Ivy House Open, Saturday 31st October 2020

 Back to Ivy House today, the weather forecast was to be something like last Saturday, although they did promise it would dry up after a band of heavy rain traversed from West to East.  At one point with attendees pulling out it looked as if we would be a five peg knock up, but it ended up at eight.

I suppose that given my drawing record, I shouldn't have been surprised to be handed peg 46, in the last 6 matches on the canals I have drawn, today 46, then the preceding matches were: 45, 37, 43, 47, 43 one lonesome trip away from a five peg stretch....

Even though rain was forecast, it was mild, so I was intending to make hard pellets my mainstay bait, with a pint of casters and another of maggots to complete the bait tray.  Rigs were a Malman Roob with a eyed Kaisan 18 to 0.13 N-Gauge.  A Nick Gilbert Gimp, this had a 18 F1 to 0.12 Middy Hi Viz and a Des Shipp F1 Maggot float, with a F1 18 to 0.10, for caster short.  I also set up a feeder, a small Guru pellet feeder, with a 0.16 4" hooklength and a 18 LWG with a band.

Started just short of halfway across and had about 12lb in the first 50 minutes or so, toss potting a few 4 and 6mm hard pellets in, with a 6mm in the band.  Then the wind changed, the tow stopped and it rained, it then rained harder and rained some more.  This definitely knocked things on the head and I tried maggots just past half way off to the left, as well as caster short, I had one small carp over the maggot line and a few 'bits' on caster.

When the rain stopped and the clouds cleared away, the temperature dropped and I had to walk back to the van and get a windstopper,  Going into the last hour I had three or four more fish, but I think I concentrated on one line far too much and should have had another line started up with hard pellets, that cost me as I came home slap bang in the middle of the pack, with 46lb, I should have had enough to come in the top two, the other thing I should have done was open a tin of corn, still at least I was in familiar surroundings, maybe next time I can draw away from that little cluster of pegs.

Charlie Barnes Memorial, Acorn, Saturday 24th October 2020

 Charlie Barnes was a character, one of life's lovable characters who made an impression on the match fishing scene, from his days as a maggot farmer through to the end.  Match angling is poorer for losing Charlie and other characters like him.

I'm sure given the forecast, wind and rain for a change would see him laughing at us all sat there, but he wouldn't have shied off from a bit of rain.

The leaden grey skies were promising their worst, the surface of the lake was rippling with miniature waves, which would hopefully see the silvers feed, as this was a silvers match, Charlie loved silvers fishing and who can blame him.  I was a little disappointed to hear that F1's and Carassio's counted, but maybe I'd catch some.

I was drawn out peg 31, well can't say I was enamoured, it is a good peg, but no great silvers history.  I thought i'd be sheltered by the building behind the peg, but the wind had other ideas and had positioned itself to be blowing in a direction that ensured it evaded the building and swept around and past me.

Simple bait tray, maggots, casters, micros and soft pellets.  A rig to fish down the track with soft pellet, another for maggot and a rig for caster at the bottom of the near shelf, plumbing this line was tricky, as the float wouldn't settle because of the number of fish swimming into the line, but I feared they were the barbule sporting cousins of F1's......

Well, I won't torture myself or bore anyone with the unexciting details, it pissed down, the silvers in the peg we few and far between, with an hour to go I reckon I had 4lb and was getting a carp a chuck, so knocked it on the head early, headed off home, via Brockley Coombe Stores, where I snapped up some rib-eye steaks at half price.....best bit of the day.

Well done to Zoe on the win, showing Des the way to do it.  Hopefully I can do better next year.

1. Zoe Bartlett                                     27-07 p36

2. Des Shipp                                        25-12 p12

3. Ryan Shipp                                      17-15 p19

4. Dave Stephenson                           13-11 p22

5. Mark Bartlett                                   11-11 p2

6. Mark Bromsgrove                           11-09 p18

 

Viaduct Silvers League R2, Sunday 18th October 2020

 So, after a long weekend away in a lovely converted barn last weekend with some friends and our dogs, walking on Dartmoor and some trips to Cornish beaches, it was back to fishing and I was looking forward to this after the wet, but decent days fishing I had last round.

First time in the Well at Shepton Mallet since it was done up, nice breakfast, but the service is a bit slow, but there was no danger of missing the draw.  I collected my casters from the shop and joined the queue for the draw, with the mostly jovial, piss taking throng.  Can't say I was filled with joy when I saw 121 drawn out for me by Steve, last round Ricky Mills was on there and he beat 2 in the section.  But its a different day and I was sure that the overcast, settled weather would see the skimmers in rapacious mood.

I trundled my gear past the beaming anglers who had drawn the plum pegs on Cary, as well as Gabe on 74, who was most despondent, I did try and cheer him, as I could truthfully say the peg usually throws up one section win a series.   Back to 121, apart from the fact it hasn't got much history as a silvers peg, it is a nice peg to fish, a new platform, that hasn't got steps to it and a splendid view of the lake.

I did have a waggler rod and a feeder rod, but I decided to leave them in the bag and concentrate on the pole, so two rigs for 14m, one 0.4g bulk and the other 0.2g strung shot.  A Chianti to fish short through the water for roach and a rig to fish either edge.  So with that set up and bait sorted - which was 4mm meat, soft pellets, micros, caster and maggots along with a few worms, but they were only for the hook, I had time to wander round for a chat.

On the all-in I fed micros at 14m off to the left and GB/caster to the right at the same distance, before starting at 6m on the 4mm meat, nothing on that in 20 minutes, so I ditched it and switched to the caster short, this did bring a couple of small roach, but it was a case of catch one or two and then twiddling thumbs until the next bite, they certainly weren't lined up....

I had a look on the micro line with a 4mm expander on the hook, didn't have as much as a tremble of the float bristle, I gave that 20 minutes and decided I best get a dead maggot on the hook and try the GB/caster line.   I expected the float to go under, but yet again, it resolutely sat there, I red the line and went back to the roach, even though the rate of catching them was probably less than 1lb an hour.

At 12:40 I had a skimmer, then at 12:50 another, optimism was rising, but that was quelled after another spell with no bites, including a look in the edges, before I went back to the reluctant roach, but the pattern was the same every time, catch one or two and you'd have to either wait ages for a bite or try something else.

At 15:10 and 15:20 I had two more skimmers on the GB line, once again the two skimmers brought hope that a shoal had found the bait and were settling down for a banquet of casters, but this once again was a false dawn and I didn't have another bite off that line,  I had converted the micros line to GB and this was a complete write off, never had a bite over it.

I managed a 1lb+ hybrid and a couple of 8-10oz perch from the edges in the last 20 minutes, but it was a most unproductive day.  I hooked and lost 3 carp, so there weren't even loads of them around, after one of the carp took a hook I put a 22 to 0.06 on and that made no difference.  Oh well, here's hoping for a better draw next round.

Well done to Paul on the win from Cary, using a 40+ year old rod - has there ever been a better skimmer rod made than the original Normark Microlite?  I don't think so.

Viaduct Silvers League Round 1, Sunday 4th October 2020

 

This seems to have come round quickly, leading up to this I was looking forward to some silvers fishing, but I wasn't looking forward to the weather, the Met Office were promising rain all day....

Matt drew me 102, no complaints, it should be worth a few a few fish, 101 was not in and I had Trigger for company on 103.  I set up a small cage feeder and a waggler and never used them, so I won't mention them again.

Four pole rigs, one quite optimistically for meat, scaled down from my usual carp rig, a 18 Kaizen to 0.12 for 6mm meat, another rig for expanders, a rig to fish caster or maggot and a Chianti, with strung out shot to fish caster through the water. All of these had 0.10 and a 18 or 20 Guru F1 hook.  Luckily the wind wasn't too strong and I was under an umbrella - I don't use one often, but was glad of it today.

I started on meat at 6 joints, after feeding 2 balls of GB and caster at 13m, had three bites that I didn't connect with in 20 minutes, so switched to the light caster rig off the end of the tree, in 10 minutes I had a ruffe and a tiny roach, so wasn't convinced that this was going to be productive.

30 minutes was enough time to wait and it was time to get out to 13m and try dad maggot over the GB.  I had some hand sized skimmers, before one a bit bigger, all the time the rain kept coming and I was really starting to wonder why the hell I was here.... 

I managed to get short runs of two or three fish, before they backed off, including a 3lber.  I did try a second line with micros and expanders, but this was really slow and smaller fish.   With 2.5 hours to go I had to get up for a wee, getting back on the pallet I slipped (the pallets at Viaduct can be very slippery when wet) straight into the lake.  

The worst bit was the horrendous cracking sound, I initially thought I'd fallen through my pole and an irreplaceable Normark rod, once I got my self sorted and hauled myself out of the water, I realised the cracking sound was my ripple bar mounting breaking, the pole and rod seem to have escaped any damage.

The rest of the match wasn't the most comfortable I have fished, wellies full of lake water, I may have well left my bib and brace in the van how wet I was under it.  I think it made me slightly 'lazy' and I tried to keep one line working, where I thing another, maybe even a feeder line might have given me a few more fish in the quiet spells, also not convinced I fed enough, as I switched to caster from dead maggot and was getting slightly better fish on them.

I wasn't too disappointed to hear the all out, even though I had a nice day on the fishing front, the weather and the dip weren't so good.  Well I was well beaten by Trigger on the next peg, but as he framed I had the section by default.  Roll on the next round, lets hope it's a bit drier!!!

1. Dave Burns - 59lb 10oz - peg 78

2. Clint Wojtyla - 57lb 3oz - peg 96

3. Craig Edmunds - 56lb 14oz - peg 103

4. Bob Gullick - 55lb 4oz - peg 77

5. Chris Fox - 39lb 4oz - peg 102

6. Joe McMahon - 37lb 10oz - peg 99