Avon Angling Open, Trinity Waters, 30th May 2010

I had a week away in Cornwall after last weeks frustrating day on Rushcombe, in the last of the KP series. I did take some tackle, just in case I managed to get to the rocks off Trevose Head, for a bit of spinning. As it turned out, I didn’t bother, a week just mooching around Cornwall and sampling the Cornish food and ale sufficed.

I was looking forward to this match, it’s a while since I have managed to get to Trinity Waters, which is a shame, as it’s a venue that’s been kind to me and is well run by John & Sue.

I had the obligatory fry up at Abby’s Café, anglers making the majority of the customers. I got to the water and wandered around, sorting out the pegging, really, the 21 fishing was 1 too many, as I couldn’t leave out the corners and give everyone an empty peg one side.

In the melee that was the draw, I had a peg drawn for me, seeing as I was using my cap to hold the draw cards, 23 was revealed when I opened it. I wasn’t too bothered where I drew, but I was happy that it wasn’t 16, 17 or 18, which are pegs that I’ve failed to compete from in the past. The wind was blowing into the corner,between me on 23 and John Bradford on 20, but I had failed to appreciate how strong it was whilst pegging out.

I had set up two 1.5g Jolly’s, modified with a 2mm hollow tip, one to fish soft or banded hard pellet and another to fish paste (Both on 0.17 line, with a 0.15 hooklength. A B911 size 16 for the pellet rig and a 16 Mustad paste hook for the paste rig). A margin rig for the very shallow RH margin, which was a MW slim power on 0.17 and a 0.15 hooklength with a size 16 PR36 and two pellet waggler rods, completed the set up.

I started on the pellet rig, feeding a line at 11.5m, after nearly an hour and two skimmers being the only fish, I knew I was wasting my time on a line that I just couldn’t hold the pole still enough to achieve the presentation. I had Jason Radford to my left and he was also struggling with the gusting wind. The presentation on the waggler was just as bad, I managed an F1 and two carp on this, but the wind once again made it a method that presentation was poor. I even set up a waggler 3’ overdepth and it still dragged through.

I had been feeding my RH margin all match with hemp, caster and 8mm pellet and had one fish from it and one foul hooker lost, which were the only indications in the margin until the last hour and a quarter. I shallowed the rig up and came up the slope to where the water was 15”-18” deep and fishing meat over the pellet, caster & hemp feed, I managed to catch another seven or eight fish in the last hour, which I knew wasn’t enough to win, but it had given me a chance of a section pick up.

The scales came round and at 50lb 7oz, I was the highest weight weighed so far, with Gary Wall, Dean Malin and T Magnol on peg 2 all having decent nets to weigh in – according to the bankside jungle drums.

At the end of the weigh in, my weight was enough to take third place, it was a hard days fishing in that wind, but Woodland lake managed to do for me what she’s done a few times in the past, put me from virtually nowhere, to framing in the last hour or so. Just a shame I had to rush off at the end to get to work!!

1)Gary Wall 70.13 peg 13
2)Tom Magnol 69.13 peg 2
3)Chris Fox 50.07 peg 23
4)Dean Malin 44.02 peg 10
5)Paul Elmes 41.03
6)Ryan Summerhayes 39.10 peg 5

SILVERS
1)Dean Malin 18.10 peg 10
2)John Bradford 12.13 peg 20


If you look below, I've updated th last blog to give the results and final league standing in the KP series.

Kev Perry Series Last Match

My draw was shite, I really tried, I even went scrounging maggots, but when the 5 hour mark passed and I had 11 small Carp, I gave up, and packed up. I could see Andy Hembrow on D1, absolutely sacking.....

Too much for tonight, the full leage table to follow.

31/5/10 - Update.

I was pretty pissed off after the last match, suffice to say I didn't really enjoy the series this year, both times I fished Rushcombe, was the two worst days on the lake. I had gone with a plan of fishing paste, as there was no point scratching around for points. I also took hard & soft pellet as a back up, 15 or 20 bites in 5 hours, even after Clive Pettit generously gave me a tub of maggots, was the straw that broke the camels back and I packed up with an hour to go.

Thanks, to all of you who supportted the series, from Paul & myself, to Phil for his prize of a seaon ticket to the winner and to Veals for the vouchers which we awarded to the silverfish first & second place. In all honesty, there weren't too many moans & groans, even though we moved from North Pool after the first two matches and Rushcombe was a bit up and down. Every decision was made with the best interests of the competitors, trying to give everyone the best chance in the league and enjoy a days fishing.

The league table results are a little crammed, I haven't got time tonight to try and sort out the spacing. The figures are left to right: final points tally, final weight tally, lowest points dropped and the associated weight.

Match Result.

First Sam Johnson ML8 42.600

Second Mike Owens ML25 29.970

Third Andy Hembrow Rush D1 29.250

Fourth Sean Kitteridge ML26 28.000

Fifth Lance Tucker ML24 20.770

Sixth Tom Thick ML17 18.500

BY DEFAULT
A Section 1st Dave Wride ML12 18.400
B Section 1st Sean Kitteridge ML26 28.000
C Section 1st Dave Roper Rush C2 15.500
D Section 1st Lewis Jones Rush D2 14.500

Silvers

First Sean Kitteridge ML26 17.500

Second Lance Tucker ML24 11.570

Third Nick Collins ML15 10.700

Fourth Mike Nicholls ML21 10.520

Final series Table (With worst match result dropped)

Name Points Weight Worst
1 Sean Kitteridge 33 98.620 0 0.000
2 Lewis Jones 31 85.680 3 2.520
3 Dave Wride 30 100.810 4 4.650
4 Dave Roper 30 75.650 0 0.000
5 Mike Owens 29 87.330 3 7.520
6 Andy Hembrow 29 78.980 1 5.340
7 Andy Hockin 25 79.170 1 8.320
8 Nick Collins 25 76.580 2 7.220
9 Tom Thick 25 75.320 3 12.250
10 Bob Gullick 25 69.670 2 14.150
11 Steve Priddle 25 57.570 1 3.450
12 Mark Bromsgrove 24 76.800 3 14.650
13 Chris Fox 24 72.970 0 0.000
14 Clive Petitt 24 72.240 1 2.310
15 Kev Perry 24 60.790 4 2.390
16 Paul Faiers 23 55.100 2 6.380
17 Mark Walsh 22 64.200 2 1.370
18 Lance Tucker 20 64.620 2 11.030
19 Mike Nicholls 19 87.720 0 0.000
20 Glen Calvert 19 71.520 0 0.000
21 Sam Johnson 17 65.260 0 0.000
22 John Osbourne 17 41.840 1 4.380
23 Paul Purchase 13 35.760 0 0.000
24 Ivan Currie 12 45.600 1 6.740
25 Charlie Barnes 12 23.940 0 0.000
26 Nick Harvey 11 51.480 1 2.750
27 Paul Lasson 11 25.770 1 5.800
28 Dave Poole 11 19.700 0 0.000



Silvers Final Table (with worst match dropped)

Name Points Weight Worst
1 Dave Wride 34 53.870 4 7.500
2 Tom Thick 33 39.200 3 9.300
3 Nick Collins 30 43.790 5 2.960
4 Bob Gullick 29 29.520 2 8.500
5 Lewis Jones 29 24.020 3 2.900
6 Dave Roper 28 27.700 0 0.000
7 Steve Priddle 28 22.510 0 0.000
8 Lance Tucker 27 38.010 4 6.000
9 Andy Hembrow 27 24.280 4 0.350
10 John Osbourne 26 9.150 1 1.940
11 Paul Faiers 25 18.140 0 0.000
12 Mike Owens 24 34.490 2 2.800
13 Mark Bromsgrove 24 30.500 1 3.850
14 Mike Nicholls 23 35.020 0 0.000
15 Mark Walsh 23 16.300 0 0.000
16 Sean Kitteridge 22 38.350 0 0.000
17 Kev Perry 21 8.660 2 1.600
18 Chris Fox 20 20.110 0 0.000
19 Andy Hockin 19 19.180 1 5.750
20 Glen Calvert 18 15.270 0 0.000
21 Clive Petitt 18 12.920 0 0.000
22 Charlie Barnes 16 13.840 0 0.000
23 Ivan Currie 14 19.250 0 0.000
24 Dave Poole 13 8.330 0 0.000
25 Paul Purchase 11 10.640 0 0.000
26 Paul Lasson 10 8.040 0 0.000
27 Nick Harvey 6 3.480 0 0.000
28 Sam Johnson 4 4.750 0 0.000

Landsend, Wednesday 19th May 2010

Another 'difficult' day at Landsend, difficult, but I still weighed in 57lb 2oz, which 20 years ago would have won many matches. A hearty breakfast at Abbys cafe in Bishopsworth set me up, although Tony & Dean were mesmerised by the breastfeast on display, thankfully I was sat with my back to the lady in question, so could concentrate on eating.......

Two pegs stuck together as I picked them out of the draw bag, I'll never know what I flicked back, No1 was the one I'd kept. Two extremes of opinion offered to me about the peg, from its a bad draw, to, you'll get a few from there.

I set up 5 rigs, two for paste, one at full depth and one shallow for the island shelf, although I wasn't planning this to be my main line of attack. A caster rig, a full depth pellet rig for soft or banded pellet and a shallow rig for banded pellet.

There were plenty of fish moving, (the crucians/F1's were spawning like crazy) the water temp was 15°C, so not warm enough for the carp to be spawning, I started on the shallow rig and in the first 1¼ hours had managed one crucian and a golden tench. This was trying two lines, one across to the island and one down the edge at 16m. A look on the lines I'd been feeding the caster saw a run of perch, but they weren't big enough or coming quickly enough to make it viable. The full depth pellet rig fished at the bottom of the shelf and into open water, produced a couple of unhitable bites on soft pellet and no bites on banded. Although in open water I had a big patch of fizzing where I'd fed, but not a bite...

Back onto the shallow rig, as I could see Andy France on 24 getting fish down the edge, I had 7 carp from the edge and 1 from the island in the middle two hours before they seemed to switch off. In the last two hours I tried paste & tooke two more fish, as well as 1 more tench on the shallow rig. The fish at this end of the lake seemed small, Andy on 24 had 20 to my 10, but neither of us had any of the 6lb+ fish that boost your weight. Andy's fish were a smaller avaerage than mine, his 20 going 76lb.

The scales gave me 46lb of carp and 11lb 2 oz of silvers, with the better weights coming from the specoimen lake and the other end of the match lake.

I must get Dave Wride to draw for me again next Sunday....

1) Dean Malin 165.08 peg 17
2) Tony Rixon 123.02 peg 28
3) Tony Witcombe 117.04 peg 13
4) Gary Wall 106.08 peg 26
5) Adrian Bishop 86.04 peg 32
5) Andy France 76.09 peg 24

Top silvers John Bradford, 42.10 peg 7

Kev Perry Series, Round Five, 16th May 2010

I am in a fortunate position to reveal that a dynamic new tackle designer is ready to launch his first product. Local Bream and Cider expert, Kev Perry has been working tirelessly to produce a new pole mounted pot, one that can really deliver when the fish need plenty of feed to keep them in the swim.



Kev has personally committed to emptying and recycling the contents of the Natch bottles, although he has approached me to help him, should the volume of orders become too much. I look forward to joining Kev in this new venture, items in the pipe line are the 'Thatchers' five gallon polypin pellet container and the Blackthorn 9 or 11 gallon aluminium barrel seat box, all of which will be lovingly emptied before being crafted into quality tackle products.

Yesterdays fifth round of the Kev Perry series was met with the weather still cold for the time of year, although the water temp was up 2°C from last weeks 10°C, at the start and a positively tropical 15°C at the end of the match. It was my turn to fish the Match Lake, thankfully, after last weeks poor showing on Rushcombe. I arrived around 07.30 and for once didn't have to chuck any pleasure anglers off, in fact they were fairly conspicuous by their absence. I pegged out Rushcombe and headed into the cafe for breakfast.

As my results this series have been pretty dire, I decided that I'd have to get get Dave 'Golden Arm' Wride to draw for me, he handed me A1 (ML8), the back bank isn't my favourite area, but the wind was blowing in there and it had more colour than the main part of the lake. Fellow organiser Paul Faiers was on peg 10 and fairly convinced that he'd have a good day on the silvers, Kev Perry on 12 and Glen opposite on 27, at least if the fishing was poor we had a good 'social' crowd.

I know that those who tend to be consistent at Bullock Farm, catching good weights of Crucians, feed very little, I must admit I find this difficult, restraint is obviously not in my nature. I yearn for the days on the river when a gallon of maggots would barely last five hours, so feeding a teacup full of micropellet in 6 hours hardly fills me with excitement. Given that I had no chance of any pick up in the overall league or silvers, I had a plan of fishing caster for the silvers and paste for carp, with a back up of hard 6mm pellet.

I set up a 4x10 rig to fish caster, 0.13 to a 0.11 hooklength and a 18 6313, this matched with doubled up No8 elastic. A similar rig, to fish 6mm banded pellet, this on 0.15/0.13 and a 18PR36 and two paste rigs, one a Big H float on 0.15 with a mustad paste hook 16 and a blob on 0.17 with a mustad paste hook 12.

At the all in I fed a line about 5m at 11 o'clock with caster and another line over on the tip of the island with dampened 4mm, the RH margin looked inviting, but I was determind to leave it well alone for at least three hours. First drop in on the caster and the float buried and a couple of minutes later a 3lb mirror was the first keepnet resident. I took a few Crucians and fantails from this line, but it wasn't fast and furious sport, a look over to the island with a 4mm expander saw a couple more Crucians landed, but the enevitable missed bite syndrome started. A switch to banded 6mm pellet saw 5 goldfish landed in 5 put ins. I switched back to the caster line and tried maggot over it, another couple of Crucians, some decent skimmers and then it went quiet.

I carried on feeding caster, but tried a 4mm expander over it and had a decent spell of crucians, skimmer and an eel which was over 1lb, although I didn't get to weigh it, todays shallow pan landing nets aren't designed for containing eels and I must be out of practise in dealing with them, as he managed to squirm out of the net, off my leg and the pallet and back into the lake...... Shortly after I had a carp around 7 or 8lb over the caster on 4mm pellet and with 1¾ hours to go, I had a look at the inviting margin, I had either a bite or a liner most put ins and caught carp in the 3-5lb bracket until the all out.

Thankfully it had been enough to win both the match and keeping on the caster line for that length of time, also saw met take the silvers money. A decent pick up at last in this series. Sadly I had to work Sunday night, so the money stayed in my pocket, the local pub and Indian restaurant will have to wait for their share!!

Rushcombe had fished somewhat better, with 3 of the top six coming from there.

1) Chris Fox 35.150KG ML8
2) Sean Kitteridge 25.300KG Rush C2
3) Dave Roper 24.300KG ML22
4) Mark Walsh 23.850KG ML18
5) Nick Harvey 22.700KG Rush C3
6) Mark Bromsgrove 21.800KG Rush C1

Silvers

1) Chris Fox 10.950KG ML8
2) Andy Hembrow 10.500KG ML21
3) Paul Faiers 9.150KG ML10
3) Dave Wride 8.500KG Rush D1

Overall Table
1) Dave Wride 28P 87.060KG
2) Lewis Jones 28P 74.180KG
3) Sean Kitteridge 27P 70.620KG
4) Andy Hockin 25P 79.170KG
5) Bob Gullick 25P 69.670KG
6) Mike Owens 25P 64.880KG

Silvers Table
1) Dave Wride 34P 53.870KG
2) Tom Thick 33P 39.200KG
3) Bob Gullick 29P 29.250
4) Nick Collins 28P 36.050KG
5) Andy Hembrow 27P 24.280KG
6) Lweis Jones 26P 25.980KG

Kev Perry Series, Round Four, 9th May 2010

I'd been feeling pretty uninspired by this years series, today did nothing to regain any enthusiasim for the rest of the matches. As I was on the Match Lake last week, I knew it was Rushcombe for me today. I had already decided to fish positively, but the decline in the temperature had me doubting that it would be possible to frame from this lake today. I was intending to fish banded pellet and a line or two for paste, I had to re-evaluate as the temperature kept low, with a North Easterly wind. The thermometer showed the water temp to be 10°C, dropping back to winter levels again, whatever happened to that global warming they promised...... just another ruse to levy more tax out of us... cynical me, well yes actually, I think its a big con job.

I took two bags of liquidised bread out of the freezer and picked up a white loaf from CO-OP on the way to the match. I thought pegging out would be easier, as both Paul and myself had not ventured to the pub last night, the cricket being the reason I didn't venture from my sofa. We were doing OK until we had some of the competitors come up offering advice, we ended up re-doing it, as we wanted in the end.

Plenty of banter at breakfast and I decided that after 3 pretty average to poor draws, I'd draw my own peg, C2 on Rushcombe, I wasn't too disappointed, but I didn't think it would be as good as last match, with the wind in the opposite direction.

As the aforementioned lack of enthusiasim had engulfed me, I had nothing prepared so was glad to have until 10.30 to set up, especially as it took me twenty minutes to do the gardening necessary for me to have a margin (and I wasn't the only one). I more in hope than expectation set up a dibber to fish banded pellet up the far shelf, a Malman Volte to fish 4mm expander or maggot up on the shelf and a paste rig to fish the LH (newly pruned) margin.

I started by feeding a couple of 4mm pellets by catty, across on the shelf, as well as potting some softend pellet and a few casters on the paste line. I had tried various pellets, maggots and caster in the first hour and a quarter, with only 4 goldfish to show for it. I grabbed a topkit from the rod bag (with purple middy elastic), set up a Malamn float whose name eludes me and plumbed up at the bottom of the shelf. Set just off bottom, in it went with a piece of punch and a pole mounted pot full of liquidised bread. Bites came immediately and for an hour or so I caught steadily, goldfish and carp to 1lb or so.

I had an occasional look in the paste line, at 15.00 I had a carp and then a goldfish from it, but these proved to be the only fish from this line all day. I continued picking up odd fish on the bread punch until the final whistle. One minute before the whistle I lost a carp,for some reason the hooklength (ultima silk 0.010) broke at the loop knot. This cost me the section, as I lost out to Andy Hembrow on C1, by only 140grams.

Rushcombe fished hard, my 6.420KG was third on the lake, behind Lewis Jones 0n D6, who weighed 8.160KG and Andy Hembrow on C1 who weighed 6.560KG.

Different story on the Match Lake - only two weights under 10KG and four over 20KG.

1) Dave Wride 37.400KG peg 24
2) Andy Hockin 29.450KG peg 12
3) Bob Gullick 24.550KG peg 17
4) Tony Goodland 21.750KG peg 22
5) Tom Thick 19.800KG peg 21
6) Sean Kitteridge 18.350KG peg 27

Silvers

1) Dave Wride 20.400KG peg 24
2) Sean Kitteride 14.30KG peg 27
3) Tom Thick 13.600KG peg 21
4) Nick Collins 12.350KG peg 15


Overall Table

1) Lewis Jones 24 points 57.930KG
2) Dave Wride 23 points 72.760KG
3) Bob Gullick 22 points 58.520KG
4) Andy Hockin 21 points 65.970KG
5) Tom Thick 21 points 58.820KG
6) Sean Kitteridge 20 points 45.320KG

Silvers Table

1) Dave Wride 27 points 45.370KG
2) Tom Thick 27 points 32.750KG
3) Nick Collins 23 points 30.000KG
4) Lewis Jones 23 points 23.080KG
5) Bob Gullick 22 points 26.420KG

At last...... a better day at Landsend 5/5/10

The forecast rain never came, the wind gusted and swirled, but not so much that it affected presentation and the sun shone, it was good to be out on the bank.

The Match Lake & the far side of the Specimen Lake were in the draw bag and after Fabio drew Tony Rixon peg 31, most thought they were fishing for second place - and so it came to pass!! Peg 5 greeted me when I opened the draw card, should be good for a few silvers was the consensus. I'd pretty much decided my tactics before setting off, having mainly hard pellet and caster in my bait bag, trying not to over complicate things. I did also have a tin of corn and a few soft pellets.

I set up three rigs, the shallow rig for tight to the island was a MW slim power on 0.17, to 0.15 and a 18PR36 with a hair rig band. The rig for soft pellet or banded hard pellet at the bottom of the shelf was a MW power diamond, which took 6 No8 stotz as a bulk, this was on 0.15, with a 0.13 hooklength and a 16 6313 hook. A rig for caster was also assembled, this being a Malman winter wire that took 4 no8 & 3 No 10 stotz, this was initially coupled with 0.11 and a 20 6313.

I wanted to try two lines at full depth, one feeding just micro pellet and wetted 4mm and another line with groundbait, that had just a few 3mm pellets in. The line up the shelf would be fed with 6mm pellet and the caster line was loose fed by hand (about 4m).

At the all in I fed the micro and 4mm straight across at the bottom of the shelf, the ground bait at 12m which was in open water, in front of the gap in the islands, some 6mm by catty up the shelf and caster at 4/5m, as well as few down the LH side at topkit range. In the first half an hour I had more bites than for the whole match on Monday. I had a couple of skimmers, a couple of F1's and 2 very small carp. The F1's seemed to prefer the ground bait line, rather than the pellet fed at the bottom of the shelf.

These fish were taken on soft pellet, but as usually happens (to me, if no one else) the bites got lightening quick and impossible to hit, how frustrating does keeping on shipping back 13m of pole to rebait, only for it to get taken again in 30 seconds... A change to banded pellet saw a big reduction in bites, but at least I hit them or could drop the banded pellet back in.

First drop in on the caster line and the float slid under, a lift of the pole saw the elastic come out and one of those skimmers crossed with a salmonoid leapt out of the water. Why do they do that on commercials? I've never seen it on a natural venue.
The water wasn't yet at summer colour and the fish hadn't settled over the caster line properly yet., A look up the shelf saw a 6lb fish in the net first put in, another about 4lb the next put in and then nothing. It seemed as if the fish were mooching round in pairs. Alternating between the two pellet lines saw a couple more fish in the net, Ide now replacing F1's as the fish sat over the groundbait.

Next look in on the caster line saw a steady run of fish, perch, skimmers and ide, until it went quiet, the float buried and the doubled No8 elastic flew out and a lumpy 7lb carp was powering to the island. Another carp next put in and in trying to stop it getting to the lilly pads by peg4, it snapped the 0.11. Stepping up to 0.14 and a 18 6313 saw another carp netted on the next put in - quite bizarre that they were queuing up at 4.5m, on the caster line, but not over the pellet.

With an hour and a quarter to go, the silvers line went quiet after I landed a small tench, so I went back out to the island shelf and managed another 3 carp - frustratingly losing 3, all of them under my own pallet. I've been experimenting with some different elastics and have found the Garbolino Bazookarp to be very forgiving and not lost many fish at all. BUT, my big mistake was thinking that the orange (for bagging or big fish!!) would be OK without a pull bung, no, it needs one, hence the lost fish. Rest assured that tomorrow a pull bung will be fitted to that topkit.

My 84.04 was good enough for second on the lake (to Tony 'the paste' Whitcombe), so was quite pleased, then down to earth with a bump when the Speci lake weights were revealed, Tony Rixon winning as predicted, with over 200lb. Although him and Dean both actually landed more, but both exceeded the net weight limit of 80lb per net. (Dean with two nets!!)

It was a nice days fishing, a mixture of carp & silvers and a pick up as well, thats helped my malaise which was growing about the venue.

1) Tony (I know its a flyer, but I didn't draw it) Rixon 206.05 peg 31
2) Dean (they didn't look that big) Malin 178.03 peg 25
3) Tony (I had to open a tin of corn, but paste worked in the end) Whitcombe 98.04 peg 19
4) Chris (not battered off the next peg today) Fox 84.04 peg 5
5) Adrian Bishop 60.00 peg 17
6) John Smith 57.04 peg 22

Silvers

1) John Bradford 53.02 peg 3
2) Mike West 28.12 peg 12
3) Chris Fox 24.00 peg 5

Battered (AGAIN!!) at Landsend 3/5/10

May day looked like being a bit warmer than yesterday and I'd booked into Landsend, it was a decent turnout with 30 fishing. I drew peg 34, fairly meaningless to me, but a peg that can hold fish I was told. I was flanked by Matt Tomes on my left on 33 and Andy France on 34.

I'd decided to come with a plan (or two), it was to be hard pellet across, soft pellet at the bottom of the shelf, paste for where ever they wanted it and as a last minute back up, I cubed some meat just as I was leaving.

Simplicity its self for rigs, a MW slim power for up the shelf, a MW pellet for bottom of the shelf, a blob for paste up the shelf and a Big H float for paste at full depth.

Plumbing up at the start, I disturbed a big fish on the ledge at 16m, so I was hopeful that there were some fish in the peg. At the all in, I cupped some micros and softend 4mm at the bottom of the shelf and fed the top of the shelf with 4mm using the catapult. Second drop in, saw a carp around 6lb hooked in the tail, I managed to land this (quite unusual for me to land a foul hooker) and dropped back in, 5 mins later another fouler which came off. I decided to try a punch of meat, the float settled and kept going under, the fish obviously knew where the snag was and managed to deposit the hook in it. That for all my efforts was the total of fish caught from the 16m line, not even a liner, until another fouler that came off, 5 mins from the end.

The soft pellet line produced the usual seemingly unmissable bites, that I missed!! I did take another 6lb carp on soft pellet from this line and a 1½lb skimmer, but it was pretty slow going. By this time I was 50 or 60lb behind peg 33, who was catching well, at 16m down the margin and out to the aerator.

I started another line at 12m, with chopped worm and caster, this was little better, but did produce a couple of perch and a hybrid, then surprisingly a 10lb carp took the worm hookbait, this line also died off. I half heartedly started a caster line at 6m, but to no avail, that didn't produce a bite and for the second match running at Landsend, I was well and truly pissed off by the nagler on the next peg catching over a ton, whilst I struggled to get a bite. At least on the last match, I managed to get a few fish in the last hour or so and weighed a reasonable near 80lb. Today I just couldn't buy a bite and chucked back my three carp, which probably went 20lb and around 6lb of silvers. Some consolation was that the majority on the lake suffered the same slow sport as I did, so perhaps I didn't do anything too drastically wrong.

I'm booked into Landsend Wednesday, I'm having serious second thoughts, but it couldn't happen a third time, could it?

I didn't stay to collect the results, so I'll lift them from Tony's blog later!

Wintery Conditions at Acorn Paddock 2/5/10

I was looking forward to this return visit, its a venue thats makes for an easy day out, easy walks (or drive!!), no snags and plenty of room to unship. The usual pre draw banter took place, although it was still lacking the usual talk of which pegs were flyers or not, as venue knowledge has yet to become apparent.

The drawbag gave me peg 17, Steve Hutchinson had 70lb off this peg last time, but that was without a freezing cold wind. I set up a 2 rigs to fish maggot or banded pellet tight across, that was a MW slim power on 01.5 to a 0.13 hooklength and a 18PR36 for the pellet and the same but a 18 6313 hook for maggot. A 0.4g slim power to fish the near line for perch was on 0.13 to a 0.11 hooklength and again a 18 6313. A MW power diamond with on 0.15 to 0.13 and a B911 18 was the set up for down the track and with wild optimisim a Big H paste float on 0.15.

I started on the near line and took a couple of perch on caster, then a couple of the pasty carp, this line went quiet, so a switch to the line down the track which had been fed with micros and caster, again a couple of fish, before the line switchd off. Over to the island and two fish on pellet, then nothing. A switch back to the near line where I'd introduced some chopped worm, saw a couple more pasties in the net. I could see Martin Rich on 16, he was catching down the track, in the rough water close to the bridge, but because the bridge sits in the water, the ripple didn't get through to me, I had flat calm for a lot of the day, even with the wind.

By alternating between worm, caster and maggot, I kept the odd fish coming from the near line (topkit to hand), but it was slow going. In the last hour I managed to get a run of fish from the island, but the biggest fish I could muster on the day, was approx 1lb.

As the scales came round at the end, I was confident of beating those to my left, who had struggled for bites, even more than I had, but knew Martin Rich had done me. All that didn't matter as Sean Kitteridge had put over a ton on the scales and my 37lb 12oz wasn't enough for a frame or any section money.

The cold wind had obviously affected the fishing, I was bloody freezing at the end, more like February than May, lets hope its warmer next time.

1) Sean Kitteridge 135.13 peg 9
2) Rod Wootten 64.4 peg 11
3) Gary Wall 60.00 peg 30
4) Martin Rich 51.8 peg 16
5) Tim Ford 49.14 peg 5
6) Paul Faiers 49.6 peg 4

Silvers

1) Paul Faiers 25.14