Tuesday 31 May 2011

30/05/11 - Lands End - Speci Lake

Weight – 24lb 6oz (19lb 14oz – silvers)
Catch – 51 Roach, 10 Skimmers, 3 F1s, 3 Perch, 1 Carp, 1 Rudd, 1 Gudgeon
Weather – Persistent rain to start, cleared later
Match –Open – 4th in silvers

16 booked in for today (excluding Mr Rixon who was under orders!), which meant Match Lake and 1 side of Speci (25-32) were in. I found out later that this was the 5th match in as many days at Lands End.

With the rain and the forecast wind for later, I fancied a sheltered spot and duly pulled p25. Happy with that since the peg has been kind to me in the past – as soon as you say that sort of thing it’s usually the kiss of death.

With only 4 of us on Speci (Martin Pettifer on 28, Mike West on the flyer and current match record p31 and Jason Fern on 32) we had plenty of space. Unfortunately I had 3 pleasure anglers opposite on pegs 39 & 40, who were using the scatter gun approach to feeding.

Previously on this peg I have found a lot of silvers, but not too many carp. I decided to start looking for carp at 14.5m in open water on 8mm. There was no point trying to target the island, a) it was over 17m away and I don’t think my back could have taken it and b) the pleasure anglers were using small method feeders casting to the point (even from p40).

I also put some caster & 4mm pellet 13m down the left hand margin and ½ a pot of micros and 4mm at 11.5m at an angle towards P26 where it shallowed up.

1st bite on 8mm pellet resulted in a roach as did the next put in. Ok no carp, so I started feeding a pouch of 6mm’s to draw some carp in.

Down the left hand margin on double caster, I had a small roach and a switch to soft pellet had the same result. 30mins into the match and 5 roach in the net I wasn’t going anywhere fast and 13m was too far to come back with 2oz fish. I topped up the 11.5m swim, continued feeding the 14.5m line and started feeding 6mm down the left hand margin.

Since there was so many roach in the swim, if I was going to catch them, then I needed to come short, but I could only target 1 swim because I didn’t have enough casters to try different areas, so I concentrated on the small bush to my right, hoping for a chub. In the end I kept catching roach and was quite enjoying myself, but ultimately I wasn’t building enough weight.

My 11.5m swim produced skimmers, F1 and roach on soft pellet, feeding a toss pot of 4mms and by the half way stage I was doing OK. Mike West had to take a walk from his flyer, because he only had 1 fish and according to him Match Lake was also fishing hard. My best point of reference on how I was doing was keeping an eye on Martin Pettifer who is a decent silvers angler and thought we were about even on the silvers.

Another look at 14.5m on 8mm produced another skimmer and a big F1, before the roach moved in again. The left margin that I had kept topped up with 6mm, produced a single carp which I lost at the net, before the roach again moved in. Do you see a pattern here?

Unfortunately it’s about now that I blew the peg. I started to feed my 11.5m with more 4mm by catapult, when in hindsight I should have kept it tight with the toss pot and occasional cup. I could have caught roach all day down under the bush, but they were getting smaller.

The problem with feeding 4mms by catapult was it seemed to have pulled in more roach and the soft pellet was getting hammered. A switch to hard pellet helped, but the damage was already done.

Despite the result I had an enjoyable days fishing, just a shame I wasn’t a bit more patience, because I sure I would have beaten Martins 20-14 (which included a 1½lb chub down the edge) and got close to John Bradford’s 25lb. No one was going to get near Mike Nicholls 43-10 of skimmers – fair shout. To be honest I think the skimmers probably felt safe in a noted carp flyer and were taken by surprise! Lol

1st 75-9 Craig Edmonds – peg 15
2nd 69-10 Scott Puddy – peg 1
3rd 68-15 Dave Roper – peg 19
4th 59- 6 Mike Nicholls – peg 22
5th 59- 1 Phil Harding – peg 21
6th 52-14 Andy France – peg 3

Silvers
1st 43-10 Mike Nicholls – peg 22
2nd 25- 5 John Bradford – peg 13
3rd 20-14 Martin Pettifer – peg 28
4th 19-14 Ken Rayner – peg 25

Friday 27 May 2011

26/05/11 - Rood Ashton

Weight – 11lb 2oz
Catch – 3 Carp
Weather – Strong NW wind. Sunny period but cool
Match – Wiltshire Angling Evening Open

Heavy winds and showers preceded this evening’s match and it felt cold.

14 booked in, which meant there was only 1 bad peg, since those along the top bank weren’t included. Unfortunately, I drew the noted cesspit, known as the pipe swim. You are set back in a small bay about 6m behind everyone else and its really shallow close in. With the wind blowing straight into my bank and only 10lb coming from the peg last week, a difficult evening was likely.

The wind was too strong to fish 13m in front, so I focused on the left hand margin at 8m and a clump of reeds to my right at 11.5m. Both swims were at the edge of the bay as it started to deepen off. When I arrived there were a few fish showing about 30m out, so I also set a pellet waggler.

On the all in I started on the pellet waggler hoping to pick up an early fish, whilst I put 2 pouches of 6mms into both margin swims. Without any bites on the waggler I soon switched to the pole, but it was 45mins before I had my 1st fish. I had another 2 over the next hour, but that was my lot.

With an hour to go I dumped nearly 2pts of pellet into my left hand margin, but never had a bite from there again.

The wind was a real pain in the arse and I would have quite happily fished the method today, but being a float only match it wasn’t an option and the wind was too strong for a conventional waggler, so I was hoping for a few fish on the pellet waggler, but it never happened, I even tried bread without success.

I didn’t hang around for the final results, but 49lb won my section from the top left hand corner, which was sheltered from the worse of the wind. The angler to my left only had 1 carp, whilst 19lb came from the peg to my right.

Friday 20 May 2011

19/05/11 - Rood Ashton

Weight – 23lb 0oz
Catch – 7 Carp
Weather – Breezy & sunny
Match – Wiltshire Angling Evening Open – 12th (out of 17)

This summer I wanted to fish an evening series. The problem however was where to go. Although I live in Bristol, I work in Bath, so finding a venue was going to be tricky.

Mark told me that Wiltshire Angling as of last week was running a float only series at Rood Ashton. Draw at 5pm, fish 5.45 – 9.00 - perfect. Fortunately I park my car in a private car park, which is relatively secure, so I can leave my kit in the car, drive straight to the lake in 20/25 minutes and get changed in the car park.

17 booked in today, which for an evening match isnt bad. I drew peg 10 which is on the small spit on the top bank. The same peg Mark won from last week with 68lb and a noted flyer. Alas I didn’t do it justice.

After the very cold winter, there were rumours that most of the carp had died, due to the very shallow nature of the lake. That’s the thing with rumours, they are rarely based on fact, because there are still plenty of fish in the lake.

I have only been to the venue a few times, but already developing love/hate relationship and today was a bit a hate day. Having never fished the top bank, I hadn’t realised how shallow these pegs are, about 1ft, all the way out to 13m. In fact the deepest part was tight into my RH margin, were I had a couple more inches, which meant 1 paste rig did all, although a duplicate was setup just in case. I also set up a pellet rig and I had 2 pellet waggler rods already made up.

Feed would be 6mm’s on the pole and 8mm’s for waggler. Being sheltered from the wind, my peg was flat calm and any ripple was 30m out.

2nd put in on the paste at 13m I had a carp and after an hour I had 3 carp, but lost 2 (at least 1 was foul hooked when I came back with a scale). It was obviously fishing hard, because I couldn’t see much being caught and felt I was holding my own.

The 2nd hour is where it went wrong for me. I had been feeding the waggler line and other than 1 lost foul hooker on the full depth rig no fish. As for my pole line, there were fish moving around and I was getting plenty of liners, but the fish just wouldn’t open their mouths. I tried the pellet rig at full depth and shallow, I even swapped the hooklength and tried 4 dead maggots, but that didn’t work either. So by the end of the 2nd hour I only had 4 carp, wondering what to do next. Due to the shallow nature of the swim, I hadn’t fed heavily, because I didn’t want too many fish in the swim, but that was happening anyway, so I started feeding 2 pouches of pellet in an attempt to force the fish to get their heads down and feeding.

I also throw 4 handfuls of pellet into my RH margin, but despite their being swirls and obvious signs of movement I only had 1 carp. I again tried the pellet rig, but to no avail.

The final hour proved more productive when I just struck to fishing the paste, but I still suffered from liners and lost fish.

During the weigh in it was also obvious I had caught a few smaller than average carp. Peg 12 in my section had only 6 carp, but weighed 33lb. The general comments from everyone it fished hard and the fish didn’t really want to play ball.

Mark is on fire at the moment, winning again, with 12 carp for 58lb from the RH bank. At least I learnt a few things today and looking forward to my Thursday evenings.

1st 58-8 Mark Poppleton
2nd 53-5 Gary Etheridge
3rd 49-12 Ian Stainer

Monday 16 May 2011

15/05/11-Leech Pool

Weight – 80lb 6oz
Catch – 67 Carp, 10 Bream
Weather – Strong westerly wind. Cloudy & cool
Match – Open – 3rd (out of 8)

Today was originally scheduled to be a regional knock out round for the MFS site. The southern semi-final would be at venue near London and the final at Tunnel Barn Farm. However since its inception it’s been dogged by problems. The problem being that for many anglers the cost involved in getting to the final would require several hundred miles travelling. As such the proposed regional semi’s has been cancelled with the qualifiers now going straight to the final.

Mark had organised this areas knock out round, but had dropped out himself, which left only 3 people to fish, so it was decided to cancel and since the venue was already booked arranged a knock up with the locals.

Before today I had never seen the venue, let alone fished it. According to Mark it would be a fish race of mainly small carp at 5m on pellet. The pool is situated in the back garden of the farmhouse, just outside Melksham and at a squeeze could fit 14 anglers, so the 8 of us had plenty of space. The best pegs are down the right hand bank behind the barn and the top bank.

Again the wind was going to be an issue and it was blowing straight into the top bank and seemed like the favourite place to be so I was hardly surprised when Mark drew here. I found myself on the left hand bank with the wind cutting across right to left. Fortunately I was largely sheltered from the wind by a big tree, but felt I was at the wrong end of the lake, particularly the way the wind was blowing. Hippy who has fished the venue on and off for 25 years, drew peg 1 behind the barn and next to the farmhouse garden so he had plenty of space to his right and Mark had him as favourite to win.

Today was an opportunity to try some new Scone Zone floats. Most shop brought commercial floats aren’t that well made and there is a trend towards handmade floats, because the build quality tends to be better. I set up a 0.2g and 0.4g Ninjaz in the 3ft swim, with a .14 hooklength and 18 B911 with a hair rig for either 4 & 6mm pellet.

I settled on a swim at 9m at the bottom of the shelf, where I fed 4mm and by the tree to my right with 6mm. I did bring a waggler rod, but was told it won’t be needed, beside the wind was likely to be too strong.

Since this was going to be a fish race, 100-120 fish would be needed. I was also told soft pellet was the bait, but I forgot to bring any and although Mark did offer me some I decided to stick with hard pellet.

30 minutes into the match I only had 2 fish and was considering a change to soft pellet, but by the end of the hour I was up to 17. The following 2 hours however proved extremely frustrating, because I couldn’t get a run of fish. I was feeding a pouch of 4mms, I tried feeding a big toss pot of pellet, every put in, but that didn’t work and I went back to feeding by catapult. A switch from the 0.2g rig to the heavier 0.4g didn’t work. I tried coming up in the water and I even tried corn, but I couldn’t get a decent run of fish together and the wind was getting stronger.

Hippy opposite who was nicely sheltered from the wind was flying catching mostly to his right, he even had time to give me a wave – cheeky bugger. I could see Bryan Jackson on the top bank catching some above average stamp fish and I guessed Mark would also be catching, although I couldn’t see him, I could certainly hear him! I was ahead of the lads to my left and the 2 other anglers opposite, but now I was unsure what to do next.

3hrs and half way I was up 36 fish, so a long way behind my target. I was still picking up the odd fish, with most fish coming at 9m, plus a few fish by the tree.

Time to try something different. I had set a paste rig to fish by the tree and I had some paste from yesterday’s match. I hadn’t considered paste, because I thought the fish would be too small to make it viable, however looking more closely with how Hippy was catching it looked like he was using paste.

With just over 2hrs to go, I now had my best period of the match and the average stamp of fish was better than on pellet. The fish had really moved in and I had to stop feeding pellet, because there was too many fish in the swim, taking paste on the drop. Firming up the paste helped produce better bites, but towards the end I had to switch to the pellet rig, which produced, but it was noticeable the average stamp wasn’t as big as the paste fish.

Those last couple of hours I reckon I put 40-50lb in the net.

Hippy did indeed win with 141lb, which included a 12lber and according to Mark was the best weight he had seen from the venue and he had caught mostly on the paste.

Mark swore his way to 2nd with 114lb on soft pellet and Bryan next to him tied for 3rd again on paste.

A lovely little venue, with plenty of bites. Having never fished the pool before counted against me today, because I had put off switching to paste because I thought the fish would be too small, but I was wrong. At least I know for next time.

As for the floats, I was really impressed, even in the gale force winds the floats where very stable. I’ll be buying a few more.

Sunday 15 May 2011

14/05/11 - Fishponds

Weight – 149lb 8oz
Catch – 19 Carp, 1 Bream
Weather – Cool northerly wind. Mostly sunny
Match – Club – 1st (out of 12)

Today was the first of a series of Saturday afternoon/evening matches during the summer months, fished between 2.30 – 7.30, so hopefully the best part of the day.

I was happy with peg 22, although the wind was blowing straight into my face, but at least I had some ripple. Tactics for the day was pole and paste at 8m and the pellet waggler, although I wasn’t convinced I would catch on the waggler due to the cool weather. And thats how it turned out. Having fed the long line for 2hrs but never had a touch on the waggler. I suspect, had I set up a half depth rig I may have caught, but I didn’t so I won’t know.

Main focus was the 8m line at an angle to my left, plus the LH margin. Marcus was on peg 23 so I discounted the RH margin.

In the first hour I had 5 fish, but also lost 5 due to foul hooking or the fish being lightly hooked. It was obvious the fish weren’t really feeding and I’ve never lost so many fish here. It was quite frustrating. Fortunately I wasn’t the only 1 suffering.

As the match progressed Graham Millard on p13 and particularly Roger Putterill on peg 1 were catching. Going into the final hour I thought Roger was ahead, but a good last hour meant it would be close. In fact I was surprised Roger only weighed 119lb.

1st – 149-8 – Ken Rayner – p22
2nd – 119- 0 – Roger Putterill – p1
3rd – 97- 0 – Graham Millard – p13
4th – 91- 0 – Eddie Long – p6

Monday 9 May 2011

08/05/11 - Todber Manor - Park Lake

Weight – 63lb 0oz
Catch – 84 F1, 7 Roach, 3 Rudd, 2 Carp, 1 Tench
Weather – Windy, in fact very windy. Mostly Sunny
Match – MFS website – 18th (out of 23)

Got a bit of battering today and not just from the wind.

25 were originally booked in, but as usual there were a number of late drop outs, mostly for genuine reasons, however Mark was on the phone the night before, filling 3 of the spaces with local anglers or should I say venue baggers.

Drove down with Tim Ford (Clucker) who enjoyed his first visit a few weeks ago so much he wanted to get back and promptly drew another flyer! Me on the other hand found myself on peg 32, which I felt was at the wrong end of the section (28-38) and then as the other anglers arrived I realised I was really up against it when Mark Brennan settled on p35, Dave Brittain on p34, Will Bohne on P29 and Phil Powell on P28.

I was told my area is a noted F1 hotspot, however on my few visits here I have been told to avoid them, since carp generally were needed to win. With the wind blowing left to right up the lake, fishing the far side at 14m was a non starter, so decided to fish as long as possible shallow, 6m at angle to my right and down my right hand margin towards the spare pallet. Bait was 6mm’s (fed 9pts) and paste.

Started at 5m out in front on paste, feeding just a few 6mms and I had a carp 1st put in, but it didn’t take long for the F1’s to home in and I started getting silly bites. A change to a pellet rig produced a few F1s, but the opening 30mins was a struggle.

Time to try the shallow line. Initially the wind wasn’t too bad so I could fish 13-14m and after a bit of messing around with the rig, found the fish wanted it really shallow (15cm). For the next couple of hours I was regularly catching F1’s and gradually came shorter to 10-11m, a) because the wind was becoming a nightmare and b) I wanted to catch quicker. I did experience some quiet spells, but this was simply because it was difficult to hold the pole (even at 10m) in the wind and feed at the same time.

Fishing for F1s is new to me and I have found a rival to the perch for hook pulls! I could see local expert Will Bohne catching shallow, so at least I had the right idea but Will was giving me a lesson on how to catch F1s quickly.

I was conscience of the need for carp and had been feeding handfuls at 6mm’s at 6m and down the margin, but frustratingly I only had 1 carp.

By the end I knew I was off the pace, but I simply couldn’t get any carp. Both Mark Brennan and Will Bohne caught on meat short, so perhaps I should have had some meat with me. But, Phil Powell and Mark fished paste and also caught. There were only 2 DNW’s and they were both either side of me, which probably told its own story. Steve Martin to my left had stuck on a short line all day, whilst Dave to my right struggled until the final couple hours when he found some carp on meat at 6m. Speaking to Dave afterwards he said if he fished to his left (i.e. towards me) he could only catch F1’s and skimmers, but if he fished to his right he caught carp.

On the day for what ever reason the carp didn’t seem to be in my area. In hindsight I could have tried the method feeder to the far bank, which both Tim Ford and Mark Brennan successfully used and possible had some meat with me, although I’m confident had there been carp in the swim I would have caught a few more.

At least I had regular bites and learnt a few more things about the venue.

1st – 172-01 – Will Bohne – p29 (F1 shallow, then carp down the edge on meat)
2nd – 151-10 – Mark Poppleton – p21 (paste)
3rd – 151-06 – Mark Brennan – p35 (method feeder to start, then carp at 6m on meat)
4th – 144-09 – Phil Powell – p28 (5m – paste or corn)

Even with 2 DNW’s 2164lb of fish was weighed in, averaging 94lb per angler with 12 tons weights.

Monday 2 May 2011

01/05/2011 - Fishponds

Weight – 118lb 10oz
Catch – 14 Carp
Weather – Very windy. Mostly sunny
Match – Club 2nd (out of 15)

1st club match of our season and 15 booked in.

Today the strong NE wind was a major factor, although fortunately the trees surrounding the lake managed to shelter most from the worst. However, I drew peg 12, which meant I had it blowing straight into my face, but at least it meant I could keep the method feeder rod in the bag and could concentrate on the pole and paste. I also set up a pellet waggler, in case the fish came shallow.

As well as the waggler, I set up a shallow pole rig, plus 2 paste rigs to fish 8m at an angle and in the margins. Feed was loads of 8mm pellet – Time to be positive.

The 1st hour was entertaining for all the wrong reasons. Whilst fishing the 8m line, I had started feeding pellet over the shallow line, but ducks had taken an interested and since I was the only 1 feeding a long line regularly I was their main focus! After seeing a couple swirls decided to give the waggler a quick go, but a duck got there 1st and I hooked it in the leg – bugger. As I was trying to reel the duck in the male swan got involved and started attacking the duck, which just sent the duck into more of a panic and promptly made into the reeds where I couldn’t get at it. I nearly pulled it out, but the line broke above the float. (The duck did manage to rid itself of my rig and at the end of the match it didn’t seem any worse for the experience, scoffing some bread that had been thrown in).

At least I didn’t have a duck problem anymore since the other 2 soon disappeared, although they did return much later in the match. I wasn’t the only 1 having a bad start. Jim Taylor had hooked a carp, got it down to his top kit, but forgot you need to keep hold! So now there was a carp swimming around with a top kit attached. Fortunately, Jim managed to retrieve the top kit, minus the carp.

So after an hour I was bite less, whilst a Kev Millard on 8, Graham on 18 and Ian on 22 all had a couple of fish. Have to say I was starting to wonder whether I should be fishing pellet on the deck, but just after an hour I had my 1st fish and another on the next put in. Here we go, I thought, but it didn’t.

I caught all my fish at 8m, but I couldn’t catch more than 2, before trying somewhere else. I didn’t get a bite from my margins and despite feeding my shallow line for 4hrs I didn’t a get a touch. The fish weren’t having it properly, but on the flip side the fish I was catching were proper ‘uns with the biggest about 14lb.

At the all out, I thought Kev was favourite to win and that’s the way it turned out, but you have to laugh when you weight in 118lb and get beat by 2oz!

1st 118-12 – Kev Millard – peg 8
2nd 118-10 – Ken Rayner – peg 12
3rd 74- 0 – Ian Pople – peg 22