I took a days annual leave to fish this match, I wasn't too convinced of the common sense of taking days off in Jan, when the wind was howling round the house at 06.30. A nice bacon & egg sandwich started the day off and that was the best bit of the windy and dismal drive to Plantation.
At the draw there was much talk of the high wind, which pegs to draw and plenty of talk about method chucking - I didn't listen, looking at some of the damage to fishes mouths, I 'm not convinced that the method and some folk who insist on striking like Zorro, aren't to blame.
I said to Glen (Faitheey) Calvert before the draw, that 33 would do me, based on previous silvers form, so I could have a days fishing. Well, I reckon, its the first time in 30 years of drawing pegs that I've ever drawn one prophesised. It hasn't got the form of last year, but the fact that 99 times from 100 you'll never beat the island chucks for carp, means you redouble the efforts to catch silvers, which can be in the peg in abundance.
So a full on silvers attack, the bait tray had 4 & 6mm Devils Spawn, caster, maggot, dead maggot and micro pellet. I set up three rigs, a 4x10 Malman Winter Wire on 0.14 to a 16 on 0.12 for the margin, a Preston diamond shaped float whose name eludes me, on 0.12 t0 a 0.10 hooklength and a 22 hook. Finally a MW Diamond, on 0.16 to 0.12 and a 16 Tubertini 808. I also assembled the ready made waggler rod, just in case the wind proved too much for the pole.
Because the wind was full on sideways, I setteled on a line at a manageable 11m, with the margins as a place to pulnder the big Perch. On the all in I fed micro and dead maggot, it wasn't long before the single maggot accounted for a snall roach, next time the float buried and on lifting into the bite, the pole came up, but several yards of orange Middy elastic came out and a 5lb carp did battle on the 0.10 hooklength. This was landed, as were the other 3 accidental 'vermin' netted during the match.
I managed to keep skimmers, roach and a couple of perch coming throughout the match, I did expect to get a few more perch, but they were conspicuous by their absence. The roach and two perch (small for this lake 10oz and 1lb) both fell to caster, as did a couple of 2-4oz roach, but the main bulk of the weight came to Devils Spawn fished at 11m, over micro and dead magot.
I was surprised myself when the fish went on the scales, whilst my silvers weren't enough to beat Mark Bromsgrove on peg1, who had 8 perch and a skimmer in the last hour for 17lb, to go with the rest of his silvers, they did tip the scales at 18.06, enought to take the silvers 2nd place coin.
Given the frosts in the week, the rumours of a mass otter kill and the forecasted weather, the weights were pretty good, with decent backups. I ended the day with 37lb odd, which was in the lower tier on the day, but as I fished for silvers it wasn't too bad at all and a nice days fishing, culminating in a payday.
1) Simon Jones 84.06 peg 29
2) Martin Lenahan 83.06 peg 4
3) Lance Tucker 78.04 peg 27
4) Darren 'Noddy' Vowles 50.14 peg 5
5) Rich Heatly 50.06 peg 39
6) Nick Harvey 48.00 peg 8
Silvers
1) Mark Bromsgrove 25.08 peg 1
2) Chris Fox 18.06 peg 33
3) Brian Slipper 18.04 peg 25
Saturday, 21 January 2012
Friday, 20 January 2012
Avon Angling Open, Trinity Waters, Wednesday 18th January 2011
I booked into Tony's birthday match and it was to be on Avalon, pole only, it actually ended up on Trinity's Woodlands lake, any method. Not that that was an issue, as lead chucking isn't often a framing method on this venue. A breakfast in Hilltops Cafe was, sadly, the highlight of my day and it wasn't the best brekkie I've ever had.
I fancied a draw on the far bank and managed this, but peg 15 was likely to be too high a number and so it proved, with this quarter of the lake fishing pretty tough, I assume it was the prevailing wind blowing cold water from the previous couple of nights freezes, into this corner. I set up 3 rigs and a waggler rod, one rig to fish Devils Spawn and another for maggot, finally one for the margin to fish corn or maggot.
It didn't take too long to get a bite on the 4mm Devils Spawn and then another, both of which I missed, liners? Finally I landed a decent skimmer and almost immediately, Vince Brown on my right hand side landed one as well, that was a false dawn, no more to either of us, although be both refed after our fish - a mistake?
I searched all 16m of my LH margin, right down to the pallet of peg 16 and managed one bite - a 1lb carp. The margins are usually a banker here, if they don't produce bites its because there are no fish in them. I managed a few roach on maggot and another small carp (very small) on Devils Spawn, but that was it. Vince put together some reasonable silvers and a couple of carp, on caster over groundbait, but I had, sticking to my new simplistic regime, only brought maggots, Devils Spawn micros and corn.
The best weights came from the unfancied car park bank, which had the wind off it. See Tonys blog for the results.
I fancied a draw on the far bank and managed this, but peg 15 was likely to be too high a number and so it proved, with this quarter of the lake fishing pretty tough, I assume it was the prevailing wind blowing cold water from the previous couple of nights freezes, into this corner. I set up 3 rigs and a waggler rod, one rig to fish Devils Spawn and another for maggot, finally one for the margin to fish corn or maggot.
It didn't take too long to get a bite on the 4mm Devils Spawn and then another, both of which I missed, liners? Finally I landed a decent skimmer and almost immediately, Vince Brown on my right hand side landed one as well, that was a false dawn, no more to either of us, although be both refed after our fish - a mistake?
I searched all 16m of my LH margin, right down to the pallet of peg 16 and managed one bite - a 1lb carp. The margins are usually a banker here, if they don't produce bites its because there are no fish in them. I managed a few roach on maggot and another small carp (very small) on Devils Spawn, but that was it. Vince put together some reasonable silvers and a couple of carp, on caster over groundbait, but I had, sticking to my new simplistic regime, only brought maggots, Devils Spawn micros and corn.
The best weights came from the unfancied car park bank, which had the wind off it. See Tonys blog for the results.
Thursday, 12 January 2012
Viaduct Open, Wednesday 11th January 2012
When I booked into this one it was on Spring Lake, by the time Wednesday came round, there were 20 odd, so an overspill was arranged on the Match Lake. Out of the tin with my card and when opened, it revealed peg 47 on match lake. A peg with a good record of silvers weights, so I was fairly happy with the draw until I heard that it had been fished the day before and 40 or 50lb caught. Probably no big deal in the summer, but would the fish stay there after that in the winter months?
I set up a waggler to fish across, as this has proven to be a successful method for my self and others, winning the silvers in the past helped by big skimmmers on the caster. Along with that, I set up two pole rigs, to fish at 16m, I didn't try a shorter line, as I have found it difficult to catch close in in the summmer, so I imagine that in the clearer water of January, this would be even worse. I started on the pole, initially cupping a couple of casters and dead reds onto the 16m line, live, dead and pupae maggots, in varying combinations and numbers, all brought only one result, roach in the 30 to the lb class. a switch to the waggler saw no improvement, although I could see Fabio on peg 43 catching an F1 most put ins on the waggler.
The wind was pushing into my face and giving a bad surface skim around the island corner, so the waggler could'nt be fished tight to the island. sinking the line pulled it too far away and not sinking the line made the presentation very poor. Nigel Bartlett on peg 45 had an initial run of fish on the lead, but the only ready set up lead rod I had was my 12' carp rod with 8lb line - far too crude for this lake.
At 11.45 I walked back to the van and collected the loaf of bread that I'd purposely left behind and a reel to set up a light lead rod. A 20PR 36 with a long hair on 12" of 0.14 completed the set up and first put in I had a carp on the bread. I did try to catch on the waggler a couple more times through the match, but the wind, the tiny roach and the horrible glare of the sun ( you don't get that on this peg in the summmer, when the island trees and plants are in fulll leaf). I ended the day with 1.07 of silvers, the vast majority was one hybrid and 29.12 of carp and f1s.
Had I fished the bread from the off, I might have pushed the 9lb between me and the winner a little closer. Fabio kept the F1s coming for the majority of the match, for what must have been an enjoyable, all waggler caught 42.10. Second was corner peg specialist, Tony Rixon, from peg 8 on Spring.
1) Phil ' Fabio' Harding 42.10 peg 43
2) Tony Rixon 42.05 peg 8
3) Chris Fox 31.03 peg 47
4) Nicky Collier 30.10 peg 19
5) Nigel Bartlett 25.02 peg 45
6) Adrian Jefferies 21.07 peg 24
6) Steve Hutter 21.07 peg 52
Silvers
1) Anton Page 15.06 peg 42
2) Steve Kedge 12.14 peg 25
I set up a waggler to fish across, as this has proven to be a successful method for my self and others, winning the silvers in the past helped by big skimmmers on the caster. Along with that, I set up two pole rigs, to fish at 16m, I didn't try a shorter line, as I have found it difficult to catch close in in the summmer, so I imagine that in the clearer water of January, this would be even worse. I started on the pole, initially cupping a couple of casters and dead reds onto the 16m line, live, dead and pupae maggots, in varying combinations and numbers, all brought only one result, roach in the 30 to the lb class. a switch to the waggler saw no improvement, although I could see Fabio on peg 43 catching an F1 most put ins on the waggler.
The wind was pushing into my face and giving a bad surface skim around the island corner, so the waggler could'nt be fished tight to the island. sinking the line pulled it too far away and not sinking the line made the presentation very poor. Nigel Bartlett on peg 45 had an initial run of fish on the lead, but the only ready set up lead rod I had was my 12' carp rod with 8lb line - far too crude for this lake.
At 11.45 I walked back to the van and collected the loaf of bread that I'd purposely left behind and a reel to set up a light lead rod. A 20PR 36 with a long hair on 12" of 0.14 completed the set up and first put in I had a carp on the bread. I did try to catch on the waggler a couple more times through the match, but the wind, the tiny roach and the horrible glare of the sun ( you don't get that on this peg in the summmer, when the island trees and plants are in fulll leaf). I ended the day with 1.07 of silvers, the vast majority was one hybrid and 29.12 of carp and f1s.
Had I fished the bread from the off, I might have pushed the 9lb between me and the winner a little closer. Fabio kept the F1s coming for the majority of the match, for what must have been an enjoyable, all waggler caught 42.10. Second was corner peg specialist, Tony Rixon, from peg 8 on Spring.
1) Phil ' Fabio' Harding 42.10 peg 43
2) Tony Rixon 42.05 peg 8
3) Chris Fox 31.03 peg 47
4) Nicky Collier 30.10 peg 19
5) Nigel Bartlett 25.02 peg 45
6) Adrian Jefferies 21.07 peg 24
6) Steve Hutter 21.07 peg 52
Silvers
1) Anton Page 15.06 peg 42
2) Steve Kedge 12.14 peg 25
Monday, 9 January 2012
Carps AC Open, Viaduct, 8th January 2012
As this weekend saw the start of the Landsend League and the match at Shiplate being full, I booked into this match on Campbell and Spring lakes. 25 booked in with one no show meant 12 on each lake, I am a bit of a Viaduct winter novice, so the draw wasn't a big deal to me before I pulled 130 from the coffee tin.
It was soon made apparant that 131 framed on Saturday, so my 2 pints of caster, groundbait and dead maggot suddenly seemed a waste of money - and so it proved. I set up 2 top kits with Carpa Chimps, one on 0.14 to 0.12 and a 18 Carp Maggot and the other on 0.16/0.14. I left the Matchpro quiver in the holdall and set up the ready made up 12' Maver reactorlite, with the 8lb Shimano Technium and a 0.16 hooklength and a 16 Guru QM1 hook. Last thing set up was a trusty 13' Normark Titan to fish the waggler, apart from 5 small roach, that the last mention for the real fishing equipment.
I am pretty ashamed to admit, I spent most of the day, chucking the lead........ I did it with my first chuck and landed a 6lb+ fish. I had 5 roach on the float, I threw them back......
Basically it was sit and wait for a wrap around, I was pleased that peg 131 wasn't in, as I manged to get 12 carp, chucking the lead, as far as I dare to my RH side, in line with the edge of the palllet of 131. If I went straight in front, or towards the aerator, the tip remained motionless.
Maggot resulted in tiny roach, meat only one fish and the other 11 all fell to bread, I lost a couple, one snapped the 0.16 hooklength, half way up. I assume it rubbed across the dorsal fin. The lake fished reasonably hard, the silvers weights all came from Spring and the winner came from the next peg to me, 132, the fish were obviously shoaled up at that end, although towards the end of the match they did move down into 131 as I could see the dark shadow of the shoal. This coincided with my best spell of the match.
My 12 Carp couldn't compete with the 18 for 107.09 on peg 132, so I ended up second, with 79.10. I'm not sure I agree with the way the money was paid out - 4 x 6 peg sections with the section winner and section silvers winner each getting £30. The match winner said it cost him £40 in diesel and bridge fees and I picked up nothing for 2nd. I think the money is spread out to far nowdays, it used to be when you picked up at a match on the Avon or Huntspill, it was a week or mores wages in your hand, now winning or framing hardly covers the cost of entry, fuel and bait.
1) Glyn Reynolds 107.09 peg 132
2) Chris Fox 79.11 peg 130
3) M Parsons 65.11 peg 10
4) G Powell 53.13 peg 128
5) Tim Pallant 49.06 peg 114
6) Dick Bull 43.12 peg 118
Silvers
1) Steve Kedge 21.14 peg 25
2) Stu Foale 18.13 peg 17
It was soon made apparant that 131 framed on Saturday, so my 2 pints of caster, groundbait and dead maggot suddenly seemed a waste of money - and so it proved. I set up 2 top kits with Carpa Chimps, one on 0.14 to 0.12 and a 18 Carp Maggot and the other on 0.16/0.14. I left the Matchpro quiver in the holdall and set up the ready made up 12' Maver reactorlite, with the 8lb Shimano Technium and a 0.16 hooklength and a 16 Guru QM1 hook. Last thing set up was a trusty 13' Normark Titan to fish the waggler, apart from 5 small roach, that the last mention for the real fishing equipment.
I am pretty ashamed to admit, I spent most of the day, chucking the lead........ I did it with my first chuck and landed a 6lb+ fish. I had 5 roach on the float, I threw them back......
Basically it was sit and wait for a wrap around, I was pleased that peg 131 wasn't in, as I manged to get 12 carp, chucking the lead, as far as I dare to my RH side, in line with the edge of the palllet of 131. If I went straight in front, or towards the aerator, the tip remained motionless.
Maggot resulted in tiny roach, meat only one fish and the other 11 all fell to bread, I lost a couple, one snapped the 0.16 hooklength, half way up. I assume it rubbed across the dorsal fin. The lake fished reasonably hard, the silvers weights all came from Spring and the winner came from the next peg to me, 132, the fish were obviously shoaled up at that end, although towards the end of the match they did move down into 131 as I could see the dark shadow of the shoal. This coincided with my best spell of the match.
My 12 Carp couldn't compete with the 18 for 107.09 on peg 132, so I ended up second, with 79.10. I'm not sure I agree with the way the money was paid out - 4 x 6 peg sections with the section winner and section silvers winner each getting £30. The match winner said it cost him £40 in diesel and bridge fees and I picked up nothing for 2nd. I think the money is spread out to far nowdays, it used to be when you picked up at a match on the Avon or Huntspill, it was a week or mores wages in your hand, now winning or framing hardly covers the cost of entry, fuel and bait.
1) Glyn Reynolds 107.09 peg 132
2) Chris Fox 79.11 peg 130
3) M Parsons 65.11 peg 10
4) G Powell 53.13 peg 128
5) Tim Pallant 49.06 peg 114
6) Dick Bull 43.12 peg 118
Silvers
1) Steve Kedge 21.14 peg 25
2) Stu Foale 18.13 peg 17
Monday, 2 January 2012
Shiplate Farm, Monday 2nd January 2012
Firstly, I hope everyone had a good Xmas and a Happy New Year to anyone who actually reads my drivel. I mostly worked, apart from Xmas day, Caroline & I went to The Blue Ginger and had a great 5 course Indian Meal for our Xmas dinner, that slightly made up for not going to India this year (No, I lie, it didn't) - something to rectify this year methinks.
So back to the fishing, first match of the New Year and I booked into Avon Anglings Open at Shiplate Farm, my previous visits to this venue have seen me pick up money, with a couple of silvers wins from Westpool and a fourth overall with a section pick up also from Westpool on my last visit. Before this match I had treated myself to a new toy, a ProTie hook tyer, I ordered it the day after Boxing day and it arrived Saturday, thats prompt delivery. I tied up a few hooks with it for today and on initial impressions I'm very pleased with it. I always used to use a Delco hook tyer and since my return, I've been using the Drennan. but I have suffered a few lost fish, with missing hooks and a curly bit of line where the hook was. I'm not convinced the Drennan ties the hooks as well with modern pre stretched lines, as it did with good old Bayer Perlon. I tried a Matchman hook tyer a month or so back and have not suffered any lost hooks, hence my purchase of the Pro Tie.
Into the draw bag (or landing net as it was) and I managed to get myself a short walk, peg 2 on Hawthorn, my first time on this lake, so no preconceived ideas about what to do. Whilst not exactly a New Year resolution, I am determind to keep things simpler this year and not bring every bait and every rod/reel combo to matches, if I get it wrong, I'll have to persevere to make it work, or learn from my mistakes. So with this new mantra in my head, I set up three top kits, one with a 4x10 Carpa Chimp on 0.14 to 0.12 with a Drennan carp maggot to fish up the far shelf, a 4x14 Carpa Chimp same line, but a 16 Carp maggot to fish at full depth just short of the far shelf and a Sensas Auchy 0.4G on 0.12 to 0.10 with a 20 Drennan Carp, just in case there were any silvers about.
The bait tray was an extension of my new mantra, maggots, casters, dead maggots, a few softend micros and a few (very few) 4 & 6mm Devils Spawn. On the whistle I cupped in a few micros and dead reds at 10m, which was just short of the bottom of the far shelf and I pole potted a few maggots and casters over the shelf. I also fed a line to my left, just in front of a tree on my bank. It took a while before I got a bite and I could see the elastic coming out on peg 1, was the end peg going to hold the fish. I had a couple of fish on top of the shelf, but it was slow going. I switched to the full depth rig and a 4mm Devils Spawn over the micro's, this produced a 3lb fish and a couple of lost foul hookers. It was proving impossible to get the fish to settle and by swapping between the lines and between maggot/caster/Devils Spawn I kept the odd fish coming. With a couple of hours to go, I had a look on the inside line, the float twitched a couple of times and then slid under, but it was the smallest carp of the day, an ugly parrot mouthed fish about 1lb.
I had heard that Fabio was admitting to 25lb on the end peg (14) so I switched from potting bait in to the catapult and attacked the peg a bit more positively, feeding maggot on top of the shelf, this seemed to stir the fish into action, as I added 6 more fish in the last hour and a half and lost a couple more foulers. The fish were still sporadic during this spell, maybe two in two put ins and then nothing for 10 minutes, the water wasn't that clear that the pole should spook them, it seems as if they were backing off the feed and then coming back to it for a quick feed, then backing off again.
My 15 carp went 49.03 along with 2 chub for 1.08, giving me a lake win with 50.11. this was also enough to take second overall. The payout today was, in my opinion, the fairest way to pay out when using two or more lakes, Tony paid top three overall and top silver weight on both lakes. I've fished many matches where one lake fishes far better than the other, so making it impossible to get any thing other than a section when organisers pay overall regardless of lake. Talking of Tony, he won from the 'flyer' bush peg on Westpool - although that bush may not be there much longer........... Que my turn to draw it, the week after the bush is removed!!
Now its time to sit and watch the darts final with a glass of port and some stilton, lets hope the final lives up to last nights semi finals, real drama with Lewis coming from 5-1 down to win 6-5
1) Tony Rixon 81.08 peg 6 Westpool
2) Chris Fox 50.11 peg 2 Hawthorn
3) Steve Wynne 38.00 peg 6H
4) Phil 'Fabio' Harding 36.04 peg 14H
5) Martin McMahon 32.05 peg 5H
6) Alan Oram 28.08 peg 13W
Silvers
1) Alan Oram 10.13 Peg 13W
2) Eddie Wynne 8.06 peg 15W
So back to the fishing, first match of the New Year and I booked into Avon Anglings Open at Shiplate Farm, my previous visits to this venue have seen me pick up money, with a couple of silvers wins from Westpool and a fourth overall with a section pick up also from Westpool on my last visit. Before this match I had treated myself to a new toy, a ProTie hook tyer, I ordered it the day after Boxing day and it arrived Saturday, thats prompt delivery. I tied up a few hooks with it for today and on initial impressions I'm very pleased with it. I always used to use a Delco hook tyer and since my return, I've been using the Drennan. but I have suffered a few lost fish, with missing hooks and a curly bit of line where the hook was. I'm not convinced the Drennan ties the hooks as well with modern pre stretched lines, as it did with good old Bayer Perlon. I tried a Matchman hook tyer a month or so back and have not suffered any lost hooks, hence my purchase of the Pro Tie.
Into the draw bag (or landing net as it was) and I managed to get myself a short walk, peg 2 on Hawthorn, my first time on this lake, so no preconceived ideas about what to do. Whilst not exactly a New Year resolution, I am determind to keep things simpler this year and not bring every bait and every rod/reel combo to matches, if I get it wrong, I'll have to persevere to make it work, or learn from my mistakes. So with this new mantra in my head, I set up three top kits, one with a 4x10 Carpa Chimp on 0.14 to 0.12 with a Drennan carp maggot to fish up the far shelf, a 4x14 Carpa Chimp same line, but a 16 Carp maggot to fish at full depth just short of the far shelf and a Sensas Auchy 0.4G on 0.12 to 0.10 with a 20 Drennan Carp, just in case there were any silvers about.
The bait tray was an extension of my new mantra, maggots, casters, dead maggots, a few softend micros and a few (very few) 4 & 6mm Devils Spawn. On the whistle I cupped in a few micros and dead reds at 10m, which was just short of the bottom of the far shelf and I pole potted a few maggots and casters over the shelf. I also fed a line to my left, just in front of a tree on my bank. It took a while before I got a bite and I could see the elastic coming out on peg 1, was the end peg going to hold the fish. I had a couple of fish on top of the shelf, but it was slow going. I switched to the full depth rig and a 4mm Devils Spawn over the micro's, this produced a 3lb fish and a couple of lost foul hookers. It was proving impossible to get the fish to settle and by swapping between the lines and between maggot/caster/Devils Spawn I kept the odd fish coming. With a couple of hours to go, I had a look on the inside line, the float twitched a couple of times and then slid under, but it was the smallest carp of the day, an ugly parrot mouthed fish about 1lb.
I had heard that Fabio was admitting to 25lb on the end peg (14) so I switched from potting bait in to the catapult and attacked the peg a bit more positively, feeding maggot on top of the shelf, this seemed to stir the fish into action, as I added 6 more fish in the last hour and a half and lost a couple more foulers. The fish were still sporadic during this spell, maybe two in two put ins and then nothing for 10 minutes, the water wasn't that clear that the pole should spook them, it seems as if they were backing off the feed and then coming back to it for a quick feed, then backing off again.
My 15 carp went 49.03 along with 2 chub for 1.08, giving me a lake win with 50.11. this was also enough to take second overall. The payout today was, in my opinion, the fairest way to pay out when using two or more lakes, Tony paid top three overall and top silver weight on both lakes. I've fished many matches where one lake fishes far better than the other, so making it impossible to get any thing other than a section when organisers pay overall regardless of lake. Talking of Tony, he won from the 'flyer' bush peg on Westpool - although that bush may not be there much longer........... Que my turn to draw it, the week after the bush is removed!!
Now its time to sit and watch the darts final with a glass of port and some stilton, lets hope the final lives up to last nights semi finals, real drama with Lewis coming from 5-1 down to win 6-5
1) Tony Rixon 81.08 peg 6 Westpool
2) Chris Fox 50.11 peg 2 Hawthorn
3) Steve Wynne 38.00 peg 6H
4) Phil 'Fabio' Harding 36.04 peg 14H
5) Martin McMahon 32.05 peg 5H
6) Alan Oram 28.08 peg 13W
Silvers
1) Alan Oram 10.13 Peg 13W
2) Eddie Wynne 8.06 peg 15W
Sunday, 18 December 2011
Avalon Xmas Match, Sunday 18th December 2011
There was a good turnout for todays match, shame the cold rain/snow of a couple of days ago and the overnight frost were likely to effect the fishing. I walked up the pub last night for a beer or two, on the way I bought a lottery ticket and a loaf of bread for bait. The lottery ticket only had one number matching the winning line and I got chatting, had a couple more beers than I intended and left the bread in the pub..........
Into the draw tin and I managed to get an end peg, 48. No island chuck and I guessed the replacement loaf I bought on the way to the match, would go unused, at least the ducks would get a meal at the end. No need to load up the trolley for such a short walk, so a couple of trips to the peg saw me settled in on the nice new pallet that Vic has put in. Vic walked round and offered some advice and information on the peg, always good to get some assistance. I set up a waggler to fish maggot, a straight lead, just because it was set up in the bag (I might as well put all my lead rods on ebay for the use they get) and two pole rigs. Rig one was a 0.4g MW diamond, because the wind was blowing into my face and I wanted a stable float, this was on 0.14 with a 0.12 hooklength and a 16 6313. The othe rig was for the margin, on 0.18 with a 0.16 hooklength and a 16 B911.
I started on the waggler towards the aerator, with a 6mm pellet banded on, no feed, just to see if there was a fish willing to pick up a lone pellet. I had a search round the peg with this and then switched to single flouro maggot. The first fish fell to this, a small skimmer, I'd fed a couple of lines, off to the left between the 10 & 11 o'clock position, as far as I could catapult casters in the head wind and a pole line, which I lined up with a tree to the left of peg 2 at 14m, this was fed with micro's via a cup. I also fed the end bank at a comfortable 14.5m, this was with micro and maggot.
I had a couple of skimmers and roach, then a 6oz perch, by swapping between the waggler line and the pole line, all falling to the single flouro, soft pellet proved to be a non starter, as did caster. As I started to get a few bites, I picked up the catapult with my usual exuberance and even though I did my best to limit the bait, I think the half a dozen or so maggots was too much, as the bites tailed off. Then the waggler buried and a better fish was putting a curve into the Titan, a 3lb or so carp was duly netted. The waggler line then really dried up, so a look down to the end bank, where there was a nice flat shelf, with nearly 5' of water. No bites here, so I refed it and out onto the 14m pole line and a decent skimmer joined his small cousins in the keepnet.
Both open water lines went really quiet in the last hour or so, that left me concentrating on the end bank, hoping a couple of carp would come up onto the shelf, first put in the float buried and a 1oz roach had taken the double maggot, next put in, the float buried again, this time a small, but angry carp was the culprit, no more carp, but a couple more roach made the net before the all out.
A nice touch at the end as Vic and Mrs Vic had organised soup, crusty bread and hot mince pies, just the job after a cold day, thanks. The usual Xmas match hampers and booze was lined up and I won my section and a 12 year old Malt for my fifth place over all. My silvers went 6lb odd and the 2 carp 5lb odd for a 11.11 total, apart from the winner, it was a nice close match, a lost carp (probably fouled) cost me second place, but that was the only fish I lost.
Into the draw tin and I managed to get an end peg, 48. No island chuck and I guessed the replacement loaf I bought on the way to the match, would go unused, at least the ducks would get a meal at the end. No need to load up the trolley for such a short walk, so a couple of trips to the peg saw me settled in on the nice new pallet that Vic has put in. Vic walked round and offered some advice and information on the peg, always good to get some assistance. I set up a waggler to fish maggot, a straight lead, just because it was set up in the bag (I might as well put all my lead rods on ebay for the use they get) and two pole rigs. Rig one was a 0.4g MW diamond, because the wind was blowing into my face and I wanted a stable float, this was on 0.14 with a 0.12 hooklength and a 16 6313. The othe rig was for the margin, on 0.18 with a 0.16 hooklength and a 16 B911.
I started on the waggler towards the aerator, with a 6mm pellet banded on, no feed, just to see if there was a fish willing to pick up a lone pellet. I had a search round the peg with this and then switched to single flouro maggot. The first fish fell to this, a small skimmer, I'd fed a couple of lines, off to the left between the 10 & 11 o'clock position, as far as I could catapult casters in the head wind and a pole line, which I lined up with a tree to the left of peg 2 at 14m, this was fed with micro's via a cup. I also fed the end bank at a comfortable 14.5m, this was with micro and maggot.
I had a couple of skimmers and roach, then a 6oz perch, by swapping between the waggler line and the pole line, all falling to the single flouro, soft pellet proved to be a non starter, as did caster. As I started to get a few bites, I picked up the catapult with my usual exuberance and even though I did my best to limit the bait, I think the half a dozen or so maggots was too much, as the bites tailed off. Then the waggler buried and a better fish was putting a curve into the Titan, a 3lb or so carp was duly netted. The waggler line then really dried up, so a look down to the end bank, where there was a nice flat shelf, with nearly 5' of water. No bites here, so I refed it and out onto the 14m pole line and a decent skimmer joined his small cousins in the keepnet.
Both open water lines went really quiet in the last hour or so, that left me concentrating on the end bank, hoping a couple of carp would come up onto the shelf, first put in the float buried and a 1oz roach had taken the double maggot, next put in, the float buried again, this time a small, but angry carp was the culprit, no more carp, but a couple more roach made the net before the all out.
A nice touch at the end as Vic and Mrs Vic had organised soup, crusty bread and hot mince pies, just the job after a cold day, thanks. The usual Xmas match hampers and booze was lined up and I won my section and a 12 year old Malt for my fifth place over all. My silvers went 6lb odd and the 2 carp 5lb odd for a 11.11 total, apart from the winner, it was a nice close match, a lost carp (probably fouled) cost me second place, but that was the only fish I lost.
1. Vince Brown 48-04-0 peg 19
2. Andy Gurd 15-08-0 peg 27
3. Darren North 14-10 peg 10
4. Shane Caswell 13-04-0 peg 24
5. Chris Fox 11-11-0 peg 48
6. John Bradford 11-08-0 peg 9
Silvers:
1. Tony Rixon 9-0-0 peg 28
2. Alan Oram 7-14-0 peg 12
Sunday, 11 December 2011
Viaduct Xmas Match, Saturday 10th December 2011
A draw and breakfast at the Globe, in Somerton, meant an easy start to the day. Three lakes in the drawbag today and no doubt, the draw would be important, with the fish settling into their winter quarters and the overnight frost. (Down to -3°C on the van temp. gauge).
The numbers banded about before the draw as being desirable, were the usual suspects, 110, 130, 85 and the island pegs on spring, bookies wouldn't have lost much had they offered odds based on the general consensus. My ever unreliable drawing arm gave me 119, although somewhat heartend by the fact it threw up a weight on last weeks Carps match. I had tried to keep things simple on the bait tray, meat, bread, caster & maggot, with a kilo of worms in the bait bag ( that has accompanied me, unopened, for several weeks now!!). I set up a waggler and a straight lead, both to fish meat, a MW diamond to fish at 16m and a Carpa Chimp to fish caster at 13m. A margin rig joined the set up, to fish 16m down to the end bank.
I started pretty negatively, searching the peg with the waggler, lead and margin rig, without feeding, trying to find a bite, all to no avail. The 13m caster line didn't produce a single bite, to caster or maggot, even dropping down to a 22 on 0.08. By midday and still biteless, I decided to switch to fishing maggot down into the corner and across to the pallet of 120, The only place in the peg I could get a bite, was next to the sunken tree in the corner. Of course, the closer to the tree, the more likely a bite, but also more likely a lost fish. It still didn't go mad, I had 5 carp for 13.15 and 2 perch/3 roach for 2lb, a total of 15.15, this was 7th on the lake, with, as expected the weights improving towards the opposite end. 3 fish managed to escape into the tree, 2 of a similar stamp to those I landed and 1 decent fish, but they wouldn't have made a difference on the day.
Spring lake produced the goods, with Simon Jones having a great days fishing and the old favourite, peg 85 gave Dick Bull some cash and the second place hamper.
1) Simon Jones 183.08 peg 3
2) Dick Bull 80.03 peg 85
3) Steve Mayo 77.01 peg 4
4) Colin Dyer 66.15 peg 5
5) Fred Roberts 66.14 peg 129
6) Terry Lenny 65.05 peg 110
Silvers
1) Ray Hayward 17.02 peg 78
2) Geoff Barnett 14.14 peg 18
The numbers banded about before the draw as being desirable, were the usual suspects, 110, 130, 85 and the island pegs on spring, bookies wouldn't have lost much had they offered odds based on the general consensus. My ever unreliable drawing arm gave me 119, although somewhat heartend by the fact it threw up a weight on last weeks Carps match. I had tried to keep things simple on the bait tray, meat, bread, caster & maggot, with a kilo of worms in the bait bag ( that has accompanied me, unopened, for several weeks now!!). I set up a waggler and a straight lead, both to fish meat, a MW diamond to fish at 16m and a Carpa Chimp to fish caster at 13m. A margin rig joined the set up, to fish 16m down to the end bank.
I started pretty negatively, searching the peg with the waggler, lead and margin rig, without feeding, trying to find a bite, all to no avail. The 13m caster line didn't produce a single bite, to caster or maggot, even dropping down to a 22 on 0.08. By midday and still biteless, I decided to switch to fishing maggot down into the corner and across to the pallet of 120, The only place in the peg I could get a bite, was next to the sunken tree in the corner. Of course, the closer to the tree, the more likely a bite, but also more likely a lost fish. It still didn't go mad, I had 5 carp for 13.15 and 2 perch/3 roach for 2lb, a total of 15.15, this was 7th on the lake, with, as expected the weights improving towards the opposite end. 3 fish managed to escape into the tree, 2 of a similar stamp to those I landed and 1 decent fish, but they wouldn't have made a difference on the day.
Spring lake produced the goods, with Simon Jones having a great days fishing and the old favourite, peg 85 gave Dick Bull some cash and the second place hamper.
1) Simon Jones 183.08 peg 3
2) Dick Bull 80.03 peg 85
3) Steve Mayo 77.01 peg 4
4) Colin Dyer 66.15 peg 5
5) Fred Roberts 66.14 peg 129
6) Terry Lenny 65.05 peg 110
Silvers
1) Ray Hayward 17.02 peg 78
2) Geoff Barnett 14.14 peg 18
Wednesday, 7 December 2011
Plantation, Carps AC Wednesday, Match 7th December 2011
I reckon I must be suffering from early onset senility, I managed to book into two matches today, a few weeks back I booked into this one and last week into Tony's match on Avalon - I went with my conscience and let Tony down as I'd booked in last with him. With hindsight that was the wrong decision, as todays match cost £22, broken down as a £6 peg fee, £5 for breakfast and £1 for Carps AC. That left £10 for the pools and with 16 fishing, £50 / £ 30 breakdown for the match and silvers winners/second. I'd have rather seen the £5 breakfast money paid out on sections.
Once the breakfast was done, I'd got well wrapped up against the windy conditions and then drew peg 4 - for the last 3 months, this bank and row of pegs has been the one to draw, winning every match, today with the wind in our faces, with the occasional gust from left to right and then an equal and opposite reaction back the other way, ensured that long time form, was blown away.
I had venue expert and Plantations Booking Agent, Darren 'Noddy' Vowles on peg 5 for company, so I was expecting a lesson in plastic thing chucking and to be well beaten off the next Peg at least in the overall. The strength of the wind saw me set up a rod and plastic thing (lobotomy impending at this rate), a waggler and two topkits, although 11m was going to be the comfortable limit, due to the swirling wind. One Carpa Chimp on 0.14 to a 0.12 hooklength and a MW Diamond with the same line.
Given the choice, I'd have taken 33, its a good silvers peg and given the equal payout in this match, I fancied it for roach and perch on the caster - Colin Golding drew and I'm sure he would have fished his soft pellet over soft pellet feed approach.
It was a slow start and 3 /4 hour passed before I had a bite on 4mm devils spawn, which saw a carp grace the net, I'd been feeding a close line with caster expecting to, if not plunder, eke out a few silvers. This didn't happen, not any where in the peg, all match, a total silvers blank. The wind made things tricky and swapping between the pole line and (after I'd ripped the plastic thing off and thrown it a long way away) straight lead
saw me land 5 carp in total, on devils spawn, maggot and bread. I managed to lose 5 fish, two on the lead and three on the pole.
I'm happy that the two lead fish were fouled and so be it, but on the pole, I hooked a real big fish, it just kept swimming (no real speed), initially it came in like a skimmer, the once I'd got it close enough to break down to the topkit, it woke up. Still slow, but it swam off and kept going until the 0.12 hooklength parted. I put a new hooklength on and the next drop in hooked a fish, which took the hook and left me with a curly bit of line - I've had a couple of instances of this now, since I started using the pyroti hooktyer. That seemed to kill the poleline.
Now onto my near neighbour on peg 5, venue expert, Darren 'Noddy' Vowles, we had some good banter during the match, but this obviously affected Noddy as his lesson to me failed to materialise, in fact it was an anti-lesson as he failed to weigh in (He did claim one carp, but slipped it back on the all out whistle, so was a dismal DNW). Can't wait to have a wasted peg next to me again
I told 'Noddy' that we (me and my missus) were off to the local curryhouse on Xmas day - he fancied that, but I got a text from him saying Mrs Noddy wasn't imprressed. He also asked me to point out he holds the lake record - but surely the only peg on the stock pond doesn't count'
The real venue expert won, with all the weights coming from different pegs to those that have been dominating the last few weeks, about time those fish started moving - just a shame it was today.
1) Rod Wotton 85.06 (peg 25)
2) John Smith 48.09 (peg 28)
3) John Dursley 37.04 (peg 31)
4) Mike Nicholls 31.15 (peg 38)
5) Chris Fox 31.00 (peg 4)
6) John Bennett 23.00 (peg 29)
Silvers
1) A Gard 9.06 peg 18
2 J Dursley 8.13
Once the breakfast was done, I'd got well wrapped up against the windy conditions and then drew peg 4 - for the last 3 months, this bank and row of pegs has been the one to draw, winning every match, today with the wind in our faces, with the occasional gust from left to right and then an equal and opposite reaction back the other way, ensured that long time form, was blown away.
I had venue expert and Plantations Booking Agent, Darren 'Noddy' Vowles on peg 5 for company, so I was expecting a lesson in plastic thing chucking and to be well beaten off the next Peg at least in the overall. The strength of the wind saw me set up a rod and plastic thing (lobotomy impending at this rate), a waggler and two topkits, although 11m was going to be the comfortable limit, due to the swirling wind. One Carpa Chimp on 0.14 to a 0.12 hooklength and a MW Diamond with the same line.
Given the choice, I'd have taken 33, its a good silvers peg and given the equal payout in this match, I fancied it for roach and perch on the caster - Colin Golding drew and I'm sure he would have fished his soft pellet over soft pellet feed approach.
It was a slow start and 3 /4 hour passed before I had a bite on 4mm devils spawn, which saw a carp grace the net, I'd been feeding a close line with caster expecting to, if not plunder, eke out a few silvers. This didn't happen, not any where in the peg, all match, a total silvers blank. The wind made things tricky and swapping between the pole line and (after I'd ripped the plastic thing off and thrown it a long way away) straight lead
saw me land 5 carp in total, on devils spawn, maggot and bread. I managed to lose 5 fish, two on the lead and three on the pole.
I'm happy that the two lead fish were fouled and so be it, but on the pole, I hooked a real big fish, it just kept swimming (no real speed), initially it came in like a skimmer, the once I'd got it close enough to break down to the topkit, it woke up. Still slow, but it swam off and kept going until the 0.12 hooklength parted. I put a new hooklength on and the next drop in hooked a fish, which took the hook and left me with a curly bit of line - I've had a couple of instances of this now, since I started using the pyroti hooktyer. That seemed to kill the poleline.
Now onto my near neighbour on peg 5, venue expert, Darren 'Noddy' Vowles, we had some good banter during the match, but this obviously affected Noddy as his lesson to me failed to materialise, in fact it was an anti-lesson as he failed to weigh in (He did claim one carp, but slipped it back on the all out whistle, so was a dismal DNW). Can't wait to have a wasted peg next to me again
I told 'Noddy' that we (me and my missus) were off to the local curryhouse on Xmas day - he fancied that, but I got a text from him saying Mrs Noddy wasn't imprressed. He also asked me to point out he holds the lake record - but surely the only peg on the stock pond doesn't count'
The real venue expert won, with all the weights coming from different pegs to those that have been dominating the last few weeks, about time those fish started moving - just a shame it was today.
1) Rod Wotton 85.06 (peg 25)
2) John Smith 48.09 (peg 28)
3) John Dursley 37.04 (peg 31)
4) Mike Nicholls 31.15 (peg 38)
5) Chris Fox 31.00 (peg 4)
6) John Bennett 23.00 (peg 29)
Silvers
1) A Gard 9.06 peg 18
2 J Dursley 8.13
Sunday, 4 December 2011
Trinity Xmas match, Sunday 4th December 2011
The post title is Sunday 4th, there is a post missing for Sat 3rd, the Plantations match, on which, I drew peg 11, probably, if not definitely the least form peg on the lake, I was minded not to even bothering to walk to it, but I did eventually gather enought fortitude. I knew my gut feeling was right and 2pm packed up and went off to see the incompetent ref hand Middlesborough the game at Ashton Gate - what a shit day!!
So back to today, a long overdue visit to my favourite venue, John has been busy again and the lakes now lack much of the foliage they once possessed - I like it, but there is a balancing act to be had, between barren hole in the ground and fishable fishery. he also expressed his desire to get Wildmarsh up to a similar standard of weight averages that Woodlands achieves - I've no doubt he'll succeed.
I've previously managed a 3rd and 2nd in this match, in fact in 2006, it was my first match back after my long layoff, so a win was the aim, I felt this necessitated a draw on the far bank. Thankfuly a far bank draw, No 8, stuck to my mitt, from Misha's bucket. I had purposely left the rods at home, so set up a couple of top kits with 1g & 1.5g rigs respectively and another with a 0.8 for hard pellet. Finally a 2x10 rig for the margin, although, as much as I plumbed the margin, a decent shelf was conspicuous by it absence. The best flat area was under the platform of the vacant peg 9.
I started at 13.5m, with micros and Devils Spawn, as this is often a good bet to catch decent skimmers and carp, not today as a couple of hand sized skimmers made the net in the first half an hour or so. I was obvious looking round the lake that no one was catching well, and a switch to maggot caster brought the odd small roach and skimmer. By the time Misah stared the first of her rounds with the gratis soup, mince pies and sausage rolls, I had approx 1lb.
I looked in the margins earlier than I wanted too, and had three carp in three put ins under the pallet of peg 9, that seemed to be the residents caught as I failed to get another bite from the margin, one more carp from the 13.5m swim and another couple of roach was too be my lot, but I wasn't far away with that, as the carp had not fed, the scales swung in my favour, with 17.10 of carp and 3.02 silvers, making my 20.12 enough to win by 2oz. It was nice to win this match, with my previous 2nd and 3rd and I must congratulate and thank John, Sue and Misha on the hampers for my self, 2nd and 3rd, as well as the silvers winner.
Wine, Cheese, Beef, Pork and a variety of other goodies which won't last long.... so much for the diet!!
1) Chris Fox 20.12 peg 8
2) Paul berry 20.10 peg 10
3) Mark 'pastehead' Walsh 18.00 peg 2
4) Brian Cearl 15.04 peg 33
5) Kev Perry 9.14 peg 4 (most of which was an 8lb+ carp on the last put in at 17.5m)
Silvers
Brian Slipper 15.00 peg 16 (Roach on caster)
So back to today, a long overdue visit to my favourite venue, John has been busy again and the lakes now lack much of the foliage they once possessed - I like it, but there is a balancing act to be had, between barren hole in the ground and fishable fishery. he also expressed his desire to get Wildmarsh up to a similar standard of weight averages that Woodlands achieves - I've no doubt he'll succeed.
I've previously managed a 3rd and 2nd in this match, in fact in 2006, it was my first match back after my long layoff, so a win was the aim, I felt this necessitated a draw on the far bank. Thankfuly a far bank draw, No 8, stuck to my mitt, from Misha's bucket. I had purposely left the rods at home, so set up a couple of top kits with 1g & 1.5g rigs respectively and another with a 0.8 for hard pellet. Finally a 2x10 rig for the margin, although, as much as I plumbed the margin, a decent shelf was conspicuous by it absence. The best flat area was under the platform of the vacant peg 9.
I started at 13.5m, with micros and Devils Spawn, as this is often a good bet to catch decent skimmers and carp, not today as a couple of hand sized skimmers made the net in the first half an hour or so. I was obvious looking round the lake that no one was catching well, and a switch to maggot caster brought the odd small roach and skimmer. By the time Misah stared the first of her rounds with the gratis soup, mince pies and sausage rolls, I had approx 1lb.
I looked in the margins earlier than I wanted too, and had three carp in three put ins under the pallet of peg 9, that seemed to be the residents caught as I failed to get another bite from the margin, one more carp from the 13.5m swim and another couple of roach was too be my lot, but I wasn't far away with that, as the carp had not fed, the scales swung in my favour, with 17.10 of carp and 3.02 silvers, making my 20.12 enough to win by 2oz. It was nice to win this match, with my previous 2nd and 3rd and I must congratulate and thank John, Sue and Misha on the hampers for my self, 2nd and 3rd, as well as the silvers winner.
Wine, Cheese, Beef, Pork and a variety of other goodies which won't last long.... so much for the diet!!
1) Chris Fox 20.12 peg 8
2) Paul berry 20.10 peg 10
3) Mark 'pastehead' Walsh 18.00 peg 2
4) Brian Cearl 15.04 peg 33
5) Kev Perry 9.14 peg 4 (most of which was an 8lb+ carp on the last put in at 17.5m)
Silvers
Brian Slipper 15.00 peg 16 (Roach on caster)
Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Avon Angling Open, Avalon, Wednesday 23rd November 2011
I typed this out on my ipad, then either touched or pressed a screen command that promptly wiped the page clean, bloody technology.......... So back to the trusty keyboard and Windows.
I thought I'd have a change of scenery and book into this one at Avalon, where I've had varying success and failure. Into the draw bowl and out comes 29, so a quick drive up to the top car park and I found Nigel Bartlett on 27 for company and Martin Lengahan on the form 24 corner peg.
I was determind to keep it simple, so set up the trusty waggler rod to fish caster at the bottom of the island shelf, a lead rod - just in case it kept going round..... It didn't even twitch, so no more to say about that one!! And three topkits, two with pink Vespe 0.14 / 0.12 for skimmers, one with a MW Diamond and a 16 63.13 for Devils spawn and the other had a Carpa Chimp and a 18 Carp Maggot. The white Hydro kit had a rig on 0.16 to a B960 for banded pellet. At the all in, I cupped in a few micros at 14m and fired a couple of 8mm's to the island, finally some caster to the bottom of the island shelf.
I started on the lead rod, just in case there was a queue of hungry carp wanting the 8mm pellet - there weren't. The caster was as unproductive today, as it has been far too often in the last few matches, so it was time to drop in over the micro's with a 4mm Devils Spawn. This resulted in a couple of skimmers, but nowhere near as quick as Nigel was catching on 27. I switched back to and persevered with the waggler, but wasted too much time on it, as caster yielded only two fish and single or double maggot invariably saw a 1/2 oz rudd snaffling the bait.
A breeze got up and thinking the ripple would improve the skimmer fishing, I reverted back to the soft pellet, the ripple seemed to have totaly the opposite effect than expected and I struggled to catch whilst it affected my peg. Once the wind dropped and the lake regained its flat calm surface, I had a reasonable last hour, although my failure to drop down from the pink vespe, cost me some lost skimmers.
Soft pellet really seems to be the bait to catch skimmers on this lake, if only I was any good at it or could get the feeding sussed. At one stage I lost a cople of big skimmers that I 'd foul hooked, they seemed to be sitting 2'-3' above the feed, I fed a few 4mm's and stopped feeding micros's, that stopped me fouling the big skilmmers, but reduced the size of the ones I did catch.
Tricky stuff this Devils spawn fishing, although it seems Shepton Mallet Socialite, Tom Thick has it sussed, as he's used it to take top silvers and second spot overall, behind Trigger who put together a very creditable 90.06 to win. Nigel Bartlett's persistance with the soft pellet saw him take the silvers coin by default and I took second silvers coin by default, third in the silvers seems to be a regular spot for me now - must try harder, as my school reports always used to say.
1) Craig Edmunds 90.06 peg 19
2) Tom Thick 69.02 peg 9
3) Kev Molton 53.04 peg 13
4) Tony Rixon 52.07 peg 11
5) J Thompson 32..12 peg 3
6) Martin Lenaghan 24.09 peg 24
Silvers
1) Tom Thick 39.15 peg 9
2) Nigel Bartlett 24.04 peg 27
3) Chris Fox 14.06 peg 29
One last thought for this blog entry, has Tony Rixon got a feminine alter ego? Or is Toni just his Tranny name.....
http://www.avalonfisheries.co.uk/moors.html
There's no place to hide on the interweb...
I thought I'd have a change of scenery and book into this one at Avalon, where I've had varying success and failure. Into the draw bowl and out comes 29, so a quick drive up to the top car park and I found Nigel Bartlett on 27 for company and Martin Lengahan on the form 24 corner peg.
I was determind to keep it simple, so set up the trusty waggler rod to fish caster at the bottom of the island shelf, a lead rod - just in case it kept going round..... It didn't even twitch, so no more to say about that one!! And three topkits, two with pink Vespe 0.14 / 0.12 for skimmers, one with a MW Diamond and a 16 63.13 for Devils spawn and the other had a Carpa Chimp and a 18 Carp Maggot. The white Hydro kit had a rig on 0.16 to a B960 for banded pellet. At the all in, I cupped in a few micros at 14m and fired a couple of 8mm's to the island, finally some caster to the bottom of the island shelf.
I started on the lead rod, just in case there was a queue of hungry carp wanting the 8mm pellet - there weren't. The caster was as unproductive today, as it has been far too often in the last few matches, so it was time to drop in over the micro's with a 4mm Devils Spawn. This resulted in a couple of skimmers, but nowhere near as quick as Nigel was catching on 27. I switched back to and persevered with the waggler, but wasted too much time on it, as caster yielded only two fish and single or double maggot invariably saw a 1/2 oz rudd snaffling the bait.
A breeze got up and thinking the ripple would improve the skimmer fishing, I reverted back to the soft pellet, the ripple seemed to have totaly the opposite effect than expected and I struggled to catch whilst it affected my peg. Once the wind dropped and the lake regained its flat calm surface, I had a reasonable last hour, although my failure to drop down from the pink vespe, cost me some lost skimmers.
Soft pellet really seems to be the bait to catch skimmers on this lake, if only I was any good at it or could get the feeding sussed. At one stage I lost a cople of big skimmers that I 'd foul hooked, they seemed to be sitting 2'-3' above the feed, I fed a few 4mm's and stopped feeding micros's, that stopped me fouling the big skilmmers, but reduced the size of the ones I did catch.
Tricky stuff this Devils spawn fishing, although it seems Shepton Mallet Socialite, Tom Thick has it sussed, as he's used it to take top silvers and second spot overall, behind Trigger who put together a very creditable 90.06 to win. Nigel Bartlett's persistance with the soft pellet saw him take the silvers coin by default and I took second silvers coin by default, third in the silvers seems to be a regular spot for me now - must try harder, as my school reports always used to say.
1) Craig Edmunds 90.06 peg 19
2) Tom Thick 69.02 peg 9
3) Kev Molton 53.04 peg 13
4) Tony Rixon 52.07 peg 11
5) J Thompson 32..12 peg 3
6) Martin Lenaghan 24.09 peg 24
Silvers
1) Tom Thick 39.15 peg 9
2) Nigel Bartlett 24.04 peg 27
3) Chris Fox 14.06 peg 29
One last thought for this blog entry, has Tony Rixon got a feminine alter ego? Or is Toni just his Tranny name.....
http://www.avalonfisheries.co.uk/moors.html
There's no place to hide on the interweb...
Sunday, 20 November 2011
Plantation Lake, Saturday Series, 19th November 2011
My second of this series, although its the third match. I had a decent fry up at home before setting off, no traffic, not one dawdling old bugger to hold me up, meant I was first there. I had a look round the lake, then saw match organiser and plastic thing aficionado Darren 'Noddy' Vowles pulled up. He advised me that all the fish were in one quarter of the lake and a draw of 38,39 and 1 - 8 would be necessary to do well. Great!! How likely given my cursed drawing arm, was I to draw one of the coveted pegs.
And so it proved, my usual lack of prowess at the drawbag continued, peg 25, diagonally the opposite quarter of the lake, than the one that 'Noddy' the venue expert, prophesised all the fish to be in. Perhaps they'd moved.... unlikely given my luck, but you have to have some thread of optimisim before tackling up, or why bother?
I felt that with the mild, but autumnal weather, the carp would respond to maggot and caster, which should also ensure I caught silvers. I did have the partial lobotomy and set up a plastic thing, trying to remember what I've been read and told about fishing it. This had a 3" hooklength and a 18 with a micro band on a hair for 6mm pellet.
I then set up a 12' Normark Titan 2000, I can't find a better modern rod, with 3lb reel line, a 0.12 hooklength and a 18 Drennan Carp Maggot hook. This was to be my main line of attack, caster at 2/3 the way to the island, I dreamt of a steady run of skimmers, big roach and large stripeys, with an occasional carp. I also set up a couple of pole rigs, one to fish at 14m and another for the margin, which thankfully plumbed up within an 1" both left, right short and right long in front of peg 24.
I fed some groundbait and micro pellet at 14m on the all-in and caster at 20m+, with maggot in the LH margin and caster in the RH margin. I then tried the plastic thing, I had carefully clipped up with a 1oz bomb, the first cast was perfect - how easy is this plastic thing fishing..... Not that easy, next cast the plastic thing landed spot on, the micros that had been moulded to it, landed about 10 metres out. Try again, another perfect cast, next cast, straight into the island foliage. Then a cast that didn't hit the clip, another that saw the micros land yards away from the plastic thing again and finally two more perfect casts, without a bite. Enough was enough, that was put up the bank and thats where it stayed, how is that enjoyable?
I had brought some devils spawn and dropped a 4mm specimen of it over the gbait and micro, I had 2 skimmers in four put ins and that was the end of the action on that bait. The dream of a nice mixed bag on the waggler didn't take long to turn into a nightmare, as I could not, no matter how I altered, depth, shotting, single or double on the hook, elicit a bite on caster. Maggot on the hook brought the odd roach, one decent skimmer and not much else.
The margins produced one decent perch and some quality roach, again to maggot, as the caster was no more productive than fishing with a bare hook. I even tried going down to 0.06 and a 24, single pinkie, to no avail, that brought no more bites than double maggot on a 18 b911 on 0.16. I alternated between the waggler and the 3 margin lines, short left, 5m and 11m to my right, to take the occasional fish. I didn't manage to hook a carp, there was very little sign of fish life in the peg. It seems that even the silvers have vacated this end of the lake. Although unexpectedly, my slim 8.08 was enough to take last in the silvers coin and hard work it was too!!
Venue expert and plastic thing fanatic 'Noddy' was on peg 26 to my left, gave up and packed up well before the end. Glenn (weekend & internet name - 'Faitheeey') Calvert also struggled on peg 19, it seems that the prophesy of 'Noddy' was correct and we were well and truly at the wrong end of the lake.
A word for Mark Bromsgrove, he took some advice about the plastic things fron 'Noddy' and in spite of claims that he'd only ever used them once before, managed to take the last framing place from peg 27 -worst of all, was he was quite excited by it and announced it a good and fun way to fish. I fear Weston General has been undertaking some secret lobotomys and electo-therapy on unsuspecting locals.
I didn't get a chance to ask Rod Wootton how he caught, but I'd be shocked if it wasn't pole and pellet, as he won from fancied peg 5. In fact, the peg numbers that framed were virtually as predicted by 'Mystic Noddy' - how about picking me some lottery numbers? I reckon we could do with a frost, failing that dynamite, to get the buggers to spread out round the lake.
1) Rod Wootton 75.10 peg 5
=2) Andy Hembrow 53.00 peg 7
=2) Mike Owens 53.00 peg 39
4) Craig Tucker 44.08 peg 4
5) Rich Lovering 37.10 peg 8
6) Mark Bromsgrove 32.08 peg 27
Silvers
1) Brian Slipper 29.06 peg 18
2) Paul ("I've never fished for silvers, its easy isn't it, I'm going to do it again") Nicholls 12.04 peg 28
3) Chris Fox 8.08 peg 25
I felt that with the mild, but autumnal weather, the carp would respond to maggot and caster, which should also ensure I caught silvers. I did have the partial lobotomy and set up a plastic thing, trying to remember what I've been read and told about fishing it. This had a 3" hooklength and a 18 with a micro band on a hair for 6mm pellet.
I then set up a 12' Normark Titan 2000, I can't find a better modern rod, with 3lb reel line, a 0.12 hooklength and a 18 Drennan Carp Maggot hook. This was to be my main line of attack, caster at 2/3 the way to the island, I dreamt of a steady run of skimmers, big roach and large stripeys, with an occasional carp. I also set up a couple of pole rigs, one to fish at 14m and another for the margin, which thankfully plumbed up within an 1" both left, right short and right long in front of peg 24.
I fed some groundbait and micro pellet at 14m on the all-in and caster at 20m+, with maggot in the LH margin and caster in the RH margin. I then tried the plastic thing, I had carefully clipped up with a 1oz bomb, the first cast was perfect - how easy is this plastic thing fishing..... Not that easy, next cast the plastic thing landed spot on, the micros that had been moulded to it, landed about 10 metres out. Try again, another perfect cast, next cast, straight into the island foliage. Then a cast that didn't hit the clip, another that saw the micros land yards away from the plastic thing again and finally two more perfect casts, without a bite. Enough was enough, that was put up the bank and thats where it stayed, how is that enjoyable?
I had brought some devils spawn and dropped a 4mm specimen of it over the gbait and micro, I had 2 skimmers in four put ins and that was the end of the action on that bait. The dream of a nice mixed bag on the waggler didn't take long to turn into a nightmare, as I could not, no matter how I altered, depth, shotting, single or double on the hook, elicit a bite on caster. Maggot on the hook brought the odd roach, one decent skimmer and not much else.
The margins produced one decent perch and some quality roach, again to maggot, as the caster was no more productive than fishing with a bare hook. I even tried going down to 0.06 and a 24, single pinkie, to no avail, that brought no more bites than double maggot on a 18 b911 on 0.16. I alternated between the waggler and the 3 margin lines, short left, 5m and 11m to my right, to take the occasional fish. I didn't manage to hook a carp, there was very little sign of fish life in the peg. It seems that even the silvers have vacated this end of the lake. Although unexpectedly, my slim 8.08 was enough to take last in the silvers coin and hard work it was too!!
Venue expert and plastic thing fanatic 'Noddy' was on peg 26 to my left, gave up and packed up well before the end. Glenn (weekend & internet name - 'Faitheeey') Calvert also struggled on peg 19, it seems that the prophesy of 'Noddy' was correct and we were well and truly at the wrong end of the lake.
A word for Mark Bromsgrove, he took some advice about the plastic things fron 'Noddy' and in spite of claims that he'd only ever used them once before, managed to take the last framing place from peg 27 -worst of all, was he was quite excited by it and announced it a good and fun way to fish. I fear Weston General has been undertaking some secret lobotomys and electo-therapy on unsuspecting locals.
I didn't get a chance to ask Rod Wootton how he caught, but I'd be shocked if it wasn't pole and pellet, as he won from fancied peg 5. In fact, the peg numbers that framed were virtually as predicted by 'Mystic Noddy' - how about picking me some lottery numbers? I reckon we could do with a frost, failing that dynamite, to get the buggers to spread out round the lake.
1) Rod Wootton 75.10 peg 5
=2) Andy Hembrow 53.00 peg 7
=2) Mike Owens 53.00 peg 39
4) Craig Tucker 44.08 peg 4
5) Rich Lovering 37.10 peg 8
6) Mark Bromsgrove 32.08 peg 27
Silvers
1) Brian Slipper 29.06 peg 18
2) Paul ("I've never fished for silvers, its easy isn't it, I'm going to do it again") Nicholls 12.04 peg 28
3) Chris Fox 8.08 peg 25
Wednesday, 16 November 2011
Viaduct Match & Lodge Lakes, 16th November 2011
My mum told me never to accept lifts from strange men, I went against her advice today and took up Tony Rixon's offer of a lift. His passenger has to buy the breakfast and we stopped at the most expensive place on the way down...... Well, I guess I would have if I was driving!! It actually made a nice change not to drive, feel free to offer again Tony.
I was looking forward to a draw on Match Lake, having seen the weigh in from last Sundays match on there, as seems usual with my luck lately, I drew on the clear and cold looking Lodge, peg 60. I didn't think that the fish would come too close in, given the clarity and I had Fabio (who is known to curse and chat to himself, like Gollum). We thought we had an empty peg opposite, but Steve Kedge turned up and filled the vacant peg.
Two waggler rods set up, one with 3lb mainline and a 0.12 hooklength with a size 20 808, second rod with 4lb to a 0.14 hooklength and a 18 63.13. A skimmer lead rod with 3lb reel ine and a 0.10 hooklength with a 20 808 completed the rod & reel set up. I was inclined not to set up a pole, but as I was ready with 40 minutes to go, I set up two rigs to try and catch skimmers over groundbait at 14m. One soft ball of groundbait with caster & dead maggot went in at 14m on the all in, I then started on the waggler and caster, this produced very little, and what it did produce was very little in size, micro roach. After 25 minutes I dropped in over the groundbait, this was obviously what the little roach wanted, as every put in resulted in one of them taking either single or John Green on 62 started to catch decent silvers on the waggler and caster, but I just couldn't get them to move the two pegs and take my caster. I could see Kedgie opposite struggling, as was Fabio on peg 60. Shepton Mallet wannabe Gigolo, Tom Thick was also struggling on 55.
In desperation I started on the feeder, to try and get the skimmers, second chuck I had a 10lb+ carp, safely landed on the 0.10. The feeder also produced micro roach, I tried corn to get away from them, that meant no bites at all!! Back on the feeder and double maggot and at last a decent skimmer, but by now it was too little to late. Fabio had started to catch carp from under the tree to his left, landing 6 and losing 6. This was enough to win him the section, as my travelling partner for the day managed 19lb from peg 64. My one carp and meagre silvers went 15lb odd.
1) Lee Werritt 92.03 peg 53
2) Andy Lloyd 57.07 peg 52
3) Phil Harding 55.06 peg 60
4) S Scribbled Name 50.10 peg 50
5) Mike West 46.13 peg 52
6) Clint W 45.05 peg 48
Silvers
1) Rich Coles 41.14 peg 47
2) John Green 36.06 peg 62
3) S Scribbled Name 27.00 peg 50
Most fancied the match lake and with 5 weights over 40lb, it proved the best for a days fishing. Biggest shock of the day, seeing Mike Nicholls in the Bear Hotel, where the breakfast is a wallet emptying £6.95, although, it is a decent, help yourself set up. There must have been a half price voucher in the Saga magazine...... Also where does he get this ability to pre pick his pegs? I asked him before which peg on Lodge he'd fancy, he said, 53, or 66 as the wind blowing into 53 might not be good, being Easterly - yep, he drew 66......
I was looking forward to a draw on Match Lake, having seen the weigh in from last Sundays match on there, as seems usual with my luck lately, I drew on the clear and cold looking Lodge, peg 60. I didn't think that the fish would come too close in, given the clarity and I had Fabio (who is known to curse and chat to himself, like Gollum). We thought we had an empty peg opposite, but Steve Kedge turned up and filled the vacant peg.
Two waggler rods set up, one with 3lb mainline and a 0.12 hooklength with a size 20 808, second rod with 4lb to a 0.14 hooklength and a 18 63.13. A skimmer lead rod with 3lb reel ine and a 0.10 hooklength with a 20 808 completed the rod & reel set up. I was inclined not to set up a pole, but as I was ready with 40 minutes to go, I set up two rigs to try and catch skimmers over groundbait at 14m. One soft ball of groundbait with caster & dead maggot went in at 14m on the all in, I then started on the waggler and caster, this produced very little, and what it did produce was very little in size, micro roach. After 25 minutes I dropped in over the groundbait, this was obviously what the little roach wanted, as every put in resulted in one of them taking either single or John Green on 62 started to catch decent silvers on the waggler and caster, but I just couldn't get them to move the two pegs and take my caster. I could see Kedgie opposite struggling, as was Fabio on peg 60. Shepton Mallet wannabe Gigolo, Tom Thick was also struggling on 55.
In desperation I started on the feeder, to try and get the skimmers, second chuck I had a 10lb+ carp, safely landed on the 0.10. The feeder also produced micro roach, I tried corn to get away from them, that meant no bites at all!! Back on the feeder and double maggot and at last a decent skimmer, but by now it was too little to late. Fabio had started to catch carp from under the tree to his left, landing 6 and losing 6. This was enough to win him the section, as my travelling partner for the day managed 19lb from peg 64. My one carp and meagre silvers went 15lb odd.
1) Lee Werritt 92.03 peg 53
2) Andy Lloyd 57.07 peg 52
3) Phil Harding 55.06 peg 60
4) S Scribbled Name 50.10 peg 50
5) Mike West 46.13 peg 52
6) Clint W 45.05 peg 48
Silvers
1) Rich Coles 41.14 peg 47
2) John Green 36.06 peg 62
3) S Scribbled Name 27.00 peg 50
Most fancied the match lake and with 5 weights over 40lb, it proved the best for a days fishing. Biggest shock of the day, seeing Mike Nicholls in the Bear Hotel, where the breakfast is a wallet emptying £6.95, although, it is a decent, help yourself set up. There must have been a half price voucher in the Saga magazine...... Also where does he get this ability to pre pick his pegs? I asked him before which peg on Lodge he'd fancy, he said, 53, or 66 as the wind blowing into 53 might not be good, being Easterly - yep, he drew 66......
Monday, 14 November 2011
Carps AC, Campbell, Viaduct, Sunday 13/11/11
After last weeks dismal day at Landsend, I passed up the opportunity to contribute to Tony Rixon's pension fund and fish there again. (A right decision looking at the result - see Tony's blog).
Carps AC had their silvers league at Viaduct, but also an open on Campbell, so this was my choice for Sundays match. Carps have this rule that pays equal money to the match winner and silvers winner (and places), so once I saw 128 on my swimcard, I decided that as the peg has some carp & silvers form, I'd stick to maggot & caster as my main line of attack.
I set up two waggler rods, although it seemed wildly optimistic given the strong wind that was in face, with the occasional gust from left to right. One with 3lb Preston reel line and a 0.12 hooklength under a 3AAA insert peacock float, this ahd a 16 Drennan Carp hook on for maggot/caster. The other had 4lb sensor to a 0.14 hooklength with a 16 Drennan hair rig hook with a quick stop - for meat corn etc. This resulted in nothing, not even a liner, so no more about it.
A lead rod completed the rod & reel set up, I had a couple of chucks with it, to no avail, I had one bite, the hooked fish felt fouled and snapped the 0.16 hooklength at the loop knot, as usual it went up the bank and wasn't used again - not sure why I take it!!
Pole rigs were simple, two No4 MW diamonds, one on 0.16 to a 0.14 hooklength and one on 0.14 to a 0.12 hooklength, a Preston float that I rescued from a snag at Viaduct (it had no owners details on it, honest guv) on 0.18 with a 0.16 hooklength made up the margin rig.
I started on the waggler / caster, to no avail, maggot only produced micro roach, switching to caster meant the float remained motionless. A look on the lead with meat, not even a liner, a switch to 8mm punched bread brought the one 'bite' that resulted in the previously mentioned broken hooklength, the fish felt fouled, but still no reason for the snap off.
I then dropped in on the 11m line that I'd fed caster on, another micro roach took the maggot hookbait, a switch to double caster produced a 5lb+ carp first drop in, disappointingly no more followed. I decided that it was time to look at the line I'd been feeding along the spit, this resulted in three carp in three put ins, then the fourth one, which felt like a decent double, picked up a branch that was on the bottom and managed to get into the brambles and snap the hooklength - whatever signal that sent to his mates, it was enough to ensure that I didn't catch another carp from that edge.
I swapped from the 11m line and the waggler, with caster (although that was a waste of time) to keep the odd skimmer and a couple of small tench coming. With hindsight I'd wouldn't have attacked the peg as I did.
Carps AC payout saw me pick up some coin (£45), with my meagre silvers of 7.14 gettting second in silvers, so I can't complain. My 5 carp went 26.15 for a total of 34.12.
1) Paul Hurn 83.07 peg 129 (why wouldn't they come my side of the spit??)
2) G Radford 79.10 peg 119
3) Steve Long 59.14 peg 110
4) K Fisher 57.01 peg 125
5) Unreadable hand writing 46.07 peg 114
6) Lewis Geenwood-King 43.02 peg 129
Silvers
1) Steve Long 22.13 peg 110
2) Chris Fox 7.14 peg 128
3) Tom Mangall 7.05 peg 126
4) Andy Lloyd 6.11 peg 116
Carps AC had their silvers league at Viaduct, but also an open on Campbell, so this was my choice for Sundays match. Carps have this rule that pays equal money to the match winner and silvers winner (and places), so once I saw 128 on my swimcard, I decided that as the peg has some carp & silvers form, I'd stick to maggot & caster as my main line of attack.
I set up two waggler rods, although it seemed wildly optimistic given the strong wind that was in face, with the occasional gust from left to right. One with 3lb Preston reel line and a 0.12 hooklength under a 3AAA insert peacock float, this ahd a 16 Drennan Carp hook on for maggot/caster. The other had 4lb sensor to a 0.14 hooklength with a 16 Drennan hair rig hook with a quick stop - for meat corn etc. This resulted in nothing, not even a liner, so no more about it.
A lead rod completed the rod & reel set up, I had a couple of chucks with it, to no avail, I had one bite, the hooked fish felt fouled and snapped the 0.16 hooklength at the loop knot, as usual it went up the bank and wasn't used again - not sure why I take it!!
Pole rigs were simple, two No4 MW diamonds, one on 0.16 to a 0.14 hooklength and one on 0.14 to a 0.12 hooklength, a Preston float that I rescued from a snag at Viaduct (it had no owners details on it, honest guv) on 0.18 with a 0.16 hooklength made up the margin rig.
I started on the waggler / caster, to no avail, maggot only produced micro roach, switching to caster meant the float remained motionless. A look on the lead with meat, not even a liner, a switch to 8mm punched bread brought the one 'bite' that resulted in the previously mentioned broken hooklength, the fish felt fouled, but still no reason for the snap off.
I then dropped in on the 11m line that I'd fed caster on, another micro roach took the maggot hookbait, a switch to double caster produced a 5lb+ carp first drop in, disappointingly no more followed. I decided that it was time to look at the line I'd been feeding along the spit, this resulted in three carp in three put ins, then the fourth one, which felt like a decent double, picked up a branch that was on the bottom and managed to get into the brambles and snap the hooklength - whatever signal that sent to his mates, it was enough to ensure that I didn't catch another carp from that edge.
I swapped from the 11m line and the waggler, with caster (although that was a waste of time) to keep the odd skimmer and a couple of small tench coming. With hindsight I'd wouldn't have attacked the peg as I did.
Carps AC payout saw me pick up some coin (£45), with my meagre silvers of 7.14 gettting second in silvers, so I can't complain. My 5 carp went 26.15 for a total of 34.12.
1) Paul Hurn 83.07 peg 129 (why wouldn't they come my side of the spit??)
2) G Radford 79.10 peg 119
3) Steve Long 59.14 peg 110
4) K Fisher 57.01 peg 125
5) Unreadable hand writing 46.07 peg 114
6) Lewis Geenwood-King 43.02 peg 129
Silvers
1) Steve Long 22.13 peg 110
2) Chris Fox 7.14 peg 128
3) Tom Mangall 7.05 peg 126
4) Andy Lloyd 6.11 peg 116
Tuesday, 8 November 2011
Teams of Four, Landsend, 6th November 2011
Why write a blog? I suppose I started it and found it helped my thought process in assessing what I did right and wrong in a match, some kind folk passed comment that they enjoyed reading it so it made it worthwhile. I seem to have got in a bit of a rut lately, struggling to put together any sort of decent results, so how can that be made into thought provoking (for me) and entertaining (for the reader) reading? I'm not sure but I'll try, as I'm a determind bloke and am keen to get some modicum of success back into my results.
Landsend really is my bête noire, I just cannot seem to compete on this venue when fishing for carp and seem to always draw the wrong lake for silvers. This match was no exception, guesting for Westerleigh, I was keen to do well for myself and the team, peg 68 on John's Water (Lake 3) was a decent draw, yet I failed dismally again, to give a decent account of myself, coming last but one on the lake. Some consolation, Steve Kedge beat me on the next peg, but only by virtue of two foul hooked carp. I also topped the silvers on the lake with 9.03, but as expected Match & Speci lakes took the top silvers weights. It seemed that all the pegs adjacent to the aereator struggled, had it dispersed cold water around that end of the lake pushing the carp towards the other end?
I tried to keep it simple, a MW slim power on 0.16 with a 18B960 for 6mm pellet tight across to the island, two open water rigs, a Sensas Auchy pencil and a Carpa Chimp, with 0.14 and 0.10 hooklengths and a rig to fish the near margin, under the little tree to my left. The pellet approach produced nothing, not even a liner, so no more mention of that. Swapping between the open water rigs, brought me some hand sized skimmers and hybrids on maggot, I couldn't get a bite on caster or pieces of worm, I lost one foul hooked carp after 20 minutes on the 13m line (towards the aereator), but apart from that there was little sign of carp in the area until the last hour or so.
Bela Bakos was on 41 opposite and had resorted to fishing shallow in the open water, as one or two cap had swirled across by him in the last hour or so, I tried the same and did foul hook one that I flicked the float towards after it had swirled on the top, it went 5lb exactly to give me a dismal 14.03 total.
So, not sure what to do about Landsend, give up on it? - but thats not my style, or persevere and try and work out why and where I'm going wrong, not sure I'll be putting in a concerted effort, but I guess I'll be back.
For the results, see Tony's blog.
Landsend really is my bête noire, I just cannot seem to compete on this venue when fishing for carp and seem to always draw the wrong lake for silvers. This match was no exception, guesting for Westerleigh, I was keen to do well for myself and the team, peg 68 on John's Water (Lake 3) was a decent draw, yet I failed dismally again, to give a decent account of myself, coming last but one on the lake. Some consolation, Steve Kedge beat me on the next peg, but only by virtue of two foul hooked carp. I also topped the silvers on the lake with 9.03, but as expected Match & Speci lakes took the top silvers weights. It seemed that all the pegs adjacent to the aereator struggled, had it dispersed cold water around that end of the lake pushing the carp towards the other end?
I tried to keep it simple, a MW slim power on 0.16 with a 18B960 for 6mm pellet tight across to the island, two open water rigs, a Sensas Auchy pencil and a Carpa Chimp, with 0.14 and 0.10 hooklengths and a rig to fish the near margin, under the little tree to my left. The pellet approach produced nothing, not even a liner, so no more mention of that. Swapping between the open water rigs, brought me some hand sized skimmers and hybrids on maggot, I couldn't get a bite on caster or pieces of worm, I lost one foul hooked carp after 20 minutes on the 13m line (towards the aereator), but apart from that there was little sign of carp in the area until the last hour or so.
Bela Bakos was on 41 opposite and had resorted to fishing shallow in the open water, as one or two cap had swirled across by him in the last hour or so, I tried the same and did foul hook one that I flicked the float towards after it had swirled on the top, it went 5lb exactly to give me a dismal 14.03 total.
So, not sure what to do about Landsend, give up on it? - but thats not my style, or persevere and try and work out why and where I'm going wrong, not sure I'll be putting in a concerted effort, but I guess I'll be back.
For the results, see Tony's blog.
Sunday, 6 November 2011
Plantation Saturday Series, 5th November 2011
I decided a few weeks back, that my season ticket for City, was a waste of money, I was bored stiff watching them lose every week, so I signed up to the Saturday Plantation Series - bad move after todays experience.
I missed the first match due to the Viaduct Sivers Final, my vermin induced woes at this match have previously been documented, so today was my first match in the series. Once I dipped into the groundbait bowl that held the swim cards, I was pretty confident that the peg which revealed its self, wouldn't give me any pressue. Peg 11, I nearly put my gear back in the van and went to the football. I reckon I will next match if I draw 11 again.....
To cut a long story short. I hooked 5 carp & landed 4, nothing spectacular, as 2 were 3oz with the other 2 4lb between them,so for the second time in three matches on Plantation, I was a spectator, watching peg 8 win the match. The draw had made up my mind before I left the car park and a phone call to Faiersy (Paul faiers) confirmed my decicion to fish for silvers was the best option.
I fed a couple of lines close in, and a 13m line with CW&C, the usual run of fish on caster didn't materialise, in fact I only had one bite on caster, a carp, who played with me for nearly 10 minutes before taking the hook off the 0.10 hooklength. Pieces of worm also resulted in a motionless float, single magggot being the only bait I could induce anything to take. The LH topkit to hand line produced 2 perch around 1lb each, a skimmer of similar stamp and a crucian slightly bigger. The roach wouldn't come in on that line, nor a new line tried further out. I had to continually rotate lines taking an odd fish here and there, I kept tryimg caster, as it usually works well here, not today!!
I fed 2 lines in the RH margin of peg 10, one with caster, one with meat, nothing to suggest there was a fish anywhere near, as the float remained perfectly motionless each time I had a look in.
I had a waggler set up and tried that past the 13m line and over the 13m line, this produced a carp and a few roach, a difficult and frustrating day, but I was pleasantly surprised when my 15.09 for third in the silvers picked up some coin, as top three and top three silvers were paid out. A look at the overall result shows that the draw was important today, with the top four in a line.
1) Rich Heatley 84.09 peg 8
2) Andy France 70.08 peg 5
3) Mark Bromsgrove 58.12 peg 7
4) Craig Tucker 56.02 peg 4
5) Andy Hembrow 54.04 peg 26
6) Pete Sivell 45.02 peg 38
Silvers
1) Lance Tucker 23.08 peg 23 (Lance managed to find some of the big perch)
2) Brian Slipper 18.02 peg 18
3) Chris Fox 15.09 peg 11
I missed the first match due to the Viaduct Sivers Final, my vermin induced woes at this match have previously been documented, so today was my first match in the series. Once I dipped into the groundbait bowl that held the swim cards, I was pretty confident that the peg which revealed its self, wouldn't give me any pressue. Peg 11, I nearly put my gear back in the van and went to the football. I reckon I will next match if I draw 11 again.....
To cut a long story short. I hooked 5 carp & landed 4, nothing spectacular, as 2 were 3oz with the other 2 4lb between them,so for the second time in three matches on Plantation, I was a spectator, watching peg 8 win the match. The draw had made up my mind before I left the car park and a phone call to Faiersy (Paul faiers) confirmed my decicion to fish for silvers was the best option.
I fed a couple of lines close in, and a 13m line with CW&C, the usual run of fish on caster didn't materialise, in fact I only had one bite on caster, a carp, who played with me for nearly 10 minutes before taking the hook off the 0.10 hooklength. Pieces of worm also resulted in a motionless float, single magggot being the only bait I could induce anything to take. The LH topkit to hand line produced 2 perch around 1lb each, a skimmer of similar stamp and a crucian slightly bigger. The roach wouldn't come in on that line, nor a new line tried further out. I had to continually rotate lines taking an odd fish here and there, I kept tryimg caster, as it usually works well here, not today!!
I fed 2 lines in the RH margin of peg 10, one with caster, one with meat, nothing to suggest there was a fish anywhere near, as the float remained perfectly motionless each time I had a look in.
I had a waggler set up and tried that past the 13m line and over the 13m line, this produced a carp and a few roach, a difficult and frustrating day, but I was pleasantly surprised when my 15.09 for third in the silvers picked up some coin, as top three and top three silvers were paid out. A look at the overall result shows that the draw was important today, with the top four in a line.
1) Rich Heatley 84.09 peg 8
2) Andy France 70.08 peg 5
3) Mark Bromsgrove 58.12 peg 7
4) Craig Tucker 56.02 peg 4
5) Andy Hembrow 54.04 peg 26
6) Pete Sivell 45.02 peg 38
Silvers
1) Lance Tucker 23.08 peg 23 (Lance managed to find some of the big perch)
2) Brian Slipper 18.02 peg 18
3) Chris Fox 15.09 peg 11
Sunday, 30 October 2011
Shiplate Farm, Sunday 30th October 2011
A full house today at this obviously popular venue, the two canal style lakes were in and I fancied drawing Westpool again, after winning the silvers in the last two matches. I'd prepared a couple of rigs and a skimmer mix groundbait, so wasn't too upset when Westpool 10 stuck to my hand. It does have carp form, rather than skimmers, but at least I should catch a few fish. So glad I spent the time blending the groundbait, as when I got to the peg I realised it was still on the garage floor. The fishery owners kindly brought a choice of groundbait over to my peg when I enquired if they sold it, what service!!
I had maggots, casters and worms, with a tin of corn as a swap bait, I set up 4 rigs, a sensas pencil on 0.14 to 0.12 and a 18 for topkit to hand, a Carpa Chimp to fish the deepest part of the peg (11m) on the same lines and hook. A MW slim power on 0.16 with 0.13 and a 18B911 for over and down to the end bank, but as the depth was so variable, I had to set up another, to be able to fish several lines. I also set up a waggler, but that didn't produce a bite either.
At the all-in, I cupped 3 small balls of g/bait at 11m and 1 small ball on the topkit to hand line - no more mention of this, I had 80lb of skimmers over the last two matches on this - not a bite today. I fed the far bank and the end bank with maggot via a catapult, this proved an initial waste of time, as the carper on the main lake who was on my far bank, proceeded to pack away his bivvy and walk around skylining my far bank.
I caught from 2 lines, one to the far bank (a couple of hours after the carper had gone) and one to a ridge on the end bank, it was a bit of a grind, taking a fish or two, then having to swap lines, single maggot being the only bait I could get bites on, 4 skimmers and 12 carp went 47.12 for second on the lake, fourth overall and a section win. The match was won by Dean Malin on Westpool peg 1 with a new venue record of 141.14, well done Dean.
1) Dean Malin 141.14 Westpool 1
2) Andy France 87.08 Hawthorn 1
3) Tony Rixon 53.04 Hawthorn 13
4) Chris Fox 47.12 Westpool 10
5) Pete Sivell 44.14 Westpool 7
6) John Dursley 40.10 Hawthorn 10
Silvers
1) John Bradford 14.07 Westpool 6
I had maggots, casters and worms, with a tin of corn as a swap bait, I set up 4 rigs, a sensas pencil on 0.14 to 0.12 and a 18 for topkit to hand, a Carpa Chimp to fish the deepest part of the peg (11m) on the same lines and hook. A MW slim power on 0.16 with 0.13 and a 18B911 for over and down to the end bank, but as the depth was so variable, I had to set up another, to be able to fish several lines. I also set up a waggler, but that didn't produce a bite either.
At the all-in, I cupped 3 small balls of g/bait at 11m and 1 small ball on the topkit to hand line - no more mention of this, I had 80lb of skimmers over the last two matches on this - not a bite today. I fed the far bank and the end bank with maggot via a catapult, this proved an initial waste of time, as the carper on the main lake who was on my far bank, proceeded to pack away his bivvy and walk around skylining my far bank.
I caught from 2 lines, one to the far bank (a couple of hours after the carper had gone) and one to a ridge on the end bank, it was a bit of a grind, taking a fish or two, then having to swap lines, single maggot being the only bait I could get bites on, 4 skimmers and 12 carp went 47.12 for second on the lake, fourth overall and a section win. The match was won by Dean Malin on Westpool peg 1 with a new venue record of 141.14, well done Dean.
1) Dean Malin 141.14 Westpool 1
2) Andy France 87.08 Hawthorn 1
3) Tony Rixon 53.04 Hawthorn 13
4) Chris Fox 47.12 Westpool 10
5) Pete Sivell 44.14 Westpool 7
6) John Dursley 40.10 Hawthorn 10
Silvers
1) John Bradford 14.07 Westpool 6
Sunday, 23 October 2011
Viaduct/Street Angling Open. Sunday 23rd October 2011
I'd booked into an open on Match Lake, it turned out that Street Angling could muster 9 names for their match on Cary, so the 9 booked into Viaduct were merged into one match on Cary. I knew this on Saturday after the silvers final, but decided to have a day on Cary, perhaps with hindsight, I should have stayed in bed!!
My Viaduct drawbag luck seems to have deserted me, its the one venue I seem to draw some decent pegs, although that fact is currently under threat. Peg 76 thrust it self into my left handed draw - gawd knows why I did a left handed draw, I can never recall doing it before - bugger, the last time I drew it, I didn't have a fish for 4 hours!!
I decided to try 4 lines, a straight lead line at 25-30m, a pole line at 14,5m for 6 or 8mm pellet, a 7m line for caster over groundbait and a margin line for perch. I fed the 7m line with groudbait CW&C at the start, then chucked the lead (unfortunately the wind was making this one of the only serious options - the other being the very short pole). I had a carp after 8 mins on the lead and had hopes that it was my turn to be the one who says at the end of the match "it just kept going round", alas it wasn't to be, that was the only bite I had from a carp all day.
I had a serious attempt to win some money by fishing for silvers and that was a dismal failure - I struggled for bites, although knowing that only 6.14 came off the peg yesterday in the silvers final, I wasn't brimming with confidence. The skimmers just didn't feed, it was hard work to put together 8.07 for second in the silvers, one out of the money!! Looks like the fish are moving to their winter quarters.......
1) Mark Wynne 212.03 peg 86
2)Mark leahy 124.11 peg 85
3) Dave Romain 144.08 peg 97
4) Dick Bull 104.12 peg 78
5) S Denmead 97.12 peg 99
6) R Walters 95.06 peg 103
1) S Denmead 10.05 peg 99
2) Chris Fox 8.07 peg 76
3) Dave White 6.14 peg 88
My Viaduct drawbag luck seems to have deserted me, its the one venue I seem to draw some decent pegs, although that fact is currently under threat. Peg 76 thrust it self into my left handed draw - gawd knows why I did a left handed draw, I can never recall doing it before - bugger, the last time I drew it, I didn't have a fish for 4 hours!!
I decided to try 4 lines, a straight lead line at 25-30m, a pole line at 14,5m for 6 or 8mm pellet, a 7m line for caster over groundbait and a margin line for perch. I fed the 7m line with groudbait CW&C at the start, then chucked the lead (unfortunately the wind was making this one of the only serious options - the other being the very short pole). I had a carp after 8 mins on the lead and had hopes that it was my turn to be the one who says at the end of the match "it just kept going round", alas it wasn't to be, that was the only bite I had from a carp all day.
I had a serious attempt to win some money by fishing for silvers and that was a dismal failure - I struggled for bites, although knowing that only 6.14 came off the peg yesterday in the silvers final, I wasn't brimming with confidence. The skimmers just didn't feed, it was hard work to put together 8.07 for second in the silvers, one out of the money!! Looks like the fish are moving to their winter quarters.......
1) Mark Wynne 212.03 peg 86
2)Mark leahy 124.11 peg 85
3) Dave Romain 144.08 peg 97
4) Dick Bull 104.12 peg 78
5) S Denmead 97.12 peg 99
6) R Walters 95.06 peg 103
1) S Denmead 10.05 peg 99
2) Chris Fox 8.07 peg 76
3) Dave White 6.14 peg 88
Viaduct Silvers All Winners Final, Sat 22nd Oct 20111
I was pleased to qualify for this All Winners Final and was looking forward to a decent days fishing, I know that my commercial carp fishing skills need honing (I'm also a master of understatement) but I'm reasonably confident that I can catch a few silvers if they are there.
The draw saw me sat on 116, with (Cursing) Chris Davies on 115 and Garbolino backed silvers ace and caravan rental specialist, Bob Gullick on 118, with 117 not in. Peg 119 saw genial host and all round piss taker of Avon Angling, Tony Rixon wishing he'd drawn it a couple of Saturdays ago.....
I had plenty of caster, worm & maggot, I even had some devils spawn and a tin of corn. I guessed it would all be to no avail, as I was surely getting a lesson in silver bashing from Bob Gullick, but I remained optimistic. That was sadly misguided as the match panned out.
I set up an insert waggler, on the trusty Normark Microlight, this had a 0.10 hooklength and a 20 hook, 4 pole rigs, a jolly with a 0.008 hooklength and a 20 gamma black hook to fish top four to hand, a KC carpa chimp with a 0.12 hooklength and a 20 hook and a Sensas pencil with 0.10 and a 20.
The rest of it is pretty irrelevant, as I fed some groundbait at 16m and 11m, fed caster at 6m and 2m, as well as in the margins and that was the signal for the carp to come in, at one stage I didn't have a hooklength on any of the rigs or waggler, all gone on carp.....
I stuck it out, joining in the swearing with Cursing Chris, who also suffered with the hungry water pigs, my persistence gaining me 9.07 of silvers, in amongst hooking well over 100lb of carp. I didn't get my silvers lesson from Bob, infact he took a very minor lesson from me, as I took the next peg glory by 4oz.
It was a shame the skimmers didn't feed on Campbell, but then again neither did the tench or perch, it was entertaining seeing so many carp hooked (and landed), especially towards the end when Trigger and Anton on the opposite bank were catching a carp a chuck on worm and having a countdown competition - they both cupped in worm, with worm on the hook and the longest count either of them got to was 54 secs before a greedy water pig grabbed ½ a dendra.
Back to the serious stuff, Nicky Collier trousered the seven hundred and fifty quid, with the top three weights coming from Cary.
1) Nicky Collier 34.07 peg 94
2) Andy Power 28.13 peg100
3) Gary O'Shea 28.04 peg103
4) Vince Brown 27.03 peg 130
5) Matt Tomes 26.15 peg 123
6) S Hutter 26.12 peg 97
The draw saw me sat on 116, with (Cursing) Chris Davies on 115 and Garbolino backed silvers ace and caravan rental specialist, Bob Gullick on 118, with 117 not in. Peg 119 saw genial host and all round piss taker of Avon Angling, Tony Rixon wishing he'd drawn it a couple of Saturdays ago.....
I had plenty of caster, worm & maggot, I even had some devils spawn and a tin of corn. I guessed it would all be to no avail, as I was surely getting a lesson in silver bashing from Bob Gullick, but I remained optimistic. That was sadly misguided as the match panned out.
I set up an insert waggler, on the trusty Normark Microlight, this had a 0.10 hooklength and a 20 hook, 4 pole rigs, a jolly with a 0.008 hooklength and a 20 gamma black hook to fish top four to hand, a KC carpa chimp with a 0.12 hooklength and a 20 hook and a Sensas pencil with 0.10 and a 20.
The rest of it is pretty irrelevant, as I fed some groundbait at 16m and 11m, fed caster at 6m and 2m, as well as in the margins and that was the signal for the carp to come in, at one stage I didn't have a hooklength on any of the rigs or waggler, all gone on carp.....
I stuck it out, joining in the swearing with Cursing Chris, who also suffered with the hungry water pigs, my persistence gaining me 9.07 of silvers, in amongst hooking well over 100lb of carp. I didn't get my silvers lesson from Bob, infact he took a very minor lesson from me, as I took the next peg glory by 4oz.
It was a shame the skimmers didn't feed on Campbell, but then again neither did the tench or perch, it was entertaining seeing so many carp hooked (and landed), especially towards the end when Trigger and Anton on the opposite bank were catching a carp a chuck on worm and having a countdown competition - they both cupped in worm, with worm on the hook and the longest count either of them got to was 54 secs before a greedy water pig grabbed ½ a dendra.
Back to the serious stuff, Nicky Collier trousered the seven hundred and fifty quid, with the top three weights coming from Cary.
1) Nicky Collier 34.07 peg 94
2) Andy Power 28.13 peg100
3) Gary O'Shea 28.04 peg103
4) Vince Brown 27.03 peg 130
5) Matt Tomes 26.15 peg 123
6) S Hutter 26.12 peg 97
Saturday, 15 October 2011
Viaduct Open, Saturday 15th October 2011
23 booked in for this one, with a fair few either having a last attempt to qualify for the silvers final next week or practising for it, I decided that it would be a carp only day. Campbell had two sections with one section on Cary, into the coffee tin and out comes 111. Before the draw, Paul Greenwood said too many people are now going over the 70lb net limit, so they are considering bringing the 90lb disqualification weight down to 80lb - that could be costly.
Quite simple today on the bait tray, 4, 6 & 8mm pellets and 8mm meat. Pole rigs were a shallow rig, a couple of full depth rigs, one with a bulk, one with shot strung out and a meat rig. I also set up a full depth waggler and a lead rod. I fed 3 lines at the start, a short line (5m) for meat, 11m & 16m with pellet. the first 40 minutes were spent on the 16m line, with a look over the 11m line, to no avail, not even a bite. Campbell is not a lake you want to get too far behind, so a switch to the waggler brought 3 quick fish, then the line died. Several anglers had taken fish on the lead, so I tried that, waste of time, so up the bank it went.
Back on the waggler I hooked a fish and it went straight through the aerator, snagging up. By now there were signs of fish up in the water, so I grabbed the made up shallow waggler from the bag, all this seemed to do was push the fish across towards pegs 129 & 130, both of which had anglers fishing short for silvers.
The rest of the match panned out in a similar vein, take two fish and then have to swap lines and wait to get another. I ended up swapping between the waggler, the 16m pole line and the short meat line - which only produced a couple of fish. The fish that moved into the space created by the silvers anglers on the opposite bank stayed put and wouldn't come back over.
I'm not sure what I could have done to make the fish settle on on line, I don't think more feed was the answer, so possible it might have paid to feed Mike Nicholls style, but I just cant do it.....
My one skimmer probably weighed an ounce, but it went straight back, the carp went 88.11 and I knew that would be well short of what was needed.
Qualifying for next years all winners final, for the second time, was Lewis Greenwood-King, with 176.06, caught on a mixture of pole, waggler and lead chucking. Lee Werrit qualified for next weeks Silvers final with 41.11 of skimmers.
1) Lewis Greenwood-King 176.06 peg 132
2) Dick Bull 136.01 peg 78
3) Keith Masheder 131.04 peg 119
4) Roland ? 128.06 peg 131
5) Martin Preston 120.06 peg 114
6) P Cardwell 119.10 peg 128
Silvers
1) Lee Werrit 41.11 peg 118
2) D Squiggly unreadable surname 39.09 peg 130
3) Tim Pallant 36.10 peg 74
4) Charlie Barnes 33.14 peg 129
Quite simple today on the bait tray, 4, 6 & 8mm pellets and 8mm meat. Pole rigs were a shallow rig, a couple of full depth rigs, one with a bulk, one with shot strung out and a meat rig. I also set up a full depth waggler and a lead rod. I fed 3 lines at the start, a short line (5m) for meat, 11m & 16m with pellet. the first 40 minutes were spent on the 16m line, with a look over the 11m line, to no avail, not even a bite. Campbell is not a lake you want to get too far behind, so a switch to the waggler brought 3 quick fish, then the line died. Several anglers had taken fish on the lead, so I tried that, waste of time, so up the bank it went.
Back on the waggler I hooked a fish and it went straight through the aerator, snagging up. By now there were signs of fish up in the water, so I grabbed the made up shallow waggler from the bag, all this seemed to do was push the fish across towards pegs 129 & 130, both of which had anglers fishing short for silvers.
The rest of the match panned out in a similar vein, take two fish and then have to swap lines and wait to get another. I ended up swapping between the waggler, the 16m pole line and the short meat line - which only produced a couple of fish. The fish that moved into the space created by the silvers anglers on the opposite bank stayed put and wouldn't come back over.
I'm not sure what I could have done to make the fish settle on on line, I don't think more feed was the answer, so possible it might have paid to feed Mike Nicholls style, but I just cant do it.....
My one skimmer probably weighed an ounce, but it went straight back, the carp went 88.11 and I knew that would be well short of what was needed.
Qualifying for next years all winners final, for the second time, was Lewis Greenwood-King, with 176.06, caught on a mixture of pole, waggler and lead chucking. Lee Werrit qualified for next weeks Silvers final with 41.11 of skimmers.
1) Lewis Greenwood-King 176.06 peg 132
2) Dick Bull 136.01 peg 78
3) Keith Masheder 131.04 peg 119
4) Roland ? 128.06 peg 131
5) Martin Preston 120.06 peg 114
6) P Cardwell 119.10 peg 128
Silvers
1) Lee Werrit 41.11 peg 118
2) D Squiggly unreadable surname 39.09 peg 130
3) Tim Pallant 36.10 peg 74
4) Charlie Barnes 33.14 peg 129
Saturday, 8 October 2011
Viaduct Match Lake, Friday 7th Oct 2011
Well, the last day of my fortnight off work, so what better way to spend it than fishing. Charlie Barnes has instigated a knock up on Fridays on Viaduct Match Lake, so with 8 others I dipped into the draw tin and pulled out peg 40. Disappointing, as it isn't a peg I'd run to and with the North Westerly wind, it was going to be tough today. Lots of space as the next anglers were Steve Long on 52 and Terry Nibblet on 42.
The weather (or to be more precise) the wind had me setting up a small groundbait feeder on my favourite skimmer lead rod, a Drennan Matchpro Quiver and a waggler on the trusty MK 1 Normark Microlite. Three top kits, a margin rig on 0.16 and No12 elastic, a Carpa Chimp on 0.14 to 0.10 and a 20 Drennan red carp hook and a MW diamond on 0.16 to 0.14 with a 16 808 for soft pellet.
I optimistically fed a line with micro and softend 4mm pellet at 12m, the wind was making it difficult to present here, a line at 5m with caster and tried in vain to get some caster to the 20m line where I wanted to fish the waggler. I started at 12m and had a few small fish on the devils spawn, carp & skimmers, but then started to get roach - 30 to the pound roach - on it.
A switch to the ground bait feeder, I clipped up and managed to get it landing reasonaly accurately, but the tip didn't move, I tried it a couple of other occasions, all to no avail. Trying the waggler was nearly as fruitless, even with 12" of line and a string of No10's on the bottom, it was still dragging through, the bites were coming to a still bait.
Halfway through I dropped into the margins, left and right alternatively at 8m and had a few fish on corn, a varied selection, a couple of perfect little tench (3 or 4 oz), a couple of 10oz roach & rudd and a few F1's and some small carp. Then a fish whose reactions were considerably quicker than mine took me into the rushes, losing the whole rig. Stepping up to 17H elastic and 0.18 line ensured I didn't lose anymore fish, but the margin line did die off - as did Steve Long's.
I had 3 decent size skimmers from the 5m line and then Les 'Chubhead' Williams walked round, that killed that line. I fed a couple of balls of groundbait/caster on the 12m line and fished the waggler over it, taking a couple more skimmers and with 20 minutes to go, the wind relented and I had a run of skimmers up to the whistle, all on double red maggot.
Shame that the wind had spoiled the last day of my holiday, I'm sure if I had been able to present a bait long on the pole, I would have had a decent weight of skimmers. My silvers went 15.09 & carp 16.04, putting my 31.13 near the bottom of the result sheet. Its frustrating when you see other anglers sheltered by the trees, islands etc. able to fish 14m with ease and not a hint of wind - still thats match fishing.
Tom Thick won, fair play, he looked pretty rough when he got out of Charlies van, after a session in a Bath nightclub - I think the days when I could do that are long gone.... Tom certainly has this pellet fishing sussed, I'm going to have to spend some time and effort into improving my understanding of it.
1) Tom Thick 80.13 peg 44
2) Will Bohne 64.12 peg 50
3) John Green 64.01 peg 45
4) Terry Nibblet 50.10 peg 42
5) Colin Dyer 43.10 peg 49
6) Steve Long 38.14 peg 52
Silvers
1) Dan White 25.10 peg 47
2) Tom Thick 24.10 peg 44
3) Will Bohne 21.03 peg 50
4) Chris Fox 15.09 peg 40
The weather (or to be more precise) the wind had me setting up a small groundbait feeder on my favourite skimmer lead rod, a Drennan Matchpro Quiver and a waggler on the trusty MK 1 Normark Microlite. Three top kits, a margin rig on 0.16 and No12 elastic, a Carpa Chimp on 0.14 to 0.10 and a 20 Drennan red carp hook and a MW diamond on 0.16 to 0.14 with a 16 808 for soft pellet.
I optimistically fed a line with micro and softend 4mm pellet at 12m, the wind was making it difficult to present here, a line at 5m with caster and tried in vain to get some caster to the 20m line where I wanted to fish the waggler. I started at 12m and had a few small fish on the devils spawn, carp & skimmers, but then started to get roach - 30 to the pound roach - on it.
A switch to the ground bait feeder, I clipped up and managed to get it landing reasonaly accurately, but the tip didn't move, I tried it a couple of other occasions, all to no avail. Trying the waggler was nearly as fruitless, even with 12" of line and a string of No10's on the bottom, it was still dragging through, the bites were coming to a still bait.
Halfway through I dropped into the margins, left and right alternatively at 8m and had a few fish on corn, a varied selection, a couple of perfect little tench (3 or 4 oz), a couple of 10oz roach & rudd and a few F1's and some small carp. Then a fish whose reactions were considerably quicker than mine took me into the rushes, losing the whole rig. Stepping up to 17H elastic and 0.18 line ensured I didn't lose anymore fish, but the margin line did die off - as did Steve Long's.
I had 3 decent size skimmers from the 5m line and then Les 'Chubhead' Williams walked round, that killed that line. I fed a couple of balls of groundbait/caster on the 12m line and fished the waggler over it, taking a couple more skimmers and with 20 minutes to go, the wind relented and I had a run of skimmers up to the whistle, all on double red maggot.
Shame that the wind had spoiled the last day of my holiday, I'm sure if I had been able to present a bait long on the pole, I would have had a decent weight of skimmers. My silvers went 15.09 & carp 16.04, putting my 31.13 near the bottom of the result sheet. Its frustrating when you see other anglers sheltered by the trees, islands etc. able to fish 14m with ease and not a hint of wind - still thats match fishing.
Tom Thick won, fair play, he looked pretty rough when he got out of Charlies van, after a session in a Bath nightclub - I think the days when I could do that are long gone.... Tom certainly has this pellet fishing sussed, I'm going to have to spend some time and effort into improving my understanding of it.
1) Tom Thick 80.13 peg 44
2) Will Bohne 64.12 peg 50
3) John Green 64.01 peg 45
4) Terry Nibblet 50.10 peg 42
5) Colin Dyer 43.10 peg 49
6) Steve Long 38.14 peg 52
Silvers
1) Dan White 25.10 peg 47
2) Tom Thick 24.10 peg 44
3) Will Bohne 21.03 peg 50
4) Chris Fox 15.09 peg 40
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