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......
