Three lakes in todays match, in which I am took a 'guest' spot. I was pretty convinced that Campbell was the place to draw, so wasn't at all surprised when unfancied 100 (Cary) stuck to my incompetent drawing hand.
I got to the peg, totally determind to be positive and fish for a win, this meant lots of feed, so no difficulty for me, its the days that measured, meagre feeding do my head in. I set up two waggler rods, both on 6lb sensor, with 0.18 hooklengths and 18 B960 hooks.
I set up several topkits, the main ones being 0.17 line, with a MW slim power for banded pellet, a MW paste float on 0.19 with a 14 Mustad paste hook. As I had time I also set up a shallow rig, a margin rig and another that would do for worm or meat.
The shout of all-in, saw me start on the waggler, as there were plenty of blows and swirls out near the middle of the lake, I hooked a fish in the first cople of casts and despite being fairly hooked, it wouldn't get it head up, before shedding the hook and seeing the float, hook etc end up 30' up a tree.
I'd love to be able to write a tale of how I sussed out how to keep fish coming at short intervals, it would be lies!! The pegs around me weren't setting any fires, so it was a case of getting down to business and trying to keep bites and fish coming. I persevered with the waggler, with a couple of looks over my pole lines - to no avail in the first 3 hours.
I ended up alternating between paste and waggler, taking 7 fish on waggler and 6 on the paste rig at 13m. I lost plenty of fish, most of which were foul hookers and as the all out sounded, I had 13 carp - shame they weren't of the 'normal stamp'.
At the weigh in, my 2 skimmers (accidental) weighed 2lb odd, the 13 carp went 107 odds for a total of 109.11. I was reasonably happy with that weight from the peg, although it was a long way short of framing - although it was enough for a section win and I think, 3rd on the lake.
No results today,please see Tony's blog
Sunday, 28 August 2011
Monday, 22 August 2011
Avon Angling Open, Sunday 21st August 2011. Shiplate Farm.
After the last match on this venue, I was hoping to draw on Westpool again, as this lake has a bigger head of silvers. I wasn’t disappointed as peg 9 on Westpool stuck to my hand when I delved through the tangle of arms in the draw tin.
I had an idea that maggot would be the best method of attack, so had brought 4 pints, this was to be my main plan for silvers or carp. I also had caster and worm, as well as plenty of groundbait. As a back up, I had a couple of tins of corn and some 6 & 8mm pellet.
I set up 4 topkits, a 4x12 Carpa Chimp on 0.14/0.12 to a Drennan Carp Match 18 hook. This was on middy purple elastic and the line set at full length of topkit to fish, topkit to hand. A 4x14 Carpa Chimp on 0.16/0.14 with a 16 63.13, to fish at the bottom of the far shelf. A MW F1 float to fish down the middle with worm, that was on 0.16/0.14 and a 16 Drennan Carp Match hook. Lastly was a MW mini diamond, again on 0.16/0.14 to a 18B911, to fish up the shelf.
I also took along a trusty Normark Titan set up with a 2½AAA waggler, mainly because I enjoy waggler fishing, rather than me thinking it would be a successful method. I did catch one skimmer on this, but the overhanging willows and drooping far bank grasses made casting difficult and after catching them twice, gave it up as a bad job.
On the all-in, I cupped in 4 jaffa’s down the middle, this contained chopped worm, caster & a couple of red maggots. Maggots were loose fed by hand at 2m and by catty to the far shelf. I also fed a couple of small balls of groundbait at 2m. Starting on the far shelf rig, just to give the groundbaited swims a rest, didn’t result in any bites, so I soon switched to the short line, topkit to hand and started to catch decent skimmers.
This died off and I had a look down the middle and had just one lightening quick bite – that I missed – on the worm, no more to say about the middle line, I didn’t catch a single fish from it. The far shelf was as unproductive, I tried it several times during the day and had a solitary 1oz roach from it.
Back on the near line and the bites had slowed, the bright sun and total lack of ripple didn’t help, that doesn’t make for ideal skimmer/bream fishing conditions. I started to up the amount of groundbait and stopped feeding everything, except maggot, this and the sun going behind a cloud for a spell seemed to spark the skimmers and a couple of proper 6lb’ers into feeding, all caught on the topkit. I did have a look back over the far side, at the bottom of the shelf, to rest the near line, this produced a couple of fish, but wasn’t as productive in numbers or size, as the near line.
Peg 10 had been catching carp on paste and I thought that he’d beaten me, but it seems that my decent spell and the couple of big black boys gave me enough to win the silvers, the lake and take 3rd overall. 52lb 04 oz (all silvers) was the result of a nice days fishing, not a carp in sight, I even caught 3 gudgeon, which was nice, it seems a long time since I’ve caught one.
Obviously I drew on a few fish, I think the groundbait and maggot approach was the right one, but perhaps the real reason for a bit of good luck was my new Avon Angling baseball cap, a free gift from Tony, first time I'd worn it - I reckon I’ll wear it again. I really enjoyed today, it was nice to catch skimmers without carp coming in and wrecking the peg.
I had to shoot off before the results were announced, so hopefully Tony has my ebay tokens stashed safely and I've plaigerised the results from Mike Nicholl's blog, so I hope he wrote them down properly.
1. Tony Rixon 99-12-0 peg 15 Hawthorn
2. Bela Bakos 53-08-0 peg 4 Hawthorn
3. Chris Fox 52-04-0 peg 9 Westpool
4. Dean Malin 44-04-0 peg 14 Hawthorn
5. Richard Heatley 42-10-0 peg 10 Westpool
6. Andy Bryant 41-04-0 peg 13 Hawthorn
Top Silvers:
(All Westpool)
1. Chris Fox 52-04-0 peg 9
2. Chris Davis 27-0-0 peg 2
3. Adrian Jefferies 25-04-0 peg 5
I had an idea that maggot would be the best method of attack, so had brought 4 pints, this was to be my main plan for silvers or carp. I also had caster and worm, as well as plenty of groundbait. As a back up, I had a couple of tins of corn and some 6 & 8mm pellet.
I set up 4 topkits, a 4x12 Carpa Chimp on 0.14/0.12 to a Drennan Carp Match 18 hook. This was on middy purple elastic and the line set at full length of topkit to fish, topkit to hand. A 4x14 Carpa Chimp on 0.16/0.14 with a 16 63.13, to fish at the bottom of the far shelf. A MW F1 float to fish down the middle with worm, that was on 0.16/0.14 and a 16 Drennan Carp Match hook. Lastly was a MW mini diamond, again on 0.16/0.14 to a 18B911, to fish up the shelf.
I also took along a trusty Normark Titan set up with a 2½AAA waggler, mainly because I enjoy waggler fishing, rather than me thinking it would be a successful method. I did catch one skimmer on this, but the overhanging willows and drooping far bank grasses made casting difficult and after catching them twice, gave it up as a bad job.
On the all-in, I cupped in 4 jaffa’s down the middle, this contained chopped worm, caster & a couple of red maggots. Maggots were loose fed by hand at 2m and by catty to the far shelf. I also fed a couple of small balls of groundbait at 2m. Starting on the far shelf rig, just to give the groundbaited swims a rest, didn’t result in any bites, so I soon switched to the short line, topkit to hand and started to catch decent skimmers.
This died off and I had a look down the middle and had just one lightening quick bite – that I missed – on the worm, no more to say about the middle line, I didn’t catch a single fish from it. The far shelf was as unproductive, I tried it several times during the day and had a solitary 1oz roach from it.
Back on the near line and the bites had slowed, the bright sun and total lack of ripple didn’t help, that doesn’t make for ideal skimmer/bream fishing conditions. I started to up the amount of groundbait and stopped feeding everything, except maggot, this and the sun going behind a cloud for a spell seemed to spark the skimmers and a couple of proper 6lb’ers into feeding, all caught on the topkit. I did have a look back over the far side, at the bottom of the shelf, to rest the near line, this produced a couple of fish, but wasn’t as productive in numbers or size, as the near line.
Peg 10 had been catching carp on paste and I thought that he’d beaten me, but it seems that my decent spell and the couple of big black boys gave me enough to win the silvers, the lake and take 3rd overall. 52lb 04 oz (all silvers) was the result of a nice days fishing, not a carp in sight, I even caught 3 gudgeon, which was nice, it seems a long time since I’ve caught one.
Obviously I drew on a few fish, I think the groundbait and maggot approach was the right one, but perhaps the real reason for a bit of good luck was my new Avon Angling baseball cap, a free gift from Tony, first time I'd worn it - I reckon I’ll wear it again. I really enjoyed today, it was nice to catch skimmers without carp coming in and wrecking the peg.
I had to shoot off before the results were announced, so hopefully Tony has my ebay tokens stashed safely and I've plaigerised the results from Mike Nicholl's blog, so I hope he wrote them down properly.
1. Tony Rixon 99-12-0 peg 15 Hawthorn
2. Bela Bakos 53-08-0 peg 4 Hawthorn
3. Chris Fox 52-04-0 peg 9 Westpool
4. Dean Malin 44-04-0 peg 14 Hawthorn
5. Richard Heatley 42-10-0 peg 10 Westpool
6. Andy Bryant 41-04-0 peg 13 Hawthorn
Top Silvers:
(All Westpool)
1. Chris Fox 52-04-0 peg 9
2. Chris Davis 27-0-0 peg 2
3. Adrian Jefferies 25-04-0 peg 5
Wednesday, 17 August 2011
Viaduct Open, Wednesday 17th August 2011
Last Wednesday I fished the Avon Angling Open at Landsend, I was pretty pissed off afterwards and couldn't find the motivation to write about it and it wouldn't have been an interesting read if I had. I drew peg 10 and struggled to catch, even on caster or maggot.
A weekend away from fishing last weekend, spent at Cropredy (Fairport Convention's Festival), it was great, good beer, good food and decent music.
So back to the fishing and I couldn't believe what presented itself when I opened the swimcard, peg 81 for the 3rd time this summer. With what wind there was blowing the wrong way and the water being pretty flat calm at the river end of the lake, I wasn't too chuffed. I hadn't really brought anything to fish for silvers, so it was to be an all out carp day.
I set up two wagglers, one shallow and one at depth (although with the lakes being at a low level, the depth rig is only around 3'). A lead rod and four topkits, one with a paste rig on 0.19, one with a MW mini diamond on 0.17 for down the margin, a MW diamond on 0.18 with a 0.16 hooklength for soft pellet, meat or worm and a MW slim power on 0.17 straight through to a 16B960 and a hair rigged band.
Charlie Barnes was impatient on 85 and shouted the all-in a minute before the official hooter, I started on the lead towards the point of the spit and after 10 minutes without an indication, my brain had turned to mush, so up the bank it went. I had fed a line at 14m straight in front and a waggler line about 35m out pointing to peg 88.
It took an hour to get my first fish on the waggler, I did have one more chuck of the lead and had a fish on that, but that was the last use of it. I had one at 14m on paste and then a couple more on the waggler. It was difficult to get more than one bite from any line, I then had a run of bites on the waggler and put 3 more fish in the net before it dried up. I tried the pole line again, and had two skimmers, one on double worm and one on banded 8mm pellet, no sign of a carp.
The last hour and a half saw me persevere with the waggler rods, although I only took one fish on the shallow waggler, even though the fish were up in the water.I added several more, I dropped down to a 18 hook and seemed to get a few more bites, one of which was a unseen, but big fish, that I played for nearly 20 minutes before the hook straightend. I ended the match with 10 carp and 2 skimmers for 88.13, I think that was top weight on my bank, but nowhere near enough for a pick up.
I think the match should have been won from 118, but the guy on there had two nets in and both were over the 70lb limit, one was ounces from being over the 90lb disqualification weight. You'll have to look at Tony's blog for the results (he suffered being on the same bank as me and had a high 70lb) as I got away sharpish, I'm up early in the morning and off to the Oval, to see the first day of the fourth test - although the weather forecast points to a day in the bar......
A weekend away from fishing last weekend, spent at Cropredy (Fairport Convention's Festival), it was great, good beer, good food and decent music.
So back to the fishing and I couldn't believe what presented itself when I opened the swimcard, peg 81 for the 3rd time this summer. With what wind there was blowing the wrong way and the water being pretty flat calm at the river end of the lake, I wasn't too chuffed. I hadn't really brought anything to fish for silvers, so it was to be an all out carp day.
I set up two wagglers, one shallow and one at depth (although with the lakes being at a low level, the depth rig is only around 3'). A lead rod and four topkits, one with a paste rig on 0.19, one with a MW mini diamond on 0.17 for down the margin, a MW diamond on 0.18 with a 0.16 hooklength for soft pellet, meat or worm and a MW slim power on 0.17 straight through to a 16B960 and a hair rigged band.
Charlie Barnes was impatient on 85 and shouted the all-in a minute before the official hooter, I started on the lead towards the point of the spit and after 10 minutes without an indication, my brain had turned to mush, so up the bank it went. I had fed a line at 14m straight in front and a waggler line about 35m out pointing to peg 88.
It took an hour to get my first fish on the waggler, I did have one more chuck of the lead and had a fish on that, but that was the last use of it. I had one at 14m on paste and then a couple more on the waggler. It was difficult to get more than one bite from any line, I then had a run of bites on the waggler and put 3 more fish in the net before it dried up. I tried the pole line again, and had two skimmers, one on double worm and one on banded 8mm pellet, no sign of a carp.
The last hour and a half saw me persevere with the waggler rods, although I only took one fish on the shallow waggler, even though the fish were up in the water.I added several more, I dropped down to a 18 hook and seemed to get a few more bites, one of which was a unseen, but big fish, that I played for nearly 20 minutes before the hook straightend. I ended the match with 10 carp and 2 skimmers for 88.13, I think that was top weight on my bank, but nowhere near enough for a pick up.
I think the match should have been won from 118, but the guy on there had two nets in and both were over the 70lb limit, one was ounces from being over the 90lb disqualification weight. You'll have to look at Tony's blog for the results (he suffered being on the same bank as me and had a high 70lb) as I got away sharpish, I'm up early in the morning and off to the Oval, to see the first day of the fourth test - although the weather forecast points to a day in the bar......
Thursday, 4 August 2011
Avon Angling Open, Wednesday 3rd August 2011. Viaduct.
Off topic to start with, The Dundry Inn has got some new owners and we went up there the other night, the menu looks good and the food that we ordered was excellent, with good service. I had venison with dauphinoise potates, 'er indoors had a bouillabaisse, served with a rouille and crusty bread. To start we had a Charcuterie of wild boar and desert was cheese board for me and chocolate tort for Caroline. (I've nothing to do with the business, just a satisfied customer and I know most anglers like their grub....).
Now onto the fishing, this was to be a topset + 2 match, which as I often fish short, I fancied a go at. Into the tin and out comes 127, not a peg I would have chosen, but 125 surprised me a couple of weeks ago, so anthings possible. I set up four topkits, all on orange bazookarp, a paste rig on 0.18, a MW diamond to fish devils spawn, or worm,on 0.16 with a 16 63-13, a MW slim power to fish hard pellet, 0.16 and a B960 and a sensas float whose name eludes me, to fish meat, 0.17 straight through to a 16 Xedion TXR7.
At the all in I had a go at mugging a couple of the cruisers, to no avail, I fed two lines, 10 & 2 o'clock, 10 with meat & 2 with pellet. The meat line I didn't expect to produce until the end. Introducing the pellet initiated the dreaded fizz, obviously fish there, probably skimmers, but impossible to catch. By swapping between soft pellet, paste and worm, I kept an odd fish coming to the net, but had a lesson in posiive feed fron Dean Malin on 126, as he kept cupping in bucket sized cups of pellet.
With an hour or so to go, I had the first indication that there were fish on the meat line, I managed a couple from here, and lost a fish that most likely cost me money, it wouldn't get its head up and in the end managed to break me by diving through the keepnets. I had a couple of foulers over the meat, so they weren't really getting their heads down on it.
My 72.12 was only good enough for seventh place and it also saw me join the chip shop sausage club........ (If only I hadn't lost that big double....)
1) Mike Nicholls 140.11 peg 132
2) Dean (Abacus) Malin 133.05 peg 126 (If only he hadn't gone 8lb over the net limit......)
3) Tom Thick 128.14 peg 112
4) Bela (Net 'em from anywhere) Bakos 100.01 peg 111
5) Alan Oram 83.06 peg 128
6) Tony Rixon 80.01 peg 130
7) Chris Fox 72.12 peg 127
Silvers
1) Tom Thick 25.08
2) Mike Nicholls 21.00
Now onto the fishing, this was to be a topset + 2 match, which as I often fish short, I fancied a go at. Into the tin and out comes 127, not a peg I would have chosen, but 125 surprised me a couple of weeks ago, so anthings possible. I set up four topkits, all on orange bazookarp, a paste rig on 0.18, a MW diamond to fish devils spawn, or worm,on 0.16 with a 16 63-13, a MW slim power to fish hard pellet, 0.16 and a B960 and a sensas float whose name eludes me, to fish meat, 0.17 straight through to a 16 Xedion TXR7.
At the all in I had a go at mugging a couple of the cruisers, to no avail, I fed two lines, 10 & 2 o'clock, 10 with meat & 2 with pellet. The meat line I didn't expect to produce until the end. Introducing the pellet initiated the dreaded fizz, obviously fish there, probably skimmers, but impossible to catch. By swapping between soft pellet, paste and worm, I kept an odd fish coming to the net, but had a lesson in posiive feed fron Dean Malin on 126, as he kept cupping in bucket sized cups of pellet.
With an hour or so to go, I had the first indication that there were fish on the meat line, I managed a couple from here, and lost a fish that most likely cost me money, it wouldn't get its head up and in the end managed to break me by diving through the keepnets. I had a couple of foulers over the meat, so they weren't really getting their heads down on it.
My 72.12 was only good enough for seventh place and it also saw me join the chip shop sausage club........ (If only I hadn't lost that big double....)
1) Mike Nicholls 140.11 peg 132
2) Dean (Abacus) Malin 133.05 peg 126 (If only he hadn't gone 8lb over the net limit......)
3) Tom Thick 128.14 peg 112
4) Bela (Net 'em from anywhere) Bakos 100.01 peg 111
5) Alan Oram 83.06 peg 128
6) Tony Rixon 80.01 peg 130
7) Chris Fox 72.12 peg 127
Silvers
1) Tom Thick 25.08
2) Mike Nicholls 21.00
Thursday, 28 July 2011
Avon Angling Open, Landsend, Wednesday 27th July 2011
A silvers day today, well that was the plan, perhaps with hindsight (there we are again, that hindsight gene I appear to be missing) I shouldn't make decisions like that until drawing.
Two lakes in, Match & Specimen, once again, I was on the wrong lake, peg 17 on Match. with venue silvers stalwart, John Bradford on 15. I set up a pencil float on 0.14 to a 0.10 hooklength and a 18 Drennan Carp Match, to fish caster. A Carpa Chimp on 0.14 to 0.12 and a 18 808 to fish worm or devils spawn and a MW slim power on 0.18 to 0.16 and a 18 B960 for banded pellet. I also set up a paste rig to try and catch some better skimmers or bream.
It was a struggle, my initial entertainment was seeing Trigger on peg 19 hook a lively carp on his new Sensas 774, I couldn't see Trig, but I could tell his arse was twitching by the liveliness of the fish and the way the pole followed it round the peg.
I struggled to keep the fish coming, switching baits and lines constantly to keep bites coming, John was finding the going equally tough. I tried paste and had two skimmers on it, before the carp moved in and I had 4 on it. I weighed 18lb odd of silvers and the 4 carp went 32lb. I had a 4oz roach jump out of the net at the weigh in and it flew 6-8' back into the lake - all to no avail as Speci lake produced a low 50lb and a 39lb of silvers.
I had carp moving around the far shelf all day and it was difficult to resist, but I did - as said, with hindsight, I should have fished for them and fed the casters to the birds.
See Tony's blog for the result, I had to get away as the draw had been delayed by latecomers. Trigger won, so the new pole stood up to the test and brought some luck.
I hate matches spread over more than one lake..........
Two lakes in, Match & Specimen, once again, I was on the wrong lake, peg 17 on Match. with venue silvers stalwart, John Bradford on 15. I set up a pencil float on 0.14 to a 0.10 hooklength and a 18 Drennan Carp Match, to fish caster. A Carpa Chimp on 0.14 to 0.12 and a 18 808 to fish worm or devils spawn and a MW slim power on 0.18 to 0.16 and a 18 B960 for banded pellet. I also set up a paste rig to try and catch some better skimmers or bream.
It was a struggle, my initial entertainment was seeing Trigger on peg 19 hook a lively carp on his new Sensas 774, I couldn't see Trig, but I could tell his arse was twitching by the liveliness of the fish and the way the pole followed it round the peg.
I struggled to keep the fish coming, switching baits and lines constantly to keep bites coming, John was finding the going equally tough. I tried paste and had two skimmers on it, before the carp moved in and I had 4 on it. I weighed 18lb odd of silvers and the 4 carp went 32lb. I had a 4oz roach jump out of the net at the weigh in and it flew 6-8' back into the lake - all to no avail as Speci lake produced a low 50lb and a 39lb of silvers.
I had carp moving around the far shelf all day and it was difficult to resist, but I did - as said, with hindsight, I should have fished for them and fed the casters to the birds.
See Tony's blog for the result, I had to get away as the draw had been delayed by latecomers. Trigger won, so the new pole stood up to the test and brought some luck.
I hate matches spread over more than one lake..........
Sunday, 24 July 2011
Avon Angling open, Shiplate Farm, Sunday 24th July 2011
First time at this venue, I was told that two lakes were in, both canal types, Hawthorn, which apparently houses plenty of small carp and Westpool which is home to carp and plenty of bream. I must admit I fancied a draw on Westpool, big bream and skimmers sounded just the job.
First into the draw container and I had Westpool, No1 aim achieved, sadly it wasn't an end peg which I assumed would be best. A walk around the main lake to Westpool was then the only way to get to peg 4. Tony was paying sections of 5, overall and one in the silvers, surely some coin was available?
I set up three rigs, a MW cane topped diamond on 0.16 to a 0.14 hooklength with a 16 63-13, to fish the deepest channel at approx 6-7m. A MW slim power on 0.18 with a 0.16 hooklength, finished off with a 18 B960 for 15m, up the far shelf. Completing the set up was a Sensas Pencil on 0.12, with a 0.08 hooklength and a 22 63-13.
b
If I was to believe Tony's blog, groundbait might be the way to go, so on the all in, I put 4 big jaffas of GB packed with CW & caster and a few dead maggots into the deepest part of the peg. I fired a few maggots to the far shelf and flicked a few casters in at topkit range.
3 Skimmers from the deep channel, nothing from the far shelf and a conceren that this was going to be a poor day was the result of the first hour, I wasn't alone, but John Bradford was making the most of his end peg by filling his net with carp ( yep, carp, no typo!!).
On the hour mark, I retopped the middle line with GB, but it was slow going. I had a look into the near line (topkit) and started to catch small skimmers, roach & rudd
before a decent skimmer (nearly a bream!!) was netted. Everytime I looked to my left I could see John Bradofrds elastic streaming out, so i decided to stick with silvers. Alternating between the topkit and a line at 6.5m, kept skimmers and the odd roach and rudd ( + a 0.3 oz perch) coming. On peg 5 , Sensas Thyers team mate Nick Harvey started to fish short and he also had some decent skimmers, + one of them big old black boys - I'm glad he didn't folow suite earlier. as he manmaged 2nd in silvers.
With just over half an hour to go the skimmer bites had dried up, so I went over to the far shelf and had a carp a chuck for 5 put ins.
The scales arrived from Hawthorn Lake with 61.13 to beat, I knew I couldn't match that, but was quietly confident that I had the silvers in the bag, for my hatrick of silvers wins. 32.08 was enough to do that and 17.00 of carp taken in the last half hour gave me my 5 peg section as well ( Although with the default, I only took the silvers money).
An interesting venue, tidily kept, not too far from home and it will surely mature as time goes by.
1) John Bradford 70.04 peg 10(W)
2) Tim Ford 61.13 peg 1 (H) How does he keep drawing corner/end pegs??
3) Adrian Jeffery 61.11 peg 9 (W)
4) Rod Wootton 49.11 peg 3 (H)
5) Dean Malin 49.09 Peg 2 (H)
6) Chris Fox 49.08 peg 4 (W)
Silvers
1) Chris Fox 32.08 peg 4 (W)
2) Nick Harvey 21.14 peg 5 (W)
3) Adrian Jeffery 21.04 peg 9 (W)
First into the draw container and I had Westpool, No1 aim achieved, sadly it wasn't an end peg which I assumed would be best. A walk around the main lake to Westpool was then the only way to get to peg 4. Tony was paying sections of 5, overall and one in the silvers, surely some coin was available?
I set up three rigs, a MW cane topped diamond on 0.16 to a 0.14 hooklength with a 16 63-13, to fish the deepest channel at approx 6-7m. A MW slim power on 0.18 with a 0.16 hooklength, finished off with a 18 B960 for 15m, up the far shelf. Completing the set up was a Sensas Pencil on 0.12, with a 0.08 hooklength and a 22 63-13.
b
If I was to believe Tony's blog, groundbait might be the way to go, so on the all in, I put 4 big jaffas of GB packed with CW & caster and a few dead maggots into the deepest part of the peg. I fired a few maggots to the far shelf and flicked a few casters in at topkit range.
3 Skimmers from the deep channel, nothing from the far shelf and a conceren that this was going to be a poor day was the result of the first hour, I wasn't alone, but John Bradford was making the most of his end peg by filling his net with carp ( yep, carp, no typo!!).
On the hour mark, I retopped the middle line with GB, but it was slow going. I had a look into the near line (topkit) and started to catch small skimmers, roach & rudd
before a decent skimmer (nearly a bream!!) was netted. Everytime I looked to my left I could see John Bradofrds elastic streaming out, so i decided to stick with silvers. Alternating between the topkit and a line at 6.5m, kept skimmers and the odd roach and rudd ( + a 0.3 oz perch) coming. On peg 5 , Sensas Thyers team mate Nick Harvey started to fish short and he also had some decent skimmers, + one of them big old black boys - I'm glad he didn't folow suite earlier. as he manmaged 2nd in silvers.
With just over half an hour to go the skimmer bites had dried up, so I went over to the far shelf and had a carp a chuck for 5 put ins.
The scales arrived from Hawthorn Lake with 61.13 to beat, I knew I couldn't match that, but was quietly confident that I had the silvers in the bag, for my hatrick of silvers wins. 32.08 was enough to do that and 17.00 of carp taken in the last half hour gave me my 5 peg section as well ( Although with the default, I only took the silvers money).
An interesting venue, tidily kept, not too far from home and it will surely mature as time goes by.
1) John Bradford 70.04 peg 10(W)
2) Tim Ford 61.13 peg 1 (H) How does he keep drawing corner/end pegs??
3) Adrian Jeffery 61.11 peg 9 (W)
4) Rod Wootton 49.11 peg 3 (H)
5) Dean Malin 49.09 Peg 2 (H)
6) Chris Fox 49.08 peg 4 (W)
Silvers
1) Chris Fox 32.08 peg 4 (W)
2) Nick Harvey 21.14 peg 5 (W)
3) Adrian Jeffery 21.04 peg 9 (W)
Saturday, 23 July 2011
Viaduct Open, Saturday 23rd July 2011
Cary was the venue for this 18 pegger, as Campbell was hosting the Carps AC three day festival. Out of the draw tin with 81, a peg that can produce, but also can be hard, today I had a feeling it would be tough going, as the wind was blowing towards the opposite bank.
Optimistically, I set up two wagglers and two lead rods, one waggler had a 3 swan straight peacock, the other a 3AAA insert peacock, two lead rods just to save swapping hooklengths, so I could try short/long hooklengths.
Delving back into the rod holdall, I then realised that the powerkits I took out last Sunday (not needed on Match lake), were still in the garage - duh!! Never mind, I had an idea it might turn into a silvers day, I set up a rig to fish meat for Tench in front of the concrete monk, another to fish meat at 14.5m up the spit, a MW diamond on 0.15 with a 0.13 hooklength and a 18 808 for skimmers and a MW slim power on 0.17 to fish banded pellet.
At the all in I started on the waggler just past the spit, fishing 8mm pellet, there were some fish up in the water, but they appeared uninterested in feeding, a switch to the lead also proved fruitless, trying pellet, popped up pellet and bread, all brought no bites. That was the end of trying to intentionaslly catch carp, so no further mentions of wagglers or lead chucking.
I had fed some groundbait and 4mm pellet at 13m, a look over this produced a couple of small skimmers to the devils spawn, so I refed at 5m, if I was going to get small skimmers, then at least I'd try and catch them close in.
Whilst this settled, down to the monk with 8mm meat and two tench in 25 minutes was the reward, then back in over the 5m line and a few small skimmers, a look up the spit to rest it and a small skimmer on the meat, back in and a 2oz roach on 8mm meat was the next fish.
Back on the 5m line and a pole pot was added top the topkit, a few 4mms and a couple of devils spawn going in each put in, a few more small skimmers, then back to the monk with meat, another tench netted. I could see that peg 94 was starting to catch carp steadily, so there was little point in going back for carp. I couldn't see anyone really bagging on silvers, but I knew Dave Roper on 86 was getting a few skimmers. Another look up the spit,I hit a bite and the fish had tangled itself in something traing from the brambles, I couls see a tench on the surface and luckily, it came out of the snag and styed on the hook.
Another tench from the monk and that completed my tench fishing for today, I had two more bites on meat, a 10lb mirror from the spit and a 15lb common from the monk.
To try and increase the size of the skimmers, I opened a tin of corn, first put in and a 3lb fish obliged and I thought I'd sussed it - you guessed it - no I hadn't, I didn't have another fish on corn. I finished the match on 4mm devils spawn, catching the occasional skimmer, wishing that I had some dead maggots or wroms with me, to try and revive the flagging swim.
The scales got to me, with Dave Ropers 19.04 of silvers to beat, I thought it would be close, but I didn't think I had quite enough, the scales proved me wrong and my 21.03 was enough to take first place in the silvers and ninth overall, with the 2 accidental carp weighing 25.02.
Quite a close match apart from Jamie Parkhouse's winning net.
1) J Parkhouse 152.00 peg 94
2) D White 79.03 peg 76
3) G Powell 77.02 peg 88
4) R Jordan 75.05 peg 102
5) N Brown 71.12 peg 90
6) Roy ? 70.06 peg 100
Silvers
1) Chris Fox 21.03 peg 81
2) Dave Roper 19.04 peg 86
3) Matt King 16.14 peg 99
Optimistically, I set up two wagglers and two lead rods, one waggler had a 3 swan straight peacock, the other a 3AAA insert peacock, two lead rods just to save swapping hooklengths, so I could try short/long hooklengths.
Delving back into the rod holdall, I then realised that the powerkits I took out last Sunday (not needed on Match lake), were still in the garage - duh!! Never mind, I had an idea it might turn into a silvers day, I set up a rig to fish meat for Tench in front of the concrete monk, another to fish meat at 14.5m up the spit, a MW diamond on 0.15 with a 0.13 hooklength and a 18 808 for skimmers and a MW slim power on 0.17 to fish banded pellet.
At the all in I started on the waggler just past the spit, fishing 8mm pellet, there were some fish up in the water, but they appeared uninterested in feeding, a switch to the lead also proved fruitless, trying pellet, popped up pellet and bread, all brought no bites. That was the end of trying to intentionaslly catch carp, so no further mentions of wagglers or lead chucking.
I had fed some groundbait and 4mm pellet at 13m, a look over this produced a couple of small skimmers to the devils spawn, so I refed at 5m, if I was going to get small skimmers, then at least I'd try and catch them close in.
Whilst this settled, down to the monk with 8mm meat and two tench in 25 minutes was the reward, then back in over the 5m line and a few small skimmers, a look up the spit to rest it and a small skimmer on the meat, back in and a 2oz roach on 8mm meat was the next fish.
Back on the 5m line and a pole pot was added top the topkit, a few 4mms and a couple of devils spawn going in each put in, a few more small skimmers, then back to the monk with meat, another tench netted. I could see that peg 94 was starting to catch carp steadily, so there was little point in going back for carp. I couldn't see anyone really bagging on silvers, but I knew Dave Roper on 86 was getting a few skimmers. Another look up the spit,I hit a bite and the fish had tangled itself in something traing from the brambles, I couls see a tench on the surface and luckily, it came out of the snag and styed on the hook.
Another tench from the monk and that completed my tench fishing for today, I had two more bites on meat, a 10lb mirror from the spit and a 15lb common from the monk.
To try and increase the size of the skimmers, I opened a tin of corn, first put in and a 3lb fish obliged and I thought I'd sussed it - you guessed it - no I hadn't, I didn't have another fish on corn. I finished the match on 4mm devils spawn, catching the occasional skimmer, wishing that I had some dead maggots or wroms with me, to try and revive the flagging swim.
The scales got to me, with Dave Ropers 19.04 of silvers to beat, I thought it would be close, but I didn't think I had quite enough, the scales proved me wrong and my 21.03 was enough to take first place in the silvers and ninth overall, with the 2 accidental carp weighing 25.02.
Quite a close match apart from Jamie Parkhouse's winning net.
1) J Parkhouse 152.00 peg 94
2) D White 79.03 peg 76
3) G Powell 77.02 peg 88
4) R Jordan 75.05 peg 102
5) N Brown 71.12 peg 90
6) Roy ? 70.06 peg 100
Silvers
1) Chris Fox 21.03 peg 81
2) Dave Roper 19.04 peg 86
3) Matt King 16.14 peg 99
Sunday, 17 July 2011
Avon Angling Open, Viaduct Match Lake,Sunday 17th July 2011
When Tony said he had another match booked on the Match Lake at Viaduct, I got my name down pronto. I enjoy this lake, its a real change from the big carp dominated venues that seem to make up most of the match calendar. Its possible to catch on 'proper' waggler gear and 'proper' baits like maggot, caster and worm.
I was a bit concerned that I'd miss the match, as I had to miss out on Saturdays open, I've had a re-occurrence of the stomach ulcer problem I had last year,but i felt OK when I got up this morning. Nice and early to the venue, mainly to get a decent parking place, as Carps AC had a match on Campbell & Carey.
Peg 47 was my home for the 6 hours, one to the left of 46, where I drew on the last match, on 46 today was Tim Ford and on 48, Tony Rixon, so no pressure, with quality either side and both with a reedy margin to plunder. I came with silvers and silvers only in mind, I had a Kilo of worms (not bought for this match, but unused from Trinity Festival), 2 pints of casters, a pint of dead maggots and half a pint of wriggly ones. I also made up a small bowlful of groundbait and reluctantly moistend some micros.
Tackle was an original Normark Microlight (has there ever been a better skimmer rod made? - I doubt it), this had a Daiwa TDR reel and 0.16 reel line, a 2½AAA waggler, with a 18 808 on 0.12 hooklength. One other rod set up, another great skimmer rod, Drennan MatchPro Quiver, paired with a Shimano reel, 4lb Direct Mono and a 16 808 on 0.12, this with a very small cage feeder. No more about this as I only chucked it in twice, once whilst I re-made a trashed rig, another whilst I tied up a hooklength.
Three topkits, two with double 5 preston slip elastic and one with double 8 for a big worm in the margin. The margin rig was a slim power on 0.13 straight through to a 16 808. The open water rigs were both on 0.14, one with a 4x14 carpa chimp and the other with a 0.2 MW diamond. The chimp with 0.10 hooklength and a 18 Drennan carp maggot and the diamond had a 18 808 to 0.12.
I cupped in some caster and dead maggot in groundbait at 14.5m and went over this with live maggot, it produced a couple of skimmers but the action all round the lake was slow. I did get frustrated, after Tim went down his margin and proceeded to get a run of F1's and carp, whilst I struggled for bites - Déjà vu or groundhog day from Sunday last week - of course he didn't enjoy that did he.
At the half way point, I got up to get a drink and stuck my head round the tree and spoke to Tony who was struggling, I'd kept the odd skimmer coming but not quickly enough, so back to the peg and a pot of chopped worm prepared and fed. An almost immediate reaction and 3 big skimmers in as many put ins, then nothing again, a change to 0.10 on the diamond, with a 18 Gamma black hook brought a couple more fish.
I finished the match on the waggler, the skimmers had moved up onto the shelf, I'd had a few looks earlier, to no avail, but the last hour or so saw a few more skimmers netted, 3 carp hooked, that all went off with the hook and a big fish, that may have been a decent bream, that snagged itself and left me to reel in a submerged branch.
With hindsight (I reckon I've got a 1:1 BSC Hons in hindsight)it may have paid to go on the waggler earlier and feed heavier to get the fish feeding more confidently close to the island. Disappontingly, I was pegged next to the winner for the second week running, but I had come to target skimmers and was succcessful in that, my 25.00 being enough to win the silvers by a 10lb margin. If I draw next to Tim in the next match, he might find his platform is a bit slippery......
Tims plundering of the margin for F1's and carp gave him top spot in waht was a fairly evenly contested match, I'm looking forward to the next one on here.
1) Tim Ford 35.07 peg 46
2) Dave Evans 32.00 peg 49
3) Dean Malin 27.09 peg 43
4) Clayton Hudson 26.10 peg 45
5) Chris Fox 25.00 peg 47
6) Tony (chip shop sausage)Rixon 16.06 peg 48
Silvers
1) Chris Fox 25.00 peg 47
2) Eddie Wynne 15.00 peg 542
Yep, its true, Tony battered either side......
I was a bit concerned that I'd miss the match, as I had to miss out on Saturdays open, I've had a re-occurrence of the stomach ulcer problem I had last year,but i felt OK when I got up this morning. Nice and early to the venue, mainly to get a decent parking place, as Carps AC had a match on Campbell & Carey.
Peg 47 was my home for the 6 hours, one to the left of 46, where I drew on the last match, on 46 today was Tim Ford and on 48, Tony Rixon, so no pressure, with quality either side and both with a reedy margin to plunder. I came with silvers and silvers only in mind, I had a Kilo of worms (not bought for this match, but unused from Trinity Festival), 2 pints of casters, a pint of dead maggots and half a pint of wriggly ones. I also made up a small bowlful of groundbait and reluctantly moistend some micros.
Tackle was an original Normark Microlight (has there ever been a better skimmer rod made? - I doubt it), this had a Daiwa TDR reel and 0.16 reel line, a 2½AAA waggler, with a 18 808 on 0.12 hooklength. One other rod set up, another great skimmer rod, Drennan MatchPro Quiver, paired with a Shimano reel, 4lb Direct Mono and a 16 808 on 0.12, this with a very small cage feeder. No more about this as I only chucked it in twice, once whilst I re-made a trashed rig, another whilst I tied up a hooklength.
Three topkits, two with double 5 preston slip elastic and one with double 8 for a big worm in the margin. The margin rig was a slim power on 0.13 straight through to a 16 808. The open water rigs were both on 0.14, one with a 4x14 carpa chimp and the other with a 0.2 MW diamond. The chimp with 0.10 hooklength and a 18 Drennan carp maggot and the diamond had a 18 808 to 0.12.
I cupped in some caster and dead maggot in groundbait at 14.5m and went over this with live maggot, it produced a couple of skimmers but the action all round the lake was slow. I did get frustrated, after Tim went down his margin and proceeded to get a run of F1's and carp, whilst I struggled for bites - Déjà vu or groundhog day from Sunday last week - of course he didn't enjoy that did he.
At the half way point, I got up to get a drink and stuck my head round the tree and spoke to Tony who was struggling, I'd kept the odd skimmer coming but not quickly enough, so back to the peg and a pot of chopped worm prepared and fed. An almost immediate reaction and 3 big skimmers in as many put ins, then nothing again, a change to 0.10 on the diamond, with a 18 Gamma black hook brought a couple more fish.
I finished the match on the waggler, the skimmers had moved up onto the shelf, I'd had a few looks earlier, to no avail, but the last hour or so saw a few more skimmers netted, 3 carp hooked, that all went off with the hook and a big fish, that may have been a decent bream, that snagged itself and left me to reel in a submerged branch.
With hindsight (I reckon I've got a 1:1 BSC Hons in hindsight)it may have paid to go on the waggler earlier and feed heavier to get the fish feeding more confidently close to the island. Disappontingly, I was pegged next to the winner for the second week running, but I had come to target skimmers and was succcessful in that, my 25.00 being enough to win the silvers by a 10lb margin. If I draw next to Tim in the next match, he might find his platform is a bit slippery......
Tims plundering of the margin for F1's and carp gave him top spot in waht was a fairly evenly contested match, I'm looking forward to the next one on here.
1) Tim Ford 35.07 peg 46
2) Dave Evans 32.00 peg 49
3) Dean Malin 27.09 peg 43
4) Clayton Hudson 26.10 peg 45
5) Chris Fox 25.00 peg 47
6) Tony (chip shop sausage)Rixon 16.06 peg 48
Silvers
1) Chris Fox 25.00 peg 47
2) Eddie Wynne 15.00 peg 542
Yep, its true, Tony battered either side......
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
Viaduct Open, Wednesday 13th July 2011
I'd booked a days annual leave for today, as I'd agreed to fish Carps AC 'Kingston Seymour' series, which was subsequently cancelled. After two days interviewing applicants for a couple of vacancies at work, I decided to keep the holiday and fish Viaduct.
First into the tin and out came two swimcards stuck together - whichever one you put back its bound to be the wrong one, isn't it? I took one and opened it, revealing 125, I wasn't exactly overjoyed or cartwheeling around the room. I had drawn it a couple of weeks ago and managed 70lb ish, of which 24lb was skimmers. I hadn't brought anything to fish for silvers, I just had plenty of 8mm pellet, 6mm pellet and 8mm meat.
I set up two waggler rods, one to fish 8" deep as there were plenty of fish showing all over the lake on the surface and one to fish at half depth. I did set up a lead rod, although I didn't really expect to catch on it. And finally, three pole rigs, one shallow, a MW cookie on 0.17 straight through to a B960 16, a MW diamond to fish 8mm pellet at depth, same line & hook as the shallow rig and a MW float whose name eludes me (and he doesn't seem to sell it anymore)on 0.17 to 0.18 (0.17 Preston is actually 0.20) and a 16 Xedion TXR7 size 16 hook, this rig for meat.
I started at 14.5m shallow and had a couple of fish in the first 15 minutes, this didn't last and I had 2 more up to the 1 hour mark. Time to try the pellet waggler, this produced 2 fish fairly quickly, at around 15" deep and then it went quiet, just as the pole line did. I tried from 6" deep to 4' deep, to no avail, although there were plenty of blows. Into the third hour and I was now struggling for bites, so I put the straight lead over the waggler line and was rewarded with 4 fish in 6 chucks, 2 tench and 2 carp. Then as surely as the pole and waggler stopped producing bites, so did the lead.
From the halfway mark I'd been feeding meat at 5m, a look here produced nothing, so back on the 14.5m line with the full depth rig and first drop in with a 8mm banded pellet, the float settled and buried, carp number 9. A few lost foulers followed, so back on the shallow rig, but I couldn't get a bite on it. Back to the waggler for another fish, then back to the 14.5m line and another fish at depth.
So with 11 fish in the net and 1 hour 15 minutes to go, I knew I'd have to catch quickly and decent fish, to try and pick up some money. Back in on the 5m line and a 7lb carp first put in, then a 3lb+ tench, now there were bubbles from the 5m line and I caught 6 carp for nearly 60lb and 2 tench in that last 75 minutes. I thought I had 120lb of carp and 10lb of tench, and when the scales got to me, the 4 tench went 10.12 and the 17 carp 129.07, giving me 139.13, enough for second on the day. I suppose I can't be too disappointed at that, after my initial feeling that I'd struggle when I drew the peg. 17 fish for 129lb gives a fish average size of 7.08, so a few of those meat fish were doubles.
A pretty close match, with Kedgie missing out on a pick up by 3oz and some good silvers weights
1) Paul Homewood 188.13 peg 110
2) Chris Fox 139.13 peg 125
3) Howard Webb 125.05 peg 129
4) Steve Kedge 125.02 peg 115
5) Dave Roper 123.13 peg 116
6) Steve Jackson 106.04 peg 128
Silvers
1) John Green 64.12 peg 112
2) Alex ? 46.06 peg 123
3) Tim Pallant 42.08 peg 119
4) Howard Webb 34.02 peg 129
5) Steve Kedge 30.08 peg 115
Finally, something that made me smile on the way home. I went home via the Fosseway, as it is pretty deserted at 7pm on a Wednesday night, as I got into Shepton Mallet by the traffic lights, a 7 ton pick up/tipper towing an estate car switched lanes a couple of cars in front, catching my eye. It was one of those where you get a feeling somethings dodgy, fair play to the pick up, he got up some speed down the hill, into the dip by the cider factory and stated to climb the other side reasonably well. I then saw something, a piece of plastic? come out from under the estate car, for some reason the driver let the tow rope go slack.
This was half way up the hill, as the rope went tight again, there was an explosion of dust and shit at the front of the car, it slowed and the pick up accelerated up the hill with the complete front bumper moulding (a large one) attached, but no car. Luckily I managed to overtake them once the car had ground to a halt and the pick up driver realised what had happened and stopped - he got out smiling, it obviously wasn't his car......
First into the tin and out came two swimcards stuck together - whichever one you put back its bound to be the wrong one, isn't it? I took one and opened it, revealing 125, I wasn't exactly overjoyed or cartwheeling around the room. I had drawn it a couple of weeks ago and managed 70lb ish, of which 24lb was skimmers. I hadn't brought anything to fish for silvers, I just had plenty of 8mm pellet, 6mm pellet and 8mm meat.
I set up two waggler rods, one to fish 8" deep as there were plenty of fish showing all over the lake on the surface and one to fish at half depth. I did set up a lead rod, although I didn't really expect to catch on it. And finally, three pole rigs, one shallow, a MW cookie on 0.17 straight through to a B960 16, a MW diamond to fish 8mm pellet at depth, same line & hook as the shallow rig and a MW float whose name eludes me (and he doesn't seem to sell it anymore)on 0.17 to 0.18 (0.17 Preston is actually 0.20) and a 16 Xedion TXR7 size 16 hook, this rig for meat.
I started at 14.5m shallow and had a couple of fish in the first 15 minutes, this didn't last and I had 2 more up to the 1 hour mark. Time to try the pellet waggler, this produced 2 fish fairly quickly, at around 15" deep and then it went quiet, just as the pole line did. I tried from 6" deep to 4' deep, to no avail, although there were plenty of blows. Into the third hour and I was now struggling for bites, so I put the straight lead over the waggler line and was rewarded with 4 fish in 6 chucks, 2 tench and 2 carp. Then as surely as the pole and waggler stopped producing bites, so did the lead.
From the halfway mark I'd been feeding meat at 5m, a look here produced nothing, so back on the 14.5m line with the full depth rig and first drop in with a 8mm banded pellet, the float settled and buried, carp number 9. A few lost foulers followed, so back on the shallow rig, but I couldn't get a bite on it. Back to the waggler for another fish, then back to the 14.5m line and another fish at depth.
So with 11 fish in the net and 1 hour 15 minutes to go, I knew I'd have to catch quickly and decent fish, to try and pick up some money. Back in on the 5m line and a 7lb carp first put in, then a 3lb+ tench, now there were bubbles from the 5m line and I caught 6 carp for nearly 60lb and 2 tench in that last 75 minutes. I thought I had 120lb of carp and 10lb of tench, and when the scales got to me, the 4 tench went 10.12 and the 17 carp 129.07, giving me 139.13, enough for second on the day. I suppose I can't be too disappointed at that, after my initial feeling that I'd struggle when I drew the peg. 17 fish for 129lb gives a fish average size of 7.08, so a few of those meat fish were doubles.
A pretty close match, with Kedgie missing out on a pick up by 3oz and some good silvers weights
1) Paul Homewood 188.13 peg 110
2) Chris Fox 139.13 peg 125
3) Howard Webb 125.05 peg 129
4) Steve Kedge 125.02 peg 115
5) Dave Roper 123.13 peg 116
6) Steve Jackson 106.04 peg 128
Silvers
1) John Green 64.12 peg 112
2) Alex ? 46.06 peg 123
3) Tim Pallant 42.08 peg 119
4) Howard Webb 34.02 peg 129
5) Steve Kedge 30.08 peg 115
Finally, something that made me smile on the way home. I went home via the Fosseway, as it is pretty deserted at 7pm on a Wednesday night, as I got into Shepton Mallet by the traffic lights, a 7 ton pick up/tipper towing an estate car switched lanes a couple of cars in front, catching my eye. It was one of those where you get a feeling somethings dodgy, fair play to the pick up, he got up some speed down the hill, into the dip by the cider factory and stated to climb the other side reasonably well. I then saw something, a piece of plastic? come out from under the estate car, for some reason the driver let the tow rope go slack.
This was half way up the hill, as the rope went tight again, there was an explosion of dust and shit at the front of the car, it slowed and the pick up accelerated up the hill with the complete front bumper moulding (a large one) attached, but no car. Luckily I managed to overtake them once the car had ground to a halt and the pick up driver realised what had happened and stopped - he got out smiling, it obviously wasn't his car......
Sunday, 10 July 2011
Tony Rixon's Float Only League, Landsend, Sunday 10th July 2011
I secured a guest spot in this match and had it in my mind to fish for silvers, as doing this seems to be the only way I can ever pick up at Landsend. Out of the draw bucket with peg 34 - bad memories, the last time I drew 34, Matt Tomes emptied it on 33, whilst I struggled. Tim Ford on 33 today and when I stood with him in his peg, it was looking likely that history would repeat itself. There were loads of fish moving between the aerator and the end bank.
I set up a rig to fish shallow to the island at 16m, a MW cookie on 0.18 with a 16 B960, I also set up two silvers rigs, a 4x14 carpa chimp on 0.16 to 0.14 with a size 16 808 and a 4x12 carpa chimp on 0.14 with a 0.12 hooklength and a 16 Drennan carp maggot hook. I also set up a paste rig.
I started on the lighter rig, fishing caster at 7m, apart from a couple of small roach, there wasn't much to show for that. I'd fed a line at 13m with softend 4mm and caster, hoping for skimmers, as well as pinging some 8mm hard pellet to the island. Tim Ford kept saying "look at the tails coming out of the water in front of you" - he was right, but they were black, not orange. Some of the tails belonged to chub and occasionally a big skimmer waved its black, forked caudal fin at me.
I looked in on the 13m line, to no avail and by now was three or four fish behind Tim, the thought of luring some of those carp from the aerator, to my island ledge, made me abandon the silvers and over with the shallow pelet rig I went. I had several chub, before it went quiet, I then had two carp, but after them the bites dried up.
Back in on the 13m line with caster and a couple of skimmers, but the bites were few and far between, a look on the devils spawn over the 13m line brought my only fish of the day on it, a 3lb tench. I tried back over to the island, shallow, with a couple more chub to show for it.
With a couple of hours to go, I set up a shallow rig to try meat over and had three carp in three drop-ins - sussed it, no! That was the end of the carp action off the island. I went back in on the light silvers rig, with double red maggot and had a carp around the 5lb mark, next put in, a 15lb carp took the maggots and nearly gave itself up like a skimmer, before realising it was hooked and stretching the double six to its limit, before the 0.12 parted.
I finished the day on the heavier silvers rig, landing several more decent skimmers, which all took double red maggot - I knew I'd messed up, I should have stuck it out for silvers for the full 6 hours, as my 24lb was just not enough to sneak in the silvers coin. My carp went 42.14 or a total of 66.14, that was 8th overall and enough to pick up the section money by double default, with Tim Ford winning and Mike Nicholls winning the silvers with 32lb. So what appeared to be a disasterous day, from being spanked again by peg 33, to poor decision making, at least ended up with some coin.
1) Tim Ford 126.12 peg 33
2) Tony Rixon 111.13 peg 24
3) Dean Malin 99.14 peg 19
4) Mike Nicholls 94.14 peg 36
5) Paul Elmes 86.04 peg 31
6) Chris Davies 85.08 peg 32
Silvers
1) Mike Nicholls 32.00
2) John Bradford 28.15
3) John Green 27.10
Can't log off without a mention for ex Clevedon Veals team mate, Steve Seager, on peg 34, who had a nightmare, at one time he was squirrel fishing, with his rig at least 20' up one of the island trees - shame I didn't get a picture.......
I set up a rig to fish shallow to the island at 16m, a MW cookie on 0.18 with a 16 B960, I also set up two silvers rigs, a 4x14 carpa chimp on 0.16 to 0.14 with a size 16 808 and a 4x12 carpa chimp on 0.14 with a 0.12 hooklength and a 16 Drennan carp maggot hook. I also set up a paste rig.
I started on the lighter rig, fishing caster at 7m, apart from a couple of small roach, there wasn't much to show for that. I'd fed a line at 13m with softend 4mm and caster, hoping for skimmers, as well as pinging some 8mm hard pellet to the island. Tim Ford kept saying "look at the tails coming out of the water in front of you" - he was right, but they were black, not orange. Some of the tails belonged to chub and occasionally a big skimmer waved its black, forked caudal fin at me.
I looked in on the 13m line, to no avail and by now was three or four fish behind Tim, the thought of luring some of those carp from the aerator, to my island ledge, made me abandon the silvers and over with the shallow pelet rig I went. I had several chub, before it went quiet, I then had two carp, but after them the bites dried up.
Back in on the 13m line with caster and a couple of skimmers, but the bites were few and far between, a look on the devils spawn over the 13m line brought my only fish of the day on it, a 3lb tench. I tried back over to the island, shallow, with a couple more chub to show for it.
With a couple of hours to go, I set up a shallow rig to try meat over and had three carp in three drop-ins - sussed it, no! That was the end of the carp action off the island. I went back in on the light silvers rig, with double red maggot and had a carp around the 5lb mark, next put in, a 15lb carp took the maggots and nearly gave itself up like a skimmer, before realising it was hooked and stretching the double six to its limit, before the 0.12 parted.
I finished the day on the heavier silvers rig, landing several more decent skimmers, which all took double red maggot - I knew I'd messed up, I should have stuck it out for silvers for the full 6 hours, as my 24lb was just not enough to sneak in the silvers coin. My carp went 42.14 or a total of 66.14, that was 8th overall and enough to pick up the section money by double default, with Tim Ford winning and Mike Nicholls winning the silvers with 32lb. So what appeared to be a disasterous day, from being spanked again by peg 33, to poor decision making, at least ended up with some coin.
1) Tim Ford 126.12 peg 33
2) Tony Rixon 111.13 peg 24
3) Dean Malin 99.14 peg 19
4) Mike Nicholls 94.14 peg 36
5) Paul Elmes 86.04 peg 31
6) Chris Davies 85.08 peg 32
Silvers
1) Mike Nicholls 32.00
2) John Bradford 28.15
3) John Green 27.10
Can't log off without a mention for ex Clevedon Veals team mate, Steve Seager, on peg 34, who had a nightmare, at one time he was squirrel fishing, with his rig at least 20' up one of the island trees - shame I didn't get a picture.......
Viaduct Open, Saturday 9th July 2011
I'd love to write a comprehensive account of a interesting, competitive match, sadly I can't. Viaduct has been in good form this spring and summer and the top weights from this match will look good, but the weather or whatever put the fish off feeding made this one on Carey and Lodge, a grueller for many.
I drew peg 90, the wind was blowing into the corner and I hoped for a decent day, there should be fish there, following the wind in. Usual set ups, a waggler rod to fish at depth, a lead rod and pole rigs to fish the margin and pellet at 14.5m.
Suffice to say, as I've already mentioned grueller, after 2½ hours, I had one skimmer on the lead, then another on the waggler, the margin appeared devoid of fish, as did the open water in front of me. There was some fish blowing, I was convinced it was skimmers, so I opened a tin of corn and tried that at 12m, first put in resulted in a 4-5lb common, then nothing.
I kept feeding and working at all the lines, Phil Cardwell packed up on 88 and went, perhaps he had the right idea. Towards the end I managed a couple of decent Tench on meat in the margin, along with one other carp around the 4lb mark, there were three weigh in in my section (88-99) two silvers weights and only one carp weight. My two carp probably would have gone 9lb, but they went back, the silvers went 11.02, easily my worst perfomance on Viaduct during the 'pellet allowed' season.
1) Tom Mangall 144.10 peg 44
2) Steve Jackson 127.11 peg 105
3) Ray Hayward 104.15 peg 66
4) Craig Edmunds 98.03 peg 100
5) Ryan Jordan 77.04 peg 97
6) Terry Lenny 72.04 peg 69
Silvers
1) John Green 30.05 peg 85
2) Barry Fitchew 25.15 68
3) Jamie Parkhouse 23.13 peg 70
I drew peg 90, the wind was blowing into the corner and I hoped for a decent day, there should be fish there, following the wind in. Usual set ups, a waggler rod to fish at depth, a lead rod and pole rigs to fish the margin and pellet at 14.5m.
Suffice to say, as I've already mentioned grueller, after 2½ hours, I had one skimmer on the lead, then another on the waggler, the margin appeared devoid of fish, as did the open water in front of me. There was some fish blowing, I was convinced it was skimmers, so I opened a tin of corn and tried that at 12m, first put in resulted in a 4-5lb common, then nothing.
I kept feeding and working at all the lines, Phil Cardwell packed up on 88 and went, perhaps he had the right idea. Towards the end I managed a couple of decent Tench on meat in the margin, along with one other carp around the 4lb mark, there were three weigh in in my section (88-99) two silvers weights and only one carp weight. My two carp probably would have gone 9lb, but they went back, the silvers went 11.02, easily my worst perfomance on Viaduct during the 'pellet allowed' season.
1) Tom Mangall 144.10 peg 44
2) Steve Jackson 127.11 peg 105
3) Ray Hayward 104.15 peg 66
4) Craig Edmunds 98.03 peg 100
5) Ryan Jordan 77.04 peg 97
6) Terry Lenny 72.04 peg 69
Silvers
1) John Green 30.05 peg 85
2) Barry Fitchew 25.15 68
3) Jamie Parkhouse 23.13 peg 70
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
Carps Viaduct Series, Sunday 3rd July 2011
I took a guest spot in this league today, so it was a positive approach, where ever I drew, no need to fish for series points. 105 came out of the tin, last time on this one I won the lake and a stupid lost fish cost me doing so again.
I set up two margin rigs, a MW 'Dinky D' for meat and a poly ball for paste. A shallow rig for pellet and a depth rig for pellet, a MW diamond and a MW Cookie respectively both on 0.17 with 16 B960 hooks. A MW paste rig completed the pole set up. I also set up a waggler rod and a lead rod, as there fish moving around towards the middle.
Virtually opposite I had Garbolino BMVG silvers ace Bob Gullick, so he wouldn't be feeding to far out to nick any carp - in fact he would be trying to avoid them.
On the all in I flicked the waggler at full depth to the middle, it settled and went under, after a 25 minute battle a 15lb fish graced the net, good start. I then had a smaller fish, but then the bites tailed off. I tried shallowing up and had another fish, great start, but that was the end of it. I tried the margins, nothing, not even an indication, or a twitch from a meat stealing nuisance fish. This was how it stayed on every look into the margins (both left & right) until the end.
I tried the paste line I''d been feeding at 8m - nothing, I tried 6 & 8mm pellet over it just in case there were some skimmers around - nothing again. In desperation I picked up the lead rod and it brought 3 fish.
In the last hour, I decided to really up the feed and fish the waggler, its a tactic that used to catch me a lot of chub on the river, its nearly like the constant rain of bait falling through the peg makes them feed. I started to get bites on the waggler and deepening up again saw me hook a big fish, initially I thought it may have been foul hooked, but it wasn't, it was just the sheer size if it. It took me all over the peg and it just wouldn't get its head off the bottom.
After 20 minutes, I had it under the rod and every time it came within 3 or 4' of the net, it powered off again, it was a angry common well over 20lb. trying to think ahead, as I had started to get bites, I thought I might get another fish if I could get back out there, so using the logic that it must be a good hook hold,as it had been on for 20 minutes+, put a bit more pressure on. Big mistake, the hook pulled and with it went a lake win and £50 quid section money......
I'd been feeding whilst playing it, but not nearly enough and the last 15 minutes remained biteless.
My 7 fish went 72lbish and Bela Bakos took the section with 76lb.
See Mike Nicholls blog for the results, as I had to disappear after the weigh in to go to work.
I set up two margin rigs, a MW 'Dinky D' for meat and a poly ball for paste. A shallow rig for pellet and a depth rig for pellet, a MW diamond and a MW Cookie respectively both on 0.17 with 16 B960 hooks. A MW paste rig completed the pole set up. I also set up a waggler rod and a lead rod, as there fish moving around towards the middle.
Virtually opposite I had Garbolino BMVG silvers ace Bob Gullick, so he wouldn't be feeding to far out to nick any carp - in fact he would be trying to avoid them.
On the all in I flicked the waggler at full depth to the middle, it settled and went under, after a 25 minute battle a 15lb fish graced the net, good start. I then had a smaller fish, but then the bites tailed off. I tried shallowing up and had another fish, great start, but that was the end of it. I tried the margins, nothing, not even an indication, or a twitch from a meat stealing nuisance fish. This was how it stayed on every look into the margins (both left & right) until the end.
I tried the paste line I''d been feeding at 8m - nothing, I tried 6 & 8mm pellet over it just in case there were some skimmers around - nothing again. In desperation I picked up the lead rod and it brought 3 fish.
In the last hour, I decided to really up the feed and fish the waggler, its a tactic that used to catch me a lot of chub on the river, its nearly like the constant rain of bait falling through the peg makes them feed. I started to get bites on the waggler and deepening up again saw me hook a big fish, initially I thought it may have been foul hooked, but it wasn't, it was just the sheer size if it. It took me all over the peg and it just wouldn't get its head off the bottom.
After 20 minutes, I had it under the rod and every time it came within 3 or 4' of the net, it powered off again, it was a angry common well over 20lb. trying to think ahead, as I had started to get bites, I thought I might get another fish if I could get back out there, so using the logic that it must be a good hook hold,as it had been on for 20 minutes+, put a bit more pressure on. Big mistake, the hook pulled and with it went a lake win and £50 quid section money......
I'd been feeding whilst playing it, but not nearly enough and the last 15 minutes remained biteless.
My 7 fish went 72lbish and Bela Bakos took the section with 76lb.
See Mike Nicholls blog for the results, as I had to disappear after the weigh in to go to work.
Saturday, 2 July 2011
Viaduct Open, Saturday 2nd July 2011
I was quite happily making my way to Viaduct, when at just before 10am the phone rang, "where are you, its a 09.30 draw". Why do they have a different time on Wednesdays and Saturdays? To confuse the simple, obviously...... Luckily Paul Greenwood had left a ticket in for me, unluckily it was 125.
I decided to keep things simple and set up a pellet waggler, as there were plenty of fish sunning themselves and cruising round in the sunshine. The water temperature was 24.3°C, no wonder they were so laid back. I also set up 4 topkits, one for paste, one for banded pellet at depth, one shallow and a margin rig for meat. This was a total waste of time, either I'm doing something drastically wrong, or every peg I get is full of tiny roach etc. which continually nibble away at the meat.
The first 20 minutes were spent trying to mug some of the cruising fish, but they weren't having it and they backed off towards the middle after having a pole waved over their heads. Out with the pellet waggler and I had a couple of indications, then a slight ripple got up and I had three fish in quick succession, the ripple went and that was pretty much the end of the waggler line. In the meantime, I was seeing Martin Preston on 123, getting a run of fish on the lead, fishing popped up bread.
I dropped into the 14m line I'd been feeding, with the paste rig and soon had a flying skimmer, next fish was a big lump well into double figures. From then on it got hard, the margin only produced 1-2oz roach on meat, so that was abandoned. I stuck at the 14m line with paste and alternating that with 8mm banded pellet, this produced a couple more skimmers. There were plenty of skimmers blowing over the feed, so with 2 and a bit hours to go I decided to set up a skimmer rig. This was dropped in and I immediately started to catch carp on the expander, another double figure fish was landed.
I reverted back to small balls of paste, without feeding, this stopped attracting carp and had a few more skimmers, with hindsight I should have fished for them all day, as I was so far adrift on the carp. I also had 2 tench on the paste, the first tench I've caught in open water at Viaduct. My 7 carp went 48.02 and the skimmers 24.00 for 72.02.
Peg 132 kept up its good form as it produced 209.10 to win
1) Roland (Lucas?) 209.10 peg 132
2) Lewis Greenwood 162.01 peg 112
3) Martin Preston 145.10 peg 123
4) Craig Edmunds 128.08 peg 110
5) Andy Wilkinson 127.10 peg 119
6) Tim Ford 100.11 peg 129
Silvers
1) Craig Edmunds 66.08
2) Dan Squire 52.02
3) Andy Wilkinson 39.07
I decided to keep things simple and set up a pellet waggler, as there were plenty of fish sunning themselves and cruising round in the sunshine. The water temperature was 24.3°C, no wonder they were so laid back. I also set up 4 topkits, one for paste, one for banded pellet at depth, one shallow and a margin rig for meat. This was a total waste of time, either I'm doing something drastically wrong, or every peg I get is full of tiny roach etc. which continually nibble away at the meat.
The first 20 minutes were spent trying to mug some of the cruising fish, but they weren't having it and they backed off towards the middle after having a pole waved over their heads. Out with the pellet waggler and I had a couple of indications, then a slight ripple got up and I had three fish in quick succession, the ripple went and that was pretty much the end of the waggler line. In the meantime, I was seeing Martin Preston on 123, getting a run of fish on the lead, fishing popped up bread.
I dropped into the 14m line I'd been feeding, with the paste rig and soon had a flying skimmer, next fish was a big lump well into double figures. From then on it got hard, the margin only produced 1-2oz roach on meat, so that was abandoned. I stuck at the 14m line with paste and alternating that with 8mm banded pellet, this produced a couple more skimmers. There were plenty of skimmers blowing over the feed, so with 2 and a bit hours to go I decided to set up a skimmer rig. This was dropped in and I immediately started to catch carp on the expander, another double figure fish was landed.
I reverted back to small balls of paste, without feeding, this stopped attracting carp and had a few more skimmers, with hindsight I should have fished for them all day, as I was so far adrift on the carp. I also had 2 tench on the paste, the first tench I've caught in open water at Viaduct. My 7 carp went 48.02 and the skimmers 24.00 for 72.02.
Peg 132 kept up its good form as it produced 209.10 to win
1) Roland (Lucas?) 209.10 peg 132
2) Lewis Greenwood 162.01 peg 112
3) Martin Preston 145.10 peg 123
4) Craig Edmunds 128.08 peg 110
5) Andy Wilkinson 127.10 peg 119
6) Tim Ford 100.11 peg 129
Silvers
1) Craig Edmunds 66.08
2) Dan Squire 52.02
3) Andy Wilkinson 39.07
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
Viaduct Open, Wednesday 29th June 2011
Had a nice breakfast to start the day off today, free range eggs, venison sausages etc. had to cook it myself, you don't get that in the cafe. After the good weights that came from Campbell last weekend I was looking forward to today, it was to be carp or bust, with pellet, meat and paste in the bait bag - well it would have been if I hadn't left the carefully prepared paste in my bait fridge.
Just before the draw, we had the small matter of rescuing an unfortunate anglers car, trying to be gentlemanly and letting the very posh looking red Spyder convertible past, proved to be his downfall. The lush grass verge, was a mere illusion and the silver Peugeot estate proved a tad too heavy for the grass to support. One Transit van and a team of anglers anxious to get on with the draw, managed to extract the Peugeot, with not too much damage, except some dented pride.
I won't mention his name, no doubt someone will recognise the car.....
I drew a nice short walk, 110, with Dick Bull on 111. He'd had 180lb from 110 last weekend, shallow on the pole. There didn't seem to be too many fish out in front today, but I could see plenty of dark shapes up in front of 135.
I set up two pellet waggler rods, 11' Maver Reactorlites, with Preston Inception 4000 reels, rods I've only used a couple of times and new reels - I usually use TDR's, but the Prestons were slightly lighter. 6lb sensor main line, with 0.17 hooklength and a 18 PR36. I did take a lead rod from the hardcase, but it got put back at the end without a cast being made.
4 topkits set up, a shallow pellet rig, a inline dibber on 0.17 to a 16 B960, a full depth pellet rig, a MW diamond on 0.17 to a 0.15 hooklength and a 16 B960. A paste float on 0.17 to a 14 Mustad paste hook and a MW power for the margin, on 0.19 with a 0.17 hooklength and a 16 TXR hook. Once I'd set up the paste rig, I discovered, as mentioned, that my paste was 35 miles away, in the fridge. I hurridly made some up, but I prefer to make it the night before.
At the all in I started on the pellet waggler and was almost immediately a fish behind to Dick, as he had one straight away on the wag. I started to get bites and had two fish before the third snapped the 6lb sensor - brand new line!! I picked up the other rod and had another fish, but they weren't exactly giving themselves up, I could only catch if they took the pellet almost immediately it hit the water.
I decided to rest this line and had fed a pot of micros and expanders at 10m to my left for paste, a line at 14m straight in front and some meat down by the stump. I had a look on the meat and this produced a rudd and next put in, a 3lb bream, then a run of unhitable bites. A lookover the micros and expanders with paste, produced not so much as a liner and I never went back there. A try shallow at 14m, not a bite, but there was some fizzing, so I dropped the full depth rig in and had a carp nearly straight away. A couple of liners next, so back on the shallow rig to no avail.
I spent the rest of the match on the pellet waggler and had spells of catching, spells of frustration as I got snapped a further 5 times, once when a decent fish kited along to 136 and picked up a big branch, I managed to get the branch and fish back to the stump on my left, before the hooklength snapped. All looked OK and back out with a new hooklength, a smaller fish landed OK, then a bigger fish snapped the main line, on closer inspection, about 4' of the main line was abraded by the branch. That'll teach me to inspect line more closely after a snag.
I had a spell when The fish seemed to back away from the feed, I caught without feeding, then a spell where they wanted a pouchful everytime, so much so, they were boiling on the surface. This resulted in a spell of a couple of snapped hooklengths, some fish lost due to hook pulls and a some foulers. It seemed best to cast, then feed, this seemed to result in bigger fish, with a decent hook hold.
Interesting discussion with Steve Long afterwards, he put forward a point of view that when there are many fish competing for the pellet up in the water, the hooklengths may be breaking against other fish, I've no doubt this can happen. I also wonder if the 11' rods are forgiving enough for the 6lb+ fish, I've certainly had nowhere near as many hookpulls with my 13' Reactorlites - perhaps the 11' rods are best for venues with 2-5lb fish. Although I do like the way the fish pop up at exactly netting range with the 11' rods.
I eneded the match with 24 fish, a couple not far off double figures, so that adds weight to Steve's theory, not enough I was sure to beat Matt Tomes on 132 (see Matt, for bad karma, like cars off road, theres good karma like drawing 132) who'd caught steadily all day on the pole, although had I sussed out the feeding and not lost so many, I would have undoubtedly beaten him, I feel it should have been a 200lb peg. Once again my total ineptitude at gauging fish weights was evident as I was deducted 1.13 from my total of 161.12, leaving me with 159.15, third on the day and a section win. The net that was over by 1.13 had 12 fish in it. The average weight of my fish was over 6.08, so that only 11 per net from now on.
Winner on the day was Lee Werrett who chucked a lead at 120 all day from 119, apparently it just kept going round.....
1) Lee Werrett 232.05 peg 119
2) Matt Tomes 165.02 peg 132
3) Chris Fox 159.15 peg 110
4) Scott Russell 136.04 peg 124
5) Andy lloyd 110.05 peg 127
6) Paul Blake 103.09 peg 116
Silvers
1) Paul Blake 53.12 peg 116 (Tench on meat)
2) Howard Webb 43.03 peg 128
3) Tim Pallant 41.10 peg 123
Just before the draw, we had the small matter of rescuing an unfortunate anglers car, trying to be gentlemanly and letting the very posh looking red Spyder convertible past, proved to be his downfall. The lush grass verge, was a mere illusion and the silver Peugeot estate proved a tad too heavy for the grass to support. One Transit van and a team of anglers anxious to get on with the draw, managed to extract the Peugeot, with not too much damage, except some dented pride.
I won't mention his name, no doubt someone will recognise the car.....
I drew a nice short walk, 110, with Dick Bull on 111. He'd had 180lb from 110 last weekend, shallow on the pole. There didn't seem to be too many fish out in front today, but I could see plenty of dark shapes up in front of 135.
I set up two pellet waggler rods, 11' Maver Reactorlites, with Preston Inception 4000 reels, rods I've only used a couple of times and new reels - I usually use TDR's, but the Prestons were slightly lighter. 6lb sensor main line, with 0.17 hooklength and a 18 PR36. I did take a lead rod from the hardcase, but it got put back at the end without a cast being made.
4 topkits set up, a shallow pellet rig, a inline dibber on 0.17 to a 16 B960, a full depth pellet rig, a MW diamond on 0.17 to a 0.15 hooklength and a 16 B960. A paste float on 0.17 to a 14 Mustad paste hook and a MW power for the margin, on 0.19 with a 0.17 hooklength and a 16 TXR hook. Once I'd set up the paste rig, I discovered, as mentioned, that my paste was 35 miles away, in the fridge. I hurridly made some up, but I prefer to make it the night before.
At the all in I started on the pellet waggler and was almost immediately a fish behind to Dick, as he had one straight away on the wag. I started to get bites and had two fish before the third snapped the 6lb sensor - brand new line!! I picked up the other rod and had another fish, but they weren't exactly giving themselves up, I could only catch if they took the pellet almost immediately it hit the water.
I decided to rest this line and had fed a pot of micros and expanders at 10m to my left for paste, a line at 14m straight in front and some meat down by the stump. I had a look on the meat and this produced a rudd and next put in, a 3lb bream, then a run of unhitable bites. A lookover the micros and expanders with paste, produced not so much as a liner and I never went back there. A try shallow at 14m, not a bite, but there was some fizzing, so I dropped the full depth rig in and had a carp nearly straight away. A couple of liners next, so back on the shallow rig to no avail.
I spent the rest of the match on the pellet waggler and had spells of catching, spells of frustration as I got snapped a further 5 times, once when a decent fish kited along to 136 and picked up a big branch, I managed to get the branch and fish back to the stump on my left, before the hooklength snapped. All looked OK and back out with a new hooklength, a smaller fish landed OK, then a bigger fish snapped the main line, on closer inspection, about 4' of the main line was abraded by the branch. That'll teach me to inspect line more closely after a snag.
I had a spell when The fish seemed to back away from the feed, I caught without feeding, then a spell where they wanted a pouchful everytime, so much so, they were boiling on the surface. This resulted in a spell of a couple of snapped hooklengths, some fish lost due to hook pulls and a some foulers. It seemed best to cast, then feed, this seemed to result in bigger fish, with a decent hook hold.
Interesting discussion with Steve Long afterwards, he put forward a point of view that when there are many fish competing for the pellet up in the water, the hooklengths may be breaking against other fish, I've no doubt this can happen. I also wonder if the 11' rods are forgiving enough for the 6lb+ fish, I've certainly had nowhere near as many hookpulls with my 13' Reactorlites - perhaps the 11' rods are best for venues with 2-5lb fish. Although I do like the way the fish pop up at exactly netting range with the 11' rods.
I eneded the match with 24 fish, a couple not far off double figures, so that adds weight to Steve's theory, not enough I was sure to beat Matt Tomes on 132 (see Matt, for bad karma, like cars off road, theres good karma like drawing 132) who'd caught steadily all day on the pole, although had I sussed out the feeding and not lost so many, I would have undoubtedly beaten him, I feel it should have been a 200lb peg. Once again my total ineptitude at gauging fish weights was evident as I was deducted 1.13 from my total of 161.12, leaving me with 159.15, third on the day and a section win. The net that was over by 1.13 had 12 fish in it. The average weight of my fish was over 6.08, so that only 11 per net from now on.
Winner on the day was Lee Werrett who chucked a lead at 120 all day from 119, apparently it just kept going round.....
1) Lee Werrett 232.05 peg 119
2) Matt Tomes 165.02 peg 132
3) Chris Fox 159.15 peg 110
4) Scott Russell 136.04 peg 124
5) Andy lloyd 110.05 peg 127
6) Paul Blake 103.09 peg 116
Silvers
1) Paul Blake 53.12 peg 116 (Tench on meat)
2) Howard Webb 43.03 peg 128
3) Tim Pallant 41.10 peg 123
Sunday, 26 June 2011
Trinity Two Day Festival, Sat & Sun 25th & 26th June 2011
I was looking forward to this festival, because Trinity is a great venue and I was defending my crown of Champion last year. The weather was set to play havoc with the fish again, rain Friday night and a mini heat wave on Sunday, but dealing with the conditions is all a part of fishing.
I gave Andy (Hembrow) a hand to run it this year, although I left the collecting names and pegging up to him, we initially had the 20, we were calling a full house, but by the day before, that had dropped to 16, so the payout was slightly reduced. Its a real shame that the numbers are down, the festival used to be on both lakes (Woodland and Wildmarsh) but now with a smaller entry we had both days on Woodland.
At the draw on Saturday, I waited until everyone else had drawn and took the last swimcard, its not something I usually do and I won't be doing it again!! Peg 2, a corner peg which can produce, but I felt the wind was in the wrong direction and with peg 33 in I had no waggler chuck.
I'd decided to start fishing for skimmers and switch to carp when they came along as they inevitably do, wrecking the skimmer line, with the back up of the RH margin as this often produces carp. I set up a paste rig and a another rig with a 0.8g MW diamond to fish 8mm banded pellet/paste approx 1m infront of the point to my left, a MW diamond (1g) to fish 14m straight out, this was to be the CW&C line and a couple of margin rigs for the RH margin, as it varied in depth too much to get away with one rig.
I fed some groundbait and CW&C at 14m and some pellets in front of the point, starting on the worm, I had a couple of decent skimmers, although I had a couple more in the first hour it was slow going, during the day I had several visits to the paste/pellet line, but did not get so much as a liner there, so no more about that. The RH margin was pretty non-productive as well, 5 carp for 11.11 was the sum total from there. I had tried meat, nicked off the hook by silvers, an 8mm banded - constant 'bobbing' of the float as the bits pecked at it. An 11mm pellet reduced this, but there really seemed to be no feeding carp in the margin.
I finished the match where I started, on the CW&C, I had tried a 6mm expander over this line after introducing a few free offerings, to no avail. I had the pretty much unique experience of not hooking or even fouling a carp in open water on my skimmer line - that said I didn't exactly hook many skimmers. The ones I did hook and land went 15.08 for 3 silvers points and a total of 27.03 for a resounding last in section. That was the defence of the crown gone then... Rod Wootten on peg 4 had absolutely battered me and everyone else, to take top section points and win the match.
Day One Results:
1) Rod Wootten 102.07 peg 4
2) Mark Walsh 85.01 peg 26
3) Lewis Jones 77.07 peg 9
4) Andy Hembrow 73.03 peg 19
5) Shaun Kittridge 57.14 peg 7
6) Brian Slipper 56.11 peg 33
Silvers
1) Rod Wootten 33.00 peg 4
2) Brian Slipper 18.04 peg 33
3) Chris Fox 15.08 peg 2
Sunday dawned a bit foggy over the hills, but the sun soon burnt that off and it became the scorcher promised by the weathermen. As we had four sections, those who fished A & B yesterday, fished C & D today (and obviously, vice versa). I got Misha the fishery Manager to draw my peg, 26. I wasn't disappointed, I'd left all the meat, big pellets etc. at home, as Silvers were the only way I was going to get some cash from this affair, although it was nice when I got a payout from Kev Perry's superpool this morning, a second place, not sure who out of Rod & Brian didn't go in it.
I had brought my Drennan Match Pro quiver, a nice little rod for skimmer fishing and I did wonder if they backed off from the pole line, if I could utilise a small cage feeder with some micros and dead maggot. That was set up with 4lb direct mono reel line and 0.14 powersilk and a 18 808.
I set up the same 1g MW diamond on 0.15 to 0.11 with a 18 63-13 hook, this had an olivette around 12" from the hook, with 2 No8 stotzs 6" from the hook and 2" overdepth. I also set up a paste rig, but didn't use this. I set up a small MW slim power to fish caster shallow on a topkit to hand. Mindful that Mark Walsh had 80lb+ from the margins yesterday I nearly set a margin rig, but didn't.
This peg was around 12" deeper than peg 2 so had to remake a couple of rigs, I also felt that there was no need to go much further than 11m, especially I was going to have a feeder line at 25m. I started on CW&C, but with the addition of dead red maggot and soon stopped putting worm in as this seemed to create initial interest, but then the bites would dry up. After three or four skimmers, the line went quiet, I did try changing my ratio of micros to groundbait but this didn't increase the bites. So I had alook on the topset with the caster rig on, this was 0.11 with a 0.10 hooklength, a fish every put in on caster, but many were 30 or 40 to the pound size.
Time for a look on the feeder, whilst keeping the other lines topped up, especially the caster line, trying to feed of the micro rudd & roach. After three casts the tip plucked and gently pulled round, a classic bream bite, it felt like a bream, a dead weight, with an occasional bump. That was until it got under the rod tip, it then turned into a carp on speed. Three more chucks, resulted in two more carp and one lost, I think they were following the bloody feeder down. The last chuck, was the rod up the bank, I didn't want carp. Back on the caster and head down, the size of the fish increased, if I constantly changed depth, I sometimes had to fish in the middle of the loose feed, some times on the periphery.
With an hour to go, I could see Kev Perry starting to increase his catch rate of skimmers - on paste - back on the skimmer line with double dead maggot and two more skimmers straight away, then disaster. A carp snaffled the maggot and started plodding round the peg, it then decided to run towards peg 27, snapping the No6 elastic. So with 35 minutes to go, do I set up another rig or go back on the caster.
I went back on the caster and the fish not much bigger than the caster they were swallowing, were back, so I quickly grabbed another rig, which promptly tangled, in my haste to get it set up. I discarded that and set another up, but it was 1.5g and it just didn't seem to take the trip the same as the 1g float. So back on the caster, upping the feed for the last 15 minutes.
At the all out I had no idea what weight I had, but I guessed it was low double figures, the roach & rudd were from a couple of drams up to 4oz, with one better roach. The carp went 8.05 and the silvers were 18.14, enough for a section win (silvers), giving, bizarrely, 27.03 exactly the same weight as yesterday. A bit of totting up and it seemed I'd get second place in the silvers (by default as you couldn't win both). A welcome pick up of £100, to go with yesterdays superpool money.
On the Day:
1) Andy Hembrow 124.02 peg 7
2) Rich Lovering 102.10 peg 4
3) Lewis Jones 96.06 peg 28
4) Mark Walsh 84.03 peg 2
5) Rod Wootten 58.04 peg 21
6) Brian Slipper 50.12 peg 17
Silvers
1) Lewis Jones 31.12 peg 28
2) Brian Slipper 27.11 peg 17
3) Kev Perry 26.01 peg 15
Festival Overall:
Place.. Name.. Points.. Weight
1 Rod Wootton 8 160.11
2 Brian Slipper 8 107.07
3 Andy hembrow 7 197.05
4 Lewis Jones 7 173.13
5 Mark Walsh 6 169.08
6 Nick Harvey 6 93.13
7 Darren Vowles 6 84.02
8 Rich Lovering 5 136.00
9 Shaun Kittridge 5 107.12
10 Lance Tucker 4 68.03
11 Craig Tucker 4 53.08
12 Mark Broomsgrove 3 62.04
13 Chris Fox 3 54.06
14 Kev Perry 3 48.08
15 Dave Baker 2 46.03
16 Rich Heatley 2 35.05
Festival Silvers:
Place.. Name.. Points.. Weight
1 Brian Slipper 8 45.15
2 Kev Perry 7 40.13
3 Chris Fox 7 34.06
4 Craig Tucker 7 26.06
5 Andy Hembrow 7 20.13
6 Rod Wootton 5 39.00
7 Lewis Jones 5 36.05
8 Lance Tucker 5 21.03
9 Mark Broomsgrove 5 19.07
10 Rich Lovering 5 12.06
11 Dave Baker 5 8.15
12 Shaun Kittridge 3 13.06
13 Nick Harvey 3 6.13
14 Darren Vowles 3 1.12
15 Mark Walsh 2 4.13
16 Rich Heatley 2 1.01
I gave Andy (Hembrow) a hand to run it this year, although I left the collecting names and pegging up to him, we initially had the 20, we were calling a full house, but by the day before, that had dropped to 16, so the payout was slightly reduced. Its a real shame that the numbers are down, the festival used to be on both lakes (Woodland and Wildmarsh) but now with a smaller entry we had both days on Woodland.
At the draw on Saturday, I waited until everyone else had drawn and took the last swimcard, its not something I usually do and I won't be doing it again!! Peg 2, a corner peg which can produce, but I felt the wind was in the wrong direction and with peg 33 in I had no waggler chuck.
I'd decided to start fishing for skimmers and switch to carp when they came along as they inevitably do, wrecking the skimmer line, with the back up of the RH margin as this often produces carp. I set up a paste rig and a another rig with a 0.8g MW diamond to fish 8mm banded pellet/paste approx 1m infront of the point to my left, a MW diamond (1g) to fish 14m straight out, this was to be the CW&C line and a couple of margin rigs for the RH margin, as it varied in depth too much to get away with one rig.
I fed some groundbait and CW&C at 14m and some pellets in front of the point, starting on the worm, I had a couple of decent skimmers, although I had a couple more in the first hour it was slow going, during the day I had several visits to the paste/pellet line, but did not get so much as a liner there, so no more about that. The RH margin was pretty non-productive as well, 5 carp for 11.11 was the sum total from there. I had tried meat, nicked off the hook by silvers, an 8mm banded - constant 'bobbing' of the float as the bits pecked at it. An 11mm pellet reduced this, but there really seemed to be no feeding carp in the margin.
I finished the match where I started, on the CW&C, I had tried a 6mm expander over this line after introducing a few free offerings, to no avail. I had the pretty much unique experience of not hooking or even fouling a carp in open water on my skimmer line - that said I didn't exactly hook many skimmers. The ones I did hook and land went 15.08 for 3 silvers points and a total of 27.03 for a resounding last in section. That was the defence of the crown gone then... Rod Wootten on peg 4 had absolutely battered me and everyone else, to take top section points and win the match.
Day One Results:
1) Rod Wootten 102.07 peg 4
2) Mark Walsh 85.01 peg 26
3) Lewis Jones 77.07 peg 9
4) Andy Hembrow 73.03 peg 19
5) Shaun Kittridge 57.14 peg 7
6) Brian Slipper 56.11 peg 33
Silvers
1) Rod Wootten 33.00 peg 4
2) Brian Slipper 18.04 peg 33
3) Chris Fox 15.08 peg 2
Sunday dawned a bit foggy over the hills, but the sun soon burnt that off and it became the scorcher promised by the weathermen. As we had four sections, those who fished A & B yesterday, fished C & D today (and obviously, vice versa). I got Misha the fishery Manager to draw my peg, 26. I wasn't disappointed, I'd left all the meat, big pellets etc. at home, as Silvers were the only way I was going to get some cash from this affair, although it was nice when I got a payout from Kev Perry's superpool this morning, a second place, not sure who out of Rod & Brian didn't go in it.
I had brought my Drennan Match Pro quiver, a nice little rod for skimmer fishing and I did wonder if they backed off from the pole line, if I could utilise a small cage feeder with some micros and dead maggot. That was set up with 4lb direct mono reel line and 0.14 powersilk and a 18 808.
I set up the same 1g MW diamond on 0.15 to 0.11 with a 18 63-13 hook, this had an olivette around 12" from the hook, with 2 No8 stotzs 6" from the hook and 2" overdepth. I also set up a paste rig, but didn't use this. I set up a small MW slim power to fish caster shallow on a topkit to hand. Mindful that Mark Walsh had 80lb+ from the margins yesterday I nearly set a margin rig, but didn't.
This peg was around 12" deeper than peg 2 so had to remake a couple of rigs, I also felt that there was no need to go much further than 11m, especially I was going to have a feeder line at 25m. I started on CW&C, but with the addition of dead red maggot and soon stopped putting worm in as this seemed to create initial interest, but then the bites would dry up. After three or four skimmers, the line went quiet, I did try changing my ratio of micros to groundbait but this didn't increase the bites. So I had alook on the topset with the caster rig on, this was 0.11 with a 0.10 hooklength, a fish every put in on caster, but many were 30 or 40 to the pound size.
Time for a look on the feeder, whilst keeping the other lines topped up, especially the caster line, trying to feed of the micro rudd & roach. After three casts the tip plucked and gently pulled round, a classic bream bite, it felt like a bream, a dead weight, with an occasional bump. That was until it got under the rod tip, it then turned into a carp on speed. Three more chucks, resulted in two more carp and one lost, I think they were following the bloody feeder down. The last chuck, was the rod up the bank, I didn't want carp. Back on the caster and head down, the size of the fish increased, if I constantly changed depth, I sometimes had to fish in the middle of the loose feed, some times on the periphery.
With an hour to go, I could see Kev Perry starting to increase his catch rate of skimmers - on paste - back on the skimmer line with double dead maggot and two more skimmers straight away, then disaster. A carp snaffled the maggot and started plodding round the peg, it then decided to run towards peg 27, snapping the No6 elastic. So with 35 minutes to go, do I set up another rig or go back on the caster.
I went back on the caster and the fish not much bigger than the caster they were swallowing, were back, so I quickly grabbed another rig, which promptly tangled, in my haste to get it set up. I discarded that and set another up, but it was 1.5g and it just didn't seem to take the trip the same as the 1g float. So back on the caster, upping the feed for the last 15 minutes.
At the all out I had no idea what weight I had, but I guessed it was low double figures, the roach & rudd were from a couple of drams up to 4oz, with one better roach. The carp went 8.05 and the silvers were 18.14, enough for a section win (silvers), giving, bizarrely, 27.03 exactly the same weight as yesterday. A bit of totting up and it seemed I'd get second place in the silvers (by default as you couldn't win both). A welcome pick up of £100, to go with yesterdays superpool money.
On the Day:
1) Andy Hembrow 124.02 peg 7
2) Rich Lovering 102.10 peg 4
3) Lewis Jones 96.06 peg 28
4) Mark Walsh 84.03 peg 2
5) Rod Wootten 58.04 peg 21
6) Brian Slipper 50.12 peg 17
Silvers
1) Lewis Jones 31.12 peg 28
2) Brian Slipper 27.11 peg 17
3) Kev Perry 26.01 peg 15
Festival Overall:
Place.. Name.. Points.. Weight
1 Rod Wootton 8 160.11
2 Brian Slipper 8 107.07
3 Andy hembrow 7 197.05
4 Lewis Jones 7 173.13
5 Mark Walsh 6 169.08
6 Nick Harvey 6 93.13
7 Darren Vowles 6 84.02
8 Rich Lovering 5 136.00
9 Shaun Kittridge 5 107.12
10 Lance Tucker 4 68.03
11 Craig Tucker 4 53.08
12 Mark Broomsgrove 3 62.04
13 Chris Fox 3 54.06
14 Kev Perry 3 48.08
15 Dave Baker 2 46.03
16 Rich Heatley 2 35.05
Festival Silvers:
Place.. Name.. Points.. Weight
1 Brian Slipper 8 45.15
2 Kev Perry 7 40.13
3 Chris Fox 7 34.06
4 Craig Tucker 7 26.06
5 Andy Hembrow 7 20.13
6 Rod Wootton 5 39.00
7 Lewis Jones 5 36.05
8 Lance Tucker 5 21.03
9 Mark Broomsgrove 5 19.07
10 Rich Lovering 5 12.06
11 Dave Baker 5 8.15
12 Shaun Kittridge 3 13.06
13 Nick Harvey 3 6.13
14 Darren Vowles 3 1.12
15 Mark Walsh 2 4.13
16 Rich Heatley 2 1.01
Friday, 10 June 2011
Viaduct Costcutter Open, Thursday 9th June 2011
Campbell and Cary in again today, the traffic caused me to arrive right on the draw time of 09.30, so I missed my usual spot near the front of the queue - why do some folk drive so bloody slowly!!! - 112 was my reward (or punishment).
After yesterday, I thought paste might pick out the bigger fish and after waiting nearly an hour, I was proved right as a hard fighting 10lber graced the net. By this time I was several fish behind Mash who'd drawn 132, my peg yesterday, it appeared the fish were in front of 134 right from the start today. Also Dan Squire on 115 was catching shallow.
Rigs were pretty much as yesterday, except I set up a paste rig right from the off.
I had the fish fizzing, but very few bites, also very few liners, I shipped out the soft pellet rig and had a couple of decent skimmers, I can only assume that they were the culprits for the fizz. I alternated between hard and soft pellet, paste and a couple of spells on the pellet waggler, all for little reward.
I tried meat at 6m and had 3 or 4 missed bites, I tried meat in the LH margin and had three fish in three put ins, one a 8 or 9lber, then all I could get was the constant twtching of the float as roach and skimmers pecked at the meat hookbait.
In the last hour I had a couple of fish on paste, but I was a long way from framing today, It seemed that I had a few bigger fish in the peg, but no quantity. the carp went 49lb odd and my skimmers 12lb odd for a total of 61lb something.
I'm happy to use the costcutters as a practise, trial match, as at £11 they are only £4 more than a dayticket and its possible to try things out under match condidtions - a great idea. Although had I realised how low a weight (in Viaduct terms) was needed to get some beer money I may have not persevered with the paste for so long.
Mash plundered the end bank on the waggler and won with 178lb
1) Mash 178.00 peg 132
2) D Squire 160.10 peg 115
3) T Bruton 91.15 peg 96
4) P Furlong 85.4 peg 98
5) M Nicholls 80.05 peg 116
6) D Wride 80.00 peg 118
Silvers
1) J Green 61.13 peg 78
2) M Nicholls 54.00 peg 116
3) T Bruton 48.06 peg 96
After yesterday, I thought paste might pick out the bigger fish and after waiting nearly an hour, I was proved right as a hard fighting 10lber graced the net. By this time I was several fish behind Mash who'd drawn 132, my peg yesterday, it appeared the fish were in front of 134 right from the start today. Also Dan Squire on 115 was catching shallow.
Rigs were pretty much as yesterday, except I set up a paste rig right from the off.
I had the fish fizzing, but very few bites, also very few liners, I shipped out the soft pellet rig and had a couple of decent skimmers, I can only assume that they were the culprits for the fizz. I alternated between hard and soft pellet, paste and a couple of spells on the pellet waggler, all for little reward.
I tried meat at 6m and had 3 or 4 missed bites, I tried meat in the LH margin and had three fish in three put ins, one a 8 or 9lber, then all I could get was the constant twtching of the float as roach and skimmers pecked at the meat hookbait.
In the last hour I had a couple of fish on paste, but I was a long way from framing today, It seemed that I had a few bigger fish in the peg, but no quantity. the carp went 49lb odd and my skimmers 12lb odd for a total of 61lb something.
I'm happy to use the costcutters as a practise, trial match, as at £11 they are only £4 more than a dayticket and its possible to try things out under match condidtions - a great idea. Although had I realised how low a weight (in Viaduct terms) was needed to get some beer money I may have not persevered with the paste for so long.
Mash plundered the end bank on the waggler and won with 178lb
1) Mash 178.00 peg 132
2) D Squire 160.10 peg 115
3) T Bruton 91.15 peg 96
4) P Furlong 85.4 peg 98
5) M Nicholls 80.05 peg 116
6) D Wride 80.00 peg 118
Silvers
1) J Green 61.13 peg 78
2) M Nicholls 54.00 peg 116
3) T Bruton 48.06 peg 96
Viaduct Wednesday Open, 8th June 2011
25 lined up for the draw for this regular Wednesday open, two sections on Campbell and one on Cary - I was unconcerened which lake I drew, as lately I seem to draw the lake which comes second. Todays result bucked that trend, with both lakes being pretty even.
132 was my home for the day, a end (or corner)peg, the first time I've been on this peg, the usual comments "You'll win from there" "How do you draw those flyers" were bantered around, to those on any pegs with form. Having won money on the two times I've drawn 110 (the end peg on the opposite bank), I expected to catch in a similar fashion, i'e. towards the end bank.
I set up a lead rod - that stayed in sweet repose for 6 hours - so no further mention, a 2 swan dumpy waggler to fish shallow, a rig to fish meat to the end bank, which was a MW power on 0.17 to .015 with a 16 TXR7 hook. A shallow pellet rig which was simply a MW pea on 0.17 straight through to a B960 16, a MW diamond to fish pellet at full depth and a MW slim power on 0.11 to 0.12 power silk with a 18 808 for the devils spawn - should I get desperate!! ( The 0.12 power silk is actually thinner than the 0.11 power line).
I started on the shallow waggler , to no avail, the fish that were showing shallow, were all over by peg 136. I tried the deep pellet rig and had my first fish 35 minutes in, there were fish in the peg at 14m, but not so many that they were causing issues with fouling/false bites. I then tried the shallow pole rig and had one fish, it seemed to be slow going all round the lake, so back on the full depth pellet rig and a another fish - they were small fish though.
Time for a look up to the end bank, this produced 3 fish, which were around the 2lb mark, every 20 minutes or so I had a look towards 134 where I'd been feeding pellet, but there appeared to be no fish there. Still plenty showing between the far bank and 135, but Roger Andonio on 110 wasn't fishing to the end bank, if he was they may have pushed over toward me.
Halfway through, I had an idea that paste might sort out a bigger fish or two, so made some up, I did catch on it, bigger fish, but it was still slow going. At 17.15, with 3/4 of an hour to go, I saw a fish swirl in front of 134, at this point I had 13 fish, suffice to say 3/4 of an hour was two little, too late. The last 45 mins saw 8 fish come to the net, giving me a carp weight of 99.14 and my two skimmers edged the final tally to 101.09, enough for 5th on the day - if only those fish had moved across earlier.
1) Jason Radford 147.09 peg 119
2) Mash 139.02 peg 80
3) Matt Tomes 130.02 peg 76
4) Craig Edmunds 118.12 peg 123
5) Chris Fox 101.09 peg 132
6) Dean Malin 100.15 peg 127
Silvers
1) Craig Edmunds 47.14 peg 123
2) Steve Kedge 40.09 peg 78
132 was my home for the day, a end (or corner)peg, the first time I've been on this peg, the usual comments "You'll win from there" "How do you draw those flyers" were bantered around, to those on any pegs with form. Having won money on the two times I've drawn 110 (the end peg on the opposite bank), I expected to catch in a similar fashion, i'e. towards the end bank.
I set up a lead rod - that stayed in sweet repose for 6 hours - so no further mention, a 2 swan dumpy waggler to fish shallow, a rig to fish meat to the end bank, which was a MW power on 0.17 to .015 with a 16 TXR7 hook. A shallow pellet rig which was simply a MW pea on 0.17 straight through to a B960 16, a MW diamond to fish pellet at full depth and a MW slim power on 0.11 to 0.12 power silk with a 18 808 for the devils spawn - should I get desperate!! ( The 0.12 power silk is actually thinner than the 0.11 power line).
I started on the shallow waggler , to no avail, the fish that were showing shallow, were all over by peg 136. I tried the deep pellet rig and had my first fish 35 minutes in, there were fish in the peg at 14m, but not so many that they were causing issues with fouling/false bites. I then tried the shallow pole rig and had one fish, it seemed to be slow going all round the lake, so back on the full depth pellet rig and a another fish - they were small fish though.
Time for a look up to the end bank, this produced 3 fish, which were around the 2lb mark, every 20 minutes or so I had a look towards 134 where I'd been feeding pellet, but there appeared to be no fish there. Still plenty showing between the far bank and 135, but Roger Andonio on 110 wasn't fishing to the end bank, if he was they may have pushed over toward me.
Halfway through, I had an idea that paste might sort out a bigger fish or two, so made some up, I did catch on it, bigger fish, but it was still slow going. At 17.15, with 3/4 of an hour to go, I saw a fish swirl in front of 134, at this point I had 13 fish, suffice to say 3/4 of an hour was two little, too late. The last 45 mins saw 8 fish come to the net, giving me a carp weight of 99.14 and my two skimmers edged the final tally to 101.09, enough for 5th on the day - if only those fish had moved across earlier.
1) Jason Radford 147.09 peg 119
2) Mash 139.02 peg 80
3) Matt Tomes 130.02 peg 76
4) Craig Edmunds 118.12 peg 123
5) Chris Fox 101.09 peg 132
6) Dean Malin 100.15 peg 127
Silvers
1) Craig Edmunds 47.14 peg 123
2) Steve Kedge 40.09 peg 78
Thursday, 2 June 2011
Landsend Topkit + 1 Open, Wenesday 1st June 2011
The last match that limited everyone to a topkit + 1 seemed to produce a few fish, so I thought I'd have a go at this one. It has to be easier than waving 16 or 17m around, trying to land a pellet on a carps nose in 6" of water aginst the far bank.....
I didn't really fancy drawing one of the 4 pegs on lake 3, for no other reason than my limited experience of it has been pretty negative - but I'd never drawn at the end the 4 pegs were today. So it was obvious wasn't it - peg 42 on lake 3..... It looked ideal for the long pole to the point of the island, although there were a signs of a few silvers topping by the small weed bed to my right at 3m.
I tried to cover all bases and set up a Malman winter wire to fish caster at full depth on 0.10 with a 20 63-13, identical line & hook were used with a small Drennan stillwater blue waggler for up in the water (topkit to hand). A MW slim power on 0.15 to a 16 808 for devils spawn at full length at the 11 o'clock position. I also set up a righ on 0.17/0.15 with a 18 xedion TXR7 hook to fish meat in the margin - which as it was very shallow (12") I wasn't too confident of catching on.
I had Phil (Fabio) Harding to my right and the large outline of a well known Whitehall tackle dealer opposite, Fabio had a confessional session before the start, openly admitting to criminal acts in the last few months - good job the EA weren't listening in...
At the all in, I fed some 3 & 4mm devils spawn and flicked a few casters to the weedbed, starting on the caster I was soon into small roach and rudd, with the odd better (2oz) specimen. I could see Tony catching the odd better silver, suggesting he'd gone to the darkside and was fishing the devils spawn. I switched to the shallow rig and this did produce fish more quickly, they were still small.
No option but to switch to the darkside and try the spawn, this produced some decent skimmers, a lone F1 and a couple of crucians, but bites were harder to come by than on caster. A switch back to the shallow rig and upping the amount of feed, saw 3 or 4 quality rudd to the net, now hoping that some caster had got through the upper layers, I dropped against the weedbed with a worm, 8oz perch first drop in, then a couple of perch so small they wouldn't have registered on the scales.
Alternating between the lines and baits kept bites coming, although at times the fish were small, still it kept my mind off Fabio who was muttering and chuntering to himself, I couldn't help thinking back to reading the hobbit as a schoolboy, was I pegged next to Bristol's very own Gollum. I think Tony must have sold him some rubber hooks, as he lost carp after carp, much to Ricko's amusement.
With about an hour and a half to go, the roach and rudd had become elusive and the devils spawn line had gone quiet - there had been no indication of fish in the peg all day, no bubbles, no blows or fizzing - so it was difficult to tell if they'd gone. I'd been down the margin where I'd been flicking 8mm meat cubes, not so much as a liner, by now Tony was catching carp from his margins and over his main line on meat. Then I hooked a carp on the devils spawn - was that why the peg went quiet, a short tussle saw it in the net, then shortly after, another, I rested the line and dropped back in by the weedbed with a large dendra. This resulted in a lost fish - a big one (isn't that always the way...).
With 3/4 of an hour to go, I saw a swirl in the margin, rudd?, nope, the big orange tail that came out of the water, definitely didn't belong to a rudd. I dropped in with a cube of meat and a 5lber was netted, no more swirls so back on the devils spawn, trying to boost my silverfish total, another carp and a couple more skimmers. Then another swirl in the margin, a bigger tail and the same routine with a fish nearer 8lb gracing the net - too little, too late as the all out was shouted, the margin was now quite evidently home to meat eating carp.
My silvers went 20lb, the 5 carp went 27lb odd, if only they'd showed up with a couple of hours left... Top silvers on the lake and second overall on the lake - not a laudible achievement out of 4 - I had to rush off at the end to go to work, so didn't get the results, see Tony's blog. Although he did ring me to tell me I'd snuck into the money, 2nd in silvers by default and he had some cash for me to spend on ebay......
I didn't really fancy drawing one of the 4 pegs on lake 3, for no other reason than my limited experience of it has been pretty negative - but I'd never drawn at the end the 4 pegs were today. So it was obvious wasn't it - peg 42 on lake 3..... It looked ideal for the long pole to the point of the island, although there were a signs of a few silvers topping by the small weed bed to my right at 3m.
I tried to cover all bases and set up a Malman winter wire to fish caster at full depth on 0.10 with a 20 63-13, identical line & hook were used with a small Drennan stillwater blue waggler for up in the water (topkit to hand). A MW slim power on 0.15 to a 16 808 for devils spawn at full length at the 11 o'clock position. I also set up a righ on 0.17/0.15 with a 18 xedion TXR7 hook to fish meat in the margin - which as it was very shallow (12") I wasn't too confident of catching on.
I had Phil (Fabio) Harding to my right and the large outline of a well known Whitehall tackle dealer opposite, Fabio had a confessional session before the start, openly admitting to criminal acts in the last few months - good job the EA weren't listening in...
At the all in, I fed some 3 & 4mm devils spawn and flicked a few casters to the weedbed, starting on the caster I was soon into small roach and rudd, with the odd better (2oz) specimen. I could see Tony catching the odd better silver, suggesting he'd gone to the darkside and was fishing the devils spawn. I switched to the shallow rig and this did produce fish more quickly, they were still small.
No option but to switch to the darkside and try the spawn, this produced some decent skimmers, a lone F1 and a couple of crucians, but bites were harder to come by than on caster. A switch back to the shallow rig and upping the amount of feed, saw 3 or 4 quality rudd to the net, now hoping that some caster had got through the upper layers, I dropped against the weedbed with a worm, 8oz perch first drop in, then a couple of perch so small they wouldn't have registered on the scales.
Alternating between the lines and baits kept bites coming, although at times the fish were small, still it kept my mind off Fabio who was muttering and chuntering to himself, I couldn't help thinking back to reading the hobbit as a schoolboy, was I pegged next to Bristol's very own Gollum. I think Tony must have sold him some rubber hooks, as he lost carp after carp, much to Ricko's amusement.
With about an hour and a half to go, the roach and rudd had become elusive and the devils spawn line had gone quiet - there had been no indication of fish in the peg all day, no bubbles, no blows or fizzing - so it was difficult to tell if they'd gone. I'd been down the margin where I'd been flicking 8mm meat cubes, not so much as a liner, by now Tony was catching carp from his margins and over his main line on meat. Then I hooked a carp on the devils spawn - was that why the peg went quiet, a short tussle saw it in the net, then shortly after, another, I rested the line and dropped back in by the weedbed with a large dendra. This resulted in a lost fish - a big one (isn't that always the way...).
With 3/4 of an hour to go, I saw a swirl in the margin, rudd?, nope, the big orange tail that came out of the water, definitely didn't belong to a rudd. I dropped in with a cube of meat and a 5lber was netted, no more swirls so back on the devils spawn, trying to boost my silverfish total, another carp and a couple more skimmers. Then another swirl in the margin, a bigger tail and the same routine with a fish nearer 8lb gracing the net - too little, too late as the all out was shouted, the margin was now quite evidently home to meat eating carp.
My silvers went 20lb, the 5 carp went 27lb odd, if only they'd showed up with a couple of hours left... Top silvers on the lake and second overall on the lake - not a laudible achievement out of 4 - I had to rush off at the end to go to work, so didn't get the results, see Tony's blog. Although he did ring me to tell me I'd snuck into the money, 2nd in silvers by default and he had some cash for me to spend on ebay......
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Viaduct, Bank Holiday Monday Open, 30th May 2011
Cary and Lodge were in today, I had no real preference for which, lately, whichever lake I've been on, the other has won. 28 fishing today, I assumed my usual place near the front of the queue for the draw and pulled out 81, a peg that has not been top of everyones wish list recently. It was good to see my old travelling partner and drinking buddy, Graham Hunt today, one of his very rare appearances on a commercial.
I was inclined to fish for silvers, but when I got there, carp were visible, by their black shapes and the large blows off the end of the spit. With the wind off my back, I knew presenting the waggler wouldn't be difficult, so set up a full depth waggler to fish banded 8mm, a lead rod, two similar rigs to fish open water on the pole, MW diamonds one for caster/worm and one for banded pellet. A rig to fish the margins completed the set up.
I fed the margins heavily with caster and included some meat, suffice to say that I had one bite on meat and a couple of very small skimmers and one roach on worm, the margins didn't seem to have any feeding carp or tench in them.
I started the match on the lead, without so much as a liner, so after 20 minutes, switched to the waggler, this produced 5 fish in the first 2 hours, then I started fouling fish, they seemed to be coming up in the water, although I couldn't catch shallow, not even a bite. I then had a tench and a skimmer on the waggler - surely signifying that the carp had moved. All bites on the wag then dried up.
I persevered with the margins, to no avail, tried searching round the peg with the lead, not so much as a liner - the match was rapidly turning into a slog. In desperation, for the last hour I tried 6mm devils spawn, at 14.5m where I'd been feeding 6mm hard pellet and 3mm devils spawn. I had a few skimmers until the end of the match, although a carp did move in and push them out for 20 minutes. To really rub salt in the wounds, I was on the next peg to the winner (although the spit had meant I didn't know until the end), although I managed to avoid the battering either side by beating peg 85, with my 5 carp going 40.10 and 11.14 of skimmers and a tench for 51.14.
It will be good to get some settled weather and the spawning season behind us, as the fishing at most venues has been inconsistent lately.
1) P Cardwell 131.04 peg 80
2) J Parkin 127.04 peg 76
3) R Hayward 125.06 peg 102
4) C Davis 119.14 peg 99
5) D Bull 95.13 peg 105
6) D Vickery 83.09 peg 86
Silvers
1) J Green 49.12 peg 100
2) G Hunt 39.11 peg 68
3) N Easton 39.03 peg 69
4) R Coles 32.09 peg 97
I was inclined to fish for silvers, but when I got there, carp were visible, by their black shapes and the large blows off the end of the spit. With the wind off my back, I knew presenting the waggler wouldn't be difficult, so set up a full depth waggler to fish banded 8mm, a lead rod, two similar rigs to fish open water on the pole, MW diamonds one for caster/worm and one for banded pellet. A rig to fish the margins completed the set up.
I fed the margins heavily with caster and included some meat, suffice to say that I had one bite on meat and a couple of very small skimmers and one roach on worm, the margins didn't seem to have any feeding carp or tench in them.
I started the match on the lead, without so much as a liner, so after 20 minutes, switched to the waggler, this produced 5 fish in the first 2 hours, then I started fouling fish, they seemed to be coming up in the water, although I couldn't catch shallow, not even a bite. I then had a tench and a skimmer on the waggler - surely signifying that the carp had moved. All bites on the wag then dried up.
I persevered with the margins, to no avail, tried searching round the peg with the lead, not so much as a liner - the match was rapidly turning into a slog. In desperation, for the last hour I tried 6mm devils spawn, at 14.5m where I'd been feeding 6mm hard pellet and 3mm devils spawn. I had a few skimmers until the end of the match, although a carp did move in and push them out for 20 minutes. To really rub salt in the wounds, I was on the next peg to the winner (although the spit had meant I didn't know until the end), although I managed to avoid the battering either side by beating peg 85, with my 5 carp going 40.10 and 11.14 of skimmers and a tench for 51.14.
It will be good to get some settled weather and the spawning season behind us, as the fishing at most venues has been inconsistent lately.
1) P Cardwell 131.04 peg 80
2) J Parkin 127.04 peg 76
3) R Hayward 125.06 peg 102
4) C Davis 119.14 peg 99
5) D Bull 95.13 peg 105
6) D Vickery 83.09 peg 86
Silvers
1) J Green 49.12 peg 100
2) G Hunt 39.11 peg 68
3) N Easton 39.03 peg 69
4) R Coles 32.09 peg 97
Monday, 30 May 2011
Viaduct Match Lake, Sunday 29th May 2011
An Avon Angling open (or Tony Rixon Pension Fund...)on Viaduct match lake had me fancying some silvers action, although when I drew peg 46 the consensus was that it wasn't the best of draws. Eddy Wynne said "I'll shake your hand if you get a weight from that peg" - a pint would have been better, but the challenge was on.
Not surprisingly, no island chuck for me (I've never drawn one on this lake), but I still set up a feeder to fish groundbait and dead maggot in open water, as it was forecast to be windy - although as usual, the weathermen were wide of the mark. I'd brough one waggler rod, in case it was windy and I'd got an island chuck (I can dream). I'd opted to bring my latest addition to my rod collection (from ebay)a Normark Avenger. This had a 3AAA insert peacock on 0.15 main line to a 0.12 hooklength and a 18 63-13 hook.
The pole rigs were simple, a sensas pencil to fish caster if the wind allowed, a MW diamond to fish caster, dead maggot or, as a last resort, devils spawn. I also set up a nondescript float to fish down the edge, but never hd a bite down there, so no more of that.
I started on the feeder after cupping in some g/bait and dead maggot at 11m towards my left and g/bait with caster to the right, again at 11m. The feeder produced a couple of knocks and a small skimmer, but it didn't seem right, I kept at it for half an hour to let the pole lines settle, before chucking it up the bank. I dropped in over the g/bait and dead maggot, with live double maggot on the hook and had 3 or 4 decent skimmers one after the other, then a wait, then a couple more, this pattern continued for an hour or so, but the biteless gaps got longer and the fish came in ones.
Peg 47 had started catching skimmers by this time, after a fruitless go on the shallow wag to the island, I looked over the g/bait and caster line, to no avail - infact I' won't mention it again, as I didn't catch anything from it. Martin McMahon was catching carp & F1's on the feeder from his island chuck on peg 45.
I wondered if I could pull the fish away from the island, so started loose feeding caster at the limit of my peg, the decision to bring the Avenger was the wrong one, I had three bites in the first three put ins and lost the hook on the strike on two and a broken hooklength on the third as the carp ran towards the island. I think using the 0.12 hooklength, I'd have been better with a Microlight. Probably cost me third place......
I upped the hooklength to 0.13 and didn't lose any more hooks, but got less bites, by keeping the caster going in by catapult, I managed a few more skimmers and a 4lb carp.
I thought the decent spell on skimmers that peg 47 had would beat me, but my run of fish on the waggler just got me 2nd in the silvers, picking up the first place money by default, as Ricko's pension fund was swelled by him winning the silvers and the match - even though the draw was a bit dubious..... Can Dean read braille???
1) Tony Rixon 43.10 peg 51
2) Martin McMahon 35.13 peg 45
3)= Dean Malin 29.03 peg 52
3)= Tom Mangnall 29.03 peg 40
5) Eddie Wynne 26.10 peg 48
6) Chris Fox 25.11 peg 46
Silvers
1) Tony Rixon 38.06 peg 51
2) Chris Fox 21.00 peg 46
Not surprisingly, no island chuck for me (I've never drawn one on this lake), but I still set up a feeder to fish groundbait and dead maggot in open water, as it was forecast to be windy - although as usual, the weathermen were wide of the mark. I'd brough one waggler rod, in case it was windy and I'd got an island chuck (I can dream). I'd opted to bring my latest addition to my rod collection (from ebay)a Normark Avenger. This had a 3AAA insert peacock on 0.15 main line to a 0.12 hooklength and a 18 63-13 hook.
The pole rigs were simple, a sensas pencil to fish caster if the wind allowed, a MW diamond to fish caster, dead maggot or, as a last resort, devils spawn. I also set up a nondescript float to fish down the edge, but never hd a bite down there, so no more of that.
I started on the feeder after cupping in some g/bait and dead maggot at 11m towards my left and g/bait with caster to the right, again at 11m. The feeder produced a couple of knocks and a small skimmer, but it didn't seem right, I kept at it for half an hour to let the pole lines settle, before chucking it up the bank. I dropped in over the g/bait and dead maggot, with live double maggot on the hook and had 3 or 4 decent skimmers one after the other, then a wait, then a couple more, this pattern continued for an hour or so, but the biteless gaps got longer and the fish came in ones.
Peg 47 had started catching skimmers by this time, after a fruitless go on the shallow wag to the island, I looked over the g/bait and caster line, to no avail - infact I' won't mention it again, as I didn't catch anything from it. Martin McMahon was catching carp & F1's on the feeder from his island chuck on peg 45.
I wondered if I could pull the fish away from the island, so started loose feeding caster at the limit of my peg, the decision to bring the Avenger was the wrong one, I had three bites in the first three put ins and lost the hook on the strike on two and a broken hooklength on the third as the carp ran towards the island. I think using the 0.12 hooklength, I'd have been better with a Microlight. Probably cost me third place......
I upped the hooklength to 0.13 and didn't lose any more hooks, but got less bites, by keeping the caster going in by catapult, I managed a few more skimmers and a 4lb carp.
I thought the decent spell on skimmers that peg 47 had would beat me, but my run of fish on the waggler just got me 2nd in the silvers, picking up the first place money by default, as Ricko's pension fund was swelled by him winning the silvers and the match - even though the draw was a bit dubious..... Can Dean read braille???
1) Tony Rixon 43.10 peg 51
2) Martin McMahon 35.13 peg 45
3)= Dean Malin 29.03 peg 52
3)= Tom Mangnall 29.03 peg 40
5) Eddie Wynne 26.10 peg 48
6) Chris Fox 25.11 peg 46
Silvers
1) Tony Rixon 38.06 peg 51
2) Chris Fox 21.00 peg 46
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