Landsend Open, Saturday 9th April 2016

It was good to get an opportunity to get back to the peace and tranquility of Landsend, no traffic noise, just birds and sounds of nature.  I usually take a few casters along to fish for silvers, but decided that today my bait tray would consist of pellets and meat, but I couldn't resist adding a few dead maggots for down the edge.

Into the draw tin and out pops 11, I would rather have been on the opposite bank, but it seems as far away as the dark side of the moon, unattainable for me. Made my way to the peg and had a chat with Rod Wootten who was making his way round to 13.  I decided on 4 topkits, one for banded pellet across to the island, a rig to fish soft pellet at 13 and 5m, a meat rig for 5m the other side and a margin rig.

Plumbing up to find decent areas to fish proved tricky, the peg is up and down, hardly any flat areas, I guess the aerator is the cause of that. Finally found enough flat spots to settle on and on the all-in fed some micros and 4mm at 13m and 5m, as well as pinging 4mm pellets to the island.  A few cubes of meat into the 5m line and shipped out.  Little dink first put in was a good sign......... or so I thought!!
Seconds later, the float buried and nigh on 2lb skimmer was safely netted, that was a false dawn, as two small roach were the only other fish taken from that line all day.

After 25 minutes I had to go out to the island and in the next 35 minutes put 27lb on my clicker, great, on for a big weight here....... then the wheels came off, no more bites, no liners, no indications at all. Rod over on 13 had suffered the same fate, the fish had vacated our end of the lake, indeed, I could see them frolicking with carefree abandon in the vacant peg 9.  The large gap between me and Nicky Ewers on peg 7 gave the fish a great area to back off into.

A switch to the meat line and first put in the float settled and then dipped, a skimmer nearly 3lb, would this be the kickstart to a good day on the silvers? No is the short answer, one more bite from the meat line and that was a plump 12oz perch.  The middle four hours of the match were dire, a real struggle, I added one more perch, a rudd and a F1.  Then with an hour to go, fish started coming up the lake, Rod could see them, I managed two more from the island and the had 3 from the RH margin, although they were small, frustratingly I lost a fish I estimated to be 16 or 17lb, it ws reluctant to surface and tried to get under the pallet, I put enough pressure on it to stop that happening, but the hook pulled for whatever reason, the dead maggots weren't much use, 8mm pellets seemed to be the best bait down the edge today.

Too little, too late, both myself and Rod started catching, although Rod had a nightmare as his landing net split, depositing a big fish back in the lake.  I guess it was just one of those days, as I won my bank and managed 4th overall, but just couldn't compete with the 3 pegs on the opposite bank that threw up fish a bit more consistently.  I might even leave the casters at home next time as well!!

Viaduct Costcutter, Thursday 7th April 2016

Just typing the title of this blog has made me think, where has the first quarter of the year gone, time seems to go by so quickly now, but I digress, onto the days sport.

After a prolonged spell at work I was itching to get out and fish a match, so, those who know the venue can imagine my disappointment at seeing peg 56 in my hand after delving into the coffee tin of dreams (or nightmares in my case...).  Pretty much no chance of winning from this peg, framing would take a miracle, but lets give it a go and see what happens was my approach. 44 fishing today, so Campbell, Cary and Lodge all in.

The water is still quite clear, so I wasn't convinced the fish would come too close, also I think that the fish shy away from the pegs in front of the shop when there is a match on, especially in the clear conditions of winter / early spring.  I had put a couple of slices of bread in my bait bag, so set up a lead to start on bread, also from the made up rodcase came a waggler rod, although the wind wasn't too friendly, being left to right and putting a chop, rather than a ripple on the lake.

3 topkits, a NG Gimp to fish banded pellet at 14.5m, this had a 0.14 hooklength and a 16 LWG hook, a Malman Roob to fish 6mm meat at 7 sections and a margin rig which would suffice for either side, as the depths were the same.

Bait tray was simple, 6mm meat, 4 & 6mm pellets and some dead maggots for down the edge - they gave their lives in vain, as neither margin produced as much as a quiver of the float, let alone a convincing bite - nothing more to say about them.

On the all-in I fed the 14.5m line with some 4mm pellet and then started on the bread, 12 minutes of a motionless tip was my limit and up the bank it went, destined to stay there for the rest of the 6 hours.  next out was the waggler, Steve had told me that some carp had been caught fishing to the right of the peg, the waggler was resolutely determined to stay afloat and it joined the lead up the bank after 15 biteless minutes.

The pole line was fed with 4mm pellets as a means to be a catch-all day, and it took 10 minutes to get a bite, but then I had a couple of 6oz skimmers, by now the wind had increased and was inducing tourette like outbursts from myself, how bloody frustrating, wait ages to get to Viaduct after reading all the reports of huge weights, draw an unfavoured peg and even have that ruined by the wind.

I did manage a couple of bigger skimmers before it went quiet, the next bite revealed the reason, a 10lb carp.  I had been feeding two lines at 7 sections, the LH side with just meat, the RH side with meat and pellet,  A look in the LH side, trying to take respite from the wind, gave me a small hybrid, then a bigger skimmer, a jumper, the only one of the day.  The RH side have up 2 better skimmers, then a perch, before it too went quiet.

Back onto the 14.5m line, this is where the fish were, I would have liked to put the 16m section on, but 14.5m was a fight and the presentation was poor, except for when there was a brief and infrequent lull in the gusting wind - no matter how much you curse and swear at it, it doesn't bloody ease up!!  I persevered with the 14.5m line and took occasional skimmers and 3 more double figure carp, I had to drop back on the 7 section line and even into the margins at one point, as it was impossible to hold the pole still.  I did try the waggler over the 14.5m line, but it was pulling through to fast, even with line and a 6mm pellet on the bottom.  With hindsight, a cage feeder with a few pellets in might have been better, but as it was the first outing for my new pole I wanted to give it a good test and the wind certainly showed it had no flaws in it.

I managed to put 22lb of skimmers on the scales and 41.04 of carp, I think that had I been able to go out to 16m or even fish a waggler, that could have been significantly more of skimmers, but it was, apart from the wind,  a pleasant day and I even managed to get back more than the entry fee by picking up 4th in the silvers.

Next up, Landsend Saturday, then the Bait Tech Festival

Results blatantly copy and pasted from Viaducts Facebook page.

Overall
1. Andy Neal - 176lb 2oz - peg 115
2. Nick Jones - 126lb 6oz - peg 77
3. Kev Newman - 120lb 1oz - peg 90
4. Mike Walker - 119lb 7oz - peg 97
5. Steve Rolfe - 112lb 10oz - peg 126
6. Dave Chidzoy - 111lb 8oz - peg 100
7. Chris Boulton - 105lb - peg 59
8. Dave White - 100lb 9oz - peg 88
9. Jamie Parkhouse - 91lb 9oz - peg 99
10. Zac Newton - 91lb 3oz - peg 130
11. Darren Kempson - 90lb 11oz - peg 112
12. Scott Russell - 85lb 6oz - peg 68
13. Paul Homewood - 73lb 1oz - peg 80
14. Paul Reynolds - 72lb 2oz - peg 73
15. Gordon Cannings - 71lb 2oz - peg 110
16. Chris Fox - 63lb 4oz - peg 56
17. Chris Rolfe - 60lb 8oz - peg 64

Silvers
1. Scott Russell - 85lb 6oz - peg 68
2. Jonny Gray - 30lb 12oz - peg 127
3. Ziggy Slowinski - 22lb 11oz - peg 129
4. Chris Fox - 22lb - peg 56
5. Martin Shipston - 21lb 10oz - peg 123
6. Phil Denslow - 19lb 12oz - peg 70

Landsend Winter League, Sunday 27th March 2015

As I am working all of Easter, it was good to get on a local match on the Sunday, before I had to drive to Worcester for a nightshift.

This was my first visit to Landsend for ages, not a conscious decision, just too much work and other matches taking precedence.  Since I was here last, the empty portacabin has been turned into a homely little cafe and I was quite happy with the quality and cost of the breakfast, fortunate timing in opening the fishery cafe for Mike and Diane I think, as the cafe at Shipham was closed when I drove past at 07.36. I was standing in for the absent Roland Lucas and it was to be Specimen lake for me today, I went into the draw tub and was a little disappointed to draw 38, I had spent all the previous day picturing 31,32, 33 or 34 being revealed when I opened the swimcard, but it wasn't to be.

Off to my peg and with ages to set up, had a chat or two on the way, before setting up 4 topkits, one to fish banded pellet just off the island, not sure if it wasn't a little too deep, there was a little flat area just off the island, but it was about 3' deep.  Another rig for caster or soft pellet, I intended to fish one line down the track at 10 o'clock and the other at 2 o'clock, feeding softened 4mm's on one line and caster on the other, a rig to fish meat at 5m and finally, one for the RH and LH margin.

The plan was scuppered when I opened my bait bag and realised that my casters were still in the fridge at home.... Doh, great start.  Also I was buggering about trying to get my pole rollers in a decent position to get up the bank behind me.  I needed a higher roller, I did have a V roller in the van, but have shied away from using V rollers having broken a couple of sections when the roller has blown over and with the wind forecast today, I was going to be content with breaking down the pole.

Venue owner Mike Duckett was chatting as I was doing this and kindly offered me the use of his brand new Preston roller, which certainly towered over my Matrix rollers.  Top man Mike!!  He even revealed some plans for the fishery, I hope he manages to pull them off, as it's a great place, just a shame I don't ever catch many carp here........

Not only did he lend me his shiny new roller, he also brought me down a pint of caster, which I must rather red facedly admit, that I forgot to pay him for in my haste to get home and have an hours kip before work.  If you read this Mike, you know I won't forget and will pay my dues.

Onto the match, on peg 36 to my left, I had Rod Wootten and to my right, Octbox display merchant and genial chappie, Adrian Jefferies on 40.  I had a chat with Rod before and he said I'd catch over early, then the fish would disappear - would you like to pick my lottery numbers next weekend Rod?

I fed the 10 0'clock line with some pellet and the 2 o'clock with caster, before picking up the catapult and pingng a few 4mm's to the island, first dob-in with a 6mm pellet, the float buried, fish on, but it was a 6oz roach.  Next put in a 4lb carp, then a liner and with 20 minutes gone I had another carp and a roach, before any signs of activity stopped.

I'd love to wax lyrical about the rest of the match,  but there isn't much to say. We had a rainstorm, I struggled to get bites on any of my lines, nothing in the RH margin where I had been feeding meat, nothing in the LH margin (down by the pallet of 37) where I fed 6mm pellet and dead maggot.  One sole, solitary bite on the short meat line - a 6oz roach, these were also present on the pellet line - although it was a long, long wait for a bite and I didn't have a bite over the 2 o'clock caster line. I did managed two other carp from the pellet line by the island, I did set up a shallow rig and tried that up tight to the island, but that too remained biteless.

At the end I wasn't too disappointed to have the all-out called, as it was one of those days where there seemed to a lack of fish in the peg create any competition for feed.  As I was guesting for someone not needing league points, I did try and force the peg more than I would have, had I been after section points and it didn't work, my handful of decent roach went 5lb odd and the carp just over 26lb for a fairly dismal 32lb odd.

My result aside, it was good to get back to the peace of Landsend, hopefully it won't be too long before I get back there.

Sedges Mad March Pairs, Saturday 19th March 2016

Back to Sedges today to see if we could somehow get two section wins and scrape into the overall, no point in messing about, so no gossamer silvers rigs, no pinkies, not even any live maggots in my bait bag.

It was my turn to draw, my faulty drawing arm has had a few malfunctions this year and put me on a few pegs that have produced fish, it has also resolutely lived up to it's reputation on a couple of other occasions.  Today it gave us 27 and 19, so once again, no corner, but Ken was one off a corner, as he was last week - although looking at last weeks result sheets did little to cheer him up as 19 was last in section.  27 had won the section last week, the lowest weight section, but at least there had been fish in the area.

Getting to my peg, I find that I have some good company and banter to my left, with Mosella backed Tom Mangnell on 28 and the silvers legend Bob Gullick on 29, with 30 the corner not drawn.  I though we had drawn the short straw weather wise, as we had the bitterly cold easterly wind blowing at us, whereas those on the opposite bank had nice calm water and it off their backs.  By the time the draw was done and we got to the pegs, that left an hour to set up, an hour usually means I'm not ready, but learning the lesson from last week, I took waggler and lead rods pre set up, I usually make lead rods up on the bank, after a few expensive, broken quiver ips in the ready rod bag.

Two lead rods, both the same, Daiwa Tounament Pro 10', both with 8lb reel line, Daiwa TDR on the straight lead rig and Shimano Technium on the method, this also had a 10' shock leader of 10lb fluorocarbon, to try and keep it pinned on the deck.  The straight lead was set up as usual, a sliding bomb, although as it's allowed here, I did put a float stop behind it.  A 2" twizzled loop, this has another float stop behind it, to allow  lengthening the distance from bomb to hook, a 12" 0.20 hooklength with a 14 QM1 finishes this rig off.  The method was a Guru hybrid, which can be used elasticated here, so that was clipped onto a loop and a 4" hooklength of 0.20 to a 18 MWG hook.

The wind looked to have scuppered any thoughts of catching on the waggler, but in case it dropped, out of the bag came a pellet waggler,  this was set up with a 12' Titan 2000, 4lb reel line and a 0.18 hooklength, with a PR36 size 16 hook.  Initially set to 3' deep.

I didn't have a lot of faith in the pole today, given that feezing wind blowing at us, so two rigs, just in case, a 0.75g Hillbilly Dweezil, lovely floats for fishing long in deep water and windy conditions, that was on 0.20 line, a 0.16 hooklength and a 16LWG and a No10 solid elastic.  That was plumbed up at 14m, where I intended to fish pellet.  The other rig was a Roob on 0.20, with a 0.18 hooklength and a 16 Guru super strong hook, that was plumbed up to fish 7 sections, just up the slope, where I would feed 6mm meat.

Bait tray was bread, 4,6 and 8mm pellets and 6mm meat.  On the all-in I started on the bomb and bread, whilst everyone else was feeding their pole lines, I feel that this can often bring an instant response before a barrage of leads hit the water.  It didn't take long for the tip to wrap right round and for me to strike at thin air - a liner, it looked like a bite!! Another cast and a few twitches, so there were fish out there, but as yet nothing. After 10 minutes I fed both pole lines and went back on the bread, this time a near double figure fish was my reward, a couple more followed before the bites and liners stopped.  Tom had had a couple of fish as well, but they were smaller than mine, he also stopped getting liners.  3 fish for 30lb on my clicker in the first hour.

I had a cast with the method, but after 5 minutes of that tip remaining motionless, it went up the bank, I was fairly sure the fish were out in the open water, near the dividing rope that runs down the middle of the lake, so I started to feed a few pellets, I would have liked to feed 6mm, but would have had no chance of getting them out there, so 8mm it had to be.  I did have a look on the pole line at 14m, I had three bites and 3 skimmers, which weighed exactly 1lb, I wasn't at all confident that the carp would move in, so up the bank with the pole and out with the waggler.

First cast with the waggler the float landed settled and disappeared, after a spirited battle a 9lb fish was in the net and a somewhat bemused Tom was seen scrambling off his box and hastily assembling a waggler rod.  I had another smaller fish, taken by casting towards the island to my right, but the wind was really spoiling it, yet I was getting tiny indications and just had the feeling that the waggler, if it wasn't so bloody windy. would have seen me catch well.  Trouble is these wise old fish aren't likely to be fooled by a pellet whizzing through the peg.

Back on the bomb and another fish on bread, I tried punched meat where I had been pinging the 8mm pellet, to no avail.  Bread by the island accounted for the next fish, that was so fat, I thought it might be near the 15lb weigh limit, so off to the scales with it, but as usual, my guesstimating skills were well adrift, as it went 12.12.  A lull in the wind saw me pick up the waggler and take another fish on 6mm pellet, before the wind decided that it wasn't going to let me enjoy a days waggler fishing.  With an hour to go I gave the meat line 5 minutes, but had no indication, nor any feeling that I would, so binned that.

Hoping the fish would be looking for some feed in the last hour, I picked up the method rod and fished that, micros in the feeder and a 6mm pellet hidden amongst them. This produced three more fish in the last hour and I was confident of having won the section, I thought I had between 80 and 90lb and wasn't too far out with 86lb, which took the section and fourth on the day, albeit jointly with Tom Thick who weighed the same from Brick lake.  Sadly Ken's peg fished to similar form as last week and we didn't get in the frame overall.

It was an enjoyable series, some confusion over the scoring which, once it was explained I thought was an innovative way to do it.  (Pairs scores added together and the given points for placing, kept it open with something to fish for in the second match).  Not sure if most fishing realised how it was being scored until the end.  One other observation, it would be a good idea for there to be 3 or 4 spare keepnets put by each set of scales, as although I didn't need them, the disadvantage if I did, from say, peg 20 fetching one, could be one or two fish.

It's a fishery I'd like to get back to a bit more this year, hopefully I'll get the opportunity and if this is run again next year, I'll be back for another attempt.

On the day:

1: Dan White 125.08 peg 32
2: James Parkhouse 99.09 peg 37
3: Nigel Garrett 92.13 peg 9
4: Chris Fox 86.00 peg 27
4: Tom Thick 86.00 peg 17
6: Nick Chedzoy 80.07 peg 7

Overall the pairs winners were:

1: James Parkhouse and Nigel Garratt
2: Dan White and Scott Puddy
3: Dave Romain and Dave White

PS.  If anyone wants advice on method feeder fishing, then don't ask Bobby G, I think he must use 0.09 hooklengths, as the fish kept stealing them.......

Acorn Costcutter, Tuesday 15th March 2016

Sometimes, a bright idea acted on in haste, turns out to be something of mistake, today was one of those.....  I thought it might be a good idea to get out and banish Sundays horrors to the shadows of history.  Acorn, not to far, reading Ray's (Bazeley) facebook reports it seems to be waking up and a few fish coming out and Tony (Rixon) was going and offered a lift.

All the above seemed to outweigh my usual reasons for avoidance of snake lakes and after I donned my chef's hat and rustled up a full English for Tony, off we set.  The sunshine had brought a few out, although it was the fact I had a day off, not the weather, for me and I managed to pull one of the favoured bridge pegs out of the ping pong ball bag, No22.  It was never the best of the bridge pegs, but my knowledge of the venue is somewhat rusty, as I haven't been here since 10th March last year.

I set up a Hillbilly Chump to fish at full depth, this was OK for all over the peg as the depth varied by only 6" all over the peg.  A MW Pear to fish up the shelf, another to fish shallower, for bread or maggot dobbed along the far bank grasses.  Finally a margin rig to fish down to the pallet of 23.

Bait tray consisted of maggots, casters, soft pellet and micros.  Staring at depth it took 20 minutes to get a bite, this was a fat little 4oz Perch.  A look up the shelf, just cupping in half a dozen maggots and it took until 50 minutes in to get a carp, a lively 4lber.  I then hooked and lost one, landed another about 1lb.  This line died off, so along the bank away from the bridge and a 2oz carp was my reward, then a roach and another perch.  That was it until 2pm, when I had a 3lb carp over a line I had fed a few micros, no other bites, I kept a couple of the lines frugally fed, I fed another with a catapult and potted a few in by the bridge, none of which resulted in a bite.

Eddie Wynne was on peg 21 the other side of the bridge and he had 3 or 4 fish against the bridge just short of halfway, so I cupped 15 maggots my side and tried to encourage the fish to come my side - they didn't, but they also buggered off from Eddies peg as well.

One odd thing about the peg, was that the bridge is in the water from my bank until about halfway across and then clear of the water from halfway to the far bank.  There was a stiff breeze blowing straight down the lake into the bridge, if I fished the nearside the float presented perfectly, from halfway over to the far bank it was pulling hard from R-L.  I tried a 0.8g wire stemmed float and that was still being tilted by the strength of the tow, I would have needed a flat float to hold it there steadily!!

So, another DNW for me, as my 8 or 9lb was nowhere, but again I wasn't alone as a few were packing up early and drying their nets out. Unbelievable that I go there, draw a bridge peg and not one bridge peg in the frame!!!!!

1st  Dave Stephenson  peg 38  48.13
2nd Mike Owens peg 18  39.07
3rd D Chidzoy  peg 5 36.06
4th K Jefferies peg 27  35.06
5th Dave Wride peg 25  31.04
6th Tony Rixon peg 30 28.09

Ivy House All-Winners Final 2016. Sunday 13th March 2016

Several no shows for this meant that there were 18 fishing, given what I'd seen on the winter league, I fancied peg 19 to win it, 1-3 and 21, 44.  I managed to draw 37, a peg I have won from and would run to it if the weather was warmer, but it was an area devoid of carp in the last couple of league matches.

The weather was cold, freezing, a damp chilly mist hung over Wiltshire and a north easterly wind was right in my face, one of the coldest days I have fished this winter, even once the mist burnt off and the sun came out, which was nearly 1pm.

Peg 37 has an end bank to fish to, the peg slopes from the end bank for about 15m until it levels out at the full depth of the lake, so I set up to rigs to fish up the slope in a3.5' of water and a rig about 2' deep to try closer to the bank, it would also suffice for dobbing bread or maggots along the bank. Two open water rigs, one to fish up the shelf slightly, about 6" shallower than full depth and a rig that would cover two more lines at full depth. These were fed with micros and 4mm pellets in the line furthest most to my left, a positive throwaway line, a line with a few micros and dead maggots and the line that was just up the slope with maggots only.

The only line I had bites on was the 6" up the slope line and this was small roach, if I had got up and set up a roach rig and light elastic, I could have caught a few, but there was no point, I persevered trying for carp in the hope that the weak sun would encourage them up the shelf, but it wasn't to be, no one in around me had a carp and we joined the big list of DNW's.  The match was won from the peg I fancied, 19, Des Shipp the fortunate drawer of it, who was pleased to go home £500 better off.

Not sure what the future holds for Ivy House, Andy and Karen will be gone soon and the new owners in place, they have said they will continue it as a fishery, but we will have to wait and see how that pans out.

Sedges Mad March Pairs, Saturday 12th March 2016

It was good to get an opportunity to fish Sedges again, a venue I like, it's well run, without loads of OTT rules and is usually a decent days fishing.  Steady drive down and met with with pairs partner Ken Rayner, not much to discuss in the way of tactics, the only decision to make was which lake to fish and in the end we did that on the toss of a coin - me ending up on Brick this week and Tile next.

Ken did the draw and put himself on 32 and me on 4. In my section I had a couple of guys who's names I didn't know and Dan White on peg 1, he was lucky enough to have peg 2 not drawn, so it was likely that he was the one to beat.

I was confident that 4 would produce a few, given that Dan had pleasure fished peg 5 in the week and had 94lb of skimmers, I set up a full depth waggler, a straight lead and a small Guru hybrid feeder, which Jamie allows to be used elasticated.  3 topkits, a double bulk rig for skimmers, 0.10 hooklength and a 18 6313 hook. A rig to fish pellet at 14m and I was trying out for the first time today Malman Roobs, one of which I set up to fish meat at 7 sections.

It was a slow start, two hours in and I had a rudd, that was it, the guy to my left had a big skimmer on a cage feeder and Keith to my right had a carp on the pellet waggler, he had that fish or second chuck on it - had me worried, as my pellet wagglers were at home in the garage, hadn't considered that an option for March, he'd also had a couple on the bomb..... Dan had a few on the waggler up on peg 1 and I could see Bob Gullick on 9 catching, Tom Mangnell on 11 was also catching well.

I had a look on the meat line and it was as dead as the rest of the peg, I decided to give it 5 more minutes when the float disappeared, lifting into the bite, it was obviously a decent fish, it tested the 0.18 Stroft and the No12 elastic to their limits and when I finally saw it, I knew it would be a 'weigher'. (Fish over 15lb have to be weighed and put straight back).  I had no idea how heavy it was, continuing my being hopeless at guesstimating fish weights and was surprised when the scales registered 25lb 8oz, a new PB for me.

There appeared to be a total lack of skimmers in the peg, then I had one about 1.08 and thought they might show up, but it was a false dawn and it was frustrating as those of us in the middle of the lake were struggling, whilst the ends were catching steadily.

The last half an hour I decided to stick with the waggler at full depth, nothing down the line and a banded 6mm pellet, this gave me two more carp and Nicky Ewers opposite who had been struggling as well managed a couple of late fish, so maybe the match finished too early!!

That gave me a total of 48.12 and second in section behind Dan who had 86lb.  Unfortunately Ken had a, in his own words, 'a bit of a nightmare' and was last in his section, not sure if two section wins next week could put us in the frame.

Bait Tech Viaduct Winter League Final Round, Sunday 6th March 2016

Back to Viaduct today for the final round of the teams of 5 winter league, my turn on Cary, which in winter is the last choice lake for me, as it is nearly always a lead job to get good points on here.  But, that said, the right draw could see me in with a chance of the individual frame, as at the start of the day I was sat in 6th place.  The team looking good for a framing place as well, as we go into this match in second place, 5 points behind leaders Viaduct Select.

Down to the venue nice and early to get the pools paid and continuing the format we have used so far with a different member of the team drawing each round, it was Paul's turn today and when he came back with the team draw sheet, we were somewhat gobsmacked to see the same pegs as last week on it.  Surely we would have to have a disaster to drop out of the frame now, Fred was absolutely over the moon at drawing 113, as he was leading the individual table.  I had the worst draw in the selection of five, with 79 - I did go with positive thoughts, but knew deep down that unless something unusual happened, that was the end of my challenge for the individual places, Mike on 73, Paul on 43 and Glenn on 5.

Got to my peg to find long time angling friend Nick Collins on the next peg (80), so at least there would be some conversation and banter to pass the time and Frenzee star Adam Mitchell on 78.  I set up two lead rods, two waggler rods and then had an hour or so to kill, I went for a walk, as if I had stayed at my peg I would have been tempted into setting up a pole, which was highly unlikely to do me any good.

On the all in I started on popped up bread, gave that 30 minutes with 3 casts into different parts of my peg, all to no avail, the tip remained resolutely motionless.  A switch to meat, that too was met with total disdain from the fish, if there were any in the peg, after about an hour, the tip did flick, but i think that was just a roach liner, as I was feeding my casters in at about 18-20m.  Nicky was getting liners and had a fish, whilst my tip was as still as if I were observing a photograph.

After two and a half hours I decided that I should put something in the net, so had a dabble over the caster feed with a light waggler and put about 7 or 8oz of roach, hybrid and tiny skimmer in the net. Nick had another carp and most people on the lake had one, except me and Adam.  so back on the lead, red meat, plain meat, polony, corn, all tried, all resulted in the same motionless tip, except for two consecutive casts with about three and a half hours gone, when I had two big liners.

With three quarters of an hour to go, I started pinging corn out as far as I could - the wind coming from behind helped - and then fished the waggler over it, a 1lb skimmer came my way first cast, then next chuck another, slightly bigger, came off at the net, it really was one of those days, but I didn't think it would make any difference, as I needed carp.  Back on the lead for the last 30 minutes and at ten past three, the tip curled round and I was finally attached to a carp, it kited to the right heading for the aerator and went under Adams line, sportingly he lifted it clear and I got the fish back under control - or so I thought - I tightened the clutch down to stop the fish disrupting Adam's peg again and then it turned, ran and snapped the 0.20 hooklength - bloody distraught, but it must have been foul hooked.

So feeling pretty miserable at the end, as Adam had 2 fish in the last half hour, a repeat virtually of the last match, as Mike had told me that 78 had 4 fish in the last half hour in the previous round, that left me last on the lake, I did manage 2 points, but only because someone didn't show up.  Torrid, torrid day personally, but more importantly, how had we done?

I watched the Cary bank of Campbell being weighed in and Fred had won the lake and the match with 133lb, he managed not to go over in his net, although he had 51lb on his clicker and there was 60lb in the net - these bloody Campbell fish grow in the net......

So, as I thought I had 1 point at this time, that gave us 20 points, I took my gear back to the van and then went and found the others, Mike had got 15 points from peg 73 (and joint second in the silvers, top fishing mate), so 35 points, Paul thought he had beaten 6 or 7, so credited him with 8 points and Glenn  had 16 points we were on 58 we thought, Paul had actually managed 10 points and my 2, gave us a total of 62 and fourth on the day, crucially that was enough to take the title of Viaduct Winter League Champions 2016. My relief at last weeks mistake not costing us was pretty immense.

Team from left to right, Mike Walker, Paul Faiers, Fred Roberts, Chris Fox and Glenn Calvert.  Well done to Fred for scooping the individual title for a second time.

Big thanks to Steve, Helen, Matt, those who weighed in and to Bait Tech for sponsoring the league, I will need to grow into the EX L shirt, but am proud to wear it.  I hope the lads will resist all the lucrative sponsorship deals that will come flooding in............. and stay together for a title defence next year.

Overall Teams:
1. 2nd Time Lucky - 305
2. PI Thatchers Gold - 297
3. Frenzee Orange - 293
4. Premier Angling - 291
5. Viaduct All Stars - 286
6. Frenzee Black - 282
7. Thatchers Vets - 275
8. South West Nomads - 268
9. Team Viaduct - 268
10. Somerset Angling - 256
11. Avon Angling - 252
12. Maver - 241
13. Moaning Maggots - 229
14. Thatchers Welsh Wizards - 226
15. Keyford - 224
16. Silverfox - 223
17. Amigos - 206
18. Garbolino BVMG - 170
19. Viaduct Select - 165

Next up for me will be Saturday  at Sedges in the pairs match and Sunday will see me at Ivy House in the all-winners final.

Viaduct Winter League, Penultimate Round, Sunday 28th February

Best get this one over with.......

Nice and early to the fishery and getting the team pools paid, Glenn's turn to draw today and he did fairly well, putting himself on 43, Fred on 5, Me on 113, Mike on 79 and Paul on 73.  113 was certainly in the right area and I was going to base today's approach on rod and line, as 113 is about 6m set back from the pegs either side, which housed competent anglers, Mikey Williams on 112 and Tony Rixon on 114.

Two lead rods set up, one fairly standard set up and one I was trying for popping up bread, using some fluorocarbon and mono combined, A waggler, not much point in fishing too fine, so 4lb reel line and 0.14 hooklength to a 16 LWG.  Plenty of time available, so I did set up 3 topkits, all of which remained unused apart from a very short, fruitless look down the LH edge.

I started on the trial pop up rig and in the first hour I had 4 fish, I had a few liners as well, but decided to have a look on the waggler to see if that would speed things up, Tony was in front of me by now and Mikey was struggling. Not sure if the volume of the Wesh lads banter had pushed the fish across the lake, but I was having to chuck the full 1/2 way over to get bites.  The waggler resulted in two foulers on corn, both of which came off, so back on the lead. I tried meat and corn on the lead to no avail.

Back on the bread, this time on the standard lead set up, so I could adjust the pop up height, this produced a couple more fish, but I felt the waggler would be best, so back on it and another fouler.  I pushed the 2 No8's up under the float, so just had a size 24 swivel down the line , This started to bring fish on triple maggot and I got to 65lb on my clicker, so put another net in.  I basically fished the day out on the waggler, having to set it up again after a large fouler snagged me in front of Mikey and I lost the lot.

In the last hour, Tony and Mikey both started catching me up, as they were getting fish at 16m on the pole, I did try catapulting some meat at just over 20m (which was their 16m line), no bites on this.  The only two baits I caught on were bread and maggot.  My second net was clicked at 51lb when my clicker dived off the side tray and straight into the lake.... I only had on other fish after and that was about 3lb, so I though there was 54lb in the net.

I thought I had between 110lb and 120lb, which should be enough to win the lake, my second net was weighed first, 57.07 so not to far out with the clicker, the first net, had over 65lb in when I lifted it out and I was hoping it was under 80lb, no such luck, 82lb and the net was disqualified.  Not sure how I was 4lb out on one net clicking it and 17lb on the other, I am sure I didn't put a fish in it after I put the second net in.  Frustrating to have done that, I have gone over 70lb a couple of times before, but never had a net disqualified,

On a personal note it was disappointing to lose the match win and the payout that goes with it and on a team front, I was lucky that the 57.07 still gave me fourth on the lake, so three points dropped.  That did mean that we were 3rd on the day, instead of second and the final cost, if any, will be revealed next week.  It also cost me in the overall individual standing, where I am 6th and could be joint second.


Top Weights On The Day:

1. Ryan Shipp - 99lb 4oz - peg 85
2. Mike Williams - 88lb 1oz - peg 112
3. Gary O'Shea - 82lb 12oz - peg 86
4. Tony Rixon - 78lb 10oz - peg 114
5. Lewis Walker - 76lb 12oz - peg 51
6. Ivan Oakey - 74lb 4oz - peg 96

Top Silver Weights On The Day:
1. Mark Poppleton - 25lb 1oz - peg 110
2. Simon Hebditch - 20lb 2oz - peg 11
3. Nick Chedzoy - 15lb - peg 10
4. Andy Power - 14lb 4oz - peg 42
5. Dave Roper - 13lb 12oz - peg 9
6. Steve Denmead - 11lb 10oz - peg 13


Top teams on the day:
1. PI Thatchers Gold - 72
2. South West Nomads - 63
3. 2nd Time Lucky - 61
4. Thatchers Vets - 59
5. Viaduct All Stars - 58
6. Thatchers Welsh Wizards - 57
6. Frenzee Black - 57
8. Amigos - 56
9. Viaduct - 55
10. Premier Angling - 54
11. Frenzee Orange - 49
12. Garbolino BVMG - 47
13. Somerset Angling - 45
14. Viaduct Select - 42
15. Avon Angling - 41
16. Maver - 39
17. Moaning Maggots - 37
18. Silverfox - 33
19. Keyford - 25 

Overall Teams:
1. Viaduct All Stars - 248
2. 2nd Time Lucky - 243
3. PI Thatchers Gold - 239
4, Frenzee Black - 231
5. Premier Angling - 230
6. South West Nomads - 223
7. Frenzee Orange - 216
8. Viaduct - 212
9. Somerset Angling - 206
10. Avon Angling - 205
11. Thatchers Vets - 204
12. Thatchers Welsh Wizzards - 188
13. Keyford - 187
14. Moaning Maggots - 184
15. Silverfox - 177
16. Maver - 166
17. Amigos - 164
18. Viaduct Select - 149
19. Garbolino BVMG - 135


Individual Points So Far:
1. Phil Harding - 64
2. Des Shipp - 62
3. Alan Oram - 61
3. Mark Brennan - 61
3. Fred Roberts - 61
6. Chris Fox - 59

Ivy House Winter League, Final Round, Sunday 21st February 2015

Another windy day greeted me as I struggled from under the covers, working 6 days a week at the moment and having Sundays enjoyment spoiled by the bloody wind, I wish it would bugger off, I'd rather have a cold, clear frosty morning.

No floods to negotiate this week, as the Avon at Christian Malford was well back within its banks, so a trouble free drive to the fishery, where I was greeted with a drooling Clint..... you'll have to ask him about it!!

I managed to end up near the back of the draw queue, I'd rather be at the front and the much needed section win was looking unlikely when I drew unfancied 26 on the road bank, initially I thought that the wind was straight behind me, so it wouldn't be too bad, but it wasn't, so not even that in my favour. I did have the feature of an aerator to chuck to and an empty peg either side, so perhaps all wasn't lost.

I certainly can't claim to have sussed Ivy House out, so ended up with 2 lead rods, 2 wagglers and 4 topkits set up, one of the lead rods had the smallest Guru pellet feeder on it, the other a straight lead.  The wagglers were a straight Middy clear 4g model, these cast and fish really well, the best plastic wagglers I have used, the other a Drennan Glowtip for a bit more sensitivity, these remind me of the old stillwater blues. Topkits were a no nonsense rig, 4 No8 single bulk, 0.20/0.18 to a 16 Guru super strong hook, just in case the fish would venture into the shallow water in the corner, a 0.4g float to fish at 14.5m with maggot, another to fish in slightly shallower water off to the LH side at 14m and a silvers rig, 0.2g with a 18 gamma green on 0.09 to fish at 6m.

It was a slow start, nobody catching, I tried popped up bread, it has caught me fish here, but only on one occasion, so I only gave it 15 minutes. Then tried pellet and a couple of different colour band um's with the pellet feeder, all to no avail, before deciding that the bait that has caught me virtually all of my fish this series, maggots, would once again be my best bet.  The 14.5 and 14m lines were tried, with maggot and also soft pellet over micros, but these were as seemingly devoid of fish as the lead lines.  Time to switch to the waggler, fishing double floating maggot, with only a couple of No10's down the line, this brought an immediate response, in the form of a small skimmer.  That remained my only skimmer, why, when the place is full of them, are they so difficult to catch in the winter.

Sticking with the waggler a couple of small perch and roach were the next to take the slow sinking maggots, before a quick bite was met with a more solid resistance on the strike, a welcome carp, but only about 7lb, two chucks later, another carp, this one about 3lb and that was to be it for the carp, no more on the waggler.  The 6m line was producing roach, but small ones and having seen peg 21 land a couple of big carp, I needed to try and get some more, 1oz roach were never going to build the section winning weight.

 I tried the line I'd been feeding with maggot in about 3' of water down towards peg 27, second time I tried it the float dipped and I was attached to a large fish that wallowed in towards the waiting landing net, before seemingly realising it was hooked.  I think it was foul hooked and after a lengthy tussle, the hook pulled, I wasn't sure if that would be costly or not.

That kept me fishing that line with only roach to show for it too long, as had I switched back to the 6m, I may well have taken second in section, rather than the third I managed, peg 21 weighed 3 or 4 carp for 45lb, peg 32 had 13.12 of silvers and I weighed 13.04, 10 minutes on the roach would have clawed that back.

As it happens, my 3 points was just low enough to take 5th and final place in the money on the overall standings, with a series total of 15 points, Andy Lloyd also having 15 points, but beating me on weight 209lb to 160lb.  It was a tough series, some enjoyable moments and some frustrating ones, partly caused by the weather, partly by making incorrect decisions on my part.

Thanks to Andy and Karen, there was a selection of sandwiches, cakes and other snacks laid on at the end (and I've never seen anyone eat 4 slices of cake before Leon....) best wishes in your next ventures after leaving Ivy House, I hope the new owners are as welcoming.

Overall winner was Vince Shipp, well done to him.

Viaduct Winter League, Round Three, Sunday 14th February

Really good drive down to the fishery today, only two Sunday dawdler's and they were on straight stretches where I could pass and stay stress free!!

It was Freddo's turn to pluck the team an quintet of flyers from Viaduct's trusty coffee tin, not sure he quite managed it, but we'll blame the frosty weather earlier in the week and the cold easterly wind for the carp being holed up and not venturing out for a munch.

Fred managed to put Mike on 126, Paul on 94, Glenn on 62, himself on 46 and me on 15, so a mixed bag for the team. I had really fancied an island chuck, but it wasn't to be and whilst 15 has a reasonably deep edge down to a tree in the water, the water clarity didn't give me too much hope that that would yield much.

Peg 15 looking towards the genial Adrian Jeffery, who spent some time fishing in a tree.........

The straight ahead view of 15

With the guys on the river Cary bank being quite close, there isn't much of a lead chuck on this peg, so I only set up one lead rod and it only wetted the the line for the first 5 or 6 minutes, so no more about that.  My neighbour Jason Radford on peg 16 had a coveted island chuck and only set up a lead rod, he has more confidence in it than I do......

I also set up a couple of waggler rods, but once the all-in was called, the wind got up and as well as causing several outbreaks of Tourettes, it was pushing the waggler through, with no real tow to hold it still.

So that left the pole, 4 rigs set up, a more in hope than expectation, margin rig, a double bulk rig, with 6" of line on the bottom because of the wind, a .2 rig to fish through the water and a .3 rig on 0.20 and a 0.18 hooklength, just in case the carp showed up towards the end.

Bait tray consisted of casters, dead maggots and pinkies, live maggots, corn and meat, I did have some bread, but given the limited lead chuck, the ducks enjoyed that at the end of the match.  I haven't caught much over groundbait the last couple of matches, but did mix some up and fed a line at about 1 o'clock. The other line at 11 o'clock I fed with caster, expecting to catch on it, as Jason was fishing a long chuck to the island, leaving that water to me.

Fishing has a habit of upending your thinking and today it didn't fail, the caster line was pretty much dead and the GB line started producing skimmers from 6oz to 1lb.  I had to regularly top the GB to keep catching and I did get one or two fish over the caster line, but on maggot, I only had one fish on caster all day.

The middle of the match went a bit quiet, I was pretty convinced the fish were coming up off the bottom as I had a couple of bites on the drop, but the wind made it impossible to fish the light rig through the water, so I had a try on the waggler, managing one decent skimmer on it, before going back to the double bulk rig which produced virtually all of my fish.

I did introduce a few bits of 6mm meat over the caster line, hoping for a carp or the bigger bream that Chris Davies was catching on peg 17, but apart from 4 or 5 missed bites and one bumped fish (could well have been a liner) that line remained stubbornly difficult.  had it been an individual match I would have turned it into a GB line earlier, but was still holding out the hope of a late carp.

I also tried the margin on and off and with about half an hour to go, I had my only bite down there, the float twitched and then buried, a classic carp bite, but no, an unseasonal 8oz rudd was unceremoniously hauled in on orange Vespe and 0.20.

The last 15 minutes over the GB were frustrating as tiny roach had switched on, meaning that the maggot tipped with fluoro pinkie that had accounted for 95% of my fish became an instant target for them and I sat the last 10 minutes out with 6mm meat on the hook.

My Skimmers went 29.13, enough to score 14/19 points, beaten by 4 island pegs and peg8, quite why the fish were sat in that corner and not the corner me and Adrian were trying to lure them from, I have no idea.

Team wise we had our lowest finish, 8th on the day, but given the way the results of the other teams fell, we managed to climb a place to second overall.  Really looking forward to the next round now, when I shall be on Campbell.  And Jason's confidence in setting up one lead rod and nothing else paid off, as he ended up with 67lb all caught to the island.

1: Ivan Oakey peg113 152.02
2: Chris Jones peg 114  145.03
3: Marc Jones peg 85 112.09
4: Mark Harper peg 102  105.11
5: Mash peg 53 100.02
6: Steve Seager peg 115 97.09

Silver's
1: Chris Davis peg 17  38.01
2: Chris Fox peg 15  29.13.

Ivy House Winter League, Penultimate Round, Sunday 7th February 2016

Pissing down rain and wind on the M32 / M4, great start to the day, but after having worked for 6 days and with a further 6 days work following, I was determined to enjoy it.....  Not convinced I actually achieved that though!!

At Christian Malford I stopped to take a picture of the Avon, it had burst it's banks, flooded the fields and was about 12" deep across the road for a couple of hundred yards, the Chippenham side of the bridge.

The sign outside of Ivy House has changed from For Sale, to Under Offer and the new owners were there this morning, cooking breakfast alongside Karen and then assisting with the weigh in, didn't get chance to find out their plans, but they seemed keen to learn about the match organisation.

Into the coffee tin and out comes 38, second in section last match and an area where the fish have been, but today (and my picture does not do the wind justice) it, along with peg 40, was the windiest part of the lake, with a strong, gusting side wind.  A couple of guys were moaning about having the wind in their face, I'd rather that than side on.

I did set up two lead rods given the wind, one with a tiny pellet feeder and a straight lead, as I had time I got a waggler rod out, although it was a pointless exercise unless I could find some tow back against the wind. 3 topkits, one with a Hillbilly Dweezil in 0.75g, these are a really stable float in choppy conditions, another with a 0.6g NG Gimp and a margin rig, as there was a nice depth just over 2 1/2' on the RH side and the lake had a reasonable colour.

The most pole I could hold and that was with some effort and a genuine risk of breakage, was 11m, although 7m was realistic, but this was on a slope.  I fed a line just short of 11m with maggot and another at about 8m with GB, pinkie and squatt.  Started on the pellet feeder, nothing, switched to straight lead, nothing, the pole line fed with maggot, nothing...... and it doesn't get too much better from here on in.  I did start to catch small roach over the GB, but then the guy to my left had a carp (or so I thought) on the lead and I thought catching roach wouldn't get me the points I needed.

Swapping between the lead, a frustrating attempt to fish the waggler, using every trick I know to hold it in place - which failed, as I could not find any trip against the wind - and the pole, I searched the peg for a carp, but there was no liners, no bites, no sign of one. I was getting more and more pissed off with the wind, especially looking over and seeing some parts of the lake becalmed!!

Shouting and swearing at the wind like some old city center wino abusing pigeons, didn't make it stop, in fact it got worse. I did snare a big skimmer on 3 dead maggots in one of the 3 second spells the pole wasn't being blown into a shape never intended by the Daiwa designers.

Come the all out, I was thinking that it would be a close call if asked to repeat the day or go for protracted root canal work....  Another frustration, the 'carp' I saw being landed on the next peg was a foul hooked bream on a pop up rig, if I had stayed fishing for roach, I should have easily caught enough to be second in section, instead of the third place I ended up with, weighing 4.02 to Andy Weston's 5.14 with his 'carp' that wasn't.  26lb won the section from the corner peg 44, which was 4 carp.

Seems my little run of drawing decent pegs has come to a sudden end, as I return to being in the worst section!!  Nothing but a section win and a couple of anglers having a shocker will see me pick up in the league, as I am currently 6th.

Viaduct Winter League, Round Two. Sunday 31st January 2016

With the weather staying mild I was looking forward to round 2 of this popular winter league, it was my turn to be in the section that includes, Match, Middle and Spring, I like Match lake and wouldn’t be disappointed with a draw on there, but there is always the chance of big fish on Spring and Middle.

With the team taking it in turns to do the draw, it was Mike Walker who stepped up to the plate (or coffee tin) this week and handed us a draw we had last year and bombed out from, Paul on 118, Glenn on 85, Fred on 56, Myself on 24 (on Spring) and Mike put himself on the unfavoured peg 9.

I fancied my peg for a few skimmers, but mindful of it being a team match I vowed to fish it to gain as many section points as possible, I set up two lead rods, one for popped up bread and one for meat or corn.  Two waggler rods, one with 4lb reel line and a 0.14 hooklength with a 16 LWG hook, the other with 2 1/2lb reel line, 0.10 hooklength and a 18 6313.

Plumbing up the pole lines, I found about 6” more depth directly in front of me, than off to the sides at 10 and 2 o’clock.  This saw me setting up 3 rigs to cover this, two to fish the deeper water, both the same float, a Hillbilly Chump 0.2g, but one on 0.16 with a 0.10 hooklength and a 18 6313, the other with 0.20 line, 0.18 hooklength and a 16 Guru extra strong spade hook.  A similar light rig to fish at 10 o’clock where I would feed GB and a margin rig completed the tackle set up.

Ready before the start, I wandered to the next peg and had a  bit of banter with Calum Craig, before settling down ready for the all-in.  On the all-in I started by casting popped up bread to the tree that overhangs the end of the island, it only took a couple of minutes for the tip to curl round, but instead of the ‘Barny Rubble’ carp I wanted, it was a skimmer, second cast a couple of liners and another skimmer.  I then fed the pole lines, GB/caster/dead maggot and a couple of grains of corn at 10 o’clock and meat straight in front, both at 14m.

Then out with the waggler and corn, starting on the heavier gear, as the fish run big in this lake.  A couple of skimmers on the waggler, before a welcome carp, which was just into double figures.  I then hooked a much bigger carp, it was obviously fouled, but I managed to get it under the rod tip after a lengthy battle, I could see it was tail hooked, I estimate it to be 25lb and try as I might, I couldn’t get the net under its head whilst keeping its tail under water. (I couldn’t even see its head, it was so long). I finally had to try and get it higher in the water and this meant getting its tail out of the water, that’s when it shook its tail and neatly flicked the hook out………. I didn’t swear too much.

I persevered with the waggler a bit longer, but just had the odd skimmer on corn, no further signs of carp.  A tried the GB line and only had two skimmers from that, the meat line produced a few skimmers before it went quiet, I refed both pole lines and went back on the waggler, a couple more skimmers and a fouler that took off and shed the hook within seconds were all I had to show for it. I had been feeding two margin lines, one to my left hand side under the tree and to my right, as far as I could go away from myself, LH side was devoid of fish, the RH line produced one roach.

I switched back to the meat line, this time with the heavy rig, as it was going into the last hour of the match and was rewarded with a run of decent skimmers, before it went quiet again, but I had seen a very ‘carpy’ looking patch of bubbles about 4’ to the right of my float, I waited and the float buried, a welcome carp about 9lb was netted.  I refed and started to catch good skimmers again and with 15 seconds to go, lifted into a positive bite and felt the solid weight of a big carp, after a nerve wracking battle, I netted it 10 minutes after the all-out and that boosted my weight by nearly 20lbs.

So a great days fishing and I thought I had over 50lb, which given that last match 20lbs was a decent weight for team points, I was happy with that, even happier when the scales gave me 62.09, including 21.10 of skimmers.  That was enough for second on the lake and fifth in the silvers, keeping the nice run of pick ups going.  Fred also managed a second on his lake and with decent back up points from the others we managed second on the day as well. That leaves us in third place after two matches, a huge improvement on last years efforts.

Thursday Costcutter, Viaduct, Thursday 28th January 2016

A rare day off, the forecast said no rain, so a match was the favoured way to spend the day, Viaduct was the best option, as it would give me the chance of fishing for carp or silvers depending where I drew.  As I thought the chance of winning the silvers was restricted to a couple of pegs (at the time I thought the match was Campbell and Cary, it ended up Campbell and Lodge) I didn't bother to take any caster.......... typical that I should then draw 126, a good silvers peg on Campbell.

I believe Tony described Adrian Jeffery as genial, let me add generous to that, as Adrian kindly offered me 1/2 his casters, which I accepted gratefully, thanks Adrian.

I set up a lead rod, this was with the intention of having 20 minutes looking round the peg for bites or liners, also a waggler - this remained unused because as the all-in was shouted, the wind picked up and started blowing straight down the lake towards the river, it did slightly move round to blowing from 110 into 123, but given the bright sunlight I was glad for the ripple it offered. 4 topkits, one for skimmers with a 0.3g wire stemmed float, 0.10 hooklength and a 18 6313.  A double bulk rig with the same line and hook, rig for corn with a 0.2g wire stemmed float with a 0.12 hooklength and finally a margin rig that didn't get used.

Starting as planned with popped up bread on the lead brought no bites or liners, nor did anyone around me or opposite catch on the lead, so up the bank with it, where it stayed until it went back in it's tube. With the bright sunlight limiting my options I had plumbed up off to my left at about 11 o'clock, at 11m and 14m, both lines I sparsely fed with dead maggots and caster, with a couple of grains of corn. I wasn't confident about the 11m line, given the bright sun and remnants of the frost still in the shaded areas, so started on the 14m line.  Double dead maggot tempted a 4oz skimmer first drop in, before the roach, small ones, moved in.

A swap to corn was fruitless and I only had one bite on caster, so back to double dead maggot and I had to endure a few small roach before I got a skimmer, I tried a segment of worm and that was on a par with the corn for a motionless float.  I tried the 11m line and that was just small roach, without the odd skimmer.  As the roach were feeding I tried a short line - topkit to hand - the roach were obliging, but small, although I did hook and lose a decent perch, before landing one about 10oz and a hybrid about 8oz.  Just as I had the fish going, the angler on peg 128 walked down for the third time to tell me how crap it was and the bites dried up......

I decided to try 6mm meat on the 14m line and fed 4 bits in with some caster and dead maggot, the float buried as soon as it settled and a spirited little tench just over 1lb was netted, I stayed on the meat until the end, having one more 8oz tench and a few skimmers up to 2lb.

I was hopeful that I had done enough to win the silvers and qualify for the all-winners final, but that was dashed by Andy Power who pipped me from Lodge lake.  A hard day for many, but I enjoyed having to work at it, maybe I should have gone on the meat 30 minutes or an hour earlier.

Ivy House Winter League, Fifth Round, Sunday 24th January 2016

First mistake of the day was not really paying too much attention to the weather forecast, the thermals I put on were unnecessary, it’s been a strange winter so far, but I wasn’t being lulled into thinking the water would have warmed up much yet.  That said, I did think that the fish wouldn’t be sat on the bottom, with a warm breeze blowing across the lakes.

Into the draw tin after a chat with Leon – conversation wasn’t really possible with Clint, he was busily not eating his breakfast and looking pretty rough, self inflicted I believe – Not sure on the odds of drawing in A section for the third time, whatever they are I managed it. Peg 20, a decent draw with plenty of room, but would the fish be there, or would they have gone with the breeze?

Determined to confuse myself, I set up two lead rods, one with a straight lead for popped up bread and one with small pellet feeder on.  Next, out of the bag came the trusty Normark Microlight, this would be used to fish a waggler out towards the post that marks the limit of your cast on this peg.  A 2AAA Drennan Glowtip waggler would suffice, given the sheltered nature of the peg. This was on 2 1/2lb Maxima, with a 0.12 hooklength and a 18LWG – no point fishing too light, some big fish in these lakes and they all need to be landed.

4 topkits, a rig that was aimed at getting a fish in the net if it proved a struggle, this was a 0.4g Jean Desque on 0.14, 0.08 hooklength and a 20 6313. Same shotting and depth for the next rig, but this time a 0.4 NG Gimp on 0.16 with a 0.12 hooklength and a 18 LWG, this would be fished over the same 14m lines as the light rig, one at 11 o'clock and one at 2 o'clock.

A margin rig, set up to fish about a metre away from the bank, as I wasn't at all convinced the fish would venture right into the margins and finally a rig to fish at 14m to the left and right hand sides about 6m from the bank in 31/2’ of water, this was on 0.20, with a 0.16 hooklength with a 16LWG.

On the all-in I fed a negative line at 2 o'clock with a few micro’s and 4 4mm pellets, the 11 o'clock line was fed with maggot and the two 14m lines 6m from the bank fed with maggot.  I started on the waggler and corn, that was totally unproductive, so a switch to the bomb and bread didn't take long, but with no liners or indications on that, I felt it was a waste of time, so onto the pole.  Firstly onto the negative pellet line with a 4mm expander, this was also totally non-productive, no sign of a fish, so a switch to maggot which I tried on the 11 o'clock and 2 o'clock lines, these too remained seemingly devoid of fish.

An hour and a quarter in and I hadn't had a bite, peg 17 had landed a carp on the lead and one from down towards peg 18, back onto the waggler, this time with a single maggot on the hook and feeding a few maggots via a catapult, to try and draw something into the peg.  It worked, two small roach, at least the blank was avoided, next cast a small carp, then a skimmer about 14oz, but it was a bit of a false dawn and the bites dried up again.

Time to look in on the two lines 6m from the bank, no indications on the LH side, but a bite soon after dropping into the RH line, frustratingly there was carp on and after a few seconds, carp off, not idea if it was fouled or not. Back onto the LH side and this produced a bite and a carp about 4lb.  Back to the RH side, another bite, another fish on, this time I got it down to the topkit before it came off – arrghhh, two lost fish could be costly!!

Thankfully, the RH line had a some fish on it and I managed to get 2 more from there that went in the 5lb and under net and 5 that went into the 5lb+ net.  All taken on triple maggot over maggot loose fed.  I was confident that I had the section won and was also pleased to take the match win, with 73.12, also qualifying for the All-Winners final in September.  With two more matches to go in the league, another couple of section wins might see me sneak in the lower framing positions, but the two matches where I couldn't find a big carp have cost me.

1: Chris Fox 73.12 peg 20

2: Val 64.10 peg 37

3: Clint 45.04 peg 38

4: Steve Hutter 26.10 peg 21

5: Jamie D 26.06 peg 30

6: Dave 24.00 peg 5

Viaduct Teams of Five Winter League - Sunday 17th January 2016

I had been thinking that the teams of 5 winter league might be a bit different this year, given the mild weather, but those thoughts were dashed by the cold snap leading into it, I guessed it would be pretty tough in some areas, as the fish have started to shoal up as the colour drops out of the lakes.

Same team as last year, although as we have no real connection with MFS, a name change was required, so  “2^nd Time Lucky” was the only thing I could come up with on the spur of the moment.  I drew for the team this round and pulled out peg 17 and then the sections which saw me on peg 69, Mike Walker on peg 50, Paul Faiers on peg 19, Genn Calvert on 130 and Fred Roberts on 99.

On paper it wasn’t a disastrous draw,  my peg, 69 has a lot of previous form for skimmers, but they haven’t shown there quite so much lately and in all the sections you need a couple of carp to get reasonable points.  I had spent a couple of hours on Friday evening,  tying hooklengths for the lead, which would stay in the box unused, as on this league, Lodge lake is float only. 

Two waggler rods set up, Normark Microlite II with a Drennan Glowtop waggler on 2 1/2lb Maxima, 0.10 hooklength and a 20LWG. In case it got good…. (hopeful as ever!!) I also set up a Normark Titan 2000 with 4lb reel line, a middy straight waggler and a 16LWG on 0.14.

4 Topkits, a margin rig – really didn’t expect anything on that as with 68 and 70 in, you don’t really have a margin to fish on 69 – the non-expectations were well founded, as I never had a bite on it. I set up two similar rigs for the open water, but on had 0.12 and a 18LWG hook, the other 0.10 and a 20LWG.  Final rig was a double bulk, just in case those big skimmers fed and they wanted it laid on the bottom.

On the all-in I cupped two tangerine sized ball of GB with caster and dead maggot in at 14m, in the deepest part of the swim, then went out on the waggler with a grain of corn. I started getting indication and the odd bite, all of which I missed, before finally connecting with one, it turned out to be a 4oz skimmer. After 40 minutes and another skimmer on the corn, I had a look over the GB, this produced bites, but it was small skimmers and the bites were too spaced out to achieve anything with 2-4oz fish.  I did drop down to a No6 elastic and a 0.08 hooklength with a 20 808 hook on the double bulk rig – first drop in with that I hooked a carp, no idea if it was hooked fair and square or fouled, as it charged off and kept running until the 0.08 parted.

By now, Tony Rixon who was opposite had a carp on the waggler and had lost a couple, so back out on the waggler and after a couple more missed bites, I hit into a carp, took a while to land on the 0.10, just couldn’t put the pressure on to get its head up, just over double figures, so most welcome.  Next cast, float buried again and a decent skimmer was netted, I then hooked and lost a fouler, before the waggler got tangled.   I switched to the heavier waggler rig and this saw the number of indications and liners drop, I shallowed it up, so the corn was 6” off bottom and had another  carp very similar in size to the first, I thought that was the answer, but I didn’t get anymore bites off bottom. 

After a quick and fruitless look in both margins, I went back on the pole line, again the skimmers were small and few and far between, I did think that the bigger skimmers might switch on in the last half an hour, but gambled on going back on the waggler and getting another carp.  With 10 minutes to go, I hooked another on the light waggler gear and all seemed well, but after a short while, just as I thought I had it under control it came off…… I didn’t swear too much!!  I think it cost me three points, which just shows how tight this league is.  My two carp and meagre collection of skimmers going 21.02 and 5.10 respectively for a total of 26.12. Had I fished that last ½ hour for skimmers I am sure I would have had at least 1 more point, maybe more – but that’s hindsight and not much use on the bank in the freezing cold and wet conditions that we endured.

On the team front, we were pleased to have done enough to come 5^th on the day:

I had 11 points, Glenn had 13 points, Paul and Mike had 11 and Fred topped the team score with 14 points.  Fingers crossed for a decent draw next round.

Viaduct Costcutter, Thursday 14th January 2016

Nice coincidence that my first Thursday of the year off work, was the one before the Teams of Five start at Viaduct, so a chance to fish a match and have a practice.

Not so good was the end of the mild weather and a chill wind blowing across Campbell, 20 fishing so Campbell and a few 'wind off your back' pegs in on Cary.  116 stuck to my hand as I dipped into the draw tin, so cold wind in my face and the opposite end to where the fish have been - but would the cold weather have them heading for their winter haunts??

I had bread, meat, maggot and corn in the bait bag and I did have a bit of GB - as it is a costcutter, I'd rather get a few bites than sit on the lead.  So, waggler rod set up - just in case the wind dropped, which it didn't, so one chuck with that and it was towing through,  so no more about that.

Lead rod set up, to start on bread, as the water is quite clear and two pole rigs, one for down the edge towards 117 and one for 14m to fish for whatever comes along.  Starting on the bread, I was hopeful, seeing Adrian Jeffery on 114 get one first chuck. It took the best part of 20 minutes before my tip moved and a double figure fish graced the net after a very spirited tussle given the water temperature.  It was a false dawn, Adrian had a couple more and was getting liners and indications, my tip was mind numbing still, not so much a liner to give hope.  No one else my side of Adrian was catching, so it looked as if they were all in front of the spit.

A look (much more in hope than expectation) down the edge was just as uneventful, so out onto the long pole, where I had been loose feeding a few maggots. The wind had now slightly switched L-R and this made holding 14m a struggle, but I wasn't at all convinced I'd catch closer. Nothing on this, so I fed a bit of GB and went back on the lead, trying meat, various colours, on the deck, popped up and even trying a GB cone with a bit of mushed meat & GB in - this was all fruitless.

An enforced bank walk, to use the facilities and back on the pole over the GB, this produced a 2lb skimmer, another false dawn, as this line then only produced 3 micro roach after this. At 14.20 (15.30 finish) I decided to fish seriously until 15.00 and then chuck the lead and start packing up. At 14.30, I had another look down the edge towards 117, after a couple of minutes the float shot under and an angry double gave the knots a good test as it fully stretched the 12 solid elastic. All held and it was safely netted, dropping back in, a short wait and another one was safely inside the net.

Another one, followed, each time I topped up with a few maggots, a slightly longer wait then three in quick succession, one landed at 15.25 and one hooked seconds before the all-out. If only the match was until 16.00, I am sure I would have overtaken Adrian who had 11 fish, but mine were consistently bigger. My 6 went 62.07 and the skimmer took the total to 64.12, only good enough for 3rd on a tough day for many, Adrian clinched it with...

1: Adrian Jeffery 76.09 peg 114
2: Scott Puddy 70.13 peg 74
3: Chris Fox 64.12 peg 116
4: Kieran Guppy 55.09 peg 128
5: Terry Lenny 38.11 peg 112
6: Steve Kedge 32.09 peg 129

Silvers
1; Rich Coles 10.01 peg 125

Ivy House Winter League Round 4, Ivy House, Sunday 10th January 2016

First match after nearly a month of work enforced lay off, although I admit the first week of the lay off was down to not wanting to drive after an Xmas piss up.

Looking at the forecast, my enthusiasm was somewhat tempered, I had done just enough prep and really didn't fancy sitting in a deluge and thunder, which is what the BBC weather was predicting, thankfully they were wrong, a few showers that came to nothing.

I got chatting to Leon and Clint and missed my usual place near the front of the draw, not such a disaster when I pulled out peg 17, which has been either 1st or 2nd in the section every round so far. I had a plan in my mind, fish a negative pole line, a positive one, the draw gave me decent edge, down in front of peg 18 and a long line pinging a single 6mm pellet every 5-10 minutes.

I set up a margin rig and plumbed about 1-2m in front of peg 18 to get 2 1/2' of water - never had a bite here so no more about it.  The long line pinging the occasional pellet, likewise..... not a bite on either a tiny pellet feeder or the waggler.

I started on the bomb and popped up bread, not even a liner after 20 minutes and that saw the end of my patience with that and I had a look on the 14m line off to 10 o'clock that I had fed with about 8 micros and 6 dead maggots (feeding like this kills me) after a 10 minute wait, lifting and dropping a soft pellet the float dipped and once again I was attached to a small carp, surely it wasn't going to be another day where I catch stockies and others catch lumps......

I refed and went back in, float slowly slid under and the lift of the pole resulted in a small perch hooked 'fairly and squarely' in the anal fin. That was the end of the bites from here, a look over the line I had fed positively with maggot brought nothing.  Time to have a look on the waggler and maggot, fishing this over he negative line a little dip of the float brought a 3lb F1 to the net. Another long wait swapping between lines and methods before a look back on the negative line saw a tiny dip of the bristle, this for the first time in the series brought a double figure fish to the net, double maggot on a 18 tricking it.  Next put in a 8oz perch, then a 6lb carp - off and running......... Not quite, that was it for over two hours, I started a new line at 2 o'clock and manged one more carp from that with about 10 minutes to go.

Tricky day, but thankfully my 30.08 was enough for the section win and 3rd on the day. Just need 2 more section wins, hope the drawbag is kind!!