Weight - 47lb 13oz (9lb 3oz - silvers)
Catch - 10 Carp, 7 Crucians, 6 Skimmers, 2 F1s, 1 Roach, 1 Rudd
Weather - Cold, wet and windy
Match - Club - 1st out of 12
Unfortunatelt the weathermen got it right today. Plenty of wind and rain, but at least I could hide under the umbrella.
Todays club match saw 12 anglers turn up on Johns (no3) Lake and I found myself on p68, which I was happy with, although I think its a better autumn/winter peg, becuase its one of the deepest pegs on the lake and by the island its bearly 3ft, which is too deep for the summer.
Speaking to Mike before the match, he said that about 400 small carp had been transfered from no4 lake, plus a number of skimmers and other silvers.
Because the weather had turned colder, I started off cautiously potting in a small amount of 3s & 4s by the weedbed and 13m towards the point of the island. After 10mins I only had a small roach on corn, so switched 4mm expander and caught crucians, skimmers and a small carp by the weedbed. I had also been feeding 4s just off the point of the island by catapult fully expecting a few carp late on to settle over the pellet. I did hook one carp there, which ran the length of the island only to snag me, breaking my rig.
At this point I realised I had spent too much time fishing on the deck, because my watch stopped and I lost track of time. Since there wasnt a silverfish pool, I needed some carp and it was becoming obvious they werent feeding on the deck, so it was time for a change and half pot of caster was dumped by the island. Whilst I let that settle I went out on hair rigged 6mm pellet and caught a few better sized silvers and another small carp, but ites just werent coming quickly enough.
Time to try the island and I caught a couple of F1s, before landing a couple of better carp. I had been toss potting caster, but started to get too many liners, so went back to cupping in the caster which resulted in proper bites. I could only catch 1 or 2 fish before they spooked, so in went another pot of caster and try a different area of the swim whilst that settled.
I did catch a small carp down the margin, but double caster by the island was best including a near 10lber.
I was expecting a bigger weight to win today, but the sudden colder this weekend did have an impact. A separate match on Match Lake lake was only won with 60lb
1st 47-13 - Ken - p68
2nd 46-14 - Andy - p61
3rd 35- 6 - Roger - p55
4th 32- 8 - Craig - p58
Monday 24 September 2012
Saturday 22 September 2012
22/09/12 - Acorn - Paddock
Weight - 46lb 5oz (13lb 14oz - silvers)
Catch - 10 Carp, 32 Skimmers, 6 Perch, 2 Roach, 1 Tench, 1 Goldfish
Weather - Cold start, sunny, cool breeze
Match - Open - 9th out of 23 (1st - Silvers)
Originally I wanted to fish Lands End, however the Saturday opens seemed to have died with only a handful turning up, which to be honest I think is a shame.
Instead I decided to get a battering by the locals at Acorns. Well 23 turned up, which speaks volumes for the place and its certainly the closest commercial fishery to me, although its still 30mins away.
I found myself on peg 1, which has some recent silvers form, but I wasn't sure whether the skimmers would feed following the first cold night and bright, sunny conditions. Due to the weather I didn't fancy too many fish coming shallow so decided to focus on fishing down the track, with caster at 5m and pellet 11m slightly to my right & 12m to my left.
I started at 11m on 4mm expander, feeding a tiny pole pot of 3s and within 30mins had 4 carp and a skimmer before the swim died. This also co-incided with the wind picking up a little and it doesn't take much for the lake to start towing. As a consequence I had to change from the 0.3g HB Chump to a 0.5g, which definitely helped. I had been catapulting 4s at 12m, as well as caster at 5m. As the match progressed I had to keep rotating the 3 swims, because I couldn't catch more than 4 fish from one swim before I had to switch.
By the half way point a few more carp were being caught around me and I decided to stay focused on the silvers, since I couldn't see many being caught. However during the last 90mins I suffered a really dodgy patch, losing 4 carp (probably foul hooked) and missing a number of bites (probably liners).
As expected the weather had a say in the final result, but still plenty of bites, although no decent sized silvers to really boost my weight.
1st 80- 1 - Rod Wootton - p15
2nd 75-10 - Nick Harvey - p13
3rd 71- 4 - Garbriel S - p38
4th 64- 2 - Dom Sullivan - p37
5th 63- 0 - M Bellringer - p34
6th 50-13 - Jon Andres - p26
Silvers
1st 13-14 - Ken Rayner - p1
2nd 12-14 - Charlie Barnes - p11
Catch - 10 Carp, 32 Skimmers, 6 Perch, 2 Roach, 1 Tench, 1 Goldfish
Weather - Cold start, sunny, cool breeze
Match - Open - 9th out of 23 (1st - Silvers)
Originally I wanted to fish Lands End, however the Saturday opens seemed to have died with only a handful turning up, which to be honest I think is a shame.
Instead I decided to get a battering by the locals at Acorns. Well 23 turned up, which speaks volumes for the place and its certainly the closest commercial fishery to me, although its still 30mins away.
I found myself on peg 1, which has some recent silvers form, but I wasn't sure whether the skimmers would feed following the first cold night and bright, sunny conditions. Due to the weather I didn't fancy too many fish coming shallow so decided to focus on fishing down the track, with caster at 5m and pellet 11m slightly to my right & 12m to my left.
I started at 11m on 4mm expander, feeding a tiny pole pot of 3s and within 30mins had 4 carp and a skimmer before the swim died. This also co-incided with the wind picking up a little and it doesn't take much for the lake to start towing. As a consequence I had to change from the 0.3g HB Chump to a 0.5g, which definitely helped. I had been catapulting 4s at 12m, as well as caster at 5m. As the match progressed I had to keep rotating the 3 swims, because I couldn't catch more than 4 fish from one swim before I had to switch.
By the half way point a few more carp were being caught around me and I decided to stay focused on the silvers, since I couldn't see many being caught. However during the last 90mins I suffered a really dodgy patch, losing 4 carp (probably foul hooked) and missing a number of bites (probably liners).
As expected the weather had a say in the final result, but still plenty of bites, although no decent sized silvers to really boost my weight.
1st 80- 1 - Rod Wootton - p15
2nd 75-10 - Nick Harvey - p13
3rd 71- 4 - Garbriel S - p38
4th 64- 2 - Dom Sullivan - p37
5th 63- 0 - M Bellringer - p34
6th 50-13 - Jon Andres - p26
Silvers
1st 13-14 - Ken Rayner - p1
2nd 12-14 - Charlie Barnes - p11
Monday 17 September 2012
16/09/12 - Acorn - Paddock
Weight - 44lb 13oz
Catch - 11 Carp, 8 Perch, 7 Skimmers, 1 F1, 1 Rudd
Weather - Cool, cloudy & breezy
Match - 2+3 Short Pole Only - 20th out of 50 (4th out of 10-section)
50 pegs meant every peg was in on both lakes and everyone wanted a draw with some space. I found myself on peg 16 in the middle of the straight, with Matt Tomes on 15 and Paul Lock on 17.
I made up rigs to fish caster/maggot, pellet and paste, so covering all basis, because during Wednesdays match p16 wasn't in but the pegs to the right all caught, whilst those to the left struggled, which meant I wasn't sure whether I had carp or silvers in front of me.
Our section ran from 11 - 20, so the expectation was pegs 11 & 12 were the ones to watch, however it was Tim Clark on p19 who got off to a flyer catching carp on caster from the end of his keepnet. As for me I decided on a steady approach starting straight away on the paste feeding some 4s via the toss pot, hoping for some early carp. However after 20mins I had nothing to show for my efforts other than a couple dips on the float. I suspected skimmers and a change to soft pellet produced 3 fish and then I couldn't catch.
After an hour and seeing others catching the devil on my shoulder started talking to me. What I should have done in hindsight was stick with the soft pellet. But no I decided that I could catch shallow on caster, so started feeding caster. Whilst I primed the shallow line, I switched to the short line but only had micro perch. The shallow line proved to be a waste of time and now 2hrs gone with 2lb in the net things weren't looking good.
A quick chat to myself about being patient (a real problem for me at the moment!) and I potted some caster with corn down the track. Letting that settle I went back to the short line and bugger me, I had a couple of carp on maggot.
Down the track produced a few more skimmers, then a few more carp. As the match progressed I started getting more carp, although not as many as Matt who was catching on soft pellet. My short line completely died, but I managed 3 carp on my top kit in 1ft of water by the sedges late on.
In hindsight, I lost focus in the 2nd hour, being too easily distracted by those that were catching, when I really should have just stuck with soft pellet. Tim Clark won my section with 72-12, whilst Matt was 2nd with 59-2 (and yes I forgot to give you my pound - so double or quits next time). Paul the other side spent the day on pellet & paste and tipped back 30-40lb.
Bearing in mind every peg was in the venue actually fished quiet well.
3rd 98-10- 0 – Tim Ford – p27
4th 81- 3- 0 – Bob Gullick – p21
5th 80-13- 0 – Mike Nicholls – p30
6th 80- 9- 0 – Craig Edmunds – p1
Silvers
1st 32-10 – Tom Thick – old canal p5
2nd 27- 4 – Pete Wild – old canal p6
3rd 24- 6 – Martin Rayet – old canal p2
oh - anyone seen Tonys blog yet? Anyway, it doesn't take long to write about catching 11lb. No-one mentioned it much, during the weigh-in.
Catch - 11 Carp, 8 Perch, 7 Skimmers, 1 F1, 1 Rudd
Weather - Cool, cloudy & breezy
Match - 2+3 Short Pole Only - 20th out of 50 (4th out of 10-section)
50 pegs meant every peg was in on both lakes and everyone wanted a draw with some space. I found myself on peg 16 in the middle of the straight, with Matt Tomes on 15 and Paul Lock on 17.
I made up rigs to fish caster/maggot, pellet and paste, so covering all basis, because during Wednesdays match p16 wasn't in but the pegs to the right all caught, whilst those to the left struggled, which meant I wasn't sure whether I had carp or silvers in front of me.
Our section ran from 11 - 20, so the expectation was pegs 11 & 12 were the ones to watch, however it was Tim Clark on p19 who got off to a flyer catching carp on caster from the end of his keepnet. As for me I decided on a steady approach starting straight away on the paste feeding some 4s via the toss pot, hoping for some early carp. However after 20mins I had nothing to show for my efforts other than a couple dips on the float. I suspected skimmers and a change to soft pellet produced 3 fish and then I couldn't catch.
After an hour and seeing others catching the devil on my shoulder started talking to me. What I should have done in hindsight was stick with the soft pellet. But no I decided that I could catch shallow on caster, so started feeding caster. Whilst I primed the shallow line, I switched to the short line but only had micro perch. The shallow line proved to be a waste of time and now 2hrs gone with 2lb in the net things weren't looking good.
A quick chat to myself about being patient (a real problem for me at the moment!) and I potted some caster with corn down the track. Letting that settle I went back to the short line and bugger me, I had a couple of carp on maggot.
Down the track produced a few more skimmers, then a few more carp. As the match progressed I started getting more carp, although not as many as Matt who was catching on soft pellet. My short line completely died, but I managed 3 carp on my top kit in 1ft of water by the sedges late on.
In hindsight, I lost focus in the 2nd hour, being too easily distracted by those that were catching, when I really should have just stuck with soft pellet. Tim Clark won my section with 72-12, whilst Matt was 2nd with 59-2 (and yes I forgot to give you my pound - so double or quits next time). Paul the other side spent the day on pellet & paste and tipped back 30-40lb.
Bearing in mind every peg was in the venue actually fished quiet well.
1st
111-10 – Glenn Bailey – p2
2nd
104- 0- 0 – Allan Oram – p73rd 98-10- 0 – Tim Ford – p27
4th 81- 3- 0 – Bob Gullick – p21
5th 80-13- 0 – Mike Nicholls – p30
6th 80- 9- 0 – Craig Edmunds – p1
Silvers
1st 32-10 – Tom Thick – old canal p5
2nd 27- 4 – Pete Wild – old canal p6
3rd 24- 6 – Martin Rayet – old canal p2
oh - anyone seen Tonys blog yet? Anyway, it doesn't take long to write about catching 11lb. No-one mentioned it much, during the weigh-in.
Thursday 13 September 2012
12/09/12 - Acorn - Paddock
Weight - 54lb 3oz (18lb 1oz - silvers)
Catch - 13 Carp, 29 Skimmers, 4 Perch, 3 Tench, 1 Chub, 1 Roach, 1 Rudd
Weather - Cooler. Mostly sunny, occasional shower
Match - 2+2 short pole - Avon Angling Open - 13th out of 22 (3rd - silvers)
Still quiet at work, although hopefully that will soon be resolved, so decided a mid-week match would be a good idea. It always surprises me the number of people who can make these matches.
I haven't fished Acorns since May and was looking forward to it, although a little out of touch with whats working. Initially I thought p38 was a good draw, however after reviewing the past 6 weeks results the peg has only featured once.
Tony rocked up on p36 with a gallon of maggot (well that experiment didn't work) and I decided to concentrate on soft pellet. Initially fed 4s at an angle to my left and a micros/groundbait to my right. Whilst I let that settle I started down my left margin next to some reeds on caster. However it took me a while to get a my first fish which was a small rudd and I became a little pre-occupied trying to catch by the reeds, because I was getting plenty of bites, but not connecting with anything.
After 30mins I decided I was wasting my time and switched to fishing my left & right hand down the track swims. I had set up 2 rigs, one to fish hard pellet on a hair rig and the other for soft pellet. The fish didn't seem to settle over the micros, so I binned that line concentrating on the left hand swim, which was also a little shallower so I don't know whether that had an effect.
Over the next couple of hours I kept catching skimmers and a couple of carp. In the meantime I had been feeding 4s and a few bits of corn to my right at the bottom of the first shelf where it was about 3ft. I had a few skimmers straight away on soft pellet before switching to corn when I had 3 carp and thought I sussed it, but no, the swim went quiet.
In the last 2 hours I kept rotating my 3 swims. The down the track swim produced very little and I think I may have overfed it. The right hand swim was still producing the odd fish, but it was a little sporadic, whilst my left hand reed swim finally started to produce a few carp on caster, as well as a couple of Tench, including one of 4lb 6oz.
During the weigh in it became obvious I was in the wrong part of the lake, however I still had plenty of bites and I can see me coming here quite a bit in the future.
1st 117-11 - Mike Nicholls - p12
2nd 99- 0 - Glenn Bailey - p21
3rd 98- 3 - Phil Harding - p15
4th 91- 8 - Mike West - p13
5th 90- 7 - Mash - p9
6th 70- 8 - Chris Winstone - p5
Silvers
1st 43-12 - Craig Edmunds - p1
2nd 29- 8 - John Bradford - p11
3rd 18- 1 - Ken Rayner - p38
Catch - 13 Carp, 29 Skimmers, 4 Perch, 3 Tench, 1 Chub, 1 Roach, 1 Rudd
Weather - Cooler. Mostly sunny, occasional shower
Match - 2+2 short pole - Avon Angling Open - 13th out of 22 (3rd - silvers)
Still quiet at work, although hopefully that will soon be resolved, so decided a mid-week match would be a good idea. It always surprises me the number of people who can make these matches.
I haven't fished Acorns since May and was looking forward to it, although a little out of touch with whats working. Initially I thought p38 was a good draw, however after reviewing the past 6 weeks results the peg has only featured once.
Tony rocked up on p36 with a gallon of maggot (well that experiment didn't work) and I decided to concentrate on soft pellet. Initially fed 4s at an angle to my left and a micros/groundbait to my right. Whilst I let that settle I started down my left margin next to some reeds on caster. However it took me a while to get a my first fish which was a small rudd and I became a little pre-occupied trying to catch by the reeds, because I was getting plenty of bites, but not connecting with anything.
After 30mins I decided I was wasting my time and switched to fishing my left & right hand down the track swims. I had set up 2 rigs, one to fish hard pellet on a hair rig and the other for soft pellet. The fish didn't seem to settle over the micros, so I binned that line concentrating on the left hand swim, which was also a little shallower so I don't know whether that had an effect.
Over the next couple of hours I kept catching skimmers and a couple of carp. In the meantime I had been feeding 4s and a few bits of corn to my right at the bottom of the first shelf where it was about 3ft. I had a few skimmers straight away on soft pellet before switching to corn when I had 3 carp and thought I sussed it, but no, the swim went quiet.
In the last 2 hours I kept rotating my 3 swims. The down the track swim produced very little and I think I may have overfed it. The right hand swim was still producing the odd fish, but it was a little sporadic, whilst my left hand reed swim finally started to produce a few carp on caster, as well as a couple of Tench, including one of 4lb 6oz.
During the weigh in it became obvious I was in the wrong part of the lake, however I still had plenty of bites and I can see me coming here quite a bit in the future.
1st 117-11 - Mike Nicholls - p12
2nd 99- 0 - Glenn Bailey - p21
3rd 98- 3 - Phil Harding - p15
4th 91- 8 - Mike West - p13
5th 90- 7 - Mash - p9
6th 70- 8 - Chris Winstone - p5
Silvers
1st 43-12 - Craig Edmunds - p1
2nd 29- 8 - John Bradford - p11
3rd 18- 1 - Ken Rayner - p38
Sunday 9 September 2012
08/09/12 - Fishponds
Weight - 346lb 5oz
Catch - 55 Carp, 1 Bream
Weather - Warm, sunny - no wind
Match - Club - 1st out of 6
A gentle reminder from Sue that this weekend was our wedding anniversary was well timed. With my mind on various other matters, mainly work related I was thankful for the reminder. 12 years now - lucky girl!
Today was the last of our Saturday afternoon/evening matches and we didn't have any restrictions on methods today. Only 6 turned up, so having space wasn't going to be an issue and I didn't really care were I drew, but as it happened I ended up on the same peg as the last match when I broke the lake record a few weeks ago.
Due to the flat calm conditions, I decided to focus fishing at 8m, right parallel to the bank and left at an angle, setting up only 2 rigs. 1x paste and the other with a hair rig for 8mm pellet.
Starting on the paste I caught 2 carp within 15mins, but I got the feeling the fish hadn't really settled on the deck, so switched to the pellet rig which produced bites a lot quicker. They were only gentle dinks, but they were regular, although the average stamp was smaller than normal with a number of 3-4lbers which is a good sign for the future with the younger fish showing more frequently.
By the half way point (2.5hrs) I switched back to paste, which improved the average stamp of fish, although with an hour to go I switched back to the pellet rig because bites started to get iffy again. The carp definitely preferred the pellet today.
Come the end of the match, I was fairly certain I had broken the lake match record again and for what ever reason the fish in the lake seemed to have really gone on a feeding spree at the moment.
1st 346- 5- 0 – Ken – p12
2nd 260- 4- 0 – Andy – p20
3rd 205-12- 0 – Tim – p1
4th 168-13- 0 – Chris – p6
5th 101- 9- 0 – Eddie – p15
6th 61-12- 0 – Brian – p3
Catch - 55 Carp, 1 Bream
Weather - Warm, sunny - no wind
Match - Club - 1st out of 6
A gentle reminder from Sue that this weekend was our wedding anniversary was well timed. With my mind on various other matters, mainly work related I was thankful for the reminder. 12 years now - lucky girl!
Today was the last of our Saturday afternoon/evening matches and we didn't have any restrictions on methods today. Only 6 turned up, so having space wasn't going to be an issue and I didn't really care were I drew, but as it happened I ended up on the same peg as the last match when I broke the lake record a few weeks ago.
Due to the flat calm conditions, I decided to focus fishing at 8m, right parallel to the bank and left at an angle, setting up only 2 rigs. 1x paste and the other with a hair rig for 8mm pellet.
Starting on the paste I caught 2 carp within 15mins, but I got the feeling the fish hadn't really settled on the deck, so switched to the pellet rig which produced bites a lot quicker. They were only gentle dinks, but they were regular, although the average stamp was smaller than normal with a number of 3-4lbers which is a good sign for the future with the younger fish showing more frequently.
By the half way point (2.5hrs) I switched back to paste, which improved the average stamp of fish, although with an hour to go I switched back to the pellet rig because bites started to get iffy again. The carp definitely preferred the pellet today.
Come the end of the match, I was fairly certain I had broken the lake match record again and for what ever reason the fish in the lake seemed to have really gone on a feeding spree at the moment.
1st 346- 5- 0 – Ken – p12
2nd 260- 4- 0 – Andy – p20
3rd 205-12- 0 – Tim – p1
4th 168-13- 0 – Chris – p6
5th 101- 9- 0 – Eddie – p15
6th 61-12- 0 – Brian – p3
Friday 7 September 2012
05/09/12 - Lands End - Match
Weight - 63lb 0oz
Catch - 15 Carp, 4 Roach, 2 Rudd, 1 Golden Tench, 1 Bream, 1 Perch
Weather - Warm & sunny
Match - Avon Angling Open - 9th out of 13
A really quiet week at work, meant I had time on my hands so booked myself in for todays match, although a meeting in Surrey yesterday meant I couldn't write about my day until now.
The addition of smaller carp into the match lake has certainly helped improve the weights, forcing the bigger fish to move around and compete more for food. Currently the most consistent pegs are around the gap, so I really shouldn't have been surprised when Tony, Tom and Fabio drew these pegs. Then there are those pegs you really want to avoid and p24 definitely falls into that category. I really wasn't happy, however on arrival the peg was covered in scum and there seemed to a few fish around, so my hopes were raised a little.
I had Mike "give 'em another pot" West on p22 and John Bradford opposite on peg 1, which meant the carp would feel safe and likely to back off to the other side the tree.
The 2pts of caster I asked Tony to bring along would have to stay in the bag today, deciding to attack the end bank with meat at 13m, pellet & paste at 13m in open water (hoping to pull the carp to my side of the lake and away from the snags by regular feeding of 6s) and meat at 5m.
I started down the edge towards the tree, toss potting meat, with an 8mm cube on the hook and started to catch almost immediately. I had to wait for bites, but at least I was catching, although I did lose a whole rig to the underwater snag.
I had periodically tried my paste line and the short line, with my paste line being most productive with couple of carp and a tench. After 4 hrs I was up to 12 carp (10 on meat/2 on paste) and according to the bankside gossip seemed to be doing OK, although Ziggy on p21 was flying. Well that was until his 14m butt section snapped.
So with 2hrs to go I put in a 2nd carp net, which was the kiss of death, because I didn't catch for another for a hour! The carp were now waving at me from the other side of the tree and they felt very comfortable there with John not fishing beyond 6m in his quest for silvers. I could no longer catch down the right hand edge. I tried switching to feeding pellet by catapult but that didn't really work, so the edge got a 1/2 pot of meat, which only produced 1 more fish.
The short meat line never got going, which was a real surprise, because I was hoping the big skimmers would move in with a few carp, but they never did. I even resorted to dumping a pint of caster down the left hand margin to no avail
Mike in the meantime started to catch over his paste and just pipped me by 1lb, but ultimately we were miles away from framing.
1st 146-15 - Phil Harding - p19
2nd 135-12 - Tony Rixon - p7
3rd 125-14 - Tom Mangnall - p18
4th 111-14 - Mark Poppleton - p13
5th 108- 2 - Ziggy - p21
6th 91- 3 - Rod Wootton - p11
Silvers
1st 18- 1 - Rod Wootton - p11
2nd 16-13 - Roger - p5
3rd 16-10 - John Bradford - p1
Catch - 15 Carp, 4 Roach, 2 Rudd, 1 Golden Tench, 1 Bream, 1 Perch
Weather - Warm & sunny
Match - Avon Angling Open - 9th out of 13
A really quiet week at work, meant I had time on my hands so booked myself in for todays match, although a meeting in Surrey yesterday meant I couldn't write about my day until now.
The addition of smaller carp into the match lake has certainly helped improve the weights, forcing the bigger fish to move around and compete more for food. Currently the most consistent pegs are around the gap, so I really shouldn't have been surprised when Tony, Tom and Fabio drew these pegs. Then there are those pegs you really want to avoid and p24 definitely falls into that category. I really wasn't happy, however on arrival the peg was covered in scum and there seemed to a few fish around, so my hopes were raised a little.
I had Mike "give 'em another pot" West on p22 and John Bradford opposite on peg 1, which meant the carp would feel safe and likely to back off to the other side the tree.
The 2pts of caster I asked Tony to bring along would have to stay in the bag today, deciding to attack the end bank with meat at 13m, pellet & paste at 13m in open water (hoping to pull the carp to my side of the lake and away from the snags by regular feeding of 6s) and meat at 5m.
I started down the edge towards the tree, toss potting meat, with an 8mm cube on the hook and started to catch almost immediately. I had to wait for bites, but at least I was catching, although I did lose a whole rig to the underwater snag.
I had periodically tried my paste line and the short line, with my paste line being most productive with couple of carp and a tench. After 4 hrs I was up to 12 carp (10 on meat/2 on paste) and according to the bankside gossip seemed to be doing OK, although Ziggy on p21 was flying. Well that was until his 14m butt section snapped.
So with 2hrs to go I put in a 2nd carp net, which was the kiss of death, because I didn't catch for another for a hour! The carp were now waving at me from the other side of the tree and they felt very comfortable there with John not fishing beyond 6m in his quest for silvers. I could no longer catch down the right hand edge. I tried switching to feeding pellet by catapult but that didn't really work, so the edge got a 1/2 pot of meat, which only produced 1 more fish.
The short meat line never got going, which was a real surprise, because I was hoping the big skimmers would move in with a few carp, but they never did. I even resorted to dumping a pint of caster down the left hand margin to no avail
Mike in the meantime started to catch over his paste and just pipped me by 1lb, but ultimately we were miles away from framing.
1st 146-15 - Phil Harding - p19
2nd 135-12 - Tony Rixon - p7
3rd 125-14 - Tom Mangnall - p18
4th 111-14 - Mark Poppleton - p13
5th 108- 2 - Ziggy - p21
6th 91- 3 - Rod Wootton - p11
Silvers
1st 18- 1 - Rod Wootton - p11
2nd 16-13 - Roger - p5
3rd 16-10 - John Bradford - p1
Sunday 2 September 2012
01/09/12 - Todber - Whiteposts
Weight - 133lb 12oz
Catch - 55 F1, 43 Carp, 2 Roach, 1 Rudd
Weather - Warm & sunny
Match - Open - 6th out of 14
The day after this match I should be fishing Trinity Waters, instead of writing this blog, however I woke up this morning not feeling very well so had to send Tony a text informing him of my non attendance. Unfortunately a stressful week at work, plus a long day driving took its toll, which is a shame becasue I enjoy fishing Trinity.
Back to Todber, we had the top & bottom lakes at Whiteposts. Informatiion suggested that the bottom lake would win since there was more but smaller fish, whilst the top lake had the bigger fish.
I found myself on peg 29 on the bottom lake, however there was a big question mark over the pegging of the lake, as Mark continued to remind Nick about for most the match. Instead of peg one, miss one or something similar, the middle peg, which Nick happened to draw! had 3 spare pegs one side and 2 the other side, so in other words he was pleasure fishing, so by rights should win the match. My peg was second from the end with Jon Walker on the end peg. To my right I had a spare peg before the next 2 anglers.
Following a conversation with Eddie Wynne at Tony's shop on Friday who had fished a festival there last week I had a clear plan of attack. Being a fish race I needed to catch short and the match turned out to a match of 3 parts.
I started at 7m with 8mm pellet on the deck, but after 10mins only had 1x F1 and loads of silly bites. Since that wasnt going to plan I started to catch shallow at 8m and continued to do so for the next 2hrs. The problem was the lack of carp, I only had 1, whilst Jon was also catching shallow under the end bank tree, but had carp in amongst his F1. For what ever reason the carp didnt want to come shallow in the open, prefering to stay close to cover.
In the meantime I started feeding meat down both margins and was very conscience that I was falling behind everyone and therefore needed some carp. Unfortunately the following 2hrs was just plan frustrating, becuase I only managed 8 carp down the margin, but had to go back out shallow to start catching again.
During the final 2 hours the carp decided to finally turn up down my margin and I reckon I probably put 80lb in the net, by continually swapping left and right on my top 3, but I was an hour too late. Having said that I had to pull a snag out by hand, which also seemed to improve the presentation, just a shame I didnt hook up on it eariler.
Mark won the match fishing meat at 5m, whilst Jon was 2nd on our lake all caught shallow and Nick with all that space was 3rd. If I was to fish the match again, I would dump feed at 5m instead of fishing shallow, but then again I needed my margin to turn on a little sooner.
Catch - 55 F1, 43 Carp, 2 Roach, 1 Rudd
Weather - Warm & sunny
Match - Open - 6th out of 14
The day after this match I should be fishing Trinity Waters, instead of writing this blog, however I woke up this morning not feeling very well so had to send Tony a text informing him of my non attendance. Unfortunately a stressful week at work, plus a long day driving took its toll, which is a shame becasue I enjoy fishing Trinity.
Back to Todber, we had the top & bottom lakes at Whiteposts. Informatiion suggested that the bottom lake would win since there was more but smaller fish, whilst the top lake had the bigger fish.
I found myself on peg 29 on the bottom lake, however there was a big question mark over the pegging of the lake, as Mark continued to remind Nick about for most the match. Instead of peg one, miss one or something similar, the middle peg, which Nick happened to draw! had 3 spare pegs one side and 2 the other side, so in other words he was pleasure fishing, so by rights should win the match. My peg was second from the end with Jon Walker on the end peg. To my right I had a spare peg before the next 2 anglers.
Following a conversation with Eddie Wynne at Tony's shop on Friday who had fished a festival there last week I had a clear plan of attack. Being a fish race I needed to catch short and the match turned out to a match of 3 parts.
I started at 7m with 8mm pellet on the deck, but after 10mins only had 1x F1 and loads of silly bites. Since that wasnt going to plan I started to catch shallow at 8m and continued to do so for the next 2hrs. The problem was the lack of carp, I only had 1, whilst Jon was also catching shallow under the end bank tree, but had carp in amongst his F1. For what ever reason the carp didnt want to come shallow in the open, prefering to stay close to cover.
In the meantime I started feeding meat down both margins and was very conscience that I was falling behind everyone and therefore needed some carp. Unfortunately the following 2hrs was just plan frustrating, becuase I only managed 8 carp down the margin, but had to go back out shallow to start catching again.
During the final 2 hours the carp decided to finally turn up down my margin and I reckon I probably put 80lb in the net, by continually swapping left and right on my top 3, but I was an hour too late. Having said that I had to pull a snag out by hand, which also seemed to improve the presentation, just a shame I didnt hook up on it eariler.
Mark won the match fishing meat at 5m, whilst Jon was 2nd on our lake all caught shallow and Nick with all that space was 3rd. If I was to fish the match again, I would dump feed at 5m instead of fishing shallow, but then again I needed my margin to turn on a little sooner.
1st
205-15- 0 – Mark Poppleton (meat/short - bottom lake)
2nd
169-11- 0 – Mark Brennan (method feeder - top lake)
3rd
164-11- 0 – Ben Bentley (top lake)
4th
163- 8- 0 – Jon Walker (shallow/pellet - bottom lake)
5th
152- 1- 0 – Nick Merry (bottom lake - pleasure fishing)
6th
133-12- 0 – Ken Rayner (bottom lake)
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