Tony Rixon's Short Pole League, R2, Trinity Waters, Sunday 27th June 2021

 I used to be quite a regular here, but what with other commitments and not so many opens on here, I don't get down too often. It's an old brick pit, so a bit deeper than most commercials, although some of the work done on the lake and the silting up that is impossible to avoid has reduced the depth from when I first started fishing it.

Its also not had a stocking for a while and has a head of big carp, but no smaller ones to stir them up and as we know, big carp can be moody and have days they don't really feed for the duration of the match.  With 24 on today and restricted to 3 sections + topkit, I suspected a tough day and thought 2 or 3 converted bites an hour would be enough.

Paste, pellets and dead maggots would be my mainstay baits, with some worms for the hook, you can use meat here, but I have never caught on it (although a few years back, Coshida was a decent margin bait, so catmeat was OK).

Paste rig and pellet rig for on the deck, rig for each margin, as they were different depths (small moan here - I was on peg 13, the only peg in the section without a spare peg one side..... but it's tricky to peg it any other way, so it is not a serious moan).

Well, 30 minutes in and a double figure fish in the net on past, nice, but usually on here when you feed you get the jacuzzi effect, not today. I gave it until the hour mark and switched to a line away from the paste, fishing 6mm banded pellet, another carp, so slow but steady progress.

Lets now jump several biteless hours, where I tried everything and could not get even a liner.  The Grand Prix was on in my headphones, so I at least had some entertainment, I potted a 3/4 of a big pot of dampened 4's in, shit or bust really and did get some activity in the peg, hooking a another double on worm over the pellet, hook pulled at the net, so that summed up the day, I hooked and lost a fouler and then nothing again.  Had one 5 minutes from the end on paste, so 4 bites in 6 hours, not my idea of fun really.  I couldn't even catch a skimmer on bits of worm.

The lake fished hard, back there for R3 in two weeks, so may have to rethink the approach, but in all fairness it fished hard for most.

Tony Rixon's Float Only R2, Shiplate Farm, Sunday 20th June 2021

 Shiplate Farm today for the second round of Tony's popular float only league, this is a lovely fishery near Weston-Super-Mare, right on the banks of the river Axe.

I was hoping for a draw on the main lake, big carp and a big head of skimmers, suits me perfectly. second to that, either of the two canals, what I wanted to avoid was the 5 pegs on the lake know as Squircle.  Where did I draw, yep, from a 1/8 chance, Squircle 9.

X marks the spot where my peg was, less than 10m wide, the lake holds small carp, some ornamentals and very few silvers.  I banked on pellets and set up 3 rigs to fish different depths on the far slope, from tight to the bank in 8" of water, one at about 14" and another at 18".  I did set a rig at depth to fish maggot short.

I wasn't enthused at all by the peg/lake and started short, had a couple of goldfish and two unexpected skimmers, but it wasn't ever going to be productive enough to compete.  Switched to fishing pellet over - hardly a hardship at 9m.... this wasn't much quicker and I doubt I had 4lb in the first hour,

I persisted with this, but could see Paul on peg 14 catching better fish on meat, 14 is on the opposite bank where the lake opens up a little wider.  I hadn't brought a meat cutter, but had in anticipation of a draw on the main lake, brought some meat already cut up to 8mm.  I did get of my box and set up another rig to fish this, but by now my frustration at drawing the bloody fishpond, not being able to get a signal to listen to the GP and the ducks, the f##king ducks.....  

I am usually pretty laid back with ducks, I don't think the fish mind them, because this lake is shallow and it has a head of ducks that would put a duck farm to shame, meant that it was impossible to feed any other line than that which you fished at the time.  If I fished short and fed over, the ducks would be diving and eating al the bait and vice versa.  I did have some better fish (1lb - 2lb), but I took too long to change to the meat and just lost my head with it and beat myself.  Not sure I could have beaten the end pegs, but if I had not got myself so pissed off, I could have pushed them a lot closer.

Some great weights of skimmers of the main lake, whilst the carp didn't really feed well on the other lakes.

Ivy House Open, Saturday 19th June 2021

Back to Ivy House for an open on the Old Match Lake, found a diversion set up as the road through Sutton Benger was closed, bloody hell, it was a 10 or 12 mile detour, I was so late Karen rang me to make sure I was still coming to the match! 

Peg 2 for me today, with the temperature having dropped and the threat of some rain, I wasn't sure that 2 was a favoured draw, although there were a few blows and signs of fish, so I was hopeful that I could get a few out.

With the island well out of pole reach I set up a method and a bomb - neither of which were cast in , so that's them forgotten about - those rods must get fed up coming along for the ride, being set up and then put away again at the end unused..... 😀  Also a waggler rod.

Pole rigs were a rig to fish the edges, one for pellets at 5m and one for pellets at 14.5m.  Nice and simple.

Started at 5m with 8mm as sometimes this throws up a fish or two, it did today, but skimmers not the expected and wanted carp.  After 20 minutes I switched to the waggler and gave that a good go, but never had a bite on it.  

Onto the 14m line and again. skimmers in place of carp, with two hours gone I decided to switch to fishing for skimmers and set up a new line at 11m with some GB and maggots, it wasn't manic and I had to sit and wait for bites, worm was the best hookbait and the fish were all a reasonable stamp.  I did land 3 smallish carp that muscled in on the act, but was never pestered by them.

Even though the bites weren't coming that often, I had to feed after every one or else they dried up completely.  Never felt there were that many fish over the bait, as you usually get liners and indications when you have skimmers in the peg.

Come the end, it proved to be the right decision to switch to silvers, as two corner pegs took first and second overall and I don't think I could have got to their weights.

Enjoyable day and it didn't rain!

Open, Landsend Lake 3, Sunday 13th June 2021

Yesterday should have been the final round of the delayed Acorn winter league, but with the fishery closed for a couple of weeks it was decided to end the league after 5 rounds, leaving me in second place, can't grumble a nice pick up to come and you can't keep rearranging leagues and expecting everyone to be available,

 Back to my love / hate venue today, love the tranquillity of its location on the moors, but my record there isn't the best.... more of a knock up than a match, with 12 fishing.

Travelled down with Tony, had a great breakfast at the venue and wasn't surprised when Tony drew 58 for what seems like the third time running, whilst I had 70, which doesn't often seem feature in the frame.  There is a weedbed off to your right and a spit at 14m in front, bit hemmed in, when I got there and saw the carp spawning in the weedbed, I decided to fish for silvers, which also includes F1's on this venue.  Its had a stocking of F1's and some that look like crucians, so I expected to have a few bites.

Not too much to say, its fished pretty tough, I had to tosspot in groundbait and maggots to get bites, but they weren't exactly going mad, the cap stopped spawning, then they and the ducks were slurping in the weedbed eating it all.....

I tried pellets and other lines, I expected to catch shallow, but the water was very clear - unusually so for a commercial this time of year - I certainly couldn't catch short, never had a bite closer than 11m.

Wasn't sure what weight I had come the end, but knew it wasn't a lot, but it was enough to justify the decision to fish for silvers and pocket the one payout for silvers, Tony won the match so a contented van on the way home.

Ivy House Festival, 7th - 11th June 2021

 5 days of fishing at Ivy House, I'd not had a chance to get up there so wasn't fully au fait with the current trends and what the latest developments Andy has done, as he's always tweaking something.  I decided that most lakes would be either a pellet or maggot approach, so that was my mainstay baits.

Its just under an hours drive - as long as I leave before the Bristol rush hour traffic, so an early start every day, the rotation was drawn before, so I knew which lakes on which days, Kingfisher - Heron - Willow - Heron - Old Match Lake.

Happy to start on Kingfisher, its been OK to me in the past, its a canal type lake, but it doesn't have a shelf across, so its tricky to catch over there without getting foul hookers, I tend to start over there and come off it when it dies off or the foul hookers start.  It has a decent number of skimmers in and they can be very much needed to make up the weight.  As I was so early arriving, I walked the lake and noted that 37 and 39 had plenty of signs of fish blowing, 41 and 42 are decent draws, whilst there wasn't so much activity in the higher numbers.

I drew 45, not my favourite area and I thought it would be tough to compete with Ryan on 41, as well as 37 and 39.  I started across on 6mm pellet and had a couple, but it was slow, so I switched to maggots short, this brought a run of skimmers and small carp, but was never going to last, it does come and go, like many canal lakes where you need to switch lines to keep fish coming.  I tried pellets down the middle and that was pretty much a waste of time, having just the one fish on it.

I had to go back across and I was catching odd fish, but Steve Hutter on 48 was now catching on caster, as was Ryan on 41 - problem was I didn't have any caster, I am sure if I had some and fished it shallow, I could have pushed for more than the 91.00 and 5 points I achieved.  Disappointing start and I could and should have done better, by at least a couple of points.

Tuesday and the first of 2 sections on Heron, which is the newest lake at Ivy and has a head of small carp and F1's - its a busy lake and probably the lake I'd consider my weakest, I'm not overly keen on these fish race lakes, especially when there are no lumps to drag you back in it, if fallen behind,  towards the end.

The info was you need to catch the F1's as they are a better stamp of fish, but they do live up to their reputation of pellet lickers, being the frustrating source of many, many  missed bites.  Peg 24 for me and a bit of space to my left, I set up rigs to fish pellets shallow and maggots short.  I started on the maggots short and had a run of fish on this, when it slowed up I tried for 75 minutes to make the shallow pellets work, but the bites were few and far between and I only hit 1/10.  I switched back to maggots short and putting some nuggets of GB in increased the number of bites and come the weigh-in  I was cursing the decision to spend that 75 minutes where I only put 9lb in the net, ended up with 103.04 which was equal 4th beaten by two fishing caster shallow and two fishing paste, I could/should have had more points had I not be tempted to try the shallow line.

Wednesday - Willow, this one I was looking forward to, proper fishing for bigger carp, the consensus was there were a couple of pegs you didn't want and 33 was one of them, 33 was where I ended up.  I was disappointed to find there was nigh on 4' in the margins and the bankside foliage meant that was only a topkit either side (if I had a say in it, the edges would be trimmed back to allow good access to the margins on all pegs).  The island point was within easy chuck of a feeder, bomb or waggler.

To cut a boring tale short, I managed on on the feeder and one down the edge after an hour or so, then went 3 1/2 hours without a bite and it really felt like I wouldn't get one.  Really couldn't see the point in sitting there when I could see Dave on 23 having one a bung down his edge and I knew my two 8lbers wouldn't be costing anyone any position in the section if I slipped them back and headed home 45 minutes early.  Found several cans of Double Punk (8.2%) in the fridge and polished them off.  Resounding last in section and maybe I could have fished 16m shallow all day and hoped something swimming past grabbed the bait, but that really isn't for me.

Thursday - Heron again!!  So after the caster thrashing on Tuesday, I purchased 4 pints of 'shells' and intended to empty the peg (9) of the pellet licking sods.  Peg 9 is one of the widest pegs on the lake, but I felt that only the pole would be quick enough, so rods left in the van.

Started short on maggots whilst I primed the shallow line, left it nearly an hour before going out shallow, had a F1, a couple of missed bites and then the fish backed off and were swirling just beyond the feed, added pole sections and chased them out, in the end, after a couple more fish and some wasted time, they backed off well past the 16m pole limit, so I binned it and went back on the short line fishing maggots.  Beaten again by two fishing shallow and a paste angler, although this time the shallow anglers had caught on pellets - I really didn't get this right bait wise and I either need to bin going to F1 lakes or learn how to catch them..... 100.08 for 5 points ( the sheet below is wrong...)

Friday - Old Match Lake

Peg 12, next to Venue owner Andy who was on 10.  

I suspect that as there was a breeze blowing towards the far bank, that I would have to fish to the island to catch.  I set up a waggler, a method and a straight lead, as well as a rig to fish towards the right hand corner of the island, but at 16m that was a metre or so off it.

I started short on 8mm pellets hoping for a quick fish, but all that produced was a skimmer.  Tried the waggler, feeder and lead to island to no avail, decided I needed to get as close as possible with the pole, so set up another rig and plumbed up in front of the clump of rushes.  

By fishing 16m, leaning forward on my box and holding the pole as far forward as I could manage, I did have a few fish on pellets right in front of the rushes, couldn't catch in the margins, so had to stick at it all day.  I do know I couldn't have done this with my Tournament, the Browning Sphere is a easier to fish at length.

I misjudged the size of the fish and thought I may have had 120lb, but ended up with 108lb odd, once again I cost myself points, as had I fished the same line right from the start, I'm sure I could have taken been second on the lake rather than fourth.

So, a great week for the weather, company and fishing, but not so good for being competitive, felt I was jut off the pace for four of the days and out of the game completely on the Wednesday.

Well done tp Trig for winning and the other framers, full details on Ivy House Facebook page.

Open, Shiplate Farm, Sunday 30th May 2021

 Tony ran this open over both canals, with a continental pay-out, so not too concerned where I drew, Judith did the draw and plucked me out peg 9 on Hawthorns, not fished it loads, so I don't really have entrenched opinions on any of the pegs.

Peg 9 doesn't have any margins as such - at least, nor ones you can reach to fish, by dint of being set back slightly and having an aerator rope across from the lake, I did cut back a few overhanging fronds to get me tight to the bank, but it was only a topkit distance.  Far too deep really, the edge is a steep slope that the plummet tumbles down, so I set up where I could pull it into the slope, at over 3' it was far too deep, but it was all I had.

Plumbing up across, I had no bare bank, so got tight into the rushes, but again, too deep, being over 2'.  I also set up a shallow rig and a mugging rig, as the sun was up and the fish were more interested in cruising and pairing up than was good for fishing.

Started across on the hard pellet, had a couple, but then as was always likely, a flurry of foul hookers, none of which were landed, I tried the shallow rig across, but that was no good.  I tried the meat line I'd been feeding, not so much as a liner, didn't really expect one I suppose.  I tried mugging fish, I couldn't even manage that.

Matt next door was catching on caster shallow - although that knowledge wasn't much use to me, as I had no casters, I did try it with maggots, but never had a bite.  It does create a range of opinion, that Matt brings a gallon of casters with him and often does well - some seem absolutely obsessed with the cost of them - I personally wouldn't spend that on casters for a 20 pegger, but would happily do it for league, team match or big open, but each to his own.  I recall similar moans and groans about bloodworm and joker.

I managed a couple more across on banded pellet and 4 down the edge on maggots, never had a bite on meat.  I also had a chub that was probably 10 or 12oz.

Come the weigh in, I put one net of carp on the scales and with the agreement of the scalesmen, put the chub on top.  Total weight of 73.08.

That ended up third on the lake - so one out of the money in the overall, as the continental payout was top four, not weighing that chub separately cost me 2nd in the silvers, as even though there were two silvers anglers on my lake, they never caught one, the only other silver was a chub caught by Matt on the next peg who battered me (and everyone else) with his casters,

I'd had a feeling all day of something not being quite right and that proved to be true, needed one more fish or to have weighed the bloody chub separately.....

Acorn Winter League, Penultimate Round, Saturday 29th May 2021

 Well, it didn't feel like winter today, so very cloud having a silver lining and all that, I was 4th in the league going into this match and knowing it was a tough section, with the chance of peg 15 or one side of the bride chucking up a weight.  I drew 26, at least the wind was blowing down towards my end, so hopefully a few fish might follow it down.  26 has a long curved edge and with 27 not drawn I did have plenty of room.  I have drawn it once before, almost exactly a year ago and was 5th with 109lb.

Peg 26 circled red

Todays approach was going to be pretty simple, hard pellets and live maggots.  Two identical rigs for across, home made floats wit a 0.13 hooklength and a 18 LWG, one with a band and one without.  A rig for the bottom of the near shelf, which is the deepest part of the peg - a Roob, again with a 0.13 hooklength and a 18 LWG.  A carbon stemmed Roob for halfway down the shelf and a margin rig.

I started across on banded pellet and it wasn't long before I had a 6lb ghostie, but it wasn't a portent of things to come, as the indications usually expected across weren't forthcoming, I stuck at it and had a Carassio and another carp, but that was it and with a couple of hours gone it wasn't looking good, although I couldn't see anyone else catching well in the section.

A switch to the maggot rig and toss potting maggots across, saw a couple more fish in the net and a few silvers, I reckon going into the last hour I had 30lb of carp and 8lb silvers, I started feeding a short line with maggots, at the bottom of the shelf, this gave me 5 carp for another 30lb in the last hour and the all important section win.

That leaves me in second place going into the last match, so all to fish for.

Tony Rixon's Float Only, Sedges, Sunday 23rd May 2021

 Just looked back to see how long since I was last at sedges and it is nearly two years, where does the time go....

I like the venue, well looked after, usually a good days fishing, but it does seem a little dominated by the corners and I expected the same today, especially given the weather forecast which wouldn't have sounded out of place on the shipping forecast, with a very brisk wind and rain.

Well, I wasn't surprised when I didn't draw a corner and even more frustrating was seeing peg 28 on the drawcard, a good feeder peg!  The island is reachable easily with a waggler, but that was going to be a pointless ask today.

I did set up a pellet waggler, in the vain hope the wind would drop or the fish were so desperately hungry they'd grab a pellet as it landed or with it trotting through like the Wye with 8' on.....  Also set up a full depth waggler again to fish pellet.

Topkits were quite simple - a shallow rig that didn't get used, a margin rig, a Roob for meat short and a Roob for banded pellet at 11m - never got more than that out of the bag.

On the all in I did start on the pellet waggler, I could get to the island and get 8mm pellets there, but it was going to as pointless as I thought, even feeding a bow out to try and get the float to sit still for a few seconds didn't help and I soon abandoned it.

Onto the pellet line at 11m, took ages to get a bite and when I did it was a 2lb eel, in fantastic condition, really good to see them thriving in Sedges. I did gat a carp on it, but was finding it tough going.  I tried the meat short and had one leather carp on that, but it was the only bite, so back onto the 11m line, this did start to see some indication's as I upped the feed a little, but the wind was tricky, couple ore fish and as I could find a bit of trip against the wind, I put the waggler over the line and tried a metre past.  

Couple of fish on the waggler and the wind got up even more, that put paid to the trip, so waggler back up the bank and an 11m battle resumed, I am sure if I could have fished a bomb and pellet I'd have been catching quicker.  I gave my body a bit of respite and dropped back onto the 5m line, had three or four skimmers before that died completely.  By now it was all but impossible to fish at 11m and the fish didn't seem to want to come any closer, I managed one that I took to the scales and weighed from the margin (14.08 - you have to weigh fish bigger than 15lb and put them back), but probably spent too long there, I should have tried to persevere with the 11m line, although the pole was continually being blown round.

Anyway, end the day with 92lb second in section, so not the start I wanted, but it could have been worse, the section winner also won the silvers, so a default section pick up coming my way.  The results took ages to get out as the rain destroyed some of the weigh sheets and I don't have all the sheets, as predicted the top four weights were from corners and my 92lb was 7th overall, (40 fishing).

1. J Andre 146.10                                                                                                                                          2. Joe McMahon 140.08                                                                                                                                3. Tom Thick 139.00                                                                                                                                      4. Matt Tomes 132.01                                                                                                                                    5. Aaron Britnell 112.02                                                                                                                                6. Ryan Shipp 109.10                                                                                                                                 

Maesknoll Summer Open, Acorn, Saturday 22nd May 2021

Second of my summer opens at Acorn, 21 fishing, the only downside is that the weather is cocking a snook at the match titles, with summer seeming some way off......

Nice straight forward draw and I ended up on peg 13, these matches are opens, but with a optional series element running alongside - best 4 of 6 results to count and I'd already nailed on one dropper with the last match!!  I was hopeful that the wind would push the fish into the corner, although I couldn't go to the corner as it was past the pallet of the empty peg 12, I was hoping they'd drop down to 12 for a feed.

As the wind was pretty much straight at me, no issue holding the pole across, so set up two identical rigs, some homemade floats on 0.19, with a 18LWG tied to 0.13, one with a band, one without.  A rig to fish down the far shelf, same lines and strengths, but a carbon stemmed Malman Roob for this, another rig, this time a wire stemmed RW Dink, to fish the near shelf bottom and finally a Hill Billy AK47 to fish up to the pallet of 12, again on 0.19, but a Kaizen 16 on 0.13 for this rig, I like the wider gape for bunches of maggots and meat (although not today, meat banned at Acorn).

Started across tapping in a few 4mm pellets with a 6mm in the band, as seems normal now on this venue, had a couple of indications, a fish, a fouler and then nothing, they just won't settle in that shallower water at the moment, but they don't seem to want to feed in deeper water either....  Switched to micros and soft pellet, had a carrusio and a carp on this, but it was frustrating getting bites (nuisance fish) and the pellet coming off, how much easier is it fishing a banded pellet.... 😀

As 13 has a bit of room, I fed the edge sooner than I would normally, and started fishing maggots at the bottom of the near shelf of to my right at topkit + 1.  The edge was sadly a waste of time, I had one fish from it, the only bite, by far and away the best line was the short line where I kept live maggots going in.  That saw a few carp, decent roach, little tench and a couple of skimmers grace the net, at one time I thought it was getting stronger, but it died off and never came back, giving me a lean last hour or so.

Ended up putting 84.04 on the scales, pipped by 2oz for 3rd, I guess I could have had some more to push Des, but who knows.....

Its a bit meaningless until we have several more rounds, but the league standings are.

Acorn Winter League R4, Saturday 15th May 2021

 Back to Acorn for round 4 of the rearranged winter league, free draw this week before two rotations to finish the league off. I wanted to draw B section, so my rotation would be B,C & A, but no, I was drawn peg 5 in A section, its a good peg, but I just didn't fancy it today because the wind was off my back., This meant there was little ripple and the wind was pushing into the corner between 11/12.  There was a visible wind line taking the bit and pieces floating on the surface just past me and down to the corner.  Peg 5 is the one over the bridge and 9 is the other I have highlighted, tye corner past 9 is between 11 and 12.

 

I would usually rely on a hard pellet approach here, but maggots have also been catching fish, so I had both and having been beaten by peg 5 in the last match, I also had some paste, although that would be a last resort / throwaway line.

Started across on hard pellet and had a 7lb ghostie first put in, great start, I had 20lb after the first hour, all on hard pellet across and that was alright, the lake was fishing hard, I had 5lb in the next 30 minutes then nothing until 13:00, I switched from the far side top feeding maggots out of my hand off to my left - there is a big, flat shelf to the left of peg 5 and I fish right on the edge where it drops of sharply. 

From 13:00 to 14:00 I had 40lb and I was doing well, I was fairly confident that I'd keep them coming on maggots, but by 14:00 the bites had dried up, oddly, if I fished across, Paul on 9 stopped getting bites over there and got indications if I came short and it was the same for me when he fished short and long - odd as I would have ex[ected the fish to either settle or move between us.

The last 2.5 hours were a disaster, I really struggled and didn't have a carp from 14:00-15:30, last hour I had a couple of small carp and some carassios, I could see the others in the section catching in their edges, I never had a bite to my left hand edge and had to stand up to fish over a big clump of tall grasses to fish to my right in the edge, where I had one bite and one carp less that 3lb, whilst I could see some approaching doubles coming out elsewhere in the section.

I knew come the end that this was a bit of a disaster and would likely be my dropper, frustrating as I wasn't as far behind as I thought, that said, not sure what I could have done to eke out a few more fish in those barren spells, it was if they'd gone from the peg.  Paul on 9 was equally struggling and whilst I was 5th on the day, that was also 5th in section, so I am looking at two very good results the last two rounds to end up in the frame.

1. Glen Calvert 93 -07 p6 2. Bob Gullick 89-07 p1 3. Brian Slipper 87-07 p3 4. Kev Perry 83-04 p11 5. Chris Fox 77-05 p5 6. Darren Vowles 65-03 p22

Tony Rixon's Short Pole Series, R1, Sunday 9th May 2021

 First round of the short pole league today, over two lakes at Todber, Ash and Homeground, wasn't too fussed where I drew, but when 83 came out of the tub, I did think it might be the wrong end of the lake. Can't be much simpler than a short pole match, topkit + up to 3 sections allowed.

Topkits set up for margin, which was shallower than I would have liked, as a cold wind was blowing at me, two pellet rigs, one for topkit and one for topkit+3.  Meat rig also set up, to fish at topkit+2.

Started on the topkit with pellet and had a fish first put in, which was a bit of a false dawn, as I only put 20lb in the net in the first hour and even fed the margin early, but to no avail, gradually the topkit+3 line started producing fish, ranging from 3lb - 7lb, I had a couple of looks back in the margin but the wait for a fish was too long and then they were small, so I had 4 fish from the margin throughout the match, whilst the pellet line in open water was much stronger.

I fed through a toss pot, a medium Matrix pot filled up with 6mm Coppens each put in, last 40 minutes I dropped back onto the topkit line, which I'd been feeding by hand and had a decent run of fish, maybe I should have dropped back on it earlier.

Come the weigh in I put 224.14 on the scales, which was enough for 3rd in the match, but only second in section, beaten by Martin on 82.  

Main Lake Open, Shiplate Farm, Monday 3rd May 2021

Just for a change... (not) I drew as far away from where the winners come from - peg 8.  I decided straight away that fishing for silvers would be my best bet to pick up.  It was a windy day, so I decided not to venture past 11m, with a line at 6m, and a rig to fish casters very short down the LH edge.

Feeding GB laced with dead maggots and casters, it was soon apparent by the rig that the water was towing hard from R to L, the peg had a bit of 'fizz' but it was coming up about 4' from where I was feeding, suggesting the tow was spreading the bait along the bottom.

I found a light 4x12 strung out rig best, as the fish weren't keen on picking up a bait static on the deck, I had started in a cage feeder, but felt it wasn't right, the light rig was picking up fish myuch better than a bulk rig and I stuck with it throughout.

The caster line short was only giving up small fish, the 6m line did produce a couple of fish, but the 11m line was by far and away the best.  I had fed a line at 11m off to the right, with micros, I tried expander and corn over it, only two skimmers from that, but two carp, hopefully it was keeping the carp off the skimmer line.

Picked up two tench near the end and a bream of 5.05, giving me a total of 44.05, with travelling partner Tony taking second in silvers with 29.09, so a happy van on the way home.

Jon Darby's Open, Todber Manor, Sunday 2nd May 2021

One of Darby's opens on Todber Hillview, not being a regular visitor the draw of 55 didn't mean too much to me, travelling partner Tony on 54 and Mark Wynne the other side on 57.

I did set up a straight lead, but never picked it up, so the pole was my only approach, I struggled to get a regular run of fish on the pellet in front and meat wasn't much better.  I kept at it and probably took too long to go up the LH margin, where I fed Gb and maggots, that was a mistake, the fish were coming off the bottom and giving me liners, I switched to meat, which I was also feeding short in my RH margin, this was also resulting in liners and missed 'bites'

I opened a can of corn and that seemed to settle things down, catching reasonably steadily, before having a run of fish in the RH edge on my topkit.  Took me too long to sort it out and that cost me a pickup, coming 5th overall and one out of the money, being beaten for the section.

Acorn Winter League, R3, Saturday 1st May 2021

 This delayed winter league is definitely more of a spring league now, but with the frosts every night in April, the fish are still stuck in limbo, between winter mode and spring on many venues.

My turn to be in the section that runs from peg 1 -13, I was not too bothered where I drew, although in that section I would rather not have peg 6, so what do I have drawn for me, yep, 6. Which is top left corner on the satellite picture below, with a video view from today.

Acorn Paddock Fishery

Simple bait tray, pellets and maggots,  I would usually only take hard pellets, but given the water temp I had micros and expanders with me...

Set up two identical rigs, homemade (assembled) floats to fish across into the cut out in the grass I trimmed up with shears before the start, one with a band and one without,  A shallow rig, a full depth rig to fish against the bridge and a rig for down the edge, with that I found 3 areas the same depth - across to the right. very short to my left and down to the pallet of 7.

Started across on soft pellet, potting in a few micros, this usually brings an instant response, but not today,  A switch to maggots on the hook and potting them in did at least see a decent fish around 6lb netted.  It was slow going and I added a couple more fish, the depth rig by the bridge was used as a rotation and I fed a small ball of GB there, it was fizzing, but bites we few and far between, small tench and a couple of skimmers along with the smallest carp of the day (1lb or so). 

The right margin only gave up one fish, the short margin nothing, but I did have a run of fish from the pallet of 7, again on maggots, the only bait I could catch on. 

At the all out I had 71lb on the clicker and thought I had 6lb or so of silvers, I was pretty bang on with the carp, but the biggest tench must have been near 5lb as the silvers went 10lb.  Unfortunately not enough, as Kev on peg 5 pipped my by 2lb for the section.... catching on paste, in a winter league match!!!!

I think that leaves me second in the league with 3 to fish, open draw next round before the rotation starts again, 

Shiplate Open, Sunday 25th April 2021

 Ever forgotten something - well not even forgotten, just not had it when you've arrived at your peg, well today was that day, no rig roost, thought I'd gone mad a checked the peg at least 4 times.  Travelled down with Tony, so went and got his van keys to check in the van, not there, so two options, it had gone missing at Viaduct or was in my van, I sat stewing on its whereabouts all day.

Both canals in again as last week, this week a draw on Hawthorns for me peg 10 next to another blogger in the shape of Mike Nicholls.  This would give me plenty of space across, as Mike wouldn't be trouble the residents of the far bank.

I fully expected to catch on hard pellets, so s rig for them across, a mugging rig, a rig for meat short and a margin rig,  The mugging did get picked up, but it was never going to wok, the fish I could see were too deep and moving around too fast.  I just couldn't get the fish to settle across, so gave the meat short a try, never had a bite on it.  

I had found a nice shelf down to my right and fed a few maggots and a nugget of GB and some maggots, as the sun came round onto the margin I had a nice run of fish from it, before the bankside foliage cast its shadow and the fish departed.  I think I tried it to make the margin work for too long after it went quiet, as I did go back across and shallowed up, pulling a pellet up the far bank shelf.  That produced a couple more fish, pretty certain that I wouldn't have beaten Matt's 191lb to win, maybe the lack of ripple for the second day running didn't help.

Matt used 6 pints or so of caster, causing a few grumbles, not from me, its an open, if the bait is allowed then its fair game, I can recall the same years ago with bloodworm - cost being the gripes.

I ended up 5th, which isn't the worst result, but the peg was worth a bit more, when I got home the rig roost was in my van, must have fallen off the trolley and I didn't notice in the excitement of picking up an Indian on the way home Saturday.....

Viaduct Open, Saturday 24th April 2021

 Hadn't got a match booked until I heard that a club cancelled their booking at Viaduct and there was an open instead.

Was happy enough with the draw on 116 - at least before the match... fairly standard set up, a lead rod, waggler stayed in the bag as the wind looked a bit iffy. Rigs for the margin, meat short, pellets at 9m and 16m.  Didn't think they want to be down on the deck, so all rigs were spread shotting for a slow fall through the water.

I was a lot tougher than I thought it would be with over an hour gone before I put a fish in the net, that was on the long pellet line, but it was the only one from there. By now the ripple had gone as the wind had come pretty much from behind, so off the box and waggler set up to reach halfway, where there was still some ripple, but nothing.

I did chuck the lead out and had a carp and skimmer in two chucks, but they were the only two bites on it.  Whilst it was out I made up some GB and I did have a coupe, of skimmers and carp on whilst the wind did out some ripple back on my side, but it didn't last long, the ripple or the bites.

Going into the last 40 minutes I thought I was ahead of Lee on 115, he dropped into his margin and had 3 for 42lb, I dropped into mine and had 2 skimmers, roach and a small carp, just about summing the day up, I guess I knew then that it wasn't my day. Lee 'won' our bank and the section, so fair play to him.

Definitely on the wrong bank today, as all the weights came from pegs with the wind blowing into them, oh well, at least it didn't rain.  

Open, Shiplate Farm, Sunday 18th April 2021

 Todays match was an open at Shiplate, on both canal lakes with the payout being top two and silvers on each lake, given the small silvers weights that seem to come from these lakes I do wonder if it wouldn't be better just to pay overall places.

Had the luxury of a ride down with Tony today, he managed a peg on the favoured Hawthorn, whilst I had to settle for peg 6 on Westpool.  3 baits today, pellets, maggots and meat.  Rigs set up for banded pellet across, meat at 5m, margin and a rig to fish maggots or soft pellet through the water.

Started over on the banded pellet and had a liner/fouler that came off straight away and that was it for over 2 hours, the only fish I had was 3oz skimmer of a line at 13m that I fed a nugget of GB and some maggot.

I did see some carp start to move about and did manage to mug 3, but it was a case of waiting until I saw one and then trying the mugging, I think the ratio was something like 30 or more to one and after 3 they seemed to disappear again.   I did manage a brief run of fish by fishing maggots shallow against the far bank and catapulting maggots, that was one a chuck for 5 fish and then they went as soon as they came, I reverted to fishing maggot on the deck across and had a couple more in the last hour.  I was expecting to be beaten by end peg 15 and peg 10 which had the advantage of the angler on 11 going home and not going to his peg.

I was pleasantly surprised to get 2nd on the lake and maybe, I could have found a way to get the extra 3 fish needed to win the lake, there was no chance of competing with the other lake.  Tony was 2nd on his lake, so a fairly content van on the way home.

Maesknoll Open, Acorn, Saturday 17th April 2021

 I am running an open a month at Acorn and have also made it an optional series, 18 fishing the first one of which 12 entered the series.  I tried pegging it with only one peg either side of the bridges, as they haven't been the fliers they once were.

Having done that, I waited until the last ticket was left in the bucket and ended up on 34 next to one of the bridges.  Having caught on hard pellet the week before, I fully expected to catch on it again, so set out my stall to fish banded pellet over and down the shelf.   A rig for maggot down to the pallet of 32 and one for pellet against the bridge.

After an hours without a fish I was regretting the decision to fish pellet and cursing myself, as on Friday I had meant to pick up some bread and forgot, Paul Faiers on peg 31 was catching dobbing bread.  I tried white maggots dobbed over, but not so much as a liner.

I fed some micros and fished soft pellet to the middle of the bridge, this was also a waste of time, I had been feeding maggots to the bridge by hand, so set up a rig to fish maggot at the bottom of the near shelf, a strung out rig with a 20 LWG on 0.11.  This brought bites for the rest of the match and seeing as I couldn't catch anywhere else in the peg, I stuck with it, to weigh 35.02 of silvers, just getting pipped by Des Shipp who had 37.15.

Didn't get a picture of the overall winner, Martin Rayet, so will have to make do of one of me and one of Des.

Thanks to those who fished and the next one is on 22nd May.

Ivy House Open, Sunday 11th April 2021

 First trip back to Ivy House since the lockdown ended, only 10 fishing to day on the match lake, so more of a knock up.

The weather that greeted me as I set up on peg 4 was pretty horrendous, hail/freezing rain and a chill wind, so I set out to fish maggots and expanders on the pole to catch anything and everything, I did set up a waggler to fish banded pellet into the gap in the islands.

To cut out any boring waffle, I never had a bite on the waggler and had to rotate two pole lines at 14.5m and a shorter line at 7 joints, I tried soft pellet on one of these lines, with GB and maggots on the other long line and the short line.  I had one bite and one skimmer on expander and had to switch to pinkies to get bites, this gave me skimmers and a couple of roach for 8.10, which won the silvers, I did have one carp of 4.0 on the skimmer rig.  Tough day, but I do enjoy days like this when you have to work for every fish.

Acorn Winter League, Saturday 10th April 2021

 The delayed winter league started again today, the second round, it was still pretty winter like, so I was going to do my best to keep my paws out of the bait tub and off the catapult.  Only managed a section 3rd last round, so needed to improve on that.  On this league, it really is only the section that matters, as no overall money is paid out, just first and second in each section, which is a fair to do this, as the sections can be wildly different in the depths of winter.

Peg 38 was drawn for me, with three bridge pegs in the section I was wondering if I had my work cut out here to improve on the last round.  It was cold, but I still expected the fish to be in the shallower water, so a rig to fish across to the island shelf, one for the bottom of the shelf, one for down the track and one for the margins.  Bait tray was simple 4 and 6mm hard pellets, 4mm expanders and maggots.

I made sure I couldn't pick up the catapult by not getting one out, so it was a pot on the pole to start, went straight across with banded 6mm pellet and had indications and lost a fouler straight away.  Then had a fish fair and square,  I also tried a lie across with maggots and never had a bite on them... I had to feed to get the fish to come to the bait, but I wasn't convinced they were feeding properly, I swapped between the shelf and the bottom of the shelf to keep off fish coming and then I had a bit more activity on the shelf and was just going to get the catapult out, when the wind turned and the peg went flat calm.

I struggled to get a bite anywhere in the peg, so fed some maggots down to the pallet of 37, this brought 4 fish, nothing too big, but it kept something going in the net, had one more across just as the ripple started again, shortly before the all out.

Managed to put 62.15 on the scales for the much needed section win and that was third overall, with the top two weights coming from A section.