28/12/11 - Lands End - Match Lake

Weight – 18lb 4oz (7lb 0oz – silvers)
Catch – 17 Roach, 9 Perch, 2 Carp, 1 Rudd
Weather – Mild, blustery showers, windy.
Water Temp – 8.3c – 8.3c
Match – Avon Angling Open – 9th out of 16 (3rd overall)

Today it would have great to fish the Stafford Moor Christmas match, but the funds wont stretch that far yet, so Lands End it was and for the 3rd time on the bounce I drew peg 5.

With the recent mild weather I was surprised to see the lake was still quite clear. With 16 fishing 12 were put on match lake and 4 on speci, with p33 being the one everyone wanted. So no surprise when Mark drew it! The only issue today would be the wind. For the 1st couple of hours there was a slight breeze, but as the day progressed the wind got stronger, making presentation difficult.

I had a carp first put in on corn, without any feed in front of the gap, however other than a couple of dinks no more followed and when I put on a maggot I had a roach which told its own story.

For the rest of the match I never really got going, which was made more difficult by the wind. Also with John Bradford on p19 and Mark Walsh on p18 not fishing long the fish had plenty of room to hide away and I probably tried too hard to pull the carp to my side of the lake.

In reality I should have concentrated on the silvers, since I only needed another 3lb to pick up 2nd place, although getting the 22lb of roach and perch Anton had from peg 3 would have proved more of a challenge! Most of my fish came from the bottom of the far shelf mostly caster, plus some big perch from under the platform on peg 6.

In the end most of the weights came from the sheltered part of the lake.

1st 36-10 Mark Poppleton – p33
2nd 34-14 Jim Jenner – p15
3rd 31-12 Dave Sawyer – p13
4th 31- 0 Alan Oram – p16
5th 28- 2 Steve Seagar – p11
6th 24-10 Mike West – p25

Silvers
1st 22-12 Anton Page – p3

21/12/11 - Avalon

Weight – 20lb 3oz (9lb 3oz – silvers)
Catch – 14 Roach, 11 Skimmers, 1 Carp, 1 Rudd
Weather – Mild, cloudy, windy.
Water Temp – 6.5c – 6.8c
Match – Avon Angling Silvers Open – 6th out of 16 (3rd overall)

Finished work yesterday and I won’t be back until the New Year. Fortunately work has been really good this year and I have managed to turn things around financially, which is a huge relief.

With some free time I decided to book in with Tony’s silvers match. This is only the 2nd time I’ve fished Avalon, the 1st time was 10 years ago and there has been a few changes since. When I drew peg 12 it meant very little and feedback suggested it had some form for skimmers, although it was helpfully pointed out that the match could be won from anywhere.

Although this was a silvers match, there was still a payout for carp, because someone was bound to have a few, but to be honest I just wanted a day’s fishing and was looking forward to trying a new venue (and one I expect to be fishing more in the future).

The information gleaned for today was fish long for the skimmers and you won’t catch much short. Despite for the strong wind, it was blowing directly from behind so at least fishing the pole would be comfortable.

I set up 3 rigs, Jean François 0.6g, 0.10 – 18 silverfish maggot (changed to a 20 after 30mins), HB Frostie 0.4g – 0.10 – 18 silverfish pellet and a jolly 4x16 - 0.08 – 22 silverfish maggot to fish short.

For company I had Nigel Bartlett on p12, so at least I could gauge how I was doing. On the all-in I cupped 2x balls of Black Lake/Mussel & Squid, with a pinch of caster and pinkie. With a spare peg to my right I also potted some micro pellet and caster 14.5m to my right, despite regular top-ups I only had 1 small skimmer from here, so no more about that.

Whilst I let the groundbait settle, I started by the reeds to my right and had a 4oz roach straight away, then nothing which, considering the depth and colour of water didn’t make much sense. In fact that was the only fish I caught here all match, so no more about that either!

I would have preferred to let the 14.5m line settle for longer, however since the short line didn’t produce I switched to my long line after 30mins. After trying different bait combinations, double pinkie seemed to be best producing a run of small roach & skimmers for an hour, but I was concerned about the lack of sensible sized skimmers, when I had a proper skimmer of 2½/3lb and with 2 hours gone the grapevine suggested that Tony and Alan were both catching and the 3-4lb I had was doing ok.

I had been toss potting a pinch of caster and micros every put, but after 3 hours I couldn’t get a bite from anywhere. Another ball of groundbait hadn’t worked and I even resorted to casting out a light lead rig beyond the pole line without success.

I decided to leave my original swim alone and potted 2 balls to my left, which again didn’t produce all match, although seeing the float was nightmare due to the reflection of the tress opposite. Eventually by continuing to toss pot caster & micros I had my best run of skimmers from my original swim, including an 11lb carp on double pinkie.

With 30mins to go, it was very close between Nigel & I, but a bumped skimmer which spooked the fish and I could get another bite. I decided to pot a small soft ball of groundbait, which in hindsight I think was a mistake, I should have been more patient. Nigel in the meantime landed 4 skimmers to take 3rd – bugger.

By 11lb carp nearly stole the money for the carp, but Mike West had 3 for 14lb. Overall quite pleased and I had an enjoyable day, just a shame about the last 30mins.

1st 24- 1 Alan Oram – p17 (also had 7 carp – total weight 59-3)
2nd 18- 4 Tony Rixon – p9
3rd 13- 6 Nigel Bartlett – p13
4th 10-11 Chris Davis – p30
5th 9- 7 Stu Foale – p26
6th 9- 3 Ken Rayner – p12

18/12/11 - Cuckoos Rest

Weight – 2lb 3oz
Catch – 48 Roach, 2 Skimmers, 2 Perch
Weather – Cold, mostly sunny. Cold breeze.
Water Temp – 5.3c – 5.4c
Match – Wests Tackle Christmas Open – 9th out of 20

This match was always going to be tough with heavy overnight frost, which covered ½ the lake with ice. With 20 booked in space would also be at a premium, so I was more than happy to draw the end peg at the top of the island on the right side, plus there was no ice to break.

As well as setting up 2 lead rods, 1x in case there was some carp about and another was a 10ft wand for scratching for bites, I was originally only going to set up 2 pole rigs, 1x 0.4g Jean François and a thin wire stem float shotted shirt button, both with 0.08 bottom and 22 hook. However, when plumbing around most of the swim was 4ft, except for a 6ft deep hole at 15m to my left towards the end bank, so a 3rd rig was required which was a 0.6g Jean Francois.

The first 15mins of the match was spent fishing the lead and bread in the “hole”, hoping for the rod to be pulled off the rest, but didn’t even have a liner. A switch to the 13m line didn’t produce, in fact my first fish came at 6m on punch bread after 45mins. For the next hour I had another 26, all be it very small, before that line dried up.

The remainder of the match was spent swapping between my 13m line and fishing in the hole, but I couldn’t get any decent fish. Of the anglers around me I thought I was doing OK, which actually gave me a false impression.

With approximately 20mins left the eventual winner caught 5 big skimmers to add to his handful of roach to steal the match with 13lb. 2nd place was only 5lb 4oz, with 4lb 9oz needed for 3rd. Most weights were made up of roach, with the odd better fish, so the frost had done its job.

A number of the anglers I was fishing against today fish a lot of canals and rivers which showed today. Some were using 0.06 bottoms to get fish. I don’t even own 0.06 and that experience probably counted against me. I should have spent more time fishing shorter, however on the flip side the fish I was catching short were very small and I was sure I would at some point pick up a better fish by fishing longer, which didn’t happen.

11/12/11 - Lands End - Match Lake

Weight – 34lb 6oz
Catch – 8 Carp, 9 Roach, 6 Perch
Weather – Mostly cloudy, heavy rain late on.
Water Temp – 7.1c – 7.8c
Match – Lands End Christmas Open – 8th out of 38

At least the frost stayed way last night, but I still didn’t want to draw Speci Lake because I didn’t fancy fishing 16m for the 2nd day on the trot. So was more than happy to draw peg 5 on Match Lake, where I came 2nd 4 weeks.

Today was likely to be a case of fish for bites, since the water was still very clear. I set up 4 rigs, 1 to fish shallow/top of the shelf on a long line and 3 rigs for fishing the deck to cover all options from fishing single pinkie to corn/soft pellet.

Having only fished the peg 4 weeks ago, I was hoping to catch carp at the bottom of the shelf towards the gap and this is where I started on corn with no feed. Other than 1 liner I had no fish after 20mins, so switched to double maggot and I had an 8oz roach, plus another smaller one.

A switch to the island where I had previously potted some chopped maggot and caster, produced some small roach but decided this was a nonstarter and went down the shelf, toss potting caster. This produced some more small roach, plus a couple of perch.

I had also fed caster under the platforms either side of me, which produced 3 decent perch in a 15min spell, but nothing else all match.

By the ½ stage I had caught all my silvers, but as yet no carp, although I lost 2 foulhookers, which meant I was behind Kev Molton (p7) and Steve Seagar (p11) to my right, as well as Dave Westcott (p18) and Tony Rixon (p19) who was foul hooking fish for fun. Solid comes to mind.

The pegs to my left were struggling, which was true on the other side of the lake from p20 to p24. I kept flicking the odd caster towards the island, as well as 4mm to the bottom of the shelf to my right.

My first carp was a foulhooked 2lber. I was starting to get the occasional liner, so the carp weren’t really settling, although they didn’t appear to be being put off of the pellet being catapulted in so I upped my feed from 4x pellets to 6x pellets a little more regularly. To combat the liners I tried my shallow long line rig and had 1 carp, but no more followed.

I then had 2 carp on double maggot in 2 put ins on the deck, before another foul hooker unsettled the fish. With 45mins to go I was still flicking the pellet in and switched to corn and had 4 carp, all a little too late to catch up those around me, plus I had the smaller stamp of fish.

Not too sure what I could have done differently, other than possibly switching to corn sooner, but I got the impression I was on the edge of the fish. This peg has some recent form, but there generally better pegs on the lake.

At the end of the match, Mike’s family produced loads of hot food which was gratefully received by most after the rain came down hard 30mins before the match for an hour. Also everyone walked away with something, with the top 3 winning hampers.

1st 89- 9 Scott Puddy – p33
2nd 51-12 Tony Rixon – p19
3rd 49- 8 Kev Molton – p7
4th 45-11 Nick Duckett
5th 44- 9 Steve Seagar – p11
6th 36-15 Dave Wescott – p18

10/12/11 - Lands End - Speci Lake

Weight – 1lb 14oz
Catch – 4 Perch
Weather – Mostly cloudy with showers. Overnight frost.
Water Temp – 5.8c – 6.3c
Match – Open – 3rd out of 5

Only 5 today which was disappointing, however 3 dropped out on the morning and today was also Viaducts Christmas match, so attendance was always likely to be low.

It was decided to use Speci Lake today and normally I would be happy to have drawn peg 31, opposite the point of the island. However last night’s frost seemed to have knocked the colour out of the water, which was now very clear.

The first 30mins was spent on double corn at 14.5m, under the far shelf, but no bites. So a switch to fishing tight to the island resulted in 3 lost foul hooked carp and that was the only carp action I saw. I was getting occasional liners and tried fishing shallower, but no indications. In fact only 1 carp was caught between the 5 of us, which fell to Beany on peg 33.

With 90mins to go, Mark Walsh on p29 was catching big perch at 8m, which meant Mike West on p32 was in line to pick up silvers with just 3 tiny perch. Beany had managed to lose a 2nd carp at net.

I had only caught 2 tiny perch and decided it was time to try something different, by chopping up some maggot, which has got me out of trouble on more than one occasion. Today was no different with 1 decent perch from down the track, followed by another tight to the island, to take the silvers by default.

Some days there is nothing you can do. A sharp overnight frost killed the fishing today and with only 5 anglers on the lake, the fish had far too many places to sulk away.

1st 11- 2 - Mark Walsh – p29 (big perch)
2nd 4- 8 – Dave Wescott – p33 (1x carp)
3rd 1-14 – Ken Rayner – p31
4th 0- 2 – Mike West – p32
5th 0- 0 – Mark Poppleton – p36 (1st blank in 6 years)

04/12/11 - Ivy House - Match Lake

Weight – 53lb 2oz
Catch – 7 Carp, 10 Roach
Weather – Mostly cloudy, bright later. Cool westerly.
Water Temp – 7.6c – 7.8c
Match – Club Christmas Match – 1st out of 13

As well as being our Christmas match, today was also the last match in our club series, as well as the final for the knockout. With 2 matches to go I had a comfortable 11pt lead, but lost 7pts to Andy on the Little Lake last month. As for the knockout, I hoped it would be 3rd time lucky, because the 2 previous times I reached the final I fell at the last hurdle.

Reports suggested the fish were shying away from too much feed and looking at the results from yesterday’s match showed a winning weight of 51lb (Vince Shipp), but half the field, which included Des Shipp, didn’t weigh and the best silvers weight was only 6lb.

I found myself on peg 31, which initially I wasn’t impressed with. It’s situated on the island opposite the road bank, which we decided not to include it, because it had been fishing awful, with only one weighing in from yesterday match, so I wasn’t optimistic. However the big consolation was I had loads of space, with the next peg being around the corner of the island on peg 35. So I was billy no mates and couldn’t see anyone.

With so few silvers showing, I decided to ignore trying to catch any roach and only set up 1 pole rig (0.4g HB frostie, .12 bottom, 18 silverfish pellet) to fish soft pellet and maggot. I also set-up a lead rod to search the swim and a 3AAA Crystal Insert Waggler.

5mins before the all in a carp topped about 35m out. At least there was some in the area, which was confidence booster. On the all-in I went straight out at 12m on 4mm expander without feeding to see whether there was any fish close in. After 10mins I missed a bite, before connecting with the next 10mins later, landing a 5lber.

So with the blank avoided, I cast the lead with double hair rigged corn to where the carp had previously topped. In the meantime I toss potted a pinch of micros, plus a couple of maggots over the pole line, as well as a big toss pot of bait 13m to my left and finally started to catapult caster almost at right angles to my right, in front of peg 32.

For the next 30mins I was getting loads of liners on the lead but no fish. I had a gut feeling the waggler might work, so I cast it as far as I could with double maggot. Over the next 90mins I had 4 carp, including a near 10lber which decided to kite right around the island, which meant I had to stand on my seat box in attempt to hold the rod as high as possible to avoid getting snagged on the platforms (I couldn’t walk round due to the shrubby).

The carp seemed to have sulked away, because I started to catch the occasional roach. Whilst fishing the waggler I kept the pole line topped up with a pinch of bait, as well as continuing to catapult caster to my right, where I had a few roach, but they weren’t really coming regularly.

With an hour to go, I was wondering where my next carp would come from, when a carp topped to the right of where I had previously caught. 15mins later I had a carp on double corn and my final carp came on the pole with 10mins remaining.

I thought I only had 35-40lb, so was a bit surprised to weigh 53lb. As it turned out it really didn’t matter, because the rest of the lake really didn’t fish well, with the next best weight being only 9-14. In fact the rest of the field only weighed 44lb in total, so this was probably my most convincing win.

Being the last club match, meant I am now the club champion, the club lake champion and the knockout winner.

1st 53- 2 – Ken – p31
2nd 9-14 – Don – p15
3rd 9- 2 - Kevin – p11
4th 9- 1 – Andy – p13

Nick Speed

I recently won a days fishing with Nick Speed from the Matchfishingscene (MFS) website http://www.matchfishing-scene.co.uk/

As I write this report, reflecting on what has been a really fascinating day with Nick Speed, I’m finding it difficult to know where to start. When I arrived home, after spending 3.5hrs on the motorway, I wrote down the points I learnt and soon realised it was a lot.

Firstly thanks to BNF for arranging the prize, as well as Nick for devoting his time for free. Nick is a professional angler, who recently made the decision to start coaching. As we all know Nick is a top quality angler, who regularly wins on the northern commercial circuit, but he is also 1 of the more approachable anglers, with an easy manner, which is ideal for coaching.

When my name was drawn a couple of weeks ago, my joy was tempered by when can I go? With Christmas and the colder weather just around the corner, as well as a busy work diary, time was certainly short, however I managed to re-arrange a meeting and took Friday off.

After a couple of conversations with Nick he suggested Lindholme would be the best venue. Living in Bristol, meant a bit of travelling. Fortunately I found a cheap hotel room off the M1/M18 for Thursday night, which left a short 25 mile trip the following morning, but more importantly it also meant I missed the worse of the traffic around Birmingham.

On arrival at Lindholme it was easy to see why it is so popular. A really decent café and tackle shop. A quick walk around some of the lakes revealed a well maintained fishery, which will put some of the fisheries in the south west to shame.

I consider myself to be a decent angler (fortunately Nick agreed!), however I feel that I have hit a plateau and winning a day with Nick came at the right time to iron out any problems.

Initially we had a chat over a coffee, so Nick could gauge what I wanted to get out of the day, which I thought was great, because it meant there was no preconceived structure. The 1 thing we both agreed on is that there are too many anglers doing the same thing, day in, day out without actually thinking about it. Far too many anglers say the lake, the peg or weather was rubbish and that’s why they didn’t catch. Very few anglers admit to cocking up a peg due to their own inability. I like to think I am honest enough to say when I should have done better and certainly in the last 9 months have looked at how I fish, changing my floats, how I set them up and how I feed.

Whilst I want to improve my own fishing there are certain ruts I have got stuck in and unsure how to make the necessary adjustments. At the end of the day, results don’t lie and whilst I have had some good days, there are certainly days I have come away thinking I should have done better.

They say there is a fine line between success and a failure and my day with Nick certainly highlighted that fact. Now individually the things learnt were only small, but when added together it’s the difference between having an extra couple of fish in the net and picking up a brown envelope.

After our chat, Nick decided that we should fish peg 48 on Willows which is on the point of 1 of the arms, so we could concentrate on fishing soft pellet, which is 1 area I need to improve.

Other than Todber Manor, there are no real venues were F1’s dominate in the south west, however the things learnt today are transferable to any fishery, because the principles are still the same.

Bait Preparation
Fortunately how I prepare my soft pellet wasn’t dissimilar to Nicks, which is soaking a handful of expanders overnight. Nick isn’t a big believer in flavouring, preferring to trust his ability to feed and present the bait, however what he does do with hook pellet is add some Dynamite Bait Source which is oil based. As well as adding some flavouring, more importantly, the oil helps expel the water from the pellet, making it a little firmer. However even more importantly, the consistency of the pellet remains the same for the whole day and can still be used the following day.

Feed for the day was micro pellet, which was simply covered in water then drained off, just enough to make them soft. The critical thing about the bait preparation was the colour of the pellet and Nick is a big believer in a lighter colour at this time of year and will even use a yellow dye to lighten a pellet.

Finally, if you need to pump pellets don’t overdo them, because you will ruin the texture of the pellet and they won’t last long.

Water craft
Nick highlighted the fact he sees too many anglers not thinking about where they are fishing, in other words going straight out at 13m, but on Willow lake, fishing this way could mean competing for the same shoal of fish as another angler. I already like to fish at angles, trying to give myself a bigger swim, although I can be guilty of having various swims too close together, which in reality is counterproductive. So something for me to give more consideration to.

Plumbing
I already tend to plumb around, but Nick stressed the need to find where the bottom of the shelf starts to level out, then fish slightly up on the shelf, which means you are fishing on a hard bottom, instead of silt.

Feeding
Due to unfavourable weather conditions we couldn’t go into too much detail about feeding, since I couldn’t fish beyond 5m, due to an ever increasing wind. However Nick showed me his kinder cups and there was 1 that we ended up using I thought was brilliant and will have me heading for a shop for a supply of kinder eggs. Very simply the cup has a criss-cross of light elastic, which allows you to fill up the kinder, simultaneously feed more than 1 swim, plus there is no need to fill up every put in, thereby saving time, which means more time in the water.

Rigs
For the day I set up a Hillbilly frostie 0.3g, which Nick was really impressed with, although on the day Nick thought I could have done with a thinner bristle due to the shy biting F1 and the choppier water.

Hooklengths
If I only took 1 thing from my day with Nick, it would be his advice on hooklengths. I am very comfortable fishing light hooklengths (.10/.12) for carp, but I have always used a 6in hooklength. For pellet fishing Nick uses an 8in, because it allows for a more natural fall of the bait.

I’ve used a 6in hooklength, because it allowed me to place the last shot closer to the hook, thereby allowing me to see bites quicker. However Nicks view was an 8in hooklength allows for a more natural fall, because the loop to loop connection is further away from the hook. But what about the bait wafting too much in the tow? On lakes where the tow isn’t an issue, a slightly heavier gauge hook (which I will cover later) will help ensure the bait is presented properly, whilst also adding as a counter balance for the expander.

Even if there is a bit of a tow, there is no harm placing the last shot on the hooklength if needs be.

Stotz V Shot
Most of my rigs are made with stotz, because they sit on the line nicely and are easy to put on and take off. Nick is a big believer in using shot, because it is more symmetrical allowing it to fall through the water more naturally, but also shot is smaller for it size when compared to stotz, which again aids with presentation. Stotz do have their place, but mainly when used bulk.

Hooks
The way F1’s feed, they tend to peck at the bait, and Nick likes to use a wide gap hook so the point of the hook protrudes from the pellet, giving you a chance to prick the fish as it sucks in the bait, thereby allowing you to hit more bites.

Back-Shot
I always back shot on my rigs, usually with 2x no 9 or 8s. Nick only uses no8, but what he did do, which now seems stupidly obvious, was when the wind really picked up, bring the 2x no8 together, which definitely helped.

Floats
Interesting one this. I used a hillbilly frostie, which as I mentioned earlier Nick was really impressed with, particularly when I started to use it. However, with an increasing wind Nick thought it didn’t ride in the water quite as well as a thinner solid bristle. On the day Nick used a Tubertini Delta, which did show up the bites slightly better.

However, Nick did acknowledge that because down south, heavier baits like hard pellet and corn are more popular than up north, hollow bristle floats are more practical.

At some time most of us have blacken the tip of our bristles. Today with the bright conditions and clearing water, it was difficult to read the bites, because I could see the whole bristle, despite only having a fraction of the tip above the water. Nicks solution was to simply blacken the base of the bristle – it made such a difference.

Elastics
I used double 5, which Nick thought was spot on for the day – so no change there!

The Day
Unfortunately the weather was doing its best to ruin the day, with an ever increasing wind, meant we could only fish at 5m. I deliberately didn’t want to fish the method, because there aren’t many venues in my area where it dominates, and I really wanted to focus on my soft pellet fishing, because I feel this is a weak area for me.

As the session progressed I tried my rig and Nick also set up 1 of his rigs. As it happened my rig caught a few fish, however it was noticeable that Nicks rig after a few adjustments would get a fish slightly quicker. We also had most of our fish after lifting and dropping.

Nick sat on my box a couple of times and the good news (for me anyway) was he wasn’t catching any quicker, but to be honest, the weather was making presentation difficult, which was a shame.

We only ended up fishing for about 3.5hrs (although we were chatting for further couple of hours), deciding to cut the session a little short because the wind was getting stronger and it was beginning to feel colder, with some very dark threatening clouds on the horizon.

I found the day really interesting, particularly when discussing the theory of why something works, and whilst today was about F1s, the skills learnt can be transferred and adapted to any venue.

About 30lb of F1s

Anyone who wants to improve the way they fish, I would highly recommend speaking to Nick (07854 123215) and arranging a day with him. It was well worth the long trip.

20/11/11 - Todber Manor - Park Lake

Weight – 122lb 4oz
Catch – 37 Carp, 4 Skimmer, 2 Roach, 1F1, 1 Tench, 1 Hybrid, 1 Tench
Weather – Dull start, becoming brighter.
Match – Wests Tackle Open – 1st out of 19

Another unseasonably mild day meant some were fishing in t-shirts, although I don’t think anyone fancied a swim, because the water certainly felt chilly.

As a comprise between those who wanted a 5hr match and those who wanted a 6hr match, we settled on 5½hr.

As usual everyone wanted to draw around the gap, pegs 5, 7 & 38, so I more than happy when I found myself 38. But with every flyer comes the pressure and Mark was certainly trying to pile it on with the usual banter.

peg 38

Anyway, decided I needed to keep things simple so set a HB billybob 0.1g for the far side and down the right hand margin, plus a SZ ninjaz 0.2g for down the track at 7m. Feed was 2 tins corn, plus 6 & 4mm pellet.

I was determined not to make the same mistake from 2 weeks ago at Whiteposts, so kept the catapult safely tucked away in the carryall. I really didn’t want to encourage those F1, which can be a real pain in the arse.

On the all in, a cup of corn & 6mm’s went down the RH edge at 12m and another cup at 7m. Whilst I let that settle I went straight over to the far bank, feeding a toss pot of corn/6mm’s and started to get indications straight away, soon landing an F1. Unfortunately the next hour or so was very frustrating, because I couldn’t hook a fish in the mouth. I tried varying the amount being fed and thought I got it sussed by reducing the amount going through the toss pot, but with the far bank being 15m away it was hard work for little reward.

In the meantime, I had kept both the RH margin and 7m line topped up every 20mins. After nearly 80mins I only had about 10lb, whilst Mark on peg 35 was already admitting to 30-40lb. I felt the far line was more trouble than it was worth so ditched it, hoping the RH would produce.

3 carp in 3 put ins and I was up and running. Initially I was potting in every 3rd fish, but soon switched to toss potting 6 bits of corn and 6 pellets, only potting a ½ cup when I started to get silly bites from silvers, as the carp shy away. When I rested the swim I would switch to the 7m line, were I had kept feeding pellet and corn. This line didn’t produce many fish, but they were proper ‘uns including a near 10lber.

down the margin

Most fish came to corn, I tried 6mm pellet but had to wait longer for bites, so struck with corn. With just over 2hrs to go I was up to about 20 carp, whilst Mark had about 38, so a long way behind, however Mark was insisting his carp were only small. By the end, Mark had managed a further 10 or so, plus a load of F1s, whilst I had a further 17. We both thought we had beaten each other, but as it turned out my fish were much better than the average stamp, which probably also accounts for why I only caught 1 F1 from a lake full of them.

Pleased to have beaten Mark and won the match, it hasnt happened too often this year. However 1 angler was a little too bitter & twisted saying I hadnt done well, because I had an end peg. My response was you still need to catch them. Muppet!

1st 122- 4 – Ken Rayner – p38
2nd 115- 8 – Mark Poppleton – p35
3rd 96- 5 – Nick Merry – p23
4th 85-15 – Jono – p12?

5th 52- 8 – Craig – p5

6th 46- 4 – Steve Ince – p37

13/11/11 - Ivy House - Little Lake

Weight – 3lb 14oz
Catch – 15 Roach, 2 Perch, 1 Skimmer
Weather – Bright & sunny, SE breeze.
Match – Club – 11th out of 16

We had the choice of the large or little lake, depending on how many booked in. By Friday night we had 10, so we decided on the little lake because apparently it had been fishing well, however come Sunday we ended up with 16, so a bit of a squeeze, since it was now too late to change lakes.

My drawing arm hasn’t been the best recently and it didn’t disappoint with peg 11 along the car park bank.

Since I expected the fishing to be hard, decided to knock up one of my favourite winter groundbaits, black lake with mussel & squid. 3 balls went in at 13m were it was 7ft deep with some caster and micros. Also feed caster at 8m. I would have preferred to fish shorter but the lake bed is like a bowl with no shelf.

The first 15mins was spent on the lead/corn, but with no liners or bites, switched to the short line which produced some roach. Unfortunately they weren’t coming quickly but at least I was catching unlike most, although Pete to my right had already fed enough for everyone!

After an hour a switch to the 13m line, produced more roach, then a 1½lb skimmer. With no further bites I topped with another ball of groundbait, which failed, so decided to cup in 4 balls and just leave it, but never had a bite from here. My short line produced another short burst of roach on the deck. I tried catching at mid depth, but other than 1 bite this also failed to produce.

With 2 hours left of the 5, I was falling behind as the odd carp was being landed from the opposite bank.

I had been lightly feeding a 16m swim with 3 & 4mm pellet and with an hour left decided to concentrate hoping for a carp, trying soft pellet and corn without success. In the last hour I fell further behind as Graham to my left landed a 9lber, before Chris opposite had a proper munter of 16lb on his roach rig.

Despite my best efforts I couldn’t get a carp, I even tried the margins, but with anglers either side, coupled with flat, bright conditions it was a nonstarter, but I had to try.

During the weigh in, a number of single carp weights beat me and nearly everyone had a carp from peg 18 and around the island. There simply wasn’t any carp in the deeper water in my area of the lake.

1st 33- 4 – Kev Millard – peg 1
2nd 23- 0 – Andy Lord – peg 19
3rd 19- 1 – Chris Davidge – peg 18
4th 12- 9 – Nick Pople – peg 5
5th 10-11 – Don Smith – peg 20
6th 9-10 – Tim Allen – peg 8

12/11/11 - Lands End - Match

Weight – 42lb 14oz
Catch – 7 Carp, 6 Perch, 3 Roach, 2 Rudd, 1 Bream
Weather – Cold heavy overnight rain. Very mild, mostly bright & calm
Match – Open – 2nd out of 10

I haven’t intended to go fishing today, but decided to take advantage of the mild weather, before the frosts & cold kick in.

I found myself on peg 5, which has been very indifferent recently, so wasn’t sure what to expect, particularly after last night heavy rain, which did have an effect on the fishing.

Initially decided on 3 swims, micros 13m to my left, caster by the island and 4mm’s 13m to my right. Starting on the island I had a rudd straight away on double maggot, before switching to the RH 13m line after 5min with hair rigged 6mm pellet, which produced a 2lb skimmer, then a 5lb carp within 10mins. Unfortunately that was it for 50mins, despite a couple of liners.

After catapulting caster to the island I was hoping to pull in a few fish, so was disappointed to come back with a small roach, but the next put in I had another carp to join its mate in the net, followed by a couple of decent perch before that line went dead.

Just as I wondering what to try next a carp was slurping on the surface about 5m out. I dropped double caster on its nose and it took it! At 10lb it was certainly a big bonus, on what was proving to be a difficult day. Only Martin Pettifer on peg 19 seemed to be catching and Mike West on peg 11 was already going for walk, because he had yet to catch!

I had kept catapulting 4mms to my RH 13m line and had 4 carp in a hour on corn, before that line dried up. In the meantime I had kept trickling bait into the LH 13m swim, as well as caster by the peg 6 platform, but both swims failed to produce anything of consequence. So moving into the last 90mins I concentrated on the island and the RH 13m line. The island produced a couple of quality perch on caster and a carp on JPZ pellet, but the carp just won’t settle in the shallow water by the island. The RH 13m line only produced 1 more carp.

Overall a difficult day, when I had to continually rotate swims, although I may have overfed a couple of my swims, underestimating how cold the water was. In fact only Martin Pettifer and I caught carp today, so last night’s rain definitely did its damage. However really pleased to have done so well from what has been recently a very average peg.

1st 48- 4 – Martin Pettifer – p19
2nd 42-14 – Ken Rayner – p5
3rd 25- 8 – Nigel Bartlett – p15 (all silvers – mostly roach)
4th 13- 8 0 Dave Wescott – p21 (all silvers)

06/11/11 - Todber - Whiteposts

Weight – 48lb 15oz
Catch – 17 F1, 16 Carp, 4 Rudd, 1 Roach
Weather – Cold start. Cloudy with easterly wind
Match – Open – 7th out of 10

I’ve never fished Whiteposts, but reports were that the top lake had been drained and the fish moved into the bottom lake, with winning weights of 190lb. So a knock up was organized and 10 turned up. The lake itself is a long 16 peg lake ranging from 14m to 25m wide, full of small carp and F1s.

When I got to my peg I wasn’t particularly happy. It was tight with trees immediately either side, which meant no margin. There was a more open peg to my right, set back in the bay, but apparently this was 1 of the worse (& widest) pegs on the lake. I was also told the lake is 4-5ft, so was a bit surprised when plumbing up to only find 2-3ft and with the cold I wasn’t expecting the big weights of previous matches.

Settled on 3 areas. 10m to my right where I found slightly more depth, a waggler across to the far side and 10m further to my right towards the platform as far as the tree would let me, fishing left handed.

Starting off at 10m and the first hour was slow, but picked up going into the 2nd with a run of carp. I was feeding 4mm & corn via a toss pot, with corn on the hook. What was evident was the fish would drift in and out of the swim, probably due to the shallow water.

My back plan was the waggler, although a cold easterly blowing down the lake was making presentation a bit tricky, but I got the waggler sitting as it should, but only had little dinks and no fish on corn. A switch to maggot only produced tiny rudd, so that was soon binned. A switch back to corn did produce a couple of F1s but no carp.

The rest of the match was a case of scratching around for fish. A big pot of corn and pellet to my far right did produce a couple of carp, but bites simply weren’t coming quickly enough, whilst on my main 10m line I would get loads of dinks on the float, but no fish.

In hindsight, the mistake I made was catapulting pellet. I had started the match feeding via a toss pot at 10m. Sometimes I would catch at 10m, but also caught a few fishing a metre past. I started to catapult pellet over the top whilst fishing other lines and all that did was encourage more F1s into the swim and I think a lot of the sail way bites I was get were liners. I should have stuck with the toss pot, but left my brain somewhere else.

Mark won from the bottom end of the lake fishing at 9m all day, feeding via a toss pot with corn on the hook. 3rd and 4th came either side of Mark, so there was obviously a few fish in the area.

A disappointing day when I should have caught more, but I’m back at Todber on Park Lake in 2 weeks, so an opportunity to make amends.

1st 127-4 – Mark Poppleton
2nd 103-8 – Nick Merry
3rd 102-7 – Tom Ince
4th 98-10 – Terry Lead

29/10/11 - Lands End - Johns Lake

Weight – 31lb 6oz (12lb 5oz – silvers)
Catch – 21 Roach, 6 Crucian, 5 Perch, 4 F1, 4 Bream, 3 Carp
Weather – Bright start, then heavy rain, then mostly cloudy. Cool breeze
Match – Open – 6th out 14 (2nd out of 4 - lake)

14 turned up for today’s match, which was split with 10 on match and 4 on Johns (no 3 lake), so we know where everyone wanted to be.

I found myself on p68 on Johns, which I practically ran to, however it was like a baggers convention opposite with Tom Thick on p41 (yes the same peg he won from last week) and Rod Wootton on p42. As we were setting up it was noticeable there was no fish moving around, in fact those that were, were further up the lake out of the way.

Started fishing towards the aerator, whilst feeding the island and 13m to my right down the track, hoping to pull in some fish from further up. I had an F1 on corn within 5mins and thought we would be in for a good day, but the next hour was a bit of struggle.

After an hour I was starting to get regular indications, but then the wave machine started, so I had to bin that line. I had still been feeding pellet half way down the island, but not even a liner.

Decided on a rethink and cupped some caster & micros at 6m, plus caster & 4mm to the point of the island where I fished 4 maggots on the hook, hoping the maggot fluttering in the flow would tempt a bite, which it did after 5mins in the shape of a 6lb carp. Great thought I sussed it, but my next fish was a tiny perch.

With no further carp a switch to 6m fishing caster & occasionally 4mm expander, started to get regular bites from roach, with the odd crucian. At least I was catching, because since the aerator started, both Tom & Rod had caught very little.

90mins after it started the wave machine stopped, as did my 6m line. So back out towards to the aerator and I kept the pellet going in against the island and down the track 13m to my right.

There was still very few carp showing in our part of the lake, Tom had yet to catch one, whilst Rod was picking up the odd one, but it was generally slow. I was catching a few crucian, F1 and skimmers from the aerator mostly on 6mm pellet, but no carp.

A further look around the island still didn’t result in any fish, although a few fish started to show themselves, but the pole over their heads, just seemed to spook them.

With an hour to go I concentrated on fishing 13m down the track. So far I had only caught a skimmer an hour previously on this line and was hoping for a good last hour to catch up Rod. First drop in on corn and 5mins later I was attached to carp, but it shot off surfacing in the gap between the 2 islands, before the hooklength gave way – I suspected it was foul hooked. My next fish was an 8lber, before I lost my next carp in the weed bed to my left.

Unfortunately the carp seemed to have backed off since my next fish was a skimmer, followed by a roach. 5 seconds before the all out I hooked a carp, which I managed to net and was left wishing they had turned up an hour earlier.

The lake didn’t fish as well as expected due to the cold week and the carp just sulked away further up the lake.

Today I concentrated on .14 bottom fishing hair rigged 6mm pellet or corn. I could have probably caught more silvers had I gone down to .12 bottom. I did have another rig with .12 bottom to fish soft pellet or caster, but that resulted in too many small fish. The carp just didn’t want to be here.

1st 55-15 Martin Lenaghan – p17
2nd 52-12 Mark Poppleton – p21
3rd 48-15 Rod Wootton – p42
4th 41- 8 Mike West – p22
5th 37-11 Nigel Bartlett – p1
6th 31- 6 Ken Rayner – p68

Silvers
1st 25-12 Martin Pettifer – p11

16/10/11 - Lands End - Speci Lake

Weight – 45lb 1oz
Catch – 6 Carp, 15 Roach, 3 Perch, 1 Rudd.
Weather – Cool overnight, bright with a slight breeze.
Match – Teams of 4 – 13th out of 44 – 3rd out of 11 section

I was asked by Tony to guest for Avon Angling today, ignoring the comment about being desperate! However I was looking forward to the match, because it been a while since I fished a league match and wanted to do well.

So I was really disappointed to be handed peg 29 on speci lake, a) its 16m to the island and I didn’t fancy fishing long with my back problems at the moment, b) if you draw speci you need to draw either of the corners or the points of the island and c) these middle pegs normally come bottom of the section.

The only consolation was I had a spare peg either side, so at least I had plenty of room and occasionally it does throw up a weight of skimmers, but with the bright flat conditions I wasn’t expecting many to show.

Some micros & 4mm’s were cupped in at 13m to my left and started to catapult 4mm’s 13m to my right. Decided to start fishing caster to the far bank, feeding caster with some chopped worm and predator plus. After 45mins I only had a couple of small roach, bumping a couple of perch, but generally surprised by the lack of response.

I had already topped up the left 13m swim, but again only small roach showed on 4mm expander, so with an hour gone I barely had a pound in the net. Steve Seagar on p27 had a run of decent silvers at 6m and Andy Lloyd was foul hooking plenty of fish on p31 from the point of the island.

I persevered with the left 13m swim, but now started feeding my margins with caster as well as pinging 4mm’s to the island. The LH swim had completely died and a look over the RH 13m swim didn’t yield anything. In fact I couldn’t get a bite on maggot, so real struggling. Steve in the meantime was plundering his margin of chub and Andy had stopped getting any indications.

I tried my margin with double maggot, which produced a couple small fish before I hooked a carp, but after 5mins the hook pulled. Back into the margin and 15mins later another carp, 20mins later I finally netted a 5-6lb ghostie, which was foul hooked in the front flipper. Thought I did well to get it on .12 bottom and double 4 elastic – thank goodness for pulla bungs!

Moving into the 2nd half of the match, I was probably last in section. I hadn’t fed my LH swim for about 2hrs just to let it completely settle and decided to dump a big cup of caster, with some pellet & corn. A bit of last resort, but I didn’t have any choice since I needed some decent fish. In the meantime I still kept the pellet going into RH swim, as well as feeding the island. Letting the caster settle for 30mins, I tried the far bank with corn and lost a foul hooker. A move to the margins resulted in 2 more lost fish, as well as losing a carp from my RH 13m line. I may let my feeling be know at this time – it was so frustrating, some of the carp were definitely foulhooked, but I was sure at least 2 were hooked properly.

Back over the LH swim and all I got was more roach. Another pot of caster resulted in a couple more roach so that line was binned, as was the island swim, deciding to concentrate on the margins and the RH 13m swim.

With 90mins to go I managed to land a small carp which was again foulhooked. It was getting to the point where I was scared to pull back too hard in case the hook pulled.

In the last hour I kept feeding the RH 13m line with 4mm’s and eventually started to get indications on corn landing 4 carp which were actually hooked in the mouth, including 2 doubles, landing the last 1 just after the whistle.

Definitely got out of jail, with that last hour, catapulting me from near last to 3rd in section, which was a very welcome surprise. In fact I nearly grabbed 2nd in section from Andy Lloyd who weighed 49lb. Tom Thick won the lake from p33 with 74lb. Steve Seager in the meantime had the best silvers weight from the lake with 23lb of mostly chub.

1st 88.4 – Jon Gray – p41
2nd 86.10 – Lewis Jones – p17
3rd 86.5 – Clayton Hudson – p3
4th 84.22 – Ryan Shipp – p22
5th 79.12 – Paul Elmes – p5
6th 74.12 – Tom Thick – p33

Silvers
1st 27.7 – Mat Tomes – p11
2nd 23.0 – Steve Seagar – p27

15/10/11 - Fishponds

Weight – 123lb 0oz
Catch – 17 Carp.
Weather – Mild, flat calm
Match – Club – 2nd out of 8

Today was the last Saturday club match, as well as the 9th of 2011 at our club water. Despite missing 1 match I was only 3pts behind Andy for the lake championship, thanks to 5 wins.

With the flat conditions and no ripple anywhere, I didn’t fancy it for shallow fishing, so decided paste would be the best way to go, however with the cool overnight conditions I also set up a 0.5g hillbilly dweezil to fish hair rigged 8mm pellet.

Ideally I would have preferred to have drawn along the long bank, but found myself on p12, which has a long platform out into the lake. Decided on 3 swims, 3o’clock to my right at 8m, 11o’clock at 10m and the left margin.

15mins into the match I already had 2 carp on paste and thought we were on for a really big weight. Unfortunately it didn’t work out like that. Since the start of the match I had been pinging pellet towards the aerator because there was a few fish showing themselves, however I didn’t have any bites on either of the pellet wagglers I had set up. I even tried bread flake, but still no takes. The fish really needed a ripple over their heads to take the bait confidently, so decided not to bother any more with that line.

After an hour I had 4 carp, followed by a further 4 in the 2nd hour, but it was really hard going. Most of the fish came to paste with 1 on pellet. During the 3rd hour it seemed like the lake just switched off, with only 1 more carp, but foul hooked 4.

I kept rotating swims and kept feeding a handful of 8mm pellet into each swim which brought the carp back catching 8 more in the last 2 hours, 6 on paste and 2 on pellet.

I knew I had beaten Andy opposite it was just a question of whether I could beat him by more than 3 places. Judging by all the splashing I could hear from Glenn on peg 15 I suspected he had beaten me, which he duly did. Fortunately I just beat Roger & Chris, which meant I tied with Andy for the lake championship on points, but courtesy of more wins won the series.

1st 165lb – Glenn – p15
2nd 123lb – Ken – p12
3rd 114lb – Roger – p1
4th 106lb – Chris – p3

09/10/11 - Trinity - Woodland Lake

Weight – 29lb 12oz
Catch – 5 Carp, 5 Skimmers, 1 Roach, 1 Motherless Minnow
Weather – Mild, breezy & mostly cloudy
Match – Club – 5th out of 16

With 16 anglers booked in I managed to spread everyone around the lake, with most on the favored far bank. I don’t like someone else drawing for me, so as I was holding the draw bag, I saw the pegs on the far bank disappear, leaving me with p22 in the corner. Today’s match was also the semi final for our knockout and I had Andy who beat me in last year’s final. Conveniently he was on p19 on the end bank so at least we could keep an eye on each other.

As I was walking around selecting the pegs, a car pulled into the car park and the occupants got out surveying the lake with the intention of fishing. By the time I walked back round I told 1 of them there was match on, before asking whether they read the big white board at the entrance, which clearly stated that Woodlands was closed. However, despite stopping in front of the board they still managed to miss seeing it!

The weather forecast was for strong winds, so it was a pleasant surprise to see a flat calm lake, although the wind picked up as were setting up. With the expectation of strong winds I didn’t bother with a long pole, only a rig for the margins, plus a method feeder to fish slightly to my left as not to interfere with peg 19 and a straight lead to fish to peg 20 on the end bank.

With the wind blowing down this end I quite fancied it for few a fish, however after 2hrs 25mins I had yet to catch, whilst Andy had 2 carp. After Fridays practice I had decided to concentrate on the method, whilst building my margin swims. I did lose 1 fish and had a few liners, but no fish. Since the wind wasn’t quite as strong as expected (although when I went round to the opposite bank during the weigh in I realized I was slightly sheltered from the worst) I decided to set a shallow pellet rig at 13m after seeing a couple of fish boshing close by. 20mins later I had my 1st carp on 8mm pellet and thought I sussed it, but ½hr later no more followed. They just didn’t want to come in close, although they were boshing further out in ripple.

I was in danger of getting pre-occupied trying to catch shallow, so decided to give it up as a bad job and focus on the margins where I had kept feeding 4mms and corn. After a few rig adjustments, finally started to catch on 6mm expander, unfortunately they were small skimmers, but at least I was catching and I was confident the carp would turn up.

I hooked 6 carp down the edge, losing 2 (1 was definitely fouled as it shot off), but 2 of the 4 landed were proper 8lb fish. Fortunately Andy only had 4 carp, although he lost a couple, so I knew I would be in the knockout final.

The winners came from the middle of the lake, where the fish seemed to be happiest today.

1st 82-8 Kev – p28 (12 carp. 10 in the last 90mins down the edge on worm)
2nd 78- 6 Chris – p13 (shallow 8mm pellet)
3rd 43- 4 Graham – p11
4th 32- 6 Tim – p7
5th 29-12 Ken – p22

07/10/11 - Trinity Waters - Woodlands Lake

Weight – 50lb 6oz
Catch – 8 Carp, 5 Skimmers, 1 Tench, 1 Roach
Weather – Showery, strong NW wind

Well my back injury wasn’t quite as bad as first feared. I did go fishing last weekend at the Winterbourne Duck Pond just to see how it felt and successful came though a busy session catching small skimmers. Sadly there was a major fish kill at the pond since last year, which has meant the majority of the big skimmers and carp have died, however there seemed to be plenty of 1-3oz skimmers, plus a few 2oz carp of various colours (discarded pets?).

Today’s session was about practicing for Sunday’s club match. I haven’t been to Woodlands lake since all the landscaping and what a change, although I’m not sure about the individual pegs being set back into little bays.

Tim Allen from our club decided to join me and as they say 2 heads are better than 1. I had already been told of the better areas, but decided to settle on p27, which is an average peg in the middle of the lake. With the strong wind, it would also give me a chance to sort out some pole rigs.

Initially started on the method, but mixed the green swim stim and micros separately so I could mix and match to see what worked. After 45mins I had tried meat, hard pellet, soft pellet and maggot without success. Tim in the meantime had 2 carp on a standard cage feeder with corn on the hook, so I opened a tin and hey presto a carp! Another carp followed shortly after, but the cold wind was having an effect on the fishing.

I deliberately didn’t want to target the silvers, since Sundays match wouldn’t have a silvers payout, so the 6m line was fed with 4mm & corn, as were the margins. Started with a 0.8g rig, but it wasn’t longer before I tried 1.25g rig due to the tow, which did produce a few skimmers, plus a near 2lb tench on red maggot. Although I stayed with it for a while the pole just wasn’t working due to the windy conditions.

After 2hrs a local old boy turned up, who knew “everything” and with the whole lake to choose from promptly set up next to me on peg 26. With Tim on the other side it now meant the margin I had started feeding could now be redundant, particularly now he started crashing about. I tried explaining to him what I was trying to do, but being a know it all he reckoned it wouldn’t make a difference. Muppet!

Since the pole line wasn’t working (including the margin which I had feed for 3hrs), I concentrated on the feeder, I had set up 2 rigs, 1x method feeder and 1x pellet feeder, fishing 17 turns out, so a gentle lob. The method was the better way to go and I found by moulding more micro pellet, then groundbait seemed to get bites quicker. Also corn was the best bait, although according to “know it all” corn doesn’t work.

Unfortunately I lost a few carp on the feeder, a couple when the free running feeder bounced the fish off the hook. I also lost a few when the hooklength snapped. Really not a fan of the method, but sometimes needs must, so a softer rod and stronger hooklengths for Sunday.

A worthwhile practice, but I think I will be a happier if I draw the other side. Tim also had 30lb.

17/09/11 - Fishponds

Weight – 108lb 2oz
Catch – 14 Carp
Weather – Mostly sunny, with cloudy periods and odd shower.
Match – Club (Rod & Reel Only) – 5th out of 9

Well it’s Sunday morning as I write this blog and I should be fishing at Todber Manor, however I pulled my back during this match and now just walking is painful.

Fortunately todays match was rod & reel only, so no constant twisting and turning when shipping back a pole. The day started off ok, I had hoped to draw in the wind so I could fish the pellet waggler and drew peg 18 which was just on the edge of the wind.

Started on the method feeder at 20m, pinging pellet over the top, but after 20mins all I had was a few liners to show for my efforts, before a couple of fish showed themselves on the surface. So enough of the feeder and switched to pellet waggler and caught immediately.

75mins into the match I landed my 5th carp and as I lifted the carp out of the water I felt a sharp pain in the base of my back in the same spot that caused me so many problems 14 months ago.

I managed to keep going for the remaining 3¾hrs catching all my fish on the pellet waggler. I had drawn fish into the swim, but the wind direction meant there was very little ripple to fish into and as a consequence the fish proved to be very cagey despite trying different rigs and varying my feed pattern.

In the end I was just glad for the match to finish. All the better weights had followed the wind, but to be honest whilst I could have caught a few more fish I wouldn’t have beaten Glenn’s 231lb which he caught on the pellet feeder.

This is the 1st time I haven’t framed here for nearly 2 years, so a really good run, but like all good runs, they have to end. Well done to Glenn who today got the tactics right with the pellet feeder which very nearly beat my match record of 239lb.

My back probably means I won’t be fishing for a couple of week, which is probably just as well since I need to do some revision for another exam.

11/09/11 - Fishponds

Weight – 155lb 2oz
Catch – 19 Carp
Weather – Sunny, with cloudy periods. Gale force winds.
Match – Club – 1st out of 15

15 turned up today which is an awkward number to give everyone plenty of space and invariably end up having to cluster a group of anglers together. I found myself on peg 10, which was nicely sheltered from the wind, but with only a slight ripple I was concerned the fish would have followed the wind on the other side of the lake. On the positive side there tends to be bigger resident fish in the area.

Peg 10 is an end bank peg and is 1 of the deepest on the lake with the margins being 5ft deep and 7-8ft at 10m in front. I knew the pellet waggler was unlikely to work in this part of the lake and decided to target the margins, 8m to my left and 12m to my right, feeding 8mm’s and fishing paste.

During the opening hour I had 2 carp. I had been feeding at 13m to see if I could catch shallow on the pole, but a look over this line after an hour didn’t produce and decided to bin it all together. It was obvious there wasn’t many fish in the area and I felt I needed to fish further out to catch, but was conscience of encroaching on pegs 6 and 12. Fortunately Nick on 6 was fishing the pole and Ian on 12 was catching on the method. After watching where he was casting I had a feel for how far I could cast my method. 1st cast I had a carp and lost one on my 2nd cast, but other than a few liners no other fish after 45mins, so decided to concentrate on margins.

3 hours gone I was up to 6 fish which was on par with those I could see. The remainder of the match was simply a case of catch a carp, feed both margins whilst playing the fish, then switch to the other margin. This continual rotating seemed to be best with the final 3 hours producing a further 13 fish all on paste expect for 1 that I caught on the method, as I had to sort out a spangled rig.

I thought I had 130lb, but a better than average stamp of fish pushed my weight up. Kev (who qualified for the Evesham festival, but unfortunately didn’t draw well on the day) had 20 carp for his 125lb mostly caught on the method.

So that’s 7 pickups in the last 10 matches, framing in the last 3, so a big change around from the beginning of the season.

1st 155- 2 – Ken - p10
2nd 125- 0 – Kev - p17
3rd 96- 6 – Chris - p15
4th 95- 9 - Roger - p22

10/09/11 - Lands End - Match Lake

Weight – 77lb 6oz
Catch – 17 Carp, 9 Roach, 5 Perch, 3 Bream, 1 Tench, 1 Crucian, 1 Rudd
Weather – Sunny, with cloudy periods. Windy.
Match – Open – 2nd out of 9

With heavy winds forecast I was in 2 minds about fishing Lands End today, however I was persuaded by the fact the winds were coming from the south which means Match Lake should be mostly sheltered.

12 had booked in, but only 9 turned up, so plenty of spaces for the fish hide away! I found myself on peg 11, which has shown some recent form with 66lb coming off it in the last match. This is 1 peg I have drawn more than any other, yet I’ve only had 19 once in 5 years – bitter, no not me!

With so much space, today would be a case of drawing the fish to you. The next peg to my left was peg 5 and I had Clint Wotlyla opposite on 13.

Decided to feed 6mm’s towards the point of the island and fish caster to the left by the bush. Also fed 3 & 4mm’s at 11.5m in the open water at 1o’clock and finally 6mm’s in front of the pallet on 10.

The opening hour was very quiet, with only a few silvers to show on double caster by the island and a tench on 11.5m on 4mm expander. However the carp were beginning to show themselves by the island over the pellet. I had 1 on 8mm, but then nothing as they spooked off.

The 11.5m swim produced a crucian and a few bits, plus a flying skimmer that managed to throw the hook midflight, but this line failed to produce.

On the point of the point island I was toss potting caster and pellet, fishing double caster and this resulted in a 4 or 5 carp, before I started getting bitted out by roach. At 1 point I saw 3 carp around my float, before it buried and out comes a 1oz roach! Since there was more carp in the swim, helped by the fact Clint had stopped feeding towards the island, I went back to fishing either 6 or 8mm pellet. Found it best to catapult feed over at 14m on the corner, ship out to 16m past the small bush on the point, then just gentle lift and drop, occasionally the carp would have the pellet in its mouth as I lifted.

As more carp settled in the swim I caught more at 14m and with 45mins to go I had 10 carp all from the island, which seemed to be doing OK. Despite feeding in front of peg 10 all match this swim only produced 1 skimmer and a lost carp. According to Clint, Martin Lenaghan on peg 16 had been catching solidly for 3hrs. Those last 45mins however the carp properly turned up and I had a further 7 to sneak into 2nd place.

1st 145-15 – Martin Lenaghan – p16
2nd 77-6 – Ken Rayner – p11
3rd 73-12 – Kev Molton – p19
4th 58-11 – Dave Wescott – p5

Silver
1st 35- 0 – Nigel Bartlett – p21
2nd 21- 4 – Dave Wescott – p5
3rd 21- 2 – Clint Wotlyla – p13

03/09/11 - Cuckoos Rest

Weight – 34lb 12oz
Catch – 10 Carp, 7 Roach, 3 Bream, 2 Perch, 1 Rudd, 1 Gudgeon
Weather – Mostly cloudy with sunny periods. Windy later.
Match – West’s Sponsored Open – 2nd out of 23

As mentioned in my last blog today’s match was organised by Andy Fox, with tackle vouchers available for the winners and the lake already paid for, meaning a 100% pay out, plus an additional superpool for those who wished to join in.

With so many here the draw would be crucial with end pegs or those with some space being favourite. I was more than happy to find myself on a noted flyer on the right bank opposite the willow tree and end peg before the bridge over to the island, meant I had some space.

Obviously the banner started about “you are going to win etc”, which I hate, because at the moment I could quite easily cock up a good draw, although deep down I would be disappointed if I didn’t at least frame.

My peg is a noted area for bream and settled on 3 swims. The far bank on the method feeder (.20 to 16 carp feeder), 13m feeding 3 & 4mm pellet, with soft green swim stim and 5m feeding caster for roach, which to be honest I had hoped I won’t need.

After feeding my pole lines, I started on the method and following my practice a few months ago I was hitting the mark casting tight to the far bank. The big advantage of the method is the hook is hidden so it was no problem if I clipped the far bank vegetation or over hanging branches, which was just as was well on occasion.

3 carp in the opening ½ hour on hair rigged white boilie, certainly settled the nerves. However other than 1 lost carp in submerged branches I didn’t have anything for the next 90mins. The grapevine suggested the lake was fishing very hard with only 2lb being the top weight, so I just kept the 13m line topped up, hopefully allowing the bream as long as possible to settle.

After 2 hours a switch to the 13m produced nothing on 4mm expander. I could have sat on the method, but since it isn’t my favourite method and I felt I need to keep putting fish in the net so switched to the 5m, however the fish were small and the bites were difficult to hit. I really wasn’t going anywhere fast, so focused back on the 13m, which did produce a 2lb skimmer and a few small fish, but it was very difficult.

By the ½ way stage I was aware the far end peg on the island had caught a couple of carp. With no further skimmers, despite the odd bubbles coming up, but the skimmers just weren’t taking the bait, regardless of what bait I tried (pellet, maggot, worm).

The next hour was spent chopping and changing, then a run of 5 carp proved really useful, which was just as well, since Dean on the far end peg had 2 carp both around 10lb and Nick on the other far end peg on the left hand side of the island had reportly caught 30lb. As it happened Nick had gone for a walk with an hour to go to rest his back and a quick chat revealed he had 9 carp, which was the same as me.

A further 2 lost carp in the submerged snags was frustrating and if I was to fish the peg again, I would probably go round and try to clear some of them out. The last hour was mostly spent on the method for 1 more carp. Brief looks over the pole line, still failed to produce.

By the end of the match I was surprised to have caught 10 carp, since usually no more than a couple are caught, but the stockie’s introduced 18mths ago are starting to show. The other surprise was the lack of skimmers with 13lb being the best silvers weight.

As suspected Dean won with 39-14, which was a bit frustrating considering he only caught 6 carp compared to my 10. However happy to have framed and my weight was slightly better than expected and Nick’s 30lb turned out to be 24lb.

Thanks go to Craig Knight for paying for the lake and Andy Fox for organising the lake and supplying tackle vouchers for Wests Tackle of Trowbridge of which I collected £50 worth, plus £80 pools.

1st 39-14 – Dean Adams
2nd 34-12 – Ken Rayner
3rd 24- 0 – Nick Merry
4th 16- 2 – Steve Ince
5th 12-12 – P Sims
6th 11- 5 – Mick Stowford