27/03/12 - Acorn - Paddock Lake

Weight – 68lb 14oz 

Catch – 25 Carp, 25 Skimmers
Weather – Cold start, but warm and sunny with a slight breeze.
Water Temp – 14.8c – 16.6c
Match – Open – 4th out of 19 overall
 

Yet another new venue for me, but at least it’s close to home this time. Doing some research on the venue, thanks to the their website, revealed most of the weights came from either corners or the bridges, so I was pleased to draw peg 34, which won last Saturdays match with 90lb (although I was told later that he didn’t have any anglers either side of him and in fact the angler who had drawn 33 on the other side of the bridge, decided to set up on 34), however it failed to weigh on Sunday.

Setting up on my peg, I had a bridge to my right and to my left I had a gap to the next island. Plumbing around I discovered the far bank was less than a foot deep due to the lake being about a foot below normal level, but there was a few fish moving around and I fancied it for fishing shallow. As for “down the track” the same rig (HB Shindig 0.3g) could be used for fishing under the bridge and 10m to my left in open water. I also plumbed up to the corner of the other island where it was 2ft deep.

On the all in I started firing 4mms at the far bank and went straight over to the corner of the island, immediately landing a 3lb carp on 6mm pellet, but I couldn’t get another and lifting and dropping was difficult due to the overhanging sedges. I did give it a go briefly later on without success.

My constant firing of pellet to the far bank was having the desired affect with tails waving at me, so I went over with hair rigged 6mm pellet. I then spent a very frustrating time trying to hook a fish. I did manage 4 over the next hour, but I couldn’t work why I didn’t hook more. I even tried a new rig, with expander or 3 maggots on the hook – a real head scratcher. In the meantime Mike Owens on p2 was catching well as was p4.

With my 2 down the track swims primed, I started to catch properly on 4mm expander. Mostly skimmers, with carp coming from under the bridge, I managed to keep both swims going rotating over the next 2 hours or so, changing to softer elastic to stop me bouncing the skimmers off the hook, before they both slowed down.

Back to the far bank again, I had kept the pellet going in, mostly 6mm’s this time and there was plenty of fish moving around. But still struggled to catch on 6mm hard pellet, maggot or expander. Then I decided to get some 8mm’s from my carryall and bingo (or doh!) I started to catch properly. Well, to start with it was land 1, lose 1, land 1 lose 1. But a few rig changes sorted that and over the last 90mins another 13 carp where landed.

Overall I was pleased, particularly since it was a first visit, but disappointed, because I spent too long in the 1^st 90mins dicking around trying to catch carp shallow, when I should have concentrated on fishing on the deck, but at least I know for next time. Another carp or 2 would have pushed into to 2^nd, but Mike Owens certainly used his venue knowledge to win comfortably with 92lb.

1^st 92- 3 – Mike Owens – p2
2^nd 73- 0 – Gary Bewdell – p38
3^rd 70- 5 – D Warren – p4
4^th 68-14 – Ken Rayner – p34
4^th 68-14 – Eddie Wynne – p40
6^th 56-14 – D Cole – p8

25/03/12 - Greenridge Farm - Canal 1

Weight – 62lb 4oz
Catch – 20 Carp, 2 Tench
Weather – Cold start, but warm and sunny with a slight breeze.
Water Temp – 11.0c – 11.9c
Match – Match Fishing Scene – 12^th out of 18 overall (2^nd out of 6 section)

New venues and long journeys seem to be the ways of things recently, however I do enjoy trying new places and reports of Greenridge Farm http://greenridgefarmfishing.com  were very good, Loads of carp, although very few silvers.

I traveled down with Mark and talk on the website, was initially that maggot was catching most of the fish, however following the recent rise in temperatures, Saturdays match was won with 196lb, with several ton weights, mostly on meat. Fortunately I already had meat on the bait table, together with pellet of various sizes and a handful of maggot. My intention was to concentrate on pellet and it appeared I was the only one going to down that road.

Arriving at the venue revealed 4 well maintained 10 peg canal lakes that backed onto each other. We had the first 3 lakes with 6 anglers per lake and the payout would be top 2 on each, which as it turned out was a sensible idea.

Drawing peg 4 meant I would be on canal 1 and a quick chat with the locals revealed I had drawn rubbish. Match organizer Pete Newman said it was the 1 peg he didn’t want, since it was at the wrong of the lake and only 50lb came from it yesterday. Must admit I was quite philosophical about it, having done quite well recently, so just tried to focus on catching a few fish.

Mark drew peg 3, which was the end peg today. He did say not to mention it in this blog, in case I came across all bitter & twisted! So yes end peg with 2 spare pegs to his left, which meant he had loads of room. Bitter & twisted me – not at all. The next peg to my right was p6, however I couldn’t fish down the margin due to tree being in the way.

The way the lakes are pegged, meant I had my back to canal 2, however sensibly you can easily access the far bank, which was handy for a bit of gardening and I cleared some straggly brambles and floating debris. Plumbing around revealed about 2½ foot of water on the far side and about 4ft down the middle. I settled on fishing 2 areas on the far bank, the first in front of me and the second was to my right by a small bush, feeding 4mm’s by catapult. Due to the depth of the far bank which was 14m away, I decided to feed before shipping out to let the fish settle over the feed, because apparently foul hooking can be a problem, however Mark & I only foul hooked 3 fish all match.

Rig wise I used a HB billybob 0.1g, .14 bottom and 16 B911 and first put in I hooked and lost a foul hooker, then nothing for 15mins. I kept feeding the 4mms and eventually had a carp. For the next couple of hours, I would get the odd carp mostly on meat, but if I put on an expander it would be nailed by hordes of motherless minnows. I had been feeding pellet down the middle at 14m to my right at the bottom of the far shelf, but only more motherless minnows nibbling at the bait, so decided to ditch this swim and starting feeding meat by hand to my right.

In the meantime I concentrated on the far side, however I was starting to struggle for bites, whilst Mark started making his end peg work for him, by pinging meat to his far bank. With 2 hours left Mark had overtaken me and was on his way to winning the lake with 108lb. I probably had an hour when I couldn’t catch. I tried feeding more regularly with pellet, fishing shallow, but nothing. In the end fed a pot of meat & pellet, which seemed to work with a few more fish in the net, but the last 30mins I couldn’t catch again. Disappointingly my short meat line failed to produce a bite, which was a surprise.

During the weigh-in it became obvious the other 2 canals were the place to be with 200lb & 166lb weighing each lake. In total there was 8 ton weighs, so overall the venue fished very well. Whilst Mark & I were at the wrong end, we both worked hard to catch what we did and fortunate none of the locals were on our lake. That’s now 6 straight pickups, 7 out of the last 8. Excluding club matches I think this is my best run, however another new venue on Tuesday, the Paddock Lake at Acorns.

1st 204-14 - Colin Horn - p29 canal 3
2nd 166-13 - Gareth Boycott - p12 canal 2
3rd 158-12 - Pete Bailey - p26 canal 3
4th 139- 3 - Ben Bentley - p20 canal 2
5th 136- 6 - Martin F - p15 canal 2
6th 133-10 - Pete Newman - p28 canal 3
7th 108- 5 - Mark Poppleton - p3 canal 1

10/03/12 - Witherington - Outer Snake

Weight – 36lb 2oz (23lb 0oz – silvers)
Catch – 33 Goldfish/Brown Goldfish, 29 Skimmers, 6 Carp, 2 Roach
Weather – Mostly sunny, slight breeze.
Water Temp – 10.3c – 11.3c
Match – Match Fishing Scene – 3^rd out of 17 overall (2^nd out of 9 section)

Another new venue for me. Witherington is one of those venues I have heard a lot about, which had been very popular, although recent reports suggest its best years are behind it and the snake lake had been fishing hard.

Sue was due to meet an old school friend in Christchurch, so on Friday Sue dropped me off at the fishery so I could at least see the venue, whilst she went off to see her friend. I fished peg 91 on the Inner Snake and actually had a good days fishing, catching about 44lb, which included carp up to 8lb 9oz, goldfish and skimmers. Casters seemed to be a waste of time and maggot just brought the attentions of small roach, so I caught mostly on 4 & 6mm expander over micros.

The next day was the match, which I took over the running of, since the original organiser is hopefully banged up for fraud. The pegging of the match caused a few issues, since 1 side of the triangle on the outer snake is nicknamed cyanide straight due to its lack of fish (although there seemed to plenty topping), whilst putting everyone on the inner snake, it was suggested the fish would disappear through the gaps back out into the outer lake. In the end I managed to secure the whole lake so spread out everyone, with 1 section of 8 on inner and a section of 9 on the outer lake.

I found myself on p48 which was halfway down the outer snake on the right hand side. Pete Newman who is a regular was the next peg down near the interconnecting gap, suggested we were in the best part of the lake, however I thought I would up against it since I was told the corners were usually the best pegs.

Plumbing around I found the outer lake is slighter deeper than the inner, as well as being a metre or 2 wider. Based on my experience yesterday, I decided to ignore the inside line and started off sprinkling a pinch of micros about a metre off the far bank slightly to my right. I also put a big toss pot of bait to my left, plus a big pot of caster & pellet 13m to my right down the track, where it was slightly deeper.

Only 3 rigs today, all of them were HB frosties. A 0.2g float, .10 bottom and 18 silverfish pellet for fishing across, another 0.2g with .13 bottom and 18 B911 for the margin and fishing across if the carp moved in on mass. Finally a 0.3g for down the track with .10 bottom and 18 silverfish pellet.

The first 90mins of the match I got off to flyer catching from the off, mostly from the right hand swim on 4mm expander. I had nothing over a pound, but 20 fish was a great start. With so few carp showing I stuck with it. Steve Martin to my left had managed a couple of 2 & 3lb carp down the track and was probably winning from the pegs I could see. I had kept my down the track swim topped up, but only had small fish all match.

I concentrated on the far right hand swim, only swapping to the left when it needed a rest. With regards the left hand swim, I switched from feeding it a big toss pot every 15/20mins to catapulting 4mms every 5 hoping to pull in a few carp.

Half way into the match, Steve was still catching and Pete had a few carp dobbin bread tight across, so all very tight. I started to feed my margins under the pallets, caster & 4mm to my left and micros and 4mms to my right.

I had thus far resisted the temptation to go tight across next to the reeds and it was only slightly shallower and since my main swim was waning with fish getting smaller thought it was time to get tight, however after 3 initial decent fish I was back to the small stuff again.

With 2 hours to go I knew I needed a few carp and decided to completely rest the far side and switched to my margins. The next 30mins produced 2 carp and 3 1lb skimmers on 6mm expander. All from the right hand margin and about 8-9lb in the net.

Back out to my long line, the rest seemed to had done it some good and I started feeding again with a pinch of pellet, landing some better goldfish and skimmers, plus a couple of carp.

Pete to my right in the meantime had landed a couple of carp, including a better fish of 6lb and I thought both he and Steve were ahead of me. With 15mins to go I hooked a lump on my long line, played it for 5mins or so, before the hook pulled. I went straight out again and soon landed a black/gold koi. With very little time left, it was quicker to go down the margin, when I hooked another carp on the whistle, unfortunately as I was shipping back I bumped the pole on the roller and pulled the hook. I suspected that would cost me.

I was convinced Steve had beaten me, however my silvers (& gold) net was much more than expected with 23lb (the next best silvers weight was 14lb), so ended up with 36-2. Pete had a few late carp to beat me with 38-7, so yes that last carp did cost me. Steve managed 34-12, so very close.

The inner snake fished about the same as the outer, Richard Wyatt winning with 50-6, which included 40lb of carp down the edge in the last hour or so.

Overall pretty pleased with how the match went, except for the last 15mins and today was my 5^th pick up on the bounce, my 6^th out of the last 7 and I don’t think it’s any co-incidence that it has co-incided with me sorting out my soft pellet fishing.

It was good to put a few faces to names from the site. No fishing for me next week, since it’s my birthday and I need finalise some revision for an exam on the Monday. So my next match will be at Greenridge Farm, yet another new venue!

1^st 50-6 – Richard Wyatt (inner snake)
2^nd 38- 7 – Pete Newman (outer)
3^rd 36- 2 – Ken Rayner (outer)
4^th 35- 3 – Bryan Jackson (inner)
5^th 34-12 – Steve Martin (outer)
6^th 26- 2 – Craig ? (inner)

03/03/12 - Lands End - Match Lake

Weight – 37lb 14oz (17lb 14oz – silvers)
Catch – 13 Perch, 5 Carp, 3 F1, 3 Skimmers, 3 Roach, 1 Tench, 1 Rudd
Weather – Mostly sunny, increasingly windy.
Water Temp – 11.6c – 11.9c
Match – Open – 2nd out of 9 overall

Friday I visited Tony’s shop to get my bait, taking Sapphire with me, unfortunately she got a little excited seeing loads of people in the shop and promptly weed. Don’t think Tony was too impressed – sorry!

Back to the match and the weather forecast suggested there could be showers and the wind would be increasing in strength, so I fancied a draw between 15 and 19. I had also forgotten my cap and sunglasses, so I also wanted the sun behind me.

Finding peg 1 in my hand was disappointing. Not only would the sun be in my face all day, plus it can be quite exposed if the wind gets up. When I drew here 3 months ago there wasn’t many decent fish around, but recent results suggested the peg might be finding some form.

I had Mike West opposite on peg 24 and as we were setting up there was a few showing themselves, although I wasn’t sure they were carp. With 5mins before the all-in a fish topped over by the island, so as soon as the all-in was called I went straight over to the island with corn after feeding caster at 14m down the left hand margin, micros & 4mms at 14.5m 4m off the left hand margin and the bottom of the shelf from the island.

10mins later I had an F1, followed by another again on corn 10mins later, but other than a couple of knocks no further fish and before I knew it 40mins had already gone. Other than Jim Jenner on p21 there didn’t appear to be too much showing. A look over the deep water swims only produced a couple knocks, probably from small roach.

With over an hour gone I still only had 2 F1s in the net and really needed to start catching, so time to try the left hand margin with double caster, toss potting caster every put in. For the next 90mins or so I was catching decent perch, plus a small carp, before bites tailed off.

In the meantime I had kept my swims topped up. At the bottom of the island shelf I had started to feed 4mms by catapult, as well as micros and 4mms by the tree to my right. The rest of the match was a case of chopping and changing, with the bottom of the island shelf proving to be the most productive on 4mm expander. There was certainly plenty of carp cruising around, but they were just not interested. I managed 1 tight to the island on pellet and even tried fishing shallow away from the island, but nothing.

So far my tree swim had failed to produce, but with 10mins to go none of my swims were producing, so time to try again. As I was moaning to Mike about the fact I couldn’t believe I had caught here, the float dipped and a large skimmer was netted. On the all out the float dipped again and a tench was the result. So an extra 3-4lb which as it turned out to be vital for a pick up.

As I was packing up I couldn’t help thinking I should have down better, but during the weigh in it became obvious the carp didn’t feed in any numbers. In fact I had the most, but my 5 carp only weighed 20lb, whilst Dave Wescotts had 4 for 24lb which proved decisive.

Fortunately whilst the wind picked up, it was coming from the SW which meant I was largely sheltered by the island.

1st 39-10 – Dave Wescott – p5
2nd 37-14 – Ken Rayner – p1
3rd 36- 5 – Nigel Bartlett – p19
4th 27-14 – Jim Jenner – p21
5th 22-11 – Tom Magnoll – p13
6th 21- 5 – Mike Duckett – p15

Silvers
1st 20-15 – Nigel Bartlett
2nd 18- 7 – Tom Magnoll
3rd 17-14 – Ken Rayner