This Tuesday evening open at Trinity Waters was the first that I could get to this year, due to work. It was an opportunity to put last weekends two bad days behind me and get an insight into how its fishing, ready for the two day festival this weekend coming. (As I type, one place left if anyone is interested, contact Kev Perry).
Draw was 5pm, fish 6-9.15, I pulled out peg 26, I really don't mind where I draw on Woodland, except the pegs on the end bank (16, 17, 18, 19). Incredibly, I was ready by 5.45, as everyone else was ready by 5.50 we started 10 minutes early. I had only brought two baits, hard pellet and paste, there isn't time to chop and change baits and lines in a three hour match, at least, not if you want to win it.
I set up one pellet waggler, I use a a pair of Maver Reactorlite No2 rods for this method and find them to be spot on, these are allied with a Daiwa TDR 3012 reel, which is loaded with 6lb Sensor. A 3 swan waggler provided the casting weight and bite indication and the sharp bit was a PR36 size 18 tied to 12" of 0.17 powerline.
A 1g Daiwa TD8 float on 0.17 straight through to a 14 Mustad paste hook was the paste rig for full depth. These were going to be the only rigs set up, but as fish were stirring up the clay in the margins, I set up a small blob on 0.19 to a 12 Mustad paste for the margin and a MW margin float on 0.17, to a PR36 18, that would do to fish hair rigged pellet in the margin or shallow on the pole.
Kev Perry was on end peg 23, having recently framed from this peg myself, I knew he'd probably be the one to beat, although venue expert, Andy Hembrow, would be another challenger on peg 29.
Starting on the pellet waggler, after feeding a line at 11m for paste if the waggler didn't work, was a little slow and the fish didn't seem to be having it properly, I had one fish, then lost three under the rod tip, all mouth hooked. Slightly puzzled as I don't usually lose mouth hooked fish when on this method, I doubled checked the hook and hair but there was nothing amiss with the terminal tackle.
I could see Kev on the end peg had given up on the waggler and was catching fish on paste, so I dropped in over the paste line and took two fish that were 7 or 8lb each, than I was bitted out, the float went under every put in with nothing there on the strike, except for three occasions when 1oz roach came back on the size 14 hook.
A look in the margin gave me another fish on paste, but only twitches on a hard pellet, as the silverfish plagued the baits. So at 8pm it was back on the pellet waggler and a decent spell saw me net a few fish, although the last 20 minutes was quiet, with the exception of a couple of big roach that snaffled the 8mm pellet.
Kev was first to weigh and he managed to put 49.06 on the scales, I thought it would be close and it was as the results below show, although my 54.10 of carp and 4lb of silvers(most of which was a 3lb+ bream taken at 6" on the waggler and a hard pellet)meant my 58.10 was enough to take first place and regain some confidence after the weekends disasters. (I weighed more tonight in 3 hours, than I did in 11 hours Saturday and Sunday, quite why some anglers don't want to fish Trinity is beyond me)
Called in the Bristol Bridge Inn in Highbridge on the way back, that brought back some memories of after match drinking sessions in the days of the big matches in Somerset. I got caught for the round, luckily it was just Kev, Brian and myself, some of our Thyers team mates were just leaving as we got there, they had fished a match on Apex Lake, won by Dave Wride with 14KG, although some weighed in as little as 1KG.
No match tomorrow, I reckon its going to be football, beer and curry..... Next match will be Viaduct on Thursday this week.
1) Chris Fox 58.10 peg 26
2) Kev 'end peg' Perry 49.06 peg 23
3) Andy 'venue expert' Hembrow 46.05 peg 29
4) Brian Slipper 43.09 peg 24
5) Ross Gally 39.14 peg 27
6) Misha Herring 36.05 peg 30
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Drawbag blues at Landsend . 20th June 2010
Today I was once again 'guesting' in Tony Rixon's float only series, this time round Landsend was the venue, I guess along with 99% of the entry, I fancied a draw on Match or Speci lakes. My drawing arm has been one consistent feature of my match fishing career, dating back to the 70's, consistently crap!! Today it excelled it's self, peg 54 on lake 3 (See Tony Rixon's blog for last Sunday!!)
I have fished lake 3 twice before and this is the second time I've drawn 54, in all honesty, had the van not been blocked in, I would have gone pleasure fishing somewhere else.
I tried to think positive thoughts, but as I walked up the lake, all the comments were based around, "you've got the shit end of the lake".
I set up two rigs for out by the island, one at 6" deep and one at half depth (around 2'), a paste rig, a silvers rig (how optimistic was that!!) and a margin rig. The fine details of the rigs remain irrelevent in the light of my dismal day.
There was virtually no signs of fish activity, but I started on 6mm banded pellet out to the island, first put in and the float buried, a 3oz tench was the culprit and he appeared to be billy no-mates, as that was the last action on that line for a while. An occasional carp would swim through the peg and suck the pellets that were just on or above the waterline, but as soon as a pole was put within a metre or so, it would disappear.
I ended the day with 2 carp, one about 4lb and one about 4oz, a crucian, a tench, a rudd a perch and a roach, I couldn't even get a bite on maggot for ariound two hours of the match.
Lets hope this forthcoming week sees a return to more favourable results....
1)Craig Edmunds 101.12 peg 36 (good effort considering how rough he looked before the draw)
2)Neil Mercer 94.00 peg 38
3)Josh Garrett 79.07 peg 26
4)Leon Hubbard 66.04 peg 33
5)Tim Clark 65.01 peg 41
6)Tom Magnol 64.14 peg 6
Silvers
1) Vince Brown 31.02 peg 8
2)
I have fished lake 3 twice before and this is the second time I've drawn 54, in all honesty, had the van not been blocked in, I would have gone pleasure fishing somewhere else.
I tried to think positive thoughts, but as I walked up the lake, all the comments were based around, "you've got the shit end of the lake".
I set up two rigs for out by the island, one at 6" deep and one at half depth (around 2'), a paste rig, a silvers rig (how optimistic was that!!) and a margin rig. The fine details of the rigs remain irrelevent in the light of my dismal day.
There was virtually no signs of fish activity, but I started on 6mm banded pellet out to the island, first put in and the float buried, a 3oz tench was the culprit and he appeared to be billy no-mates, as that was the last action on that line for a while. An occasional carp would swim through the peg and suck the pellets that were just on or above the waterline, but as soon as a pole was put within a metre or so, it would disappear.
I ended the day with 2 carp, one about 4lb and one about 4oz, a crucian, a tench, a rudd a perch and a roach, I couldn't even get a bite on maggot for ariound two hours of the match.
Lets hope this forthcoming week sees a return to more favourable results....
1)Craig Edmunds 101.12 peg 36 (good effort considering how rough he looked before the draw)
2)Neil Mercer 94.00 peg 38
3)Josh Garrett 79.07 peg 26
4)Leon Hubbard 66.04 peg 33
5)Tim Clark 65.01 peg 41
6)Tom Magnol 64.14 peg 6
Silvers
1) Vince Brown 31.02 peg 8
2)
Edged out at Acorn 19th June 2010
A 1.30pm draw for a five hour match on the match lake (the little lake) at Acorn, tempted me to venture out on a windy Saturday afternoon. I'd have been better off staying at home, coming down the field and snapping a pole section, all in all not a good afternoon.
Before the draw I looked at the pegging and clocked which pegs I fancied, No2 was high on my list. Myself and Paul Faiers wandered over to Paddock Lake to see what was happening there, when I got back and stuck my hand in the drawbag, what came out..... No2. I think thats the first time I've ever drawn a number I've fancied, then I find out that whilst we were over on Paddock, the pegging had been altered (gawd knows why)so peg 2 was actually permanent peg 4. Peg 1 was in (peg 13 in the match) so I had an angler 7 metres to my right opposite, the only peg in the match that did.
I set up rigs for worm & caster, paste and a margin rig for meat or pellet. I fed a line at 12m with worm and caster and one at 8m with soaked pellet and meat into the RH margin, the LH margin was only about 3m long, so I wasn't confident that I would catch consistently from there.
In the first hour I had a couple of decent skimmers and some perch on worm, but that went quiet, the wind was blustery and cold, I ended up putting on a fleece. The wind also blew the pole out of my v roller, the No4 section was between the box and the leg, so snapped before I could grab it. Great start!!
I had a look down the RH margin and got told that that was the 16m line for peg 13, I could have argued that he shouldn't come more than half way across, but I really couldn't be bothered, as I was pissed off about the pegging.
With 2 hours to go I had 6 or 7lb of silvers and 2 small carp, so I decided to stick to paste until the end, that saw me boost my weight to 40lb of carp and 7lb of silvers for a weight of 47lb. Wasn't going to be enough on the day, as the wind had been blowing down the lake for a week or so, and the fish had followed it.
I'd love to tell you the results, but by the time I got back to the car, everyone except Paul Faiers had buggerd off, in true Clevedon style, in a rush to the pub. I can only assume that meant Paul knew where he'd get a 'lock in' later that night!!
I think Andy Hembrow won, Glen Calvert and Darren 'Noddy' Vowles were up there as well, with weights in the high 60's. I think the lowest weight was 29lb, so all in all, not a bad match, I should have just fished paste for 5 hours.
Before the draw I looked at the pegging and clocked which pegs I fancied, No2 was high on my list. Myself and Paul Faiers wandered over to Paddock Lake to see what was happening there, when I got back and stuck my hand in the drawbag, what came out..... No2. I think thats the first time I've ever drawn a number I've fancied, then I find out that whilst we were over on Paddock, the pegging had been altered (gawd knows why)so peg 2 was actually permanent peg 4. Peg 1 was in (peg 13 in the match) so I had an angler 7 metres to my right opposite, the only peg in the match that did.
I set up rigs for worm & caster, paste and a margin rig for meat or pellet. I fed a line at 12m with worm and caster and one at 8m with soaked pellet and meat into the RH margin, the LH margin was only about 3m long, so I wasn't confident that I would catch consistently from there.
In the first hour I had a couple of decent skimmers and some perch on worm, but that went quiet, the wind was blustery and cold, I ended up putting on a fleece. The wind also blew the pole out of my v roller, the No4 section was between the box and the leg, so snapped before I could grab it. Great start!!
I had a look down the RH margin and got told that that was the 16m line for peg 13, I could have argued that he shouldn't come more than half way across, but I really couldn't be bothered, as I was pissed off about the pegging.
With 2 hours to go I had 6 or 7lb of silvers and 2 small carp, so I decided to stick to paste until the end, that saw me boost my weight to 40lb of carp and 7lb of silvers for a weight of 47lb. Wasn't going to be enough on the day, as the wind had been blowing down the lake for a week or so, and the fish had followed it.
I'd love to tell you the results, but by the time I got back to the car, everyone except Paul Faiers had buggerd off, in true Clevedon style, in a rush to the pub. I can only assume that meant Paul knew where he'd get a 'lock in' later that night!!
I think Andy Hembrow won, Glen Calvert and Darren 'Noddy' Vowles were up there as well, with weights in the high 60's. I think the lowest weight was 29lb, so all in all, not a bad match, I should have just fished paste for 5 hours.
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Fishless at Avalon, Wednesday 9th June 2010
Down to earth with a bump today, I quite fancied the Carps match at Bullock Farm, but couldn't make the 9am draw, so settled for Avon Anglings open at Avalon as I could easily make the noon draw.
I was hopeful of a few fish, as there would be less pressure on the lake than Sunday, with 11 of on the RH bank of the match lake, spread between 24 & 48. I drew peg 30 and wasn't disappointed when I got there, plenty of fish moving and a hint of a breeze blowing into the island. (I was at the LH end of one of the islands) A lesson learnt is not to gloat about the wind direction - it bloody changed as Tony shouted all in !!
I set up two wagglers, one for shallow and one to fish anywhere from 2' to full depth, a lead rod (just in case and to wind up Tony Rixon who was on peg 30). I set up a paste rig, a pellet rig and a margin rig for the pole. The wagglers had 0.15 hooklengths and PR36 size 18's, the lead rod had 0.17 and a 16PR36. Pole rigs were 0.19 straight through to a Mustad paste 12 and the pellet and margin rigs were 0.17 with 0.15 hooklengths to 16 B911's.
Starting on the waggler, I was expecting bites from the off, but all I managed was to play a double figure foul hooker for 20 minutes, before it dived into the platform leg and chub like, transferred the hook to a snag. After 45 minutes of fruitless casting with the waggler, I was four or five fish behind Tony, who was fishing the pole. An exploratory chuck with the lead saw a fish around 6lb in the net, but that was the only proper bite.
Coming in on the pole line, I soon hooked a fish which tore off towards Tony's peg, bottomed the elastic and snapped the 0.15, shortly after to be repeated, although this time the fish went towards peg 29. I can't recall the last time I got smashed up on 0.15 in open water, so twice in 20 minutes or so was pretty puzzling.
By this time I was a long way behind Tony as he caught fish at 19m shallow, on the deck, on the pellet waggler, in fact whatever he tried, it seemed. As I don't have 19m I couldn't try that, so resorted to what I know best and persevered with the waggler, to no avail.
I tried paste and had a bream that hould have been 4lb or so, but was still covered in spawning tubercles and looked pretty thin, I had another carp around 5lb and then a few foulhookers taht all came off.
I went back on the lead, as the foliage on the island had grown and was overhanging the water by 2' or 3' and it was the only way I could get under it, as the fish wouldn't come out!! The growth was at least 2' in front of the reeds, those who could get to their island reeds were at least catching a few, all I was doing was either not getting a bite, or losing them within seconds of hooking them, into what appears to be a mass of roots under the island. Fair play to Vic (Bush) he is going to get out in the boat and cut them back, too late for me, but should help the next who draws it.
So it ended carp 16 - me 2, I left regretting not going to Bullock Farm, but then I read Mike Nicholls blog and saw that Golden arm Kitteridge had drawn peg 17 - has he ever drawn a bad peg??
So a few things learnt, I should have tried shallow into open water, I didn't and the crap Kebab I got from the new kebab house in Whitchurch might have been a one off, I tried again last night and the kebab was superb.
You'll have to get the results from Tony's blog, I was busy remeniscing about the roach fishing in Somerset of yesteryear with Steve Kedge and missed the results, although Kedgie had a cracking net of roach to win the silvers with a couple of ounces shy of 30lb.
I was hopeful of a few fish, as there would be less pressure on the lake than Sunday, with 11 of on the RH bank of the match lake, spread between 24 & 48. I drew peg 30 and wasn't disappointed when I got there, plenty of fish moving and a hint of a breeze blowing into the island. (I was at the LH end of one of the islands) A lesson learnt is not to gloat about the wind direction - it bloody changed as Tony shouted all in !!
I set up two wagglers, one for shallow and one to fish anywhere from 2' to full depth, a lead rod (just in case and to wind up Tony Rixon who was on peg 30). I set up a paste rig, a pellet rig and a margin rig for the pole. The wagglers had 0.15 hooklengths and PR36 size 18's, the lead rod had 0.17 and a 16PR36. Pole rigs were 0.19 straight through to a Mustad paste 12 and the pellet and margin rigs were 0.17 with 0.15 hooklengths to 16 B911's.
Starting on the waggler, I was expecting bites from the off, but all I managed was to play a double figure foul hooker for 20 minutes, before it dived into the platform leg and chub like, transferred the hook to a snag. After 45 minutes of fruitless casting with the waggler, I was four or five fish behind Tony, who was fishing the pole. An exploratory chuck with the lead saw a fish around 6lb in the net, but that was the only proper bite.
Coming in on the pole line, I soon hooked a fish which tore off towards Tony's peg, bottomed the elastic and snapped the 0.15, shortly after to be repeated, although this time the fish went towards peg 29. I can't recall the last time I got smashed up on 0.15 in open water, so twice in 20 minutes or so was pretty puzzling.
By this time I was a long way behind Tony as he caught fish at 19m shallow, on the deck, on the pellet waggler, in fact whatever he tried, it seemed. As I don't have 19m I couldn't try that, so resorted to what I know best and persevered with the waggler, to no avail.
I tried paste and had a bream that hould have been 4lb or so, but was still covered in spawning tubercles and looked pretty thin, I had another carp around 5lb and then a few foulhookers taht all came off.
I went back on the lead, as the foliage on the island had grown and was overhanging the water by 2' or 3' and it was the only way I could get under it, as the fish wouldn't come out!! The growth was at least 2' in front of the reeds, those who could get to their island reeds were at least catching a few, all I was doing was either not getting a bite, or losing them within seconds of hooking them, into what appears to be a mass of roots under the island. Fair play to Vic (Bush) he is going to get out in the boat and cut them back, too late for me, but should help the next who draws it.
So it ended carp 16 - me 2, I left regretting not going to Bullock Farm, but then I read Mike Nicholls blog and saw that Golden arm Kitteridge had drawn peg 17 - has he ever drawn a bad peg??
So a few things learnt, I should have tried shallow into open water, I didn't and the crap Kebab I got from the new kebab house in Whitchurch might have been a one off, I tried again last night and the kebab was superb.
You'll have to get the results from Tony's blog, I was busy remeniscing about the roach fishing in Somerset of yesteryear with Steve Kedge and missed the results, although Kedgie had a cracking net of roach to win the silvers with a couple of ounces shy of 30lb.
Sunday, 6 June 2010
Avalon, 6th June 2010
I've mentioned in my blog before about yearning for the old days when matches were 100 pegs +, rare as rocking horse shit now. So rather than drive to a 8, 10 or even 15 pegger, I filled one of the 'guest' spots in Tony Rixon's float only series. Nearly 50 pegs so halfway to memoriesville...
By the time I got home last night from Viaduct and cooked my tea (she who has to honour and obey - and cook tea - was at work) I was knackered, but I still tied up some new hooklengths before dossing on the sofa and watching an American Ventriloquist on one of the comedy channels.
The ritual that is now gaining familiarity, the Abby's cafe breakfast, anglers dominating the cafe, off to various matches, Rod Wotton racing his down after oversleeping and having about 25 mins to get to Cider Farm and Dean, well, just being Dean!!
I wasn't really bothered where I drew, not knowing the lakes, those 'in the know' seemed to think that a corner peg would be top choice, so I obviously pulled out peg 19 on the specimen lake, nowhere near a corner and a lake I've never seen before - although it is very similar in looks to the match lake.
I'd come prepared for carp slaying (perhaps my transformation to commercial angler is nearing completion, although I still hanker after nets of roach on the stick float), but as there is four silver places paid, I had a couple of pints of caster and a ½ a kilo of worm.
I got to the peg and wasn't disappointed to have an island chuck, I set up two wagglers, one to fish 6" - 18" deep and one that would suffice from 2' to full depth. I also set up a three pole rigs, a MW diamond to fish at 13m, pellet meat or worm, a preston green to fish the same distance with caster and another MW diamond that would do for the 6' deep margin.
The weather, the water colour and just the 'feel' of it cried out fish up in the water, so I started on the ½ depth waggler and the first chuck saw me snagged on a length of towrope. OK it was probably 15lb line, that was firmly attached to the island and a clump of roots, which I managed to get halfway back before they came up out of the water, still attached to the line. I was unable to pull it back any further and eventually the hooklength snapped, even thoughI had a straight pull on it, the line whiped around the tip eye and snapped it off - bloody great start!!
Anyone got a spare top section for a 13' Maver Reactorlite Match II ??
So I picked up the 18" deep waggler and had three fish in the first 40 minutes, probably 18lb in the net, next chuck I foul hooked one and it ran the length of my island, spooking fish as it went, I could see the swirls and bow waves as the fish either got out of its way or felt the line.
Not too worried, after it had come off, I went back in and 45 minutes later, I realised the damage that it had done, not another bite. I had fed a line at 13m with micropellet, groundbait, caster and chopped worm, so I dropped over it with a pole rig, a punch of meat on the hook - nothing, not so much as a liner, soft pellet couldn't even get a twitch on the float and likewise worm.
Back on the waggler, it was bloody hard work getting bait to the island and in the swirling and curiously, bi-directional wind, the float. I knew which casts might see a bite and they weren't the majority, even clipped up, with the wind changing speed and direction every two seconds, it was difficult to get tight every cast. I did try upping the pellet size to 11mm, to no avail, just plugging away until the end saw me land 11 fish for 62.04. I thought it might be a decent weight given the bankside chat and it was, an improvement on yesterdays 3rd place, first on the day by 1.03.
That time spent tying hooklengths last night, may well have proven to be the difference!!
1) Chris Fox 62.04 peg 19SL
2) Kev Molten 61.01 peg 24ML
3) Andy lloyd 59.05 peg 13ML
4) Clint Wojtyla 56.08 peg 10SL
5) Fred Roberts 53.03 peg 20ML
6) Tom Magnol 50.13 peg 18SL
There were some moans and groans about the way it fished, but with less than 6lb seperating the top four, it was close.
Whilst he didn't appear in the frame, it was a hot topic of conversation, that the infamous Fabio, hooked and landed a 14lber whilst fishing into a fellow competitors peg, Im sure he must have cast there by accident and then slipped the fish back into the water, rather than into a keepnet.......
By the time I got home last night from Viaduct and cooked my tea (she who has to honour and obey - and cook tea - was at work) I was knackered, but I still tied up some new hooklengths before dossing on the sofa and watching an American Ventriloquist on one of the comedy channels.
The ritual that is now gaining familiarity, the Abby's cafe breakfast, anglers dominating the cafe, off to various matches, Rod Wotton racing his down after oversleeping and having about 25 mins to get to Cider Farm and Dean, well, just being Dean!!
I wasn't really bothered where I drew, not knowing the lakes, those 'in the know' seemed to think that a corner peg would be top choice, so I obviously pulled out peg 19 on the specimen lake, nowhere near a corner and a lake I've never seen before - although it is very similar in looks to the match lake.
I'd come prepared for carp slaying (perhaps my transformation to commercial angler is nearing completion, although I still hanker after nets of roach on the stick float), but as there is four silver places paid, I had a couple of pints of caster and a ½ a kilo of worm.
I got to the peg and wasn't disappointed to have an island chuck, I set up two wagglers, one to fish 6" - 18" deep and one that would suffice from 2' to full depth. I also set up a three pole rigs, a MW diamond to fish at 13m, pellet meat or worm, a preston green to fish the same distance with caster and another MW diamond that would do for the 6' deep margin.
The weather, the water colour and just the 'feel' of it cried out fish up in the water, so I started on the ½ depth waggler and the first chuck saw me snagged on a length of towrope. OK it was probably 15lb line, that was firmly attached to the island and a clump of roots, which I managed to get halfway back before they came up out of the water, still attached to the line. I was unable to pull it back any further and eventually the hooklength snapped, even thoughI had a straight pull on it, the line whiped around the tip eye and snapped it off - bloody great start!!
Anyone got a spare top section for a 13' Maver Reactorlite Match II ??
So I picked up the 18" deep waggler and had three fish in the first 40 minutes, probably 18lb in the net, next chuck I foul hooked one and it ran the length of my island, spooking fish as it went, I could see the swirls and bow waves as the fish either got out of its way or felt the line.
Not too worried, after it had come off, I went back in and 45 minutes later, I realised the damage that it had done, not another bite. I had fed a line at 13m with micropellet, groundbait, caster and chopped worm, so I dropped over it with a pole rig, a punch of meat on the hook - nothing, not so much as a liner, soft pellet couldn't even get a twitch on the float and likewise worm.
Back on the waggler, it was bloody hard work getting bait to the island and in the swirling and curiously, bi-directional wind, the float. I knew which casts might see a bite and they weren't the majority, even clipped up, with the wind changing speed and direction every two seconds, it was difficult to get tight every cast. I did try upping the pellet size to 11mm, to no avail, just plugging away until the end saw me land 11 fish for 62.04. I thought it might be a decent weight given the bankside chat and it was, an improvement on yesterdays 3rd place, first on the day by 1.03.
That time spent tying hooklengths last night, may well have proven to be the difference!!
1) Chris Fox 62.04 peg 19SL
2) Kev Molten 61.01 peg 24ML
3) Andy lloyd 59.05 peg 13ML
4) Clint Wojtyla 56.08 peg 10SL
5) Fred Roberts 53.03 peg 20ML
6) Tom Magnol 50.13 peg 18SL
There were some moans and groans about the way it fished, but with less than 6lb seperating the top four, it was close.
Whilst he didn't appear in the frame, it was a hot topic of conversation, that the infamous Fabio, hooked and landed a 14lber whilst fishing into a fellow competitors peg, Im sure he must have cast there by accident and then slipped the fish back into the water, rather than into a keepnet.......
Saturday, 5 June 2010
Super League @ Viaduct 5th June 2010
My first team match of the year, the 2nd round of the super league at Viaduct. Trying to preserve my svelte figure, I gave the cafe a miss and went straight to Viaduct from home.
So much for all the preperation yesterday, when I got my kit out I'd forgotten my keepnet bar and had to scrounge some pliers off of Mike Nicholls to get the quick connectors off my keepnets so I could use banksticks.
I was first there, but it didn't take long for team mates Dave Wride and Mark Bromsgrove to turn up, shortly after, team Captain, Lance, turned up with the draw made and gave out the pegs. 110 was to be my peg, didn't mean too much as I haven't fished Viaduct very often(even though I keep promising myself I'll fish it more).
The pressure was on once several of my fellow competitiors made a point of telling me that it had won Thursdays match, with 170lb. I set up (but for Tony Rixon's benefit - didn't use) a lead rod, two waggler rods and four topkits, one with a paste rig on, on for up in the water and two rigs that would do for pellet/meat at full depth in open water and the margin. Having two hours to set up is bliss, even I was ready at the start.
Some of the advice I was given about catching into the bay on my left, past the tree stump seemed good, it looked fishy, but the fish moving about made my decision to start on the pellet waggler an easy one. But after ¾ hour with only 1 fish and hardly any indications on the float to show for it, I decided that as it was a team match, I'd better try and get some section points. I dropped a piece of meat on a hair rig into the area I'd been feeding by the stump, the float settled and shot under and an angry carp ran round the back of the stump and snagged solid - whilst the dumb ass on the other end regretted not having a couple more sections on......
A new rig (the bloody lot was gone) and back in on the meat, in the next 45 mins I had four tench and a couple of carp, before the bites dried up. I had a paste line at about 9m and I'd fed the LH margin at 14.5m and 17m, the paste line produced on small skimmer to a lump of paste bigger than a golf ball and the LH margin nothing apart from two liners. I could see that peg 112 had taken 4 or 5 fish on the waggler whilst I was rotating my lines and with 2½ hours to go (5 hour match), I decided to concentrate on the waggler and keep the meat going into the margin by the stump.
I went from 3 carp to 14 on the waggler in the next hour and 45 mins and from 14 to 19 in the last ¾ hour (wish it had been six hours). I lost three fish on the waggler, two (one very big fish) kited to my left and headed straight for the brambles and snags around the stump, one just came off palying it in.
I though my 19 carp might go 75-80lb with the tench and lone skimmer, watching the section weigh in, it was tight 3 weights in the 70's, Alan Oram with 93lb, but I managed to take maximum points with with my 104lb 12oz. This was also good enough to take third place in the match and those lost fish cost me second place.
I didn't manage to get the full results, but top three
Andy Power 145.12
Gary Etheridge 109.05
Chris Fox 104.12
and I'm pretty sure Alan Oram's 93lb odd was fourth and Steve Kedge had 90lb for a section win and I think fifth place.
So much for all the preperation yesterday, when I got my kit out I'd forgotten my keepnet bar and had to scrounge some pliers off of Mike Nicholls to get the quick connectors off my keepnets so I could use banksticks.
I was first there, but it didn't take long for team mates Dave Wride and Mark Bromsgrove to turn up, shortly after, team Captain, Lance, turned up with the draw made and gave out the pegs. 110 was to be my peg, didn't mean too much as I haven't fished Viaduct very often(even though I keep promising myself I'll fish it more).
The pressure was on once several of my fellow competitiors made a point of telling me that it had won Thursdays match, with 170lb. I set up (but for Tony Rixon's benefit - didn't use) a lead rod, two waggler rods and four topkits, one with a paste rig on, on for up in the water and two rigs that would do for pellet/meat at full depth in open water and the margin. Having two hours to set up is bliss, even I was ready at the start.
Some of the advice I was given about catching into the bay on my left, past the tree stump seemed good, it looked fishy, but the fish moving about made my decision to start on the pellet waggler an easy one. But after ¾ hour with only 1 fish and hardly any indications on the float to show for it, I decided that as it was a team match, I'd better try and get some section points. I dropped a piece of meat on a hair rig into the area I'd been feeding by the stump, the float settled and shot under and an angry carp ran round the back of the stump and snagged solid - whilst the dumb ass on the other end regretted not having a couple more sections on......
A new rig (the bloody lot was gone) and back in on the meat, in the next 45 mins I had four tench and a couple of carp, before the bites dried up. I had a paste line at about 9m and I'd fed the LH margin at 14.5m and 17m, the paste line produced on small skimmer to a lump of paste bigger than a golf ball and the LH margin nothing apart from two liners. I could see that peg 112 had taken 4 or 5 fish on the waggler whilst I was rotating my lines and with 2½ hours to go (5 hour match), I decided to concentrate on the waggler and keep the meat going into the margin by the stump.
I went from 3 carp to 14 on the waggler in the next hour and 45 mins and from 14 to 19 in the last ¾ hour (wish it had been six hours). I lost three fish on the waggler, two (one very big fish) kited to my left and headed straight for the brambles and snags around the stump, one just came off palying it in.
I though my 19 carp might go 75-80lb with the tench and lone skimmer, watching the section weigh in, it was tight 3 weights in the 70's, Alan Oram with 93lb, but I managed to take maximum points with with my 104lb 12oz. This was also good enough to take third place in the match and those lost fish cost me second place.
I didn't manage to get the full results, but top three
Andy Power 145.12
Gary Etheridge 109.05
Chris Fox 104.12
and I'm pretty sure Alan Oram's 93lb odd was fourth and Steve Kedge had 90lb for a section win and I think fifth place.
Monday, 31 May 2010
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.
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.
Monday, 24 May 2010
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
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
Friday, 21 May 2010
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
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
Monday, 17 May 2010
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 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
Sunday, 9 May 2010
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
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
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
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
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
Monday, 3 May 2010
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!
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
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
Sunday, 25 April 2010
Match Three, Kev Perry Series 2010
I arrived at the venue early, as we had to peg out Rushcombe Lake, as usual, I had to chuck anglers off the Match Lake. I know Phil has the board saying which lakes are open/closed as you drive in, but notices at the lake entrances would make more sense.
Once I'd done this, Paul arrived, looking like he went to the pub yeterday dinner hour to watch the football and stayed all day and night and so it turned out, thats what happened. There are many tales of the drinking exploits of the now defunct Clevedon Veals team, which also included members of other teams, Mark Harper and Kev Dicks being two who readily spring to mind. One of the younger generation of anglers once asked me if these tales of folklore were true, I asured him they were and many were more wild and illegal than was commonly known - how everyone got away with all their limbs and driving licences, I'll never know.
As I just cannot physically cope with the massive drinking sessions and then fish anymore, I walked round Rushcombe with Paul and was glad I wasn't feeling too bad. After a full english, I felt ready to do battle with a decent draw, Charlie Barnes drew me peg 15 on Match Lake and if I never draw it again, it will be too soon.
I started full of optimisim, but soon had that knocked out of me!! I had set up a MW slim power on 0.15 with a 0.13 hooklength and a 20 808, the same float on 0.15 straight through to a 18 PR36, a margin rig which comprised a MW power on 0.17 straight through to a PR28 size 18 and a paste rig.
The crucians weren't in evidence in the open water, I could see Charlie Barnes on 12 and Louis Jones on 10 catching crucians and skimmers, whilst I struggled for bites. I did swap to a 6mm banded pellet and had three crucians, in three put ins - sorted - no, that was the end of that. The LH margin, close and under the pallet of 16 was seemingly devoid of fish, I had nothing from there, not so much as a liner.
I tried paste, maggot produced bites from quality roach, at least 1" long and in desperation I unwrapped the 'emergency, last resort' cat meat - nothing, no indication on the float at all.
The breeze got up slightly with a couple of hours to go and I noticed some fish movement tight to the island (behind peg 27), I fished tight across, in 12" of water with banded pellet and caught small carp in bursts until the all out. I'm sure I've done my pole some life threatening damage, at least 5 or 6 times whilst shipping back I whacked it into the chicken shed, as I had to try and bring the fish round before shipping back. I did try shipping back down the lake and a decent fish came towards me OK, then just kept running and cut through the line on the leg of peg 14's pallet. What with the people walkinground the lake, the chicken shed and the untamed vegetation growth making fishing so much more difficult than it should be, I finished the day pretty pissed off. I managed 3.900KG of silvers and 9.550KG of carp for a total of 13.450KG and hard bloody work it was.
Although not as pissed off as Paul, he'd drawn 19 on the Match Lake, the winning peg last time, there were fish in his peg, but I think it was carp 4 (in the keepnet) rigs in the boards and rushes double figures......
The rushbed between 25 & 26 looks to be spreading with the prowess of a triffid, these pegs may end up unfishable by June or July, Clive Petitt on 26 fished some old Maver pole that resembled a scaffold tube, saw edged braid (OK slight exaggeration) and still lost fish in the reeds, the others he managed to bully and lift out. It can't be good for poles or fish and removing the reeds and boarded areas would be like a big restocking programme.
Special mention to Glen Calvert, winning his second match in the series, especially as I heard from a reliable source that "Glen was out of it yesterday, he went to the Rugby and his kids were round my house as he was too pissed to be responsible for them" Glad to see Glen's keeping up tradition!!
Kev Perry was late, the cashpoint in Clevedon swallowed his cards, you'll be OK Kev, I bet your credit at the Blue Flame is good. Two series regulars couldn't make it today, so Darren 'Noddy' Vowles came along to make up the numbers and lived up to his awesome reputation, managing a creditable last but one in the section.
Disturbing murmerings from Thatchers rent boy and Charlie about the Yatton special and swallowing.........
The pegs on Rushcombe were all on the island with C1 being the second peg on the RH side over the bridge and round to D7 anticlockwise.
1) Glen Calvert 31.950KG peg 22ML
2) Louis Jones 27.500KG peg 10ML
3) Clive Petitt 25.100 peg 25 ML
4) Dave Roper 19.650 peg 8ML
5) Sean Kitteridge 18.070 peg D6 Rushcombe
6) Dave Wride 17.980 peg C1 Rushcombe
Silvers
1) Dave Wride 12.320KG
2) Louis Jones 11.00KG
3) Dave Roper 10.950KG
4) Bob Gullick 7.320KG Peg C2 Rushcombe.
Overal Table.
1) Louis Jones 17 points 49.770KG
2) Tom Thick 17 points 37.020
3) Glen Calvert 16 points 59.280KG
4) Mark Bromsgrove 16 points 38.400KG
5) Dave Roper 16 points 35.850 KG
6) Dave Wride 16 points 35.360KG
7) Bob Gullick 16 points 33.970KG
8) Mike Owens 16 points 33.930KG
Silvers Table.
1) Tom Thick 21 points 19.150KG
2) Dave Wride 20 points 24.970KG
3) Dave Roper 18 points 22.050KG
4) Bob Gullick 18 points 16.770KG
5) Nick Collins 17 points 17.650KG
Some trivia:
Match 1, total weight caught 224.500KG of which, 87.610KG were silvers. Giving averages of 8.314KG /3.244KG per angler.
Match 2, total weight caught 272.620KG, of which, 103.760KG were silvers. Giving an average of 10.097KG / 3.842KG per angler.
Match 3, total weight caught 354.910KG, of which, 125.020 were silvers. Giving an average of 13.144KG / 4.630KG per angler.
Once I'd done this, Paul arrived, looking like he went to the pub yeterday dinner hour to watch the football and stayed all day and night and so it turned out, thats what happened. There are many tales of the drinking exploits of the now defunct Clevedon Veals team, which also included members of other teams, Mark Harper and Kev Dicks being two who readily spring to mind. One of the younger generation of anglers once asked me if these tales of folklore were true, I asured him they were and many were more wild and illegal than was commonly known - how everyone got away with all their limbs and driving licences, I'll never know.
As I just cannot physically cope with the massive drinking sessions and then fish anymore, I walked round Rushcombe with Paul and was glad I wasn't feeling too bad. After a full english, I felt ready to do battle with a decent draw, Charlie Barnes drew me peg 15 on Match Lake and if I never draw it again, it will be too soon.
I started full of optimisim, but soon had that knocked out of me!! I had set up a MW slim power on 0.15 with a 0.13 hooklength and a 20 808, the same float on 0.15 straight through to a 18 PR36, a margin rig which comprised a MW power on 0.17 straight through to a PR28 size 18 and a paste rig.
The crucians weren't in evidence in the open water, I could see Charlie Barnes on 12 and Louis Jones on 10 catching crucians and skimmers, whilst I struggled for bites. I did swap to a 6mm banded pellet and had three crucians, in three put ins - sorted - no, that was the end of that. The LH margin, close and under the pallet of 16 was seemingly devoid of fish, I had nothing from there, not so much as a liner.
I tried paste, maggot produced bites from quality roach, at least 1" long and in desperation I unwrapped the 'emergency, last resort' cat meat - nothing, no indication on the float at all.
The breeze got up slightly with a couple of hours to go and I noticed some fish movement tight to the island (behind peg 27), I fished tight across, in 12" of water with banded pellet and caught small carp in bursts until the all out. I'm sure I've done my pole some life threatening damage, at least 5 or 6 times whilst shipping back I whacked it into the chicken shed, as I had to try and bring the fish round before shipping back. I did try shipping back down the lake and a decent fish came towards me OK, then just kept running and cut through the line on the leg of peg 14's pallet. What with the people walkinground the lake, the chicken shed and the untamed vegetation growth making fishing so much more difficult than it should be, I finished the day pretty pissed off. I managed 3.900KG of silvers and 9.550KG of carp for a total of 13.450KG and hard bloody work it was.
Although not as pissed off as Paul, he'd drawn 19 on the Match Lake, the winning peg last time, there were fish in his peg, but I think it was carp 4 (in the keepnet) rigs in the boards and rushes double figures......
The rushbed between 25 & 26 looks to be spreading with the prowess of a triffid, these pegs may end up unfishable by June or July, Clive Petitt on 26 fished some old Maver pole that resembled a scaffold tube, saw edged braid (OK slight exaggeration) and still lost fish in the reeds, the others he managed to bully and lift out. It can't be good for poles or fish and removing the reeds and boarded areas would be like a big restocking programme.
Special mention to Glen Calvert, winning his second match in the series, especially as I heard from a reliable source that "Glen was out of it yesterday, he went to the Rugby and his kids were round my house as he was too pissed to be responsible for them" Glad to see Glen's keeping up tradition!!
Kev Perry was late, the cashpoint in Clevedon swallowed his cards, you'll be OK Kev, I bet your credit at the Blue Flame is good. Two series regulars couldn't make it today, so Darren 'Noddy' Vowles came along to make up the numbers and lived up to his awesome reputation, managing a creditable last but one in the section.
Disturbing murmerings from Thatchers rent boy and Charlie about the Yatton special and swallowing.........
The pegs on Rushcombe were all on the island with C1 being the second peg on the RH side over the bridge and round to D7 anticlockwise.
1) Glen Calvert 31.950KG peg 22ML
2) Louis Jones 27.500KG peg 10ML
3) Clive Petitt 25.100 peg 25 ML
4) Dave Roper 19.650 peg 8ML
5) Sean Kitteridge 18.070 peg D6 Rushcombe
6) Dave Wride 17.980 peg C1 Rushcombe
Silvers
1) Dave Wride 12.320KG
2) Louis Jones 11.00KG
3) Dave Roper 10.950KG
4) Bob Gullick 7.320KG Peg C2 Rushcombe.
Overal Table.
1) Louis Jones 17 points 49.770KG
2) Tom Thick 17 points 37.020
3) Glen Calvert 16 points 59.280KG
4) Mark Bromsgrove 16 points 38.400KG
5) Dave Roper 16 points 35.850 KG
6) Dave Wride 16 points 35.360KG
7) Bob Gullick 16 points 33.970KG
8) Mike Owens 16 points 33.930KG
Silvers Table.
1) Tom Thick 21 points 19.150KG
2) Dave Wride 20 points 24.970KG
3) Dave Roper 18 points 22.050KG
4) Bob Gullick 18 points 16.770KG
5) Nick Collins 17 points 17.650KG
Some trivia:
Match 1, total weight caught 224.500KG of which, 87.610KG were silvers. Giving averages of 8.314KG /3.244KG per angler.
Match 2, total weight caught 272.620KG, of which, 103.760KG were silvers. Giving an average of 10.097KG / 3.842KG per angler.
Match 3, total weight caught 354.910KG, of which, 125.020 were silvers. Giving an average of 13.144KG / 4.630KG per angler.
Friday, 23 April 2010
Landsend 21/04/10
The title should read "Battered (again) at Landsend"
Its a venue that I have mixed feelings about, its mature enough to house a variety of species in pleasant surroundings, but it does resemble fishing in an outdoor swimming pool. I think my transition to commercials isn't complete, its just a shame roach don't live to 50 and aren't as tough as carp.....
I think my difficulties at Landsend are twofold, feeding and finding where on the steep island slope (apart from peg 19 I've yet to find a real shelf) to fish.
I set up a rig to fish hard pellet up to the island, two to fish at the bottom of the shelf, one for soft pellet, one for paste and a caster rig.
First put in, Adrian Bishop on peg 21 to my left had a fish, it took me a few minuites longer, but I did have two F1/Cruciany things from the island swim.
I then had a carp, which was 8lb or so and a couple more a bit smaler, all on the hard pellet. The next three hours were pretty unproductive and saw only one other fish come to the net. Each time I looked at Adrian I could see yellow elastic streaming from his pole. He was catching up into the vacant peg 20, shallow 3m away from the island. During those barren three hours I had two carp, one on soft pellet, one on maggot and two decent skimmers on soft pellet.
With two hours to go, I started seeing some fish activity against the island and in the last hour and a half, had 6 more carp to round the day off.
I'm not even sure what weight I had, either 76lb something or 76lb something + 6lb 4oz of silvers. I didn't bother to check, Adrian had virtually doubled my weight from the next peg, by catching in open water, shallow - I never had so much as a bite trying it.
1) Tony Whitcombe 160-02 peg32
2) Adrian Bishop 138.10 peg 21
3) Tony Rixon 128-14 peg 27
4) Phil Harding 108.09 peg 31
5) Jamie Dyte 98.15 peg 19
6) Dean Malin 98-10 peg 3
The fish are still shoaled up, a couple went home early, including venue expert Gary Wall, who couldn't buy a bite. That aside, this a venue that seems to resond to experience and I've a lot to learn.
Its a venue that I have mixed feelings about, its mature enough to house a variety of species in pleasant surroundings, but it does resemble fishing in an outdoor swimming pool. I think my transition to commercials isn't complete, its just a shame roach don't live to 50 and aren't as tough as carp.....
I think my difficulties at Landsend are twofold, feeding and finding where on the steep island slope (apart from peg 19 I've yet to find a real shelf) to fish.
I set up a rig to fish hard pellet up to the island, two to fish at the bottom of the shelf, one for soft pellet, one for paste and a caster rig.
First put in, Adrian Bishop on peg 21 to my left had a fish, it took me a few minuites longer, but I did have two F1/Cruciany things from the island swim.
I then had a carp, which was 8lb or so and a couple more a bit smaler, all on the hard pellet. The next three hours were pretty unproductive and saw only one other fish come to the net. Each time I looked at Adrian I could see yellow elastic streaming from his pole. He was catching up into the vacant peg 20, shallow 3m away from the island. During those barren three hours I had two carp, one on soft pellet, one on maggot and two decent skimmers on soft pellet.
With two hours to go, I started seeing some fish activity against the island and in the last hour and a half, had 6 more carp to round the day off.
I'm not even sure what weight I had, either 76lb something or 76lb something + 6lb 4oz of silvers. I didn't bother to check, Adrian had virtually doubled my weight from the next peg, by catching in open water, shallow - I never had so much as a bite trying it.
1) Tony Whitcombe 160-02 peg32
2) Adrian Bishop 138.10 peg 21
3) Tony Rixon 128-14 peg 27
4) Phil Harding 108.09 peg 31
5) Jamie Dyte 98.15 peg 19
6) Dean Malin 98-10 peg 3
The fish are still shoaled up, a couple went home early, including venue expert Gary Wall, who couldn't buy a bite. That aside, this a venue that seems to resond to experience and I've a lot to learn.
Sunday, 18 April 2010
Acorn, New Lake, Sunday 18th April 2010
Plenty of matches to choose from today, I was intending to fish Trinity, Carps had a match on Woodland. The later draw, the likelihood of a better turn out and a new venue saw me heading to Acorn's new match lake.
Rather than go completely blind, I had a sneaky practise on Friday, just to get an idea of the depth and 'feel' of the place. I fished half an hour short of 6 hours and swapped lines/baits as soon as I managed to get fish coming regularly so was pleased to end with about 70lb, a 30lb/40lb split, silvers and carp. The silvers were perch, 10-12oz mainly and I had planned for them to figure in todays match...
Arriving at the draw (so glad it was 10am, as I ended up in town on a stag night last night and the powers of recovery aren't what they once were) there were plenty of good anglers in the car park, but the fact that no one knew what was a flyer and conversely no one was disappointed, as we were all equally in th dark about where the fish would come from.
I drew 21, if there was any downside, its the longest walk and when I got there there was a little surface scum and duckweed, but it was very little and the surface drift took it away before the start.
I intended to fish three lines, the bottom of the near shelf for perch, about 3' short of the bottom of the far shelf at full dpth down the track and up on the far shelf. Plumbing up I immediately discovered that the far shelf wasn't as defined and flat as the peg I'd fished Friday, the same rig for down the track, indicated that this peg was a float bristle length shallower than Fridays.
At the all in, I cupped three balls of groundbait, with micro and 4mm pellet in, down the track, fed 4mm pellet by catapult to the far shelf and caster on the near line. A look at the line down the track wasn't too productive, nor was the far shelf, whilst Louis Jones on my left was getting a small carp every put in from the off. I dropped into the near line, earlier than I'd have liked and had a brief run of the decent perch, but they didn't last long. A couple of small carp and a tench were the only other fish from this line.
The far shelf seemed to be devoid of fish, no bites, liners or indications were forthcoming. I'd set up a paste rig, as I'd not had any of the better fish on Friday, but was assured that they were in there. First drop in with the paste saw liners and the second produced a carp around 5lb, that was the last fish on paste, I hooked another later in the match, probably foul hooked and it came off. I had another decent carp down the track on hard pellet, but by this time was getting a battering on my RH side, as he was getting a fish a chuck across. The wind had got up slightly and was putting a ripple on the surface.
I was at least an hour behind peg 20 when I started catching across, I could see Tony Rixon on peg 19 also catching regularly now. Louis had stopped catching on peg 22 and thankfully, I was now getting a bite most put ins. I had a couple more bonus fish, as well as two more tench, all within 12" of the island. The rig for across was a MW slim power, on 0.15 powerline with a size 20 B911 on a 0.13 hooklength. Similar hook and line for down the track, although the float was a MW diamond that took 8 No8 stotz. Another rig the same for down the track, but with a PR36 and a lasso for hard pellet.
When the wind blew and the surface rippled, the bites came quickly and confidently, when the wind dropped, the bright conditions and flat calm, meant bites were hard to come by. At the all-out I was pretty convinced that Tony on 19 and peg 20 had me beaten, although I didn't have quite so many fish, mine were of a better stamp. A big crowd followed the scales, as it was difficult to estimate your own weight, let alone that of anyone else.
My better stamp of fish saw me manage to pip the two to my right, pegs 20 & 19,who both had good spells of catching, though not the three higher weights. I can't complain, a quality field of anglers and a fourth place. The weights were very close (apart from the winner!!) All I have to decide now, is whether to fish or work on Wednesday,if the weather holds, I think fishing will win.
A special mention to Charlies travelling partner Tom Thick, he drew the peg I fished on Friday, not sure why he didn't frame, it was solid, although hearing the worrying conversation that he and Charlie were having about incestuous relations with Tom's family - no wonder thay all have 6 toes down that neck of the woods - perhaps his mind wasn't on the fishing!! And I always though that the Yatton special was a food item in the chip shop, now it's been revealed as something of a sexual nature.....
1) John Dursley 97-05lb peg 5
2) Jim Jenner 74-09lb peg 8
3) Steve Hutchinson 70-09lb peg 17
4) Chris Fox 66-15lb peg 21
5) Tony Rixon 64-05lb peg 19
6) Tim Clark 62-00lb peg 2
Silvers
1) Charlie Barnes 15-00lb peg 13
2) Ed Wynne 13-07lb peg 25
Rather than go completely blind, I had a sneaky practise on Friday, just to get an idea of the depth and 'feel' of the place. I fished half an hour short of 6 hours and swapped lines/baits as soon as I managed to get fish coming regularly so was pleased to end with about 70lb, a 30lb/40lb split, silvers and carp. The silvers were perch, 10-12oz mainly and I had planned for them to figure in todays match...
Arriving at the draw (so glad it was 10am, as I ended up in town on a stag night last night and the powers of recovery aren't what they once were) there were plenty of good anglers in the car park, but the fact that no one knew what was a flyer and conversely no one was disappointed, as we were all equally in th dark about where the fish would come from.
I drew 21, if there was any downside, its the longest walk and when I got there there was a little surface scum and duckweed, but it was very little and the surface drift took it away before the start.
I intended to fish three lines, the bottom of the near shelf for perch, about 3' short of the bottom of the far shelf at full dpth down the track and up on the far shelf. Plumbing up I immediately discovered that the far shelf wasn't as defined and flat as the peg I'd fished Friday, the same rig for down the track, indicated that this peg was a float bristle length shallower than Fridays.
At the all in, I cupped three balls of groundbait, with micro and 4mm pellet in, down the track, fed 4mm pellet by catapult to the far shelf and caster on the near line. A look at the line down the track wasn't too productive, nor was the far shelf, whilst Louis Jones on my left was getting a small carp every put in from the off. I dropped into the near line, earlier than I'd have liked and had a brief run of the decent perch, but they didn't last long. A couple of small carp and a tench were the only other fish from this line.
The far shelf seemed to be devoid of fish, no bites, liners or indications were forthcoming. I'd set up a paste rig, as I'd not had any of the better fish on Friday, but was assured that they were in there. First drop in with the paste saw liners and the second produced a carp around 5lb, that was the last fish on paste, I hooked another later in the match, probably foul hooked and it came off. I had another decent carp down the track on hard pellet, but by this time was getting a battering on my RH side, as he was getting a fish a chuck across. The wind had got up slightly and was putting a ripple on the surface.
I was at least an hour behind peg 20 when I started catching across, I could see Tony Rixon on peg 19 also catching regularly now. Louis had stopped catching on peg 22 and thankfully, I was now getting a bite most put ins. I had a couple more bonus fish, as well as two more tench, all within 12" of the island. The rig for across was a MW slim power, on 0.15 powerline with a size 20 B911 on a 0.13 hooklength. Similar hook and line for down the track, although the float was a MW diamond that took 8 No8 stotz. Another rig the same for down the track, but with a PR36 and a lasso for hard pellet.
When the wind blew and the surface rippled, the bites came quickly and confidently, when the wind dropped, the bright conditions and flat calm, meant bites were hard to come by. At the all-out I was pretty convinced that Tony on 19 and peg 20 had me beaten, although I didn't have quite so many fish, mine were of a better stamp. A big crowd followed the scales, as it was difficult to estimate your own weight, let alone that of anyone else.
My better stamp of fish saw me manage to pip the two to my right, pegs 20 & 19,who both had good spells of catching, though not the three higher weights. I can't complain, a quality field of anglers and a fourth place. The weights were very close (apart from the winner!!) All I have to decide now, is whether to fish or work on Wednesday,if the weather holds, I think fishing will win.
A special mention to Charlies travelling partner Tom Thick, he drew the peg I fished on Friday, not sure why he didn't frame, it was solid, although hearing the worrying conversation that he and Charlie were having about incestuous relations with Tom's family - no wonder thay all have 6 toes down that neck of the woods - perhaps his mind wasn't on the fishing!! And I always though that the Yatton special was a food item in the chip shop, now it's been revealed as something of a sexual nature.....
1) John Dursley 97-05lb peg 5
2) Jim Jenner 74-09lb peg 8
3) Steve Hutchinson 70-09lb peg 17
4) Chris Fox 66-15lb peg 21
5) Tony Rixon 64-05lb peg 19
6) Tim Clark 62-00lb peg 2
Silvers
1) Charlie Barnes 15-00lb peg 13
2) Ed Wynne 13-07lb peg 25
Monday, 12 April 2010
Match Two, Kev Perry Series 2010
The title of Tony Rixon's blog from yesterday, is pretty apt for mine as well.
I went to Bullock Farm on Friday and fished peg 26, it wasn't an easy days fishing, but I managed about 20lb of silvers (mainly big crucians and fantails up to 2lb) and 40lb of carp. Most of the fish taken from the edge of the reed bed on paste. I stuggled to catch in open water, although it seems at the moment when feeding micro pellet or groundbait that there is plenty of fizzing, resulting in foul hookers, but they are not feeding on the hookbait.
So onto Sundays match, Thatchers very own special needs employee, Tom drew me 27 on Match Lake, my heart sank, I have never caught anything worth troubling the scalesmen with from this peg, indeed the last time I drew it I blanked.
The peg had thrown up a decent weight of silvers on the last match (trust Tom to draw it out two matches running) as did peg 30. I set up a caster rig, a Malman winter wire float, 0.11 mainline and a 63.13 size 20 to 0.10. Another rig with 0.13/0.11 and a 18 808 with a MW slim power float for pellet and a similar set up with 0.15/0.13 and a 18 B911 in case the carp showed up.
I also set up a paste rig for the open water and a margin rig that would do for the LH and RH margins, although I've never had a bite from the LH margin, its more barren than a convent full of nuns. The RH margin is very short, before the island ends and you are fishing inro open water, but it does produce a few fish.
At the start I fed a caster line at 1 o'clock 10m, another caster line at 11 o'clock 5m, a pellet line at 30'clock 11m and a throw away line as an experiment at 13m about 10 o'clock with 4mm cubed meat and hemp.
First put in I had a crucian around 6oz on the caster, I had to wait an hour before I had another fish, another crucian from the pellet line. I just wasn't getting bites, not even on single pinkie. By rotating the lines, I managed to stay awake, that and watching Nicky Collins and Mike Nicholls bagging. Lance Tucker was in between them, they doubled his weight, but I think his dripping about the pegging must have washed most of his bait away.
About three hours in I had two better roach from the caster line, but the fish that followed shrunk in size, to just bigger than the caster hookbait. A couple of fish on 4mm cubes of meat over the micro line just about rounded off my silver fishing, which was a piss poor effort - did I do anything drastically wrong, I don't think so, the fish had moved, as pegs that struggled in the first match, sacked up this time round.
Trying to regain some level of respectability, I had spent some time and the last hour persuing carp in the margins, as predicted the LH margin remained fish free. I had gone as far as under the pallet of peg 28, which produced one bite on catmeat. The RH margin gave up a small carp on my first put in, second put in the float went under and the fish snagged in the roots and brambles that cascade into the water on the end of the island. I spent 10 minutes or so with a decent stainless steel weed cutter, removing them and plenty of the sunken roots (which are pretty rotten, but too much of a match for 0.15 or 0.17 powerline). This meant leaving the swim to settle for a while, but I had to set up a new margin rig anyway.
With half an hour to go, I was pretty certain I was last in the section, if not the whole match, if it hadn't been a series I would have had a leisurely pack up, the float went under and a good fish rushed to the brambles and roots to snag me - thankfully they were now led on the bank and after a 10 minute battle a 10lb fish was in the net, hoping to repeat the feat, I dropped back into the margin, but it wasn't to be.
I hadn't had a bite on paste, nor over the meat & hemp line or from my 5m line, a pretty poor day and I am struggling to think what I could have done differently, a change in feeding - more or less? I tried upping the feed towards the end, to no avail, obviously I couldn't try less.
My meagre net of silvers went 2.150KG, the 10lb carp and his little cousin turned the dial round to 5.680KG for a total of 7.830, saving me from last in the section by 70 grams.
Unless I can get a section win every match now, it looks like the series is well gone, so I'll be attacking the last four matches intending to win them.
1) Glen Calvert 24.580KG peg 19 ML
2) Mike Nicholls 22.400KG peg 8 ML
3) Nick Collins 22.070KG peg 10 ML
4) Mike Owens 18.410KG peg 24 ML
5) Paul Faiers 17.550KG peg 14 NP
6) Mark Bromsgrove 15.050KG peg 22 ML
Silvers
1) Mark Bromsgrove 14.350KG peg 22 ML
2) Nick Collins 9.650KG peg 10 ML
3) Mike Owens 8.560KG peg 24 ML
4) Dave Roper 7.840KG peg 18 ML
5) Glen Calvert 7.500KG peg 19 ML
6) Lance (dripping) Tucker 6.950KG peg 9 ML
Overall Table.
1) Mike Owens / 13 / 26.410
2) Tom Thick / 12 / 21.970
3) Mark Bromsgrove / 11 / 11.650
4) Paul Faiers / 10 / 24.910
5) Lewis Jones / 10 / 22.270
6) Kev Perry / 10 / 21.230
7) Bob Gullick / 10 / 18.350
8) Dave Roper / 10 / 16.200
Silvers Table
1) Tom Thick / 14 / 12.850
2) Dave Wride / 13 / 12.650
3) Nick Collins / 12 / 12.650
4) Dave Roper / 12 / 11.100
5) Bob Gullick / 12 / 9.450
6) Andy Hockin / 11 / 8.660
7) Lance Tucker / 11 / 8.290
I went to Bullock Farm on Friday and fished peg 26, it wasn't an easy days fishing, but I managed about 20lb of silvers (mainly big crucians and fantails up to 2lb) and 40lb of carp. Most of the fish taken from the edge of the reed bed on paste. I stuggled to catch in open water, although it seems at the moment when feeding micro pellet or groundbait that there is plenty of fizzing, resulting in foul hookers, but they are not feeding on the hookbait.
So onto Sundays match, Thatchers very own special needs employee, Tom drew me 27 on Match Lake, my heart sank, I have never caught anything worth troubling the scalesmen with from this peg, indeed the last time I drew it I blanked.
The peg had thrown up a decent weight of silvers on the last match (trust Tom to draw it out two matches running) as did peg 30. I set up a caster rig, a Malman winter wire float, 0.11 mainline and a 63.13 size 20 to 0.10. Another rig with 0.13/0.11 and a 18 808 with a MW slim power float for pellet and a similar set up with 0.15/0.13 and a 18 B911 in case the carp showed up.
I also set up a paste rig for the open water and a margin rig that would do for the LH and RH margins, although I've never had a bite from the LH margin, its more barren than a convent full of nuns. The RH margin is very short, before the island ends and you are fishing inro open water, but it does produce a few fish.
At the start I fed a caster line at 1 o'clock 10m, another caster line at 11 o'clock 5m, a pellet line at 30'clock 11m and a throw away line as an experiment at 13m about 10 o'clock with 4mm cubed meat and hemp.
First put in I had a crucian around 6oz on the caster, I had to wait an hour before I had another fish, another crucian from the pellet line. I just wasn't getting bites, not even on single pinkie. By rotating the lines, I managed to stay awake, that and watching Nicky Collins and Mike Nicholls bagging. Lance Tucker was in between them, they doubled his weight, but I think his dripping about the pegging must have washed most of his bait away.
About three hours in I had two better roach from the caster line, but the fish that followed shrunk in size, to just bigger than the caster hookbait. A couple of fish on 4mm cubes of meat over the micro line just about rounded off my silver fishing, which was a piss poor effort - did I do anything drastically wrong, I don't think so, the fish had moved, as pegs that struggled in the first match, sacked up this time round.
Trying to regain some level of respectability, I had spent some time and the last hour persuing carp in the margins, as predicted the LH margin remained fish free. I had gone as far as under the pallet of peg 28, which produced one bite on catmeat. The RH margin gave up a small carp on my first put in, second put in the float went under and the fish snagged in the roots and brambles that cascade into the water on the end of the island. I spent 10 minutes or so with a decent stainless steel weed cutter, removing them and plenty of the sunken roots (which are pretty rotten, but too much of a match for 0.15 or 0.17 powerline). This meant leaving the swim to settle for a while, but I had to set up a new margin rig anyway.
With half an hour to go, I was pretty certain I was last in the section, if not the whole match, if it hadn't been a series I would have had a leisurely pack up, the float went under and a good fish rushed to the brambles and roots to snag me - thankfully they were now led on the bank and after a 10 minute battle a 10lb fish was in the net, hoping to repeat the feat, I dropped back into the margin, but it wasn't to be.
I hadn't had a bite on paste, nor over the meat & hemp line or from my 5m line, a pretty poor day and I am struggling to think what I could have done differently, a change in feeding - more or less? I tried upping the feed towards the end, to no avail, obviously I couldn't try less.
My meagre net of silvers went 2.150KG, the 10lb carp and his little cousin turned the dial round to 5.680KG for a total of 7.830, saving me from last in the section by 70 grams.
Unless I can get a section win every match now, it looks like the series is well gone, so I'll be attacking the last four matches intending to win them.
1) Glen Calvert 24.580KG peg 19 ML
2) Mike Nicholls 22.400KG peg 8 ML
3) Nick Collins 22.070KG peg 10 ML
4) Mike Owens 18.410KG peg 24 ML
5) Paul Faiers 17.550KG peg 14 NP
6) Mark Bromsgrove 15.050KG peg 22 ML
Silvers
1) Mark Bromsgrove 14.350KG peg 22 ML
2) Nick Collins 9.650KG peg 10 ML
3) Mike Owens 8.560KG peg 24 ML
4) Dave Roper 7.840KG peg 18 ML
5) Glen Calvert 7.500KG peg 19 ML
6) Lance (dripping) Tucker 6.950KG peg 9 ML
Overall Table.
1) Mike Owens / 13 / 26.410
2) Tom Thick / 12 / 21.970
3) Mark Bromsgrove / 11 / 11.650
4) Paul Faiers / 10 / 24.910
5) Lewis Jones / 10 / 22.270
6) Kev Perry / 10 / 21.230
7) Bob Gullick / 10 / 18.350
8) Dave Roper / 10 / 16.200
Silvers Table
1) Tom Thick / 14 / 12.850
2) Dave Wride / 13 / 12.650
3) Nick Collins / 12 / 12.650
4) Dave Roper / 12 / 11.100
5) Bob Gullick / 12 / 9.450
6) Andy Hockin / 11 / 8.660
7) Lance Tucker / 11 / 8.290
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Acorn Wednesday 31st March
It seemed such a good idea to book into this match, after last Wednesday's match Tony said " Next weeks match is on Acorn, do you want to come", well it didn't take too much persauding, especially as when I said I was on nights the night before, Tony suggested a 11am draw.
The reality was somewhat different, a freezing cold wind blowing down the lake, as I'd been at work all night I knew we'd had sleet and a very cold night, so perhaps the 100lb+ weights that have won lately wouldn't be on the cards. Metcheck were predicting a wind chill of between -2°C & -5°C, I usually take their forecasts with a pinch of salt, they are more pessimistic than I am!! Not today, it was bloody freezing, at one stage my hands stopped working and when we had the sleet, frozen rain/hail Charlie Barnes was seen scurrying to his van for cover.
The draw saw me on peg 4, its a something and nothing peg, no real margins and a reasonable amount of open water, the RH side has something of a margin but you have to reach over a jutting out spit of bank and over a clump of grass. Plumbing up showed me that the bottom wasn't even, with a slightly deeper area at 10m - too far to struggle in the wind - so I set up a MW slim power, 0.15/0.13 and a 18 808 for maggot or 4mm soft pellet. I also set up a paste rig, which didn't get touched and two margin rigs, one for caster/maggot and one just in case they had a hard pellet.
At the all in, I started at 7m with maggot and fed some nicro on another line to my right, as well as feeding the close margins by hand with caster. I had a few perch, up to 1lb by switching from the 7m line to the LH margin at 4m. The fish weren't exactly climbing up the line, but from my vantage point, I couldn't see anyone emptying it. I had Charlies tackle caddy, Tom Thick virtually opposite, if he had rotated his lines any quicker, he'd have looked like a washing machine on spin speed.
I had an occasional look down what margin there is on the RH side and it wasn't until 15.40 that I had any indication that there were any fish in the vicinity, 3 carp from the line in 40 mins and 2 lost foulers were the sum of that line. By this time I was having trouble hooking casters on, my fingers had virtually siezed up with the cold (give me those clear frosty days anytime, instead of a freezing wind),
2 more carp in the last hour from the 7m line as well as a couple of perch (and an absolutely pristine, never caught before roach about 6oz) saw me through to the eagerly awaited final whistle. I had no idea how it had fished, apart from Tom opposite, Martin Lenaghan to my right on 3 and Jason Radford to my left on peg 6. I thought that Tom might have me beat.
My 26-10 wasn't enough to put any beer tokens in the pot, frustratingly one out of the money and just out of the sivers coin as well, perhaps I should have persisted with the perch.
1) Dean Malin 47.00 peg 15
2) Pete Sivell 45.01 peg 12
3) Ed Wynne 41.10 peg 16
4) P Notton 28.14 peg 10
5) Chris Fox 26.10 peg 4
6) Martin Lenagahn 22.11 peg 3
Silvers
1)Ed Wynne 23.04 (perch and tench)
2) Charlie Barnes 8.04
I'm just thawing out, having watched Arsenal come back from what was seemingly down and out against Bareclona and with the aid of a rather nice Claret!!
The reality was somewhat different, a freezing cold wind blowing down the lake, as I'd been at work all night I knew we'd had sleet and a very cold night, so perhaps the 100lb+ weights that have won lately wouldn't be on the cards. Metcheck were predicting a wind chill of between -2°C & -5°C, I usually take their forecasts with a pinch of salt, they are more pessimistic than I am!! Not today, it was bloody freezing, at one stage my hands stopped working and when we had the sleet, frozen rain/hail Charlie Barnes was seen scurrying to his van for cover.
The draw saw me on peg 4, its a something and nothing peg, no real margins and a reasonable amount of open water, the RH side has something of a margin but you have to reach over a jutting out spit of bank and over a clump of grass. Plumbing up showed me that the bottom wasn't even, with a slightly deeper area at 10m - too far to struggle in the wind - so I set up a MW slim power, 0.15/0.13 and a 18 808 for maggot or 4mm soft pellet. I also set up a paste rig, which didn't get touched and two margin rigs, one for caster/maggot and one just in case they had a hard pellet.
At the all in, I started at 7m with maggot and fed some nicro on another line to my right, as well as feeding the close margins by hand with caster. I had a few perch, up to 1lb by switching from the 7m line to the LH margin at 4m. The fish weren't exactly climbing up the line, but from my vantage point, I couldn't see anyone emptying it. I had Charlies tackle caddy, Tom Thick virtually opposite, if he had rotated his lines any quicker, he'd have looked like a washing machine on spin speed.
I had an occasional look down what margin there is on the RH side and it wasn't until 15.40 that I had any indication that there were any fish in the vicinity, 3 carp from the line in 40 mins and 2 lost foulers were the sum of that line. By this time I was having trouble hooking casters on, my fingers had virtually siezed up with the cold (give me those clear frosty days anytime, instead of a freezing wind),
2 more carp in the last hour from the 7m line as well as a couple of perch (and an absolutely pristine, never caught before roach about 6oz) saw me through to the eagerly awaited final whistle. I had no idea how it had fished, apart from Tom opposite, Martin Lenaghan to my right on 3 and Jason Radford to my left on peg 6. I thought that Tom might have me beat.
My 26-10 wasn't enough to put any beer tokens in the pot, frustratingly one out of the money and just out of the sivers coin as well, perhaps I should have persisted with the perch.
1) Dean Malin 47.00 peg 15
2) Pete Sivell 45.01 peg 12
3) Ed Wynne 41.10 peg 16
4) P Notton 28.14 peg 10
5) Chris Fox 26.10 peg 4
6) Martin Lenagahn 22.11 peg 3
Silvers
1)Ed Wynne 23.04 (perch and tench)
2) Charlie Barnes 8.04
I'm just thawing out, having watched Arsenal come back from what was seemingly down and out against Bareclona and with the aid of a rather nice Claret!!
Monday, 29 March 2010
Match One, Kev Perry Series 2010
As per Thursdays blog entry, Paul(Faiers) and myself went to Bullock Farm to have a practice and finalise the pegging for this years series. All done and dusted, I sorted out the spreadsheets etc on Friday and was all ready to have an easy Sunday morning's draw and enjoy the fishing.
A phone call from Paul Saturday night, a change in the numbers, so we re-organised the sections and pegging over the phone, then I stayed in and revamped the weigh sheets etc, missing out on Saturday night in the pub.
All was going well on Sunday morning, we'd arrived early to re-jig the pegging on North Pool after Saturday night's phone conversation and we adjourned to the cafe for a breakfast before the draw. Then at 08.30, 15 minutes before draw time we were informed that the extra one, who we had re-jigged the pegging and sections for, wasn't fishing the series after all. Another rethink and re-jig saw us decide on four sections of 7, with 14 pegs on the Match Lake and 14 pegs on North Pool.
Next year, if anyone hasn't paid by the closing date, they won't fish, as simple as that!!
After hastily drawing up some weigh in sheets by hand, the draw was made, Lance drew me peg 8 on North Pool, I would have preferred the Match Lake, but having previously won a match from peg 8, I wasn't devastated, although I feel it's still a couple of weeks early, I'm sure it will win at least one match this series. Paul had peg 22 on the Match Lake pulled out for , one peg away from where he practised on Thursday. Little did I know that the mornings frustrations were going to carry on for the rest of the day!!
Given that I wasn't convinced the carp would really go for it on North Pool, I set up a caster rig - a Malman Winter wire 4x10 on 0.11 with a .10 hooklength and a size 20 6313 hook. A rig to fish expander for crucians, a MW slim power on 0.13 to 0.11 and a 18 808, a heavier version of the same (0.15 / 0.13 and a 16 808). I more in hope than expectation set up a paste rig and a marging rig to fish corn/maggot, which was a MW HC margin to 0.15 straight through to a 18 B911.
At the all-in, I fed a line at 1 o'clock with caster, an open water line with micro's and wetted 4mm and a couple of lines on the far bank, to the right and left of the tree. I'd felt some fish whilst plumbing up, so was confident that there were fish in the peg, I intended to leave the far lines for a while to settle, whilst bagging on the caster..... After 30 minutes, I'd had a small fantail and a couple of roach on the caster line, switching to maggot and even pinkie hookbait couldn't tempt anymore from this line. I switched to the open water soft pellet line and first put in missed a bite, second put in saw a small crucian landed, third put in another missed bite and next drop in saw a carp around 3lb in the net. Then that line died.
I switched to the far bank lines as I'd seen evidence of fish moving tight to the far bank and this was where the days frustrations grew, switching between three lines, fishing maggot or corn saw me hook around 18 fish, of which, at least 8 were obviously foul hookers, I managed to land 3 more fish, losing two double figure fish, having 0.15 powerline snapped twice, fish diving ito the mass of branches and crap in the peg twice transferred the hook from their mouths to the debris. With 40 minutes to go, I got up and went for a short walk, as my frustration was just about to boil over, one of my four carp was landed after this walk, so it probably helped me regain some sanity.
I knew that I'd had enough fish on to win the match - why were they coming off?? I lost one that I estimate at 15lb, I saw it before it bolted round the end of the peninsula and off towards Mike Owens on peg 25.Another was at least 10lb and one of the fish I landed was around the 10lb mark, there are some big fish in North Pool now.
I was using familiar elastic, hooks that I have used for ages, with no problem, I can only assume that the were very lightly hooked, some of the bites were finicky and there were a lot of fish in the peg, they wouldn't get there heads down (or up, I tried fishing shallow, although shallow on Bullock virtually means surface fishing!!)and feed properly. I think it would have been better if there weren't so many fish in the peg, as this would help eliminate the foul hookers, as after each fish hooked and lost, the line it was hooked on went quiet for 15 minutes. I weighed 10.120KG which should have been nearer 25KG.
The silvers (crucians and fantails) failed to show on North Pool, top weight being 3.260KG Dave Roper and Dave Poole sharing the same weight. Top weight on the lake was a 14.100KG of catmeat caught carp, which was worth 2nd place overall, with a 12.400KG, again catmeat and two 10+KG weights.
The Match Lake produced some more consistency and the individual winner, as well as a 10KG, two 8KG and a couple of 7KG silvers weights,.
1)L Jones 19.750KG peg 25 ML
2)J Osbourne 14.100KG peg 10 NP
3)I Currie 13.100KG peg 26 ML
4)D Wride 12.730KG peg 17 ML
5)A Hockin 12.400KG peg 4 NP
6)T Thick 12.140KG peg 27 ML
Silvers
1)D Wride 10.700KG peg 17 ML
2)T Thick 8.800KG peg 27 ML
3)B Gullick 8.080KG peg 30 ML
4)M Walsh 7.800KG peg 24 ML
5)L Jones 7.750KG oeg 25 ML
6)C Barnes 5.280KG peg 8 ML
Section Winners (By default)
A (ML) T Thick
B (ML) D Wride
C (NP) A Hockin
D (NP) S Kitteridge 8.900KG peg 13
The best bit of the day was getting home, chucking the tackle in the garage and walking round the pub, then over to the local Indian for a very nice curry and several Kingfishers.
Roll on Wednesday, although the weather forecast is for it to get colder and rain, deep joy!!
A phone call from Paul Saturday night, a change in the numbers, so we re-organised the sections and pegging over the phone, then I stayed in and revamped the weigh sheets etc, missing out on Saturday night in the pub.
All was going well on Sunday morning, we'd arrived early to re-jig the pegging on North Pool after Saturday night's phone conversation and we adjourned to the cafe for a breakfast before the draw. Then at 08.30, 15 minutes before draw time we were informed that the extra one, who we had re-jigged the pegging and sections for, wasn't fishing the series after all. Another rethink and re-jig saw us decide on four sections of 7, with 14 pegs on the Match Lake and 14 pegs on North Pool.
Next year, if anyone hasn't paid by the closing date, they won't fish, as simple as that!!
After hastily drawing up some weigh in sheets by hand, the draw was made, Lance drew me peg 8 on North Pool, I would have preferred the Match Lake, but having previously won a match from peg 8, I wasn't devastated, although I feel it's still a couple of weeks early, I'm sure it will win at least one match this series. Paul had peg 22 on the Match Lake pulled out for , one peg away from where he practised on Thursday. Little did I know that the mornings frustrations were going to carry on for the rest of the day!!
Given that I wasn't convinced the carp would really go for it on North Pool, I set up a caster rig - a Malman Winter wire 4x10 on 0.11 with a .10 hooklength and a size 20 6313 hook. A rig to fish expander for crucians, a MW slim power on 0.13 to 0.11 and a 18 808, a heavier version of the same (0.15 / 0.13 and a 16 808). I more in hope than expectation set up a paste rig and a marging rig to fish corn/maggot, which was a MW HC margin to 0.15 straight through to a 18 B911.
At the all-in, I fed a line at 1 o'clock with caster, an open water line with micro's and wetted 4mm and a couple of lines on the far bank, to the right and left of the tree. I'd felt some fish whilst plumbing up, so was confident that there were fish in the peg, I intended to leave the far lines for a while to settle, whilst bagging on the caster..... After 30 minutes, I'd had a small fantail and a couple of roach on the caster line, switching to maggot and even pinkie hookbait couldn't tempt anymore from this line. I switched to the open water soft pellet line and first put in missed a bite, second put in saw a small crucian landed, third put in another missed bite and next drop in saw a carp around 3lb in the net. Then that line died.
I switched to the far bank lines as I'd seen evidence of fish moving tight to the far bank and this was where the days frustrations grew, switching between three lines, fishing maggot or corn saw me hook around 18 fish, of which, at least 8 were obviously foul hookers, I managed to land 3 more fish, losing two double figure fish, having 0.15 powerline snapped twice, fish diving ito the mass of branches and crap in the peg twice transferred the hook from their mouths to the debris. With 40 minutes to go, I got up and went for a short walk, as my frustration was just about to boil over, one of my four carp was landed after this walk, so it probably helped me regain some sanity.
I knew that I'd had enough fish on to win the match - why were they coming off?? I lost one that I estimate at 15lb, I saw it before it bolted round the end of the peninsula and off towards Mike Owens on peg 25.Another was at least 10lb and one of the fish I landed was around the 10lb mark, there are some big fish in North Pool now.
I was using familiar elastic, hooks that I have used for ages, with no problem, I can only assume that the were very lightly hooked, some of the bites were finicky and there were a lot of fish in the peg, they wouldn't get there heads down (or up, I tried fishing shallow, although shallow on Bullock virtually means surface fishing!!)and feed properly. I think it would have been better if there weren't so many fish in the peg, as this would help eliminate the foul hookers, as after each fish hooked and lost, the line it was hooked on went quiet for 15 minutes. I weighed 10.120KG which should have been nearer 25KG.
The silvers (crucians and fantails) failed to show on North Pool, top weight being 3.260KG Dave Roper and Dave Poole sharing the same weight. Top weight on the lake was a 14.100KG of catmeat caught carp, which was worth 2nd place overall, with a 12.400KG, again catmeat and two 10+KG weights.
The Match Lake produced some more consistency and the individual winner, as well as a 10KG, two 8KG and a couple of 7KG silvers weights,.
1)L Jones 19.750KG peg 25 ML
2)J Osbourne 14.100KG peg 10 NP
3)I Currie 13.100KG peg 26 ML
4)D Wride 12.730KG peg 17 ML
5)A Hockin 12.400KG peg 4 NP
6)T Thick 12.140KG peg 27 ML
Silvers
1)D Wride 10.700KG peg 17 ML
2)T Thick 8.800KG peg 27 ML
3)B Gullick 8.080KG peg 30 ML
4)M Walsh 7.800KG peg 24 ML
5)L Jones 7.750KG oeg 25 ML
6)C Barnes 5.280KG peg 8 ML
Section Winners (By default)
A (ML) T Thick
B (ML) D Wride
C (NP) A Hockin
D (NP) S Kitteridge 8.900KG peg 13
The best bit of the day was getting home, chucking the tackle in the garage and walking round the pub, then over to the local Indian for a very nice curry and several Kingfishers.
Roll on Wednesday, although the weather forecast is for it to get colder and rain, deep joy!!
Thursday, 25 March 2010
Bullock Farm, Thursday 25th March 2010
I had arranged to meet Paul (Faiers) at Bullocks today, just to finalise details for the Kev Perry series which starts on Sunday, as well as to have a sneaky practice. As I drove into Bullocks, the man himself, Kev Perry was driving out, off to Plantation for a days fishing, he'd just been to pay Paul his series entry money.
I pulled into the car park, Paul and his Father-in-law were setting up on 21 & 22(proper lazy pegs, right next to the car....). There were three pleasure anglers on the lake, pegs 17,19 & 26 being occupied. I setteled for a short walk and a good peg, No 24 - well, is there any point in practising on a crap peg?
It looks like there are 28 signed up for the series, so we planned the pegging (no doubt someone will moan, its enevitable)and spent a few hours fishing. The guy on peg 17 was catching on the feeder, although by the time I'd tackled up and started fishing he seemed to stop catching, I always did wonder if chucking a 30g feeder into 2'6" of water and 1'6" of silt was a top method!!
I ended the day with between 25 & 30lb of silvers, (Fantails, crucians, tench and some lovely roach up to 14oz) and 1 carp that went about 1½lb. Paul had slightly less, but he had more carp than silvers.
Here's hoping the fish feed for the series, the lakes are now showing some colour, rather than the translucent black/green colour they have been recently.
If your coming to the series, see you Sunday.
I pulled into the car park, Paul and his Father-in-law were setting up on 21 & 22(proper lazy pegs, right next to the car....). There were three pleasure anglers on the lake, pegs 17,19 & 26 being occupied. I setteled for a short walk and a good peg, No 24 - well, is there any point in practising on a crap peg?
It looks like there are 28 signed up for the series, so we planned the pegging (no doubt someone will moan, its enevitable)and spent a few hours fishing. The guy on peg 17 was catching on the feeder, although by the time I'd tackled up and started fishing he seemed to stop catching, I always did wonder if chucking a 30g feeder into 2'6" of water and 1'6" of silt was a top method!!
I ended the day with between 25 & 30lb of silvers, (Fantails, crucians, tench and some lovely roach up to 14oz) and 1 carp that went about 1½lb. Paul had slightly less, but he had more carp than silvers.
Here's hoping the fish feed for the series, the lakes are now showing some colour, rather than the translucent black/green colour they have been recently.
If your coming to the series, see you Sunday.
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Landsend 24/03/10
Any common sense would say stay away from Landsend, not that I have anything against the venue or its owner, it's just that fishing it is a contribution to Tony Rixon's pension fund. That said, I've never been one to shirk a challenge, so Tuesday saw me in Tony's shop, trying to pick his brains about Landsend.
It took booking into todays match and £50+ worth of spend, to loosen Tony's tongue, even that wasn't enough to get the secrets of Landsend laid bare, but he did give me enough pointers to get me thinking.
The cafe at Shipham did some brisk business, as all the normally health concious anglers abandoned fruit and porridge, plates overflowing with sausages, bacon and fried potato being a common sight. With appetites sated, we set off for the match (After being outraged at some of the stories told by Tony Whitcombe, of the stupidity, of many of the public he deals with in his job as a Fireman).
The match was 4 pegs on the specimen lake, the rest on match lake, in many ways I like not knowing a venue too well, as when the card is opened, whatever peg number is staring back at you, it means nothing. Todays number was 19, Tony did give me some advice, although he was keen to run to his own peg, ( as Pete Sivell said - "another flyer, you won't mention that in your blog", I assured Pete that I would indeed highlight the fact in mine!!)
Determined to keep things simple, I set up three rigs, one for right across, an Impact 4x12 on 0.15 powerline to a 18 PR36 and a hair rig for hard pellet. A 4x14 Impact float on 0.15 powerline, 0.13 hooklength and a 18 808 to fish two lines, at 10 & 2 oclock with soft pellet. And, a Jean Francios Desque 0.4g to fish a line topkit to hand and a section or 2 added if the fish pushed out. This was 0.11 straight through to a 18 6313 hook.
At the all in, I fed two lines with micro pellet and some very soft 4mm pellet, caster on the near line and hard pellet to the island. Before I'd finished doing this, there was the sound of a fish being landed away to my left - behind already!! I started on the near caster line and caught roach that were about 10-12 to the pound, I persevered on this line hoping for the Perch to show up, they didn't, l but was pleased to slip the net under an Ide over 2lb.
Water temp was 9.5°C throughout the day. So, at last an increase on the 4-5° thats been the norm since before Xmas.
To cut the 6 hours short, the sound of Tony continually playing and landing fish became a little repetitive, I worked the far bank at 14m to the island & 16m into the gap, more than once the fish moved into the space between me and Mike West (peg 20), I didn't chase them down there, as I didn't want him to catch them!!
Fishing straight in front and to the left, I managed 12 carp, unfortunately they were around the 3lb mark, until the penultimate fish, this was nearer 8lb - no problem - well it shouldn't have been, it was determind to get into the roots on the RH side of my platform. I was equally determind to stop it - obviously (now) when you pull black hydro taught, it takes on properties way above its normal rating - it did today at least, as 6" of match kit No2 section snapped off as an angry carp bottomed out, said taught hydro. Ended the day with 12 carp most around the 3lb mark, with one nearer 8lb.
In the last hour I had increased my feed from 4mm to 6mm pelllet, this was enough to add 4 fish and steal last place in the money. I've a lot to learn about Landsend, I'll carry on trying to pick Tony's brain - but I'll never be able to draw like him!!!
I wasn't too disappointed with my fourth placed finish, there were some of the Landsend regulars there today - you know the guys, they have rigs ready for every peg, don't need to plumb up as they have a mental picture of every peg and fish it 2 or 3 times a week - OK slight exaggeration, but not much!!
Tackle dealers delight to day, (Except Tony's own 'accident' a broken No7), I heard a landing net handle snap and die, a No4 pole section and my own No2 section, it wasn't even windy!!
The day was rounded off by Tony wandering around with some electricians screwdivers and another parcel - like some bizarre prize and Dean Malin & Jason Radford trying to out do each other in the "who can hold onto the electric otter fence the longest" - I do worry about the gene pool!! (Although did Jason suss that one of the strands wasn't electrified, hence his 12 seconds and Dean leaping around like a wallaby on speed after 0.1 sec.)
1) Tony Rixon 157-11 peg 15
2) Tony Whitcombe 87-07 peg 31 ("and not a blob of paste in sight")
3) Mike West 53-10 peg 21
4) Chris Fox 48-13 peg 19
5) Dean Malin 43-06 peg 13
6) Andy France 42.02 peg 17
Silvers
1) Ed Wynne 25-14 peg 25
2) Jason Radford 22-00
It took booking into todays match and £50+ worth of spend, to loosen Tony's tongue, even that wasn't enough to get the secrets of Landsend laid bare, but he did give me enough pointers to get me thinking.
The cafe at Shipham did some brisk business, as all the normally health concious anglers abandoned fruit and porridge, plates overflowing with sausages, bacon and fried potato being a common sight. With appetites sated, we set off for the match (After being outraged at some of the stories told by Tony Whitcombe, of the stupidity, of many of the public he deals with in his job as a Fireman).
The match was 4 pegs on the specimen lake, the rest on match lake, in many ways I like not knowing a venue too well, as when the card is opened, whatever peg number is staring back at you, it means nothing. Todays number was 19, Tony did give me some advice, although he was keen to run to his own peg, ( as Pete Sivell said - "another flyer, you won't mention that in your blog", I assured Pete that I would indeed highlight the fact in mine!!)
Determined to keep things simple, I set up three rigs, one for right across, an Impact 4x12 on 0.15 powerline to a 18 PR36 and a hair rig for hard pellet. A 4x14 Impact float on 0.15 powerline, 0.13 hooklength and a 18 808 to fish two lines, at 10 & 2 oclock with soft pellet. And, a Jean Francios Desque 0.4g to fish a line topkit to hand and a section or 2 added if the fish pushed out. This was 0.11 straight through to a 18 6313 hook.
At the all in, I fed two lines with micro pellet and some very soft 4mm pellet, caster on the near line and hard pellet to the island. Before I'd finished doing this, there was the sound of a fish being landed away to my left - behind already!! I started on the near caster line and caught roach that were about 10-12 to the pound, I persevered on this line hoping for the Perch to show up, they didn't, l but was pleased to slip the net under an Ide over 2lb.
Water temp was 9.5°C throughout the day. So, at last an increase on the 4-5° thats been the norm since before Xmas.
To cut the 6 hours short, the sound of Tony continually playing and landing fish became a little repetitive, I worked the far bank at 14m to the island & 16m into the gap, more than once the fish moved into the space between me and Mike West (peg 20), I didn't chase them down there, as I didn't want him to catch them!!
Fishing straight in front and to the left, I managed 12 carp, unfortunately they were around the 3lb mark, until the penultimate fish, this was nearer 8lb - no problem - well it shouldn't have been, it was determind to get into the roots on the RH side of my platform. I was equally determind to stop it - obviously (now) when you pull black hydro taught, it takes on properties way above its normal rating - it did today at least, as 6" of match kit No2 section snapped off as an angry carp bottomed out, said taught hydro. Ended the day with 12 carp most around the 3lb mark, with one nearer 8lb.
In the last hour I had increased my feed from 4mm to 6mm pelllet, this was enough to add 4 fish and steal last place in the money. I've a lot to learn about Landsend, I'll carry on trying to pick Tony's brain - but I'll never be able to draw like him!!!
I wasn't too disappointed with my fourth placed finish, there were some of the Landsend regulars there today - you know the guys, they have rigs ready for every peg, don't need to plumb up as they have a mental picture of every peg and fish it 2 or 3 times a week - OK slight exaggeration, but not much!!
Tackle dealers delight to day, (Except Tony's own 'accident' a broken No7), I heard a landing net handle snap and die, a No4 pole section and my own No2 section, it wasn't even windy!!
The day was rounded off by Tony wandering around with some electricians screwdivers and another parcel - like some bizarre prize and Dean Malin & Jason Radford trying to out do each other in the "who can hold onto the electric otter fence the longest" - I do worry about the gene pool!! (Although did Jason suss that one of the strands wasn't electrified, hence his 12 seconds and Dean leaping around like a wallaby on speed after 0.1 sec.)
1) Tony Rixon 157-11 peg 15
2) Tony Whitcombe 87-07 peg 31 ("and not a blob of paste in sight")
3) Mike West 53-10 peg 21
4) Chris Fox 48-13 peg 19
5) Dean Malin 43-06 peg 13
6) Andy France 42.02 peg 17
Silvers
1) Ed Wynne 25-14 peg 25
2) Jason Radford 22-00
Thursday, 18 March 2010
Withypool - Carps AC 17th March 2010
After the last match here that turned into a rover, I was pleased to have the backing of Mike Nicholls against that, if the suggestion was made. Fortunately the 'norm' applied and the pegs were selected and put into the hat, I found 50 on the card I pulled out.
I've never fished the peg before, but it usually produces a few fish, so I wasn't too disappointed, Tom Thick was having a moan, but Charlie (Barnes) and I just renminded him how he usually draws a flyer on here - and with that Tom pulled peg 43, one of the most consistent pegs on the lake!!
On peg 50, there isan inviting LH margin, an island at 14m and open water, although the depth is very uneven, the peg deepens from left to right and shallows up once you get past 10m (it seems as if the 'tail' of the island slowly tapers down to full depth over about 15m.
Whilst the air temperature has risen, the water was still cold, so I set up a MW 0.5g pellet float on 0.15 to a 18B911 to fish pellet at the bottom of the shelf, a Galman winter wire on 0.11, 0.10 hooklength and a gamma black 20 completed the maggot/caster rig which was for a line at 7m at the 10 oclock position. I set up a waggler to fish corn or pellet to the point of the island and a margin rig, which would cover the LH margin and the 14mm reach to the island.
At the whistle, I fed corn into the LH margin and pellet (micro) onto the 10m line, both by pot, I fed the 7m line by hand with caster and the 14m line with corn by catapult, starting on the 10m line with soft pellet, saw me waiting 20 minutes before the first bite, a carp around the 4-5lb mark gladly netted. Shortly afterwards, I had another bite andthis carp shed the hook, possibly a foul hooker? After an hour and a half, 1 carp was all I had to show for the pellet line, a couple of drop in's with maggot didn't improve things, nor could I get a bite on the 7m line.
Earlier than I'd like I had a drop into the LH margin, not so much as a liner in 20 minutes, I then dropped the rig into the 14m island swim and within seconds the float buried and carp N02 was on its way to the net. Back out with a fresh grain of corn and within a couple of minutes the float buried again, the fish ran away to my left, tight to the island, then the hook pulled - foul hooker No2 I feel. Another fish followed shortly after from this line, then another which ran off to the right and again shed the hook - not sure if this was a fouler or not. After that, the line died completely, so I decided to rest it and back on the 10m pellet line.
First put in on soft pellet and the float dipped twice, a lift of th pole saw a 6oz skimmer come to the surface and come off, something I wasn't surprised at, the carp are a decent size in withy now, so I had black hydro in the topkit, lands the carp OK, but that sacrifices small skimmers.
No further bites from this line so I tried the 7m line, a few small roach fell to maggot, but not nearly big enough or frequent enough to be worth persevering with.
On the next peg (49) was Andy Gard, fishing the waggler and catching roach steadily, as he gives himself a match long commentary on what he is doing (never heard anyone vocalise there thoughts for so long!!) I knew he'd snapped off a couple of carp. The bankside whispers that it was fishing hard, so I had to get the carp to feed. I decided to abandon the corn and feed maggot to the island, some to the far side of the point to fish the waggler and some fed over the corn.
I set up a new rig to fish shallow at 14m, first put in tight to the island resulted in another carp on double red maggot, then a run of bites from roach developed, trying the waggler wasn't fruitful, it was impossible to keep the float in the right place because of the wind, so I gave that up. With 10 minutes to go I was dropping the 14m rig in a metre or so to the left of the feed area, thankfully I hooked another carp, a better fish this time after a decent tussle a fish around the 8lb mark was in the net.
5 carp for 26lb 11oz and 1lb of roach saw my 27lb 11oz good enough for second place, Tom wasn't moaning at the end, as he won comfortably with carp and 20lb+ of skimmers.
I know everyone has there own thoughts on payouts, but I can't convince myself that equally splitting the main pool and silvers pool is the way to go, coming second, I picked up less than the 5th place man (silvers winner).I don't fish for the money, but it does seem that at many matches now spread the money so widely that you just about get the entry back for a frame place. I have had several conversations with Rich Coles about this (Grumpy Old Men) and we both recall that winning a match (or framing) put a weeks or more wages in your pocket. Obviously the size of the field affects this, its a shame there can't be some rotation system between organisers and fisheries, to see one big match every wednesday, instead of several smaller ones.
1) Tom Thick 55.13 peg 43
2) Chris Fox 27.11 peg 50
3) Mike Nicholls 24.10 53
4) John Bennet 8.15 peg 73
5) Bob Price 7.02 peg 47
6) Andy Gard 7.01 peg 49
Silvers:
1) Tom Thick 20.08
2) Bob Price 7.02
3) Andy Gard 7.01
I've never fished the peg before, but it usually produces a few fish, so I wasn't too disappointed, Tom Thick was having a moan, but Charlie (Barnes) and I just renminded him how he usually draws a flyer on here - and with that Tom pulled peg 43, one of the most consistent pegs on the lake!!
On peg 50, there isan inviting LH margin, an island at 14m and open water, although the depth is very uneven, the peg deepens from left to right and shallows up once you get past 10m (it seems as if the 'tail' of the island slowly tapers down to full depth over about 15m.
Whilst the air temperature has risen, the water was still cold, so I set up a MW 0.5g pellet float on 0.15 to a 18B911 to fish pellet at the bottom of the shelf, a Galman winter wire on 0.11, 0.10 hooklength and a gamma black 20 completed the maggot/caster rig which was for a line at 7m at the 10 oclock position. I set up a waggler to fish corn or pellet to the point of the island and a margin rig, which would cover the LH margin and the 14mm reach to the island.
At the whistle, I fed corn into the LH margin and pellet (micro) onto the 10m line, both by pot, I fed the 7m line by hand with caster and the 14m line with corn by catapult, starting on the 10m line with soft pellet, saw me waiting 20 minutes before the first bite, a carp around the 4-5lb mark gladly netted. Shortly afterwards, I had another bite andthis carp shed the hook, possibly a foul hooker? After an hour and a half, 1 carp was all I had to show for the pellet line, a couple of drop in's with maggot didn't improve things, nor could I get a bite on the 7m line.
Earlier than I'd like I had a drop into the LH margin, not so much as a liner in 20 minutes, I then dropped the rig into the 14m island swim and within seconds the float buried and carp N02 was on its way to the net. Back out with a fresh grain of corn and within a couple of minutes the float buried again, the fish ran away to my left, tight to the island, then the hook pulled - foul hooker No2 I feel. Another fish followed shortly after from this line, then another which ran off to the right and again shed the hook - not sure if this was a fouler or not. After that, the line died completely, so I decided to rest it and back on the 10m pellet line.
First put in on soft pellet and the float dipped twice, a lift of th pole saw a 6oz skimmer come to the surface and come off, something I wasn't surprised at, the carp are a decent size in withy now, so I had black hydro in the topkit, lands the carp OK, but that sacrifices small skimmers.
No further bites from this line so I tried the 7m line, a few small roach fell to maggot, but not nearly big enough or frequent enough to be worth persevering with.
On the next peg (49) was Andy Gard, fishing the waggler and catching roach steadily, as he gives himself a match long commentary on what he is doing (never heard anyone vocalise there thoughts for so long!!) I knew he'd snapped off a couple of carp. The bankside whispers that it was fishing hard, so I had to get the carp to feed. I decided to abandon the corn and feed maggot to the island, some to the far side of the point to fish the waggler and some fed over the corn.
I set up a new rig to fish shallow at 14m, first put in tight to the island resulted in another carp on double red maggot, then a run of bites from roach developed, trying the waggler wasn't fruitful, it was impossible to keep the float in the right place because of the wind, so I gave that up. With 10 minutes to go I was dropping the 14m rig in a metre or so to the left of the feed area, thankfully I hooked another carp, a better fish this time after a decent tussle a fish around the 8lb mark was in the net.
5 carp for 26lb 11oz and 1lb of roach saw my 27lb 11oz good enough for second place, Tom wasn't moaning at the end, as he won comfortably with carp and 20lb+ of skimmers.
I know everyone has there own thoughts on payouts, but I can't convince myself that equally splitting the main pool and silvers pool is the way to go, coming second, I picked up less than the 5th place man (silvers winner).I don't fish for the money, but it does seem that at many matches now spread the money so widely that you just about get the entry back for a frame place. I have had several conversations with Rich Coles about this (Grumpy Old Men) and we both recall that winning a match (or framing) put a weeks or more wages in your pocket. Obviously the size of the field affects this, its a shame there can't be some rotation system between organisers and fisheries, to see one big match every wednesday, instead of several smaller ones.
1) Tom Thick 55.13 peg 43
2) Chris Fox 27.11 peg 50
3) Mike Nicholls 24.10 53
4) John Bennet 8.15 peg 73
5) Bob Price 7.02 peg 47
6) Andy Gard 7.01 peg 49
Silvers:
1) Tom Thick 20.08
2) Bob Price 7.02
3) Andy Gard 7.01
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
Pleasure session at Plantation
Bit pissed off today, having no match to fish!! Avon Angling match sold out, Carps AC match sold out (and 3 reserves) and the silvers match at Viaduct cancelled.
I headed down towards Kingston Seymour and rang Tony on the off chance he had a no show - no such luck. I had a walk round Bullock Farm and a chat to Phil, there was work in progress, a new footbridge to the island was under construction and a couple of the ropey old platforms had been renewed on the match lake. The lakes at Bullock Farm are still very clear, I'm really hoping the water temperature rises a couple of degrees by the time the Kev Perry series starts.
As it was freezing in the easterly wind and I didn't fancy any of the pegs that had the wind from behind, I bade Bullock Farm farewell and headed round to Plantation. Only acouple of anglers on the lake when I got there, so could choose where I fished, several pegs were closed off, as James and his Dad were repairing them and reclaiming some bank - fishery maintenance, its obviously catching.
I settled for peg 38, the point, I've never drawn this peg, so it was as good as any to practice. I had made up my mind to have a session on the feeder / straight lead, to brush up on my technique when casting tight to islands. I set up a mini cage feeder, with maggot and crushed up feed pellet as the filling, maggot on the hook. Third cast the tip went round and an odd shaped carp (huge head, very wide) that weighed about 2½lb was in the net after a very valiant struggle. Next cast a 10oz skimmer, then a couple of casts later, a roach - obviously not rammed full of hungry carp over there then..... I struggled for bites after that, switching to straight lead and trying away from where I'd chucked the feeder.
As this was supposed to be a pleasure session, I decided to abandon the lead rod and set up a pole to fish caster at 10m, I also fed a line that let me fish top three to hand, although I wasn't too hopeful for that line. The 10m line produced a couple of small roach, but was pretty slow, the 3m line started to produce fish , the roach were coming up in the water, I set up another rig to fish half depth and caught roach, rudd and perch to around the 14oz mark, I dropped the full depth rig in occasionally and picked up two carp on this, gave me a run round on middy hi viz purple elastic.
30 seconds before 4.30 (my all out), I hooked a large carp, this was on No6 solid latex and when the hook pulled 20 minutes later, I hadn't managed top get its head up off the bottom.
If I had done the sensible thing and fished for silvers all day, I would probably have had 20lb of silvers (I reckon I had just over 10lb) and maybe a couple more carp, caster was certainly the bait of the day.
I've now sussed how to use my phones camera, so for novelty value.....
The best roach always hide when a camera comes out.....
And the carp, the photo doesn't do justice to the huge head on the one in the middle.
And finally, James revealed that Darren 'Noddy' Vowles fished the peg the day before and "struggled a bit to catch, he also dropped his phone in, I went in for him but couldn't find it"
I can't even ring or text him to take the piss............
I headed down towards Kingston Seymour and rang Tony on the off chance he had a no show - no such luck. I had a walk round Bullock Farm and a chat to Phil, there was work in progress, a new footbridge to the island was under construction and a couple of the ropey old platforms had been renewed on the match lake. The lakes at Bullock Farm are still very clear, I'm really hoping the water temperature rises a couple of degrees by the time the Kev Perry series starts.
As it was freezing in the easterly wind and I didn't fancy any of the pegs that had the wind from behind, I bade Bullock Farm farewell and headed round to Plantation. Only acouple of anglers on the lake when I got there, so could choose where I fished, several pegs were closed off, as James and his Dad were repairing them and reclaiming some bank - fishery maintenance, its obviously catching.
I settled for peg 38, the point, I've never drawn this peg, so it was as good as any to practice. I had made up my mind to have a session on the feeder / straight lead, to brush up on my technique when casting tight to islands. I set up a mini cage feeder, with maggot and crushed up feed pellet as the filling, maggot on the hook. Third cast the tip went round and an odd shaped carp (huge head, very wide) that weighed about 2½lb was in the net after a very valiant struggle. Next cast a 10oz skimmer, then a couple of casts later, a roach - obviously not rammed full of hungry carp over there then..... I struggled for bites after that, switching to straight lead and trying away from where I'd chucked the feeder.
As this was supposed to be a pleasure session, I decided to abandon the lead rod and set up a pole to fish caster at 10m, I also fed a line that let me fish top three to hand, although I wasn't too hopeful for that line. The 10m line produced a couple of small roach, but was pretty slow, the 3m line started to produce fish , the roach were coming up in the water, I set up another rig to fish half depth and caught roach, rudd and perch to around the 14oz mark, I dropped the full depth rig in occasionally and picked up two carp on this, gave me a run round on middy hi viz purple elastic.
30 seconds before 4.30 (my all out), I hooked a large carp, this was on No6 solid latex and when the hook pulled 20 minutes later, I hadn't managed top get its head up off the bottom.
If I had done the sensible thing and fished for silvers all day, I would probably have had 20lb of silvers (I reckon I had just over 10lb) and maybe a couple more carp, caster was certainly the bait of the day.
I've now sussed how to use my phones camera, so for novelty value.....
The best roach always hide when a camera comes out.....
And the carp, the photo doesn't do justice to the huge head on the one in the middle.
And finally, James revealed that Darren 'Noddy' Vowles fished the peg the day before and "struggled a bit to catch, he also dropped his phone in, I went in for him but couldn't find it"
I can't even ring or text him to take the piss............
Monday, 8 March 2010
Wildmarsh, Clevedon FWAC match, 7th March 2010
I had booked into the open on Woodland at Trinity for Sundays match, but as there were a few at Viaduct, the match was cancelled. I thought long and hard about fishing this match, Woodland has been kind to me, more often than not I've left with some coin. Not so Wildmarsh, I've really struggled on this lake, not a single pick up!!
I decided that I should fish it, to try and exorcise whatever demon it holds, so I booked in with Darren 'Nuddy' Vowles, who was running the match in the ansence of his master, Paul Nicholls. Paul, your bitch did OK - at organising, not so with his fishing, I now realise that the sticker maker who made the - Darren 'Nudd' Vowles - sticker for his box was suffering from dyslexia, it should read Darren 'Noddy' Vowles.
Given the weather forecast, I decided that a caster, maggot and pinkie approach would be best, to try and catch a few roach, I also took a few worms for the skimmers. There was also a tin of corn knocking around the bottom of my carryall. I put the ice breaker in the van, as the frost was thick on the windows, but on arrival was pleasantly surprised to see the lake ice free.
The pegging had been delegated to Paul Faiers and Glen Calvert, when they got back they said they had included peg 41, behind the island - my initial thoughts were that if the skimmers showed in the main body of the lake, the peg could struggle, but it should be good for a few roach and the odd chub. The easterly wind was blowing straight into the faces of those in the 60's, I didn't fancy that bank!!
I drew 41 and was quietly pleased, as it offered open water fishing towards the footbridge and some cover to fish against the island at 15m. I decided to feed four lines, a 3m caster and pinkie line to my right, a waggler line with caster in open water towards the footbridge, caster and maggot to the island and a few grains of corn to the 'tree of death' (a tree overhanging the water on the island to my right).
Starting on the waggler, I had a chub on my third cast and for an hour and a half had odd chub and a 2½lb skimmer. When the sun came round, the waggler line died, I couldn't get a bite on the 3m line and not so much as a liner, chucking corn on a straight lead to the tree.
I went over to the island and had two bites in two put ins, losing both fish, one shed the hook, one took the hook. I then had a couple of chub and small carp, before hooking a better fish, I managed to get it into open water and thought that I may get it in on the 0.08 / 22 Gamma black and purple middy hi viz elastic - I then tried to be too clever - don't answer your phone whilst playing a fish!! It took me round the corner and shed the hook in the rushes.
Up until now I hadn't had a roach, so decided to fish for carp and set up a heavier float, 0.15 hooklength and a 20 B911 - first two fish on this rig were roach...why? I carried on getting bites, all fish falling to single maggot, with carp from just over a 1lb up to 7 or 8lb. A really good days fishing and the demon exorcised. The rest of the lake fished hard as you'll see by the results below:
1) Chris Fox 44lb 7oz peg 41 (Carp, chub a couple of roach and 1 skimmer)
2) Ivan Currie 5lb 6oz peg 49 (1 Carp, 1 Skimmer)
3) Simon Carvello 4lb 7oz peg 46 (2 skimmers)
4) Glen Calvert 3lb 11oz peg 64 ( 1 bream caught 2 mins before the all out!!)
5) Darren 'Noddy' Vowles 3lb 3oz (1 suicidal bream)
All the rest DNW.
Silvers
1) Chris Fox 10lb 15oz
Silvers Winner
Match Winner
Photography by Misha, using my phone after it was dropped into the net of carp!!
Watch out Whiteacres, as a posse of Clevedon misfits make their way down the M5 for next weeks festival, I'm sure the tales of woe, lost pole sections and lager induced memory loss will abound when they get back!! Good luck lads, I bet Des Shipp, Coxy and co are quaking in their boots.
I decided that I should fish it, to try and exorcise whatever demon it holds, so I booked in with Darren 'Nuddy' Vowles, who was running the match in the ansence of his master, Paul Nicholls. Paul, your bitch did OK - at organising, not so with his fishing, I now realise that the sticker maker who made the - Darren 'Nudd' Vowles - sticker for his box was suffering from dyslexia, it should read Darren 'Noddy' Vowles.
Given the weather forecast, I decided that a caster, maggot and pinkie approach would be best, to try and catch a few roach, I also took a few worms for the skimmers. There was also a tin of corn knocking around the bottom of my carryall. I put the ice breaker in the van, as the frost was thick on the windows, but on arrival was pleasantly surprised to see the lake ice free.
The pegging had been delegated to Paul Faiers and Glen Calvert, when they got back they said they had included peg 41, behind the island - my initial thoughts were that if the skimmers showed in the main body of the lake, the peg could struggle, but it should be good for a few roach and the odd chub. The easterly wind was blowing straight into the faces of those in the 60's, I didn't fancy that bank!!
I drew 41 and was quietly pleased, as it offered open water fishing towards the footbridge and some cover to fish against the island at 15m. I decided to feed four lines, a 3m caster and pinkie line to my right, a waggler line with caster in open water towards the footbridge, caster and maggot to the island and a few grains of corn to the 'tree of death' (a tree overhanging the water on the island to my right).
Starting on the waggler, I had a chub on my third cast and for an hour and a half had odd chub and a 2½lb skimmer. When the sun came round, the waggler line died, I couldn't get a bite on the 3m line and not so much as a liner, chucking corn on a straight lead to the tree.
I went over to the island and had two bites in two put ins, losing both fish, one shed the hook, one took the hook. I then had a couple of chub and small carp, before hooking a better fish, I managed to get it into open water and thought that I may get it in on the 0.08 / 22 Gamma black and purple middy hi viz elastic - I then tried to be too clever - don't answer your phone whilst playing a fish!! It took me round the corner and shed the hook in the rushes.
Up until now I hadn't had a roach, so decided to fish for carp and set up a heavier float, 0.15 hooklength and a 20 B911 - first two fish on this rig were roach...why? I carried on getting bites, all fish falling to single maggot, with carp from just over a 1lb up to 7 or 8lb. A really good days fishing and the demon exorcised. The rest of the lake fished hard as you'll see by the results below:
1) Chris Fox 44lb 7oz peg 41 (Carp, chub a couple of roach and 1 skimmer)
2) Ivan Currie 5lb 6oz peg 49 (1 Carp, 1 Skimmer)
3) Simon Carvello 4lb 7oz peg 46 (2 skimmers)
4) Glen Calvert 3lb 11oz peg 64 ( 1 bream caught 2 mins before the all out!!)
5) Darren 'Noddy' Vowles 3lb 3oz (1 suicidal bream)
All the rest DNW.
Silvers
1) Chris Fox 10lb 15oz
Silvers Winner
Match Winner
Photography by Misha, using my phone after it was dropped into the net of carp!!
Watch out Whiteacres, as a posse of Clevedon misfits make their way down the M5 for next weeks festival, I'm sure the tales of woe, lost pole sections and lager induced memory loss will abound when they get back!! Good luck lads, I bet Des Shipp, Coxy and co are quaking in their boots.
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