Open, Shiplate Farm, Sunday 30th May 2021

 Tony ran this open over both canals, with a continental pay-out, so not too concerned where I drew, Judith did the draw and plucked me out peg 9 on Hawthorns, not fished it loads, so I don't really have entrenched opinions on any of the pegs.

Peg 9 doesn't have any margins as such - at least, nor ones you can reach to fish, by dint of being set back slightly and having an aerator rope across from the lake, I did cut back a few overhanging fronds to get me tight to the bank, but it was only a topkit distance.  Far too deep really, the edge is a steep slope that the plummet tumbles down, so I set up where I could pull it into the slope, at over 3' it was far too deep, but it was all I had.

Plumbing up across, I had no bare bank, so got tight into the rushes, but again, too deep, being over 2'.  I also set up a shallow rig and a mugging rig, as the sun was up and the fish were more interested in cruising and pairing up than was good for fishing.

Started across on the hard pellet, had a couple, but then as was always likely, a flurry of foul hookers, none of which were landed, I tried the shallow rig across, but that was no good.  I tried the meat line I'd been feeding, not so much as a liner, didn't really expect one I suppose.  I tried mugging fish, I couldn't even manage that.

Matt next door was catching on caster shallow - although that knowledge wasn't much use to me, as I had no casters, I did try it with maggots, but never had a bite.  It does create a range of opinion, that Matt brings a gallon of casters with him and often does well - some seem absolutely obsessed with the cost of them - I personally wouldn't spend that on casters for a 20 pegger, but would happily do it for league, team match or big open, but each to his own.  I recall similar moans and groans about bloodworm and joker.

I managed a couple more across on banded pellet and 4 down the edge on maggots, never had a bite on meat.  I also had a chub that was probably 10 or 12oz.

Come the weigh in, I put one net of carp on the scales and with the agreement of the scalesmen, put the chub on top.  Total weight of 73.08.

That ended up third on the lake - so one out of the money in the overall, as the continental payout was top four, not weighing that chub separately cost me 2nd in the silvers, as even though there were two silvers anglers on my lake, they never caught one, the only other silver was a chub caught by Matt on the next peg who battered me (and everyone else) with his casters,

I'd had a feeling all day of something not being quite right and that proved to be true, needed one more fish or to have weighed the bloody chub separately.....

Acorn Winter League, Penultimate Round, Saturday 29th May 2021

 Well, it didn't feel like winter today, so very cloud having a silver lining and all that, I was 4th in the league going into this match and knowing it was a tough section, with the chance of peg 15 or one side of the bride chucking up a weight.  I drew 26, at least the wind was blowing down towards my end, so hopefully a few fish might follow it down.  26 has a long curved edge and with 27 not drawn I did have plenty of room.  I have drawn it once before, almost exactly a year ago and was 5th with 109lb.

Peg 26 circled red

Todays approach was going to be pretty simple, hard pellets and live maggots.  Two identical rigs for across, home made floats wit a 0.13 hooklength and a 18 LWG, one with a band and one without.  A rig for the bottom of the near shelf, which is the deepest part of the peg - a Roob, again with a 0.13 hooklength and a 18 LWG.  A carbon stemmed Roob for halfway down the shelf and a margin rig.

I started across on banded pellet and it wasn't long before I had a 6lb ghostie, but it wasn't a portent of things to come, as the indications usually expected across weren't forthcoming, I stuck at it and had a Carassio and another carp, but that was it and with a couple of hours gone it wasn't looking good, although I couldn't see anyone else catching well in the section.

A switch to the maggot rig and toss potting maggots across, saw a couple more fish in the net and a few silvers, I reckon going into the last hour I had 30lb of carp and 8lb silvers, I started feeding a short line with maggots, at the bottom of the shelf, this gave me 5 carp for another 30lb in the last hour and the all important section win.

That leaves me in second place going into the last match, so all to fish for.

Tony Rixon's Float Only, Sedges, Sunday 23rd May 2021

 Just looked back to see how long since I was last at sedges and it is nearly two years, where does the time go....

I like the venue, well looked after, usually a good days fishing, but it does seem a little dominated by the corners and I expected the same today, especially given the weather forecast which wouldn't have sounded out of place on the shipping forecast, with a very brisk wind and rain.

Well, I wasn't surprised when I didn't draw a corner and even more frustrating was seeing peg 28 on the drawcard, a good feeder peg!  The island is reachable easily with a waggler, but that was going to be a pointless ask today.

I did set up a pellet waggler, in the vain hope the wind would drop or the fish were so desperately hungry they'd grab a pellet as it landed or with it trotting through like the Wye with 8' on.....  Also set up a full depth waggler again to fish pellet.

Topkits were quite simple - a shallow rig that didn't get used, a margin rig, a Roob for meat short and a Roob for banded pellet at 11m - never got more than that out of the bag.

On the all in I did start on the pellet waggler, I could get to the island and get 8mm pellets there, but it was going to as pointless as I thought, even feeding a bow out to try and get the float to sit still for a few seconds didn't help and I soon abandoned it.

Onto the pellet line at 11m, took ages to get a bite and when I did it was a 2lb eel, in fantastic condition, really good to see them thriving in Sedges. I did gat a carp on it, but was finding it tough going.  I tried the meat short and had one leather carp on that, but it was the only bite, so back onto the 11m line, this did start to see some indication's as I upped the feed a little, but the wind was tricky, couple ore fish and as I could find a bit of trip against the wind, I put the waggler over the line and tried a metre past.  

Couple of fish on the waggler and the wind got up even more, that put paid to the trip, so waggler back up the bank and an 11m battle resumed, I am sure if I could have fished a bomb and pellet I'd have been catching quicker.  I gave my body a bit of respite and dropped back onto the 5m line, had three or four skimmers before that died completely.  By now it was all but impossible to fish at 11m and the fish didn't seem to want to come any closer, I managed one that I took to the scales and weighed from the margin (14.08 - you have to weigh fish bigger than 15lb and put them back), but probably spent too long there, I should have tried to persevere with the 11m line, although the pole was continually being blown round.

Anyway, end the day with 92lb second in section, so not the start I wanted, but it could have been worse, the section winner also won the silvers, so a default section pick up coming my way.  The results took ages to get out as the rain destroyed some of the weigh sheets and I don't have all the sheets, as predicted the top four weights were from corners and my 92lb was 7th overall, (40 fishing).

1. J Andre 146.10                                                                                                                                          2. Joe McMahon 140.08                                                                                                                                3. Tom Thick 139.00                                                                                                                                      4. Matt Tomes 132.01                                                                                                                                    5. Aaron Britnell 112.02                                                                                                                                6. Ryan Shipp 109.10                                                                                                                                 

Maesknoll Summer Open, Acorn, Saturday 22nd May 2021

Second of my summer opens at Acorn, 21 fishing, the only downside is that the weather is cocking a snook at the match titles, with summer seeming some way off......

Nice straight forward draw and I ended up on peg 13, these matches are opens, but with a optional series element running alongside - best 4 of 6 results to count and I'd already nailed on one dropper with the last match!!  I was hopeful that the wind would push the fish into the corner, although I couldn't go to the corner as it was past the pallet of the empty peg 12, I was hoping they'd drop down to 12 for a feed.

As the wind was pretty much straight at me, no issue holding the pole across, so set up two identical rigs, some homemade floats on 0.19, with a 18LWG tied to 0.13, one with a band, one without.  A rig to fish down the far shelf, same lines and strengths, but a carbon stemmed Malman Roob for this, another rig, this time a wire stemmed RW Dink, to fish the near shelf bottom and finally a Hill Billy AK47 to fish up to the pallet of 12, again on 0.19, but a Kaizen 16 on 0.13 for this rig, I like the wider gape for bunches of maggots and meat (although not today, meat banned at Acorn).

Started across tapping in a few 4mm pellets with a 6mm in the band, as seems normal now on this venue, had a couple of indications, a fish, a fouler and then nothing, they just won't settle in that shallower water at the moment, but they don't seem to want to feed in deeper water either....  Switched to micros and soft pellet, had a carrusio and a carp on this, but it was frustrating getting bites (nuisance fish) and the pellet coming off, how much easier is it fishing a banded pellet.... 😀

As 13 has a bit of room, I fed the edge sooner than I would normally, and started fishing maggots at the bottom of the near shelf of to my right at topkit + 1.  The edge was sadly a waste of time, I had one fish from it, the only bite, by far and away the best line was the short line where I kept live maggots going in.  That saw a few carp, decent roach, little tench and a couple of skimmers grace the net, at one time I thought it was getting stronger, but it died off and never came back, giving me a lean last hour or so.

Ended up putting 84.04 on the scales, pipped by 2oz for 3rd, I guess I could have had some more to push Des, but who knows.....

Its a bit meaningless until we have several more rounds, but the league standings are.

Acorn Winter League R4, Saturday 15th May 2021

 Back to Acorn for round 4 of the rearranged winter league, free draw this week before two rotations to finish the league off. I wanted to draw B section, so my rotation would be B,C & A, but no, I was drawn peg 5 in A section, its a good peg, but I just didn't fancy it today because the wind was off my back., This meant there was little ripple and the wind was pushing into the corner between 11/12.  There was a visible wind line taking the bit and pieces floating on the surface just past me and down to the corner.  Peg 5 is the one over the bridge and 9 is the other I have highlighted, tye corner past 9 is between 11 and 12.

 

I would usually rely on a hard pellet approach here, but maggots have also been catching fish, so I had both and having been beaten by peg 5 in the last match, I also had some paste, although that would be a last resort / throwaway line.

Started across on hard pellet and had a 7lb ghostie first put in, great start, I had 20lb after the first hour, all on hard pellet across and that was alright, the lake was fishing hard, I had 5lb in the next 30 minutes then nothing until 13:00, I switched from the far side top feeding maggots out of my hand off to my left - there is a big, flat shelf to the left of peg 5 and I fish right on the edge where it drops of sharply. 

From 13:00 to 14:00 I had 40lb and I was doing well, I was fairly confident that I'd keep them coming on maggots, but by 14:00 the bites had dried up, oddly, if I fished across, Paul on 9 stopped getting bites over there and got indications if I came short and it was the same for me when he fished short and long - odd as I would have ex[ected the fish to either settle or move between us.

The last 2.5 hours were a disaster, I really struggled and didn't have a carp from 14:00-15:30, last hour I had a couple of small carp and some carassios, I could see the others in the section catching in their edges, I never had a bite to my left hand edge and had to stand up to fish over a big clump of tall grasses to fish to my right in the edge, where I had one bite and one carp less that 3lb, whilst I could see some approaching doubles coming out elsewhere in the section.

I knew come the end that this was a bit of a disaster and would likely be my dropper, frustrating as I wasn't as far behind as I thought, that said, not sure what I could have done to eke out a few more fish in those barren spells, it was if they'd gone from the peg.  Paul on 9 was equally struggling and whilst I was 5th on the day, that was also 5th in section, so I am looking at two very good results the last two rounds to end up in the frame.

1. Glen Calvert 93 -07 p6 2. Bob Gullick 89-07 p1 3. Brian Slipper 87-07 p3 4. Kev Perry 83-04 p11 5. Chris Fox 77-05 p5 6. Darren Vowles 65-03 p22

Tony Rixon's Short Pole Series, R1, Sunday 9th May 2021

 First round of the short pole league today, over two lakes at Todber, Ash and Homeground, wasn't too fussed where I drew, but when 83 came out of the tub, I did think it might be the wrong end of the lake. Can't be much simpler than a short pole match, topkit + up to 3 sections allowed.

Topkits set up for margin, which was shallower than I would have liked, as a cold wind was blowing at me, two pellet rigs, one for topkit and one for topkit+3.  Meat rig also set up, to fish at topkit+2.

Started on the topkit with pellet and had a fish first put in, which was a bit of a false dawn, as I only put 20lb in the net in the first hour and even fed the margin early, but to no avail, gradually the topkit+3 line started producing fish, ranging from 3lb - 7lb, I had a couple of looks back in the margin but the wait for a fish was too long and then they were small, so I had 4 fish from the margin throughout the match, whilst the pellet line in open water was much stronger.

I fed through a toss pot, a medium Matrix pot filled up with 6mm Coppens each put in, last 40 minutes I dropped back onto the topkit line, which I'd been feeding by hand and had a decent run of fish, maybe I should have dropped back on it earlier.

Come the weigh in I put 224.14 on the scales, which was enough for 3rd in the match, but only second in section, beaten by Martin on 82.  

Main Lake Open, Shiplate Farm, Monday 3rd May 2021

Just for a change... (not) I drew as far away from where the winners come from - peg 8.  I decided straight away that fishing for silvers would be my best bet to pick up.  It was a windy day, so I decided not to venture past 11m, with a line at 6m, and a rig to fish casters very short down the LH edge.

Feeding GB laced with dead maggots and casters, it was soon apparent by the rig that the water was towing hard from R to L, the peg had a bit of 'fizz' but it was coming up about 4' from where I was feeding, suggesting the tow was spreading the bait along the bottom.

I found a light 4x12 strung out rig best, as the fish weren't keen on picking up a bait static on the deck, I had started in a cage feeder, but felt it wasn't right, the light rig was picking up fish myuch better than a bulk rig and I stuck with it throughout.

The caster line short was only giving up small fish, the 6m line did produce a couple of fish, but the 11m line was by far and away the best.  I had fed a line at 11m off to the right, with micros, I tried expander and corn over it, only two skimmers from that, but two carp, hopefully it was keeping the carp off the skimmer line.

Picked up two tench near the end and a bream of 5.05, giving me a total of 44.05, with travelling partner Tony taking second in silvers with 29.09, so a happy van on the way home.

Jon Darby's Open, Todber Manor, Sunday 2nd May 2021

One of Darby's opens on Todber Hillview, not being a regular visitor the draw of 55 didn't mean too much to me, travelling partner Tony on 54 and Mark Wynne the other side on 57.

I did set up a straight lead, but never picked it up, so the pole was my only approach, I struggled to get a regular run of fish on the pellet in front and meat wasn't much better.  I kept at it and probably took too long to go up the LH margin, where I fed Gb and maggots, that was a mistake, the fish were coming off the bottom and giving me liners, I switched to meat, which I was also feeding short in my RH margin, this was also resulting in liners and missed 'bites'

I opened a can of corn and that seemed to settle things down, catching reasonably steadily, before having a run of fish in the RH edge on my topkit.  Took me too long to sort it out and that cost me a pickup, coming 5th overall and one out of the money, being beaten for the section.

Acorn Winter League, R3, Saturday 1st May 2021

 This delayed winter league is definitely more of a spring league now, but with the frosts every night in April, the fish are still stuck in limbo, between winter mode and spring on many venues.

My turn to be in the section that runs from peg 1 -13, I was not too bothered where I drew, although in that section I would rather not have peg 6, so what do I have drawn for me, yep, 6. Which is top left corner on the satellite picture below, with a video view from today.

Acorn Paddock Fishery

Simple bait tray, pellets and maggots,  I would usually only take hard pellets, but given the water temp I had micros and expanders with me...

Set up two identical rigs, homemade (assembled) floats to fish across into the cut out in the grass I trimmed up with shears before the start, one with a band and one without,  A shallow rig, a full depth rig to fish against the bridge and a rig for down the edge, with that I found 3 areas the same depth - across to the right. very short to my left and down to the pallet of 7.

Started across on soft pellet, potting in a few micros, this usually brings an instant response, but not today,  A switch to maggots on the hook and potting them in did at least see a decent fish around 6lb netted.  It was slow going and I added a couple more fish, the depth rig by the bridge was used as a rotation and I fed a small ball of GB there, it was fizzing, but bites we few and far between, small tench and a couple of skimmers along with the smallest carp of the day (1lb or so). 

The right margin only gave up one fish, the short margin nothing, but I did have a run of fish from the pallet of 7, again on maggots, the only bait I could catch on. 

At the all out I had 71lb on the clicker and thought I had 6lb or so of silvers, I was pretty bang on with the carp, but the biggest tench must have been near 5lb as the silvers went 10lb.  Unfortunately not enough, as Kev on peg 5 pipped my by 2lb for the section.... catching on paste, in a winter league match!!!!

I think that leaves me second in the league with 3 to fish, open draw next round before the rotation starts again,