Monday 27 October 2008

26/10/08 - Lands End - Johns Lake

Weight – 4lb 8oz
Catch – 7 Roach, 2 Carp, 2 Bream, 1 Perch.
Weather – Rainy start, becoming clearer & breezy.
Match – Open – last!

There are some days, when it just doesn’t happen for whatever reason or you have to hold up your hands and say I got it wrong. Fortunately I very rarely do so badly.

28 anglers turned up for this match on Johns & Sydney’s lake. I drew peg 46, which isn’t ideal, but I fully expected to catch a few, so much so I only set 3 rigs, 2 carp rigs & silvers rig. I soon found myself setting up new rigs to try & catch.

So why such a bad day? I may have overfed the swim and I probably wasn’t patient enough, but either way I should have caught more than I did.

I would rather get it wrong today than in next week’s winter league.

1st 130lb – Bela Bakos - peg 68 - maggot/shallow
2nd 79lb – Rod Wootton - peg 58 – pellet
3rd 61lb – Vince Shipp – peg 70

Tuesday 21 October 2008

19/10/08 - Lands End - Johns Lake

Weight – 33lb 9oz
Catch – 15 Roach, 6 Carp, 2 Crucians, 2 Bream, 1 F1, 1 Rudd.
Weather – Bright, sunny & flat calm start. Later became cloudy & cooler.
Match – Veals Winter League – rd 3 (23rd overall, 4th in section)

Everyone wanted to draw Johns or Sydneys Lake and I found myself on peg 68 on Johns Lake. Pressure on! Peg 68 is 1 of the better pegs on the lake and prompted Mike Duckett to say this could be my year to win the league the way I was drawing!

The problem with drawing a good peg is to making sure you take advantage. Initially I set up 3 swims. 6m to my right feeding caster & hemp for silvers, 9m to my left next the reed bed and 14m at the bottom of the shelf by the point of the island.

On the whistle I fed 4mm expanders & corn at 14m and started fishing next to the reed bed with double corn without feed. After 10 mins I caught a 4lb carp. A switch to the long pole line resulted in another carp and a F1, but the action didn’t last long.

A switch to the silvers line only resulted in small roach and I found myself going no where whilst Vince Brown on peg 70, Andy Lloyd and Vince Shipp opposite were catching all be it crucians with the odd carp.
90mins to go and I’m still behind those I can see expect Clayton to my right. I kept rotating baits and managed to snare another couple of carp, but I needed a change.

I had left the island alone so far, but decided to cup a small amount of feed tight to the point of the island and slightly to the right next to a small bush. There was a good depth tight to the island so I was confident of catching, but like on my other lines the bait (pellet or corn) was being nipped by small roach, which made fishing caster pointless.

10 minutes to go, I really needed a carp. A switch back to the point of the island and the float eventually buried, carp on & landed. 5 minutes to go, try the weed bed or back to the point of the island? I decided on the point of the island and the float buried again and I landed a near 9lb carp, which was my biggest of the match.

14lb in last 10mins was a big bonus and proof if needed that you should never give up. The weigh in started with Andy on peg 41, who weighed 30lb, next was Vince Shipp who won the lake with 53lb. As the scales moved round I realised I had done well and wondered whether I would have enough to beat 30lb. When the scales arrived my silvers net weighed 3lb 5oz, which meant I needed my 6 carp to weigh more than 27lb, which they duly did. Vince Brown was last to weigh and missed out on beating Andy by 8oz.

As a team, we continue to struggle, but individually I am now lying 2nd overall, and perhaps Mike was right?

1-Chris Davis-Westerleigh 40
2-Ken Rayner-Maver Veals Red 37

3-Ryan Shipp-Westerleigh 36 (159-5)
4-Mike Nicholls-Charlies Angels 36 (65-9)
5-Rod Wootton-Sartan Club AC 34 (128-7)
6-Eric Fouracre-Sedges Mosella 34 (80-12)
7-Julian Heaven-Norfolking Good 33
8-Vince Brown-Sedges Mosella 31 (108-6)
9-Dave Downton-Team Veals 31 (69-3)
10-Tim Pallant-Maver Veals Blue 30.5

Monday 20 October 2008

18/10/08 - Lands End - Match Lake

Weight – 6lb 9oz
Catch – 6 Perch, 2 Roach, 1 Tench, 1 Bream, 1 Chub.
Weather – Cool, a little breezy, cloudy periods.
Match – Open (13th overall)

Well I couldn’t believe it when I drew peg 11 again, I nearly ran to the peg. Incredibly Mike drew peg 13 as well.

Like the last couple of times, I decided to largely ignored the silvers and concentrate on the carp. Unfortunately this time the carp didn’t show.

On a separate note, Suzanne has lost her job, which means hards times ahead and a reduction in my fishing activity. As well as forfilling my obligation to the Veals Winter League, I have decided to concentrate on Lands End for the rest of the winter, including fishing the Lands End Winter League, which starts in 2 weeks. Fortunately my bait bill will low, but more importantly I do pick up over 50% of the time when fishing here, so hopefully my trips will pay for themselves.

12/10/08 - Lands End - Specimen Lake

Weight – 18lb 1oz
Catch – 3 Carp, 2 Chub, 2 Perch, 2 Rudd, 1 Bream, 1 Roach.
Weather – Bright, sunny & flat clam.
Match – Open (19th overall, 8th section)

The Specimen and Match Lake were in for this open, which would serve to be a practice for next weeks Winter League.

I drew peg 32 on the Specimen Lake and my main catching area would be 16m down the margin next to an overhanging tree. For this match I decided to ignore setting up a silvers rig and concentrate on the carp.

After 90 mins, things had been going well, with a couple of carp and silvers on double caster, tight to the margin. However as soon as the sun moved around, my swim was no longer in the shade and I began to struggle quite badly.

I tried in the open water and at the bottom of the shelf, trying different baits, but had very little. With an hour to go, my swim started to show signs of life again, with a few foul hooked carp, which I managed loss.

Steve Mayo on peg 31, started to catch tight to the island and eventually won our lake with 60lb.

I was disappointed not to have caught more and losing 6 carp was frustrating, but flat bright conditions meant the carp weren’t feeding properly. My side of the lake fished worse than the other side, so most will want to draw peg 33 to 40 next week.

I don’t think I did too much wrong today, in fact I was really happy with how I set up my rigs.

Tuesday 14 October 2008

11/10/08 - Lands End - Match Lake

Weight – 49lb 10oz (13lb 4oz - silvers)
Catch – 10 Perch, 8 Carp, 2 Tench, 2 Chub, 1 F1, 1 Bream, 1 Roach
Weather – Bright, sunny & flat clam.
Match – Open (3rd overall, 2nd in silvers)
The current financial crisis could be biting very hard, following the announcement of a restructure at Suzanne work, which may mean cutting back on the amount of fishing. Time will tell – soon.


I haven’t fished Lands End for about 7 months, but I usually fish here regularly during the autumn & winter. On some days it can be a bit of a tough nut to crack, but what I like about the place is if you cant catch carp, there are usually a few silvers to target, like roach, rudd, chub, ide, bream and perch.
Today’s match was on Match Lake and I drew peg 11, which won last weeks match with 60lb+.
October is suppose to be the month of change, but here I was sat at my peg in a T-shirt on a bright windless day, which resembled a hot summers day.


Because the peg had some carp form, I decided to concentrate on the carp. I had plenty of water to attack and to be honest had too many options. After plumbing around decided to feed caster/corn and brown atomic cloud to the margin on peg 12, caster/corn at the bottom on the shelf in front of me, micro pellet/corn at the bottom of the shelf in front of peg 10 and finally 4mm expander & corn under the pallet of peg 10.

peg 12 margin

The margin in peg 12 was the best area to start, fishing double caster or corn, feeding via a tosspot. I picked up a couple of small carp, plus some decent silver, but I had to wait for bites and alternated up and down the shelf, but with the bright conditions I was just pleased to be catching.

Mike Duckett was on peg 13 and was getting plenty of liners fishing at the bottom of the shelf by the island. Both of my bottom of the shelf swims, only produced a few liners, but I was sure the swim would pick up later in the session. I kept feeding all my swims with a little bait, but I also started feeding hemp & caster by catapult tight to the island hoping either for carp or chub.

When I tried tight to the island I quickly caught a chub, then a perch, but the swim soon slowed, although I did manage another carp and a chub later on.

With 2 hours left, my bottom of the shelf swim, started to show signs of life and I started to catch a few carp on corn, including a 9lber. Unfortunately, I was also losing a few, most of which were foul hooked, because the fish hadn’t properly settled, probably due to the unseasonably warm day.

After such a long period from when I was last here, I was pleased to come 3rd overall. Rod Wootton won from peg 22 with 63lb, Martin Leneghan was 2nd from peg 6 with 60lb, which included 14lb of silvers. Like me, Martin was targeting the carp and his silvers were tench, crucians, skimmers and 4lb+ bream.

Mike West got the muppet award for chucking back 12lb of silvers, which would have won him the silvers prize by default. However Martin had been winding him up all match and suggested I had 30lb of silvers and Mike knew Martin had more then him.

Monday 6 October 2008

05/10/08 - Bullock Farm - Carp Lake

Weight – 26lb 0oz
Catch – 7 Roach, 4 Carp.
Weather – Heavy rain to start, later cloudy
Water temp – 12.5c > 12.5c
Match – Veals Winter League – rd 2 (15th overall, 4th in section)

It’s the 2nd round of the Winter League and its absolutely hosing it down. The forecast was for the rain to stay all match.

I wanted to draw Rushcombe or Match Lake, but definitely not Carp Lake, so it was no real surprise when I drew peg 19 on Carp Lake. 3 out of the last 4 years I have been on carp lake and frankly getting a bit fed up with it.

When I arrived at my peg, Clayton Hudson who was fishing peg 6 on Match Lake had already set up his pole rollers in my peg. This is the only problem with the venue, it is a little tight.

I fancied my peg for a few carp. I had the end of an island to target, some open water and the pallet in front of peg 20. The recent heavy rain had an obvious effect on the water, being 2c less than last week, so a cautious approach was required.

At the start I cupped a pinch of 4mm expanders and micro pellet on the end of the island and then fished different areas of my swim hoping for a mug carp, which unfortunately never materialised.

Tim Clark (peg 21) and Steve Fouracre (peg 6) had both landed carp quite quickly either side of the reed bed, but other than that not much was being caught.

I also fed a small ball of groundbait at 4m, plus regularly loose fed caster, hoping for some silvers, if the carp didn’t show. When I switched to this line I started to catch the odd roach on caster, before it went quite and I hooked a carp of about 3lb. After 10 minutes I managed to land it, which was a real bonus. Although I periodically tried to reignite this line it didn’t take off again, probably because there wasn’t enough open water for the roach to settle.

By this time the rain was coming down hard and the wind had increased. Fortunately the forecast rain stopped all together after 2hrs and the wind and dropped away. I had been sparingly cupping caster, micro pellet & 4mm expanders, into my island swim and my open water swim, whilst catapulting 4mm expanders into the left hand pallet swim.

My float was set to a mere dimple and by feeding via toss pot, rotated my open water and island swim, I managed a couple of carp on 6mm expander, as well as losing 2 when the hook pulled.

The last hour was the most frustrating, I thought I needed 1 or 2 more carp to guarantee good points, but it never came. I even tried up the right side of the island, where there were fish moving around up there and I had a few liners, but they simply weren’t taking the bait, despite trying paste, worm, corn, caster & pellet.

Tim Clark on peg 21, managed to hook 18 carp, but landed 2! He should have walked the match, but the fish kept diving into the reed bed. To be honest he was pulling too hard.

In the end I thought I had about 18-20lb and as we were weighing in, there were a few people who had 5/6 carp for 20lb or so and I thought I would finish ½ way in the section. As it happened my 4 carp were closer to the average stamp and went 23lb 9oz, plus my 7 roach (2lb 7oz), meant I finished 4th in the section, as well as winning my 5 peg mini section and collecting £40.

Maver Veals Red finished a disappointed 10th on the day and lay 8th overall. In the individual league I am currently 3rd overall.

25/09/08 - Bullock Farm - Match Lake

Weight – 10lb 14oz
Catch – 9 Roach, 4 Carp, 2 Fantail, 2 Bream, 1 F1
Weather – Foggy start cold start, later warm, sunny and flat calm.
Water temp – 14.5c > 15.0c
Match – Open – (15th out of 24)

I ran a practice open on Bullocks Match Lake in preparation for the 2nd round of the Veals Winter League. All 24 of us were on the 1 lake, which wasn’t ideal, but unfortunately I couldn’t split it over 2 lakes.

I drew peg 6, which again wasn’t ideal. I would have much preferred any of the car park or chicken shed pegs.

I finished the day with a disappointing weight. I couldn’t get the silvers to feed properly, probably because in hindsight and speaking to a few others I could have fed more caster and switched the micro pellet for groundbait. Having said that I wasn’t in the best area for silvers.

Normally you can get a few carp and they are usually bigger than average, but not today. I was glad when the match finished.

Friday 3 October 2008

24/09/08 - Bullock Farm - North Pool

Weight – 47lb 6oz
Catch – 14 Roach, 12 Carp, 3 Rudd, 1 F1, 1 Crucian, 1 Fantail.
Weather – Foggy start cold start, later warm, sunny and flat calm.
Water temp – 14.5c > 14.5c

Autumn has definitely arrived. A cold foggy started, officially ended what little summer we have had.

Originally wanted to fish the match lake, but this was closed so I settled on North Pool, simply because I fished Rushcombe not that long ago, I don’t like the Carp Lake and I had not fished North Pool for a while.

Being quite busy, I ended up on peg 23, at the back of the complex. I had a spare peg either side of me, so I had a little room to try a few things. My peg is only 10m wide, so I concentrated fishing left and right.

The fishing was generally difficult, with the odd fish being caught from each swim, mostly on pinkie. I couldn’t get a run together, but not many fish being caught anywhere.

I had been feeding both margins. The left margin I feed quite heavily with caster & 4mm expanders, whilst the right margin was feed more cautiously with the same bait.

I had periodically tried my margins without success, but they finally arrived in the last 90 mins, when I had 9 carp, mostly from the right hand margin.

18/09/08 - Trinity Waters - Wildmarsh

Weight – 13lb 12oz
Catch – 12 Roach, 11 Bream
Weather – Warm, sunny & flat calm.
Water temp – 16.0c > 16.5c
Match – Veals Winter League – rd 1 (20th overall, 3rd in section)

15 teams of 4 and most people wanted to draw Woodlands Lake, which is the carp lake.

Personally I fancied an open water draw on Wildmarsh Lake, which had 3 sections of the 4 sections. At the draw my wish was granted and I found myself on peg 30, which was on the end of spit and I had loads of water to attack. I really fancied myself to get good points.

As the match organiser I had to put the time of the match back ½ hour, due to some confusion regarding the pegging, unfortunately a couple of people didn’t understand the pegging.

At the start of the match, the real concern was the weather. It was bright & very calm, so I decided on a cautious approach and only cupped in 1 ball of groundbait, plus a little bit of chopped worm & caster at 13m. I also feed some 6mm expanders and small balls of groundbait at 25m, anticipating that I would catch most of my fish on the waggler, particularly after Wednesdays practice session.

Initially I tried to catch short for some early roach & rudd, but one had 1 bite after 15mins, so I quickly switched to the long pole. I had set up 2 rigs to fish this line. 1 light rig with .10 bottom and size 20 silverfish hook to fish caster & maggot, plus a heavy rig with .11 bottom and a size 18 B911 to fish worm & double maggot.

As the match progressed I caught most of my fish on the light rig with single caster, a few on the heavy rig & worm. I periodically tried the waggler, but only caught 1 skimmer, which was a real surprise.

With 90 mins left, I knew I was doing well, the only anglers I could see catching were Des Shipp on the far bank and Dave Downton to my right. However my swim seemed to have dried up. I tried going to 14m without any real success. I didn’t want to kill my 13m swim completely, so I decided dump a full cup of maggot, caster & chopped worm at 13m at 2 o’clock, hoping to catch a few eels.

20 mins later, 1st drop in with double maggot, the float just kept going under and I caught a biggest fish of the day, a 2½lb skimmer. In fact the last hour I managed another 4 skimmers from both my pole swims and was really confident of good points.

In the end I was 3rd in my section, beaten my anglers who both had single carp to go with their silvers weight. I did try for carp down the margins, but never had a bite and I didn’t waste too much time looking, since there was very few carp being caught on Wildmarsh. All the carp weights came from Woodlands, with the best weight being 61lb.

As well as coming 3rd in my section I was also 3rd in the silvers.