.

I had been feeding a short meat line and this produced two 6oz skimmers, to accompany the two carp, the shallow water in this peg was not conducive to the fish coming short and I had been reluctant to go to the spit too early, but by the halfway point, I had to, as I still had less than 10lb in the net.

I opted for the groundbait approach at 10m along the spit, the first drop in saw a fish come to the net and the 3 more, before it went quiet, I refed and had another look on the meat line, this gave up another skimmer and two carp, but the bites were few and far between. With two hours to go I went back to the spit and had fish right up to the end with the peg getting stronger and stronger, shame they were mostly 3-5lb fish, with only a two 8 or 9lber’s. 125lb of my total came in those last 2 hours, shame it wasn’t like that for 4 or 5 hours…..

 4 skimmers and a couple of perch, along with the carp went 151.00, too little too late, I didn’t see the completed weigh sheets, but I think I was about 10^th overall with that weight, beaten into third in the section by pegs 124 and 126, who had the advantage of 125 being waggler fished only, as Tim Clark had a family issue to deal with and left shortly before the all-in, with Martin McMahon using Tim’s waggler rod to fish the peg.

Maybe I should have gone to the spit a bit earlier; would they have come and settled there with confidence?  If they had I would have been looking at a framing place, so perhaps I got that wrong as the bites were so few and far between in the open water. 

1: Craig 'Trigger' Edmunds 245.15 peg 111

2: Paul Elmes 130.15 peg 130

3: Ray hayward 179.15 peg 126

4: Lee Werritt 169.15 peg 112

5: Shaun Townsend  167.02 peg 118

Silvers

1: Dan Squires 36.13 peg 76

Maver Pairs, Larford Lakes, Saturday 23 August 2014

I had paired up with Mike Walker to fish this match and given that Mike has fished the Match lake a few times, he was going to be on there and myself on Speci lake.  We had a decent drive up and had decided that my drawing arm should be kept well away from the draw buckets today, so Mike did the honours, giving me peg 9 on Speci and himself peg 13 (or was it 11, bit of a senior moment here…) on Match.

The latest results and information we had was from the UK Champs which had been on Wednesday, Mike was definitely at the ‘right’ end of his section and my draw wasn’t too bad, that’s if the fish hadn’t used their fins……

Plenty of time to get ready, but I wasn’t tempted to set up more than I planned, we had discussed a basic plan and decided not to deviate from this, as in a 5 hour match against some venue experts and top anglers, we felt our best chance was not having too many options.  This for me was a method feeder, a straight lead, pellet waggler and a rig for 5-7m (wherever the  shelf/bottom, plumbed up with a not too steep slope).  The plan was to start on the method feeder, whilst feeding a bomb/waggler line frequently with 8mm pellets, the method was fished a little way past this to show any liners, indicating the fish were over the bomb line.

First chuck in I had a drop back on the method, I missed the freespool lever and the baitrunner span like a whirling dervish, creating a huge birds nest of the line, which was never going to be untangled. So I had to handline it back in, new spool on and reset up, I may have well as not bothered, there were no further bites forthcoming.  

To cut a long and boring story short, I managed one carp, on the pellet waggler, the only bite I had.  After about 3 ½ hours I deviated from the plan and tried worm on the pole, hoping to catch anything, just to put another fish in the net. This was pointless, as I had no indication of any kind on the pole.  I wasn’t alone in struggling there were a fair few who managed less than my one carp, the weights were low, with only a handful of the 50 odd of anglers on the lake managing to put 5 or 6 fish together.

Meanwhile, whilst I was letting the side down, Mike fished a tidy match and kept alternating between method and bomb, various baits and put together a section winning 59lb.  It was very disappointing to do so poorly, bu I really have no idea what I could have done differently, apart from stick to one method the whole match, the lake fished so badly, I have was a loss to know what I could have done to get more than the one bite.

I didn’t get the results, but they should be on the Larford website in the next couple of days.