23/12/12 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 36lb 1oz (12lb 4oz - silvers)
Catch - 4 Carp, 10 Skimmers, 9 Roach, 1 Tench, 1 F1, 1 Crucian, 1 Rudd
Weather - Cloudy & mild
Match - Loyalty Open - 9th out of 19 (5th out of 10 - lake)

Having paid my 15 £1 I qualified for todays match. With £331 in the kitty (not everyone who paid turned up or paid the full £15, hence the odd amount), plus normal pools on the day, there was plenty to go for.

I just needed a decent draw and I couldnt believe it when I saw 19 staring back me. Only the 3rd time in 8yrs, so it was about time. For company I had Allan Oram on 17 and Adrain Jeffrey on 21.

What was noticeable was the amount of water in the lake, which after yesterday rain was hardly a surprise, but at least it was mild, although there was mixed views about how it would fish and as it turned out it didnt fish quite as well as expected, although the silvers certainly seemed to fed better than wednesday.

Since I was on a noted peg I decided to focus on catching carp and rigs were similar to wednesdays, feeding pellet down the track, caster across just in case and even meat to my left by the tree.

A pinch of 3s & 4s were dopisted at 14m to my right, whilst I searched the rest of the swim with soft pellet to my left. With only 1 bites after 15mins, a switch to the right hand swim resulted in a 7-8lb carp almost straight away. After an hour I had another, losing a 3rd which was foul hooked in the midrift, but none the less I was quite happy with my start, becasue I had also managed a few silvers from my left hand swim  where I had toss potted a pinch of 3s.

Today however I was struggling to get the expected reaction and in the end decided to abandon the left hand swim, creating another by feeding 4s via a toss pot at 13m in front.

I hadnt planed to fish tight to the island, but a further deposit of caster produced an F1 straighaway, plus a few roach, then a small carp. Other than Tom on p13 no-one was really running away with it and I decided to stay positive, feeding 4s to my right  by catpult, which has worked in the past, confident the carp would turn up, because 3 or 4 carp would put me in the frame.

So far the 13m line hardly produced, neither had the short meat line. The only swim that continued to produce was the right swim, with a few 6-8oz skimmers and a tench. With 2 hours to go I was really expecting the carp to feed eventually and I did hook a decent 7-8lber, but the hook pulled at the net and the same thing happen agaon 30mins later. Needless to say I wasnt happy and as it turned out it was also costly. We have all lost fish, but when you get them within netting range, thats when it hurts.

My last 2 put ins produced a 2lb skimmers and a 5lb carp, but it was a little too late. After the good start I was disappointed not to catch a few more carp. In hindsight would have changed anything? Feeding meat over my short line was probably a bit ambitous, when feeding caster would have been the better option. However I was surprised not to get a better response over my pellet line.
 

1^st 94- 2 – Tom Mangnoll – p33

2^nd 65-12 – Tom Thick – p13

3^rd 50-11 – Adrian Jeffrey – p21

4^th 48- 3 – Kev Molton – p32

5^th 47-14 – Craig Edmunds – p40

6^th 44- 3 – Allan Oram – p17

 

Silvers

1^st 19-10 – Martin Pettifer – p11

2^nd 18- 6 – Paul Elmes – p5

3rd 18- 0 - Tony Rixon - p29

19/12/12 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 37lb 1oz (4lb 1oz - silvers)
Catch - 6 Carp, 8 Perch, 4 Roach
Weather - Wind & rain - but at least it was mild
Match - Avon Angling Open - 8th out of 14

When I got home, explaining how my day went, Sue described it perfectly as a "clumsy day", which seemed adapt.

The night before Sapphire managed to scratch my eye whilst playing with her ball, which meant vision in my right eye was a little blurry at times. With 14 booked in, we were all on match lake and I found myself on peg 8. I'll have to check my birth certificate to make sure I'm not related to Chris Fox, because I've had a poor run of draws recently.

Peg 8 isn't normally in, but with 14 pegs in it had to be included. For company I had Ziggy on p6 and Mike West on p11. The problem with this peg is the fish do settle here when 7 & 11 are in, but when ever you put an angler in this gap, you tend to get a couple of early fish, before they disappear. I can only put it down to this part of the lake being slightly narrower and shallower than other areas.

Must admit I was a little despondent to start with, but I made the effort to turn up in the wind and rain, so I had to give it a go, plus the peg was slightly sheltered from the worst of the wind and the rain wasn't quite as heavy as expected - see trying to stay positive.

My initial thoughts were I would do best targeting the silvers, because with Tony on 21 and Fabio on 19 I thought the main prizes would be sewn up. A couple rigs were set up to cover all bases.

- HB Frostie 0.2g > .10 > 20 silverfish maggot - caster/maggot on top of the shelf
- HB Chump 0.3g > .10 > 18 silverfish pellet - pellet down the track
- Jolly 4x14 > .10 > 20 silverfish maggot - caster/maggot down the track
- HB shindig 0.2g > .12 > 18 B911 - pellet/corn down the track

On the all in caster was deposited on top of the shelf, caster under p9 platform, as well as at 5m and micro/groundbait to my left at 13m. Starting on corn I searched the swim to my right to see if there was any fish around, however after 15mins & no bites I switched to the top of the shelf. 2 small roach & 1 perch was all I had from there and was never tried again.

A couple perch came from under p9 platform, but it was slow going and it didn't help when I bumped a couple which seemed to have spooked them. The 5m line didn't produce a bite and neither did the left hand pellet line.

After my initial try with corn, I had deposited some micros at 14.5 down the track to my right and started pinging 4s over the top for later. However, due to the lack of response from my other swims I tried this line earlier than I had intended. Just as well, because I had a carp straight away on soft pellet. Next put in I had another, but lost it at the net when my .10 hooklength gave away. My own fault really. A further 2 were foul hooked on the heavier rig only to be lost and much to Tony's amusement I may I lost my cool. Unfortunately the shoal that was there disappeared.

A new swim was set up at the bottom of the far shelf with caster/maggot. A switch to .08 bottom & 22 hook on the jolly rig didn't make any significant difference, so I switched back to .10, which was just as well as I had a few more perch, plus a decent carp on maggot.

The silvers just didn't appear to be feeding, Ziggy to my left packed up an hour early. In fact I had nothing to be left at all and with 45mins left another look over the right hand swim where I had kept pinging in the pellet, produced another 2 carp quickly, before landing my last one before the all-out.

In hindsight I was actually disappointed not to have framed, because other than the top 2 the weights were quiet close, but I didn't help myself losing fish. Other than Mike on p11, my weight was the next best along this bank, so I know where I want to draw on Sunday.

And as I was packing up, I managed to drop my side tray into the lake. I eventually retrieved it, so not one of my better days.

1^st 77-10 – Tony Rixon – p21
2^nd 77- 4 – Mike West – p11
3^rd 46-10 – Phil Harding – p19
4^th 44-11 – Mark Poppleton – p24
5^th 44- 5 – Martin Alexander – p13
6^th 40- 2 – Aaron Britnell – p16
 

Silvers

1^st 9- 3 – Adrian Jeffery – p15

2^nd 8-11 – Mark Poppleton – p24

3^rd 7- 4 – Matt Tomes – p5

16/12/12 - Trinity Waters - Woodlands

Weight - 11lb 13oz
Catch - 14 Roach, 7 Skimmers, 1 Rudd, 1Carp
Weather - Mostly sunny and breezy
Match - Avon Angling Open - 12th out of 20

I was hoping after the recent mild weather the lake would fish and it did for some, but most struggled. Being such a deep lake the water temperature takes longer to warmer up and it was still feeling the effects of last weeks ice.

The last time I fished this lake was 15mths ago and was told dead maggot over micros was the way to go. Peg 26 however wasn’t ideal, but at least the forecast wind would mostly be off my back.

For the first 30mins I searched the swim with corn on the hook, initially trying at 5m, 16m, then the straight lead out into the middle, but other than a couple of liners on the lead nothing. Andy Hembrow opposite had an early carp on the method from the middle, but no more followed.

In the meantime Steve Seagar on p27 & John Bradford on p24 had both started catching small roach. I went out to 14.5m where I deposited some micros & 4s and started catching small roach and skimmers, but it was hard work, particularly when they came off as you shipped back. I did hook a carp in the tail, which I eventually netted and I hoped a few more would turn up. Unfortunately they didn’t.

I had set up a positively fed swim at 14.5m to my right, but again only small roach. I tried soft pellet, but only had 1 bite on that. I had also been feeding 4s & corn at 5m, hoping to catch later on, but this didn’t yield anything. In fact most of the fish seem to have been caught to my left, whilst those to my right where struggling, except for Dave Evans on p15 who was catching down the margin on corn.

With the expectation of carp I had been fishing with .12 bottom and 18 silverfish pellet. I did swap to .10 & size 20 hook with a lighter elastic later on, which meant fewer bumped fish, but in reality I was going no where fast and was quite pleased when the match ended.

1st 66-10 - Martin McMahon - p32
2nd 50-14 - Rod Wootton - p31
3rd 48-15 - Mike West - p29
4th 45- 0 - Tony Rixon - p9
5th 43-12 - Kev Molton - p2
6th 42-12 - Dave Evans - p15

Silvers
1st 8- 8 - Andy Hembrow - p13
2nd 8- 5 - John  Bradford - p24
3rd 7- 9 - Tony Rixon - p9

15/12/12 - Tylers Lake (Brinsham Green)

Weight - 19lb 6oz
Catch - 31 Roach, 21 Skimmers, 12 Perch, 3 Rudd, 1 Crucian, 1 Goldfish, 1 Hybrid
Weather - Sunny, breezy start, showery later

Something completely today. I could have gone to Todbers Christmas match, but didnt fancy the long drive down, particularily since I'm going to Trinity Waters on Sunday. There was also a match at Lands End but with only 3 or 4 booked in, it wasnt worth it, besides I needed a lie in.

Tylers Lake is situated in Brinsham Green, Yate. I remember the lake when it was surrounded by fields, but that was 25 years ago and the last time I fished here was 10 years ago. So why did I decide on fishing here? I've walked Sapphire around the lake a few times when visiting my Mum who lives 5mins away and talking to some the anglers suggested there was plenty of skimmers, crucians and a few carp.

The recent mild weather has melted away the ice, but with a forecast wind, I settled on a more seltered area of the lake.

I only set up 2 rigs, Jolly 4x12, .08 & 22 silverfish maggot & Frostie 0.3g, .10 & 18 silverfish pellet.

A small ball of black roach & pinkie was deposited to my left at 13m and micros at 13m. Starting over the groundbait, I was soon catching small perch, then roach on pinkie or maggot, before catching better roach on caster, over tosspotted caster.

I had tried the pellet line a couple times, with no real success, but eventually the skimmers turned up on 4mm expander. I probably had the bulk of my weight in the last 2 hours of the session.

Well I had a better day than expected and they say a change of scenery is as good as rest - well sometimes.

09/12/12 - Lands End - Johns

Weight - 19lb 14oz (1lb 2oz - silvers)
Catch - 32 Roach, 3 Perch, 2 Carp
Weather - Mostly sunny, but strong cold westerly wind
Match - Lands End Winter League rd2 - 20th out of 35, 8th out of 12 section

Tom Thick is obviously a desparate young man. Following a pint of cider for breakfast, he decided it would be a good idea to try and bend me over the counter - if you know what I mean. Alas, I didnt feel a thing;¬)

It was my turn for Johns Lake and I had a gut feeling that following a crap week at work, I would be rewarded with a crap draw today. There was only 2 pegs left in the bucket. Mike West pulled 42 (flyer), whilst I was left with what is one of the worst pegs on the lake at the moment, peg 51 (just 15 in reverse). During round 1 Matt Tomes only managed 10th and Mark Poppleton the week previous hardly had a bite, so I was really looking forward to this!

I couldnt see me doing any good from the peg, but I hoped to at least catch a few silvers to keep me in the hunt in the silvers league and as such set up a jolly 4x12 with .08 bottom and 22 silverfish maggot hook. 2 more rigs were set up with .10 bottoms to fish either maggot or pellet.

On the all in a nugget of black roach and pinkie was cupped in to my left at 8m and a pinch of micros at 11.5m towards the point of the island. Starting by the island I had a roach on double pinkie, followed by a further 9 in 20mins. The problem was some of the roach were nearly transparent they were that small.

A quick look over the pellet, resulted in a lost foul hooked carp and the groundbait swim produced only a couple of tiny roach. Since the only area I could catch was next to the island, i stuck with the small roach feeding pinkie via a toss pot, hoping the activity would pull in some better fish. After 2hrs I was up to 30 fish, but the wind had really picked up making presentation difficult which meant I had to abandon fishing against the island.

Fishing over the pellet (which I had kept topped up) only more micro roach. There really wasnt any decent fish in the swim. Ray Bazeley to my right on 50 was also struggling and chucked the lead and maggot into the gap between the island. I followed suit half way into the match, but with hair rigged corn and 10mins later I was attached to a large carp which weighed 10-15.

A change to heavier 0.4g chump to fish down the middle, improved the presentation, but still could only catch micro roach. I had also been flicking caster/maggot down my left hand margin, but no bites on any bait. So the remainder of the match was spent swapping between swims, including setting up a new one down the track or fishing the lead into the gap, where I snared another carp again on corn.

A disappointing result, but I dont think I could have done any better from the peg. Ray only weighed 8lb, made up 1 carp and a few bits, so there was very few fish in the area.

1st 63-11 - Nick Merry - p40
2nd 61- 5 - Allan Oram - p32
3rd 54-13 - Mike Nicholls - p21
4th 52-11 - Clint Wotlyla - p31
5th 45-15 - Steve Seagar - p19
6th 44- 3 - Adrain Jeffrey - p5

Silvers
1st 18- 2 - Nick Merry - p40
2nd 13- 5 - Tony Rixon - p3
3rd 10-10 - Aaron Britnell - p11

After 2 rounds Mark Poppleton is leading the way with only 2pts, followed by Mike Duckett, Nick Merry, Aaron Britnell and Steve Seagar all on 6pts

02/12/12 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 17lb 14oz (6lb 12oz - silvers)
Catch - 2 Carp, 10 Roach, 6 Perch, 1 Bream
Weather - Sunny start, rain later
Match - Open - 8th out of 13 overall (3rd - silvers)

With 13 today, we were all on Match Lake. There was talk of more people booking in and using 1 side of speci lake, but the issue with that is if you fish one side of speci they will move to the other side. 

I was expecting it to fish better than yesterday, because the fish would have a less space to hid away, however it was peg 17 again for me. Unbelievable! At least I could use the same rigs as yesterday and my top kits were already marked with the depth. I did set up an additional rig to fish corn by the platform of p16, hoping to pull some carp away from the bush on p17, but never had a bite.

I decided to feed more positively with caster to my left, but kept with the frugal feeding at the bottom of the shelf in front of me.

Whilst the final weight is almost identical to yesterday it all happened in reverse. My first fish was an 1oz roach after 90mins. Tom in the meantime already had 5-6 carp on p17 mostly from the bush. The grapevine also suggested that Adrian on p1, Rod on p3 and Mark on p22 were catching.

As the match progressed I started catching a few fish from the bottom of the far shelf, either on maggot or pinkie, including a very useful 2.5lb skimmer. My positively fed LH swim didn't produce, whilst I had pinging pellet to my right, but this only produced small roach.

I had also been feeding caster/maggot under the platform of p18, which immediately produced a good perch, then the hook pulled out of the next. After that I only had a couple of small ones, before it died completely.

With only a couple of hours left it became obvious I needed to concentrate on the silvers and the only swim where I was getting regular bites was at the bottom of the far shelf. I did try on top of the shelf, but never had a bite. It was just a case of being patient and waiting for a bite, so it was really annoying when I pulled out of 2 good fish.

As always seems to be the way, when you make a decision to concentrate on the silvers, up pops a couple of carp. I knew I was falling behind Andy on p20 in the silvers who was catching skimmers, but I was hoping to at least pick up 2nd in silvers. As it happened I did pick in the silvers albeit by default, but that's 6 picks up from the last 7 matches.

1st 74- 4 - Adrian Jeffrey - p1
2nd 70- 8 - Mark Poppleton - p22
3rd 50- 0 - Rod Wootton - p3
4th 34- 8 - Tom Mangnall - p15
5th 30-12 - Nick Merry - p13
6th 27-15 - Andy Hembrow - p20

Silvers
1st 15- 9 - Andy Hembrow - p20
2nd 8- 8 - Mark Poppleton - p22
3rd 6-12 - Ken Rayner - p17

01/12/12 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 20lb 8oz (6lb 4oz - silvers)
Catch - 2 Carp, 10 Roach, 4 Perch, 1 Ide
Weather - Frosty, foggy start. Sunny later
Match - Open - 2nd out of 7 overall (2nd silvers)

This match was always going to be tough following 3 days of frosts and cold weather. The real surprise (or non surprise) was the fact the moors still looked seriously flooded a week after all the rain. Just proves how saturated the ground is, because the water has no where to go at the moment.

With only 7 of us today the fish would have plenty of space to hide and I was reasonable happy to draw p17. Due to the weather I had brought some pinkie, much to Mike Wests (p15) amusement, who was still pinning his faith in paste-lol

At the start I fed various swims with mostly caster/maggot and micro pellet/groundbait to my right. The first 30mins was a case of searching the swim with corn, but other than 1 bite/liner I had nothing to show for my efforts.

A switch to a Jolly 4x14 .10 > 20 silverfish maggot rig, brought a big perch from the bottom of the shelf. Tom Mangnall on p5 in the meantime was given the run around by a carp, whilst fishing with .08 bottom, he soon switched to .10 as well. Whilst .08 will probably bring you a few extra bites, you are in trouble if you hook that bonus fish. And I was glad to have started on .10 when I landed 2 carp within 10mins of each other on double pinkie, losing a third.

Most of my weight came in the first 2.5hrs, including a big Ide. Everyone was struggling, with Tom just ahead of me. The remainder of the match was a case of searching the swim looking a bite. Initially I hadn't set up a rig to fish the top of the shelf, but felt I had no choice but to give it a go. This produced a handful of roach up to 4oz, which in the end proved crucial, but the action was short lived.

It was a surprise that the perch failed to show in any numbers. I had kept trickling in bait by the pallet on p18, but no bites. A real hard day. On the all out I knew Tom had won and I was thankful for those roach from the top of shelf to sneak past Dave to claim 2nd spot.

1st 31- 4 - Tom Mangnall - p5
2nd 20- 8 - Ken Rayner - p17
3rd 20- 1 - Dave Wescott - p1
4th 16-14 - Jim Jenner - p21

Silvers
1st 6-12 - Tom Mangnall - p5
2nd 6- 8 - Ken Rayner - p17
3rd 3- 4 - Dave Wescott - p5