26/05/13 - Acorns - Paddock

Weight - 48lb 8oz
Catch - 23 Carp, 3 Tench, 1 F1, 1 Perch
Weather - Warm & sunny!
Match - Pole Only Series - rd6 - 19th out of 32, 4th out of 8 section.

Well regular readers noticed I hadn't blogged about round 5 of this series and I promptly received some stick at the draw, about you cant blog only about the good days, etc, etc. Fair enough and normally I do, but on this occasion, the wind buggered up the fishing and I was left a little fed-up. Peg 3 on the small lake, I decided to target the silvers, but presentation was difficult, combined with lost/bumped fish meant I only weighed 14lb 8oz of skimmers with a few carp. Very frustrating.

Back to today and I wasn't really looking forward it. I just wanted this series to end, because it has been really poor for me.

Peg 22 was OK, which offered a chance of a section pick up, but unlikely to frame. For company I had Eddie Wynn on the other side of the bridge and Lewis Jones to my left on p23 who was in the next section.

Well it made a nice change to be fishing in the sun. No thermals, no wind, no ice, something had to go wrong. With John Bradford (p13) and Kev Perry (p15) likely to target silvers, I didn't think there was any point targeting them from this peg, so only a couple carp rigs were set up.

- HB Billybob 0.1g > .14 > 16 B911 - expander/meat - across to the island
- HB Redneck 0.3g > .17 > 12 carp feeder - paste
- HB rat catcher 2 > .16 > 16 B911 - hair rig pellet

With the warm weather I didn't expect too much to be caught down the track, however from the start I fed 6mm pellet at 5m in the hope of catch a few carp late on paste.

On the all-in I started by the bridge toss potting 4s with either 4 or 6mm expander on the hook. By the end of the first hour I had a small tench and 6 carp, which was a good start, but the issue with these bridge pegs is the size of the carp, which tend to be on the small side. With that in mind I kept feeding the 5m line and had been catapulting 6s slightly to my left by the island where it was much shallower, however I struggled to get a proper bite on pellet.

Having rested the bridge swim, I kept catching on the expander, before it slowed down again. In an effort to refresh the swim I started to feed meat and I had a another run of fish, including a decent tench.

Despite catapulting feed to the left hand swim I was really struggling to get a proper bite, whilst Lewis was catching most put ins. Speaking to him afterwards he said there was quite a few fish between him and Jason Radford who was 2 pegs down.

I decided to set up a paste rig to fish against the island and soon had 3 carp, which were a bigger stamp than those from the bridge.

With 1hr 15mins to go I was up to 20 carp and decided to put in my 3rd net, not because I was near the 70lb limit, but knew I would be close to 40-50lb and if I kept going at the rate was I catching 60-70lb was likely. The 3rd net syndrome kicked in big time, were I didn't catch for an hour. From those I could see I thought I was doing OK, it looked like Tom Thick on p18 had the section sewed up, but 2nd place was up for grabs. I had seen Bob Gullick on p16 catching & walking around, Glen Bailey was catching a few and I was fairly sure I was ahead of Eddie.

However that hour blank spell cost me 2nd place in section. Initially I couldn't get a bite on paste, then I lost a fish, I couldn't get the paste rig to settle properly and I even managed to get my hook wrapped around the elastic on the catapult and started shipping that out. All the time Eddie & Glen in particular were catching, whilst I disengaged my brain and fished like a muppet. With my head up my arse, I forgot to do the things I had been doing, but after calming myself down, I caught 3 carp in the last 15mins. I only needed 2, maybe 3 carp during that blank hour spell to have claimed 2nd in section from Bob Gullick who weighed 52-4.

Congratulations to those who picked up in the league, I will fish next year and hope the weather gods are kinder.

1st 112-15 - Brian Slipper - p33
2nd 112- 3 - Pete Bartlett - p9
3rd 108-14 - Lewis Jones - p23
4th 99-15 - Tony Rixon - p1
5th 87-12 - Tim Ford - p8
6th 87-12 - Tom Thick - p18

Silvers
1st 34- 4 - Paul Faires - p3 - top lake
2nd 21- 4 - Glenn Calvert - p30
2nd 21- 4 - Russ Peck - p8 - top lake

23/05/13 - Rood Ashton

Weight - 33lb 0oz
Catch - 12 Carp, 4 Roach
Weather - Cold & blustery
Match - Wiltshire Angling Evening Series - rd 3 - 4th out of 9

Its Thursday evening the weather has turned from what was reasonably warm to a cold, blustery day. So back on with 2 fleeces! When will it warm up properly, since we are long overdue?

 

9 eventually turned for the 5pm draw and I found myself in the far corner of the lake. It’s not normally a peg that produces during the day, probably because the prevailing SW winds usually blows out towards the opposite corner. Today however a cold northerly was blowing into the bank and I was uncertain how it would fish. Mark suggested that fishing the right hand margin is usually best in this peg rather than fishing under trees to my left, but to be honest the trees looked to tempting.

 

Only 3 rigs for today.

- Ackoo Powertrap 0.3g > .16 > 16 B911 – to fish meat

- Big H paste > .17 > 12 feeder carp – to fish paste

- Ackoo Powertrap 0.3g > .16 > 16 B911 – to fish meat in the shallower parts of the swim, but only had 1 fish on this rig.

 

On the 6pm start I cupped some meat & hemp at 13m along the tree line and another small cup went in along the right hand margin at the bottom of the shelf. Starting at 13m, I didn’t have a bite, which is always concern. After 15mins I started feeding a small handful of meat & hemp into the corner, where it was a foot deeper and hoped the fish would prefer the deeper water.

 

A switch to the paste rig into the corner produced my first fish and after an hour I was up to 3 fish. I’ve started experimenting with meat paste, because I used to use it quite a bit a few years ago and felt it would give the fish a different option. Today however with the cold wind the fish didn’t really want to know, because I had to wait a while for a bite, although the fish caught on paste were a better stamp than those on meat.

 

The second hour saw me land a further 5 carp, as well as losing a couple of foul hookers, before adding a further 4 in the last hour. I had tried 8mm cubes, but realised probably 20-30mins too late that a single 6mm cube produced a quicker bite. I had kept the right hand margin topped up, but I could only catch roach so obviously there wasn’t much in the way of many carp in the area.

 

Must admit I was glad when the match finished because it got quite chilly and the temperature in the car went down to 5.5c on the way home. 

 

Although I finished 4^th in the match, I managed to pick up the section by de-fault after Stu White won the match, fishing 6mm cubes of meat in the sheltered part of the lake.

 

1^st 90-14 – Stu White – p9

2^nd 90-12  - Tony Gilbert – p2

3^rd 68- 0 – Jon Atkins – p5

4^th 33- 0 – Ken Rayner – p6

4^th 33- 0 – Ian Willetts – p8

6^th 32- 8 – Mark Poppleton – p1

18/05/13 - Fishponds

Weight - 185lb 14oz
Catch - 26 Carp
Weather - Mostly sunny and light winds
Match - Club Afternoon/Evening series - 1st out of 10

10 members turned up for the 1pm draw, so a little less crowded than the last match on the lake, yet I found myself again on peg 10. To be honest it wasn't where I wanted to be, because a) the peg is the deepest on the lake with 5ft deep margins and b) the breeze was blowing into the long bank opposite.

Nothing complicated today. A paste rig & a hair rigged 8mm pellet rig to fish left & right in the margin. I also set up a long line shallow pellet rig, more in hope than expectation.

First drop in on the paste into the LH margin produced a carp and on the hour mark I had 7, by rotating between each margin. The 2nd hour brought a further 7 fish (6 on paste and 1 on pellet), but it was slowing down.

I had been feeding 8s at 13m, however there wasn't much moving around on surface, but since my margins were fading I decided to give it a go and managed 3 more fish, before catching another from the margin, by the end of the third hour.

The fourth hour was mostly spent on the shallow line, with another 4 carp, including my biggest of the day, a 12-7 mirror, but it was hard work trying to get a bite and by the 5th hour the line had died.

Fortunately the fish returned into the margin and I had a further 4 fish to finish with 26. During the weigh-in I had 5 fish for 53lb, so I had a few proper lads!


1st 185-14 - Ken - p10
2nd 118- 5 - Roger - p20
3rd 111-10 - Chris - p15
4th 88- 0 - Eddie - p12
5th 85- 2 - Andy - p17

16/05/13 - Leechpool

Weight - 38lb 6oz
Catch - 35 Carp, 18 Skimmers
Weather - Bright & sunny, cold later
Match - Evening Float Only rd2 - 7th out of 9

At least we managed to avoid the showers, although we could see 1 or 2 coming quite close. On arrival the sun was out, which felt quite warm and there seemed to be plenty of fish moving around, so a good evening fishing was expected.

The lake was pegged with peg 1 in the cattle drink on the far bank, working anti clock wise round to peg 9 next to the farmhouse. There was a gentle breeze blowing into pegs 1 & 2, which I quite fancy, but ended up on the first peg on the long bank. Mark suggested that fishing down the right hand margin would be good, because last year he had a big weight doing that, but plumbing up revealed it was very shallow.

Since everyone arrived early we managed to get going at 5.45 instead of 6.00. My main rig was HB billybob 0.2g > .16 > 16 B911, which I would fish at 8m. After cupping in some 4s, I tried fishing paste next to the tree on my left where I had seen a few fish topping, but after 1 bumped fish in 3 put ins, I didn't waste too much time.

Back out to 8m and I was catching small carp, with 6mm expander, being better than 4mm. After an hour I was up to 22 fish, including 2 skimmers. Unfortunately the fishing just got slower as the evening went on and more skimmers started showing, which is always an indication there isn't many carp around.

I ended up having to chase the fish out to 11m and dropping down to a .14 hooklength to keep the fish coming. As for the margins I only had 1 carp. I think the problem was the evening turned quite chilly and my margin was shaded from the sun by a big tree.

I'm not sure what went wrong, but I think as it got cooler the fish simply moved out into a deeper/warmer area.

1st 104- 6 - Tony Gilbert - p1
2nd 80- 8 - Pete Neate - p2
3rd 67- 0 - Ian Willitts - p5
4th 62-14 - Mark Poppleton - p9

09/05/13 - Rood Ashton

Weight - 45lb 4oz
Catch - 16 Carp
Weather - Gales & rainy - typical spring evening really!
Match - Float only evening series - rd 1 - 6th out of 10

I decided to fish this evenings float only series run by Wiltshire Angling. In previous years the series has been solely fished at Rood Ashton, however due to dwindling attendances and poor fishing it was decided to include Leech Pool, alternating each week with Rood Ashton. As such I decided to book in, because had it all been at Rood Ashton I wont have bothered.

12 booked in for the league, although there was only 10 fishing today, however there was some good quality anglers in attendance, fishing from 6-9pm.

Well after a week of warm weather, back on with the thermals and wet weather gear! Those that know Rood Ashton, know there isn't much in the way of shelter and everyone wanted a peg that at least offered some relief from the gale force wind.

I was disappointed to drew peg 1, which didn't offer any shelter from the wind that was blowing mostly over my left shoulder. For company I had Tony Gilbert on peg 2.

With the aid of a bump bar I could just about manage 12m, about a metre off the reed bed, where I fed meat & hemp via a toss pot. My second swim was into the corner, again feeding meat & hemp.

On the all in the wind was really strong and it was proving difficult to keep the rig in the water. After 20mins I managed my first fish and by the end of the hour I was up to 8 carp, mostly on 8mm meat, whilst Tony was up to 6 fish. Unfortunately I couldn't catch for 30mins, losing 3 fish. I eventually had 4 fish by the end of the 2nd hour from the corner.

The third hour proved to be a bit of struggle. The wind dropped to a more manageable level, but the fish seemed to stop feeding. Initially I thought I had overfed, but speaking to others it appears most struggled to catch.

By the end Tony & I both had 16 carp, although mine were a smaller stamp. If it hadn't been for the wind I'm confident I would have caught more.

1st 69- 8 - Pete Neate - p10
2nd 65- 7 - Mark Poppleton - p4
3rd 62-13 - Tony Gilbert - p2
4th 56- 8 - Nat - p9
5th 54- 6 - Stuart - p5
6th 45- 4 - Ken Rayner - p1

05/05/13 - Fishponds

Weight - 129lb 4oz
Catch - 18 Carp
Weather - Cloudy start, becoming warm & sunny
Match - Club - 1st out of 20

Today was the first club match of the year and I was surprised to see so many cars in the car park. 20 anglers had booked in, which is a club record and it would be interesting to see how the lake would cope with the pressure. I personally thought that 100lb would be enough to win, if not frame.

The only place I didn't want to be was down the arm of the lake and was quite pleased with p10, which is one of the deepest on the lake. As such the margins tend to be the best area to catch, which are 5ft deep. Dave was on p11, which meant we would be sharing the same corner, although we were far enough away from each other to hopefully not to be an issue. But at least I had the left hand margin to target, which is where I expected to catch the bulk of my fish.

Originally I was only going to set up 2 rigs.
- HB Redneck 0.3g > .17 > 12 carp feeder for paste
- Ackoo Powertrap 0.3g > .17 > 16 B960 for hair rigged pellet.

Normally this peg isn't great for shallow fishing because its sheltered from the wind and consequently doesn't get much ripple, however I had brought a pellet waggler rod already set up and I also decided to set up a long line shallow pellet rig just in case.

On the all in a handful of 8s went in to the right hand margin and started in the left hand margin feeding a few 8s with the paste. 2nd drop in and the float just kept going under and I had my first fish which was a relief. After a couple of iffy bites on paste a switch to the pellet rig and I had 3 more carp by the end of the first hour.

Come the end of the second hour I had added a further 3 carp. From those I could see I was probably leading. Dave on p11 had 6 carp from the corner, but I couldn't catch from my side.

The third hour produced a further 3 carp, but it was slow going. I had been feeding pellet from the start at 13-14m. The wind switched around a little, which created a little bit of ripple. A look on the pellet waggler produced 1 carp, but the fish weren't really feeding. As the day got warmer there was a few fish showing themselves sunning themselves and my margin had completely died.

The rest of the match was a case of chopping and changing between rigs. If there was some ripple I would fish at 13m constantly swinging the shallow rig around, which produced a couple of fish. When the ripple disappeared I would swing the shallow rig in front of any fish I could see, which produced a few more fish.

By the end I was glad I had set up the shallow rigs, because it definitely made the difference. As expected the fishing was tough for many and the pegs with some extra space did best.

1st 129-4 - Ken - p10
2nd 81- 2 - Roger - p15
3rd 73-14 - Don - p17
4th 66-14 - Andy L - p26
5th 54- 9 - Graham - p23
6th 48- 6 - Craig - p14