Driving down I said to Tony I thought the pegs on the car park side would be the place to be today and so it proved. I drew peg 2, its a snaggy corner, too overgrown to get close in and I think to catch in the open water shallow you need to be further up the lake,
Its a long 6 hours when you only get 8 or 9 bites and lose 3 of them complete with rigs, in the snags, anyone of the lost fish costing me second in section.. But, I fared better than some......
And so it continues, I can't recall running over that black cat, but I must have. Peg 9 for me, struggled once again, if you look at the section, the weights run down the section with only me bucking the trend of having less weigh than the peg to the right.
Oh well, keep plugging away, things will change round.
I am now in the midst of a really shite run, the pegs aren't doing me any favours, although that can't be an excuse every week. In the summer especially, too many good anglers to not maximise each peg, today I was packed up before the end, drawing peg 6 that was the worst peg in the winter league. Gareth is on fire at the moment, might have to give him a handicap
A match organised on the Maggotdrowners forum, its a shame the Glebe is over 2 hours away, I'd definitely go there more often if it were an hour away. Enjoyable day, thanks to Ian for organising.
Fancied it for a few, it was slightly breezy but I could get the waggler to fish nicely, or it looked nice to me, but not the fish. I managed one on it, one on the lead, but I had to wait until the last 90 minutes when I could catch at 14.5m on worms over 6mm pellets, it was the only way I could catch, didn't have a bite in the margin. If only they'd have shown up earlier.... I feel I should have won the lake at least, did I spend too long trying to make the waggler work?
Tony's float only league today, round 3, I couldn't draw lake 3 again could I, yes I bloody could... Peg 70.
Its not a peg I like, I had to spend 25 minutes gardening to make it fishable, its tucked away at the end of the lake and the fish in there tend to be a smaller stamp - and so it proved, I had the most carp, but my 69lb was only good enough for 3rd on lake and was beaten purely by stamp of fish.
First time back to Viaduct for a while, so not sure exactly where the fish were coming from, but it can't have changed too much. Drew 128 by the spit, I couldn't moan, but I struggled to put anything together, nice day though, so can't complain.
Last round of this nice little league, I needed a bit of a miracle to get anything in the overall, but had to give it a good go.
I can't say I'm famed for my drawing arm and it didn't surprise me today, peg 38, I knew that I was unlikely to better any results so far so this would be my dropper. Well not just last in the section, but plum last in the match, I must admit I can't recall that happening too may times. As you'll see from the table at the bottom (which is a table of the pegs) 38 was the worst but one peg, behind peg 6.
Finished joint fourth on points, but dropped to seventh on weight, miles away on weight.....
Well done to Gareth and the rest of the overall league framers.
Wasn't happy with the draw, but as usual went to the peg and gave it a good shot, never had a bite from a carp and there weren't many skimmers evident either, some pretty low weights recorded and I was joined in my weight of 11lb by Callum Dicks, so I am confident I didn't do too much wrong.
It would be good to get some settled weather....
Nice day today, caught steadily to weigh 119.11 from peg 1 to come second.
Round Two of this popular league, this time on Landsend, which I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with. The venue is in a lovely area of Somerset, miles from main roads, rail lines or airports, so really peaceful, everyone involved is always friendly and helpful, its just me, I don't get on with the venue, its shallow and can be a little overgrown.
Three lakes in and I didn't want to draw lake 3, so where did I draw!! Can't say I enjoyed it at all, apart from the tranquillity, Landsend really is one of the most peaceful commercial fisheries.
Penultimate round, needed a good draw, as it will be tough going to get in the frame overall. Peg 15 for me, couldn't really complain as it is a good section peg all year round.
I'd brought 4 pints of casters, so that was my primary line of attack, a rig set up to fish shallow down the track with banded caster. Another rig to fish banded pellet across to the island, a margin rig to fish to the pallet of 14, but I felt it may be a bit deep. The LH margin was shallower, so a separate rig for that. Finally a rig to fish maggot on the drop short.
The wind was horrendous, couldn't feed the caster by hand, so that was that plan a bit scuppered, I tried fishing it with a catapult, but even that was tricky as the wind was gusting and changing direction continually - quite a few Tourette's sufferers for the duration of the match.....
I only had one roach all match on caster, so no more to say about that, I had nearly everything on banded 6mm fished across, although at some stages presenting a bait was impossible. I did catch a couple down to the pallet of 14, but it was too deep and even though I only fed 6mm pellets there, they still came up and I had liners and foul hookers, but couldn't catch shallow, the last hour cost me a place as I was beating Rob on the next peg, but he caught decent fish steadily down his LH margin in the last hour, whilst I added one fish in the 60 minutes.
I really didn't want to draw the Squircle again on this match, so was pretty pissed off when I did, you have no chance of picking up in the overall or silvers, so fishing for section only, I'd payout sections only if it was my match.
Level was down and I never had a bite over, everything coming on 6mm meat fished down the track, with 38lb being enough to win the section.
Todber for this one, not overjoyed to draw 39, pretty hemmed in and not a good area. Switched between pellets and meat to put 120lb+ on the scales for nowhere.
R4 and a good draw required, I managed to draw peg 5, not a peg you can complain about, but I did fancy 11 or 13 with the wind blowing in there.
Had a steady match fishing pellets across and in open water, beaten by pegs 9 and 11, that was enough to cling onto second place in the league.
First round of the short pole league this year, felt it would be a tough day with so many on the lake, but the change to a 13m limit should help.
Peg 10 for me, wouldn't have chosen it, but I'll give it a go. Started on paste and had an early double figure fish, the rest of the match was spent swapping and changing, with shallow meat being the best bait, giving me 86.11 for second in section.
Round three of the spring league, needed a decent result to stay in contention, was pretty surprised to draw peg 5, but it wasn't easy, I had to switch lines and work at it to keep fish coming to put 116.07 on the scales, the fish just wouldn't settle. Luckily that beat Glenn off the next peg by 1oz for second in the section.
I ran an open for this Bank Holiday and it sold out pretty quickly, I ended up on peg 36 and that was very likely to be game over, I went and gave it a good shot, but could only manage 4th in section.
Thanks to those that support my matches.
Nice little match on Todber Whitepost, not too much to say about it, tried to catch on the deck, when I should have fished shallow I think. Weighed 111lb for nowhere.
After a section win last time, I was looking not to slip up today to get a good start, I drew 40, a bridge peg and one that is a unpredictable, sometimes winning the section with ease, sometimes struggling.
Simple approach, hard pellets across to the island, hard
pellets for down the track by the third stanchion and maggots short by the
first stanchion and the obligatory margin rig.
After last Monday, I did have a little bit of paste and set up a paste
rig as a throwaway line off to my right.
Started by the third stanchion on hard 6mm pellet, had a
couple for fish straight away, small ones, but it's not unusual for the bridges
to hold the smaller carp, had another then it died off.
A switch to the island and hard pellet was, just as last
Monday, a waste of time, as was the times I looked down the margin so no more
about that.
I spent a large part of the match fishing maggots short to
the first bridge stanchion catching tench, skimmers and carp. I fed a line off to my right with pellets and
saw some fizzing, tried a couple of times over that with paste (and worms),
with just one small carp (probably just shy of a pound) on paste.
Last 45 minutes I had some fish on pellets back out to the
third stanchion, I'd clicked 60lb and had some silvers, when a couple of the
guys walked up to me after and said "you've got 90lb" I did laugh and was proven right, carp went
60lb and silvers 10lb for a second in section , to Joe's 103lb on peg 31.
Still in the running after two rounds, but there are some
draws to avoid....
Down to Acorn for this BH open, drawing peg 15 - a good section peg in the winter league, but probably not in an open with a good field fishing.
Usual rigs set up for across, one with a band, one without
to cover hard pellet and maggot, a rig to fish up to the pallet of 14 and a
couple of rigs, again one with, one without a band to fish down the track.
Staring over, I had one fish and no other indications - very unusual, I'd like to say that at some point they showed up, but they didn't and I could only catch at the bottom of the near shelf with maggots, so a nice days fishing, but a thanks for coming and nothing else. Beaten off the next peg by a pastehead as well......
Final round of Ron's silvers league today, I had no chance
of resurrecting any sort of league position, so it was all out for the
win. Peg 7 probably wasn't the first
choice for that.....
Not too much to say about this, worked hard to get 18lb, but
it was a long way from what was needed, the pegs with a bit of room throwing up
some decent weights, really didn't have a good league, can't really think of
much I'd do differently if I could fish it over again (except draw better) roll
on next year....
First round of the spring league today, 10:30 draw so a leisurely start to the morning, fish 12:00-18:00, so this should see the fish caught late on.
Into the draw bag first today, 22 a bridge peg, not disappointed to be in section B, as that puts me into Section A in the third round, when hopefully it will have warmed up a bit, as another frost and bright sunny day was likely to affect the match today. 22 is one of the bridge pegs and that does give a chance to get a few bites as often the Tench and smaller carp hang around the bridges.
Had a lot of snippets of information about the last couple of matches on here, corn and paste being two of them, not baits I usually rely on, but you can't ignore good info. so Iset up a rig to fish corn down the near shelf towards the pallet of 23. I also set up one to fish paste up on the shelf, I did think it was still a bit cold for the fish to really come up onto the shallow shelves, but just in case....
The other rigs were pretty straight forward, the usual homemade floats I use to fish across, but set for the 'second' shelf and not tight across - one with a spade hook, one with a banded hook. A rig to fish against the bridge just up the slope either side and a rig to fish straight across or to my left again at the bottom of the shelf,
Bait tray was a little more crowded than I'd like, magots, micros, 4mm and 6mm pellets, corn and a very small tub of paste. Started across to the tall grasses adjacent to the bridge on a banded 6mm pellet, was into a fish straight away, a small tench, then had a fish a put in for a short spell, 3 tench and 3 carp, although one of the carp registered in ounces rather than pounds.
As expected after the cold start, this didn't last too long and the match took on a familiar pattern of recent matches, where it was impossible to put runs of fish together, I switched to maggot against the bridge and and had a couple of fish, then went back across and switched the pellet line to maggots, had a couple more, before starting a new line straight across at the bottom of the shelf, I had a three or four carp around the 3lb mark, but it was slow going.
An early look down towards the pallet of 23 did see me get a bite and miss it, then hook and lose a 5lber, before next drop in landing one around 3.5lb. No more bites, rotate round again, nicking an odd fish from the bridge on maggot and then across,
I did see a fish up on the shallowest part of the shelf where I'd fed, so I dropped the paste rig in and it wasn't long before another 3lb fish was netted, but that was the only sign all match of a fish coming into the shallow water.
Ended the match switching between the deeper rig down to 23 corn over micros and maggots to the first stanchion on the bridge. I did manage a double figure fish on the corn rig, but Glenn on 24 had one on paste and he'd had a run of fish across, so I wasn't sure if I'd done enough, also wasn't sure what had come out further up the section.
I thought I had 70lb, I'd clicked 55lb and expected 15lb silver (which I hadn't clicked), that would have been enough to win the section, but I had slightly under clicked having 60.06 of carp and 22.05 of Tench, enough to win the section. In this league thats enough, there is no overall payout, just 1 and 2 in each section, not surprisingly after one match that leaves me third in the league, winning the lowest weight section - deja vu I think.
Given the frost and bright conditions, it fished better than most of us expected, 1475lb being caught at a median of 67lb per angler.
Another frost, well at least it was a very good breakfast in the Wessex Flyer, for me the best bit of the day.
I drew peg 10, a peg I have won from this winter, a peg that threw up a 50lb of silvers last Thursday, but I had my reservations, it's probably the shallowest peg on the lake and you are limited by the island being about 17m in front of you, so no waggler or cage feeder chuck.
Set up a couple of 4x12 rigs, one with a blk and one with strung shotting and a 4x10 strung shotting in case I had to fish for roach.
Well not sure I can write much, I fed GB and maggot on one line art 14.5m, a few micros on the other long line, fed a 10m line pretty negatively.
Struggling to write much about this, I just couldn't get bites, no matter what I did, tried a new line with just pinkie, a caster line off to my left, all to no avail, whilst Joe to my left caught pretty much all day for second in the match, I have absolutely no idea what I could have done, Joe was foul hooking fish off the bottom, I never had one liner. Absolutely last in the match, can't remember that happening for some time!
One to put behind me and move on sharpish. One round left on this same venue in a couple of weeks,
Last of my winter format opens today and the weather joined the party with a hard frost overnight, giving it a wintery feel.
I run an optional series alongside these open matches, just to add a bit of interest to those who are likely to fish them all. I had already won the silvers series, but there were only two of us in that and it was very unlikely I'd be caught for the overall series, so at least a pick-up before I even started fishing.
I waited until the end of the draw and there were two pegs left, 11 and 9, Glenn drew 11, so 9 for me, it's been a consistent draw all winter, so no complaints.
Top kits for across, one for maggot and one with a banded hook for pellet. Another for the nice flat area down to the pallet of peg 8 and a rig for open water, pretty much the same depth everywhere, so one rig would do all.
I was surprised by how much the frost affected it, it took me an hour to get a fish, I hadn't really set up to catch silvers as the carp should have been in the area, although usually you get indications/liners, but not today.
I persevered and switched lines frequently, I had a couple of decent carp in open water that went about 18lb, managing to get a few smaller ones and some skimmers which was just good enough for fourth on the day and 6oz out of the money be default. Let's hope the warmer weather comes back soon!
1. Gareth Boycott. 64.11 peg 21
2. Paul Faiers 50.13 peg 33
3. Glenn Calvert 45.09 peg 11
4. Chris Fox 45.03 peg 9
5. Neil Morgan 43.02 peg 5
6. Chris Hamilton. 42.14 peg 6
Silvers
1. Paul Faiers 32.14 peg 33
2. Gareth Boycott 22.14 peg 21
3. Glenn Calvert 18.09 peg 11
4. Chris Hamilton 15.05 peg 6
It was good to get back to Whiteacres after the pandemic enforced break, caravan instead of the usual lodge, plenty of the lodges being refurbished, and work still ongoing, Mark Broomsgrove as my caravan mate for the week.
Arrived Saturday afternoon and didn't fancy practising in the wind, so watch the F1 qualifying in the bar, before settling into the van. Sunday saw us a bit indecisive about where to fish, we walked round Pollawyn and saw Darren Vowles catching F1's on the pellet waggler and 8mm pellet. Liberated him of his rod and had a few on it, but Mark wanted to practice on Trelawny as he was on there on Monday, so we went round there. I half-heartedly set up, just a bomb rod and fished bomb and pellet, having a fish a chuck for the first 8 or 9 casts, then had to search round the peg for fish, Paul(Faiers) was also ambivalent about practicing so we pack up and watch Mark and Glenn (Calvert) for a bit, before we wrapped up and headed to the bar, before an early night in readiness for the first day.
My rotation was:
The festivals have reduced from 180 anglers down to 120, so some different pegging than in the past, also no communal draw in the mornings, the draw is done and put on the FB page just after 08:00 every morning.
I made a decision not to fish a method feeder any day, I just don't agree with it, self-hooking rig that I don't consider to be fishing as I want to do it.
Mondays draw put me on 25, I would have preferred to be on the other lake and expected the lake winner(and framers) to come from there. There was a strong wind blowing, seems like Cornwall had the highest winds and lowest temperatures in the country.... So a bomb rod and just my 11m Power Partner set up, as thinking of fishing 11m was highly optimistic given the wind.
Having previously been on here on a tough day and catching 21lb of roach had helped me out, I set up a rig that would catch roach and F1's if they fed. A rig for meat and a pellet rig. The meat rig being an old Mick Wilkinson Diamond pattern, which is very stable in rough conditions.
Started on the bomb and 8mm pellet and had a couple of F1's and a carp across, it was pretty slow going, but no one was catching, so i wasn't unduly concerned. I did try the short caster line, this did produce a short run of perch and decent roach, but soon died off, I picked a couple more fish off on pellet, before having a couple of carp and F1's on meat short towards the end. I wasn't surprised to be in the worst section on the lakes, but did win it, so a good start.
Tuesday and onto Trelawny, peg 24, it won the section the day before, so plenty of banter about drawing a flyer. Once again, the wind dictated that 11m was to be the most pole that came out of the bag and to fish all of that was probably more wildly optimistic than the day before.
Bomb set up for across, a waggler that came out of the bag and went away unused, as the wind never dropped enough to even contemplate using it. Pole rigs for meat, caster short and cast/maggot/worm 'long' - with long being about 8m if I was lucky.
Started across on the bomb and had a couple of quick fish, but after that it was a real struggle, tried a worm/caster line at 9m, another line with micros and a few different baits over it, caster short and it was pretty torrid, very windy and I was really struggling, couldn't even get a bite on a single maggot on a 22 and 0.08. I finally picked up a few roach. hybrids and a decent F1 on the caster and two very late on the meat, this left me with less than half the weight of section winner Glenn. For some reason Whiteacres took some of the result sheets off their FB pages, so no result sheets for today, but I weighed 21lb, the pegs to my left were my section and they weighed 22lb, 23lb, 30llb, 43lb and 7lb, leaving me with just 2 points, very disappointing. I didn't enjoy the day at all, cold, windy and unable to work out how to get a bite.
Wednesday saw me draw an end peg on Python - 36, so I had high hopes it would be a decent draw and I'd have a chance of winning the section again. I set up a led rod to fish to the island, just in case the wind got up, although the sun was out and it was a better day to be sat outside. Pole rigs were one of my homemade glass stemmed island floats for tight to the island, a Preston F1 Maggot float for the deeper water a metre off the island and a slim wire stem RW floats for the open water.
I expected to catch on pellets, but that didn't happen, so I switched to maggots and caught straight away across to the island after changing, I had a nice run of F1's and then hooked a decent carp that I wasn't expecting, took a while to get in on 0.10 fluorocarbon and a 20 F1 hook. I had to switch between a line in the open water and the island to keep the fish coming, I put 43lb on the scales to win the section, once again the lowest weight section, so no sniff of the superpool.
After this match 9 of us headed to The Pheasant at St Newlyn East and that was the first time we'd eaten here, I'd recommend it, nice food and a decent pint.
Thursday and couldn't afford to draw a bad one on Bolingey, peg 24 was against my name when the draw was published, concerned about the split section, as my section has pegs on two lakes, whereas all the other sections have the pegs on one lake, the 2 pegs on the back lake had been doing well in the section.
The size of the lake with both banks pegged means there really isn't a need to fish anything but the pole, but I did set up a bomb rod that never got used. Four pole rigs one for short, one for 13m and one for either edge, I then did set up a shallow rig, as they were moving around. Started short and had one bite, could have been a liner. Went out long where I fed a very small amount of pellets, this was pretty negative, but there had been a frost and whilst everyone else was sat in T shirts, I was under the trees and shaded from the sun wearing a fleece and a windstopper!
The day was turning into a repeat of Tuesday, struggling to get a bite, but I was sure it would come good. I was feeding pellets in the RH margin and did feed the LH margin with micros and maggots a bit earlier than I would usually, but I needed something to happen. Then fed a few micros on the 13m line and tried corn over it, again nothing. I did see a swirl in the LH edge and finally had a 3lber to go in the net, that appeared to be a loner as no more signs or bites in the edge in the next 15 minutes I tried it.
A switch to worm over the micros at 13m brought an instant response, a carrasio and a carp around 6lb, then four eels, struggling to remember the last time I caught four eels in one match, but I'm not sure it's a good sign when fishing for carp. I did manage another couple of carp on the same line, never had a bite short and one more down the edge that was 2 1/2 lb, so festival over as I only beat two in the section - I honestly have no idea what I would differently if I could revisit the match. As expected, the section was one from the other lake and peg 25 took advantage of the empty peg 26 and his long margin to catch from it.
As that was festival over, it was at least nice to have our traditional beer in the Perranporth Inn whilst waiting for the takeaway Indian to be prepared, I think the Massala on the high street has changed hands, the curry used to be excellent in there, this one was OK, but not anything to shout about.
Friday was my turn on Pollawyn, which had been fishing pretty hard, the draw given to me was 16, so if the lake fished to current form, that was another day without a lake win on the cards. The wind got up so the plan to fish the waggler was looking dodgy, I set up two anyway, one shallow and one at depth. Two bomb rods, one for bread and one for pellet. Four pole rigs, one to fish caster short and that would also cover 'deep shallow' further out. A rig for full depth with a banded hook, one without a band and the Mick Wilkinson Diamond for meat at 5m
Started on the bomb and bread, that resulted in 3 bites, a carp, an F1 and a bumped fish, a switch to bomb and pellet was no good. I tried a line at 13m with micros and corn, nothing on that, I switched to a worm line at 14.5m I only had one bite on that, a 2oz hybrid. Then a cautionary tale, I don't like to trust repaired pole sections, unless I know it was one clean break, I hadn't managed to replace the section before coming down here (see blog Viaduct 26th Feb) so had it repaired, 4 separate wraps and it didn't seem too bad, but the tree must have caused unseen damage and lifting the rig saw the section break and I was lucky to get all the sections back.
The caster line short did produce bites, but only small roach to start with, they got a little bigger and the line then died off. I could see others in the section catching on the method, so back out on the bomb - nothing doing. I was banking on my meat line coming good and intended to fish it for the last 2 hours. The meat line did give me some F1's around 3lb and a couple of carp, but ti was slow going in the middle of the 2 hours and I did try a meat feeder, having one carrasio on that before I caught the island with the hooklength and lost the lot. So back on the meat short and had another carp and decent F1.
I was expecting to be near the bottom of the section as I'd seen a few catching on the method, so I was surprised to see my 27.06 to take second in section, those better meat fish paying off. I was now ruing the two bad days on Trelawny and Bolingey.
So I ended up 32nd, feeling one more good day would have seen me sneaking into the top 10, one thing I did notice was my weight was the lowest of the top 64, showing my drawing remains consistent.....even if I get a good peg, its in a poor section.
A good week company wise, the weather was decent after the wind buggered off, picked up money for the couple of section wins and was quite sorry not to be staying for the Dynamite Festival this week.
Well done to Paul Nichols on his top ten finish.
Commented to Tony, as we had a very nice breakfast in the Wessex Flyer, that I couldn't think of any other time neither of us had picked up in a league and today was the last chance, Tony was on Heron, myself on Old Match Lake.
I drew peg 8, the wind was once again going to make things tricky (when hasn't it lately), I made a decision to just get 11m of pole out and set up a bomb rod and a waggler. Bait tray was pellets, corn and a few dead maggots, no point messing around.
Plumbed up a line at 11m pretty much straight in front, the peg shallows up in a steady slope from the aerator on the left hand side, Another two lines at 7m, one where I intended to feed 4/6mm pellets and the other where I put GB and dead maggots. Also the margins either side were plumbed and a suitable area found either side.
The wind as predicted was a pain, I tried the waggler several times, but it wasn't right, so no more to say about it. I started on the 11m line and had one skimmer after 40 minutes, I'd fed micros and 4mm pellets, fishing an expander over them. I switched rigs and dropped 3 maggots over the GB line, nothing, over the line where I'd only fed pellets and had a carp almost immediately, that was the only bite from either of the short lines.
I spent the rest of the match alternating between bomb and corn over to the island and the 11m line, it was impossible to get more than two bites from one line without then resting it, I ended up with around 8lb of skimmers, a tench and 34lb carp, that was enough to win the lake, left it too late to save the league, but a little pride salvaged.
Penultimate open of the winter format (50/50 payout overall/silvers), 14 booked in, still a bit disappointing, but an improvement on the last match, hopefully we'll see the numbers pick up again for the summer opens.
Lots of activity at the fishery today, they have opened up as a collection/distribution point for aid to Ukraine, so we had to park up and walk round to pegs etc. so no vehicles coming and going were obstructed, thanks to all fishing as there were no moans and groans, I think all appreciated the good work being done,
I tried to peg it to give everyone a chance of either carp or silvers and had the last ball in the bag which saw me on peg 21. Its been a bit up and down, I've won from it before and also bombed out on it, I thought I'd start for carp, but if they proved elusive, I set up to fish for Tench against the bridge.
Started across in 18" of water, tight to the bridge, had one carp around 8lb, then lost one and that was it, not another indication over there. kept pinging a few maggots over and trying it, but not so much as a liner.
I'd set up a silvers rig for fishing over some GB I'd fed down the track, I missed two bites, first two drop ins and never had another indication over it - odd.
The deepest part of the peg is in the middle, against the bridge, come back about 12" and the slope starts. Two rigs, one a 4x12 with strung 10's and a 4x14 Des Shipp maggot with a bulk and 1 dropper, 0.11 and 0.13 hooklengths respectively, both with a 20 Kaizen kook - what a fantastic hook this is for winter fishing, shame they don't make it in a 22.
I like to fish these pegs just up the slope, no exception to day, that's where I started and apart from the occasional look over the other lines (including down to the pallet of peg 20) it's where I stayed, as whilst it wasn't frantic, I was getting bites, three skimmers, a hybrid, a small perch and around fifteen Tench from 4oz to 3lb. Nice days fishing, they wanted some feed, not huge amounts but had to keep 20-30 magots going in fairly regularly, luckily, I could feed the line accurately by hand. A couple more carp near the end from the same line saw me win my third open in a row at Acorn, taking top spot in overall and silvers with 27.04 silvers and four carp for 15.14 which is quite a relief after the poor showing in the Winter League.
As the winter format is 50/50 payout, I took the overall money, with Russ Peck proving his consistency by coming second, the silvers payouts went to Paul Faiers and Rich Major.
Travelled to this one as usual with Tony, over breakfast we did say it's about time the van had someone with a pick-up in it, as we have yet to manage that between us this league.
Tony was on Old Match Lake, myself on Kingfisher, I somehow managed to draw 50, completely the opposite end I wanted. Ryan Ship on 48 kindly told me 50 was the worst peg on the lake, not sure it is, but it is a bit of a feast or famine peg and with the wind hacking against the end bank (50 is an end peg on a canal lake) I suspected famine today.
Set up to fish at 13m, 7m and down to my RH side just down the near shelf. fed two lines at 13m, one with GB and maggots, one with micros. The 7m line had GB and maggots, the short line had casters loose fed.
It took a while to get a bite and it was one of those days where working out a feeding pattern or what the fish wanted was nigh on impossible. I couldn't get two consecutive bites from any line, I had a couple of carp on the short line on caster, one at 13m on soft pellet, one on corn, a few on maggots, I even started up a couple more lines round the peg, but that didn't help.
The roach and skimmers, if there were many in the peg, didn't want to feed, so it was sit it out for carp, the last 30 minutes was the best of the match, I had 3 carp including one about 4lb right at the end.
Sadly not enough to get that missing pick-up, as I was one out of the money, being 3rd on the lake, as was Tony on his lake, just one round to go for us to ensure we don't get a full house of no pick-ups this league.
Was really looking forward to this one, the silver results have been looking good in recent matches. I drew 115, not disappointed with that.
This is a very short blog, 20 mins into the match, a gust of wind brought a branch down onto my head, then onto my pole cracking the 11m section in two places, the second time I have had this happen (both No.11 sections!!) at this venue.
Somewhat pissed off and with a headache, feeling nauseous, I packed up and went home £650 worse off than when I arrived.
The last round of what has been an unsuccessful league for me, if I were to compare it to football's Premier league, the last two years I finished in the Champions league places, whilst the year I was flirting with relegation. I could do with a decent match to round the league off.
I was in what is the section that consistently puts up the highest weights, but was desperate to avoid peg 1, the pegs are drawn for you, so I was certainly happy to hear my name and then peg 5, it's where the fish are holed up this winter.
Just for a change, it was forecast to rain and be windy, the wind was South Westerly so was perfect for where I expected to catch. The picture below shows the peg, the area I was expecting to catch and the SW and W wind direction
Back to Ivy House and back on Heron lake for me, not my favourite lake, but it's full of fish. so hopefully a few bites to be had. As seems the norm lately, it was forecast to be windy, but I drew peg 15, which did see the wind off my back, allowing me to fish up to the 16m limit if desired.
Two lead rods set up, one for bread, although it was probably a bit too coloured for it, one for a cage feeder, 2 topkits were enough, with the depth being very even all over the peg, so a light rig with strung out shotting and a heavier rig with bulk shot and droppers.
Had a fish first chuck on the bread, but that was it, nothing else on it. It took ages to get a bite, I finally had one on a topkit + 1 where I'd been feeding maggots, I alternated between 14.5m and the short line fishing maggots to weigh 14.08 which beat the pegs either side, but was no good, same fate for Tony on Kingfisher, so we were soon on our way home.
