A chance to visit TBF for the first time, in a match to raise funds for the England Disabled and Ladies teams, with a lot of banter thrown in, an ideal distraction from my recent poor run of results.
Traveling up with Tony Rixon, we debated where to stop for breakfast and opted to try the new services at Gloucester on the M5, you expect to pay a bit more in the services, but it wasn't too pricey and the food was decent as well.
The lakes at TBF looked a bit snakey to me, surely not a day of dangling pellets by islands..... not my idea of fun. but no, thankfully Des gave those of us who made the trip up from the Bristol area, a run down on the place. The main talk was of fishing worm and caster, but after talking to Tony, we decided that taking on Des and any other regulars up there, on that method was a recipe for failure. I had live maggots and dead maggots, pellets and meat as the mainstay of my bait tray.
I drew Canal 4, meant nothing to me, Tony drew 10 on New lake which made it easy for parking, as the pegs aren't too far apart, we showed Des the peg numbers and he told Tony, "thats a flyer", he gave me a commiserative smile and said "that's OK"........
Canal was pegged two miss one, so I had an empty peg to my left, not knowing too much about F1's I wasn't sure if this was an area they would back off into or not. Plumbing up I found a deeper channel running from the pallet to the far side and it shelved up to the left and right all the way across. This would mean constant depth changes to start new lines up to keep in touch with the fish.
No point confusing myself, so just 4 topkits, a shallow rig, two depth rigs, one for topkit +1 and one for down the middle, also a rig to fish tight to the far bank, this was set up with a 18 on 0.12 and a bait spike, to fish meat - yep, I have been reading Andy Power's article in this months Match Fishing mag.....
Starting on the meat across, I had a missed bite first drop in, next drop in saw a small carp netted, then the line died, this was to become a familiar theme throughout the match. I had been feeding tiny balls of GB and maggot on the topkit+1 line and this produced two F1's and then started fizzing, next couple of fish were skimmers, 12oz, so reasonable weight builders if they would keep coming, but the size got smaller and smaller, until they were just a nuisance.
The upshot of the day was that I had to keep moving to a new line and take maybe one F1 from it, before the skimmers moved in, I had been feeding maggots down the middle and saw a couple of swirls, so in with the shallow rig, 3 fish and then a skimmer. I could go back to the far bank and get 1 carp about every half an hour, but they were small.
It seemed that the fish were backing off the feed, the guy on peg 5 found exactly the same thing, he started catching faster than me (on soft pellet over micro), when the bites dried up he fed more and that just made it worse, I think by just dripping a few maggots in I managed to work my way round the peg and keep the odd fish coming. I weighed 70lb, which was second on my side of the lake, beaten by end peg 11 who had 74lb. Tony was second in his section with a shade over a ton and as the weigh-in took a long time we got on the road. Thankfully Bobby G stayed on for the raffle and results and he is bringing an envelope home for myself and Tony, I am assuming they paid two in a section.
It was hard work, but quite enjoyable and I can see myself having a few trips to F1 venues once the winter arrives.
Monday, 29 June 2015
The missing blogs....
Five matches not blogged, just really couldn't muster the enthusiasm to write about what were essentially, with one exception, a continuation of the poor form I have been suffering at Viaduct.
First one was Landsend, in Tony's Float Only series, feeling reasonably confident after a section win from a poor draw in the first round, I was less than pleased to see peg 29 on the Specimen lake in my hand after the draw. It was dire in the winter and had it still been winter, the gear would not have come out of the van, but with unusual optimism, I went to the peg hopeful that the warm water would see the fish moving round.
I was right, they were moving round, tight to the far bank, resulting in a torrid hour of foul hookers, before 5 hours of boredom, not a fish apart from some big roach and the very odd skimmer to be caught short. I ended the day last in the section and tipped back about 35lb to save the scalesmen a job.
Next up was a trip to Woodland View, first time there, Trigger came with me and we were practising for the Fisho the next day. A low turnout for this match saw us all on Back Dean's, with Trigger getting an end peg and I was next to him, but 3 pegs away - we all had a lot of space!! Tricky day, mugging was the only effective way to catch and Trig smashed it up with 171lb, I was second with 75lb.
Next day back to Woodland View with Trig and we both drew on Front Deans an end peg or a peg with space was needed, we had neither and came home empty handed, the pegging is horrendously tight up there with all the pegs in, I can't see me bothering with Fisho's or MMT again, unless I get a drawing arm transplant.
Onto the MMT at Viaduct, I drew peg 28, the last peg up the leg in front of the lodges, afterwards Tony Rixon said he was surprised I even went to it, i did so in the forlorn hope of regaining my £70 outlay with a section win. Two bites, one fish and an early bath with 3/4 of an hour to go, home and a night out with Miss Stella Artois was in order......
Not too many dalliances with Stella, as it was up the next morning and back to Viaduct for the last round of the Spring league, with everyone wanting to avoid Cary, I was pleased to see Campbell on my draw, 127, not the best peg on the lake, but should be worth a few fish. How wrong can you be, a real struggle, I weighed 55lb, with Luke on 126 weighing 66lb, apart from a DNW on 111, I think we were last and last but one on the lake. Really not sure what has gone so disastrously wrong on this league, as I finished with a full hand of last in sections, I could never have imagined that at the start of the league.
So a fairly dire run, lets hope some settled weather, the elongated spawning season and my drawing arm change things going forward.
First one was Landsend, in Tony's Float Only series, feeling reasonably confident after a section win from a poor draw in the first round, I was less than pleased to see peg 29 on the Specimen lake in my hand after the draw. It was dire in the winter and had it still been winter, the gear would not have come out of the van, but with unusual optimism, I went to the peg hopeful that the warm water would see the fish moving round.
I was right, they were moving round, tight to the far bank, resulting in a torrid hour of foul hookers, before 5 hours of boredom, not a fish apart from some big roach and the very odd skimmer to be caught short. I ended the day last in the section and tipped back about 35lb to save the scalesmen a job.
Next up was a trip to Woodland View, first time there, Trigger came with me and we were practising for the Fisho the next day. A low turnout for this match saw us all on Back Dean's, with Trigger getting an end peg and I was next to him, but 3 pegs away - we all had a lot of space!! Tricky day, mugging was the only effective way to catch and Trig smashed it up with 171lb, I was second with 75lb.
Next day back to Woodland View with Trig and we both drew on Front Deans an end peg or a peg with space was needed, we had neither and came home empty handed, the pegging is horrendously tight up there with all the pegs in, I can't see me bothering with Fisho's or MMT again, unless I get a drawing arm transplant.
Onto the MMT at Viaduct, I drew peg 28, the last peg up the leg in front of the lodges, afterwards Tony Rixon said he was surprised I even went to it, i did so in the forlorn hope of regaining my £70 outlay with a section win. Two bites, one fish and an early bath with 3/4 of an hour to go, home and a night out with Miss Stella Artois was in order......
Not too many dalliances with Stella, as it was up the next morning and back to Viaduct for the last round of the Spring league, with everyone wanting to avoid Cary, I was pleased to see Campbell on my draw, 127, not the best peg on the lake, but should be worth a few fish. How wrong can you be, a real struggle, I weighed 55lb, with Luke on 126 weighing 66lb, apart from a DNW on 111, I think we were last and last but one on the lake. Really not sure what has gone so disastrously wrong on this league, as I finished with a full hand of last in sections, I could never have imagined that at the start of the league.
So a fairly dire run, lets hope some settled weather, the elongated spawning season and my drawing arm change things going forward.
Monday, 8 June 2015
Viaduct Spring League, Round Four, Sunday 7th June 2015
I am fairly confused by this league, or at least, by my results in it, I wouldn't have expected to do so poorly, even given the high quality of anglers fishing. This match has compounded my misery and I still don't know if I am doing something drastically wrong.
Onto the match, I drew 111, which is usually a decent peg, good for a few fish and the occasional win, today was all about being positive, so a lead rod set up, the wind seemed awkward, so the waggler rods stayed in the bag. Topkits for pellet shallow / mugging - didn't see a fish to mug and shallow never had so much as a liner - so they went away with no action seen.
A rig to fish meat at 5m, a pellet rig to fish 6mm at 14,5m on the deck, a margin rig and as I had time, a paste rig - mainly because I had Lee Werritt opposite on 130, I was sure he'd be fishing paste and if he started catching on it, I could try it.
On the all-in I potted in 5 bits of meat and lowered the rig over it, it buried and an angry 5lber was attached, what a start, then I proceeded to turn playing it into something from the era of black and white slapstick films, as it was wallowing around at the left of my keepnets, it suddenly put on a turn of speed that would have it tested for steroids in any other sport and ran behind the nets, but in front of the platform legs. I managed the topkit passed under the pallet maneuver without breaking the topkit, but then managed to knock another topkit in the water and it floated off - thanks to dave White on 110 for rescuing it.
With the fish safely landed, I looked back on the meat line, but that was to be it from here, apart from a roach and a tiny skimmer, Out on the 14m line there was a few bubbles and after a long wait I managed a skimmer on 6mm pellet, then fouled a carp that tore off and straightened a 16 B960, unusual to see those bent out of shape. New hook on and back out, another fouler, this time when everything got horribly taut, there was a loud crack, not the pole, but the elastic had disappeared along with the PTFE bush.
Another topkit, another rig and finally a fish hooked in the mouth on the pellet, safely landed with no problem, a long wait for another bite, Dave on 110 was similarly struggling, as was lee on 130 and Steve on 131, whilst 132 was emptying it.
Next calamity filled moment was hooking a double, which came in OK and then dived under the pallet, this time breaking the topkit and the elastic cut through on the damaged carbon, the fish stayed on and was landed in another comedy moment by handlining the elastic. Anothe PTFE bush gone and another elastic, turning into an expensive disaster.....
By now, Dave White on 110 had switched to fishing up by the brambles and had started to catch, Tucks on 112 was bagging, fishing towards 113 and I was still struggling, in fact with 40 minutes to go, I packed up slowly and tidily, chucked back about 38-40lb and buggered off home, haven't felt so disheartened with fishing for sometime now. I really am at a loss to explain what has gone wrong with this league, apart from the comedy moments, I fished tidily, with no reward.
I think I have to blame Gary O'Shea and Steve Long for the carp under the pallet, as I have been trying solid elastic, Sensas latex, on their recommendations and I haven't quite got it sussed yet when the fish run off on the topkit, it stretches more than you'd think.. That said, apart from those disasters, it improves the action of the pole, by reducing weight and I am sure I will get used to it, as until this, I have had no problems in the 2 or 3 weeks I have used it.
Upwards and onwards, Landsend next Sunday, looking forward to that, then an open on Tuedsay at Woodland View, before the Fisho there on Wednesday, the MMT at Viaduct on Saturday week and the last round of the spring league on Sunday week - chance to redeem myself, although I'll take a last in this one if I can win the MMT :)
Onto the match, I drew 111, which is usually a decent peg, good for a few fish and the occasional win, today was all about being positive, so a lead rod set up, the wind seemed awkward, so the waggler rods stayed in the bag. Topkits for pellet shallow / mugging - didn't see a fish to mug and shallow never had so much as a liner - so they went away with no action seen.
A rig to fish meat at 5m, a pellet rig to fish 6mm at 14,5m on the deck, a margin rig and as I had time, a paste rig - mainly because I had Lee Werritt opposite on 130, I was sure he'd be fishing paste and if he started catching on it, I could try it.
On the all-in I potted in 5 bits of meat and lowered the rig over it, it buried and an angry 5lber was attached, what a start, then I proceeded to turn playing it into something from the era of black and white slapstick films, as it was wallowing around at the left of my keepnets, it suddenly put on a turn of speed that would have it tested for steroids in any other sport and ran behind the nets, but in front of the platform legs. I managed the topkit passed under the pallet maneuver without breaking the topkit, but then managed to knock another topkit in the water and it floated off - thanks to dave White on 110 for rescuing it.
With the fish safely landed, I looked back on the meat line, but that was to be it from here, apart from a roach and a tiny skimmer, Out on the 14m line there was a few bubbles and after a long wait I managed a skimmer on 6mm pellet, then fouled a carp that tore off and straightened a 16 B960, unusual to see those bent out of shape. New hook on and back out, another fouler, this time when everything got horribly taut, there was a loud crack, not the pole, but the elastic had disappeared along with the PTFE bush.
Another topkit, another rig and finally a fish hooked in the mouth on the pellet, safely landed with no problem, a long wait for another bite, Dave on 110 was similarly struggling, as was lee on 130 and Steve on 131, whilst 132 was emptying it.
Next calamity filled moment was hooking a double, which came in OK and then dived under the pallet, this time breaking the topkit and the elastic cut through on the damaged carbon, the fish stayed on and was landed in another comedy moment by handlining the elastic. Anothe PTFE bush gone and another elastic, turning into an expensive disaster.....
By now, Dave White on 110 had switched to fishing up by the brambles and had started to catch, Tucks on 112 was bagging, fishing towards 113 and I was still struggling, in fact with 40 minutes to go, I packed up slowly and tidily, chucked back about 38-40lb and buggered off home, haven't felt so disheartened with fishing for sometime now. I really am at a loss to explain what has gone wrong with this league, apart from the comedy moments, I fished tidily, with no reward.
I think I have to blame Gary O'Shea and Steve Long for the carp under the pallet, as I have been trying solid elastic, Sensas latex, on their recommendations and I haven't quite got it sussed yet when the fish run off on the topkit, it stretches more than you'd think.. That said, apart from those disasters, it improves the action of the pole, by reducing weight and I am sure I will get used to it, as until this, I have had no problems in the 2 or 3 weeks I have used it.
Upwards and onwards, Landsend next Sunday, looking forward to that, then an open on Tuedsay at Woodland View, before the Fisho there on Wednesday, the MMT at Viaduct on Saturday week and the last round of the spring league on Sunday week - chance to redeem myself, although I'll take a last in this one if I can win the MMT :)
MFS / HillBilly Pairs, The Glebe, Friday 5th and Saturday 6th June 2015
My first visit to The Glebe, having heard good reports about
the fishery, I managed to get into this match due to someone dropping out. I had managed to get some information from
venue regular, Chris Needham and Andy Kinder, thanks Chris & Andy, I was
basing my approach around corn, pellet, dead maggot and casters, which I wasn’t
going to take, but changed my mind in the run up to the match after speaking to
Chris.
The match was a two dayer, 60 anglers with 30 on pool 1 and
30 spread over some of the other pools and then swap round next day. I had Mike Walker as a travelling partner for
the event and it was an early start picking him up at 5am. We made god time and
got there in the 2 hours 15 the sat nav had predicted, in fact we were a little
early and found a breakfast/burger van that did a very tasty egg and bacon
roll.
We had a walk round lake 1 before the draw and I did fancy
peg 30, it has a pipe running into it and the carp were lining up in the
outflow, it looked solid, that and the wind was blowing right into that end.
The draw for the pairs was made and my partner was George Tamayo.
My ever unreliable drawing arm put me on peg 28, close, but
not close enough, Mike drew peg 66 on pool 4, so after dropping him off, I got
to my peg and set up a 4 hole cage feeder to fish tight to the far bank,
clipping up to get it tight to the rushes.
To windy to consider a waggler, I did set up a rig to fish pellet at
full depth at 14m, a corn rig to fish at 6m, just up the slope, a margin rig,
although I didn’t think that would be too productive with all 30 pegs in. As I had some time, I did set up a paste rig
to fish over the pellet line at 14m.
Starting on the feeder which I had been assured was the
banker to get a few fish in the first 3 or 4 hours, I found it tough going, as
did everyone else I could see, I managed 4 fish in the first hour, so came off
the feeder and had a look at the 14m line, there were fish here, but the wind
was making it virtually impossible to present a bait and I was catching odd
fish, but I felt it should be more. I
had tried to find some trip back against the wind, but no matter where I tried
there was none. I tried paste over this line and had a couple of fish, but the
wind was making it just as impossible as the pellet rig.
I looked on the 5m corn line and this produced the odd fish
and it took me longer than I would have liked to work out the feeding and the
best way to lay the rig in, once I sorted this out the catch rate improved and
I was adding fish to the net, although I wasn’t catching as fast as peg
30. I had fed some maggot and GB in the
margin and this did produce some fish, but wasn’t prolific, only to be expected
with every peg in.
Had I sussed the corn
line out a bit quicker, I feel I should have been pushing Dave Pearson for the
lake win, which he did with 166.00 from peg 25. It was close with the other top
weights on the lake being 154.08 RossN peg 7,
147.00 Barry Wynn peg 30, 138.08
GotGaz peg 11, 138.04 Matt Blackmore peg 24 and myself with 137.12 peg 28.
This was a long way from the winner on the day, Andy Kinder
with 306.00 from peg 92, six weights over 200.00, there were including the 300
and 200’s, 35 weights over a ton, fantastic fishing.
After the match it was back to the Longshoot, where we were
staying, it wasn’t the most salubrious surroundings I’ve ever stayed in, the
bathroom tiling was very late 60’s /70’s, the mattress was strangely ribbed,
but as I only spent a short time in the bed, it wasn’t of great
importance. The carvery was OK for a
bargain £4.95, the bar had karaoke and Andy Kinder gave a Elvis impression,
which resulted in Churchy lobbing his undies on the stage…… from there on the beer flowed and it was a
good night, Matt Blackmore ordered up loads of pizza’s, kebabs and cheesy chips
that showed up about 1am, so a nice healthy preparation for Saturday’s round
2!!
Me and Mike decided not to wait at the shoot for breakfast,
thinking we’d visit the same roadside van as the morning before, that was a
tactical error, as there was a glaring space in the layby, where our breakfast
should have been. We found a corner shop
near the venue, it had very little stock and we had to breakfast and survive
the day on sausage rolls and chocolate, lesson learnt for next time.
Onto the draw and Mike drew peg 5 on pool 1, whilst I drew
peg 67, next to where Mike had been the day before, the lake had thrown up some
good weights with 3 200lb+ nets from the middle pegs and Mike weighing 171 from
peg 66. 67 hadn’t faired so well, but there were obviously fish in the area.
Trying to use the advice I had been given and that Mike had
caught well on the feeder I set it up again, once again the wind ruled out a
waggler, so 4 topkits completed my set up. Two for the 5m corn line, one strung
out shotting and one bulked. A margin
rig and as I had nearly 3 pints of casters left, I found a nice flat area about
2m from the bank to my right at a comfy topset + 1, this was about 18” deep and
was going to be fed with caster and pellet, paste fished over the top.
On the all-in I started on the feeder again and started
catching straight away, but these were small stockies and within 30 minutes I
saw peg 69 catching bigger fish on his 5m line, today was so different than
yesterday, the peg was tripping back hard against the wind on the 5m line and
this led to bites, but also liners, as there were fish there, but not settled
on the bottom feeding. I had seen some
swirls over the caster line and decided to have a look therewith a big lump of
paste and had a nice run of fish to about 6lb, before the line went quiet. A
switch back to the corn at 5m brought the odd fish and with a things slowing
down all round the lake, I fed the margins with about 2 ¾ hours to go. Leaving the margin to settle I had another
fish on the paste, they weren’t queuing up for it, but patience was rewarded.
When I dropped into the LH margin, I had an 8lb fish
straight way, then one a bit bigger, I refed and lost a couple of foulers, with
the reeds at this venue it is impossible to get the rig tight to the bank. I
let it settle and had a fish from the RH margin, before hooking a lump from the LH edge which went 16.08. The RH edge produced a couple of fish and the LH edge
was just causing me a headache with foulers, so for the last half an hour I
went back on the paste line and landed 4 or 5
7-9lb fish before the all-out. I
had a couple of skimmers in my silvers net, decent ones taken on paste and a
couple of squeakers, they along with the carp went 191.08 for a lake win and
joint 5th overall – this was leading with the last lakes results to
come back and it had thrown up 4 200lb+ weights to knock me down the frame. Partner George hadn't faired too well in the drawbag and we finished off the pace of the top pairs.
Churchy taking the win with 252.12 from peg 99, GotGaz 248.00 peg 98, Mr Bald 222.00 peg 109,
HillBilly 199.08 peg 106 with myself and Jason Elwell on 191.08, from 67 and 77
respectively.
Thanks to the organisers, Neil of HillBilly floats for
sponsoring the event and to everyone who made it an enjoyable weekend, just
glad I didn’t draw lake 1 on day 2, as the spawning fish meant weights were
well down, with 69lb winning the lake.
Sunday, 31 May 2015
Tony Rixon's Float Only League, Round One, Viaduct, Sunday 31st May 2015
This is going to be short, as there isn't much to write about. This really starts on Thursday, when I was discussing this match with Tony and asking if he was putting peg 109 in, as I had a bad feeling that I would draw it, if he did.
I wasn't at all surprised when it came out of the draw tin, disappointed and pissed off yes, surprised no. When I went to look at the peg, there were a couple of carp showing themselves in the RH margin, as everyone came into the car park and got their gear, slamming car doors etc, the fish moved up the lake and I didn't see a sign of a fish again.
I set up a waggler, but the wind and the trees made it impossible to get it where I wanted it, so up the bank with it after 10 minutes of trying, not to be used again.
I set up 5 topkits, 2 for the edge as the margins were different depths and I wanted to feed GB in one and particles in the other, a meat rig, a pellet rig for 13m towards the willow tree and just in case, a paste rig.
Starting on the meat short, I had a small (for Cary) carp and then a small tench, that apart from a roach, was that for the meat line for the rest of the day, after half an hour I switched to the 13m pellet line, fishing a 8mm pellet over 6mm feed. Another carp, this one a bit bigger, but still not a 'Barney' and that apart from 4 skimmers proved to be that for the pellet line. I swapped between meat, pellet and both margins, as well as trying paste for the next 4 hours and had one carp at about 2pm from the LH margin at 14.5m.
That was the sole action until 25 minutes before the all out, when I had 2 more carp, lost a fouler and lost one that got snagged in something under the willow tree. I had landed plenty of sticks, twigs and other various bits of foliage, but the peg seemed to be fairly devoid of fish, the RH margin produced 2 perch and the ducks mopped the rest of the bait up.
My fish went 44lb for a section win, so some consolation for 6 hours of intense effort. But once again, I found myself in the worst section, an ongoing theme since my days of team fishing in the 70's and 80's....
I didn't get the results, but Tony won from 114, with 176lb, Trigger 2nd from 96 with 175lb and Glenn Calvert top silvers with 38lb. See Tony's blog for full result.
I wasn't at all surprised when it came out of the draw tin, disappointed and pissed off yes, surprised no. When I went to look at the peg, there were a couple of carp showing themselves in the RH margin, as everyone came into the car park and got their gear, slamming car doors etc, the fish moved up the lake and I didn't see a sign of a fish again.
I set up a waggler, but the wind and the trees made it impossible to get it where I wanted it, so up the bank with it after 10 minutes of trying, not to be used again.
I set up 5 topkits, 2 for the edge as the margins were different depths and I wanted to feed GB in one and particles in the other, a meat rig, a pellet rig for 13m towards the willow tree and just in case, a paste rig.
Starting on the meat short, I had a small (for Cary) carp and then a small tench, that apart from a roach, was that for the meat line for the rest of the day, after half an hour I switched to the 13m pellet line, fishing a 8mm pellet over 6mm feed. Another carp, this one a bit bigger, but still not a 'Barney' and that apart from 4 skimmers proved to be that for the pellet line. I swapped between meat, pellet and both margins, as well as trying paste for the next 4 hours and had one carp at about 2pm from the LH margin at 14.5m.
That was the sole action until 25 minutes before the all out, when I had 2 more carp, lost a fouler and lost one that got snagged in something under the willow tree. I had landed plenty of sticks, twigs and other various bits of foliage, but the peg seemed to be fairly devoid of fish, the RH margin produced 2 perch and the ducks mopped the rest of the bait up.
My fish went 44lb for a section win, so some consolation for 6 hours of intense effort. But once again, I found myself in the worst section, an ongoing theme since my days of team fishing in the 70's and 80's....
I didn't get the results, but Tony won from 114, with 176lb, Trigger 2nd from 96 with 175lb and Glenn Calvert top silvers with 38lb. See Tony's blog for full result.
Friday, 29 May 2015
Costcutter Open, Avalon, Thursday 28th May 2015
As much as I enjoy fishing Viaduct, it’s nice to have some
variety, so I booked into this week’s costcutter at Avalon. I was quite intent on just taking 6 & 8mm
pellets and a bag of paste, but a conversation with owner Vic Bush saw me
putting so GB and a kilo of worms (that have been in the fridge since March,
surely they won’t last much longer) into the bait bag.
Travelling down with Tony Rixon, we had the usual Shipham brekkie and then
drew next to each other, me on peg 5 and Tony on 3. He badgered me into a £1 side bet, which I
don’t usually indulge in, it was because he knew I had the worms and would be
tempted to use them……….
A short walk and plenty of time, so I set up a pellet
waggler, a depth waggler and a lead rod.
Three topkits as well, a rig to fish banded pellet, one for paste and
one for down the edge. Bait tray just
had 6 & 8mm pellets initially and I started on the pellet waggler. This was producing bites and fish, not big
fish, several carp to 3lb and a couple of hybrids which were just over
1lb. The fish were tight to the rushes
and backing off into the gap under a tree, after the first hour which saw 20lb
in the net, the wind made the waggler fishing fairly pointless, it kept
switching directiom fron R-L and then back to L-R. It wasn’t even a consistent breeze up the
lake, just a wind lane which was less than 2m wide and this was catching the
line and pulling the float along within seconds of it landing.
I did try the lead, but 10 minutes of watching a motionless
tip was enough, so I had a look over the feed I’d put in on the pole line,
nothing, not that I was surprised, as I
hadn’t seen any blowing or other signs of fish.
Time to mix the GB and try the worms, this was fairly uneventful, then
Vic turned up and encouraged me to up the feed, this brought a 6oz rudd to the
worm bait, this remained the only fish caught on this bait.
Dropping paste over the worm/GB feed, saw a carp netted, a
carp lost then three skimmers of a decent size landed, before the line
quietened down again. I refed and had another look on the waggler, this brought
another odd fish or two, but the wind remained a constant frustration to
presenting a bait that wasn’t trotting along and away from the rushes.
Back on the paste and another fish netted, but it was slow
going and at the all-out, I knew my messing about with worms had cost me £1 to
Mr Rixon. Vic jumped on my box and had a
go with the paste, landing a 13lb fish shortly afterwards……. How do they know the match has finished??
So, with hindsight, 6 hours thrashing the reeds with a
waggler would probably have been the best thing to do, also a lesson learnt
about feeding at Avalon – they want some, no place for gentle drip feeding
here!! Frustrating but enjoyable day,
hopefully I can get back here before too long, my fish went 64.15 and that 13lb
carp that Vic had after the whistle on my gear would have seen my £1 safe if it
had found the paste 10 minutes earlier……..
1: Glenn Bailey 108lb peg 16
2: Mike West 99.13 peg 1
3: Tony Rixon 72.07 peg 3
4: Paul Lock 67.02
5: Chris Fox 64.15 peg 5
Silvers
1: Mike Nicholls 37.10 peg 23
2: Paul Lock 35.01
Monday, 25 May 2015
Viaduct Spring League, Round Three, Sunday 24th May 2015
I should have known that today was all going to go wrong after the week I've had. Last Saturday driving to Viaduct, the van started to make a noise, I suspected a charge air hose, but the turbo and hoses are tight between the back of the engine and the bulkhead. I put it into the local diesel specialists, as it needed a ramp to sort it, I am still in shock from when they rang, "it's not the charge air hose, it's the turbo, that'll be the best part of grand" including the bloody VAT - what value is there in that for me......
So without a van, Tony Rixon kindly picked me up and I squeezed in with him and Fabio. we were going to try The Brewers Fayre in Glastonbury for breakfast, the second time in a week my wallet has been hammered!! £8.75 for breakfast, I reckon that's the first and last visit there.
Now onto the match and there is little of consequence to write about, I drew 135, which is a feast or famine peg, after Ben had 220lb off it last week I was hopeful of catching a few, but when I got to the peg, my hopes faded pretty rapidly. The pipe was running water into the RH side of peg 136, I believe this comes in at about 11deg, so cooling the area. There was a lot of debris and detritus floating about on the surface and an unpleasant looking green scum lining the margins. (Is that enough excuses now....).
I felt there would be little point in getting either a lead rod or waggler rod out of the bag, so 4 topkits, a meat rig for 6 sections, a pellet rig for 14m and two margin rigs, one with a banded hooklength and one without. In my experience, when this peg does well, it's the margins that do the damage, so that was my main line of attack, but I started on the meat and had a fish after 10 minutes, after that came the start of the days major frustration, tiny roach and skimmers whittling down 8mm and even 11mm pellets, meat, tugging at double worm and holding 7 maggots and the bulk shot off the bottom. I would go as far to say, that this was the worst I have ever experienced this at Viaduct and whilst it seems like an easy cop out, I honestly believe it was due to the lack of bigger fish in the peg to push them out.
I fed groundbait into the LH margin and had a perch and two rudd from there, no sign of a carp, the RH margin produced six carp to 8mm pellet over the full duration of the match, I had two fish on pellet at 14m and two fish on meat at 6 sections, the shallow water can be where they want to be some days, but not it would appear, today. I reckon I had 65lb by the end and with the next lowest weight in the section being 80lb, I didn't trouble the scales, as it wouldn't affect either my or anyone elses league position. No results, you'll find them on Tony's blog.
So without a van, Tony Rixon kindly picked me up and I squeezed in with him and Fabio. we were going to try The Brewers Fayre in Glastonbury for breakfast, the second time in a week my wallet has been hammered!! £8.75 for breakfast, I reckon that's the first and last visit there.
Now onto the match and there is little of consequence to write about, I drew 135, which is a feast or famine peg, after Ben had 220lb off it last week I was hopeful of catching a few, but when I got to the peg, my hopes faded pretty rapidly. The pipe was running water into the RH side of peg 136, I believe this comes in at about 11deg, so cooling the area. There was a lot of debris and detritus floating about on the surface and an unpleasant looking green scum lining the margins. (Is that enough excuses now....).
I felt there would be little point in getting either a lead rod or waggler rod out of the bag, so 4 topkits, a meat rig for 6 sections, a pellet rig for 14m and two margin rigs, one with a banded hooklength and one without. In my experience, when this peg does well, it's the margins that do the damage, so that was my main line of attack, but I started on the meat and had a fish after 10 minutes, after that came the start of the days major frustration, tiny roach and skimmers whittling down 8mm and even 11mm pellets, meat, tugging at double worm and holding 7 maggots and the bulk shot off the bottom. I would go as far to say, that this was the worst I have ever experienced this at Viaduct and whilst it seems like an easy cop out, I honestly believe it was due to the lack of bigger fish in the peg to push them out.
I fed groundbait into the LH margin and had a perch and two rudd from there, no sign of a carp, the RH margin produced six carp to 8mm pellet over the full duration of the match, I had two fish on pellet at 14m and two fish on meat at 6 sections, the shallow water can be where they want to be some days, but not it would appear, today. I reckon I had 65lb by the end and with the next lowest weight in the section being 80lb, I didn't trouble the scales, as it wouldn't affect either my or anyone elses league position. No results, you'll find them on Tony's blog.
Monday, 18 May 2015
Short Pole Series, Round Two, Trinity Waters. Sunday 17th May 2015
I was expecting this to fish well after the warmer weather and wind oxygenating the water, but it proved to be a struggle for many!!
With a couple of the league anglers off watching some pointless non-league football match, we had some stand-in's, so the match was up to strength in numbers. Bob Gullick did look a bit upset when he realised the bridge pegs on the venue weren't on the lake we were fishing.......
When I got to the draw tin, Tony said, "at least most of the pegs on the top bank are gone", as that is the one area I have never won or framed from on this lake, so what come out, 17 on the top bank, oh well, it has to produce for me one day surely and with the wind blowing towards it, why not today. He couldn't smile too much at my misfortune, as he had been handed peg 18, so it was going to be an interesting battle between us, although on reflection, interesting may well be a misleading description.
We set up similar rigs to fish pellet, meat short and the margins, although I knew Tony would have a band on his pellet rig whereas I intended to start on soft pellet. I had some paste on the tray, 6 and 8mm pellets, 8mm meat and dead maggots, but on plumbing the margins and finding nearly 4' and a steep drop off with no shelf, I didn't think they'd see the hook.
Starting on the soft pellet over hard feed 6mm pellets I had a little wait for bites, before landing a small carp and a skimmer. It was painfully slow going, to get any sort of reaction from the peg, it needed feed going in, but bites were few and far between, with the odd skimmer gracing the net. I then lost a 3ln tench, hmmm, I was trying a different elastic and maybe a match where I was looking for a section win at least, wasn't the ideal time to do it.
The short meat line produced one fish, a hybrid with huge eyes, but it was only 3 or 4 ounces, so not much more to say about that.
A switch to worm on the hook over the pellet line, saw a couple of carp and a couple more skimmers netted, before this died off again. The margin resulted in one fish, another small carp, thereafter, every put in ended up in a snag and another MW float bit the dust as if flew back into the keepnet.
I decided to concentrate on the long line and fed some dead maggot in with the pellet, this with 3 dead maggots on the hook produced two more carp and some more big skimmers, a 3lb+ fish coming off, that new elastic wasn't right for skimmers really, but they weren't the target. So a tough day, with some entertainment from Tony, as he had a torrid day, snapping a No6 section and a topkit, I thought I had him beaten, but was expecting to be 3rd or 4th in the section, so was pleasantly surprised to get second in section, still keeping the league alive, but I think only 2 section wins will do now. Also my silvers got second, so an envelope for the 3rd day in a row.
Best bit of the day was the news that the non league team from oop north had scored, worst news was when the non league team from oop north Bristol fluked a penalty shoot out win, even so boys "Mind The Gap........"
1: Rod Wotton 117.12 peg 6
2: Paul Elmes 87.12 peg 25
3: Mike Nichols 79.04 peg 22
4: Craig Edmunds 79.03 peg 9
5: Bob Gullick 61.14 peg 13
6: Adrian Jeffery 59.11 peg 33
Silvers
1: Paul Faiers 25.07 peg 31
2: Chris Fox 14.03 peg 17
With a couple of the league anglers off watching some pointless non-league football match, we had some stand-in's, so the match was up to strength in numbers. Bob Gullick did look a bit upset when he realised the bridge pegs on the venue weren't on the lake we were fishing.......
When I got to the draw tin, Tony said, "at least most of the pegs on the top bank are gone", as that is the one area I have never won or framed from on this lake, so what come out, 17 on the top bank, oh well, it has to produce for me one day surely and with the wind blowing towards it, why not today. He couldn't smile too much at my misfortune, as he had been handed peg 18, so it was going to be an interesting battle between us, although on reflection, interesting may well be a misleading description.
We set up similar rigs to fish pellet, meat short and the margins, although I knew Tony would have a band on his pellet rig whereas I intended to start on soft pellet. I had some paste on the tray, 6 and 8mm pellets, 8mm meat and dead maggots, but on plumbing the margins and finding nearly 4' and a steep drop off with no shelf, I didn't think they'd see the hook.
Starting on the soft pellet over hard feed 6mm pellets I had a little wait for bites, before landing a small carp and a skimmer. It was painfully slow going, to get any sort of reaction from the peg, it needed feed going in, but bites were few and far between, with the odd skimmer gracing the net. I then lost a 3ln tench, hmmm, I was trying a different elastic and maybe a match where I was looking for a section win at least, wasn't the ideal time to do it.
The short meat line produced one fish, a hybrid with huge eyes, but it was only 3 or 4 ounces, so not much more to say about that.
A switch to worm on the hook over the pellet line, saw a couple of carp and a couple more skimmers netted, before this died off again. The margin resulted in one fish, another small carp, thereafter, every put in ended up in a snag and another MW float bit the dust as if flew back into the keepnet.
I decided to concentrate on the long line and fed some dead maggot in with the pellet, this with 3 dead maggots on the hook produced two more carp and some more big skimmers, a 3lb+ fish coming off, that new elastic wasn't right for skimmers really, but they weren't the target. So a tough day, with some entertainment from Tony, as he had a torrid day, snapping a No6 section and a topkit, I thought I had him beaten, but was expecting to be 3rd or 4th in the section, so was pleasantly surprised to get second in section, still keeping the league alive, but I think only 2 section wins will do now. Also my silvers got second, so an envelope for the 3rd day in a row.
Best bit of the day was the news that the non league team from oop north had scored, worst news was when the non league team from oop north Bristol fluked a penalty shoot out win, even so boys "Mind The Gap........"
1: Rod Wotton 117.12 peg 6
2: Paul Elmes 87.12 peg 25
3: Mike Nichols 79.04 peg 22
4: Craig Edmunds 79.03 peg 9
5: Bob Gullick 61.14 peg 13
6: Adrian Jeffery 59.11 peg 33
Silvers
1: Paul Faiers 25.07 peg 31
2: Chris Fox 14.03 peg 17
MFS Two Dayer, Day Two. Saturday 16th May 2015
Cary for me today, it would have been good to get out with the boys that had a curry and a few beers in Yeovil last night, but I was glad I didn't feel like some of them looked..........
The tin of dreams beckoned and I fancied any peg with a decent margin, the fish seemed to be happiest in shallower water yesterday, so it was mixed feelings when 86 came out. the wind was stronger today, so I set up two lead rods, two rigs to fish meat at 6m and a rig to fish the short margin down to the LH side. I started on the meat short, hoping for a quick fish, which didn't happen, even with the chop on the water I could see some blowing and didn't have long to wait after the first chuck with an 11mm pellet for the tip to go round and one of Cary's 'Barney Rubbles' in the net, next chuck another and then a third..... how easy is this lead fishing!!!
The next couple of chucks were not so prolific, so a swap to a piece of punched meat saw the tip curl round and a big fish took line at a rate of knots, getting it in gave the 8lb Shimano Technium and the 0.22 hooklength a good test, which passed, as a nigh on 20lb fish was netted. A lean spell followed, so a look back on the meat line, where there had been some bubbles, this was a frustrating spell, as I foul hooked and lost 3 fish, one hook pull, one snapped hook length and one snapped elastic - gutted one of my favourite MW floats vanished into the depths......
Back on the lead and I had what looked like a liner, when I saw a skimmer jump out of the water, it knew it was hooked before I did!! In fact it was one of two immaculate condition bream I had on 11mm pellet. A couple more 'Barney's' followed on the lead, but it wasn't possible to keep fish coming from the same spot. The wind was making feeding difficult, maybe a PVA bag of pellets might be the answer in that situation.
I had left the margin well alone, as its so short, aiming to fish it in the last couple of hours, I fed it with GB and maggot, first drop in with 7 maggots saw the float bury and a 15lber safely netted. The margin wasn't full of competing fish, which isn't a bad thing when they are that size, I had 4 more over the next hour, but could hear Ben on 85 catching well down his edge too. I then hooked a big common of 15lb+ that wallowed in like a skimmer, I touched it with the net, that woke it up and it swam off, shedding the hook as it went...... bugger. One more from the edge before the all out and I thought I had at least the weight I had yesterday.
Ben weighed 221 and I didn't think I had that, so it proved, the lost common costing me dearly, as I weighed 207. This was second on lake, fifth overall on the day and 4th overall for the two days, so not the worst result, but frustratingly close. A good couple of days, good company and an awesome fishery, glad its only 50 minutes drive.
1: Jon Martin 238.09 peg 121
2: Mark Poppleton 225.06 peg 118
3: Ben Hagg 221.02 peg 85
4: Dan White 213.14 peg 114
5: Chris Fox 207.08 peg 86
6: Martin ? 198.07 peg 116
Silvers
1:Scott Russell 37303 peg 128
Overall
1: Ben Hagg 2 points
2: Mark Poppleton 2 points
3: Jon Martin 2 points
4: Chris Fox 3 points
The tin of dreams beckoned and I fancied any peg with a decent margin, the fish seemed to be happiest in shallower water yesterday, so it was mixed feelings when 86 came out. the wind was stronger today, so I set up two lead rods, two rigs to fish meat at 6m and a rig to fish the short margin down to the LH side. I started on the meat short, hoping for a quick fish, which didn't happen, even with the chop on the water I could see some blowing and didn't have long to wait after the first chuck with an 11mm pellet for the tip to go round and one of Cary's 'Barney Rubbles' in the net, next chuck another and then a third..... how easy is this lead fishing!!!
The next couple of chucks were not so prolific, so a swap to a piece of punched meat saw the tip curl round and a big fish took line at a rate of knots, getting it in gave the 8lb Shimano Technium and the 0.22 hooklength a good test, which passed, as a nigh on 20lb fish was netted. A lean spell followed, so a look back on the meat line, where there had been some bubbles, this was a frustrating spell, as I foul hooked and lost 3 fish, one hook pull, one snapped hook length and one snapped elastic - gutted one of my favourite MW floats vanished into the depths......
Back on the lead and I had what looked like a liner, when I saw a skimmer jump out of the water, it knew it was hooked before I did!! In fact it was one of two immaculate condition bream I had on 11mm pellet. A couple more 'Barney's' followed on the lead, but it wasn't possible to keep fish coming from the same spot. The wind was making feeding difficult, maybe a PVA bag of pellets might be the answer in that situation.
I had left the margin well alone, as its so short, aiming to fish it in the last couple of hours, I fed it with GB and maggot, first drop in with 7 maggots saw the float bury and a 15lber safely netted. The margin wasn't full of competing fish, which isn't a bad thing when they are that size, I had 4 more over the next hour, but could hear Ben on 85 catching well down his edge too. I then hooked a big common of 15lb+ that wallowed in like a skimmer, I touched it with the net, that woke it up and it swam off, shedding the hook as it went...... bugger. One more from the edge before the all out and I thought I had at least the weight I had yesterday.
Ben weighed 221 and I didn't think I had that, so it proved, the lost common costing me dearly, as I weighed 207. This was second on lake, fifth overall on the day and 4th overall for the two days, so not the worst result, but frustratingly close. A good couple of days, good company and an awesome fishery, glad its only 50 minutes drive.
1: Jon Martin 238.09 peg 121
2: Mark Poppleton 225.06 peg 118
3: Ben Hagg 221.02 peg 85
4: Dan White 213.14 peg 114
5: Chris Fox 207.08 peg 86
6: Martin ? 198.07 peg 116
Silvers
1:Scott Russell 37303 peg 128
Overall
1: Ben Hagg 2 points
2: Mark Poppleton 2 points
3: Jon Martin 2 points
4: Chris Fox 3 points
MFS Two Dayer, Day One, Viaduct. Friday 15th May 2015
With the lessons from yesterday lodged in the grey matter, I was looking forward to this couple of days, some good banter and good fishing were in prospect. The draw on the first day was an open draw and I found myself heading to 123, I have only drawn it once before, last years MMT and there weren't many fish there then.
I set up a rig for 5m to fish meat, a rig at 14m to fish pellet and a rig to fish 13m down the edge towards the corner. I also set up a lead rod, that was packed away at the end, unbent by a fish.
The lake started off fishing slowly, I had an early fish on the short meat line, the long pellet line produced only one fish and a couple more back on the short meat line, but it wasn't really happening.
With less than half the match gone I looked down the edge, feeding and fishing 8mm pellet, I had three quick fish, not the usual size of the edge dwellers, before switching to feeding groundbait and maggot. This brought an instant response and a run of fish, before the line went quiet. Another fish off the 5m line helped to rest the margin and it switched back on, this was repeated twice more before the all out, I thought I had about 160lb, the scales once again proving my estimating skills are in need of polishing, as they gave me 183.06, which was good enough for the section win, second on lake and third overall, so something to fish for on Saturday.
1: Ben Hagg 224.15 peg 135
2: Mark Poppleton 200.15 peg 81
3: Chris Fox 183.06 peg 123
4: Fred Roberts 176.04 peg 115
5: Pellet King 174.14 peg 118
6: 76 Trombones 160.00 peg 131
Silvers
1: S White 30.00 peg 78
I set up a rig for 5m to fish meat, a rig at 14m to fish pellet and a rig to fish 13m down the edge towards the corner. I also set up a lead rod, that was packed away at the end, unbent by a fish.
The lake started off fishing slowly, I had an early fish on the short meat line, the long pellet line produced only one fish and a couple more back on the short meat line, but it wasn't really happening.
With less than half the match gone I looked down the edge, feeding and fishing 8mm pellet, I had three quick fish, not the usual size of the edge dwellers, before switching to feeding groundbait and maggot. This brought an instant response and a run of fish, before the line went quiet. Another fish off the 5m line helped to rest the margin and it switched back on, this was repeated twice more before the all out, I thought I had about 160lb, the scales once again proving my estimating skills are in need of polishing, as they gave me 183.06, which was good enough for the section win, second on lake and third overall, so something to fish for on Saturday.
1: Ben Hagg 224.15 peg 135
2: Mark Poppleton 200.15 peg 81
3: Chris Fox 183.06 peg 123
4: Fred Roberts 176.04 peg 115
5: Pellet King 174.14 peg 118
6: 76 Trombones 160.00 peg 131
Silvers
1: S White 30.00 peg 78
Viaduct Cost Cutter, Thursday 14th May 2015
With the MFS two dayer on Friday and Saturday, I wanted to take the opportunity to try something out and the cost cutter was an ideal opportunity. The warm day on Wednesday had me thinking that the fish might have a go on paste, so Thursdays tactic was paste - if it proved anything, its that you shouldn't go into a match with blinkers on and another option or two should be considered and available.
The lovely day that was Wednesday gave way to a cold and wet Thursday and it seemed that the cold rain had sunk straight to the bottom, making my paste attack all wrong. 19 fishing today, i guess the weather cut the numbers down, I drew 126 and pursued my paste attempt, even though it was all wrong, short and long. When paste fishing at Viaduct, its common to see the fish approach the bait by the bubbles, usually when the reach the float, fish on and it buries. Not today, the bubbles came towards the float, the float wobbled and the bubbles carried on past, in the majority of times the fish approached. Suffice to say I DNW, I chucked back about 85lb, which was a long, long way off the pace, but some useful things learnt for the 2 days following.
1: Mark Warns 246.10 peg 112
2: Andy Neal 230.01 peg 80
3: Keith Ashby 193.08 peg 125
4: Dave Romain 191.11 peg 191.11
5: Vic Nugen?? 174.10 peg 131
6: Tich Williams 166.05 peg 102
Silvers
1: Keith Ashby 38.0 peg 125
2: Andy Neal 25.05 peg 80
The lovely day that was Wednesday gave way to a cold and wet Thursday and it seemed that the cold rain had sunk straight to the bottom, making my paste attack all wrong. 19 fishing today, i guess the weather cut the numbers down, I drew 126 and pursued my paste attempt, even though it was all wrong, short and long. When paste fishing at Viaduct, its common to see the fish approach the bait by the bubbles, usually when the reach the float, fish on and it buries. Not today, the bubbles came towards the float, the float wobbled and the bubbles carried on past, in the majority of times the fish approached. Suffice to say I DNW, I chucked back about 85lb, which was a long, long way off the pace, but some useful things learnt for the 2 days following.
1: Mark Warns 246.10 peg 112
2: Andy Neal 230.01 peg 80
3: Keith Ashby 193.08 peg 125
4: Dave Romain 191.11 peg 191.11
5: Vic Nugen?? 174.10 peg 131
6: Tich Williams 166.05 peg 102
Silvers
1: Keith Ashby 38.0 peg 125
2: Andy Neal 25.05 peg 80
Monday, 11 May 2015
Viaduct League Round Two, Sunday 10th May 2015
I needed a good result from today’s match, as the first
round was a dropper, so I was first in the draw bucket – at least all the good
pegs are in the tin – first dip in, I picked up two stuck together, dropped
them back. Second attempt another two stuck together, third dip in one seemed
to fly into the palm of my hand….. an omen.
A portent of doom rather than a good omen, as I opened the swimcard to
reveal 55.
Next to me on 56, was Paul Elmes who had been on 55 last
match and won the section from it, but with corner pegs 53 and 59 in and
seeming a plenty of room for Lee Werrit on 62, I wasn’t so convinced that it
would do it again. I set up 4 rigs, one
for the margin down to my left, which looks like it should hold a few fish, a
rig for meat fished out to my No6 section, a pellet rig to fish at 14m and
finally a paste rig that would do for fishing over the pellet line or anywhere
else in the peg, as apart from the margin, the depth varied by little more than
4-6”. I also set up a waggler to fish on
the drop at full depth.
I tried starting on the meat short, sometimes this nicks an
early fish or two, but apart from roach bites, that was a non-starter. A switch to the pellet line feeding 6mm and
fishing a banded 8mm brought a couple of small skimmers, even a switch to 6mm
in the band didn’t encourage more of them.
By now others around the lake were starting to catch, whilst myself and
Paul were struggling.
Coming up to the half way stage of the match, I had managed
a couple more skimmers, one on the waggler, one on the meat, but it was
pitifully slow and as there were signs of carp out by the rope, I decided to
set up a lead rod. I had no bread with
me, so popped up a bit of 10mm meat 6” below the surface, this was desperation plan Z, as myself and
Paul were both finding that casting a waggler towards the fish, saw them back
off tighter to the rope. First two
chucks had me thinking it might work, as I had liners, then that was it, they
had even backed off a 1/4oz bomb dropping in.
At five to three, I saw a bubble or two over the meat line
and in the next half an hour had 3 carp for 34lb, Paul also had a couple of
fish and I thought that we would go on and catch a few, apart from a couple
more skimmers that was my lot. The margin produced a perch and two rudd, all
about 4oz.
With the all-out imminent I had switched over to paste, as
Paul had caught a carp on it over his meat line, I said to Paul hopefully one
will take it on the drop, one did, it was a skimmer about 1lb and that was
enough to beat Paul by 8oz, my carp and skimmers going 47.00, to Pauls 46.08
that was the highlight of the match, as we were well beaten by everyone else in
the section.
Really not sure what else I could have done, the pegs felt
devoid of fish, no idea why they turned up for 30 minutes and then disappeared
again, I had no liners, no foulers, no blowing, nothing to give hope that there
were fish there to be caught for 51/2 hours of the match. I think had I fished for skimmers I could
have had a days fishing, but would have been last in section, as they weren’t
exactly going mad, so there was no point.
That it for the series, treat the rest as opens and hope for a better
draw. I didn’t get the results, but the
weigh sheet pictures are on the Viaduct Facebook page.
Friday, 1 May 2015
Viaduct Costcutter, Thursday 30th April 2015
I have been using the new Mossella keepnets since the Bait Tech Festival and they are an improvement on an already good product, they have been redesigned and are slightly smaller, this is a great help on venues where multiple nets have to be used. They seem to have retained the strength and hard wearing of the previous versions, the best nets I have used.
On to the fishing and after Sundays disappointment (I would have not considered that I'd be last in the section from 128) I was keen to get back to Viaduct and put things right in my head. 30 in for this match, so Campbell and Cary in, I was into the tin early and had 116 as my home for the day. That meant another day with a cold wind blowing straight at me, although it was more left to right initially, but changed round to face on by the time the all-in was called.
Bait tray consisted 8mm pellets and 10mm meat, I also couldn't resist some dead maggots and a bit of GB for down the edge. With the wind making it difficult to feed accurately at distance, the waggler rod stayed in the bag, I did set up a lead rod and gave that 25 minutes as far as I could fire 8mm pellets, one liner in that time saw it go up the bank and stay there.
4 topkits set up, a rig to fish 8mm pellet at 13m, two meat rigs for the 5m line, shotted differently to try something out and a margin rig, which would do to the 'point' on the RH margin and to a tree in the LH margin. After the wasted 25 minutes watching a motionless tip, I switched to the pellet rig at 13m and first drop in had a skimmer, next put in a 5lb carp and that was that, no more bites, I switched the line to meat, feeding through a toss pot and this brought a couple of skimmers, but no sign of carp.
I switched to the 5m line and this was slow, but did produce a couple more skimmers and two tench, before finally, 3 carp in 3 put ins, but that was a false dawn again. Swapping back to the long line produced nothing again and I'd been feeding pellet and meat in the LH margin, that was also seemingly devoid of fish.
Persisting with the 5m line I did put a few fish together, but it wasn't hectic action, interestingly, I didn't catch anything on my usual rig, all the fish fell to my experimental set up and feeding via a toss pot. So food for thought and I need to try this out on a couple more occasions before coming to any conclusions. With a couple of hours to go I fed GB and maggots into the RH margin and it didn't take long for the tails to appear, I waited 20 minutes and dropped in with 7 maggots on the hook and had 3 or 4 fish, but they were small, 3-4lb, before they disappeared, I re-fed it and went back on the 5m line, taking another fish or two, before seeing the tails and vortexes in the margin again.
Back in with the bunch of maggots and this time the proper edge fish had moved in, in the last half an hour or so I had 4, which were 9-12lb, I landed on with a minute to go and didn't have time to thread the maggots on, I put a piece of meat on, dropped it in and the float just kept going, another decent fish landed after the whistle.
I knew Dave Romain had been catching well on 114, he'd been catching up to the pallet of 113, Ian Parsons on 123 had been catching well down the edge, so I wasn't sure how I'd done, but it was better than Sunday, thankfully. It had been hard work and constant changes to keep the fish coming, an enjoyable day. As it panned out, my 138.10 was enough for 4th and Sundays woes banished to history.
1: Chris Rolfe 242.01 peg 96
2: Dave Romain 226.10 peg 114
3: Ian Parsons 149.12 peg 123
4: Chris Fox 138.10 peg 116
5: Tich Williams 135.02 peg 97
6: Shep 114.07 peg 85
Silvers
1: Paul Greenwood 54.12 peg 86
On to the fishing and after Sundays disappointment (I would have not considered that I'd be last in the section from 128) I was keen to get back to Viaduct and put things right in my head. 30 in for this match, so Campbell and Cary in, I was into the tin early and had 116 as my home for the day. That meant another day with a cold wind blowing straight at me, although it was more left to right initially, but changed round to face on by the time the all-in was called.
Bait tray consisted 8mm pellets and 10mm meat, I also couldn't resist some dead maggots and a bit of GB for down the edge. With the wind making it difficult to feed accurately at distance, the waggler rod stayed in the bag, I did set up a lead rod and gave that 25 minutes as far as I could fire 8mm pellets, one liner in that time saw it go up the bank and stay there.
4 topkits set up, a rig to fish 8mm pellet at 13m, two meat rigs for the 5m line, shotted differently to try something out and a margin rig, which would do to the 'point' on the RH margin and to a tree in the LH margin. After the wasted 25 minutes watching a motionless tip, I switched to the pellet rig at 13m and first drop in had a skimmer, next put in a 5lb carp and that was that, no more bites, I switched the line to meat, feeding through a toss pot and this brought a couple of skimmers, but no sign of carp.
I switched to the 5m line and this was slow, but did produce a couple more skimmers and two tench, before finally, 3 carp in 3 put ins, but that was a false dawn again. Swapping back to the long line produced nothing again and I'd been feeding pellet and meat in the LH margin, that was also seemingly devoid of fish.
Persisting with the 5m line I did put a few fish together, but it wasn't hectic action, interestingly, I didn't catch anything on my usual rig, all the fish fell to my experimental set up and feeding via a toss pot. So food for thought and I need to try this out on a couple more occasions before coming to any conclusions. With a couple of hours to go I fed GB and maggots into the RH margin and it didn't take long for the tails to appear, I waited 20 minutes and dropped in with 7 maggots on the hook and had 3 or 4 fish, but they were small, 3-4lb, before they disappeared, I re-fed it and went back on the 5m line, taking another fish or two, before seeing the tails and vortexes in the margin again.
Back in with the bunch of maggots and this time the proper edge fish had moved in, in the last half an hour or so I had 4, which were 9-12lb, I landed on with a minute to go and didn't have time to thread the maggots on, I put a piece of meat on, dropped it in and the float just kept going, another decent fish landed after the whistle.
I knew Dave Romain had been catching well on 114, he'd been catching up to the pallet of 113, Ian Parsons on 123 had been catching well down the edge, so I wasn't sure how I'd done, but it was better than Sunday, thankfully. It had been hard work and constant changes to keep the fish coming, an enjoyable day. As it panned out, my 138.10 was enough for 4th and Sundays woes banished to history.
1: Chris Rolfe 242.01 peg 96
2: Dave Romain 226.10 peg 114
3: Ian Parsons 149.12 peg 123
4: Chris Fox 138.10 peg 116
5: Tich Williams 135.02 peg 97
6: Shep 114.07 peg 85
Silvers
1: Paul Greenwood 54.12 peg 86
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