I'd booked a days annual leave for today, as I'd agreed to fish Carps AC 'Kingston Seymour' series, which was subsequently cancelled. After two days interviewing applicants for a couple of vacancies at work, I decided to keep the holiday and fish Viaduct.
First into the tin and out came two swimcards stuck together - whichever one you put back its bound to be the wrong one, isn't it? I took one and opened it, revealing 125, I wasn't exactly overjoyed or cartwheeling around the room. I had drawn it a couple of weeks ago and managed 70lb ish, of which 24lb was skimmers. I hadn't brought anything to fish for silvers, I just had plenty of 8mm pellet, 6mm pellet and 8mm meat.
I set up two waggler rods, one to fish 8" deep as there were plenty of fish showing all over the lake on the surface and one to fish at half depth. I did set up a lead rod, although I didn't really expect to catch on it. And finally, three pole rigs, one shallow, a MW cookie on 0.17 straight through to a B960 16, a MW diamond to fish 8mm pellet at depth, same line & hook as the shallow rig and a MW float whose name eludes me (and he doesn't seem to sell it anymore)on 0.17 to 0.18 (0.17 Preston is actually 0.20) and a 16 Xedion TXR7 size 16 hook, this rig for meat.
I started at 14.5m shallow and had a couple of fish in the first 15 minutes, this didn't last and I had 2 more up to the 1 hour mark. Time to try the pellet waggler, this produced 2 fish fairly quickly, at around 15" deep and then it went quiet, just as the pole line did. I tried from 6" deep to 4' deep, to no avail, although there were plenty of blows. Into the third hour and I was now struggling for bites, so I put the straight lead over the waggler line and was rewarded with 4 fish in 6 chucks, 2 tench and 2 carp. Then as surely as the pole and waggler stopped producing bites, so did the lead.
From the halfway mark I'd been feeding meat at 5m, a look here produced nothing, so back on the 14.5m line with the full depth rig and first drop in with a 8mm banded pellet, the float settled and buried, carp number 9. A few lost foulers followed, so back on the shallow rig, but I couldn't get a bite on it. Back to the waggler for another fish, then back to the 14.5m line and another fish at depth.
So with 11 fish in the net and 1 hour 15 minutes to go, I knew I'd have to catch quickly and decent fish, to try and pick up some money. Back in on the 5m line and a 7lb carp first put in, then a 3lb+ tench, now there were bubbles from the 5m line and I caught 6 carp for nearly 60lb and 2 tench in that last 75 minutes. I thought I had 120lb of carp and 10lb of tench, and when the scales got to me, the 4 tench went 10.12 and the 17 carp 129.07, giving me 139.13, enough for second on the day. I suppose I can't be too disappointed at that, after my initial feeling that I'd struggle when I drew the peg. 17 fish for 129lb gives a fish average size of 7.08, so a few of those meat fish were doubles.
A pretty close match, with Kedgie missing out on a pick up by 3oz and some good silvers weights
1) Paul Homewood 188.13 peg 110
2) Chris Fox 139.13 peg 125
3) Howard Webb 125.05 peg 129
4) Steve Kedge 125.02 peg 115
5) Dave Roper 123.13 peg 116
6) Steve Jackson 106.04 peg 128
Silvers
1) John Green 64.12 peg 112
2) Alex ? 46.06 peg 123
3) Tim Pallant 42.08 peg 119
4) Howard Webb 34.02 peg 129
5) Steve Kedge 30.08 peg 115
Finally, something that made me smile on the way home. I went home via the Fosseway, as it is pretty deserted at 7pm on a Wednesday night, as I got into Shepton Mallet by the traffic lights, a 7 ton pick up/tipper towing an estate car switched lanes a couple of cars in front, catching my eye. It was one of those where you get a feeling somethings dodgy, fair play to the pick up, he got up some speed down the hill, into the dip by the cider factory and stated to climb the other side reasonably well. I then saw something, a piece of plastic? come out from under the estate car, for some reason the driver let the tow rope go slack.
This was half way up the hill, as the rope went tight again, there was an explosion of dust and shit at the front of the car, it slowed and the pick up accelerated up the hill with the complete front bumper moulding (a large one) attached, but no car. Luckily I managed to overtake them once the car had ground to a halt and the pick up driver realised what had happened and stopped - he got out smiling, it obviously wasn't his car......
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
Sunday, 10 July 2011
Tony Rixon's Float Only League, Landsend, Sunday 10th July 2011
I secured a guest spot in this match and had it in my mind to fish for silvers, as doing this seems to be the only way I can ever pick up at Landsend. Out of the draw bucket with peg 34 - bad memories, the last time I drew 34, Matt Tomes emptied it on 33, whilst I struggled. Tim Ford on 33 today and when I stood with him in his peg, it was looking likely that history would repeat itself. There were loads of fish moving between the aerator and the end bank.
I set up a rig to fish shallow to the island at 16m, a MW cookie on 0.18 with a 16 B960, I also set up two silvers rigs, a 4x14 carpa chimp on 0.16 to 0.14 with a size 16 808 and a 4x12 carpa chimp on 0.14 with a 0.12 hooklength and a 16 Drennan carp maggot hook. I also set up a paste rig.
I started on the lighter rig, fishing caster at 7m, apart from a couple of small roach, there wasn't much to show for that. I'd fed a line at 13m with softend 4mm and caster, hoping for skimmers, as well as pinging some 8mm hard pellet to the island. Tim Ford kept saying "look at the tails coming out of the water in front of you" - he was right, but they were black, not orange. Some of the tails belonged to chub and occasionally a big skimmer waved its black, forked caudal fin at me.
I looked in on the 13m line, to no avail and by now was three or four fish behind Tim, the thought of luring some of those carp from the aerator, to my island ledge, made me abandon the silvers and over with the shallow pelet rig I went. I had several chub, before it went quiet, I then had two carp, but after them the bites dried up.
Back in on the 13m line with caster and a couple of skimmers, but the bites were few and far between, a look on the devils spawn over the 13m line brought my only fish of the day on it, a 3lb tench. I tried back over to the island, shallow, with a couple more chub to show for it.
With a couple of hours to go, I set up a shallow rig to try meat over and had three carp in three drop-ins - sussed it, no! That was the end of the carp action off the island. I went back in on the light silvers rig, with double red maggot and had a carp around the 5lb mark, next put in, a 15lb carp took the maggots and nearly gave itself up like a skimmer, before realising it was hooked and stretching the double six to its limit, before the 0.12 parted.
I finished the day on the heavier silvers rig, landing several more decent skimmers, which all took double red maggot - I knew I'd messed up, I should have stuck it out for silvers for the full 6 hours, as my 24lb was just not enough to sneak in the silvers coin. My carp went 42.14 or a total of 66.14, that was 8th overall and enough to pick up the section money by double default, with Tim Ford winning and Mike Nicholls winning the silvers with 32lb. So what appeared to be a disasterous day, from being spanked again by peg 33, to poor decision making, at least ended up with some coin.
1) Tim Ford 126.12 peg 33
2) Tony Rixon 111.13 peg 24
3) Dean Malin 99.14 peg 19
4) Mike Nicholls 94.14 peg 36
5) Paul Elmes 86.04 peg 31
6) Chris Davies 85.08 peg 32
Silvers
1) Mike Nicholls 32.00
2) John Bradford 28.15
3) John Green 27.10
Can't log off without a mention for ex Clevedon Veals team mate, Steve Seager, on peg 34, who had a nightmare, at one time he was squirrel fishing, with his rig at least 20' up one of the island trees - shame I didn't get a picture.......
I set up a rig to fish shallow to the island at 16m, a MW cookie on 0.18 with a 16 B960, I also set up two silvers rigs, a 4x14 carpa chimp on 0.16 to 0.14 with a size 16 808 and a 4x12 carpa chimp on 0.14 with a 0.12 hooklength and a 16 Drennan carp maggot hook. I also set up a paste rig.
I started on the lighter rig, fishing caster at 7m, apart from a couple of small roach, there wasn't much to show for that. I'd fed a line at 13m with softend 4mm and caster, hoping for skimmers, as well as pinging some 8mm hard pellet to the island. Tim Ford kept saying "look at the tails coming out of the water in front of you" - he was right, but they were black, not orange. Some of the tails belonged to chub and occasionally a big skimmer waved its black, forked caudal fin at me.
I looked in on the 13m line, to no avail and by now was three or four fish behind Tim, the thought of luring some of those carp from the aerator, to my island ledge, made me abandon the silvers and over with the shallow pelet rig I went. I had several chub, before it went quiet, I then had two carp, but after them the bites dried up.
Back in on the 13m line with caster and a couple of skimmers, but the bites were few and far between, a look on the devils spawn over the 13m line brought my only fish of the day on it, a 3lb tench. I tried back over to the island, shallow, with a couple more chub to show for it.
With a couple of hours to go, I set up a shallow rig to try meat over and had three carp in three drop-ins - sussed it, no! That was the end of the carp action off the island. I went back in on the light silvers rig, with double red maggot and had a carp around the 5lb mark, next put in, a 15lb carp took the maggots and nearly gave itself up like a skimmer, before realising it was hooked and stretching the double six to its limit, before the 0.12 parted.
I finished the day on the heavier silvers rig, landing several more decent skimmers, which all took double red maggot - I knew I'd messed up, I should have stuck it out for silvers for the full 6 hours, as my 24lb was just not enough to sneak in the silvers coin. My carp went 42.14 or a total of 66.14, that was 8th overall and enough to pick up the section money by double default, with Tim Ford winning and Mike Nicholls winning the silvers with 32lb. So what appeared to be a disasterous day, from being spanked again by peg 33, to poor decision making, at least ended up with some coin.
1) Tim Ford 126.12 peg 33
2) Tony Rixon 111.13 peg 24
3) Dean Malin 99.14 peg 19
4) Mike Nicholls 94.14 peg 36
5) Paul Elmes 86.04 peg 31
6) Chris Davies 85.08 peg 32
Silvers
1) Mike Nicholls 32.00
2) John Bradford 28.15
3) John Green 27.10
Can't log off without a mention for ex Clevedon Veals team mate, Steve Seager, on peg 34, who had a nightmare, at one time he was squirrel fishing, with his rig at least 20' up one of the island trees - shame I didn't get a picture.......
Viaduct Open, Saturday 9th July 2011
I'd love to write a comprehensive account of a interesting, competitive match, sadly I can't. Viaduct has been in good form this spring and summer and the top weights from this match will look good, but the weather or whatever put the fish off feeding made this one on Carey and Lodge, a grueller for many.
I drew peg 90, the wind was blowing into the corner and I hoped for a decent day, there should be fish there, following the wind in. Usual set ups, a waggler rod to fish at depth, a lead rod and pole rigs to fish the margin and pellet at 14.5m.
Suffice to say, as I've already mentioned grueller, after 2½ hours, I had one skimmer on the lead, then another on the waggler, the margin appeared devoid of fish, as did the open water in front of me. There was some fish blowing, I was convinced it was skimmers, so I opened a tin of corn and tried that at 12m, first put in resulted in a 4-5lb common, then nothing.
I kept feeding and working at all the lines, Phil Cardwell packed up on 88 and went, perhaps he had the right idea. Towards the end I managed a couple of decent Tench on meat in the margin, along with one other carp around the 4lb mark, there were three weigh in in my section (88-99) two silvers weights and only one carp weight. My two carp probably would have gone 9lb, but they went back, the silvers went 11.02, easily my worst perfomance on Viaduct during the 'pellet allowed' season.
1) Tom Mangall 144.10 peg 44
2) Steve Jackson 127.11 peg 105
3) Ray Hayward 104.15 peg 66
4) Craig Edmunds 98.03 peg 100
5) Ryan Jordan 77.04 peg 97
6) Terry Lenny 72.04 peg 69
Silvers
1) John Green 30.05 peg 85
2) Barry Fitchew 25.15 68
3) Jamie Parkhouse 23.13 peg 70
I drew peg 90, the wind was blowing into the corner and I hoped for a decent day, there should be fish there, following the wind in. Usual set ups, a waggler rod to fish at depth, a lead rod and pole rigs to fish the margin and pellet at 14.5m.
Suffice to say, as I've already mentioned grueller, after 2½ hours, I had one skimmer on the lead, then another on the waggler, the margin appeared devoid of fish, as did the open water in front of me. There was some fish blowing, I was convinced it was skimmers, so I opened a tin of corn and tried that at 12m, first put in resulted in a 4-5lb common, then nothing.
I kept feeding and working at all the lines, Phil Cardwell packed up on 88 and went, perhaps he had the right idea. Towards the end I managed a couple of decent Tench on meat in the margin, along with one other carp around the 4lb mark, there were three weigh in in my section (88-99) two silvers weights and only one carp weight. My two carp probably would have gone 9lb, but they went back, the silvers went 11.02, easily my worst perfomance on Viaduct during the 'pellet allowed' season.
1) Tom Mangall 144.10 peg 44
2) Steve Jackson 127.11 peg 105
3) Ray Hayward 104.15 peg 66
4) Craig Edmunds 98.03 peg 100
5) Ryan Jordan 77.04 peg 97
6) Terry Lenny 72.04 peg 69
Silvers
1) John Green 30.05 peg 85
2) Barry Fitchew 25.15 68
3) Jamie Parkhouse 23.13 peg 70
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
Carps Viaduct Series, Sunday 3rd July 2011
I took a guest spot in this league today, so it was a positive approach, where ever I drew, no need to fish for series points. 105 came out of the tin, last time on this one I won the lake and a stupid lost fish cost me doing so again.
I set up two margin rigs, a MW 'Dinky D' for meat and a poly ball for paste. A shallow rig for pellet and a depth rig for pellet, a MW diamond and a MW Cookie respectively both on 0.17 with 16 B960 hooks. A MW paste rig completed the pole set up. I also set up a waggler rod and a lead rod, as there fish moving around towards the middle.
Virtually opposite I had Garbolino BMVG silvers ace Bob Gullick, so he wouldn't be feeding to far out to nick any carp - in fact he would be trying to avoid them.
On the all in I flicked the waggler at full depth to the middle, it settled and went under, after a 25 minute battle a 15lb fish graced the net, good start. I then had a smaller fish, but then the bites tailed off. I tried shallowing up and had another fish, great start, but that was the end of it. I tried the margins, nothing, not even an indication, or a twitch from a meat stealing nuisance fish. This was how it stayed on every look into the margins (both left & right) until the end.
I tried the paste line I''d been feeding at 8m - nothing, I tried 6 & 8mm pellet over it just in case there were some skimmers around - nothing again. In desperation I picked up the lead rod and it brought 3 fish.
In the last hour, I decided to really up the feed and fish the waggler, its a tactic that used to catch me a lot of chub on the river, its nearly like the constant rain of bait falling through the peg makes them feed. I started to get bites on the waggler and deepening up again saw me hook a big fish, initially I thought it may have been foul hooked, but it wasn't, it was just the sheer size if it. It took me all over the peg and it just wouldn't get its head off the bottom.
After 20 minutes, I had it under the rod and every time it came within 3 or 4' of the net, it powered off again, it was a angry common well over 20lb. trying to think ahead, as I had started to get bites, I thought I might get another fish if I could get back out there, so using the logic that it must be a good hook hold,as it had been on for 20 minutes+, put a bit more pressure on. Big mistake, the hook pulled and with it went a lake win and £50 quid section money......
I'd been feeding whilst playing it, but not nearly enough and the last 15 minutes remained biteless.
My 7 fish went 72lbish and Bela Bakos took the section with 76lb.
See Mike Nicholls blog for the results, as I had to disappear after the weigh in to go to work.
I set up two margin rigs, a MW 'Dinky D' for meat and a poly ball for paste. A shallow rig for pellet and a depth rig for pellet, a MW diamond and a MW Cookie respectively both on 0.17 with 16 B960 hooks. A MW paste rig completed the pole set up. I also set up a waggler rod and a lead rod, as there fish moving around towards the middle.
Virtually opposite I had Garbolino BMVG silvers ace Bob Gullick, so he wouldn't be feeding to far out to nick any carp - in fact he would be trying to avoid them.
On the all in I flicked the waggler at full depth to the middle, it settled and went under, after a 25 minute battle a 15lb fish graced the net, good start. I then had a smaller fish, but then the bites tailed off. I tried shallowing up and had another fish, great start, but that was the end of it. I tried the margins, nothing, not even an indication, or a twitch from a meat stealing nuisance fish. This was how it stayed on every look into the margins (both left & right) until the end.
I tried the paste line I''d been feeding at 8m - nothing, I tried 6 & 8mm pellet over it just in case there were some skimmers around - nothing again. In desperation I picked up the lead rod and it brought 3 fish.
In the last hour, I decided to really up the feed and fish the waggler, its a tactic that used to catch me a lot of chub on the river, its nearly like the constant rain of bait falling through the peg makes them feed. I started to get bites on the waggler and deepening up again saw me hook a big fish, initially I thought it may have been foul hooked, but it wasn't, it was just the sheer size if it. It took me all over the peg and it just wouldn't get its head off the bottom.
After 20 minutes, I had it under the rod and every time it came within 3 or 4' of the net, it powered off again, it was a angry common well over 20lb. trying to think ahead, as I had started to get bites, I thought I might get another fish if I could get back out there, so using the logic that it must be a good hook hold,as it had been on for 20 minutes+, put a bit more pressure on. Big mistake, the hook pulled and with it went a lake win and £50 quid section money......
I'd been feeding whilst playing it, but not nearly enough and the last 15 minutes remained biteless.
My 7 fish went 72lbish and Bela Bakos took the section with 76lb.
See Mike Nicholls blog for the results, as I had to disappear after the weigh in to go to work.
Saturday, 2 July 2011
Viaduct Open, Saturday 2nd July 2011
I was quite happily making my way to Viaduct, when at just before 10am the phone rang, "where are you, its a 09.30 draw". Why do they have a different time on Wednesdays and Saturdays? To confuse the simple, obviously...... Luckily Paul Greenwood had left a ticket in for me, unluckily it was 125.
I decided to keep things simple and set up a pellet waggler, as there were plenty of fish sunning themselves and cruising round in the sunshine. The water temperature was 24.3°C, no wonder they were so laid back. I also set up 4 topkits, one for paste, one for banded pellet at depth, one shallow and a margin rig for meat. This was a total waste of time, either I'm doing something drastically wrong, or every peg I get is full of tiny roach etc. which continually nibble away at the meat.
The first 20 minutes were spent trying to mug some of the cruising fish, but they weren't having it and they backed off towards the middle after having a pole waved over their heads. Out with the pellet waggler and I had a couple of indications, then a slight ripple got up and I had three fish in quick succession, the ripple went and that was pretty much the end of the waggler line. In the meantime, I was seeing Martin Preston on 123, getting a run of fish on the lead, fishing popped up bread.
I dropped into the 14m line I'd been feeding, with the paste rig and soon had a flying skimmer, next fish was a big lump well into double figures. From then on it got hard, the margin only produced 1-2oz roach on meat, so that was abandoned. I stuck at the 14m line with paste and alternating that with 8mm banded pellet, this produced a couple more skimmers. There were plenty of skimmers blowing over the feed, so with 2 and a bit hours to go I decided to set up a skimmer rig. This was dropped in and I immediately started to catch carp on the expander, another double figure fish was landed.
I reverted back to small balls of paste, without feeding, this stopped attracting carp and had a few more skimmers, with hindsight I should have fished for them all day, as I was so far adrift on the carp. I also had 2 tench on the paste, the first tench I've caught in open water at Viaduct. My 7 carp went 48.02 and the skimmers 24.00 for 72.02.
Peg 132 kept up its good form as it produced 209.10 to win
1) Roland (Lucas?) 209.10 peg 132
2) Lewis Greenwood 162.01 peg 112
3) Martin Preston 145.10 peg 123
4) Craig Edmunds 128.08 peg 110
5) Andy Wilkinson 127.10 peg 119
6) Tim Ford 100.11 peg 129
Silvers
1) Craig Edmunds 66.08
2) Dan Squire 52.02
3) Andy Wilkinson 39.07
I decided to keep things simple and set up a pellet waggler, as there were plenty of fish sunning themselves and cruising round in the sunshine. The water temperature was 24.3°C, no wonder they were so laid back. I also set up 4 topkits, one for paste, one for banded pellet at depth, one shallow and a margin rig for meat. This was a total waste of time, either I'm doing something drastically wrong, or every peg I get is full of tiny roach etc. which continually nibble away at the meat.
The first 20 minutes were spent trying to mug some of the cruising fish, but they weren't having it and they backed off towards the middle after having a pole waved over their heads. Out with the pellet waggler and I had a couple of indications, then a slight ripple got up and I had three fish in quick succession, the ripple went and that was pretty much the end of the waggler line. In the meantime, I was seeing Martin Preston on 123, getting a run of fish on the lead, fishing popped up bread.
I dropped into the 14m line I'd been feeding, with the paste rig and soon had a flying skimmer, next fish was a big lump well into double figures. From then on it got hard, the margin only produced 1-2oz roach on meat, so that was abandoned. I stuck at the 14m line with paste and alternating that with 8mm banded pellet, this produced a couple more skimmers. There were plenty of skimmers blowing over the feed, so with 2 and a bit hours to go I decided to set up a skimmer rig. This was dropped in and I immediately started to catch carp on the expander, another double figure fish was landed.
I reverted back to small balls of paste, without feeding, this stopped attracting carp and had a few more skimmers, with hindsight I should have fished for them all day, as I was so far adrift on the carp. I also had 2 tench on the paste, the first tench I've caught in open water at Viaduct. My 7 carp went 48.02 and the skimmers 24.00 for 72.02.
Peg 132 kept up its good form as it produced 209.10 to win
1) Roland (Lucas?) 209.10 peg 132
2) Lewis Greenwood 162.01 peg 112
3) Martin Preston 145.10 peg 123
4) Craig Edmunds 128.08 peg 110
5) Andy Wilkinson 127.10 peg 119
6) Tim Ford 100.11 peg 129
Silvers
1) Craig Edmunds 66.08
2) Dan Squire 52.02
3) Andy Wilkinson 39.07
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
Viaduct Open, Wednesday 29th June 2011
Had a nice breakfast to start the day off today, free range eggs, venison sausages etc. had to cook it myself, you don't get that in the cafe. After the good weights that came from Campbell last weekend I was looking forward to today, it was to be carp or bust, with pellet, meat and paste in the bait bag - well it would have been if I hadn't left the carefully prepared paste in my bait fridge.
Just before the draw, we had the small matter of rescuing an unfortunate anglers car, trying to be gentlemanly and letting the very posh looking red Spyder convertible past, proved to be his downfall. The lush grass verge, was a mere illusion and the silver Peugeot estate proved a tad too heavy for the grass to support. One Transit van and a team of anglers anxious to get on with the draw, managed to extract the Peugeot, with not too much damage, except some dented pride.
I won't mention his name, no doubt someone will recognise the car.....
I drew a nice short walk, 110, with Dick Bull on 111. He'd had 180lb from 110 last weekend, shallow on the pole. There didn't seem to be too many fish out in front today, but I could see plenty of dark shapes up in front of 135.
I set up two pellet waggler rods, 11' Maver Reactorlites, with Preston Inception 4000 reels, rods I've only used a couple of times and new reels - I usually use TDR's, but the Prestons were slightly lighter. 6lb sensor main line, with 0.17 hooklength and a 18 PR36. I did take a lead rod from the hardcase, but it got put back at the end without a cast being made.
4 topkits set up, a shallow pellet rig, a inline dibber on 0.17 to a 16 B960, a full depth pellet rig, a MW diamond on 0.17 to a 0.15 hooklength and a 16 B960. A paste float on 0.17 to a 14 Mustad paste hook and a MW power for the margin, on 0.19 with a 0.17 hooklength and a 16 TXR hook. Once I'd set up the paste rig, I discovered, as mentioned, that my paste was 35 miles away, in the fridge. I hurridly made some up, but I prefer to make it the night before.
At the all in I started on the pellet waggler and was almost immediately a fish behind to Dick, as he had one straight away on the wag. I started to get bites and had two fish before the third snapped the 6lb sensor - brand new line!! I picked up the other rod and had another fish, but they weren't exactly giving themselves up, I could only catch if they took the pellet almost immediately it hit the water.
I decided to rest this line and had fed a pot of micros and expanders at 10m to my left for paste, a line at 14m straight in front and some meat down by the stump. I had a look on the meat and this produced a rudd and next put in, a 3lb bream, then a run of unhitable bites. A lookover the micros and expanders with paste, produced not so much as a liner and I never went back there. A try shallow at 14m, not a bite, but there was some fizzing, so I dropped the full depth rig in and had a carp nearly straight away. A couple of liners next, so back on the shallow rig to no avail.
I spent the rest of the match on the pellet waggler and had spells of catching, spells of frustration as I got snapped a further 5 times, once when a decent fish kited along to 136 and picked up a big branch, I managed to get the branch and fish back to the stump on my left, before the hooklength snapped. All looked OK and back out with a new hooklength, a smaller fish landed OK, then a bigger fish snapped the main line, on closer inspection, about 4' of the main line was abraded by the branch. That'll teach me to inspect line more closely after a snag.
I had a spell when The fish seemed to back away from the feed, I caught without feeding, then a spell where they wanted a pouchful everytime, so much so, they were boiling on the surface. This resulted in a spell of a couple of snapped hooklengths, some fish lost due to hook pulls and a some foulers. It seemed best to cast, then feed, this seemed to result in bigger fish, with a decent hook hold.
Interesting discussion with Steve Long afterwards, he put forward a point of view that when there are many fish competing for the pellet up in the water, the hooklengths may be breaking against other fish, I've no doubt this can happen. I also wonder if the 11' rods are forgiving enough for the 6lb+ fish, I've certainly had nowhere near as many hookpulls with my 13' Reactorlites - perhaps the 11' rods are best for venues with 2-5lb fish. Although I do like the way the fish pop up at exactly netting range with the 11' rods.
I eneded the match with 24 fish, a couple not far off double figures, so that adds weight to Steve's theory, not enough I was sure to beat Matt Tomes on 132 (see Matt, for bad karma, like cars off road, theres good karma like drawing 132) who'd caught steadily all day on the pole, although had I sussed out the feeding and not lost so many, I would have undoubtedly beaten him, I feel it should have been a 200lb peg. Once again my total ineptitude at gauging fish weights was evident as I was deducted 1.13 from my total of 161.12, leaving me with 159.15, third on the day and a section win. The net that was over by 1.13 had 12 fish in it. The average weight of my fish was over 6.08, so that only 11 per net from now on.
Winner on the day was Lee Werrett who chucked a lead at 120 all day from 119, apparently it just kept going round.....
1) Lee Werrett 232.05 peg 119
2) Matt Tomes 165.02 peg 132
3) Chris Fox 159.15 peg 110
4) Scott Russell 136.04 peg 124
5) Andy lloyd 110.05 peg 127
6) Paul Blake 103.09 peg 116
Silvers
1) Paul Blake 53.12 peg 116 (Tench on meat)
2) Howard Webb 43.03 peg 128
3) Tim Pallant 41.10 peg 123
Just before the draw, we had the small matter of rescuing an unfortunate anglers car, trying to be gentlemanly and letting the very posh looking red Spyder convertible past, proved to be his downfall. The lush grass verge, was a mere illusion and the silver Peugeot estate proved a tad too heavy for the grass to support. One Transit van and a team of anglers anxious to get on with the draw, managed to extract the Peugeot, with not too much damage, except some dented pride.
I won't mention his name, no doubt someone will recognise the car.....
I drew a nice short walk, 110, with Dick Bull on 111. He'd had 180lb from 110 last weekend, shallow on the pole. There didn't seem to be too many fish out in front today, but I could see plenty of dark shapes up in front of 135.
I set up two pellet waggler rods, 11' Maver Reactorlites, with Preston Inception 4000 reels, rods I've only used a couple of times and new reels - I usually use TDR's, but the Prestons were slightly lighter. 6lb sensor main line, with 0.17 hooklength and a 18 PR36. I did take a lead rod from the hardcase, but it got put back at the end without a cast being made.
4 topkits set up, a shallow pellet rig, a inline dibber on 0.17 to a 16 B960, a full depth pellet rig, a MW diamond on 0.17 to a 0.15 hooklength and a 16 B960. A paste float on 0.17 to a 14 Mustad paste hook and a MW power for the margin, on 0.19 with a 0.17 hooklength and a 16 TXR hook. Once I'd set up the paste rig, I discovered, as mentioned, that my paste was 35 miles away, in the fridge. I hurridly made some up, but I prefer to make it the night before.
At the all in I started on the pellet waggler and was almost immediately a fish behind to Dick, as he had one straight away on the wag. I started to get bites and had two fish before the third snapped the 6lb sensor - brand new line!! I picked up the other rod and had another fish, but they weren't exactly giving themselves up, I could only catch if they took the pellet almost immediately it hit the water.
I decided to rest this line and had fed a pot of micros and expanders at 10m to my left for paste, a line at 14m straight in front and some meat down by the stump. I had a look on the meat and this produced a rudd and next put in, a 3lb bream, then a run of unhitable bites. A lookover the micros and expanders with paste, produced not so much as a liner and I never went back there. A try shallow at 14m, not a bite, but there was some fizzing, so I dropped the full depth rig in and had a carp nearly straight away. A couple of liners next, so back on the shallow rig to no avail.
I spent the rest of the match on the pellet waggler and had spells of catching, spells of frustration as I got snapped a further 5 times, once when a decent fish kited along to 136 and picked up a big branch, I managed to get the branch and fish back to the stump on my left, before the hooklength snapped. All looked OK and back out with a new hooklength, a smaller fish landed OK, then a bigger fish snapped the main line, on closer inspection, about 4' of the main line was abraded by the branch. That'll teach me to inspect line more closely after a snag.
I had a spell when The fish seemed to back away from the feed, I caught without feeding, then a spell where they wanted a pouchful everytime, so much so, they were boiling on the surface. This resulted in a spell of a couple of snapped hooklengths, some fish lost due to hook pulls and a some foulers. It seemed best to cast, then feed, this seemed to result in bigger fish, with a decent hook hold.
Interesting discussion with Steve Long afterwards, he put forward a point of view that when there are many fish competing for the pellet up in the water, the hooklengths may be breaking against other fish, I've no doubt this can happen. I also wonder if the 11' rods are forgiving enough for the 6lb+ fish, I've certainly had nowhere near as many hookpulls with my 13' Reactorlites - perhaps the 11' rods are best for venues with 2-5lb fish. Although I do like the way the fish pop up at exactly netting range with the 11' rods.
I eneded the match with 24 fish, a couple not far off double figures, so that adds weight to Steve's theory, not enough I was sure to beat Matt Tomes on 132 (see Matt, for bad karma, like cars off road, theres good karma like drawing 132) who'd caught steadily all day on the pole, although had I sussed out the feeding and not lost so many, I would have undoubtedly beaten him, I feel it should have been a 200lb peg. Once again my total ineptitude at gauging fish weights was evident as I was deducted 1.13 from my total of 161.12, leaving me with 159.15, third on the day and a section win. The net that was over by 1.13 had 12 fish in it. The average weight of my fish was over 6.08, so that only 11 per net from now on.
Winner on the day was Lee Werrett who chucked a lead at 120 all day from 119, apparently it just kept going round.....
1) Lee Werrett 232.05 peg 119
2) Matt Tomes 165.02 peg 132
3) Chris Fox 159.15 peg 110
4) Scott Russell 136.04 peg 124
5) Andy lloyd 110.05 peg 127
6) Paul Blake 103.09 peg 116
Silvers
1) Paul Blake 53.12 peg 116 (Tench on meat)
2) Howard Webb 43.03 peg 128
3) Tim Pallant 41.10 peg 123
Sunday, 26 June 2011
Trinity Two Day Festival, Sat & Sun 25th & 26th June 2011
I was looking forward to this festival, because Trinity is a great venue and I was defending my crown of Champion last year. The weather was set to play havoc with the fish again, rain Friday night and a mini heat wave on Sunday, but dealing with the conditions is all a part of fishing.
I gave Andy (Hembrow) a hand to run it this year, although I left the collecting names and pegging up to him, we initially had the 20, we were calling a full house, but by the day before, that had dropped to 16, so the payout was slightly reduced. Its a real shame that the numbers are down, the festival used to be on both lakes (Woodland and Wildmarsh) but now with a smaller entry we had both days on Woodland.
At the draw on Saturday, I waited until everyone else had drawn and took the last swimcard, its not something I usually do and I won't be doing it again!! Peg 2, a corner peg which can produce, but I felt the wind was in the wrong direction and with peg 33 in I had no waggler chuck.
I'd decided to start fishing for skimmers and switch to carp when they came along as they inevitably do, wrecking the skimmer line, with the back up of the RH margin as this often produces carp. I set up a paste rig and a another rig with a 0.8g MW diamond to fish 8mm banded pellet/paste approx 1m infront of the point to my left, a MW diamond (1g) to fish 14m straight out, this was to be the CW&C line and a couple of margin rigs for the RH margin, as it varied in depth too much to get away with one rig.
I fed some groundbait and CW&C at 14m and some pellets in front of the point, starting on the worm, I had a couple of decent skimmers, although I had a couple more in the first hour it was slow going, during the day I had several visits to the paste/pellet line, but did not get so much as a liner there, so no more about that. The RH margin was pretty non-productive as well, 5 carp for 11.11 was the sum total from there. I had tried meat, nicked off the hook by silvers, an 8mm banded - constant 'bobbing' of the float as the bits pecked at it. An 11mm pellet reduced this, but there really seemed to be no feeding carp in the margin.
I finished the match where I started, on the CW&C, I had tried a 6mm expander over this line after introducing a few free offerings, to no avail. I had the pretty much unique experience of not hooking or even fouling a carp in open water on my skimmer line - that said I didn't exactly hook many skimmers. The ones I did hook and land went 15.08 for 3 silvers points and a total of 27.03 for a resounding last in section. That was the defence of the crown gone then... Rod Wootten on peg 4 had absolutely battered me and everyone else, to take top section points and win the match.
Day One Results:
1) Rod Wootten 102.07 peg 4
2) Mark Walsh 85.01 peg 26
3) Lewis Jones 77.07 peg 9
4) Andy Hembrow 73.03 peg 19
5) Shaun Kittridge 57.14 peg 7
6) Brian Slipper 56.11 peg 33
Silvers
1) Rod Wootten 33.00 peg 4
2) Brian Slipper 18.04 peg 33
3) Chris Fox 15.08 peg 2
Sunday dawned a bit foggy over the hills, but the sun soon burnt that off and it became the scorcher promised by the weathermen. As we had four sections, those who fished A & B yesterday, fished C & D today (and obviously, vice versa). I got Misha the fishery Manager to draw my peg, 26. I wasn't disappointed, I'd left all the meat, big pellets etc. at home, as Silvers were the only way I was going to get some cash from this affair, although it was nice when I got a payout from Kev Perry's superpool this morning, a second place, not sure who out of Rod & Brian didn't go in it.
I had brought my Drennan Match Pro quiver, a nice little rod for skimmer fishing and I did wonder if they backed off from the pole line, if I could utilise a small cage feeder with some micros and dead maggot. That was set up with 4lb direct mono reel line and 0.14 powersilk and a 18 808.
I set up the same 1g MW diamond on 0.15 to 0.11 with a 18 63-13 hook, this had an olivette around 12" from the hook, with 2 No8 stotzs 6" from the hook and 2" overdepth. I also set up a paste rig, but didn't use this. I set up a small MW slim power to fish caster shallow on a topkit to hand. Mindful that Mark Walsh had 80lb+ from the margins yesterday I nearly set a margin rig, but didn't.
This peg was around 12" deeper than peg 2 so had to remake a couple of rigs, I also felt that there was no need to go much further than 11m, especially I was going to have a feeder line at 25m. I started on CW&C, but with the addition of dead red maggot and soon stopped putting worm in as this seemed to create initial interest, but then the bites would dry up. After three or four skimmers, the line went quiet, I did try changing my ratio of micros to groundbait but this didn't increase the bites. So I had alook on the topset with the caster rig on, this was 0.11 with a 0.10 hooklength, a fish every put in on caster, but many were 30 or 40 to the pound size.
Time for a look on the feeder, whilst keeping the other lines topped up, especially the caster line, trying to feed of the micro rudd & roach. After three casts the tip plucked and gently pulled round, a classic bream bite, it felt like a bream, a dead weight, with an occasional bump. That was until it got under the rod tip, it then turned into a carp on speed. Three more chucks, resulted in two more carp and one lost, I think they were following the bloody feeder down. The last chuck, was the rod up the bank, I didn't want carp. Back on the caster and head down, the size of the fish increased, if I constantly changed depth, I sometimes had to fish in the middle of the loose feed, some times on the periphery.
With an hour to go, I could see Kev Perry starting to increase his catch rate of skimmers - on paste - back on the skimmer line with double dead maggot and two more skimmers straight away, then disaster. A carp snaffled the maggot and started plodding round the peg, it then decided to run towards peg 27, snapping the No6 elastic. So with 35 minutes to go, do I set up another rig or go back on the caster.
I went back on the caster and the fish not much bigger than the caster they were swallowing, were back, so I quickly grabbed another rig, which promptly tangled, in my haste to get it set up. I discarded that and set another up, but it was 1.5g and it just didn't seem to take the trip the same as the 1g float. So back on the caster, upping the feed for the last 15 minutes.
At the all out I had no idea what weight I had, but I guessed it was low double figures, the roach & rudd were from a couple of drams up to 4oz, with one better roach. The carp went 8.05 and the silvers were 18.14, enough for a section win (silvers), giving, bizarrely, 27.03 exactly the same weight as yesterday. A bit of totting up and it seemed I'd get second place in the silvers (by default as you couldn't win both). A welcome pick up of £100, to go with yesterdays superpool money.
On the Day:
1) Andy Hembrow 124.02 peg 7
2) Rich Lovering 102.10 peg 4
3) Lewis Jones 96.06 peg 28
4) Mark Walsh 84.03 peg 2
5) Rod Wootten 58.04 peg 21
6) Brian Slipper 50.12 peg 17
Silvers
1) Lewis Jones 31.12 peg 28
2) Brian Slipper 27.11 peg 17
3) Kev Perry 26.01 peg 15
Festival Overall:
Place.. Name.. Points.. Weight
1 Rod Wootton 8 160.11
2 Brian Slipper 8 107.07
3 Andy hembrow 7 197.05
4 Lewis Jones 7 173.13
5 Mark Walsh 6 169.08
6 Nick Harvey 6 93.13
7 Darren Vowles 6 84.02
8 Rich Lovering 5 136.00
9 Shaun Kittridge 5 107.12
10 Lance Tucker 4 68.03
11 Craig Tucker 4 53.08
12 Mark Broomsgrove 3 62.04
13 Chris Fox 3 54.06
14 Kev Perry 3 48.08
15 Dave Baker 2 46.03
16 Rich Heatley 2 35.05
Festival Silvers:
Place.. Name.. Points.. Weight
1 Brian Slipper 8 45.15
2 Kev Perry 7 40.13
3 Chris Fox 7 34.06
4 Craig Tucker 7 26.06
5 Andy Hembrow 7 20.13
6 Rod Wootton 5 39.00
7 Lewis Jones 5 36.05
8 Lance Tucker 5 21.03
9 Mark Broomsgrove 5 19.07
10 Rich Lovering 5 12.06
11 Dave Baker 5 8.15
12 Shaun Kittridge 3 13.06
13 Nick Harvey 3 6.13
14 Darren Vowles 3 1.12
15 Mark Walsh 2 4.13
16 Rich Heatley 2 1.01
I gave Andy (Hembrow) a hand to run it this year, although I left the collecting names and pegging up to him, we initially had the 20, we were calling a full house, but by the day before, that had dropped to 16, so the payout was slightly reduced. Its a real shame that the numbers are down, the festival used to be on both lakes (Woodland and Wildmarsh) but now with a smaller entry we had both days on Woodland.
At the draw on Saturday, I waited until everyone else had drawn and took the last swimcard, its not something I usually do and I won't be doing it again!! Peg 2, a corner peg which can produce, but I felt the wind was in the wrong direction and with peg 33 in I had no waggler chuck.
I'd decided to start fishing for skimmers and switch to carp when they came along as they inevitably do, wrecking the skimmer line, with the back up of the RH margin as this often produces carp. I set up a paste rig and a another rig with a 0.8g MW diamond to fish 8mm banded pellet/paste approx 1m infront of the point to my left, a MW diamond (1g) to fish 14m straight out, this was to be the CW&C line and a couple of margin rigs for the RH margin, as it varied in depth too much to get away with one rig.
I fed some groundbait and CW&C at 14m and some pellets in front of the point, starting on the worm, I had a couple of decent skimmers, although I had a couple more in the first hour it was slow going, during the day I had several visits to the paste/pellet line, but did not get so much as a liner there, so no more about that. The RH margin was pretty non-productive as well, 5 carp for 11.11 was the sum total from there. I had tried meat, nicked off the hook by silvers, an 8mm banded - constant 'bobbing' of the float as the bits pecked at it. An 11mm pellet reduced this, but there really seemed to be no feeding carp in the margin.
I finished the match where I started, on the CW&C, I had tried a 6mm expander over this line after introducing a few free offerings, to no avail. I had the pretty much unique experience of not hooking or even fouling a carp in open water on my skimmer line - that said I didn't exactly hook many skimmers. The ones I did hook and land went 15.08 for 3 silvers points and a total of 27.03 for a resounding last in section. That was the defence of the crown gone then... Rod Wootten on peg 4 had absolutely battered me and everyone else, to take top section points and win the match.
Day One Results:
1) Rod Wootten 102.07 peg 4
2) Mark Walsh 85.01 peg 26
3) Lewis Jones 77.07 peg 9
4) Andy Hembrow 73.03 peg 19
5) Shaun Kittridge 57.14 peg 7
6) Brian Slipper 56.11 peg 33
Silvers
1) Rod Wootten 33.00 peg 4
2) Brian Slipper 18.04 peg 33
3) Chris Fox 15.08 peg 2
Sunday dawned a bit foggy over the hills, but the sun soon burnt that off and it became the scorcher promised by the weathermen. As we had four sections, those who fished A & B yesterday, fished C & D today (and obviously, vice versa). I got Misha the fishery Manager to draw my peg, 26. I wasn't disappointed, I'd left all the meat, big pellets etc. at home, as Silvers were the only way I was going to get some cash from this affair, although it was nice when I got a payout from Kev Perry's superpool this morning, a second place, not sure who out of Rod & Brian didn't go in it.
I had brought my Drennan Match Pro quiver, a nice little rod for skimmer fishing and I did wonder if they backed off from the pole line, if I could utilise a small cage feeder with some micros and dead maggot. That was set up with 4lb direct mono reel line and 0.14 powersilk and a 18 808.
I set up the same 1g MW diamond on 0.15 to 0.11 with a 18 63-13 hook, this had an olivette around 12" from the hook, with 2 No8 stotzs 6" from the hook and 2" overdepth. I also set up a paste rig, but didn't use this. I set up a small MW slim power to fish caster shallow on a topkit to hand. Mindful that Mark Walsh had 80lb+ from the margins yesterday I nearly set a margin rig, but didn't.
This peg was around 12" deeper than peg 2 so had to remake a couple of rigs, I also felt that there was no need to go much further than 11m, especially I was going to have a feeder line at 25m. I started on CW&C, but with the addition of dead red maggot and soon stopped putting worm in as this seemed to create initial interest, but then the bites would dry up. After three or four skimmers, the line went quiet, I did try changing my ratio of micros to groundbait but this didn't increase the bites. So I had alook on the topset with the caster rig on, this was 0.11 with a 0.10 hooklength, a fish every put in on caster, but many were 30 or 40 to the pound size.
Time for a look on the feeder, whilst keeping the other lines topped up, especially the caster line, trying to feed of the micro rudd & roach. After three casts the tip plucked and gently pulled round, a classic bream bite, it felt like a bream, a dead weight, with an occasional bump. That was until it got under the rod tip, it then turned into a carp on speed. Three more chucks, resulted in two more carp and one lost, I think they were following the bloody feeder down. The last chuck, was the rod up the bank, I didn't want carp. Back on the caster and head down, the size of the fish increased, if I constantly changed depth, I sometimes had to fish in the middle of the loose feed, some times on the periphery.
With an hour to go, I could see Kev Perry starting to increase his catch rate of skimmers - on paste - back on the skimmer line with double dead maggot and two more skimmers straight away, then disaster. A carp snaffled the maggot and started plodding round the peg, it then decided to run towards peg 27, snapping the No6 elastic. So with 35 minutes to go, do I set up another rig or go back on the caster.
I went back on the caster and the fish not much bigger than the caster they were swallowing, were back, so I quickly grabbed another rig, which promptly tangled, in my haste to get it set up. I discarded that and set another up, but it was 1.5g and it just didn't seem to take the trip the same as the 1g float. So back on the caster, upping the feed for the last 15 minutes.
At the all out I had no idea what weight I had, but I guessed it was low double figures, the roach & rudd were from a couple of drams up to 4oz, with one better roach. The carp went 8.05 and the silvers were 18.14, enough for a section win (silvers), giving, bizarrely, 27.03 exactly the same weight as yesterday. A bit of totting up and it seemed I'd get second place in the silvers (by default as you couldn't win both). A welcome pick up of £100, to go with yesterdays superpool money.
On the Day:
1) Andy Hembrow 124.02 peg 7
2) Rich Lovering 102.10 peg 4
3) Lewis Jones 96.06 peg 28
4) Mark Walsh 84.03 peg 2
5) Rod Wootten 58.04 peg 21
6) Brian Slipper 50.12 peg 17
Silvers
1) Lewis Jones 31.12 peg 28
2) Brian Slipper 27.11 peg 17
3) Kev Perry 26.01 peg 15
Festival Overall:
Place.. Name.. Points.. Weight
1 Rod Wootton 8 160.11
2 Brian Slipper 8 107.07
3 Andy hembrow 7 197.05
4 Lewis Jones 7 173.13
5 Mark Walsh 6 169.08
6 Nick Harvey 6 93.13
7 Darren Vowles 6 84.02
8 Rich Lovering 5 136.00
9 Shaun Kittridge 5 107.12
10 Lance Tucker 4 68.03
11 Craig Tucker 4 53.08
12 Mark Broomsgrove 3 62.04
13 Chris Fox 3 54.06
14 Kev Perry 3 48.08
15 Dave Baker 2 46.03
16 Rich Heatley 2 35.05
Festival Silvers:
Place.. Name.. Points.. Weight
1 Brian Slipper 8 45.15
2 Kev Perry 7 40.13
3 Chris Fox 7 34.06
4 Craig Tucker 7 26.06
5 Andy Hembrow 7 20.13
6 Rod Wootton 5 39.00
7 Lewis Jones 5 36.05
8 Lance Tucker 5 21.03
9 Mark Broomsgrove 5 19.07
10 Rich Lovering 5 12.06
11 Dave Baker 5 8.15
12 Shaun Kittridge 3 13.06
13 Nick Harvey 3 6.13
14 Darren Vowles 3 1.12
15 Mark Walsh 2 4.13
16 Rich Heatley 2 1.01
Friday, 10 June 2011
Viaduct Costcutter Open, Thursday 9th June 2011
Campbell and Cary in again today, the traffic caused me to arrive right on the draw time of 09.30, so I missed my usual spot near the front of the queue - why do some folk drive so bloody slowly!!! - 112 was my reward (or punishment).
After yesterday, I thought paste might pick out the bigger fish and after waiting nearly an hour, I was proved right as a hard fighting 10lber graced the net. By this time I was several fish behind Mash who'd drawn 132, my peg yesterday, it appeared the fish were in front of 134 right from the start today. Also Dan Squire on 115 was catching shallow.
Rigs were pretty much as yesterday, except I set up a paste rig right from the off.
I had the fish fizzing, but very few bites, also very few liners, I shipped out the soft pellet rig and had a couple of decent skimmers, I can only assume that they were the culprits for the fizz. I alternated between hard and soft pellet, paste and a couple of spells on the pellet waggler, all for little reward.
I tried meat at 6m and had 3 or 4 missed bites, I tried meat in the LH margin and had three fish in three put ins, one a 8 or 9lber, then all I could get was the constant twtching of the float as roach and skimmers pecked at the meat hookbait.
In the last hour I had a couple of fish on paste, but I was a long way from framing today, It seemed that I had a few bigger fish in the peg, but no quantity. the carp went 49lb odd and my skimmers 12lb odd for a total of 61lb something.
I'm happy to use the costcutters as a practise, trial match, as at £11 they are only £4 more than a dayticket and its possible to try things out under match condidtions - a great idea. Although had I realised how low a weight (in Viaduct terms) was needed to get some beer money I may have not persevered with the paste for so long.
Mash plundered the end bank on the waggler and won with 178lb
1) Mash 178.00 peg 132
2) D Squire 160.10 peg 115
3) T Bruton 91.15 peg 96
4) P Furlong 85.4 peg 98
5) M Nicholls 80.05 peg 116
6) D Wride 80.00 peg 118
Silvers
1) J Green 61.13 peg 78
2) M Nicholls 54.00 peg 116
3) T Bruton 48.06 peg 96
After yesterday, I thought paste might pick out the bigger fish and after waiting nearly an hour, I was proved right as a hard fighting 10lber graced the net. By this time I was several fish behind Mash who'd drawn 132, my peg yesterday, it appeared the fish were in front of 134 right from the start today. Also Dan Squire on 115 was catching shallow.
Rigs were pretty much as yesterday, except I set up a paste rig right from the off.
I had the fish fizzing, but very few bites, also very few liners, I shipped out the soft pellet rig and had a couple of decent skimmers, I can only assume that they were the culprits for the fizz. I alternated between hard and soft pellet, paste and a couple of spells on the pellet waggler, all for little reward.
I tried meat at 6m and had 3 or 4 missed bites, I tried meat in the LH margin and had three fish in three put ins, one a 8 or 9lber, then all I could get was the constant twtching of the float as roach and skimmers pecked at the meat hookbait.
In the last hour I had a couple of fish on paste, but I was a long way from framing today, It seemed that I had a few bigger fish in the peg, but no quantity. the carp went 49lb odd and my skimmers 12lb odd for a total of 61lb something.
I'm happy to use the costcutters as a practise, trial match, as at £11 they are only £4 more than a dayticket and its possible to try things out under match condidtions - a great idea. Although had I realised how low a weight (in Viaduct terms) was needed to get some beer money I may have not persevered with the paste for so long.
Mash plundered the end bank on the waggler and won with 178lb
1) Mash 178.00 peg 132
2) D Squire 160.10 peg 115
3) T Bruton 91.15 peg 96
4) P Furlong 85.4 peg 98
5) M Nicholls 80.05 peg 116
6) D Wride 80.00 peg 118
Silvers
1) J Green 61.13 peg 78
2) M Nicholls 54.00 peg 116
3) T Bruton 48.06 peg 96
Viaduct Wednesday Open, 8th June 2011
25 lined up for the draw for this regular Wednesday open, two sections on Campbell and one on Cary - I was unconcerened which lake I drew, as lately I seem to draw the lake which comes second. Todays result bucked that trend, with both lakes being pretty even.
132 was my home for the day, a end (or corner)peg, the first time I've been on this peg, the usual comments "You'll win from there" "How do you draw those flyers" were bantered around, to those on any pegs with form. Having won money on the two times I've drawn 110 (the end peg on the opposite bank), I expected to catch in a similar fashion, i'e. towards the end bank.
I set up a lead rod - that stayed in sweet repose for 6 hours - so no further mention, a 2 swan dumpy waggler to fish shallow, a rig to fish meat to the end bank, which was a MW power on 0.17 to .015 with a 16 TXR7 hook. A shallow pellet rig which was simply a MW pea on 0.17 straight through to a B960 16, a MW diamond to fish pellet at full depth and a MW slim power on 0.11 to 0.12 power silk with a 18 808 for the devils spawn - should I get desperate!! ( The 0.12 power silk is actually thinner than the 0.11 power line).
I started on the shallow waggler , to no avail, the fish that were showing shallow, were all over by peg 136. I tried the deep pellet rig and had my first fish 35 minutes in, there were fish in the peg at 14m, but not so many that they were causing issues with fouling/false bites. I then tried the shallow pole rig and had one fish, it seemed to be slow going all round the lake, so back on the full depth pellet rig and a another fish - they were small fish though.
Time for a look up to the end bank, this produced 3 fish, which were around the 2lb mark, every 20 minutes or so I had a look towards 134 where I'd been feeding pellet, but there appeared to be no fish there. Still plenty showing between the far bank and 135, but Roger Andonio on 110 wasn't fishing to the end bank, if he was they may have pushed over toward me.
Halfway through, I had an idea that paste might sort out a bigger fish or two, so made some up, I did catch on it, bigger fish, but it was still slow going. At 17.15, with 3/4 of an hour to go, I saw a fish swirl in front of 134, at this point I had 13 fish, suffice to say 3/4 of an hour was two little, too late. The last 45 mins saw 8 fish come to the net, giving me a carp weight of 99.14 and my two skimmers edged the final tally to 101.09, enough for 5th on the day - if only those fish had moved across earlier.
1) Jason Radford 147.09 peg 119
2) Mash 139.02 peg 80
3) Matt Tomes 130.02 peg 76
4) Craig Edmunds 118.12 peg 123
5) Chris Fox 101.09 peg 132
6) Dean Malin 100.15 peg 127
Silvers
1) Craig Edmunds 47.14 peg 123
2) Steve Kedge 40.09 peg 78
132 was my home for the day, a end (or corner)peg, the first time I've been on this peg, the usual comments "You'll win from there" "How do you draw those flyers" were bantered around, to those on any pegs with form. Having won money on the two times I've drawn 110 (the end peg on the opposite bank), I expected to catch in a similar fashion, i'e. towards the end bank.
I set up a lead rod - that stayed in sweet repose for 6 hours - so no further mention, a 2 swan dumpy waggler to fish shallow, a rig to fish meat to the end bank, which was a MW power on 0.17 to .015 with a 16 TXR7 hook. A shallow pellet rig which was simply a MW pea on 0.17 straight through to a B960 16, a MW diamond to fish pellet at full depth and a MW slim power on 0.11 to 0.12 power silk with a 18 808 for the devils spawn - should I get desperate!! ( The 0.12 power silk is actually thinner than the 0.11 power line).
I started on the shallow waggler , to no avail, the fish that were showing shallow, were all over by peg 136. I tried the deep pellet rig and had my first fish 35 minutes in, there were fish in the peg at 14m, but not so many that they were causing issues with fouling/false bites. I then tried the shallow pole rig and had one fish, it seemed to be slow going all round the lake, so back on the full depth pellet rig and a another fish - they were small fish though.
Time for a look up to the end bank, this produced 3 fish, which were around the 2lb mark, every 20 minutes or so I had a look towards 134 where I'd been feeding pellet, but there appeared to be no fish there. Still plenty showing between the far bank and 135, but Roger Andonio on 110 wasn't fishing to the end bank, if he was they may have pushed over toward me.
Halfway through, I had an idea that paste might sort out a bigger fish or two, so made some up, I did catch on it, bigger fish, but it was still slow going. At 17.15, with 3/4 of an hour to go, I saw a fish swirl in front of 134, at this point I had 13 fish, suffice to say 3/4 of an hour was two little, too late. The last 45 mins saw 8 fish come to the net, giving me a carp weight of 99.14 and my two skimmers edged the final tally to 101.09, enough for 5th on the day - if only those fish had moved across earlier.
1) Jason Radford 147.09 peg 119
2) Mash 139.02 peg 80
3) Matt Tomes 130.02 peg 76
4) Craig Edmunds 118.12 peg 123
5) Chris Fox 101.09 peg 132
6) Dean Malin 100.15 peg 127
Silvers
1) Craig Edmunds 47.14 peg 123
2) Steve Kedge 40.09 peg 78
Thursday, 2 June 2011
Landsend Topkit + 1 Open, Wenesday 1st June 2011
The last match that limited everyone to a topkit + 1 seemed to produce a few fish, so I thought I'd have a go at this one. It has to be easier than waving 16 or 17m around, trying to land a pellet on a carps nose in 6" of water aginst the far bank.....
I didn't really fancy drawing one of the 4 pegs on lake 3, for no other reason than my limited experience of it has been pretty negative - but I'd never drawn at the end the 4 pegs were today. So it was obvious wasn't it - peg 42 on lake 3..... It looked ideal for the long pole to the point of the island, although there were a signs of a few silvers topping by the small weed bed to my right at 3m.
I tried to cover all bases and set up a Malman winter wire to fish caster at full depth on 0.10 with a 20 63-13, identical line & hook were used with a small Drennan stillwater blue waggler for up in the water (topkit to hand). A MW slim power on 0.15 to a 16 808 for devils spawn at full length at the 11 o'clock position. I also set up a righ on 0.17/0.15 with a 18 xedion TXR7 hook to fish meat in the margin - which as it was very shallow (12") I wasn't too confident of catching on.
I had Phil (Fabio) Harding to my right and the large outline of a well known Whitehall tackle dealer opposite, Fabio had a confessional session before the start, openly admitting to criminal acts in the last few months - good job the EA weren't listening in...
At the all in, I fed some 3 & 4mm devils spawn and flicked a few casters to the weedbed, starting on the caster I was soon into small roach and rudd, with the odd better (2oz) specimen. I could see Tony catching the odd better silver, suggesting he'd gone to the darkside and was fishing the devils spawn. I switched to the shallow rig and this did produce fish more quickly, they were still small.
No option but to switch to the darkside and try the spawn, this produced some decent skimmers, a lone F1 and a couple of crucians, but bites were harder to come by than on caster. A switch back to the shallow rig and upping the amount of feed, saw 3 or 4 quality rudd to the net, now hoping that some caster had got through the upper layers, I dropped against the weedbed with a worm, 8oz perch first drop in, then a couple of perch so small they wouldn't have registered on the scales.
Alternating between the lines and baits kept bites coming, although at times the fish were small, still it kept my mind off Fabio who was muttering and chuntering to himself, I couldn't help thinking back to reading the hobbit as a schoolboy, was I pegged next to Bristol's very own Gollum. I think Tony must have sold him some rubber hooks, as he lost carp after carp, much to Ricko's amusement.
With about an hour and a half to go, the roach and rudd had become elusive and the devils spawn line had gone quiet - there had been no indication of fish in the peg all day, no bubbles, no blows or fizzing - so it was difficult to tell if they'd gone. I'd been down the margin where I'd been flicking 8mm meat cubes, not so much as a liner, by now Tony was catching carp from his margins and over his main line on meat. Then I hooked a carp on the devils spawn - was that why the peg went quiet, a short tussle saw it in the net, then shortly after, another, I rested the line and dropped back in by the weedbed with a large dendra. This resulted in a lost fish - a big one (isn't that always the way...).
With 3/4 of an hour to go, I saw a swirl in the margin, rudd?, nope, the big orange tail that came out of the water, definitely didn't belong to a rudd. I dropped in with a cube of meat and a 5lber was netted, no more swirls so back on the devils spawn, trying to boost my silverfish total, another carp and a couple more skimmers. Then another swirl in the margin, a bigger tail and the same routine with a fish nearer 8lb gracing the net - too little, too late as the all out was shouted, the margin was now quite evidently home to meat eating carp.
My silvers went 20lb, the 5 carp went 27lb odd, if only they'd showed up with a couple of hours left... Top silvers on the lake and second overall on the lake - not a laudible achievement out of 4 - I had to rush off at the end to go to work, so didn't get the results, see Tony's blog. Although he did ring me to tell me I'd snuck into the money, 2nd in silvers by default and he had some cash for me to spend on ebay......
I didn't really fancy drawing one of the 4 pegs on lake 3, for no other reason than my limited experience of it has been pretty negative - but I'd never drawn at the end the 4 pegs were today. So it was obvious wasn't it - peg 42 on lake 3..... It looked ideal for the long pole to the point of the island, although there were a signs of a few silvers topping by the small weed bed to my right at 3m.
I tried to cover all bases and set up a Malman winter wire to fish caster at full depth on 0.10 with a 20 63-13, identical line & hook were used with a small Drennan stillwater blue waggler for up in the water (topkit to hand). A MW slim power on 0.15 to a 16 808 for devils spawn at full length at the 11 o'clock position. I also set up a righ on 0.17/0.15 with a 18 xedion TXR7 hook to fish meat in the margin - which as it was very shallow (12") I wasn't too confident of catching on.
I had Phil (Fabio) Harding to my right and the large outline of a well known Whitehall tackle dealer opposite, Fabio had a confessional session before the start, openly admitting to criminal acts in the last few months - good job the EA weren't listening in...
At the all in, I fed some 3 & 4mm devils spawn and flicked a few casters to the weedbed, starting on the caster I was soon into small roach and rudd, with the odd better (2oz) specimen. I could see Tony catching the odd better silver, suggesting he'd gone to the darkside and was fishing the devils spawn. I switched to the shallow rig and this did produce fish more quickly, they were still small.
No option but to switch to the darkside and try the spawn, this produced some decent skimmers, a lone F1 and a couple of crucians, but bites were harder to come by than on caster. A switch back to the shallow rig and upping the amount of feed, saw 3 or 4 quality rudd to the net, now hoping that some caster had got through the upper layers, I dropped against the weedbed with a worm, 8oz perch first drop in, then a couple of perch so small they wouldn't have registered on the scales.
Alternating between the lines and baits kept bites coming, although at times the fish were small, still it kept my mind off Fabio who was muttering and chuntering to himself, I couldn't help thinking back to reading the hobbit as a schoolboy, was I pegged next to Bristol's very own Gollum. I think Tony must have sold him some rubber hooks, as he lost carp after carp, much to Ricko's amusement.
With about an hour and a half to go, the roach and rudd had become elusive and the devils spawn line had gone quiet - there had been no indication of fish in the peg all day, no bubbles, no blows or fizzing - so it was difficult to tell if they'd gone. I'd been down the margin where I'd been flicking 8mm meat cubes, not so much as a liner, by now Tony was catching carp from his margins and over his main line on meat. Then I hooked a carp on the devils spawn - was that why the peg went quiet, a short tussle saw it in the net, then shortly after, another, I rested the line and dropped back in by the weedbed with a large dendra. This resulted in a lost fish - a big one (isn't that always the way...).
With 3/4 of an hour to go, I saw a swirl in the margin, rudd?, nope, the big orange tail that came out of the water, definitely didn't belong to a rudd. I dropped in with a cube of meat and a 5lber was netted, no more swirls so back on the devils spawn, trying to boost my silverfish total, another carp and a couple more skimmers. Then another swirl in the margin, a bigger tail and the same routine with a fish nearer 8lb gracing the net - too little, too late as the all out was shouted, the margin was now quite evidently home to meat eating carp.
My silvers went 20lb, the 5 carp went 27lb odd, if only they'd showed up with a couple of hours left... Top silvers on the lake and second overall on the lake - not a laudible achievement out of 4 - I had to rush off at the end to go to work, so didn't get the results, see Tony's blog. Although he did ring me to tell me I'd snuck into the money, 2nd in silvers by default and he had some cash for me to spend on ebay......
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Viaduct, Bank Holiday Monday Open, 30th May 2011
Cary and Lodge were in today, I had no real preference for which, lately, whichever lake I've been on, the other has won. 28 fishing today, I assumed my usual place near the front of the queue for the draw and pulled out 81, a peg that has not been top of everyones wish list recently. It was good to see my old travelling partner and drinking buddy, Graham Hunt today, one of his very rare appearances on a commercial.
I was inclined to fish for silvers, but when I got there, carp were visible, by their black shapes and the large blows off the end of the spit. With the wind off my back, I knew presenting the waggler wouldn't be difficult, so set up a full depth waggler to fish banded 8mm, a lead rod, two similar rigs to fish open water on the pole, MW diamonds one for caster/worm and one for banded pellet. A rig to fish the margins completed the set up.
I fed the margins heavily with caster and included some meat, suffice to say that I had one bite on meat and a couple of very small skimmers and one roach on worm, the margins didn't seem to have any feeding carp or tench in them.
I started the match on the lead, without so much as a liner, so after 20 minutes, switched to the waggler, this produced 5 fish in the first 2 hours, then I started fouling fish, they seemed to be coming up in the water, although I couldn't catch shallow, not even a bite. I then had a tench and a skimmer on the waggler - surely signifying that the carp had moved. All bites on the wag then dried up.
I persevered with the margins, to no avail, tried searching round the peg with the lead, not so much as a liner - the match was rapidly turning into a slog. In desperation, for the last hour I tried 6mm devils spawn, at 14.5m where I'd been feeding 6mm hard pellet and 3mm devils spawn. I had a few skimmers until the end of the match, although a carp did move in and push them out for 20 minutes. To really rub salt in the wounds, I was on the next peg to the winner (although the spit had meant I didn't know until the end), although I managed to avoid the battering either side by beating peg 85, with my 5 carp going 40.10 and 11.14 of skimmers and a tench for 51.14.
It will be good to get some settled weather and the spawning season behind us, as the fishing at most venues has been inconsistent lately.
1) P Cardwell 131.04 peg 80
2) J Parkin 127.04 peg 76
3) R Hayward 125.06 peg 102
4) C Davis 119.14 peg 99
5) D Bull 95.13 peg 105
6) D Vickery 83.09 peg 86
Silvers
1) J Green 49.12 peg 100
2) G Hunt 39.11 peg 68
3) N Easton 39.03 peg 69
4) R Coles 32.09 peg 97
I was inclined to fish for silvers, but when I got there, carp were visible, by their black shapes and the large blows off the end of the spit. With the wind off my back, I knew presenting the waggler wouldn't be difficult, so set up a full depth waggler to fish banded 8mm, a lead rod, two similar rigs to fish open water on the pole, MW diamonds one for caster/worm and one for banded pellet. A rig to fish the margins completed the set up.
I fed the margins heavily with caster and included some meat, suffice to say that I had one bite on meat and a couple of very small skimmers and one roach on worm, the margins didn't seem to have any feeding carp or tench in them.
I started the match on the lead, without so much as a liner, so after 20 minutes, switched to the waggler, this produced 5 fish in the first 2 hours, then I started fouling fish, they seemed to be coming up in the water, although I couldn't catch shallow, not even a bite. I then had a tench and a skimmer on the waggler - surely signifying that the carp had moved. All bites on the wag then dried up.
I persevered with the margins, to no avail, tried searching round the peg with the lead, not so much as a liner - the match was rapidly turning into a slog. In desperation, for the last hour I tried 6mm devils spawn, at 14.5m where I'd been feeding 6mm hard pellet and 3mm devils spawn. I had a few skimmers until the end of the match, although a carp did move in and push them out for 20 minutes. To really rub salt in the wounds, I was on the next peg to the winner (although the spit had meant I didn't know until the end), although I managed to avoid the battering either side by beating peg 85, with my 5 carp going 40.10 and 11.14 of skimmers and a tench for 51.14.
It will be good to get some settled weather and the spawning season behind us, as the fishing at most venues has been inconsistent lately.
1) P Cardwell 131.04 peg 80
2) J Parkin 127.04 peg 76
3) R Hayward 125.06 peg 102
4) C Davis 119.14 peg 99
5) D Bull 95.13 peg 105
6) D Vickery 83.09 peg 86
Silvers
1) J Green 49.12 peg 100
2) G Hunt 39.11 peg 68
3) N Easton 39.03 peg 69
4) R Coles 32.09 peg 97
Monday, 30 May 2011
Viaduct Match Lake, Sunday 29th May 2011
An Avon Angling open (or Tony Rixon Pension Fund...)on Viaduct match lake had me fancying some silvers action, although when I drew peg 46 the consensus was that it wasn't the best of draws. Eddy Wynne said "I'll shake your hand if you get a weight from that peg" - a pint would have been better, but the challenge was on.
Not surprisingly, no island chuck for me (I've never drawn one on this lake), but I still set up a feeder to fish groundbait and dead maggot in open water, as it was forecast to be windy - although as usual, the weathermen were wide of the mark. I'd brough one waggler rod, in case it was windy and I'd got an island chuck (I can dream). I'd opted to bring my latest addition to my rod collection (from ebay)a Normark Avenger. This had a 3AAA insert peacock on 0.15 main line to a 0.12 hooklength and a 18 63-13 hook.
The pole rigs were simple, a sensas pencil to fish caster if the wind allowed, a MW diamond to fish caster, dead maggot or, as a last resort, devils spawn. I also set up a nondescript float to fish down the edge, but never hd a bite down there, so no more of that.
I started on the feeder after cupping in some g/bait and dead maggot at 11m towards my left and g/bait with caster to the right, again at 11m. The feeder produced a couple of knocks and a small skimmer, but it didn't seem right, I kept at it for half an hour to let the pole lines settle, before chucking it up the bank. I dropped in over the g/bait and dead maggot, with live double maggot on the hook and had 3 or 4 decent skimmers one after the other, then a wait, then a couple more, this pattern continued for an hour or so, but the biteless gaps got longer and the fish came in ones.
Peg 47 had started catching skimmers by this time, after a fruitless go on the shallow wag to the island, I looked over the g/bait and caster line, to no avail - infact I' won't mention it again, as I didn't catch anything from it. Martin McMahon was catching carp & F1's on the feeder from his island chuck on peg 45.
I wondered if I could pull the fish away from the island, so started loose feeding caster at the limit of my peg, the decision to bring the Avenger was the wrong one, I had three bites in the first three put ins and lost the hook on the strike on two and a broken hooklength on the third as the carp ran towards the island. I think using the 0.12 hooklength, I'd have been better with a Microlight. Probably cost me third place......
I upped the hooklength to 0.13 and didn't lose any more hooks, but got less bites, by keeping the caster going in by catapult, I managed a few more skimmers and a 4lb carp.
I thought the decent spell on skimmers that peg 47 had would beat me, but my run of fish on the waggler just got me 2nd in the silvers, picking up the first place money by default, as Ricko's pension fund was swelled by him winning the silvers and the match - even though the draw was a bit dubious..... Can Dean read braille???
1) Tony Rixon 43.10 peg 51
2) Martin McMahon 35.13 peg 45
3)= Dean Malin 29.03 peg 52
3)= Tom Mangnall 29.03 peg 40
5) Eddie Wynne 26.10 peg 48
6) Chris Fox 25.11 peg 46
Silvers
1) Tony Rixon 38.06 peg 51
2) Chris Fox 21.00 peg 46
Not surprisingly, no island chuck for me (I've never drawn one on this lake), but I still set up a feeder to fish groundbait and dead maggot in open water, as it was forecast to be windy - although as usual, the weathermen were wide of the mark. I'd brough one waggler rod, in case it was windy and I'd got an island chuck (I can dream). I'd opted to bring my latest addition to my rod collection (from ebay)a Normark Avenger. This had a 3AAA insert peacock on 0.15 main line to a 0.12 hooklength and a 18 63-13 hook.
The pole rigs were simple, a sensas pencil to fish caster if the wind allowed, a MW diamond to fish caster, dead maggot or, as a last resort, devils spawn. I also set up a nondescript float to fish down the edge, but never hd a bite down there, so no more of that.
I started on the feeder after cupping in some g/bait and dead maggot at 11m towards my left and g/bait with caster to the right, again at 11m. The feeder produced a couple of knocks and a small skimmer, but it didn't seem right, I kept at it for half an hour to let the pole lines settle, before chucking it up the bank. I dropped in over the g/bait and dead maggot, with live double maggot on the hook and had 3 or 4 decent skimmers one after the other, then a wait, then a couple more, this pattern continued for an hour or so, but the biteless gaps got longer and the fish came in ones.
Peg 47 had started catching skimmers by this time, after a fruitless go on the shallow wag to the island, I looked over the g/bait and caster line, to no avail - infact I' won't mention it again, as I didn't catch anything from it. Martin McMahon was catching carp & F1's on the feeder from his island chuck on peg 45.
I wondered if I could pull the fish away from the island, so started loose feeding caster at the limit of my peg, the decision to bring the Avenger was the wrong one, I had three bites in the first three put ins and lost the hook on the strike on two and a broken hooklength on the third as the carp ran towards the island. I think using the 0.12 hooklength, I'd have been better with a Microlight. Probably cost me third place......
I upped the hooklength to 0.13 and didn't lose any more hooks, but got less bites, by keeping the caster going in by catapult, I managed a few more skimmers and a 4lb carp.
I thought the decent spell on skimmers that peg 47 had would beat me, but my run of fish on the waggler just got me 2nd in the silvers, picking up the first place money by default, as Ricko's pension fund was swelled by him winning the silvers and the match - even though the draw was a bit dubious..... Can Dean read braille???
1) Tony Rixon 43.10 peg 51
2) Martin McMahon 35.13 peg 45
3)= Dean Malin 29.03 peg 52
3)= Tom Mangnall 29.03 peg 40
5) Eddie Wynne 26.10 peg 48
6) Chris Fox 25.11 peg 46
Silvers
1) Tony Rixon 38.06 peg 51
2) Chris Fox 21.00 peg 46
Monday, 23 May 2011
Kev Perry Series Round Six, 22nd May 2011
The day of the final round arrived, I'd done some rig tying the day before, but not too much to tempt fate. I had all the paperwork and swim cards ready, so enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. As the pools for this match had been pre paid with the series entry, breakfast wasn't disturbed by anglers waving tenners at us.
Series leader and serial flyer drawer, Shaun Kittridge drew early and offered to draw my peg - why not and had he given me the swimcard which revealed peg 25 in the first 2 matches, I'd have been pleased, it has got worse as the series wore on. Still, surely it would still throw up some crucians........
I'm going to struggle to write much constructive about the day, the wind was gusting and swirling into the corner, making 11m difficult, anything over that impossible. I was sure I'd get a few silvers, but when I resorted to 0.06 and a size 26 with single pinkie, to no avail, I knew that I may as well bugger off up the pub.
I had fed a line with the Devil's Spawn, this produced zero silvers and a few vermin (well they were today..), to say I was pissed off would be a major understatement. The silvers had moved round the lake, in my opinion proving that there are far too few of them now, to sustain a match lake, capable of meeting anglers expectations. My 2.000KG of silvers was pathetic, especially as I fished bloody hard for them, the 7.500KG of carp were just an inconvenience.. Thats all I have to say about my match, had I taken paste, I may have had a few more carp, although that wouldn't have given me a chance in the series.
Whilst I've given Shaun, (Kittridge) some stick about drawing well, you still have to catch the fish and Shaun won the series on points, with the top weight, well done.
All in all, the series was very patchy, the fish moved round the lake, leaving some areas virtually barren, the wind on the last match saw the tree to the left of peg 15 creaking a bit, Mr Bartlett who had drawn the peg, went to fetch Phil, by the time he came back, the tree was in his peg. Thanks to the anglers who helped cut through the snapped trunk and get the tree out of the peg.
On the day:
1) Shaun Kittridge 24.310 peg 12
2) Lewis Jones 22.420 peg 26
3) Dave Wride 19.570 peg 22
4) Sam Johnson 15.900
5) Kev Perry 14.540 peg 24
6) Andy Hockin 13.880 peg 5
Silvers
1) Paul Faiers 10.170 peg 6
2) Sam Johnson 9.450
3) N Vigus 8.850
4) Dave Wride 8.700
5) Sean Kitteridge 7.850
6) Mike Owens 6.350
Overall table.
Name Points Weight
1 Shaun Kittridge 33 104.840
2 Lewis Jones 31 74.590
3 Paul Faiers 29 64.290
4 Kev Perry 27 71.360
5 Dave Wride 27 73.190
6 Andy Hembrow 26 60.900
7 J Huntbatch 25 49.190
8 Andy Hockin 25 57.270
9 Lance Tucker 24 52.230
10 Chris Fox 24 49.180
11 Mark Bromsgrove 23 60.440
12 Sam Johnson 23 62.390
13 M Owens 22 51.250
14 Bob Gullick 19 51.590
15 N Vigus 18 44.320
16 Clive Pettit 17 34.590
17 Nick Harvey 15 36.360
18 John Osbourne 14 26.910
19 P Bartlett 11 26.730
20 Glen Calvert 10 23.740
21 Charlie Barnes 5 9.430
Silvers Table
Name Points Weight
1 Dave Wride 34 43.300
2 Sean Kitteridge 32 37.300
3 Paul Faiers 30 43.300
4 Chris Fox 30 35.050
5 N Vigus 30 24.250
6 Lance Tucker 28 28.910
7 Mark Bromsgrove 26 20.770
8 Kev Perry 26 25.180
9 Lewis Jones 21 14.490
10 J Huntbatch 20 12.790
11 Clive Pettit 19 16.160
12 M Owens 19 18.540
13 John Osbourne 19 11.670
14 Andy Hembrow 17 9.540
15 Andy Hockin 16 13.440
16 Bob Gullick 16 12.170
17 Glen Calvert 15 10.190
18 Nick Harvey 13 12.080
19 Charlie Barnes 12 7.890
20 Sam Johnson 11 14.190
21 P Bartlett 4 3.560
Series leader and serial flyer drawer, Shaun Kittridge drew early and offered to draw my peg - why not and had he given me the swimcard which revealed peg 25 in the first 2 matches, I'd have been pleased, it has got worse as the series wore on. Still, surely it would still throw up some crucians........
I'm going to struggle to write much constructive about the day, the wind was gusting and swirling into the corner, making 11m difficult, anything over that impossible. I was sure I'd get a few silvers, but when I resorted to 0.06 and a size 26 with single pinkie, to no avail, I knew that I may as well bugger off up the pub.
I had fed a line with the Devil's Spawn, this produced zero silvers and a few vermin (well they were today..), to say I was pissed off would be a major understatement. The silvers had moved round the lake, in my opinion proving that there are far too few of them now, to sustain a match lake, capable of meeting anglers expectations. My 2.000KG of silvers was pathetic, especially as I fished bloody hard for them, the 7.500KG of carp were just an inconvenience.. Thats all I have to say about my match, had I taken paste, I may have had a few more carp, although that wouldn't have given me a chance in the series.
Whilst I've given Shaun, (Kittridge) some stick about drawing well, you still have to catch the fish and Shaun won the series on points, with the top weight, well done.
All in all, the series was very patchy, the fish moved round the lake, leaving some areas virtually barren, the wind on the last match saw the tree to the left of peg 15 creaking a bit, Mr Bartlett who had drawn the peg, went to fetch Phil, by the time he came back, the tree was in his peg. Thanks to the anglers who helped cut through the snapped trunk and get the tree out of the peg.
On the day:
1) Shaun Kittridge 24.310 peg 12
2) Lewis Jones 22.420 peg 26
3) Dave Wride 19.570 peg 22
4) Sam Johnson 15.900
5) Kev Perry 14.540 peg 24
6) Andy Hockin 13.880 peg 5
Silvers
1) Paul Faiers 10.170 peg 6
2) Sam Johnson 9.450
3) N Vigus 8.850
4) Dave Wride 8.700
5) Sean Kitteridge 7.850
6) Mike Owens 6.350
Overall table.
Name Points Weight
1 Shaun Kittridge 33 104.840
2 Lewis Jones 31 74.590
3 Paul Faiers 29 64.290
4 Kev Perry 27 71.360
5 Dave Wride 27 73.190
6 Andy Hembrow 26 60.900
7 J Huntbatch 25 49.190
8 Andy Hockin 25 57.270
9 Lance Tucker 24 52.230
10 Chris Fox 24 49.180
11 Mark Bromsgrove 23 60.440
12 Sam Johnson 23 62.390
13 M Owens 22 51.250
14 Bob Gullick 19 51.590
15 N Vigus 18 44.320
16 Clive Pettit 17 34.590
17 Nick Harvey 15 36.360
18 John Osbourne 14 26.910
19 P Bartlett 11 26.730
20 Glen Calvert 10 23.740
21 Charlie Barnes 5 9.430
Silvers Table
Name Points Weight
1 Dave Wride 34 43.300
2 Sean Kitteridge 32 37.300
3 Paul Faiers 30 43.300
4 Chris Fox 30 35.050
5 N Vigus 30 24.250
6 Lance Tucker 28 28.910
7 Mark Bromsgrove 26 20.770
8 Kev Perry 26 25.180
9 Lewis Jones 21 14.490
10 J Huntbatch 20 12.790
11 Clive Pettit 19 16.160
12 M Owens 19 18.540
13 John Osbourne 19 11.670
14 Andy Hembrow 17 9.540
15 Andy Hockin 16 13.440
16 Bob Gullick 16 12.170
17 Glen Calvert 15 10.190
18 Nick Harvey 13 12.080
19 Charlie Barnes 12 7.890
20 Sam Johnson 11 14.190
21 P Bartlett 4 3.560
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
Trinity Waters Two Day Festival 2011
Trinity Waters Two Day Festival
Saturday June 25th & Sunday June 26th 2011
£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
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
Monday, 16 May 2011
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.
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
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
Sunday, 8 May 2011
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 4mad 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.
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
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.
Saturday, 30 April 2011
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.
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.
Thursday, 28 April 2011
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
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
Monday, 25 April 2011
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
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
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
Friday, 22 April 2011
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
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
Wednesday, 20 April 2011
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
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
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