Landsend Winter League, Round 5, Sunday 15th March 2015

Last Tuesday it seemed like spring had arrived, before the temperatures fell again, but I did decide to man up and leave the merino base layer off today and it wasn’t too bad, so the spring, hopefully isn’t too far away.

My turn to draw on Match Lake, leading the silvers table and nowhere to be seen in the overall standings meant I had little choice but to target silvers for the full 6 hours, no matter where I drew.  It was disappointing to see so many empty pegs round the lakes, even though Ken had done his best to get stand-in’s.

I dipped into the plastic bucket marked up Match Lake and on opening the swimcard, saw 3 staring back at me, I wasn’t too disappointed, although I would have preferred  5  – often the home of a few F1’s, maybe 15 or 17 as I’ve seen big skimmers come from there and 11 has won the silvers in amongst a decent weight of carp on the last 3 occasions I’ve been on this lake. It turned out peg 5 wasn’t drawn and for company on peg one, I had Tony Rixon, who would be doing his best to keep the carp to himself.

The water wasn’t as coloured as I’d like for skimmers, but clear enough for the perch to feed, the level is down and I didn’t set up a rig to fish right up the shelf, I thought the water was too clear for it to work.  I did set up a Hillbilly Chump on 0.16, with a 0.10 hooklength and a 18 6313, to fish down the track, this with a standard bulk and two droppers.  I also set up a MW F1 slim wire, with spread N011’s, in case the fish were off bottom, this on 0.14 with the same hook and hooklength as the first rig.

I also set up a rig to fish just at the bottom of the far shelf, this was a NG Gimp (just because it had a yellow tip and was easy to see), again on 0.16, with the 0.10 hooklength and a 18 6313.  Finally, a rig to fish down to the brambles and pallet of peg 2, this didn’t produce a bite, so no more keyboard effort explaining that one. 

The rigs for down the track would be good for two lines, one at 9m at 10 o’clock and also at 2 o’clock at 6m.  The 9m line was fed with a mixture of micros and 4mm’s with just a little fishmeal GB to coat them.  The 6m line was fed by hand with caster.  After feeding these lines I started across at the bottom of the shelf, toss potting caster in and it wasn’t long before I had a bite, a 4oz rudd opening my score.  I carried on tos potting the caster and had a run of rudd and perch up to 8oz, before a couple of slightly better perch were netted.  The bites weren’t savage, so I had the float dotted right down to see them.  I then lost a couple of fish and started missing bites, liners I suspected, although I think one of the lost fish was a decent perch.

I tried dragging the rig up the shelf slightly and this didn’t improve matters, I had tried feeding heavier and less often to keep the fish down on the deck, but this didn’t work either.  I got of my box and set up a rig to fish up the shelf in 18” of water, after losing a big F1, but this only produced 2 bites, one of which was a 1oz rudd.

I had been topping up the pellet line and watching out for signs of fish over it, as they usually give themselves away with the odd bubble, but it appeared devoid of fish after 3 hours.  I managed a couple of big skimmers on the caster line, and by rotating between here and the bottom of the far shelf I kept the odd fish coming. 

Finally with a couple of hours to go, I saw a solitary bubble on the 9m line over the pellet, slipping a 4mm pellet on the hook and dropping it in, saw the float settle and almost immediately bury, a 3lb bream was gratefully netted.  I managed a few more decent skimmers over the last two hours, but once I caught one, occasionally two in two put ins, then I’d have to wait a while for a bite, I think that was just down to the clarity of the water spooking the others when one was hooked.  I only lost one bream, a decent fish that leapt out of the water, heading straight back towards me as I lifted into the bite, he was successful in his endeavour to shed the hook.

For the second Sunday running I could have easily fished on at the all-out, a nice contrast to some of this winter’s matches, that I wouldn’t have minded had the all-out come within a couple of hours of the start.

Ideally I needed a silvers section win to keep my hopes of winning the league alive, as the draw will be crucial next  match on John’s Water.  Stand-in Nigel Bartlett pipped me to it, with a nice net of silvers from peg 11 ( that s three matches in a row I’ve been beaten by that peg….) weighing in at 30.06, my lost fish proved expensive, as the leaping bream would have done it, as I weighed 28.02.  That was enough to keep me one point clear at the top of the silvers table, with a decent weight advantage – just praying for a peg with some silvers in on the last round!!

Next up for me is the Bait Tech Festival at Whiteacres, looking forward to that, trying to get ready but working until 10pm every night this coming week, bound to forget something.......

On the day:

1: Adrian Clark 114.09 peg 13

2: Craig Edmunds 110.01 peg 15

3: Ken Rayner 100.09 peg 20

4: Mike Duckett  100.01 peg 37

5: Tony Rixon 88.02 peg 1

6: Sean Townsend 67.12 peg 7

Silvers

1: Nigel Bartlett 30.06 peg 11

2: Chris Fox 28.02 peg 3

3: Gary Ethridge 17.4 peg 39

Acorn Open / Costcutter, Tuesday 10th March 2015

It's been 9 months since I last visited Acorn, the length of time was partly just due to other commitments, partly due to the big 'hangover' I had from the Pole only series last year, which was a dismal series for me personally.

I think there was about 20 fishing this match and after finding that the fish were looking for a bit of feed on Sunday, I was hoping to catch a few today, I had plenty of caster left, so was going to base a plan around that. I managed to get into the drawbag pretty early and ping pong ball 17 was my reward, not one of the bridges or corner pegs.

2 rigs for silvers, a 0.4 NG Gimp with a 16 63.13 on 0.10 and a HB Chump with a 18 6313 on .010, the latter being good for the near and far shelves, the former for down the track.

The pegging was fairly spread out along the back bank, with Charlie Barnes on 13 and Barry Fitchew on 15, then next peg was Eddie Wynne on bridge peg 21, so plenty of room. I decided to fish for silvers, 4 balls of GB down the track on the all in and loose fed caster at the bottom of the near shelf.  leaving that to settle I went across to the far shelf in about 3' of water

It was a slow start, apart from Des Shipp on peg 40, who had 4 fish in as many put ins, after 20 minutes of no action across, I looked over the GB down the track, feeding that much GB may well have been a mistake, as that area too seemed devoid of fish and if they had backed off the bait, they had plenty of water to back off into.

After an hour of having had a couple of tiny perch, 3 roach and one small skimmer, I switched to feeding micros across on the 'second' shelf, with soft pellet on the hook, this resulted in a carp and a missed bite, I decided to switch to fishing for carp as the silver 'action' was so slow and set up a rig to fish banded pellet tight across and a margin rig for down to the pallet on my left.

The fish were few and far between, once I caught one then I wouldn't get another bite from the same line until it had been well rested, so it was a game of patience to rotate lines and keep the odd fish coming, in between carp I had 2 f1's and 2 better skimmers, so more silvers when carp fishing, than when targeting them!!

I saw a swirl tight to the far bank and shipped the banded pellet rig out and dropped into the gap in the far bank grasses, the float buried and a 3lber was netted, back across, not another bite from here, I tried toss potting bait and towards the end, catapulting 4mm pellets to the far bank, but the fish wouldn't settle there, I had one more from that line.

I fed some micros, maggot and a bit of GB down to the pallet of 18 with just under 2 hours to go, this produced 2 carp to triple maggot, couldn't get a bite on pellet down there.

At the all out I knew that I was behind a few pegs I'd seen catching, but had a better day than some others, who DNW, I believe Darren Vowles had one fish all day from 26.  The weather was lovely, it was the least wind affected day I have had on the venue and it was frustrating to be 4 or 5 decent fish off a pick up, but it was better than work.  Poor decision making to spend time fishing for silvers  and my incompetence at pellet fishing, especially on snake lakes was probably a major contribution to being an also ran.  My fish went 40.06 for 8th on the day.

1: Des Shipp 90.11 peg 40
2: Lee Wadler 77.03 peg 9
3: George Sumison 57.08 peg 22
4:Mike Owens 56.04 peg 33
5: Rich Heatly 51.01 peg 34
6: Dave Wride 50.06 peg 5

Silvers

1: Des Shipp 22.07
2: Rich Heatly 14.03

Viaduct Winter League, Final Round, Sunday 8th March 2015

With the team in no position to pick up anything, there was just pride to salvage and make sure we weren't last, that gave everyone a chance to fish positively to win some coin, with any luck.

The breakfast at the pub was OK again, so with that and a few conversations done, it was down to the fishery car park to get a parking place, whilst Paul Faiers took his turn at plucking the numbers from the tin.  I had commented on Fred Roberts facebook page that Paul would draw him a flyer, but not sure about the rest of us and Mystic Maesknoll was proven correct.

Glenn found himself on unfavoured 113, Mike Walker on 79, Fred on 73 (two match wins to its credit in the series), myself on 43 and Paul had plonked himself on 5 - an island chuck where sitting on your hands is a requisite, so sadly the wrong man on that peg, as I knew the lure of some silvers on the pole would distract him.

I wasn't disappointed to draw on Match Lake, as in all the previous rounds our team has drawn on the Spring/Middle pegs of this split section, but I would have preferred 41 or 42 to my home for the day 43.  A good look and think about the peg when I got to it, the wind looked awkward for the waggler, but there was a chance it could drop or switch round, so I set up a straight Drake peacock with a hollow plastic bristle, this would easily cover all of the water in the peg and the hollow bristle giving visibility in the difficult light conditions.  3lb reel line, with a 0.10 hooklength and a 18 6313 completed this set up, with just 2 No 10 down the line.

Two lead rods out of the bag, both 10' Tournament Pro, one with a straight lead and one for a small cage feeder, the straight lead on 6lb Daiwa TDR reel line, the feeder on 10lb Maver Jurassic (not needed that heavy, but had nothing lighter).  0.16 hooklength and a 16 QM1 on the lead and 0.14 with a 16 LWG on the feeder.

Topkits were selected, white Avalon elastic for a margin rig, which should cover F1's, Carp and Perch, this was 0.16 straight though to a 18 Guru Super Spade.
No5 doubled up and a Hillbilly Chump, with a standard bulk and two droppers, this rig did not get used, so no more about it.
Yellow Middy with a .2 NG Gimp, 0.10 hooklength and a 18 6313, this was a 4" hooklength and double bulk rig for the skimmers that inhabit this lake.
A light rig for F1's in case they were up in the water, feeding on the drop, Middy 6-8 orange elastic and  MW F1 Slim wire, with a strung bulk of No11's, this rigs saw little use......

On the all in I cupped in 4 Jaffa's of groundbait at 12.5m, leaving it to settle I tried popped up bread to the island on the straight lead, not so much as a liner from this, so I tried maggot and meat, all to no avail.  looking round there wasn't much being caught and mindful of it being a 5 hour match, I picked up the pole and dropped the double bulk rig in over the groundbait.  Indications straight away and 4 fish hooked, 4 lost, 3 small fish and a decent skimmer, so up the bank with the Middy yellow elastic and another topkit with the orange 6-8 in attached to the rig.

This was an improvement and the first of a run of skimmers came to the net, oddly the double bulk rig was not giving the expected lift bites, but just tiny knocks, which resulted in a missed bite if struck at, the first 2 or 3 knocks had to be ignored and only strike when the float disappeared.  The float was dotted right down to the tiniest pimple, so the bites were really finicky.  I tried both the other rigs, but the the double bulk was by far the best.

I topped up the groundbait after an hour and this brought  several more bites, I had also been feeding a 5-6m line with caster by hand and the margin in front of the dead rushes with maggot and caster. I kept the skimmers coming by topping the groundbait when bites tailed off, the groundbait had caster, pinkie and a few maggots in each ball.

To rest the 12.5m line I had a drop in the margin and lost a good perch, before landing a small one and a roach, before that went dead. The wind was swapping round and I did feed a caster line with the catapult to fish the waggler, having had some success doing this in the past on this lake, but I was bitted out with small roach apart from one lone F1.

I could see that several anglers round the lake were catching F1's and carp, so my best bet for a pick up was to concentrate on the silvers, back on the 12.5 m line I switched to a worm head on the hook and this produced several decent skimmers, the best of which was close to 3lb.

With an hour to go, there were a few pin prick bubbles coming up from the 12.5m line and I cupped in a few more caster and some loose GB. Next drop in saw the float bury and a F1had taken the worm head, before in the next couple of drop-in's the skimmers had returned. With 40 minutes to go, I think I made a mistake, the bigger skimmers / bream were in front of me and thought topping up the feed would keep them there until the end, either this or another big skimmer that waddled and wallowed its way in, after jumping, virtually killed the line off, seeing just one fish in the last half hour.

A lovely days fishing to round off the league, even though I was only about halfway in the main section and ounced out of the mini section, my 30.14 of silvers was enough to take 2nd (silvers) on the day and a nice £100 envelope. 34lb won the silvers from spring lake, with some high 20's coming in behind.

As a team it was a poor day, with Fred winning his lake from 73, the others had tough days, a tough league with some shocking draws, but where else would you get a 95 pegger, good pick ups and the big match atmosphere and banter.  Not sure I will commit to much else next winter, but hopefully will be back for this.

Viaduct Winter League R4, Sunday 1st March 2015

Firstly get well soon Mike Nicholls.

My turn on Lodge lake today, I had decided to fish a positve line for skimmers unless I drew a corner flyer, as expected the corner flyer didn't materialise, the team draw was the same as the first round, where we came rock bottom. That put Mike Walker on 118, stand-in Calum Craig on 85, myself on 56, Paul Faiers on 24 and Glenn Calvert on 9.

With so much time to set up I put up two waggler rods, one with a 4AAA straight waggler and a light one with an insert, the latter not seeing much action as it was very difficult to see.  4 topkits, two with wire stemmed floats, the same set up and hooks, 18 6313 on 0.10, one 0.2 float and the other 0.4, a MW diamond with a double bulk, in case the wind became tricky, this with a 18 on 0.12, final topkit was set up to try and coax a fish or two from the margins.

On the all in I cupped in 4 large balls of groundbait at 14m and then started on the waggler and corn, this proved a biteless exercise and a switch to meat was no more productive, after half an hour I dropped in over the groundbait line and started getting bites straight away, roach and a couple of skimmers, before the bites slowed up, this led to a couple of bigger skimmers, before the bites tailed right off on the hour mark.

I wasn't completely sure about topping up the groundbait, but I did and the fish came straight back over it and this was the pattern for the rest of the match, feed, get a few bites, bites tail off, feed again bites pick up.  I had started on the 0.2 rig, but switched to the 0.4 and it seemed better, it wasn't frantic, but it was enough to keep me interested.

I had kept feeding some corn on the waggler line and about 2o'clock had a look over it, the float was dragging through, so I put 6" of line of the bottom and immediately hooked a decent fish, it was hooked fair and square in the tail and gave me a tough battle on the light waggler gear, but I finally managed to net it.  Next cast I had another bite and the line snapped just above the float, how frustrating, to land a 12lb fish foul hooked and then snap off on one just after.

I dropped back in on the groundbait line and the float buried, another decent skimmer and then a couple of roach.  Towards the end the wind got up and it hammered down with rain, I switched to the double bulk rig and a text book lift bite gave me my final skimmer.

My skimmers went 16lb and a 12lb carp for 28lb, which was 5th on the lake and was enough to take the section win, the 16lb of silvers was just out of the money, so maybe if I hadn't fished for carp I might have framed into the silvers, but the carp gave me good points and an envelope.  5th place for the team, with three of us picking up coin, a big turnaround from the result we had on these pegs in R1.

Joint winners, Andy Power and Steve Long, 107lb from 116 & 73, Calum was 3rd from 85, Fabio 4th with about 80lb and Mike Walker with 70lb or so from 118.

Landsend Winter League R4. Sunday 22nd February 2015

Lets start with the good points about today, usual good breakfast, some good company amd banter and when I got home, a few beers and a kebab for tea, perfect.

Now the bad stuff, drew peg 29, which as anyone who knows how the venue has been fishing will know that it is probably one of the 1/2 dozen pegs that you really don't want to draw.  Had it not been a series, given the horrendous forecast, I doubt I would have gone to the peg, there are times when flogging a dead horse is pointless.

For company on 28 I had Trigger, who was equally disappointed to draw here, we knew we were fishing for an also ran place before we started.  I decided to fish 4 lines, one right across, no feed, just dobbing visible baits like prawn / white maggot. One down the shelf feeding caster, one at 11m which was fed with groundbait and a margin line.

The margin line was biteless, the groundbait line produced two roach that went about 2 drams each, so no more about them.  The line across produced a perch that went 1.14 on prawn and a lost carp, which I am sure was foul hooked.  The line down the shelf produced two carp, both small and a couple of lost fish, which if they were carp, no big deal, if they were big perch, they could prove expensive.  The fish were all caught in the first hour, the lost fish were hooked at 1.00, 1.30 and 2.00. A boring day, which was made worse by watching the 'usual pegs' bagging.  The opposite bank section was won with a typical accomolished display by Tony Rixon, 213lb, the next weight in his section was 13lb.



My pitiful effort went just over 10lb for last in section ( Trigger had a carp, foul hooked, bigger than my two little 'uns put together).  The only saving grace was my perch gave me second in silvers section, so I now have two wins, a second and a last in section for silvers, meaning that my only chance of claiming some overall coin is to concentrate on the silvers.

I didn't get the results, so Ken's blog for them.

Viaduct Winter League Round Three. Sunday 15th February 2015

With drawbag Freddo doing the draw for the team today, some good pegs were assured and Fred pulled himself a decent peg, 119, I could not complain about my peg, 86, the others weren't run to pegs, but they should catch, Paul on 57, Nick Merry standing in for Glen on 26 and Mike Walker on a poor draw, 10.

I decided that the only way to stop me getting bored after 1/2 an hour without a bite and fishing for silvers, was to not set up a pole, so 2 pints of prime casters stayed in the bait bag and the pole in the holdall.

There isn't much to write about, I set up two lead rods and two wagglers, only used one of each and only had had bites on the lead rod, 3 of them and 3 liners.  Trust me to draw the peg when the lake fished hard and they didn't ball up there. One on meat, two on bread, one was a solid mirror, not weighed seperately but estimated by Paul Greenwood at 20lb and two of its smaller common cousins for 41.04.

I did try a waggler line with corn and had one dip of the float on that, with nothing to show for it.

I didn't go back to the pub, but I can't believe we were last again, as Fred managed 70lb and I think third in the match from 119, I had good points on Cary and Nick had double figures from 26, Paul and Mike struggled a bit, but given their draws, no surprise.

I do know that sat on the lead, with an occasional look on the waggler, for a whole match isn't really my idea of fun,  I am totally undecided what to do next winter...... Travel for F1 fishing, find silvers only matches, go back to naturals or buy a classic bike and restore it and just fish odd matches.

Landsend Winter League Round 3, Sunday 8th February 2015

I can remember having some conversations last year about PMA and have tried to incorporate this into my fishing and prep,  this week I was positive I needed to draw 41, 42, 68 or 70 to keep up my 100% record in the silvers league.  No surprise when I picked from the last 3 pegs in the bucket, of which 70 was one, that I ended up on 55, as far away from 70 as it is possible to get...... I was already resigned to a silvers disaster

It took well over an hour to break the ice out to make a fishable area, that worked a few breakfast calories off!!  I had managed to break out to the end bank and to the spit, as well as straight in front, so felt I had several options, hopefully some silvers from the open water and carp from the end bank or spit.

I set up 3 rigs, a Sensas pencil float on 0.14 with a 0.08 hooklength, with a 20 6313, to fish the open water, for the same line - just in case I was bagging..... a MW F1 Slim on 0.14 with a 0.10 and a 18 6313 hooklength and finally a short NG Gimp to fish the end bank / spit, this had a 16 6313on 0.12.

To cut a long boring day short, I started on the light rig in the open water with pinkie over groundbait, this produced a bite every put in for half an hour, which was micro perch, you'd have needed s crack dealers scales to weigh them. Then lifting into a more positive bite saw the Middy 1-5 elastic coming out the pole at a rate that suggested this wasn't a 4 dram perch. A steady fight saw a 3lbish carp netted, a switch to the 0.10 rig produced one more micro perch then nothing, a swap back to the 0.08 rig saw another carp netted next drop in, this one on a full size maggot.

That was it for 4 hours and 20 minutes, not another bite, I tried the open water, the end bank, the spit and went to 16m to where the haybale basket used to be, pellet, maggot, pinkie, meat, corn, all to no avail, not so much as a liner.

With 15 minutes to go I topped up the GB line with a large ball and 5 minutes later carp No3 was netted, it was a hard day, I had Trigger for company opposite on 58 and he managed 2 carp and a couple of better silvers, so it seemed as our end of the lake, which had the thickest ice cover, had very few fish, or at least virtually none willing to feed.

My micro perch were awarded 3oz for last in section silvers, so that was frustrating, although I would have not expected to beat at least two of the pegs in the section, my 3 carp went 12.07, for a total of 12.10, which was second in section, so all is not lost, as one result can be dropped, but it does put the pressure on early in the series.

1: Nick Chedzoy 83.09 peg 31
2: Ian Bouncey 68.07 peg 33
3: Tony Rixon 66.14 peg 62
4: Adrian Jeffery 45.07 peg 70
5: Steve Seager 28.08 peg 11
6: John Bradford 24.14 peg 41

Silvers

1: Rod Wotton  11.08 peg 19
2: Gary O'Shea 9.14 peg 37

Viaduct Winter League Round 2. Sunday 1st February 2015

Back to the big match atmosphere and banter, that was the enjoyable part of the day......

I decided that I would do the team draw this week, as we have Nick Merry standing in on the next round and I promised him I wouldn't draw that match!!  Team draw 11, was my dismal picking from the 4 left in the bucket, not a good draw, but surely it couldn't be as bad as the last round.
124 for me, Paul on 88, Glenn on 60, Paul Elmes standing in for Mike walker on 37 and Fred on 12 (sorry Fred).

For company on 123 I had Don Sutherland and Tony Rixon on 125, I knew that 124 was going to be hard, one out of the corner - it might as well be in the car park in that respect -  and too far down to pick up carp if they were in their usual winter haunt.

I started on the lead and it was a spectacularly boring 3/4 of an hour, without so much as a liner on bread or meat. A switch to the waggler and corn saw the float going under regularly, but it was an undertow dragging the peacock insert float under, a switch to straight peacock saw the float managing to stay bouyant in the tow.  It did result in one bite, a small unseasonal tench, by now I could see the pegs I would have fancied, 115 and 116 catching carp, with 123 and 119 both catching down to their end bank.  A switch to silvers might be the only chance of a pick up, as I was going nowhere fishing for carp and I dropped in on the line I had fed with groundbait at the start. First drop in and a 2lb skimmer in the net, it wasn't fast and furious after that, a steady match, with long waits for bites saw me net 9.04 of silvers for a lake silvers win.

Tony had managed one 12lb carp on the lead and a few silvers and the weights on the lake varied from 127.03 down to 6oz, winter fishing sucks....
The team was last on the day, rock bottom, no one caught a carp, Paul managing a 4th in the silvers off of peg 88 with 9.08, Fred a depressing 10 ruffe for 8oz, lets hope Fred draws us a better peg next match.

To round off my misery, I picked up 6th in the silvers and trousered £30, only to get text messages and phone calls advising that a mistake had been made and Matt Tomes had beaten me by 1oz and his weight had been missed on the result totting up, could I give him the money......  well I could if the current Mrs F, Tony and Judith and myself hadn't spent it in the local Indian last night!!  Thanks Matty, very nice it was too.....

For the results in full, see:

http://silverfoxangling.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/sunday-01022015-viaduct-winter-league.html

Next up, lake 3 at Landsend, I will be taking several large toys to throw from my pram if I draw shite there again, I would have gone to Hillview on Saturday, but think I will give it a miss and go to the Classic Bike show at the Bath and West.

Landsend Winter League Round Two, Sunday 25th January 2015

Working until 10pm the night before this match, as every other day that week, so little time to prepare and probably too tired to be in the right frame of mind, but I was looking forward to it, hoping to get amongst the carp and ensure the series wasn't over already.  To try and get the maximum lie in time I had breakfast at home, nice, but not the same as having some banter in the cafe.

I thought a draw on one of the corners of Match lake would be where I wanted to be, so was pretty pissed off to draw near the middle on peg 5, which hasn't had a lot of form for a while now.  Unbelievably, Nick Duckett was on 11, that four matches in a row I have fished at Landsend and he has been on an end/corner peg and with Trigger on 13 and Adrian Clarke on 1, the section was looking a lost cause.  To cap it all, Rod Wootton had draw peg 5 the day before and advised me that he managed about 2lb, but the peg was full of tiny roach......

I set up 4 rigs, one for fishing down to the empty pallets of peg 6 and peg 4, not so much as a liner on this, on caster, maggot or prawn, so no more about that one. A rig with a 4" .010 hooklength and a 18 hook, to fish if the bites were finicky on soft pellet, two similar rigs with the 6" hooklengths and 18 hooks, just different float bristle colours in case the light got tricky.  The peg plumbed up pretty even depth all over, with a slight drop off at 13m towards the open water.

Rod had said both hard and soft pellet were attacked by the micro roach on Saturday and they were still at it Sunday, unhittable bites on both!!  It took a while to hook my first carp on a soft pellet, it was a good fish, 12-14lb I would estimate, it was almost ready for netting when the rig line broke about 6" above the bulk shot, frustrated isn't the word....

The pellet line became worse for the dinks and dips of the tiny roach nudging the pellet, so a switch to caster towards the end of the island saw a couple of bigger (1-2oz) roach landed, before a switch to maggot brought an F1 and a good ide that must have been not far off 3lb. 2 more F1's before they disappeared, I did manage one more F1 on the pellet line, but that was it for the better silvers.  I had two small carp on the maggot, before sticking it out and catching a few of the plippy roach.

It was pretty disheartening to see the elastic streaming out on peg 1 and peg11, also hearing that Trigger was bagging up on peg 13 and I must admit to being pretty pissed off at the end, even a lake silvers win couldn't lift my disappointment at yet another poor draw putting the mockers on my chances in the series.  The two carp I had went 6.13 - probably a couple of the smallest ones in the lake and the roach, rudd, F1's ide and a solitary perch (they didn't feed) went 11.03 for the silvers pick up.

Looks like my series is over now, although with two silvers wins, I will have to fish for them in the rest of the matches and being on lake 3 next match, that's not an attractive proposition on all but 2 of the pegs.

Having to go to work after the match didn't help, the drive to Worcester is poxy at night as the M5 is a continual line of single lanes and 50mph limits after 10pm.  Still, there's always the delights of Viaduct next week, Campbell, which is likely to be harsh if the promised cold snap comes.

1: Craig Edmunds 115.07 peg 13
2: Adrian Clarke 111.02 peg 1
3: Pete Nurse 94.10 peg 33
3: Nick Duckett 94.10 peg 11
5: Rod Wootton 75.00 peg 32
6: Tony Rixon 60.09 peg 15

Silvers

1: Jason Radford  15.14 peg 70
2: Chris Fox 11.03 peg 5

Viaduct Teams of 5, Round One. Sunday 18th January 2015

It was good to get back to the pre-match atmosphere and banter of a big match, I had been thinking positive thoughts all week and imagining the tip going round.......

As soon as Mike Walker came back with the team draw, I knew that my dreams were like.y to have disintegrated and become a nightmare, peg 9 - certainly one of the pegs that everyone was hoping to avoid. We had Paul on 118 and Glenn on 85, potentially the best two draws in the team, Mike had also picked himself a toughie, 46 and Freddo on 24.

I set up a waggler, a straight lead and a 3 pole rigs, it was as expected a mind numbing experience, nothing on the lead / bread for 1/2 an hour, when Tony Rixon on 11 had a carp on the waggler. A swap to this with corn, was also biteless, but I hooked into a fish winding back in over my pole line at 14m.  I slipped a couple of maggots on and cast the waggler over the pole line, a 1lb or so skimmer was soon in the net.  A bit of a false dawn, I switched to the pole and had a couple of smaller skimmers, Glyn Reynolds on 10 was having the odd skimmer on a GB feeder, but with ones and two's of carp caught, my only option was to sit it out on the lead, one bite  a skimmer on double corn, nothing else, not even a liner.

The sun was a bastard all day, couldn't see any colour float or even where the lead was landing, just glad I'd brought a flask, at least pouring coffee broke the monotony.  My meagre collection of skimmers went 5.06.

The team result was a disaster, last but one on the day, Glenn on 85 weighed more than the rest of the team added together, one to forget.

Landsend Loyalty Match,Sunday 11th January 2015

The luxury of being a passenger today, although that does involve paying for a breakfast that can satisfy Mr Rixon.  The café was on top form and to a man everyone said how good the breakfast was.  

Onto the fishery, where only a fairly disappointing 14 turned up, although a clash with other matches prevented some from coming, there is talk of match angling being in decline, but if all the anglers spread around the commercials within a 30 mile or so radius fished one match, it would be as big, if not bigger than the matches of yesteryear.

The loyalty aspect meant that those of us who had fished the venue 15 times and paid £1 each time for the privilege, could fish this match for the enhanced payout, it was decided to put 7 on each lake, lots of room, which, IMO, is not always the best situation, as it gives fish plenty of space to back off into.

Into the tin and out comes peg 7, I think this side of the island can suffer a bit in the winter, as it gets no sun, but the margins do, whereas it’s the exact opposite on the other bank. The water level is still at least 12”-15” down, so the island shelf becomes less of a likely place to catch.  Four topkits set up today, I did bring a lead rod, just in case the wind made pole fishing to difficult, but it stayed in the tube, as the wind was very light, even becalmed at times. The rigs comprised three kits with white hydro in and one with a well used and softened Vespe green hollow.

 A wire stemmed MW float whose name eludes me, for up on the shelf, I had one roach bite on that and it fell off half way back in, so no more about this.  A NG Gimp for across at the bottom of the far shelf, this had 0.12 and a 16 6313 for double caster, a Hillbilly Chump with 0.10 and an 18 6313 for fishing down the track, this would do for maggot or 4mm expander.  The Vespe green had a margin rig on 0.20 with a 0.16 hooklength on and a 16 Guru XS, this would do for down to the pallet of 6 and up to the pallet of 8.

Keeping it simple, I started by dobbing double white maggot along the shelf, to no avail, I would like Mike to allow bread in matches, I’m sure it would work.  I fed the line I was fishing down the track with a few micro’s and across to the bottom of the far shelf with caster via a catapult.  Following on from last weeks debacle, I wanted to be a bit more positive, but not completely kill the peg.

The micro fed line produced nothing, not any sort of indication on the float that there were any fish in the swim.  A switch to the caster line across saw some 6-8oz perch netted and some roach, but nothing fast and furious, a carp finally took a liking to the caster although it was a small one at around 3.5lb.   Looking back over the pellet line was as non productive as the first look, until a switch to single maggot, brought another carp and a roach.  By now I had the feeling that the best chance of a pick up was to keep fishing  for all species and hope to get some better silvers.

That was when the phone rang and I guessed something was wrong, as Caroline never rings during a match, she was upset, she’d been out walking with Louis (one of our dogs) and he’d been attacked by an American Bulldog, she ended up on the floor pulling the dog off and Louis had a large hole in his neck.  A vet trip later and he was OK, but she was very shaken up, that somewhat dampened my enthusiasm for carrying on. 

 I did get back to it and managed a tench and a big perch from the margin, down under the pallet of 6, also a 10lb carp.  I couldn’t see everyone, so as I hadn’t managed a single skimmer, I was unsure if my low double figure of silvers would be enough to sneak some coin.

As it transpired, I weighed 35.05, of which 11.05 were silvers, Nick Duckett managed second on the lake and top silvers, so I scraped a payout by default, which was better than nothing.

1: Steve Seager 98.14 peg 32

2: Craig Edmunds 86.09 peg 24

3: Mike Duckett 52.13 peg 33

4: Nick Duckett 51.12 peg 11

5: Andy Hembrow 49.07 peg 16

6: Kev Molton 46.06 peg 13

Silvers: Nick Duckett 15.00

Avalon Open, Sunday 4th January 2015

A bittersweet day today, it’s been just over 3 years since I last fished Avalon, which was the Xmas match 2011 and I managed a framing place, also its bee a couple of weeks since I fished last, due to working over the Xmas and New Year period, so I was keen to get out on the bank.  I had spent quite a while at home sorting through my gear as I emptied my faithful old Matchbox and transferred my kit into my new Octbox.  One bright idea I had was to cut up all my rigs and retie them afresh……  I now don’t have so many rigs tied, it’s a daunting task when you pick up the first float and look into the 3 empty winder drawers in the box!!  I have simplified my rigs, reduced the numbers of line dia’s they are tied to and the same with hooklengths.

Last year saw my results pick up from the summer onwards, I had decided that I needed to finally rid myself of my old ingrained ideas and attitudes, so spent the from the spring on exclusively fishing for carp, not taking silvers gear or bait, thus not having the temptation to switch to them.  Another part of last year was spent trying to learn a bit about method feeder fishing, something I had avoided up until now, but when traveling away from the usual haunts down here in Somerset, it’s a skill that is required.

This year will be the same, I may fish silvers matches, for the winter period, I will take something to catch them, as I seem to draw in all the pegs that the carp don’t want to be in now the thermometer is nudging freezing.  With that in mind, I took a pint of casters today, a few wriggling maggots, a few pinkies, some dead maggots, corn and bread.  I had expected it to be a typical winter match, where feeding nothing or minute amounts would be the order of the day, more of this later……

I loaded up the Octbox in trolley mode and found it really easy to push to the peg, albeit a short walk, to peg 4, but it was much better balanced than my shuttle with the Matchbox and everything loaded on it.  The trolley mode is quickly dismantled and the box nice and easy to set up, I would have liked to get out for a few hours to try it, but there was no problems, a comfy, stable box that puts everything to hand, well-engineered and thought out.

I had brought a lead rod to fish popped up bread, a waggler rod to fish corn and the pole to fish a line at about 13m, I also set up a margin rig, as there was a good 4’ of water in front of the next platform on peg 5.  The island has been well cut back, but there were a couple of branches sticking out, which made casting tight to it not risk free, but I clipped up as tight as I dare.

On the all-in I fed some groundbait in on the 13m line, I had far too much time to think about this match over the last couple of weeks and I brought some Bait Tech Pro Natural, thinking that the fish wouldn’t want fishmeal.  Leaving that to settle I started on the bread, which, I should have left in the bag, the water was really too coloured for it.  Nothing on the bread, I gave it half an hour and searched along the island with it, taking the clip off to allow me to do so.   A switch to the pole line brought a small skimmer and a couple of micro roach to maggot, swapping to soft pellet saw another skimmer about 4oz landed, but it was slow going.

I had been feeding two grains of corn every now and again on the waggler line and switching to that brought some false hope, as first cast I had a skimmer 1 1/2lb. I missed a bite on the next cast and bumped a fish on the third cast, that was the end of bites on the waggler.  I could see John Bradford opposite catching big skimmers, so I decided that persevering for carp would be the way to go, especially as fishery owner, Vic Bush was catching fairly regularly by switching between the feeder and the pole.  I took off the straight lead and clipped a feeder on, but I did not have a bite on this and in desperation, walked up to have a chat with Vic who was battering me.

Vic had kept it simple, he was using a groundbait that I normally use, plenty of fishmeal….  and  dead maggots, he was feeding the peg with a decent sized pot and using a medium feeder, much more bait than I thought would be the way to go, how wrong can you be?  I went back and persevered until the end, but I did not hook a carp all day and my meagre 4 skimmers and a few roach went back before the scales arrived.

I was frustrated by the way I got it so wrong, although I would have expected to hook a carp had there been on there feeding, I wasn’t alone in struggling which is to be expected in winter, but pleased with the new box and it was good to be fishing, rather than working.

Next up is somewhere Saturday, I haven’t made my mind up yet, as the weather forecast is for severe storms and 100mph winds, so let’s see if that looks like coming true or not before booking in anywhere and Sunday is the Landsend Loyalty match.

1: Vic Bush 66.12 Peg 6

2: Tom Mangnall 32.07 Peg 32

3: Craig Edmunds 27.08 Peg 20

4: Tony Rixon 24.13 Peg 29

5: Nigel Bartlett 21.13 Peg 24

6: Steve Seager 19.02 Peg 11

Silvers

1: Tony Rixon 20.01

2: John Bradford 18.10 Peg 44