Weight – 7lb 12ozCatch – 3 Bream, 2 Roach.Weather – Cold, bright, easterly wind.
Water Temp– 5.0c > 5.0c
After the festive period I needed to go fishing, just to get out of the house. I had some maggot in the fridge so decided to go to my club water. The only problem was the cold weather, the temperature hadn’t got above 4c in the last couple of days and the wind made it feel even colder. I almost reconsidered going and tried to convince myself that it didn’t matter if I caught, but of course it did.
I doubted whether the carp would feed, but hoped the roach & bream would.
Whilst setting up my pole rigs, I chucked out the lead with double sweetcorn and a small tea bag filled with 6mm pellet, towards the aerator. Initially I set up 2 pole rigs, a 1g Jean Francios at 13m, with .08 bottom & 22 silverfish hook and a 4x16 chianti with .13 bottom & 18 B911 which I intended to use 12m 2o’clock to my right along the bottom of the marginal shelf.
2 balls of groundbait were cupped in on the 13m line and a little micro pellet & 3 bits of corn to my right. With no bites on the lead, I switched to the 13m line, but after 30 minutes with no bites I was beginning to wonder whether I had made the right decision to come fishing, however despite the cold it was a lovely day.
I needed to catch a fish, so decided to start feeding maggot tight to the marginal reeds, hoping for a rudd, but I only had 1 small roach for my efforts. I had tried topping up my long lines, but still nothing by 2 o’clock, so I decided to pack up. After pulling out my keepnets, I thought I would have 1 last put in on the 13m line and bugger me the float dipped. Expecting a small roach, it became immediately obvious I was attached to something a little more substantial. A few minutes later a near 3lb bream was safely netted. A few minutes later I had a 2lber on the lead & double sweetcorn. Now I was interested again.
I couldn’t get another bite, so I topped up the 13m with a small of groundbait, plus some maggot and tried my right hand swim, but again no bites, so another top up with a little micro pellet & corn. Back on the 13m line a lift bite and I hooked a carp, unfortunately I only managed to hang on for a few minutes before the hooklength gave way.
With the sun close to setting, I switched back to the right hand swim and missed a sitter of a bite, fortunately I connected with the next one, which resulted in a 2½lb Bream. A small roach on the 13m line was my last fish before I had to pack up or freeze.
Although it was freezing I enjoyed the day and at least I managed to catch something. Speaking to Steve at Viaduct he confimed the recent weather has really knackered the fishing with many struggling for a bite. With the final round of the Veal’s Winter League next Sunday, a good draw will be required.
Weight – 13lb 14ozCatch – 53 Roach, 12 Bream, 8 Carp, 2 Rudd.Weather – Mild, cloudy, breezy start
Water Temp – 8.0c > 9.0cMatch – Lands End Winter League - rd 3– 16th overall - 2nd in section
The 3rd round of the Lands End Winter League meant I would be fishing Sydney’s Lake, which is the 4th and newest lake on the complex. There are loads of small carp (1-2lb bracket), plus large number of small roach & skimmers, so hopefully loads of bites and I expected 50lb or so to win.
Pete Sivell did his usual £1 side bets with as many people as he could, but with myself he’s getting frustrated by the fact I keep beating him, particularly off the next peg, which I have done for the last 5 times. In his determination to beat the "jinx" he suggested a £2 side bet, which I accepted.
We drew next to each other again, Pete drew 75 and I had peg 78. Ideally, I would have preferred a peg at either end of the lake, however peg 78 was as central I could get, so I felt I was up against it. I really needed good points today to make up for the poor result in the 2nd round.
Initially I decided to feed 3 areas, 6m and 13m in front of the gap between the islands with micro pellet & maggot, and micro pellet & corn tight to the island.
I started at 6m on single maggot and was soon catching small roach. After 30 minutes I had 17 and except for peg 72 (end peg) there wasn’t much else been caught. After a quick look on my other lines & re-fed and decided to keep going on my 6m line. However I needed to make a decision, because I felt the rigs I had set up were too light in what was a gusty breeze. Plus my 6m rig was set up for carp, not roach (roach 4x12, .13 bottom, 20 red maggot hook, doubled 6 elastic).
So more rigs were set up. The 6m line now had a jolly 4x14, 10 bottom, 22 silverfish hook & 5 elastic, which provided much better presentation.
90 minutes gone and my 6m line was drying up. I had started to pick up some small skimmers, probably thanks to the micro pellet, but I was having to wait too long for bites. I needed to change tact, because a few carp were now being caught, particularly Adrian on peg 72, which meant I was now fishing for 2nd in section.
I had been feeding maggot & micro pellet down the margin and 1st drop in on expander produced a carp, soon followed by another. Now I was back in contention.
The remainder of the match saw me rotating swims to keep the fish coming, including a brief look on the waggler fished into the island gap, but this didn’t produce anything other than small roach. In the end I caught most of my silvers on the 6m line and most of my carp in the margins.
At the all out, I hoped for 2nd in section and the weigh in confirmed I had, in what turned out to be a very tight section, with 2x 12lb, 11lb 4oz and 5lb 2oz coming last. Adrian won the section with 24lb 7oz, which makes 3 section wins out of 3 and is now leading the league. I’ve jumped from 18th to 12th.
More importantly that’s another 2 quid from Mr Sivell. Fair shout to him though he did send me a text saying well done, but I probably need to watch my back in case he pushes me in!
1st Adrian Clarke 18pts
2nd Andy France 17pts
3rd Nicky Collier 16pts
4th Mike Duckett 15pts
5th Pete Nurse 13.5pts
6th Clint Wojtyla 13pts
12th Ken Rayner 12pts (27lb 14oz)
Weight – 7lb 7oz
Catch – 8 Roach, 4 Rudd, 2 Bream, 1 Mirror Carp, 1 Perch.
Weather – Cold, cloudy and calm.
Water temp – 6.0c > 6.0c
Match – Glenfall Xmas Match – 3rd overall
As well as being our Christmas match, this was also the final of the knockout competition, where Andy Lord, Kev Millard and myself had qualified.
Upon arriving, the ice had obviously melted away from 2 days ago, however following yesterday’s heavy rain meant the platforms were underwater and the lake was very coloured, thanks to the nearby brook bursting its banks.
Speaking to Andy, who regularly fishes here whilst having breakfast suggested we needed to draw in the deeper open water, instead of the island pegs. So I drew peg 21, which was an island peg, but it is also a peg I won from in our Christmas match 2 years ago with 40lb.
I also spoke to Vince Shipp last Sunday, who suggested fishing over micro pellet was catching the carp, however the extra water and colour was a concern. A hard match was anticipated, so 3 small balls of groundbait went in at 6m with some pinkie & caster, plus micro pellet at 14m, before I started on the lead & double corn towards the island, which was about 20m away.
After 15 minutes, no bites on the lead, the 6m line, again no bites and the 14m line no bites. Nearly an hour in and I was still fishless, but so were most others, except Graham on peg 3 who had a few roach.
Eventually I caught a rudd on the waggler next to the island, but now I wasn’t sure what to do. My 6m silverfish line had failed and to be honest I didn’t expect it to suddenly come to life. I topped up my 14m line with little more micro, but I had to make a decision about my waggler line. Initially I had set up the waggler with .13 bottom and 18 B911 for carp, but it was becoming obvious that none were feeding, yet I felt the island would offer me the best chance of catching a few. I preserved a little longer, but eventually decided to change down my hooklength to .10 bottom and 22 B911, simply because I had a couple of bites on the drop.
A switch to the 14m yielded a 1lb skimmer and I was continually feeding 3-5 casters on the waggler line hoping to pull in some roach and maybe the odd carp.
The skimmer was the only fish to come off my 14m line, but I decided to move my 14m swim to my right so it didn’t interfere with my waggler line, which was slowly coming to life.
My new 14m swim produced a 2lb skimmer and a near 3lb carp in successive put ins, but then nothing. This was the story the remainder of the match, I would have a run of fish, then I would have to switch tactics. I even tried the margins, however without success.
The last 45 minutes proved a real struggle for everyone, including myself. At least I couldn’t be accused of not trying, I kept trying to keep the fish coming. In the end I expected my waggler line to get stronger, but trying to get my tactics right in the 1st 2 hours ultimately proved costly.
As for the knockout, I beat Andy who only weighed 3lb 10oz, but Kev had 9lb of roach to claim the free annual club membership. Graham Beever on peg 3 won the match with 11lb of quality roach.
Weight – 8lb 9oz
Catch – 19 Roach, 17 Perch, 1 Mirror Carp
Weather – Lake iced over, cloudy, becoming milder.
Water temp – 4.5c > 4.5c
My clubs Christmas match is due this Sunday at Ivy House Small Lake, plus it is the final of our knockout competition, so I decided a little practice was required.
Ivy House is 1 of those venues that if it was properly managed it could be a great fishery and would attract more & bigger matches. However the owners aren’t prepared to put any real effort in, which is a real shame.
When I woke up I was expecting a frost, but instead there was light drizzle, so I was hopeful the lake wouldn’t be iced over. When I pulled up at the lake, it looked flat & ice free, however closer inspection revealed a thin layer of water on top of 2" thick ice, which proved difficult to break. 
I eventually managed to create a channel at 7m, where I had 5ft of water and only set up the 1 rig - Jolly 4x12, .08 bottom and a 22 silverfish hook. Feed was also simple, red maggot and some red atomic cloud, which I fed via a tosspot.
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After 15 minutes I was wondering if I had done the right thing by fishing, then I had a bite, which I missed. A couple of roach soon followed, before I hooked something more substantial. After 10 minutes I eventually landed a 4lb 2oz carp, which was a bit of a handful on the light kit, the ice and clear water.
I continued to catch roach up to 10oz, but more & more micro perch were showing. Because I only had the 1 swim to target, I wanted to be cautious about what I fed, but felt tosspoting 3-4 maggot wasn’t positive enough, hence fewer roach were showing. So I decided to mix a little Match Blend groundbait. Although I had to wait a little longer for bites I started to catch roach again, which is useful tactic to know for Sundays match.
I was pleased with how the session went, however I wished I had some pinkie, because I missed bites and lost fish due to the smaller fish hanging onto the end of the maggot.
The weather forecast is for milder weather so with any luck I will be able to leave the icebreaker at home!
Weight – 5lb 1oz
Catch – 79 Roach, 10 Rudd, 9 Bream, 1 Motherless Minnow
Weather – -5c overnight. Lakes iced over. Sunny & cold.
Water temp – 4.5c > 4.5c
Match – Veals Winter League – rd 7 – 31st overall, 10th in section
After last weekend’s disappointment, I was hoping for a good draw. Spring, Middle, Cary & Campbell were in, but everyone was hoping for a decent silverfish peg because of the ice.
I drew peg 4 on Spring, which Paul Garrett suggested I sit on the tip for carp, assuming I could reach the island! Unfortunately I couldn’t, otherwise I really fancied my chances. Instead I had to target the silvers, but the catch was I had Des Shipp on one side and Nicky Collins on the other. An England international and a silverfish venue expert, I felt a battering coming up and just hoped the ice would melt so I could get to the island.
I set up 2 lines, 6m feeding pinkie and 13m feeding black lake/mussel & squid with caster.
I was never going to match Des or Nicky by copying them, so I had to work hard to find a way of catching better quality fish. I did catch plenty of fish, but had too many small roach. If I had been able to practice I would have changed my approach slightly, by feeding small balls of groundbait more frequently, I also wouldn’t have fed liquidised hemp which seemed to attract too many tiny roach, instead of the skimmers.
In the end Des weighed 13lb and Nicky 8lb, but the main weights came from the corner pegs 6 & 7 (Andy Lloyd won the match with 94lb) plus there was 4 big silverfish weights (28lb-33lb) from pegs 17-20 in the deeper water.
Overall the day difficult for most, with a total of 10 blanks, mainly from the ice free Middle Lake. Cary was only won with 15lb and Campbell with 23lb.
1st Mike Nicholls – Charlies Angels - 87pts
2nd Chris Davis – Westerleigh – 85
3rd Ryan Shipp – Westerleigh – 77 (222-5)
4th Vince Brown – Sedges Mosella – 77 (182-3)
5th Adam Palmer – Sedges Mosella – 76
6th Jon Gray – Somerset Angling – 75.5
7th Eric Fouracre – Sedges Mosella – 75
8th Tim Pallant – Maver Veals Blue – 71.5 (158-2)
9th Mark Broomsgrove – Sensas Thyers – 71.5 (119-7)
10th Tony Rixon – Avon Angling – 71
21st Ken Rayner – Maver Veals Red - 56
For the first time ever, the last thing I wanted to do was spend a long weekend away fishing at Stafford Moor. The stress of work etc, meant I felt like absolute crap, however I had to fish rounds 5 & 6 of the Veals Winter League, which normally I would relish.
On Friday I practised on Woodpecker peg 32, fishing the lead & trying for the first time the "tea bag". I didn’t have to think too hard about the fishing and finished with 6 carp for 41½lb, 5 on the lead and 1 on the full depth waggler.
Saturday saw me on Tanners peg 34. I finished with 12lb 11oz of silvers, however in what was a very tight section, I was only 3lb away from coming 4th overall in the silvers. Had I struck with catching the silvers for the whole match I would have probably come 5th in section instead of 2nd to last. I spent too long searching for a carp that weren’t feeding in very cold conditions.
Sunday I was on Woodpecker peg 8, which wasn’t a great draw and it was even colder overnight, than the previous night. My silver fish line only yielded small roach, so I spent more time than I should have trying for a carp, simply because it didn’t require too much thought. Again, had I been up for it and concentrated I would have probably come about half way in section.
I am really disappointed with this weekend, not just because I was ill, but I have now slipped to 21st in the individual league and I have absolutely no doubt had I fished to my full potential I would have done much better, particularly on Saturday.
