28/10/12 - Lands End - Speci Lake

Weight - 54lb 11oz (15lb 14oz - silvers)
Catch - 6 Carp, 12 Perch, 8 Roach, 3 F1, 1 Chub
Weather - Grey, gloomy & mostly rained
Match - Avon Angling Open - 9th out of 24 (4th out of 11 - lake, 4th overall silvers)

24 turned up today and we were all thankful yesterdays cold northerly wind had disappeared. Instead, it was replaced by grey low cloud and it rained most of the day, but at least it was milder.

I was not too disappointed when I opened my ticket to see 25 staring back at me, since its usually worth a few fish, however after the recent cold weather I was a little apprehensive about how the lake would fish, particularily since some of the colour had dropped out.

For company I had Martin Rich opposite on p40 and Adrian Jefferies to my right on p26. Becuase I wasnt sure how the lake would fish, various rigs were set up to cover my options.

On the all-in some caster was deposited 13-14m down the left hand bank and at 6m with a small ball of groundbait. Whilst that settled I went straight out at 14.5m with double corn to see if there was any carp in the open water. 15mins later I had a 4lber which was a nice start. A further 15mins later I hooked another, but I think it was foul hooked, becuase it shot off towards p40, before breaking me.

A switch to the end bank produced a few big perch up to 2lb mostly on maggot. I spent most of the next couple of hours fishing down the left hand edge where I caught more perch, mostly by lifting & dropping, but bites were little dinks. Inevitably I had a couple of carp, including one foul hooker which firstly tried to snag me on the point of the island, before finally snaggung on some underwater branches the other side of Adrians platform! I was just glad Rixon couldnt see me making a meal of trying to land the carp. Adrian kindly poked his landing net at the fish and unbelieveabley it came free. 10mins later with the hook firmly in the pectoral fin an 8-9lb carp was safely landed. 

I did try fishing mid depth, but only got bites from small roach.

The right hand swim produced a couple of F1s and a carp late on. The left hand open water swim responded to a small amount of caster and corn, with a big F1 and another carp, all on corn.

The end bank definately slowed towards the end and in an attempt to kick start it I cupped in some worm atomic cloud with caster, however this just lead to a mini roach invasion.

Overall, although I had to work hard for bites it was an enjoyable day. I beat those around me, it was just a shame I couldnt catch any more big perch, F1s or skimmers in the last hour to claim the silvers money which Neil Mercer took with 19-10.

1^st 108-  5- 0 Martin Pettifer – p5

2^nd 104-  2- 0 Dave Roper – p16
3^rd 81- 4 – Phil Harding – p28
4^th 77-15 – Dave Wescott – p29
5^th 65-14 – Mike West – p1
6^th 62- 2 – Paul Elmes – p15

Silvers
1^st 20- 8 – Paul Elmes – p15
2^nd 19-10 – Neil Mercer – p32
3^rd 17- 4 – Don Sutherland – p21
4^th 15-14 – Ken Rayner – p25

21/10/12 - Larford - Arena

Weight - 82lb 10oz (49lb - silvers)
Catch - 43 Skimmers, 6 Carp, 2 Roach
Weather - Cold & foggy start. Sunny later, but cool northerly breeze
Match - West Tackle Open - 1st out of 11

Larford is one of those venues I have always wanted to visit and when I found out that West Tackle was running an open on Arena Lake I wanted to book in.

Unfortunately a few couldnt make it due to a winter league on the river, plus Steve broke down on the motorway, which meant 3 more couldnt fish, leaving just the 11 of us.

Arena is the smallest of 3 lakes at Larford, with Match & Specimen Lake being the most popular (and famous). Arena is rectangular, wider at the car park end, becomig narrower at the far end and has 44 pegs, so with 11 of us we had plenty of space, Fishery rules meant we had to buy their own pellets, limited to 4x 100g (3pt) bags for a 5hr match. 6hr matches arent allowed, but the good news was Arena is float only, so no lead chucking which I was happy about.

The only information I was able to glean, was the lake was deep, with carp averaging between 2-10lb and skimmers. Tactics are to fish down the margins, short and a long line.

It was another cold morning, with fog and mist for most of the journey and by the time we had the draw at 9.15 you could just about see the whole lake. I drew 16 which is in the middle of the right hand bank, which meant absolutely nothing to me, in fact everyone was fishing this one blind.

As we were setting up there was a few carp crashing about and I almost wished I brought my waggler rod, however looking at the clarity of the water I wasnt sure too much would be caught shallow. In fact I wasnt sure too much would be caught in the margins either.

Plumbing up revealed about 3ft down the margins. However there wasnt any discernable shelf and at 5m I had 6ft of water, before it gently sloped away to nearly 7ft at 12m. Speaking to the fishery manager after the match he said there had been a couple of cold nights, plus heavy rain that had knocked the colour out of the water.

I really wasnt convinced the short line would be the place to start, instead I started at 12m, feeding a small ball of grounbait and a few 4s. On the 6m line I started feeding pellet and corn every 10mins.

Starting at 12m using a HB Chump 0.5g (0.12 >18 B911), I soon started to catch skimmers and by the end of the first hour I had a dozen skimmers and 2 carp, all on 4mm expander. Nick to my right also had a good start and we were neck & neck.

It became obvious the fish wanted a bit of grub and I kept the fish coming by feeding a nugget of groundbait with a few 4s, every second fish by a toss pot. Moving into the 2nd hour the fishing became difficult, then I lost a big carp, which broke me, unsettling the shoal. I decided to step up to a 0.14 hooklength, but bites were a little slower, so I switched back to 0.12 and during the 3rd hour I was catching really well. The pattern for the day was to keep feeding every second fish and when ever bites became iffy, I cupped in a larger ball and a few pellets. I also had to dot down the float, becuase most bites were just little dips.

Whilst I let that settle I would try my short line, catching a carp straight away on corn. I then pulled out of the second before that line died.

The sun finally made an appearance at 1pm which meant most of us could warm up a bit and by 2pm a cool northerly wind picked up blowing into my face.

My long line had slowed up, but I wasnt too worried, becuase at least my margins now had some ripple and I hoped the carp would be more willing to come in over the groundbait maggot and caster I had deposited. Alas I only had 1 carp on double corn and in reality I spent too long looking for another.

With my long line slowing down, I decided to start a new long line at an angle to my left feeding only pellet and corn. By switching between the two, I managed to keep the fish coming, albeit slower than before. My short line also produced a few fish towards the end, but it was slow going. 4mm expander was definately the best bait, whilst corn only produced the odd fish. In total I fed 3pts of groundbait and about a pint of 4s over the long line.

Nick had struggled towards the end, but I noticed Mark catching strongly towards the end and I thought it would be close between the 2 of us. I was first to weigh and my skimmers went 49lb. I must admit I thought I had a little more than that, but some of the skimmers were a bit thin and scrawny. Had they been a bit plumper then it could have been 55lb. My 6 carp however weighed a little more than expected giving me a total 82-10. Nick had 55lb which inlcuded 23lb of skimmers. Mark had slightly overestimated his skimmers, probably for the same reason I did weighing 33lb, whilst his 10 carp brought his total to 80-14. So less than 2lb in it.

Considering the conditions I was really pleased. Its been a while since I had 49lb of skimmers and I would be quite happy to make a return viist.

1st - 82-10 - Ken Rayner - p16
2nd - 80-14 - Mark Poppleton - p22
3rd - 58- 0 - Kev - p40
4th - 55-10 - Nick Merry - p19
5th - 39-15 - Andy Fox - p36

20/10/12 - Acorns - Paddock

Weight - 52lb 1oz (10lb 4oz - silvers)
Catch - 14 Carp, 34 Skimmers, 1 Tench
Weather - Cool start. Bright & sunny, with a slight breeze
Match - Open - 8th out of 16 (2nd - silvers)

Revision for my final financial services exam has meant no fishing for 2 weeks, because I really don't want to be taking a 3hr written exam for a second time, so I had to really concentrate and the fishing took a back seat. The exam was on Monday 15th and I am quietly optimistic, so keeping my fingers crossed when the results are released on 9 November.

Today I decided to attend the popular Saturday Open at Acorns and with 16 anglers we were well spread around the lake. One of the nice things about Acorns, other than the fact you can park behind most pegs, is there website which is kept up to date with match results, which revealed peg 40 is the form peg over the last 2 months. Alas I found myself on p15, which did win the silvers on Tuesday, but other than that hasn't featured too much recently.

On the drive down the temperature gauge dropped from 7c to 5c and coupled with the bright flat conditions, I wasn't really expecting the skimmers to feed in any numbers.

With plenty of room, the anglers either side were on 12 & 18, I decided to fish 12m left and right down the track feeding 3mms via a toss pot to my left and 4s to my right by catapult. On the all-in I went straight across to the far bank sedges where I had seen some movement, feeding a small amount of yellow atomic cloud & pellet, with corn on the hook. After 30mins I had 3 carp for 10lb before they disappeared.

I had kept both down the track swims topped up and kicked off down the left soon catching small skimmers on 4mm expander. The positively fed right hand swim, produced fewer, but slightly better skimmers up to 12oz. 

The match was spent rotating left and right, catching skimmers with the occasional carp, mostly on 4mm expander. In an attempt to target the carp, I tried hard pellet and corn, but soft pellet was definitely the best on the day.

Despite feeding pellet to the far bank all match I only managed another 2 small carp. I had also been feeding towards the pallets, caster & corn to my left and pellet & corn to my right. The right margin produced 3 carp, whilst the left margin didn't produce any.

I knew I had beaten the anglers around me, in fact Eddie and I were the only ones to weigh-in on the straight. I also knew I was unlikely to frame, which meant I was relying on my skimmers for a pick up. As it was my 10-4 was a little less than I thought and I scrapped 2nd in the silvers.

1st 124- 6 - S O'Toole - p40
2nd 112-14 - Mike Owen - p9
3rd 103- 8 - Eddie Wynn - p22
4th 86-12 - Rich Lovering - p2
5th 75- 5 - Andy France - p4
6th 69-10 - Andy Gard - p6

Silvers
1st 17-11 - Dave Wride - p36
2nd 10- 4 - Ken Rayner - p15

30/09/12 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 43lb 12oz
Catch - 14 Carp, 8 Roach, 4 Perch, 2 Skimmers, 1 Tench, 1 Chub
Weather - Mostly sunny, but windy
Match - Avon Angling Open - 18th out of 36

With 36 pegs in the bucket, this match was over 3 lakes, yet I still managed to pull p11. Oh well, at least I knew the contours of the peg having fished it so often. Actually I wasn't that disappointed, because with 14 on the lake I had some space to my right in p12.

Initially wasn't sure whether to go silvers or carp, so started on corn by the island and take it from there. 15mins later I had a roach, followed by a 1lb carp. A switch to double caster produced a tench, a couple of decent perch and roach, before it died never to produce another bite.

I had been drip feeding 4s to my right by the lilies, plus at 13m at the bottom of the island shelf. The RH swim only produced a couple of small fish, whilst the 13m started to produce a few silvers and a couple of small carp on expander, before the wind really picked up coming through the gap in p13 straight into my face. I could barely see my float due to the combination of the ripple & sunshine. I think my presentation was also suffering in the wind, so binned the swim.

So half way in the match I was really struggling, even on maggot. The one area I had left alone so far was 13m towards the end bank and first drop in on double maggot produced a 4lber. I kept firing in 4s and had a decent run of fish on 6mm hard pellet, before it slowed down in the last hour.

The RH lily swim failed to produced anything of consequence, but to be fair I had started feeding handfuls of casters in an attempt to pull in some better fish, because those that I was catching were on the small side. I had kept feeding pellet towards the point of the island, hoping the carp would turn up late on, but having waited 5mins for a bite on pellet which only produced a chub, suggested they really didn't want to be there.

On another day I would have been happy to catch 14 carp and would have probably weighed 60-70lb, but today the ones I caught were mostly the small ones introduced from lake 4.

1st 127- 8 - Tom Magnall - p5
2nd 113-13 - Tony Rixon - p36
3rd 108- 6 - Sam Elliott - p21
4th 73-14 - Dave Evans - p66
5th 69- 7 - Reg Elliott - p42
6th 68- 4 - Phil Harding - p7

Silvers
1st 27-12 - Tony Rixon - p36
2nd 22- 4 - Pete Wild - p24
3rd 21-10 - Anton Page - p28