Trinity Waters Two Day Festival 2011

Trinity Waters Two Day Festival
Saturday June 25th & Sunday June 26th 2011

Sponsored by Brittons Ash Garage, Taunton.

£50 Entry – 100% payout + some extra prize money from sponsorship

Peg fees paid by sponsor.

Both days on Woodland Lake, limited to 20 anglers.

Draw: 09.30. Fish: 11.00- 1700

Payout if 20 fish:
Overall
1st - £250
2nd - £175
3rd – 125
4th - £90

Silvers
1st - £150
2nd – 100
3rd - £60

4 x sections of five, both days, £50 for section winner.
(all payouts subject to revision if less than 20 fish)

Result decided by section points and then weight in the event of a tie.

To enter, please contact:

Andy Hembrow 07880566943

Kev Perry Series Round Five. Sunday 15th May

The penultimate match in the series, with a chance of framing in the overall looking slimmer than Isabelle Caro, silvers had to be my main condsideration, as I led the table going into this one.

With nearest rival Dave Wride in the section, a good draw was imperative, peg 13 would be the kiss of death - hopfully Dave would draw it. No such luck, peg 17 stuck to Daves golden mitt and peg 18 was drawn for me, it would be very difficult to beat Dave today..... especially as there were fish blowing in the open water between 17 & 24, peg 18 looked ominously vacant.

I stuck with the tried and tested rigs and bait that had put me top of the table, a sensas pencil on 0.11/0.09 with a 22 63-13, a Malman winter wire on 0.13/0.10 and a 20 63-13, finally a MW slim power 0.13/0.11 to a 18 808 for the dreaded devils spawn. As the rushes were kicking, I set up a slim Mosella pattern float to fish tight to them with a hair rigged hard pellet - a couple of looks with this produced nothing.

I've had a fish first put in every match so far, not this one - the venue fished hard, the favoured open water pegs produced the silvers, the feature pegs produced some carp, but not many. I persevered with my silvers lines, caster at 6m, maggot at 11m and softened micros / devils spawn at 13m towards peg 17. As per usual, the devils spawn line was useless until I converted it to maggot. Switching between the lines I had the odd skimmer, fantail and crucian, except on the caster line. (With hindsight,I think all the pegs being in on the chicken shed bank is too many). Feeding meant I didn't get a bite for a while after, not feeding resulted in no bites.

It was obvious the fish weren't feeding, Dave Poole on peg 19 had 3 fish all day, the wind blowing completely the wrong way for our end of the lake.I ventured over to the rushes with my silvers rig and had two carp on maggot. After 5 3/4 hours of scrathing for bites, at 4pm, with 15 minutes to go, I had a skimmer over the 13m line, went back out and had one every put in, until the all out at 4.15pm - too little, too late.

Dave Wride had battered me, he caught silvers and carp in his open water as expected, all I could hope for was no one else had beaten me in the section (silvers), luckily, my meagre 4.850KG of silvers was enough to take 2nd silvers in section, leaving me & Dave on 27 points each, but Dave with a superior weight. All to fish for next week..... No doubt, golden mitt Wride will pluck peg 24 from the bucket, as we are in C section next week.

Lewis Jones surrendered his lead at the top of the overall table, struggling in peg 13, whilst Shaun Kittridge made the most of in form peg 28 (most consistent silvers peg in the series) to win the silvers and the match, taking topspot from Lewis.

1) Shaun Kittridge 22.430KG peg 28
2) Dave Wride 15.050KG peg 17
3) Andy Hembrow 14.500KG peg 22
4) Bob Gullick 13.510KG peg 12
5) Lance Tucker 12.900 peg 6
6) Paul Faiers 12.000KG peg 24

Silvers

1) Shaun Kittridge 16.030KG peg 28
2) Paul Faiers 12.000KG peg 24
=3)Dave Wride 8.050KG peg17
=3) Lance Tucker 8.050KG peg 6

Kev Perry Series 2011 Overall Table
Table with worst dropped
Name Points Weight Worst
1 Shaun Kittridge 26 80.530 5 2.900
2 Lewis Jones 24 52.170 3 3.660
3 Andy Hembrow 23 53.210 1 3.900
4 Paul Faiers 23 51.220 3 8.810
5 Kev Perry 22 56.820 2 5.590
6 Lance Tucker 22 48.750 1 4.980
7 Dave Wride 21 53.620 3 2.670
8 J Huntbatch 21 42.540 0 0.000
9 Mark Bromsgrove 20 54.980 1 1.350
10 Chris Fox 20 41.410 4 7.770
11 Andy Hockin 19 43.390 0 0.000
12 M Owens 18 42.900 0 0.000
13 Sam Johnson 16 46.490 0 0.000
14 Bob Gullick 15 39.820 0 0.000
15 Clive Pettit 15 27.740 1 3.980
16 Nick Harvey 14 33.280 0 0.000
17 N Vigus 13 32.870 1 2.080
18 John Osbourne 12 17.880 1 3.450
19 P Bartlett 11 26.730 0 0.000
20 Glen Calvert 5 13.120 0 0.000
21 Charlie Barnes 5 9.430 0 0.000


Kev Perry Series 2011 Silvers Table
Table with worst dropped
Name Points Weight Worst
1 Dave Wride 27 34.600 4 1.550
2 Chris Fox 27 31.850 3 3.200
3 Sean Kitteridge 25 29.450 5 5.550
4 Lance Tucker 25 26.550 3 2.360
5 N Vigus 25 15.400 5 5.250
6 Paul Faiers 23 33.130 2 0.280
7 Mark Bromsgrove 22 18.990 2 0.800
8 Kev Perry 20 20.740 3 1.550
9 Lewis Jones 18 9.960 3 4.530
10 Andy Hockin 16 13.440 0 0.000
11 Clive Pettit 16 11.360 1 2.280
12 M Owens 15 12.190 1 2.740
13 Andy Hembrow 15 8.920 1 1.270
14 J Huntbatch 15 8.640 0 0.000
15 John Osbourne 14 8.570 1 1.050
16 Bob Gullick 13 10.000 0 0.000
17 Charlie Barnes 12 7.890 0 0.000
18 Nick Harvey 9 9.000 0 0.000
19 Glen Calvert 9 5.770 0 0.000
20 Sam Johnson 5 4.740 0 0.000
21 P Bartlett 4 3.560 0 0.000

Once again, apologies for the cramped format, haven't had time yet to suss out posting tables into blog.

Landsend Open Saturday 14th May

I'd already decided to fish for silvers as soon as I booked in for this one. Perhaps not the wisest way to approach a match.....

17 fished, so the match lake and the back bank of the specimen lake were used, I drew peg 7. Once I got to the peg I could see that the far bank looked fairly inviting for carp, so rather than stick to my all out silvers attack, I did set up one MW cookie on 0.17 /0.15 to a 18 B960 with a hair rigged band - just in case!!

The other rigs were my usual silvers attack, a Malman winter wire on 0.13 to 0.11 and a 18 63-13, a sensal pencil on 0.11/0.10 and a 20 63-13 and one that I never seem to catch on, a MW slim power on 0.13/0.11 with a 18 808 for devils spawn (soft pellet).

Caster was to be the main line of attack, at 7m and topset, soft pellet went in at 13m to my left towards the gap, that produced one decent skimmer and nothing else, so no more to say abouit that. The 7m line produced a few small perch and a couple of decent F1's, before a switch to the topkit line brought some bigger perch on double caster. It seemed to be fishing hard, although I could only see 19 opposite, the anglers on my bank weren't exactly bagging.

By the half way point, the silvers action had slowed and a few carp were showing themselves up on the far shelf (the water seems to be down 18" or so). The fish were 16m away, towards the gap, I had been pinging a few 6mm's over and decided it was time for a look. The gusting, swirling wind, which apart from making the pencil float useless, hadn't affected the 7m and topkit lines, but it was virtually impossible to present a bait properly at 16m. I stuck at it a while and had 5 carp, but it was getting more and more difficult to present and my back was suffering.

Back on the silvers and I had another carp on th topkit line, another F1 and a couple more perch before the all out. I'd managed to put myself one out of the silvers money by 1lb and one out of the overall money by 2lb 15oz - well done for not sticking to one or the other!!

Specimen lake produced a few munters to take the top spot, with the opposite bank to me on match lake making up the frame.

1) Dan White 88.13 peg 31
2) Rod Wootton 80.09 peg 19
3) Scott Puddy 77.14 peg 19
4) Tom Mangnall 60.00 peg 24
=5) Mike West 54.08 peg 13
=5) Tom Thick 54.08 peg 33
7) Chris Fox 51.09

Silvers

1) Tom Thick 22.00 peg 33
2) Tom Mangnall 19.12 peg 24
3) Chris Fox 18.12 peg 7

Kev Perry Series Round Four. Sunday 8th May

If anyone wants to buy a 1000 piece Tourney Pro Jigsaw, keep an eye out on ebay, Dave Baker is selling one.......

As we were eating Breakfast in Bullock's Cafe, Paul(Faiers) phone rings and he relays to me the tale of the two Clevedon walking disasters, Darren 'Nuddy' Vowles and Dave(please think up and insert applicable nickname)Baker, on their way fishing, having strapped their rod holdalls to the roof of Daves car. Apparently the holdalls became detached from the roof on the motorway, 'Nuddy's'landing in the fast lane and suffering no real damage, Mr Bakers disappeared under a lorry, creating the unique Tourney Pro jigsaw from his new pole. This didn't cause too much piss taking in the Cafe!!

Anyway, I digress, we were 5 short today, but 4 mad fools keen anglers made up the numbers, so we only had one vacant peg. As this was an open draw, the 4 'ringers' drew the name of who they'd be for the day, so that when the sections rotate next week, it was done as fairly as possible.

I had my peg drawn for me, peg A1, permanent peg 2, oh well at least my rigs should be the right depth as I had peg A2 (3) in the last match. The peg hadn't produced a decent silvers weight in the previous 3 matches, but as I'd won the silvers from peg 3 in round 3, I thought I might get a few.

The Overall & Silvers tables indicated I should concentrate on silvers, which I intended to do, I had my usual maggot, caster & pinkie on the bait try, along with soft pellet (Gawd knows why I keep buying it and throwing it away at the end of the match, I never catch on it). I did have one tin of meat cubed to 6mm, as occasionally the crucians and fantails will have this and as a last resort, a few bits of catmeat to punch.

The wind was blowing from my right to left and a fair bit of debris and scum had built up against my LH margin, I cleared some of it with a landing net and it floated off into Lewis Jones peg - sorry Lewis, I saw you clearing it from your margin. I really didn't intend to fish the margin, but did set up a rig to fish it, just in case there was a queue of hungry carp waiting there.

I set up three rigs to fish the open water, a sensas pencil, with some strung out stotz, to 0.09 and a 22 63-13, a Malman Winter Wire, on 0.11 to a 0.10 hooklength and a 20 63-13 and a MW diamond on 0.15 to 0.12 with a 16 808 - this was to try the devils spawn (soft pellet) - it had very little use.

The wind was gusting and causing a heavy surface skim, thwarting my efforts with the pencil float, the Winter Wire with a small bulk gave better presentation, but I'm convinced I'd have caught better if I could have presented a slowly falling bait.

I fed three lines as per last match, pinkie/groundbait, a loose fed caster line (again the wind was making that difficult so I had to resort to a pole mounted cup for a while) and a micro pellet/soft pellet line that produce nothing(again!!).

By switching between the two 'real bait' lines I managed to keep the odd fantail and crucian coming, I only had one small skimmer and one roach - unusual of late when fishing caster - and towards the end had a run of perfect looking F1's about 6oz - where did they come from??

I did try the pellet line a couple more times to no avail, I had 10 minutes down the margin on maggot, then catmeat - nothing, not even a liner. As it went a bit quiet after about 3 hours, I started a new line at 11m with some of the cubed meat, over this fishing cubed meat I had 3 or 4 un-hittable bites and then nothing.

I managed one carp, I think it was the same one I caught on peg 3 in the last match, it was .850g then, today it had grown by .010g. I found it hard to judge the weight I had at the all out, I thought some of the crucians/fantails were small, but they must weigh heavier than they look, as, I admitted 7 or 8lb and was hoping for 10lb. I was surprised when they took two weighs to give me 11.550KG and first in the silvers for the second match running. I think Dave Wride was a bit pissed off as he informed me "that for an experienced angler, you're crap at knowing what weight is in your net" - sorry Dave, but thats a true statement.

That's taken me to the top of the silvers table now (taking into account the worst result dropped), with three section wins - no need to ask what I'll be fishing for the next two matches......

Interesting to see how close pegs 16, 17 and 19 were, peg 18 was the one not drawn.

1) D Wride 19.000KG peg 8
2) R Wootton 18.670KG peg 25
3) P Faiers 15.670KG peg 16
4) M Owens 15.510KG peg 17
5) S Kitteridge 15.400KG peg 19
6) A Hockin 14.620KG peg 24

Silvers

1) C Fox 11.550KG peg 2
2) D wride 10.950KG peg 8
3) L Tucker 8.050KG peg 22
4) K Perry 7.900KG peg 28
5) P Faiers 7.650KG peg 18
6) R Wootton 6.820KG peg 25


Kev Perry Series 2011 Overall Table
Table with worst dropped
Name Points Weight Worst
1 Lewis Jones 20 42.340 4 9.830
2 Sean Kitteridge 19 58.100 5 2.900
3 Kev Perry 17 48.670 2 5.590
4 Mark Bromsgrove 17 44.410 3 10.570
5 Paul Faiers 17 39.220 3 8.810
6 Andy Hembrow 16 38.710 1 3.900
7 J Huntbatch 16 35.870 0 0.000
8 Lance Tucker 16 35.850 1 4.980
9 Chris Fox 16 31.980 4 9.430
10 Andy Hockin 15 36.790 0 0.000
11 M Owens 15 35.050 3 7.850
12 Sam Johnson 14 42.690 0 0.000
13 Dave Wride 14 38.570 3 2.670
14 Nick Harvey 12 29.140 2 4.140
15 Clive Pettit 12 21.480 1 3.980
16 John Osbourne 10 16.880 1 3.450
17 Bob Gullick 9 26.310 0 0.000
18 N Vigus 8 21.690 1 2.080
19 P Bartlett 8 20.310 0 0.000
20 Charlie Barnes 5 9.430 0 0.000
21 Glen Calvert 3 6.810 0 0.000


Kev Perry Series 2011 Silvers Table
Table with worst dropped
Name Points Weight Worst
1 Chris Fox 21 27.000 3 3.200
2 Dave Wride 20 26.550 4 1.550
3 Lance Tucker 19 18.500 3 2.360
4 N Vigus 19 11.930 6 3.470
5 Mark Bromsgrove 18 17.240 4 1.750
6 Sean Kitteridge 18 13.420 5 5.550
7 Paul Faiers 16 21.130 2 0.280
8 Kev Perry 16 17.300 4 3.440
9 M Owens 15 12.190 1 2.740
10 Lewis Jones 14 7.200 3 4.530
11 J Huntbatch 13 6.770 0 0.000
12 John Osbourne 12 8.120 1 1.050
13 Charlie Barnes 12 7.890 0 0.000
14 Andy Hockin 11 9.240 0 0.000
15 Andy Hembrow 11 8.420 1 1.270
16 Clive Pettit 10 6.030 1 2.280
17 Nick Harvey 9 9.000 0 0.000
18 Bob Gullick 8 6.750 0 0.000
19 Glen Calvert 6 4.210 0 0.000
20 Sam Johnson 5 4.740 0 0.000
21 P Bartlett 4 3.560 0 0.000

Apologies for the cramped format, I'll try and suss out how to post a table in the blog.

Viaduct Pole Only 29th April 2011

I’d been looking forward to this match, as the previous pole only matches have been close affairs. Not sure how many were in, but three lakes were needed, Campbell, Cary & Lodge. I think a combination of the weather and proximity to spawning has had a detrimental effect on the fishing over the last couple of weeks, so I wasn’t too bothered which lake I drew. Cary and Lodge giving more chance of building a weight in the last couple of hours if the big fish feed.

Peg 66 was to be my home for 6 hours, a new peg for me, so I listened to all the advice offered, although it ranged from the incredulous – “you’ll sack up. It’s a flier” to the miserable, “Lodge fished shit yesterday”.

I set up a meat rig for under the tree/by the platform of the overgrown peg 65, a paste rig that would cover both the 11m line and up against the tree, a meat rig for 11m, which would also suffice for 6m. A rig for hair rigged pellet completed the set up.

I started by feeding some meat in front of 65, some softened pellet by the tree and I started on the 11m line straight in front, with a 6mm banded pellet and feeding 6mm’s by catty. The float didn’t sit still, the tiny roach and motherless minnows kept plucking at the pellet until they got it out of the band. It took half an hour to get 2 skimmers in the net, I then looked over the paste line by the tree, once again pestered by the bits. The meat in front of 65 and even further past, produced nothing all match, not even a bite. I also set up a shallow rig, this produced nothing either.

Back onto the 11m line with paste and after a 10 minute wait, a cloud of bubbles erupted around the float, it bobbed and jagged under, after a tough fight a 10lb common was netted. That was it until the last hour ( apart from many gaffed motherless and roach) I had three more in the last hour on paste, including a 17lb common, giving me just over 45lb – which was 50% + short of what was required to win the lake and 2/3rds short of the winning total. Bob Gullick won the lake with 97lb including a 21lb fish and I think Nick Collier won from Cary with about 130lb, but this may not be factual as I shot off before the result, as I had to get to work.

Plenty struggled, the fish aren’t actively looking for food, lets hope the spawning is over soon and some settled, seasonal weather gets them spread out round the lakes and looking for food.

Viaduct Wednesday Open, 27th April 2011

After a couple of section wins in my last two visits, I was looking forward to this, but a bit apprehensive as to how it would fish after all the spawning action on Monday. Campbell & Cary being the two lakes in, once again 3 baits in the bag, pellet, meat & paste. Out of the tin came 126, not a bad draw, but it is in the middle of the lake and with a constant wind blowing down the lake, would the fish be there.

I had company on 127, but 125 was empty, with Dean Malin on 124, Steve Kedge was opposite and to my right on 115, fishing for silvers short, so the fish had a big area of water, sometimes its good, sometimes bad, as they get somewhere to back off into.

There were fish cruising round before the start, I was unsure if they'd stay within pole range, so set up a waggler and a lead rod, as well as shallow & full depth pellet rigs, a paste rig, and two meat rigs, one for the margin, one for 6m.

I managed to mug one fish at the all-in, with out feeding, but they backed off beyond pole range into the gap between Dean & myself. I think I confused myself by having too much set up, switching between lines, baits and methods trying to get bites. The angler on 127 was catching on the lead, so I followed suit, I had a couple of fish, but at nowhere near the rate he was catching. I tried the margin, two tench in two put ins, great, I'll fish for them, except that was the end of my silvers action.

I eneded up catching a few shallow in the last 3/4 hour, but it was too little too late and I'd caught one or two on meat at 6m, pellet at 14m, the lead and those I had shallow. The waggler only produced a couple of lost foulers, I bought a new reel (a Preston Inception 4000 to try out) and after two matches have yet to christen it with a fish, I may have to chuck it in the lake if its a jinx.

With 20 minutes to go, I knew I'd been well beaten, by the winner on 127 who had 30+ carp and some silvers to my 12 carp and 2 tench. Dean had persevered with the pole and had at least a 1/3 as much again as I had, so I packed up and tipped back around 65lb.

At least the Royal Wedding Fridays match is pole only, limiting in one way, but it makes you work at what you've got, I must do better on that one. As predicted, I was well and truly beaten by the 170+ weight, which came mainly on the lead from my RH side.

1) P Greening 171.9 peg 127
2) A Murray 154.12 peg 132
3) T Rixon 139.6 peg 119
4) N Collier 138.14 peg 129
5) Scott Russel 138.4 peg 114
6) Charlie Barnes 116.13 peg 111

Silvers
1) N Collier 38.14

Viaduct Open, Easter Monday, 25th April 2011

Cary & Lodge lakes were in for todays Bank Holiday match, with 36 fishing. There was a fair bit of spawning activity on Cary and plenty of basking fish in Lodge. I'd gone with my usual positive approach, hard pellet, paste and meat being the only baits in my bag. A new area of the lake for me today, peg 105.

Inviting looking margins had me setting up a paste & meat rig, the paste rig direct on 0.19 to a 12 Mustad paste hook and the meat rig was a MW margin on 0.19 to 0.17 with a 14 TXR7 hook. I also set up two wagglers - not a touch on either, a lead rod which also saw no action. For open water I set up a paste rig, a rig to fish banded pellet at depth and another for shallow, lastly a rig to fish meat at 6m.

The open water rigs and rods may as well have stayed at home, nothing to show for any of them, apart from a snapped hooklength on the 6m meat rig - 0.15 is not strong enough for Cary fish.

I started by cupping in some dampend pellets into the LH margin, then had 15 minns on the shallow waggler to let it settle, not a touch on the waggler, so into the margin and two lumps in the next 3/4 of an hour gave me about 25lb, another fish on paste in the LH margin, before a look down the RH side with meat produced another fish. I swapped between the margins, the 13m paste laine and the 5m meat line in the next hour or so, to no avail, apart from one bite and as mentioned, snapped hooklength on the 6m meat rig.

I was hoping for a decent last 2 hours and whilst I had a tench, a skimmer and a couple more on paste, they didn't go mad, I managed 2 more on meat in the RH margin, then a real lump right at the end on paste, which took 5 or so minutes after the whisle before I could get it to the net. I lost another fish which was a big double, it managed to pick up a sunken branch, I played the fish and the branch for 5 minutes or so, before the line snapped - an expensive branch..... as that would have given me third place at least and may well have pushed second and first.

I did win the lake and therefore the section, my 9 carp went 109.09, with 5.04 of tench and skimmer, making a total of 114.13. Its been a decent week, picking up money in 3 out of 4 matches fished.

1) Terry Bruton 129.14 peg 73
2) Anton Page 128.05 peg 56
3) Alan Oram 122.14 peg 60
4) Chris Fox 114.13 peg 105
5) Paul Blake 107.02 peg 57
6) Ray Hayward 105.00 peg 62

Silvers

1) Ray Hayward 28.08 peg 62
2) Andy Lloyd 21.04 peg 59
3) Martin Preston 15.08 peg 97

Kev Perry Series Round Three. Sunday 24th April 2011.

My turn for A section, I asked Bob Gulllick to draw for me and he handed me A2, permanent peg 3, that was after drawing himself peg 26, another flier then Bob....

I guessed that I was already too far behind to compete in the overall, so decided to fish for silvers, just as well, I don't think there was a carp in the peg. I set up two rigs for silvers, a Malman float whose name I forget on 0.13/0.11 with a 18 808 for soft pellet - no more about this, I never had a bite on it. A Sensas pencil on 0.11 with a 0.10 hooklength and a 22 63-1 up 3 to fish maggot, pinkie, caster. I also set up a paste rig and a MW margin float for meat in the margin.

The signs weren't good, fish spawning, the hot sun both contributing to less than ideal conditions. I fed three lines at the start, micro pellet at 11m left, groundbait & maggot at 11m right and caster at 5m. I caught first put in over the gbait and maggot and had a few other fantails after. Then it went quiet, so a look on the pellet line - not so much as a twitch on the float.

I then caught well over the caster at 5m, skimmers, crucians and fantails, but as the sun rose up and hit the water, all the lines died, I had one small carp on caster and that was the last of the action. Nothing in the last three hours, I tried both margins, paste, meat, cat meat and banded pellet. I set up a shallow rig and went to 18m across to where there was some fish activity, I hooked and lost one fouler.

I managed to win the silvers in 3 hours, my 8.550KG being enough, my solitary carp went 0.880KG, the first three hours were quite enjoyable, the last three weren't!! K

1) Sam Johnson 26.670KG peg 22
2) Kev Perry 24.920KG peg 13
3) Sean Kitteridge 22.700KG peg 26
4) J Huntbatch 15.450KG peg 30
5) Mark Bromsgrove 14.720KG peg 12
6) Bob Gullick 12.230KG peg 25

Silvers

1) Chris Fox 8.550KG peg 3
2) Dave Wride 8.150KG peg 24
3) Sean Kitteridge 3.300KG peg 26
4) Mark Bromsgrove 3.250KG peg 12


Overall Table

1 Lewis Jones 20 42.340
2 Sean Kitteridge 18 45.600
3 Mark Bromsgrove 17 44.410
4 J Huntbatch 16 35.870
5 Kev Perry 14 44.010
6 Sam Johnson 14 42.690
7 Chris Fox 14 29.000
8 Paul Faiers 13 32.360
9 Lance Tucker 13 27.650
10 Andy Hembrow 12 28.480
11 M Owens 12 27.390
12 Nick Harvey 11 25.790
13 Dave Wride 10 22.240
14 Andy Hockin 10 22.170
15 John Osbourne 10 14.410
16 Clive Pettit 9 19.430
17 Bob Gullick 9 26.310
18 P Bartlett 8 20.310
19 N Vigus 6 18.090
20 Charlie Barnes 5 9.730
21 Glen Calvert 3 6.810

Silvers Table

1 N Vigus 19 11.550
2 Sean Kitteridge 18 13.420
3 Mark Bromsgrove 18 17.240
4 Dave Wride 18 17.150
5 Chris Fox 17 18.650
6 Lance Tucker 15 12.810
7 Kev Perry 15 12.840
8 Lewis Jones 14 7.200
9 J Huntbatch 13 6.770
10 Mike Owens 12 12.070
11 Charlie Barnes 12 7.890
12 Paul Faiers 11 13.760
13 John Osbourne 11 6.150
14 Andy Hockin 8 7.620
15 Clive Pettit 8 5.730
16 Bob Gullick 8 6.750
17 Andy Hembrow 7 6.090
18 Glen Calvert 6 4.210
19 Sam Johnson 5 4.740
20 Nick Harvey 5 3.850
21 P Bartlett 4 3.560

Trinity Waters Good Friday Pole Only

I'd decided to run a pole only on Woodland this Good Friday, as I was interested to see how it would fish without pellet wagglers & method feeders being chucked into the middle. When I booked the lake, I didn't expect the weather to play such a part, the water was just over 20°C and the fish were thinking about spawning, not eating.

I got there early to sort out the pegging and had a chat with Rich Coles, we observed a Heron taking Roach and Rich was urging all the Heron population to eat carp instead - a silverfish aficionado if ever there was one.

With 18 on the lake it was just one too many to use every other peg, so give the form of them, 13, 14 & 15 were all in, all the rest were peg one, miss one.

I asked Rod Wootten to draw for me, using his left hand he pulled me peg 11, on the back bank at last!! I had kept it simple and taken hard pellet, paste & meat, although I did find some jelly pellets in the freezer and took them to try and catch a few skimmers. I set up a margin rig to fish meat by the pallet of peg 12, also a paste rig for the margin, as well as a paste rig for the 13m line and a rig for soft pellet at the same distance. Lastly a MW pea for fishing up in the water, surely they'd come up given the temperature.

I fed some softend 4mms at 13m on the all in and dropped a 4mm jelly pellet in on top, it didn't get to the bottom before a 6-8oz hybrid took it.... solid I thought, perhaps I think too much!! That was it nothing else on the soft pellet, nor a hard pellet and paste didn't even register so much as a liner. A switch to the up in the water rig brought a couple of roach to the net on 6mm pellet, before the first carp had the pole hooped over and the elastic streaming out as it dived down.

It was hard going and I had a couple more before deciding to rest the line, a look in the margins produced nothing but a sunken piece of tree, absolutely no indication of fish at all. Back on the shallow rig and a couple more fell to the 6mm hair rigged pellet, but it was slow going. I knew I was way being Rich Coles on peg 4, who was now declaring himself a carp slayer (good job the Heron left them in the lake, eh). I could also see Rod Wootten on peg 15 catching in his LH margin.

A swop to the soft pellet at 13m produced one skimmer and one carp, then nothing, the margins remained apparently devoid of life and I switched from feeding meat to corn, after I found a tin at the bottom of my bait bucket. The lake had now lost all ripple (there never was much) and I tried corn into the margin, I had my only bite in the margin nearly straight away and a small tench was in the net. That was it, not another twitch on the float.

For the last hour I dropped paste back into the 13m line and landed 3 fish, they actually started blowing over the feed, they hadn't done this in the previous 5 hours.

It looked like the corner pegs had produced, the silvers were even more reluctant to feed than the carp and many struggled, although the top overall weights were decent.
My 10 fish went 52.09 with 4.04 of silvers taking my total to 56.13, which wasn't enough to get a sniff of the payout.

1) Rich (Carp Slayer) Coles 128.05 peg 4
2) Stu Holmes 92.12 peg 33
3) Rod Wootten 76.06 peg 15 (Section Win)
4) Mark Walsh 75.01 peg 2 (Section Win)
5) Les Williams 59.14 peg 17
6) Kev Perry 58.11 peg 27
7) Chris Fox 56.13 peg 11

Silvers

1) Rich Lovering 10.07 peg 7
2) Paul Cooper 9.09 peg 19
3) Rod Wootten 8.14 Peg 15

Viaduct Wednesday Open, 20th April 2011

With a warm day forecast, I was hopeful that we'd get a few fish, but by the time I got to Viaduct, it was so bright and sunny that is was obvious the fish were sunning themselves and not feeding. I put a thermometer in the water at the start it registered 20°C which rose to 22°C during the day. The temperature in the sun on the platform, got up to 32°C - a hot day!!

There was a club match on Campbell, so we had Cary and Lodge for the 24 of us that were about to get sun tans.

I pulled peg 85 out of the tin, so I wasn't too disappointed.... I set up two waggler rods, one for full depth and one for shallow, also a lead rod, the full depth waggler got unused and two chucks in the middle of the match was the only action the lead rod saw. I also set up 4 pole rigs, a MW paste float on 0.19 with a 12 Mustad paste hook, a MW slim power for fishing 8mm pellet on 0.17 with a 0.15 hooklength and a 16 B960. I also set up a MW pea for shallow fishing, which I didn't get a touch on. The last rig was a MW margin float on 0.19 to 0.17 with a 14 TXR7 hook.

I fed a 14m line at approx 1 0'clock (just a good place to see the float) and pinged some 8mm pellets out towards the spit - although I couldn't go too close to it, as Tony Rixon was on 81.

I started on the waggler set around 3' and only had one lost foul hooker on that, in the next couple of hours I switched between the waggler and the pole/paste, taking 3 fish on paste & 1 on the waggler, I lost two more foulers on the paste rig. The middle two hours saw me try the lead, but after two chucks without even a liner, that was soon abandoned. I tried the waggler at all depths and apart from two more foulers (both lost) that was it for the rod & line. I managed another 3 or 4 on paste but that line was drying up. In the last two hours I fed some meat at 14m in the margin, not with a great deal of confidence as I have not caught from this margin on the previous two occasions I've drawn 85.

I was using some punched meat (10mm) on the hook and had a carp first put in, I thought I'd cracked it, but no, the margin was as slow and patchy as the rest of the lake (purely due to the bright, virtually windless conditions)although I managed a decent skimmer, a tench and a perch on meat, as well as 3 more carp. I lost a decent fish when the elastic snapped at the pulla bung knot - gutted, it cost me 3rd place and I hate to see a fish going off trailing a rig and elastic. Not sure why it snapped, I'd checked all my elastics last night and there wasn't any signs of perishing or damage. I did try to snag the rig with the lead rod to no avail.

Good day for the tackle dealers as there was a loud crack and the angler on 118 in the club match snapped his pole, he didn't seem best pleased!! Followed a little later by Nicky Ewers joining in the fun, floating several sections (and a half) into the lake. Although as some consolation, Nicky won his section with 95.01 from peg 100

I was unsure what weight I had on the whistle, I thought that most of the fish were around the 10lb mark, with a couple smaller & a couple bigger, the scales showed that the 10lb average was a decent guess, as the carp weight went 122.12 and the 3 silvers 6.09 for a total of 129.05, enough to take a default section win (£45) and 4th in the match.

1) Tony Whittcomb 186.01 peg 73
2) Lewis Greenwood 166.08 peg 76
3) Tom Thick 130.09 peg 87
4) Chris Fox 129.05 peg 85
5) Andy Power 106.07 peg 94
6) Nicky Collier 103.00 peg 90

Silvers

1) John Green 44.02 peg 96
2) Tim Pallant 31.06 peg 70
3) Andy France 27.15 peg 71

Kev Perry Series 2011 - Match Two

I spent around 5 hours Saturday evening/night sorting out elastics, rigs & bait - I wish I'd gone up the pub....

That was after a trip to Avon Anglingto collect some bait, a discussion ensued about elastics, Clayton Hudson & Tony both thought they'd got a bite from me, but when I questioned how many floaters were in Tony's casters, I got a huge wrap round. He grabbed a bag from the display fridge opened it and threw some into the toilet - "look, look, there are only four floaters to a handful" - having to look at the caster in the pan wasn't the issue, it's the "I've never seen bleach" appearance of the toilet pan thats worrying.....

I was due to be in C section, the section that produced the top three last match and should produce at least a winner or framer this. I asked Team Mate Mark Bromsgrove to draw my peg - he can draw flyers for himself! - but not for me, peg 21 he managed. The peg of doom in the section, not much open water and where there used to be boards in front of the rush beds, they have now gone.

I had it in my head to fish for silvers, I set up a pencil float on 0.11/0.10 with a 22 63.13 for pinkie/maggot/caster, another rig with 0.13/0.11 to a 18 808 for soft pellet, I guessed paste would catch some carp, so I set up a rig - just in case. I also set up a rig for down the edge.

The match started slowly and didn't improve from there, the silvers (well crucians and goldfish) were spawning in the rushes and margins and the carp would not come more than 6" from the rushes to feed. I fed a couple of lines, one with micropellet & 3mm expander and one with pinkie & groundbait. The only line I caught on initially was the groundbait line and this was slow, with the odd crucian and fantail taking the bait.

I switched to the pellet line, to no avail, I had fed a line near the rushes, but felt it was suicidal and so it proved to be - the rushes and carp claimed, several hooklengths, a couple of rigs and a rig complete with double No8 elastic and a PTFE bush. By 12.15 I was ready to pack up and go home, I couldn't get a bite in open water and every fish I hooked near the reeds went deep inside them.

I took a breather for 5 mins and then reassembled the cupping kit etc I'd taken down in temper, I managed a couple of decent roach on caster before the carp (small ones, moved in for a quick burst of two fish). I thought that peg 24 was catching crucians, I couldn't see 26, but assumed he was as well - no, a total misjudgement, I should have stayed fishing for silvers the whole match, but thinking I was behind I switched to paste on a heavier rig and landed some carp - as well as losing plenty in the reeds!!

I weighed in 3.200KG of silvers, 720G short of second in section (silvers), but ended up with 3 points instead of a possible 6 (I don't think there was 6KG of silvers to had to beat the section winner, who banked 7 points).

The crucians and goldfish seemed to be spawning, the skimmers were conspicuious by their absence and the carp showed up, but small ones in general and not in great numbers. All in all, a total waste of an evening staying in preparing, I can't say I enjoyed it. I managed 11.400KG which tied with peg 22 (Nick Harvey)for 4 series points and a lowly 3.200KG of silvers for 3 silvers points.

1) L Jones 22.350KG peg 25
2) S Kitteridge 20.000KG peg 18
3) L Tucker 18.500KG peg 15
4) A Hockin 17.850 peg 3
5) S Johnson 15.020 peg 16
6) P Bartlett 14.260KG peg 26

Silvers

1) M Owens 8.400KG peg 6
2) D Wride 7.450KG peg 12
3) S Kitteridge 7.220KG peg 18
4) L Tucker 6.280KG peg 15
5) N Vigus 6.000KG peg 19
6) M Bromsgrove 4.540KG peg 8

Overall Table Top Six

1) L Jones 14 31.040KG
2) S Kitteridge 12 22.900KG
3) L Tucker 12 22.670KG
4) M Bromsgrove 11 22.690KG
5) A Hockin 10 22.170KG
6) C Fox 10 19.570KG

Silvers Table Top Six

1) N Vigus 13 9.470KG
2) L Tucker 12 10.450KG
3) S Kitteridge 12 10.120KG
4) Mark Bromsgrove 11 13.990KG
5) D Wride 11 9.000KG
6) C Fox 10 10.100KG

Viaduct Open Wednesday 6th April 2011

At last, a day off work and a chance to get back on the bank. I decided that Viaduct would be my best option and it turned out to be a very interesting match. 22 fishing, so 8 on each bank of Campbell and 6 on Cary. I only took 2 baits with me, meat & pellet (6 & 8mm) as I wanted to fish positively where ever I drew. And positive fishing was required, with 15 ton + weights and 3 silvers weights over 50lb.

111 revealed itself upon opening the swimcard, the wrong end? The wind was blowing towards the other end, but had the wind been warm enough for the fish to follow it? I set up two wagglers, one at depth and one at half depth, a straight lead and three pole rigs, one for shallow, one to fish pellet on the deck and another to fish meat at 6-7m.

I started on the waggler at depth adjacent to the areator and within 5 minutes was into a fish, although it took another 6 or 7 minutes to get a second. I was getting no liners, nor could I see any fish activity, Paul Greenwood on 112 was also finding it tough going, as we looked down the lake and saw fish coming rapidly to the pegs halfway along and towards the end bank.

110 was getting a few fish on the lead, so I bit the bullet and chucked it, again no liners at all, but a couple of wrap rounds saw 2 more fish in the net. I swapped between the waggler and lead for 3 hours, keeping the odd fish coming, but a long way behind Paul Blake and Andy Power on 114 & 118 respectively.

I'd been feeding a line about 6-7m with meat and dropped in on it, taking a 3lb fish first put in, that was it, nothing else apart from missed bites, which I suspect were silvers. Back on the waggler and an odd fish again, just couldn't keep them coming, with just over an hour to go, I switched to the 13m pole and feeding 6mm pellets, then 8's I started to catch on 8mm pellet, which was just touching bottom.

I was feeding regularly and expected the fish to come up in the water, but never had as much as a bite on the shallow rig (nor on the shallow waggler when I tried it. I was catching with the pellet on the bottom, I had a decent last hour, just a shame they didn't come that quickly for the other 5.

I am a terrible judge of fish weight and for the first time ever, instead of being ultra cautious, I relied on last years safety margin of 5lb average for the fish - wrong!! - I went over the net limit and had one net capped at 70lb. Fortunately, this didn't cost me, as I was towards the lower end of tons.

I weighed 116.10 (should have been more like 125) for nothing, except a days fishing and some things tucked away in the experience bank. What a great days fishing, Dave Ropers 38.09 of silvers was the lowest total weight weighed and Paul Greenwood chucked back around 110lb.

1) Andy Power 243.05 peg 118
2) Nicky Collier 208.03 peg 78
3) Paul Blake 168.07 peg 114
4) Steve Jackson 155.06 peg 86
5) Jim Baines 153.03 peg 127
6) Dick Bull 152.07 peg 123

Silvers

1) Dick Bull 76.14 peg 123
2) Nicky Collier 61.09 peg 78
3) John Green 58.08 peg 128
4) Dave roper 38.09 peg 116

Plantation Lake Saturday 26th March

I managed to get a guest spot in this popular Saturday series, as a couple of the regulars have gone to Whiteacres for the week. At the draw, I was hoping for an island chuck, as its been a long time since I had one and as a one off appearance, I had only to go for the win. I didn’t fancy 12 or 23, so of course, I drew 23, a peg I’ve had some dismal results from and one framing place, but that was in the summer, with lumps down the edge on paste.

I was nearly pissed off enough with my continued run of crap draws, to not bother, but I decided to give it ago, just in case, by some miracle, the fish had moved into that corner.  I left the waggler & lead rods in their bags and set up 4 topkits, one with a shallow rig for carp – more in hope than expectation, a margin rig for carp, a full depth rig to fish dead maggot / pellet at 13m full depth and a Sensas pencil float for fishing close in with caster.

At the all in, I cupped some groundbait and dead maggot in at 13m, started feeding caster at 3m and fed 8mm pellets by catapult into the RH margin, just past peg 22.

First put in on the 13m line with double dead maggot saw a 8oz skimmer in the net, shortly after a roach joined it, then that was it, no more bites in the next 20 minutes. I started to feed 4mm pellet over the top with a catapult and switched to a banded 6mm on the hook, a carp took that and was soon in the net, a smaller skimmer joined it and then the peg went quiet again.

A switch to the short caster line saw a run of decent roach, so I kept on this line and the fish kept coming for an hour or so, when the line went quiet, I rested it and had a look in the RH margin, I took 3 carp straight off and then no more bites. The water temp was 12°C, not quite warm enough to get the fish staying confidently in the shallow margins.

I could see Kev Perry and Rich Lovering catching well, so I knew that I was a long way behind, with no realistic chance of catching them up, their island chuck pegs producing fish as expected.. Mike Owens on peg 25 had been steadily plugging away at the silvers, but his fish seemed to be of a smaller stamp than the roach and rudd I was catching, so I decided to have a push for the silver coin.

I caught reasonably well on the short line again, after its rest, but the next time it went quiet I set up a top four to hand to fish shallow, this produced some decent rudd and roach. A 7lb carp took the single caster on a 22 63-13, it took a while, but that was subdued by the middy purple 4-6 elastic.

The last hour saw me back on the short line and a few more decent roach, the largest one being well over 1lb. I wasn’t confident that I had enough roach and rudd to beat anyone who had managed to find the skimmers and so it proved to be, my 25.01 beaten by two nets of skimmers, although I did scrape into 3^rd in silvers and last in the money. The 5 carp went 22.02 giving me a total of 47.03, which I have to admit, was better than I expected from the peg. I guess my messing about for carp and skimmers cost me, had I fished caster for the roach exclusively, I may have managed another 3lb of fish.

1)      Mark Bromsgrove 194.09 peg 7

2)      Craig Tucker 82.13 peg 38

3)      Rich Lovering 80.01 peg 26

4)      Kev Perry 77.03 peg 27

5)      Brian Slipper 76.08 peg 31

6)      Rod Wotton 73.00 peg 29

Silvers

1)      Rod Wotton 28.00 peg 29 (Mainly skimmers10oz – 1lb 8oz)

2)      Ivan Currie 27.02 peg 18  (Skimmers, loads of 2oz –6oz fish)

3)      Chris Fox 25.01 peg 23 (Roach & Rudd)

A Bit Of Fluff Chucking

Its been a while since I got out and did any fly fishing, so was keen to make my first visit to Hawkridge, at Spaxton, to reacquaint myself with the dark arts of fluff chucking. On my way home from the match at Trinity, the van was playing up, but I limped home and called out the RAC. The patrolman sussed out that it was the EGR stuck open, which he duly freed off, so I could get to Kev Perry's house this morning to travel down with him.

Kev had just bought himself a high density sinking line the week before, taking a few fish on it last Tuesday and was explaining to me over the phone about how it worked and using boobies - which were new to him and I'd never used them before.

A trip to Veals on Saturday to get a pint of maggots turned into, a new Greys XFlite 9' 6" #8 rod, a high density line, a reel, some boobies, minkies and a few other odds and sods.

I was glad I did, Hawkridge is fairly deep and once we'd bought our tickets and walked to the area Kev likes, it was nigh on 11.00 before we both started on the floating line with gold head flies to no avail.

A switch to the new rod, high density line and a black booby saw me christen my new gear with a Rainbow around the 2lb mark, this was after Kev had taken one nearer 3lb. A really good day out followed, Hawkridge is in great surroundings on the Quantocks, we fished until about lunchtime, stopped for a bite to eat and a chat - how civilised - we retried the floating lines, Kev managed one Rainbow on a weighted gold head lure, nothing for me.

A return to the high density sinking line and white Booby saw three more fish come to the net, before another bash with the floating line, once again to no avail. I went back on the HD line and with a white minky, took my last fish, making my limit of 5.

Kev then had a go on my new rod and landed his 5th and final fish on the white minky that accounted for my last fish. We weighed the fish back at the lodge, my biggest was 2.01, Kev had on around the 2.14 mark, smallest fish we both had was 1.08.

A really nice change from the hustle and bustle of the match scene, a lovely venue in a great setting and fishing with a mate who gave me some confidence that I was using the right gear and fly. I'll certainly be back before too long.

The 5 trout after being cleaned, looking forward to tasting them.

Trinity Waters Sunday 20th March 2011

Back to one of my favouite venues today, although for how much longer I don't know!! Once again I drew on the car park bank and peg 31 again, I knew it would be a struggle unless the fish had woken up and moved around, the heavy frost overnight Friday, the bright sun & lack of ripple seemed to ensure that didn't happen.

To make matters worse, there was a no show and that left pegs 11, 12 & 13 empty, giving Rod Wotton three empty pegs to his left, he made the most of it.

I started at 12.5m, fishing expander over softened 4mm, no fish from this line in the first half hour, so I had a look down the LH margin, which I was hopeful of catching from as I was the end peg. I had a 4lb carp 2nd drop into the margin and that was it, just little knocks and twitches, with little rudd taking even 6mm expanders off the hook. During the match I tried banded pellet, meat & maggot in the margin, maggot getting the only response, again little rudd.

I'd set up two waggler rods, one with a insert peacock to fish at full depth and another to fish shallow, the shallow rod produced nothing, the full depth rod managed to tempt one ghostie. That was it for carp and watching Rod bagging up on peg 10 just rubbed salt into the wound.

With half the match gone I decided to try and target the skimmers and pick up some silver coin, I started a new line with G/bait and dead maggot, this was hard going, and I ended the match with half a dozen or so skimmers up to 10oz.

Three or four to my right, were in the same boat as me, struggling and DNW, the back bank and the RH end of the lake once again being the place to draw.

1) Rod Wotton 82.06 peg 10
2) Kev Perry 52.06 peg 17
3) Dave Baker 33.03 peg 19
4) Dean Malin 30.10 peg 15
4) Steve Seager 30.10 peg23
6) Paul Elms 29.08 peg 24

Silvers
1) John Bradford 10.15 peg 3
2) Steve Seager 8.00 peg 23

Kev Perry Series 2011 - Tables after 1st match.

Kev Perry Series 2011 Overall Table

Name.... Points.... Weight
1. Mark Bromsgrove.... 7.... 19.100
2. Lewis Jones.... 7.... 8.690
3. John Osbourne.... 7.... 4.330
4. Paul Faiers.... 6.... 14.020
5. Chris Fox.... 6.... 8.170
6. Lance Tucker.... 6.... 4.170
7. Kev Perry.... 5.... 13.500
8. Clive Pettit.... 5.... 6.770
9. Sean Kitteridge.... 5.... 2.900
10. J Huntbatch.... 4.... 6.200
11. M Owens.... 4.... 6.140
12. N Vigus.... 3.... 5.610
13. Andy Hockin.... 3.... 4.320
14. Dave Wride.... 3.... 2.670
15. Charlie Barnes.... 2.... 4.240
16. Nick Harvey.... 2.... 4.140
17. Sam Johnson.... 2.... 1.000
18. Andy Hembrow.... 1.... 3.900
19. Glen Calvert.... 1.... 0.710
20. Bob Gullick.... 0.... 0.000
21. P Bartlett.... 0.... 0.000

Kev Perry Series 2010 Silvers Table

Name.... Points.... Weight
1. Paul Faiers.... 7.... 11.420
2. Chris Fox.... 7.... 6.900
3. Lance Tucker.... 7.... 4.170
4. Mark Bromsgrove.... 6.... 9.450
5. N Vigus.... 6.... 3.470
6. Sean Kitteridge.... 6.... 2.900
7. Kev Perry.... 5.... 7.900
8. Clive Pettit.... 5.... 2.700
9. John Osbourne.... 5.... 2.450
10. Charlie Barnes.... 4.... 4.240
11. Lewis Jones.... 4.... 2.020
12. Dave Wride.... 4.... 1.550
13. Andy Hembrow.... 3.... 3.900
14. J Huntbatch.... 3.... 1.850
15. Glen Calvert.... 3.... 0.710
16. Andy Hockin.... 2.... 3.020
17. Sam Johnson.... 2.... 0.500
18. Mike Owens.... 1.... 2.740
19. Bob Gullick.... 0.... 0.000
20. P Bartlett.... 0.... 0.000
21. Nick Harvey.... 0.... 0.000

A look back at the results of previous years first matches (I have records back to 2007, not 2009 as I commented in the last post) shows that this wasn't the best, neither was it the worst.

2007: 4.900KG Average (No seperate silvers league this year)

2008: 3.212KG Average
2008: 2.158KG Silvers Average

2009: 5.790KG Average
2009: 3.965KG Silvers Average

2010: 11.584KG Average
2010: 4.643KG Silvers Average

2011: 5.738KG Average
2011: 3.423KG Silvers Average

Kev Perry Series 2011 - Match One

Lets be honest about this, Paul (Faiers) and myself, were not going to run this series this year, no matter how hard you try to think about lakes, pegging, fairness of sections etc. etc. the fish, the weather, the anglers, high temps, low temps and inconsistent temps will give someone cause to moan.

So, that aside, at some point during the preceding year, we were persauded, but only if we had our own terms of a limit, that being 21, all on one lake - the match lake.

We achieved the 21, with others waiting in the wings, even after all the reports of fish deaths, especially carp. Phil has obtained some new fish ( not that, that easily, excuses the person who polluted the supply to the lakes!!)

I didn't fancy the back pegs 1-14, but thats where the swim card indicated I'd be, No10, right on the back bank. Just first match syndrome, they don't usually produce until the warmer weather. So after recording the draw and getting everyones queries sorted, I settled into peg 10. A simple approach, 3 rigs, one for maggot / pinkie, which was a 0.2g sensas pencil on 0.11 with a 0.08 hooklength and a 22 63-13 hook. A MW slim power, again 0.2g on 0.11with a 0.10 hooklength and a size 18 808. Finally a Daiwa float whose model eludes me, on 0.15 straight through to a 20 B911, for maggot in the margin.

On the all in I fed micro's and a couple of 4mm expanders to a line at 10'clock approx 10.5m and a groundbait and pinkie / caster line straight in front at 11m. I hooked and lost a decent fish first put in and could see Sean Kitteridge on peg 30 netting a fish on his first put in. I then had a couple of small fantails over the groundbait, to rest the line I had a look on the micro fed line, with a 4mm expander, this resulted in 2 more fantails and a skimmer - not much more to write about pellet, as I never had another bite on it.

Back onto the maggot and I managed to keep some reasonable skimmers coming, with a lone crucian and the occasional fantail. Interesting to see the skimmers show up - I guess there's not enough  (or enough active) carp to bully them out. With an hour and a half to go, the peg started to slow down, I'd switchwed to g/bait and maggot over the micro line and had another skimmer over that. I could see Lewis Jones on peg 12 taking carp from the margin, so had a look down to my left, that resulted in two small carp of just over 1lb each.

Paul & myself weighed in all the pegs and it was as predicted,(and bang on form for the first match of the series)with the popular pegs in the main bowl of the lake picking up all the money from the superpool. (The main pool payout is purely section money this year, £40 for a section win, £30 for second in section).

Two decent skimmers lost cost me the section, having to settle for second behind Lewis, although I took top silvers points in the section.

1) Mark Bromsgrove 19.100KG peg 25
2) Paul Faiers 14.020KG peg 24
3) Kev Perry 13.500KG peg 26
4) Lewis Jones 8.670KG peg 12
5) Chris Fox 8.170KG peg 10
6) Clive Pettit 6.770 peg 17

Silvers
1) Paul Faiers 11.420KG peg 24
2) Mark Bromsgrove 9.450KG peg 25
3) Kev Perry 7.900KG peg 25
4) Chris Fox 6.900KG peg 10
5) Charlie Barnes 4.240KG peg 22
6) Lance Tucker 4.170KG peg 28

Saturday Silvers - what a treat!!

It's been so bloody hectic, that I've not been fishing for a couple of weeks, too much work and having the kitchen completely ripped outhas stopped me getting out. (Its easy to get fed up of takeaways and microwave meals..... and its another two weeks before the kitchen is back up and fully functional!!)

As I'm working Sunday and had no time to get anything sorted for Saturday, I decided to give booking into a match, a miss and head off to Kingston Seymour for a bit of pleasure fishing. I had a walk round Bullock Farm and intended to practise for the forth coming Kev Perry series, but just didn't fancy it. So off to Plantation, although as I was a late arrival, at 09.40, there weren't too many pegs left. I settled into 33 and set up two rigs to fish for silvers, a KC Carpa Chimp for fishing topkit to hand for roach and perch and a 0.5g Mick Wilkinson pellet float to fish for skimmers at 10m.

I cupped in some dead maggot, 3mm expander and softened micro's on th 10m line and loose fed caster on the 'to hand' line, I started here just to see if the fish were already in close and had a couple of roach. I then left this line to develop, as it is best to let the fish get settled and feeding confidently before plundering it.

I started on 4mm expander at 10m, but was pestered with roach, so upping it to 6mm saw some decent skimmers coming to the net, alternating between 6mm ecpander and double red maggot kept them coming for a couple of hours. I then had another look on the topkit line and manged a hydrid, a few roach and a couple of decent perch, before it slowed up. Back on the 10m line saw a few skimmers and then a run of three decent crucians, before that slowed up.

Alternating between the two kept odd fish coming and at about 3 o'clock the 10m started bubbling, no bites until 3.15 the next hour saw 4 carp into the net for about 25lb - not what I'd come for but an interesting battle on the double No5 slip and skimmer rig. Another bite on the 10m line produced an unseasonal tench to go with some of the unseasonal rudd I had. Back onto the topkit for the last half an hour, that put another perch and a couple more roach into the silvers net.

What a lovely days fishing, Plantation is, at the moment, fishing exceptionally well given the weather. On arrival the air temp was 3°C, the water temp stayed around 5.5°C all day and the air temp was 4°C when I got back to the van.

The Perch

The Crucians, Tench, Skimmers, Roach, Rudd and Hybrids.

Trinty Waters, 16th February 2011

First match back since the carpal tunnel op. A thick coating of ice on the van greeted me and I guessed it would be another hard winters day. At the draw I fancied a peg on the far bank, but it wasn't to be, with another peg on the lodge lake bank, No31 and for company on 33 was Rich Coles, who also can't get away from this bank.

I had tried to keep things simple in the bait bag, caster dead reds, live reds and some assorted jelly pellets. I had put some hard pellets in the bag, but that was before I saw the ice on the van. A bit of groundbait and a tin of corn completed the bait line up.

It was fairly windy, so I was expecting a undertow on the lake, with this in mind I set up a 1.5g Jolly (with a hollow bristle added) and a 1g Jean Desque - again with the addition of a hollow bristle - the Jolly rig had a 0.13 hooklength finished off with a 16 B911 and the JD rig had 0.10 and a 18 Tubertini 808. I started to set up a margin rig, but that got thrown up the bank and not touched again, when I found less than 18" of water in the margin.

I also set up a waggler to fish at depth and a feeder (which got set up and put away again without entering the water, the waggler was a 3AAA with 3 No10 down the line and a 18 Middy 63-13 hoook to fish caster.

I was going to concentrate on two lines, one about 20m where I loose fed caster and another at 12m (which was about as far as I could realistically hold in the wind), this line had a jaffa of groundbait which contained dead reds and a few 3mm pellets cupped in on the whistle.

Within what seemed like seconds of th all-in, I could see Andy Hembrow on peg 7 playing a carp, whilst my float remained motionless. During the first hour, I fished dead red on the hook initially, looking for carp or skimmers and that resulted in a couple of roach, after 30 or 40 mins I switched to double caster and had a 3lb carp on the first put in, a couple more roach and then it went quiet.

I spent between 2 and 3 hours on the waggler, continually changing depth and shotting to try and increase my catch rate, everytime I thought a change had sorted it, the bites dried up soon after, how finicky are those roach??

I decided to come back over the groundbait on the pole for the last couple of hours and kept the odd roach coming to maggot/caster, at 10 to 3 the float buried and I lifted into one of the lakes decent skimmers, next put in a smaller skimmer, had they arrived?? I switched to soft pellet and was 'rewarded' with two carp in two put ins - too little, too late for carp, I needed more silvers.

I managed another couple of roach and lost a decent skimmer in the last hour and at the whistle I though I had 13 or 14lb of carp and silvers. The scales got to me with Steve Kedge's tench and roach net of 19lb easily winning the silvers, with 6.04 to beat, to pick up the second in silvers envelope. My carp went 11lb odd and the silvers 6.08, with Rich Coles last to weigh, his silvers went 4lb, so taking 2nd in the silvers, I at least had my money back and some over for a couple of beers.

Looking at the results, my pre match thoughts that the far bank (natural margins)would be the place to draw, were proven correct - I notice Tony Rixon never asks me to draw for him, as he can see that my drawing arm is jinxed.....

Here's hoping for a period of more settled (and milder) weather!!

If anyone is interested, I'm running a pole only match at Trinity (Woodlands) on Good Friday (22nd April) 09.30 draw, fish 11.00-17.00. Overall and silvers payout.


1st Tony Rixon 67.02 peg 11
2nd Jason Radford 34.14 peg 18
3rd Tom Thick 24.10 peg 2
4th Andy Curry 24.6 peg 16
5th Adrian Clark 23.14
6th Andy Hembrow 23.13 peg 7

Silvers

Steve Kedge 19.14 peg 27
Chris Fox with 6.08 31

A Thanks for good service - Matchbox Tackle.

In July 2008, I decided to change my seatbox, I fancied the idea of the tray/modular type, so I could swap trays as dictated by venue. The Matchbox looked to be just what I was after, but with no local dealer I was reluctant to order online. After a phonecall to arrange it, I was on my way up the M5 to visit Matchbox, to see the boxes. As I arrived, the owner was setting off for a trade show and left me with Jane, who couldn't have been more helpful.

I had taken my boss box with me, to get a proper comparison and Jane put up with me disecting the matchbox (and kept me plied with coffee), trying all the accessories and trays, before deciding on my final options. She chucked in a couple of freebies and gave me a really good price. I then discovered that I hadn't brought a cheque book or enough cash and they couldn't take card payment. No problem, between us I paid using their PC, from my paypal into Janes own paypal account.

In November 2008, I wanted another tray, it was dispatched promptly and arrived safely.

I unfortunately lost one of the mud feet from my box on the way back from my last match. I rang Matchbox and whilst I was asking if they would supply just a mud foot (not shown seperately on-line), I also asked if I could have a mix/match of one of their standard trays. On the website they have a river winder assembly, which comprises trays for two sizes of rig, I wanted two trays of the 27mm rig size. They readily agreed to supply this, along with the mud foot, at a very good price including postage.

This phonecall was yesterday morning, this morning I received an email, telling me the package would arrive between 11.12 & 12.12, which it duly did. Well packaged, exactly as orderd, with the addition of a Matchbox cap. (Thanks Matchbox, my old ones are looking worse for wear).

I have the S range box and apart from 2 things, I can't fault it. 1st thing is the mud feet unscreww and they do work loose, although a dash of loctite or 10 mins with a drill and roll pins would sort it. 2nd point is if you buy one, I'd definitely recommend the side plate kit, even if you don't use the side footplate, fit the bars, it stiffens up the legs by a very noticeable amount. Although I now believe they come with the bars as standard.

In this day and age it's nice to receive good service, so thanks Matchbox.

Whilst on the subject of good service, I can't not mention Tony Rixon of Avon Angling, always helpful and willing to bring bait and supplies along to a match if I can't get into the shop - thanks Tony.

Trinty Waters, 19th January 2011

With the weather warming up and the water temps on the rise, I had high hopes for this Wednesday open on Woodland - until I got up and saw that the forecast 1°C overnight was down to -4.5°C on the journey down. At least the lake remained ice free and there were some small roach topping.

Peg 27 came out of the hat, so I immediately decided to fish for skimmers and see if an odd carp or two came along, as in the winter, the lodge bank pegs often find it hard to compete with the opposite bank, when the fish come into the margins. The lodge bank is in its first full winter since being remodelled by John and whilst the ledges he created during the remodelling were very productive last summer, they seem just too shallow to get the carp on them in this cold weather. Maybe next winter, with another years growth of reeds and mother nature shaping the ledges John made with the digger, the fish will be more comfortable to come up the ledge.

Anyway, those of us on the Lodge bank would have been frozen if the high bank was still in place, as it used to block out the sun - which made its margins colder than those opposite, so even before the work often its margins weren't so productive in cold spells.

I set up two rigs, a 1g Jean Desque with a hollow tip added, this was on 0.13 and a 0.09 hooklength and a 18 808, and a 1g Jolly on 0.11 and a 0.08 hooklength with a 20 gamma black. I initally only fed one line 14m and put in two jaffa's of groundbait, micro pellet and dead reds. First put in and the float settled, then buried, a spirited fight ensued, but the double 6 preston slip with a pulla bung saw me net a decent carp after 10 minutes, it took double dead red.

Next put in with a soft pellet saw another carp in the net and just before the first hour was up, a much smaller cyprinid joined its big brothers in the keepnet, my first carp since 18th November!!

As the hands of the watch passed into the second hour, there was some bubbles and activity in the peg, I lost two foul hookers and landed a couple of decent skimmers, then the wind got up, blowing across the lake from the far corner (6) towards the top corner (23), that killed off the sport for myself, Rich Coles on 29 (and I won't elaborate on the defamatory comments made about Rich, by Mr Rixon - who claims he's a silverfish hasbeen :-) ), Andy France on 26 and Paul Lock on 24, the last 3½ hours saw only odd fish, mainly small roach caught on this middle section of our bank, whilst we watched fish coming from the pegs opposite. My 3 carp went 17lb odd, with 5lb odd of silvers.

Pete Sivell took advantage of his end peg (6) with no one on the bottom bank (1-5) and put just shy of 60lb on the scales to win. Jason Radford had 14 & 16 empty either side of his draw on the culvert (15) and again made good use of that situation.

1) Pete Sivell 59.07 peg 6
2) Jason Radford 42.13 peg 15
3) Martin Lengahan 37.15 peg 17
4) Tony (lets leave the good pegs with plenty of room) Rixon 37.07 peg 19
5) Andy Curry 36.14 peg 23
6) Chris Fox 22.14 peg 27

Silvers
1) Leighton Palmer 15.14 peg 10
2) Steve Kedge 11.02 peg 13

Thats it for about three weeks now, no fishing, as I've had the carpal tunnel op on my left wrist this morning (Friday) (its a right pain in the arse typing this out one handed!!) although you may see me bank walking once I can drive, I get stir crazy in the house.

Viaduct Teams of Five Sunday 16th January 2011

First team match of the year, first visit to Viaduct in 2011, which on the whole, was good to me last year, especially in my first full season fishing it.

Arrived at the Globe for the buffet style, help youself brekkie, not bad, so I was all set for a decent day, when back comes my draw, peg 8 on Spring, another bloody corner, which aren't my favourite pegs in winter. With peg 7 in as well, that left little water to fish, except a 14m line for silvers and the margin for carp (which I had no confidence would show) or a big perch or two.

At the all in I fed some caster at the end of the boards to the RH side and a few dead reds at 14.5m along the margin. At various times throughout the match I tried these lines, with maggot, caster, corn, meat & worm as hookbait, all to no avail, not so much as a twitch on the float.

Starting at 14.5m, with some groundbait and dead reds, I had 3 skimmers in 3 put ins - great, a day on the skimmers, but no they had other ideas and they were the only three I caught all day. The wind was making it difficult to fish the 14.5m line, so I started a line at 9m. This produced a 8oz perch to caster first put in and then a ruffe and a couple of very small rudd.

Once again it was a struggle to get bites, not just for me, peg 7 was struggling, so I had the chance to avoid being last in the section! I started to loose feed caster over the 9m line and shortly after had a tench that saved me from last in section, my hard won 4.08, just beating the couple of decent perch from peg 7 by 5oz.

I can't fish all the matches, but I'm looking forward to some warmer weather and a peg with some water to work at in the next one I fish. Sadly the rest of the team struggled as well and to make the day worse, I lost a screw on foot from my Matchbox walking back to the van, retracing my steps failed to find it. Although that wasn't as bad as Lance (Tucker) who managed to lock his car keys in his car, with no spare.


1. Jason Radford 82-0-0 peg 3
2. John Gray 78-02-0 peg 132
3. Will Bohnie 54-0-0 peg 113
4. John Howell 45-10-0 peg 53
5. Chris Davis 43-12-0 peg 40
6. Alan Oram 35-03-0 peg 110

1. Chris Davis 24-04-0 peg 40
2. Tony Rixon 16-05-0 peg 88
3. Jamie Parkhouse 14-04-0 peg 39
4. Nick Collins 14-02-0 peg 102
5. Steve Kedge 13-09-0 peg 52

Plantation Lake Saturday 15th January

I was intending to go to football, but a phone call from Paul Nicholls saying there was a place going in the Saturday match at Plantation, allied with the warmer weather, had me booking in.

I was fairly disappointed with my draw, peg 12, its a bit like peg 1, win the match or come nowhere, there just doesn't seem to be any inbetween position on the pegs at either end of the lake. I had Rod Wotton on 11 and fellow Ashton Gate absentee, Pete Sivell on peg 8 as my nearest company.

I did set up a margin rig, but had my doubts that I'd catch on it, never had a bite, except on single or double maggot from small roach, so thats all there is to say about that. That left a roach rig for close in, a Malman Winter Wire on 0.11 to a 0.08 hooklength and a 20 gamma black and a MW Diamond on 0.13 with a 0.12 middy hooklength and a 18 808 hook, this for for the skimmers and any odd carp that may show up.

I fed a groundbait line at 14m, two tangerine size balls with some dead reds in and a roach line at topkit range.

The match followed the usual pattern of late for me, my Carp net once again going unused - may as well put them on ebay - and a battle round three lines (one at 6m, loose fed caster started after an hour or so)to keep silvers coming, albeit slowly. The roach were heavier than the skimmers, which backed off after catching two and took 20 minutes or so to come back. A decent F1 from the skimmer line and a reasonable Perch on the topkit caster line helped me to a weight of 11-12, just seeing off Rod & Pete who had 8lb & 10lb weights. We couldn't compete with the opposite corner of the lake, where Rich Lovereing took 53lb to win from peg 33.

1) Rich Lovering 53lb peg 33
2) Simon Carvello 32lb peg 19
3) Kev Perry 29lb peg 27
4) Mark Bromsgrove 27lb peg 31
5) Lance Tucker 22lbpeg 29
6) Lewis Jones 21lb peg 39

Silvers

1) Mark Bromsgrove 27lb peg 31 (Skimmers)
2) J Page 17lb 12oz
3) Glen Calvert 17lb 06oz peg 4

Avalon, Sunday 2nd January 2011

All work and no play lately, hence the late writing of this blog entry. After the reasonable days fishing at Trinity on New Years Eve, I assumed that it would be best to stick to another lake with a bit of depth. With confident assurances from Mr Rixon that Avalon was ice free, I booked in.

The sight that greeted me on arrival at Avalon was bank to island ice on the LH side of the lake and ice free water on the RH bank, two hardy souls were thrashing around in a boat, trying to break the ice on the LH side. (Andy Bush and Paul Elmes).

I drew 29, which was miraculously ice free, with Andy Bush on my RH side and Vince Brown on my left. I'd decided to fish two lines on the pole, 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock at 14.5m, one line feeding with dead maggot and one with micropellet. A straight lead and a waggler completed the set up. Vince started at 20m and stayed there most of the day, I did go out to 19m for a short while, but I need a few months in the gym or a bucket of steroids to be able to stick with it when bites are scarce.

After 30 minutes I had a 6oz perch, apart from a 2oz roach on the lead, that was the extent of my days sport, Vic and Leigh walked past a couple of times and said "this seems to be the worst bit" - why didn't that surprise me!!

Not much point in writing any more about a non-eventful day, suffice to say perhaps the ice free areas aren't always the best, during the thaw.

See Tony's blog for the result, I can't get out now until the teams of five at Viaduct on Sunday 16th.