Tony Rixon's Float Only League, Round One, Viaduct, Sunday 31st May 2015

This is going to be short, as there isn't much to write about.  This really starts on Thursday, when I was discussing this match with Tony and asking if he was putting peg 109 in, as I had a bad feeling that I would draw it, if he did.

I wasn't at all surprised when it came out of the draw tin, disappointed and pissed off yes, surprised no.  When I went to look at the peg, there were a couple of carp showing themselves in the RH margin, as everyone came into the car park and got their gear, slamming car doors etc, the fish moved up the lake and I didn't see a sign of a fish again.

I set up a waggler, but the wind and the trees made it impossible to get it where I wanted it, so up the bank with it after 10 minutes of trying, not to be used again.

I set up 5 topkits, 2 for the edge as the margins were different depths and I wanted to feed GB in one and particles in the other, a meat rig, a pellet rig for 13m towards the willow tree and just in case, a paste rig.

Starting on the meat short, I had a small (for Cary) carp and then a small tench, that apart from a roach, was that for the meat line for the rest of the day, after half an hour I switched to the 13m pellet line, fishing a 8mm pellet over 6mm feed.  Another carp, this one a bit bigger, but still not a 'Barney' and that apart from 4 skimmers proved to be that for the pellet line. I swapped between meat, pellet and both margins, as well as trying paste for the next 4 hours and had one carp at about 2pm from the LH margin at 14.5m.

That was the sole action until 25 minutes before the all out, when I had 2 more carp, lost a fouler and lost one that got snagged in something under the willow tree.  I had landed plenty of sticks, twigs and other various bits of foliage, but the peg seemed to be fairly devoid of fish, the RH margin produced 2 perch and the ducks mopped the rest of the bait up.

My fish went 44lb for a section win, so some consolation for 6 hours of intense effort.  But once again, I found myself in the worst section, an ongoing theme since my days of team fishing in the 70's and 80's.... 

I didn't get the results, but Tony won from 114, with 176lb, Trigger 2nd from 96 with 175lb and Glenn Calvert top silvers with 38lb.  See Tony's blog for full result.

Costcutter Open, Avalon, Thursday 28th May 2015

As much as I enjoy fishing Viaduct, it’s nice to have some variety, so I booked into this week’s costcutter at Avalon.  I was quite intent on just taking 6 & 8mm pellets and a bag of paste, but a conversation with owner Vic Bush saw me putting so GB and a kilo of worms (that have been in the fridge since March, surely they won’t last much longer) into the bait bag.

Travelling down with Tony Rixon,  we had the usual Shipham brekkie and then drew next to each other, me on peg 5 and Tony on 3.  He badgered me into a £1 side bet, which I don’t usually indulge in, it was because he knew I had the worms and would be tempted to use them……….

A short walk and plenty of time, so I set up a pellet waggler, a depth waggler and a lead rod.  Three topkits as well, a rig to fish banded pellet, one for paste and one for down the edge.  Bait tray just had 6 & 8mm pellets initially and I started on the pellet waggler.  This was producing bites and fish, not big fish, several carp to 3lb and a couple of hybrids which were just over 1lb.  The fish were tight to the rushes and backing off into the gap under a tree, after the first hour which saw 20lb in the net, the wind made the waggler fishing fairly pointless, it kept switching directiom fron R-L and then back to L-R.  It wasn’t even a consistent breeze up the lake, just a wind lane which was less than 2m wide and this was catching the line and pulling the float along within seconds of it landing.

I did try the lead, but 10 minutes of watching a motionless tip was enough, so I had a look over the feed I’d put in on the pole line, nothing,  not that I was surprised, as I hadn’t seen any blowing or other signs of fish.  Time to mix the GB and try the worms, this was fairly uneventful, then Vic turned up and encouraged me to up the feed, this brought a 6oz rudd to the worm bait, this remained the only fish caught on this bait.

Dropping paste over the worm/GB feed, saw a carp netted, a carp lost then three skimmers of a decent size landed, before the line quietened down again. I refed and had another look on the waggler, this brought another odd fish or two, but the wind remained a constant frustration to presenting a bait that wasn’t trotting along and away from the rushes.

Back on the paste and another fish netted, but it was slow going and at the all-out, I knew my messing about with worms had cost me £1 to Mr Rixon.  Vic jumped on my box and had a go with the paste, landing a 13lb fish shortly afterwards…….  How do they know the match has finished??

So, with hindsight, 6 hours thrashing the reeds with a waggler would probably have been the best thing to do, also a lesson learnt about feeding at Avalon – they want some, no place for gentle drip feeding here!!  Frustrating but enjoyable day, hopefully I can get back here before too long, my fish went 64.15 and that 13lb carp that Vic had after the whistle on my gear would have seen my £1 safe if it had found the paste 10 minutes earlier……..

1: Glenn Bailey 108lb peg 16

2: Mike West 99.13 peg 1

3: Tony Rixon 72.07 peg 3

4: Paul Lock 67.02

5: Chris Fox 64.15 peg 5

Silvers

1: Mike Nicholls 37.10 peg 23

2: Paul Lock 35.01

Viaduct Spring League, Round Three, Sunday 24th May 2015

I should have known that today was all going to go wrong after the week I've had.  Last Saturday driving to Viaduct, the van started to make a noise, I suspected a charge air hose, but the turbo and hoses are tight between the back of the engine and the bulkhead.  I put it into the local diesel specialists, as it needed a ramp to sort it, I am still in shock from when they rang, "it's not the charge air hose, it's the turbo, that'll be the best part of grand" including the bloody VAT - what value is there in that for me...... 

So without a van, Tony Rixon kindly picked me up and I squeezed in with him and Fabio. we were going to try The Brewers Fayre in Glastonbury for breakfast, the second time in a week my wallet has been hammered!!  £8.75 for breakfast, I reckon that's the first and last visit there.

Now onto the match and there is little of consequence to write about, I drew 135, which is a feast or famine peg, after Ben had 220lb off it last week I was hopeful of catching a few, but when I got to the peg, my hopes faded pretty rapidly.  The pipe was running water into the RH side of  peg 136, I believe this comes in at about 11deg, so cooling the area. There was a lot of debris and detritus floating about on the surface and an unpleasant looking green scum lining the margins. (Is that enough excuses now....). 

I felt there would be little point in getting either a lead rod or waggler rod out of the bag, so 4 topkits, a meat rig for 6 sections, a pellet rig for 14m and two margin rigs, one with a banded hooklength and one without.  In my experience, when this peg does well, it's the margins that do the damage, so that was my main line of attack, but I started on the meat and had a fish after 10 minutes, after that came the start of the days major frustration, tiny roach and skimmers whittling down 8mm and even 11mm pellets, meat, tugging at double worm and holding 7 maggots and the bulk shot off the bottom.  I would go as far to say, that this was the worst I have ever experienced this at Viaduct and whilst it seems like an easy cop out, I honestly believe it was due to the lack of bigger fish in the peg to push them out.

I fed groundbait into the LH margin and had a perch and two rudd from there, no sign of a carp, the RH margin produced six carp to 8mm pellet over the full duration of the match, I had two fish on pellet at 14m and two fish on meat at 6 sections, the shallow water can be where they want to be some days, but not it would appear, today.  I reckon I had 65lb by the end and with the next lowest weight in the section being 80lb, I didn't trouble the scales, as it wouldn't affect either my or anyone elses league position.  No results, you'll find them on Tony's blog.

Short Pole Series, Round Two, Trinity Waters. Sunday 17th May 2015

I was expecting this to fish well after the warmer weather and wind oxygenating the water, but it proved to be a struggle for many!!

With a couple of the league anglers off watching some pointless non-league football match, we had some stand-in's, so the match was up to strength in numbers.  Bob Gullick did look a bit upset when he realised the bridge pegs on the venue weren't on the lake we were fishing.......

When I got to the draw tin, Tony said, "at least most of the pegs on the top bank are gone", as that is the one area I have never won or framed from on this lake, so what come out, 17 on the top bank, oh well, it has to produce for me one day surely and with the wind blowing towards it, why not today.  He couldn't smile too much at my misfortune, as he had been handed peg 18, so it was going to be an interesting battle between us, although on reflection, interesting may well be a misleading description.

We set up similar rigs to fish pellet, meat short and the margins, although I knew Tony would have a band on his pellet rig whereas I intended to start on soft pellet. I had some paste on the tray, 6 and 8mm pellets, 8mm meat and dead maggots, but on plumbing the margins and finding nearly 4' and a steep drop off with no shelf, I didn't think they'd see the hook.

Starting on the soft pellet over hard feed 6mm pellets I had a little wait for bites, before landing a small carp and a skimmer. It was painfully slow going, to get any sort of reaction from the peg, it needed feed going in, but bites were few and far between, with the odd skimmer gracing the net.  I then lost a 3ln tench, hmmm, I was trying a different elastic and maybe a match where I was looking for a section win at least, wasn't the ideal time to do it.

The short meat line produced one fish, a hybrid with huge eyes, but it was only 3 or 4 ounces, so not much more to say about that.

A switch to worm on the hook over the pellet line, saw a couple of carp and a couple more skimmers netted, before this died off again. The margin resulted in one fish, another small carp, thereafter, every put in ended up in a snag and another MW float bit the dust as if flew back into the keepnet.

I decided to concentrate on the long line and fed some dead maggot in with the pellet, this with 3 dead maggots on the hook produced two more carp and some more big skimmers, a 3lb+ fish coming off, that new elastic wasn't right for skimmers really, but they weren't the target. So a tough day, with some entertainment from Tony, as he had a torrid day, snapping a No6 section and a topkit, I thought I had him beaten, but was expecting to be 3rd or 4th in the section, so was pleasantly surprised to get second in section, still keeping the league alive, but I think only 2 section wins will do now.  Also my silvers got second, so an envelope for the 3rd day in a row.

Best bit of the day was the news that the non league team from oop north had scored, worst news was when the non league team from oop north Bristol  fluked a penalty shoot out win, even so boys "Mind The Gap........"

1: Rod Wotton  117.12 peg 6
2: Paul Elmes 87.12 peg 25
3: Mike Nichols 79.04 peg 22
4: Craig Edmunds 79.03 peg 9
5: Bob Gullick 61.14 peg 13
6: Adrian Jeffery 59.11 peg 33

Silvers
1: Paul Faiers 25.07 peg 31
2: Chris Fox 14.03 peg 17

MFS Two Dayer, Day Two. Saturday 16th May 2015

Cary for me today, it would have been good to get out with the boys that had a curry and a few beers in Yeovil last night, but I was glad I didn't feel like some of them looked..........

The tin of dreams beckoned and I fancied any peg with a decent margin, the fish seemed to be happiest in shallower water yesterday, so it was mixed feelings when 86 came out.  the wind was stronger today, so I set up two lead rods, two rigs to fish meat at 6m and a rig to fish the short margin down to the LH side.  I started on the meat short, hoping for a quick fish, which didn't happen, even with the chop on the water I could see some blowing and didn't have long to wait after the first chuck with an 11mm pellet for the tip to go round and one of Cary's 'Barney Rubbles' in the net, next chuck another and then a third..... how easy is this lead fishing!!!

The next couple of chucks were not so prolific, so a swap to a piece of punched meat saw the tip curl round and a big fish took line at a rate of knots, getting it in gave the 8lb Shimano Technium and the 0.22 hooklength a good test, which passed, as a nigh on 20lb fish was netted.  A lean spell followed, so a look back on the meat line, where there had been some bubbles, this was a frustrating spell, as I foul hooked and lost 3 fish, one hook pull, one snapped hook length and one snapped elastic - gutted one of my favourite MW floats vanished into the depths......

Back on the lead and I had what looked like a liner, when I saw a skimmer jump out of the water, it knew it was hooked before I did!!  In fact it was one of two immaculate condition bream I had on 11mm pellet. A couple more 'Barney's' followed on the lead, but it wasn't possible to keep fish coming from the same spot.  The wind was making feeding difficult, maybe a PVA bag of pellets might be the answer in that situation.

I had left the margin well alone, as its so short, aiming to fish it in the last couple of hours, I fed it with GB and maggot, first drop in with 7 maggots saw the float bury and a 15lber safely netted.  The margin wasn't full of competing fish, which isn't a bad thing when they are that size, I had 4 more over the next hour, but could hear Ben on 85 catching well down his edge too.  I then hooked a big common of 15lb+ that wallowed in like a skimmer, I touched it with the net, that woke it up and it swam off, shedding the hook as it went...... bugger.  One more from the edge before the all out and I thought I had at least the weight I had yesterday.

Ben weighed 221 and I didn't think I had that, so it proved, the lost common costing me dearly, as I weighed 207.  This was second on lake, fifth overall on the day and 4th overall for the two days, so not the worst result, but frustratingly close.  A good couple of days, good company and an awesome fishery, glad its only 50 minutes drive.

1: Jon Martin 238.09 peg 121
2: Mark Poppleton  225.06 peg 118
3: Ben Hagg 221.02 peg 85
4: Dan White 213.14 peg 114
5: Chris Fox 207.08 peg 86
6: Martin ? 198.07 peg 116

Silvers
1:Scott Russell 37303 peg 128

Overall

1: Ben Hagg 2 points
2: Mark Poppleton 2 points
3: Jon Martin 2 points
4: Chris Fox 3 points

MFS Two Dayer, Day One, Viaduct. Friday 15th May 2015

With the lessons from yesterday lodged in the grey matter, I was looking forward to this couple of days, some good banter and good fishing were in prospect.  The draw on the first day was an open draw and I found myself heading to 123, I have only drawn it once before, last years MMT and there weren't many fish there then.

I set up a rig for 5m to fish meat, a rig at 14m to fish pellet and a rig to fish 13m down the edge towards the corner.  I also set up a lead rod, that was packed away at the end, unbent by a fish.
The lake started off fishing slowly, I had an early fish on the short meat line, the long pellet line produced only one fish and a couple more back on the short meat line, but it wasn't really happening. 

With less than half the match gone I looked down the edge, feeding and fishing 8mm pellet, I had three quick fish, not the usual size of the edge dwellers, before switching to feeding groundbait and maggot.  This brought an instant response and a run of fish, before the line went quiet. Another fish off the 5m line helped to rest the margin and it switched back on, this was repeated twice more before the all out, I thought I had about 160lb, the scales once again proving my estimating skills are in need of polishing, as they gave me 183.06, which was good enough for the section win, second on lake and third overall, so something to fish for on Saturday.

1: Ben Hagg 224.15 peg 135
2: Mark Poppleton 200.15  peg 81
3: Chris Fox 183.06 peg 123
4: Fred Roberts 176.04 peg 115
5: Pellet King 174.14 peg 118
6: 76 Trombones 160.00 peg 131

Silvers
1: S White 30.00 peg 78

Viaduct Cost Cutter, Thursday 14th May 2015

With the MFS two dayer on Friday and Saturday, I wanted to take the opportunity to try something out and the cost cutter was an ideal opportunity.  The warm day on Wednesday had me thinking that the fish might have a go on paste, so Thursdays tactic was paste - if it proved anything, its that you shouldn't go into a match with blinkers on and another option or two should be considered and available.

The lovely day that was Wednesday gave way to a cold and wet Thursday and it seemed that the cold rain had sunk straight to the bottom, making my paste attack all wrong.  19 fishing today, i guess the weather cut the numbers down,  I drew 126 and pursued my paste attempt, even though it was all wrong, short and long.  When paste fishing at Viaduct, its common to see the fish approach the bait by the bubbles, usually when the reach the float, fish on and it buries.  Not today, the bubbles came towards the float, the float wobbled and the bubbles carried on past, in the majority of times the fish approached. Suffice to say I DNW, I chucked back about 85lb, which was a long, long way off the pace, but some useful things learnt for the 2 days following.

1: Mark Warns 246.10 peg 112
2: Andy Neal 230.01 peg 80
3: Keith Ashby 193.08 peg 125
4: Dave Romain 191.11 peg 191.11
5: Vic Nugen??  174.10 peg 131
6: Tich Williams 166.05 peg 102

Silvers

1: Keith Ashby 38.0 peg 125
2: Andy Neal 25.05 peg 80

Viaduct League Round Two, Sunday 10th May 2015

I needed a good result from today’s match, as the first round was a dropper, so I was first in the draw bucket – at least all the good pegs are in the tin – first dip in, I picked up two stuck together, dropped them back. Second attempt another two stuck together, third dip in one seemed to fly into the palm of my hand….. an omen.  A portent of doom rather than a good omen, as I opened the swimcard to reveal 55. 

Next to me on 56, was Paul Elmes who had been on 55 last match and won the section from it, but with corner pegs 53 and 59 in and seeming a plenty of room for Lee Werrit on 62, I wasn’t so convinced that it would do it again.  I set up 4 rigs, one for the margin down to my left, which looks like it should hold a few fish, a rig for meat fished out to my No6 section, a pellet rig to fish at 14m and finally a paste rig that would do for fishing over the pellet line or anywhere else in the peg, as apart from the margin, the depth varied by little more than 4-6”.  I also set up a waggler to fish on the drop at full depth.

I tried starting on the meat short, sometimes this nicks an early fish or two, but apart from roach bites, that was a non-starter.  A switch to the pellet line feeding 6mm and fishing a banded 8mm brought a couple of small skimmers, even a switch to 6mm in the band didn’t encourage more of them.  By now others around the lake were starting to catch, whilst myself and Paul were struggling.

Coming up to the half way stage of the match, I had managed a couple more skimmers, one on the waggler, one on the meat, but it was pitifully slow and as there were signs of carp out by the rope, I decided to set up a lead rod.  I had no bread with me, so popped up a bit of 10mm meat 6” below the surface,  this was desperation plan Z, as myself and Paul were both finding that casting a waggler towards the fish, saw them back off tighter to the rope.  First two chucks had me thinking it might work, as I had liners, then that was it, they had even backed off a 1/4oz bomb dropping in.

At five to three, I saw a bubble or two over the meat line and in the next half an hour had 3 carp for 34lb, Paul also had a couple of fish and I thought that we would go on and catch a few, apart from a couple more skimmers that was my lot. The margin produced a perch and two rudd, all about 4oz.

With the all-out imminent I had switched over to paste, as Paul had caught a carp on it over his meat line, I said to Paul hopefully one will take it on the drop, one did, it was a skimmer about 1lb and that was enough to beat Paul by 8oz, my carp and skimmers going 47.00, to Pauls 46.08 that was the highlight of the match, as we were well beaten by everyone else in the section.

Really not sure what else I could have done, the pegs felt devoid of fish, no idea why they turned up for 30 minutes and then disappeared again, I had no liners, no foulers, no blowing, nothing to give hope that there were fish there to be caught for 51/2 hours of the match.   I think had I fished for skimmers I could have had a days fishing, but would have been last in section, as they weren’t exactly going mad, so there was no point.  That it for the series, treat the rest as opens and hope for a better draw.  I didn’t get the results, but the weigh sheet pictures are on the Viaduct Facebook page.

Viaduct Costcutter, Thursday 30th April 2015

I have been using the new Mossella keepnets since the Bait Tech Festival and they are an improvement on an already good product, they have been redesigned and are slightly smaller, this is a great help on venues where multiple nets have to be used. They seem to have retained the strength and hard wearing of the previous versions, the best nets I have used.

On to the fishing and after Sundays disappointment (I would have not considered that I'd be last in the section from 128) I was keen to get back to Viaduct and put things right in my head. 30 in for this match, so Campbell and Cary in, I was into the tin early and had 116 as my home for the day.  That meant another day with a cold wind blowing straight at me, although it was more left to right initially, but changed round to face on by the time the all-in was called.

Bait tray consisted 8mm pellets and 10mm meat, I also couldn't resist some dead maggots and a bit of GB for down the edge.  With the wind making it difficult to feed accurately at distance, the waggler rod stayed in the bag, I did set up a lead rod and gave that 25 minutes as far as I could fire 8mm pellets, one liner in that time saw it go up the bank and stay there.

4 topkits set up, a rig to fish 8mm pellet at 13m, two meat rigs for the 5m line, shotted differently to try something out and a margin rig, which would do to the 'point' on the RH margin and to a tree in the LH margin.  After the wasted 25 minutes watching a motionless tip, I switched to the pellet rig at 13m and first drop in had a skimmer, next put in a 5lb carp and that was that, no more bites, I switched the line to meat, feeding through a toss pot and this brought a couple of skimmers, but no sign of carp.

I switched to the 5m line and this was slow, but did produce a couple more skimmers and two tench, before finally, 3 carp in 3 put ins, but that was a false dawn again. Swapping back to the long line produced nothing again and I'd been feeding pellet and meat in the LH margin, that was also seemingly devoid of fish.

Persisting with the 5m line I did put a few fish together, but it wasn't hectic action, interestingly, I didn't catch anything on my usual rig, all the fish fell to my experimental set up and feeding via a toss pot. So food for thought and I need to try this out on a couple more occasions before coming to any conclusions.  With a couple of hours to go I fed GB and maggots into the RH margin and it didn't take long for the tails to appear, I waited 20 minutes and dropped in with 7 maggots on the hook and had 3 or 4 fish, but they were small, 3-4lb, before they disappeared, I re-fed it and went back on the 5m line, taking another fish or two, before seeing the tails and vortexes in the margin again.

Back in with the bunch of maggots and this time the proper edge fish had moved in, in the last half an hour or so I had 4, which were 9-12lb, I landed on with a minute to go and didn't have time to thread the maggots on, I put a piece of meat on, dropped it in and the float just kept going, another decent fish landed after the whistle.

I knew Dave Romain had been catching well on 114, he'd been catching up to the pallet of 113, Ian Parsons on 123 had been catching well down the edge, so I wasn't sure how I'd done, but it was better than Sunday, thankfully.  It had been hard work and constant changes to keep the fish coming, an enjoyable day.  As it panned out, my 138.10 was enough for 4th and Sundays woes banished to history.

1: Chris Rolfe 242.01 peg 96
2: Dave Romain 226.10 peg 114
3: Ian Parsons 149.12 peg 123
4: Chris Fox 138.10 peg 116
5: Tich Williams 135.02 peg 97
6: Shep 114.07  peg 85

Silvers
1: Paul Greenwood 54.12 peg 86

Viaduct Spring League Round 1, Sunday 26th April 2015

I'd been looking forward to this one, the first time I have fished this league, just wish I had not been working so much, as I haven't had a chance to get to Viaduct since the last round of the winter league at the beginning of March.

I drew 128 and wasn't at all upset by that, surely I could get some decent points from that peg, how wrong could I be, a frustrating day ensued.......

I slipped back into the bad habit of covering (or trying to) all the options, setting up a waggler to fish at depth and a lead rod. 4 topkits, one for fishing along the spit, a meat rig for 5/6m, a rig to fish banded pellet at 14m and a paste rig.  bait table should have been simply meat and pellet, but I did add paste for a line at about 8m towards the willow tree, dead maggot and worm for one area of the spit.  With hindsight, meat and pellet should have been the only things on the bait tray.

The wind was blowing up the lake, but I started on the waggler and had a fish about 8lb after 5 minutes, the wind then got stronger and the presentation was poor, so I switched to the pole, I struggled for bites, having one on the pole at 14m, one on paste and a couple of small carp from the spit, but I had to wait a long time for bites and caught more skimmers than carp from the spit.

There was no sign of fish over the meat line, whilst I could see (and hear) the new dream team of Trigger and Bobby G on 114 and 115 emptying it.  Tony Rixon on 129 had a few but it slowed up for him, with 4 hours gone I was extremely frustrated, over tired I think and every niggling little issue was making me more and more annoyed - a while back I would have packed up and gone in home in a huff, but I was determined to try and rescue something.

127 started catching a fish a bung on his short meat line with about 90 minutes to go, whilst I managed one bite, a skimmer that leapt out of the water and off the hook, at 16.10 with 50 minutes to go, I reckon I had about 35-40lb in the net, when I saw the first indication of fish on the meat line, I managed to catch steadily for the last 50 minutes, this made up nearly 2/3's of my total weight.
I am well out of touch with the fish on Campbell now, misjudging the weights of them, that and the fact that catching so well in the last 50 minutes compared with the rest of the match, saw met over in a net I though had about 60lb in, so with my net knocked back to 70lb, a lone fish in the other and some silvers, I weighed 90lb and a few ounces for last in section, a day to forget, but some lessons learnt (re-learnt in the case of too many options and baits.....) and I really need to get out on the bank more.

I have just seen that I scraped into last place in the knock-out, so a minor consolation, as I should and could have caught more from the peg, back to Viaduct Thursday, hopefully to put that bad experience behind me.

Short Pole Series Round 1, Trinity Waters, Sunday 19th April 2015

First match of the year for me on this venue and one I was looking forward to until the weathermen started forecasting the easterly winds. Speaking to match organiser, Tony Rixon, he told me there were 29 fishing, I did wonder if that might be too many on this lake, as some of the pegs need a space for the margins to produce.

Looking at the lake lake before the draw, the easterly wind was coming into the car park bank (pegs 22-34) and that looked to be an unpleasant place to draw.  I definitely fancied a peg on the far bank (6-15). I followed Rod Wotten into the draw bucket, he drew 29, I drew 28 and Paul Faiers behind me drew 27, not sure of the odds on that sequence happening!!  We were all a bit disappointed to draw with that cold wind in our faces and I said to Paul that catching some skimmers could be important come the end.

Tackling up was cold, bloody cold, whilst the assembled line-up on the opposite bank sat in T shirts taking the piss - fair enough, if I ever draw a peg that allows me to be in that position, I'll do the same. 4 Rigs, a long stable float because of the wind to fish banded pellet, the same model set up without a band that would cover soft pellet and meat, a paste rig and an margin rig, although I wasn't too confident that the carp would venture into the margin, due to the close pegging and the cold wind into the bank.

Plumbing up showed that topkit +3 sections was a section too short on my peg, Paul found the same, we just couldn't get to the bottom of the slope, by a short distance, with the wind blowing at us, flicking it out with a longer line was pointless as it was blowing back.

I started feeding slightly short of full distance and fishing past it to allow for the slope, starting on 6mm banded pellet, I had a couple of indications and then a skimmer was netted, but that was it for the banded pellet, I just couldn't get it to work, so switched to a soft pellet fished overdepth and that brought a run of skimmers and a solitary tench, before the peg went quiet and I landed a 4lb carp.  A little wait for a bite after that and another skimmer netted, but the liners, dinks and knocks on the float had stopped, it was if the skimmers had vacated the peg, I guess they had moved out, but unable to follow them I was a bit stumped.

I tried worm, in various sizes, to no avail and then picked up the paste rig hoping a bigger target bait might attract some of the bigger carp than hang around these pegs. A 8lb fish straight away and i thought that was it sussed, but no, a long, long wait between bites for two more fish in the last couple of hours, I tried a 5m meat line, margins fed left and right, one with meat, one with maggot, not a sign of a carp or a bite on any of the three lines, so back to sitting it out on the paste, which did, as mentioned, produce another 8lb fish and a 10lber. I wasn't sure what my silvers went and at the end whilst waiting for the scales, Paul and I had a look at his net and mine, both concluding he'd beaten me.

The scales proved us both wrong, Paul's silvers going 15.13 and mine 16.05, which gave me second in the silvers and a pickup and my 4 carp for 30lb gave me second in section with 46.11, I wasn't too disappointed with that result from there, as I really didn't fancy the draw.  At least the series isn't blown on the first match, thankfully....

1: Mike Nicholls  117.09 peg 15
2: Tim Ford 96.05  peg 32
3: Paul Elmes 94.13 peg 10
4: Bela Bakos 88.00 peg 12
5: Trigger 84.03 peg 20
6: Tony Rixon 77.00 peg 30

Silvers

1: Dave Evans 18.04 peg 19
2: Chris Fox 16.05 peg 28
3: Paul Faiers 15.13 peg 27

Landsend Open, Saturday 11th April 2015

Only one day off this weekend and with my failure to secure a Fishomania ticket for Viaduct, it was a toss up between a first visit to Hillview or Landsend.  Landsend won, partly due to a late finish Friday night and an early start Sunday and partly due to me needing to get the better of the venue, rather than the other way round.

16 or 17 booked in, so Mike spread the match over two lakes, with six on lake 3 and 11 on Match lake, paying the lakes as separate matches.  I fancied a draw in the high teens on Match lake or lake 3, I wasn’t sure how the overnight rain and the water Mike has been pumping into Match lake to raise the level, would affect the fish.

I managed to draw myself peg 7, which was the opposite side to where I fancied, but it should be worth a few fish, especially as the next peg in was 11, with first time visitor to Landsend, Mike Walker sat on it.  There were a few carp showing themselves, but not showing any signs of feeding.

 My silvers fishing is over until next winter, so it was pellet and meat on the bait tray, with plenty of time to set up I, assembled 4 topkits, a AK47 margin float to fish up to the pallet of peg 8, I did mix up a bit of groundbait and had some dead maggot to try in the margin. A rig to fish banded pellet up the far shelf, which is now 18” – 2’ deep with the extra water, a rig to fish banded pellet at about 7 sections and a rig for meat short.

Starting on the banded pellet across, I had a small carp first put in, next drop in saw and F1 netted, that was it before the bites stopped, I upped the feed a bit and had one more fish, but they wouldn’t settle.  A switch to the 7 section pellet line was equally unproductive, a long wait for a bite, before a big skimmer was the first to fall to the 6mm pellet.  After a couple of hours I got off my box and pumped a few expanders, as the action was so slow, first drop in with an expander saw another big skimmer netted, my one and only roach and a carp, before the bites dried up.

I had already had a biteless look over the meat line, before dropping on it with about 2 ½ hours to go, it produced a couple of big skimmers and a tench, but no sign of a carp.  It was a long wait for a bite, then the tell tale sign of a bubble or two approaching the float before a bite.  By now there was a few fish in the margin over the GB and I spent (with hindsight) too long trying to catch them.  I had several, also losing a couple which took the line against the scaffold tube pallet leg and this caused it to part both times.

The fish weren’t really getting their heads down in the margin, no tails on show, so liners were an issue, they seemed attracted to the feed, but weren’t in the feeding frenzy normally associated with margins.  I spent too much time into trying to make them feed, whereas had I just fished the pellet and meat lines, I am sure I would have picked up the silvers money, as I was just two fish away from beating serial whitebait thrasher, Nigel Bartlett.  Then again, another couple of lumps from the margin, would have seen me sneak into the overall lake money, which I was one out of as well….  My fish went 22.04 of silvers and 49.03 of carp.  So an enjoyable day, with a bit of frustration at the poor decision making,  that went far too quickly, roll on next week,  the start of Tony Rixon’s short pole series at Trinity.

Match lake:

1: Rob Watts 91.13 peg 17

2: Martin Pettifer 88.13 peg 19

3: Darren Vowles 83.07 peg 1

4: Chris Fox 71.07 peg 7

5: Mike West 65.09 peg 21

6: Mike Walker 54.08 peg 11

Silvers

1: Nigel Bartlett 26.01 peg 1

2: Chris Fox 22.03 peg 7

Lake 3

1: Rich Lovering 95.13 peg 68

2: Rod Wootten 88.14 peg 61

3: Mark Walsh 65.06 peg 70

Silvers

1: Mark Walsh 18.12 peg 70

Charity Pairs, Larford, Friday 3rd April 2015

Larford for Good Friday, the annual Charity Pairs match, my first time fishing this and with getting on for 80 fishing, I was looking forward to it.  A good drive up, after picking up Mike Walker, so all seemed to be on track for a good day.

The format was that the pairs were drawn, first one out of the bag going on Speci lake, second out on Match Lake.  I would have preferred Speci lake, but had to be content with match lake, the draw wasn’t kind and all the locals advised me that I was in a poor area and a poor peg, 64.

I had come to try and win, I wasn’t going to mess about scratching round for small fish, so set up a straight lead to fish 8mm pellet, a method to chuck towards the aerator - surely that would yield a few fish – a rig to fish 6mm banded pellet at 14m, another for meat at 5m and an edge rig.

Starting on the method, the tip remained stationary, even though I was clipped up and virtually touching the aerator as the method went into the water, I’m not renowned for my patience on the feeder/bomb, so it wasn’t too long before that went up the bank.

I had been pinging a few 4 and 6mm’s on the 14m line and first put in a near 3lb carp graced the net, then two skimmers about 8-10oz, cracked it…… but unfortunately the fish thought other wise and the match turned into a real slog to keep bites coming, I had one fish from the margin, a hybrid about 1lb, nothing on the meat or bomb, all my fish (which weren’t many) falling to 6mm banded pellet at 14m.  I tried reducing the feed, upping it and double pouching, I tried cupping in some micros on the 14m line and it seemed best to just keep a few going in with the catapult, lifting and dropping and wait for a bite, a sign I think, that there just weren’t too many fish wanting to feed.

 A few small carp and F1’s and skimmers gave me 17lb, which was more than double the weight off the next peg (62) but unable to beat those further down the section, or end peg 65 who had a big rush bed and tree feature to fish to.  I had been advised that meat wasn’t working, but gambled on it, as it will surely switch on up there soon, I don’t think meat on the 5m line was the reason I struggled, genuinely think it was the draw.

Pleased to hear that Matt raised £1000 for the charity, but the fishing was grim for many, Mike had two fish, he was on Speci and that fished really hard.  Shame the fish weren’t as charitable as the anglers, that’s several matches on Larford that I have struggled to catch (each time I wasn’t alone in that) and with it being 81 miles away I can’t see me rushing back, as it’s 33 miles to Viaduct and even less to Landsend.   It’s easy to moan, but I think we should be thankful for the quality of the fishing in our area, we’re just missing a really consistent winter venue, but the rest of the year we’re spoilt for choice.  

Major projects going on at work for a couple of weeks, so not much chance to get out, looks like Landsend on Sat 11^th and the first of Tony Rixons’ short pole series at Trinity on Sunday 19^th, looking forward to that, as its one of my favourite venues.

Landsend Winter League, Final Round. Sunday 29th March 2015

Final round of the Landsend Winter League, thanks to Ken Rayner for organising it and being the butt of much piss taking, all of which he took in the good humour it was intended.

My intention this year had been to have a decent attempt at framing in the overall table, after last years second place in the silvers.  The first couple of matches and the lack of carp put the mockers on that and left me with the silvers to pursue in the hope of an envelope at the end of the series.

Going into this last match, I was leading the silvers league by 1 point and a fairly decent weight advantage, but if the decent skimmers/bream in the match lake fed in the forecast windy conditions, that weight advantage could be easily wiped out.  I was on lake 3, which is probably the toughest lake to be on when trying to gain a silvers section win, as a couple of the pegs hold F1’s which count as silvers on this venue and there are not the bonus big perch, tench and bream that show up in the other lakes.

I felt I needed to draw 41, 42, 68 or 70 to compete, but the forecast of gusts up to 65mph might level things up a bit, I wasn’t disappointed to see 41 on the draw ticket when I extracted it from the bucket, so in with a chance of holding onto top spot.

I set up 3 rigs, a 4x12 sensas pencil float to fish topkit or topkit +1 to try and catch roach, rudd  and perch, this had a 0.10 hooklength and a 18 6313. A NG Gimp with 0.10 hooklength and a 16 6313 for pellet in case the skimmers had a go, and a float whose name eludes me to fish worm, caster or maggot over some GB , this had a 0.10 hooklength and a 18 6313 as well.

The forecasters weren’t wrong and it was a thoroughly unpleasant day to be pole fishing, I only got out topkits and 4 sections and at times, just fishing the topkit was bad enough.  On the all-in I fed some micros and 4mm’s on a line off to my right at about 7m, this produced one tiny skimmer on a 6mm expander, so little else to say about this, the GB line was fed with two ‘jaffas’ and left to settle as I started on the topkit+ 1 and managed a few small roach and perch.  After wasting time not getting any bites on pellet, I dropped a worm head onto the GB line and had a small skimmer, but the float was far too light in the windy conditions, so took it off and on went a 0.5g rig, this saw two skimmers (3-4oz, so nothing to get excited about) in two put ins before it went quiet again.

Rotating round the lines and just getting odd small fish I was concerned when I saw what looked like a big F1 landed on the feeder from peg 42, if it was an F1, it had just wiped out all my tiny fish in one cast.  I decided I needed to try and catch some F1’s, so set up a 9’ lead rod with a small cage feeder and had a few casts to the spit, this produced one unwanted carp and 2 small roach, no sign of an F1.

By now the wind had swung round a little and was blowing into me from the left, making things even more tricky and unpleasant, especially as I could see Tony Rixon and Paul Faiers catching carp quicker than I could catch tiny skimmers. 

I had to improve my catch rate and decided to stick with fishing a topkit to hand and feeding maggot/caster.  I upped the hook size to a 16 and started centre hooking the maggot to improve bites hit ratio ( and the maggots last longer) and just got my head down, its not something that I find particularly enjoyable, but it was a means to an end and it paid off, with 10.02 of whitebait for a lake silvers win and the silvers league by one point from Gary O’Shea, who had been pushing hard. I dropped 2 points weighing 68.15, Gary dropped 3 points weighing 42.13.

A nice way to round off the week, with a couple more envelopes, well done to Tony Rixon for winning the overall league only dropping one point and with a huge weight advantage of 200lb+.