29/06/13 - Tylers Lake (Brinsham Green)

Weight - 25lb
Catch - 37 Skimmers, 7 F1s, 7 Roach, 3 Tench
Weather - Warm

I had planned to fish a match today, but had too many things to do. Waking up early I wanted to go fishing for a short early morning session and decided to fish Tylers Lake, because it was only a short drive away. Since fishing here last time in December I had wanted to come back to try again and today seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Arriving at 6am I soon set up 2 rigs, a HB Chump 0.3g > .12 > 16 B911 to fish at 11.5m and a HB Billybob 0.2g > .14 > 16 B911 to fish the margin.

After feeding 2 cups of groundbait and mixture of pellet at 11.5m, I started in the margin with corn and caught a small tench straight away. But other than little knocks, no further fish came, so I switched to long line and soon caught skimmers and a couple of F1s on 4mm expander or corn. By feeding a large toss pot of 4s & 6s every 3rd fish I managed to keep the fish on the deck. After an hour another big pot of pellet & groundbait went in and whilst that settled another visit to the margin produced another tench, plus a skimmer and a few roach. The 2nd & 3rd hour followed a similar pattern.

As I said it was only a short 3.5hr session, but very enjoyable. Next time I fish here I hope to have a little more time on my hands. There was loads of fish moving around and a decent net of roach would be on the cards if you fished caster. For free fishing it a decent little venue.

27/06/13 - Leechpool

Weight - 57lb
Catch - 43 Carp, 6 Skimmers
Weather - Rain, rain, rain
Match - Wiltshire Angling Evening Float Only - 4th out of 5

After not being able to fish for nearly 2 weeks I was looking forward to this evenings sprint match at Leechpool. However the weather had other ideas, following a week or so of settled dry weather, it rained. In fact the rain front couldn’t have timed it better, starting an hour before the 5pm draw and finishing around the time the match finished at 9.15pm.

 

For various reasons there was only 5 of us tonight so plenty of room. I drew the cattle drink which is a peg I have never drawn and with the wind blowing into the bank I was hopefully of a few fish, although the rain didn’t make for a comfortable nights fishing. To my right was Tony Gilbert in his new Thatcher’s branded kit, but he was left regretting selling his Diawa Gore-Tex by the end of the night.

 

A text from Mark who was looking after the kids since his missus was enjoying herself at Glastonbury, confirmed what I needed to do. The peg itself is very shallow close in so the margins were out and I ended up setting up my box 3m out in the water. Even then you are set back, with the left bank running about 11m before the corner where there is a large tree. Under the tree the water depth is only 6-8in, but plumbing around I found where the bottom started to slope up at 11m and fished here – as instructed.

 

Initially I started on the paste, but it didn’t seem right, plus my paste was just getting wetter and wetter. So a quick change to 6mm expander (HB Chump > .14 > 16 B911) and I was soon catching, finding it best to catapult a pouch of 6s before shipping out. In the first 60mnins I had 18 carp and doing well, however Tony after a slow start was catching well short on small pieces of paste, a trick he picked up from fishing at White Acres.

 

The 2^nd hour slowed down and I was falling behind Tony. The issue I had was wasting time having to ship out to 11m, because the peg was so shallow close in. I had decided against setting up a back up swim, since  the intention was to stay focused on the 11m line and continue feed pellet, hoping for a good last hour or so when the bigger fish would turn up. Well that was the plan.

 

Half way though the match the skimmers started to show which is never a good thing, but I kept firing in the pellet and the carp did return.

 

Come the end of the match, it became obvious I was off the pace of those who fish here regularly. I think I did the right thing sticking to the one swim, however hindsight is a wonderful thing and I should have moved up the slope, because I was getting quite a few liners, so fishing in shallower water may have been a good idea. I did try to catch proper shallow, however without success.

 

Although I was off the pace, it was interesting watching those who do well here and the key seems to be fishing short to get the bait in the water as quickly as possible.

 

1^st 87lb – Tony Gilbert – p4

2^nd 82lb – Ian Willetts – p3

3^rd 75lb – Pete Neate – p2

4^th 57lb – Ken Rayner – p5

5^th 53lb – Darren – p1

15/06/13 - Viaduct - Cary

Weight - 77lb 12oz (17lb 3oz - silvers)
Catch - 10 Bream, 8 Carp
Weather - Heavy rain to start, but mostly sunny and heavy winds later
Match - MFS - 17th out of 25 (2nd - section)

After seeing how hard Cary had fished on Friday, neither Mark & I were looking forward to it, however we were hopeful the wind may stir the fish into action.

 

Peg 100 was my home for the day, which Roland Lucas had caught 107lb for 3^rd in section. Within my section was the top 3 from yesterday’s match, so at least one of us was going to be disappointed. To my left on p102 was Steve Hutter and Calum Craig was to my right on 99. Fred had drawn another flyer on 97.

 

The day’s weather forecast was for heavy winds, but as were setting up it was blowing only slightly and it was it mostly calm in front of me. The intention was to spend an hour on the tip, see how it goes before fishing the 5m line were I had fed 6s and hopefully it would be full of skimmers.

 

Well that was the plan. After 45mins without a bite, I got bored and switched to the 5m line. 1 skimmer and a 12lb carp on pellet was all I could muster. So far I hadn’t fed longer because the wind was supposed to be blowing hard, but with no wind still, I decided to feed some pellet at 13m. Whilst letting that settle I tried the waggler & 8mm pellet, but only managed 1 big skimmer.

 

After 2.5hrs I was struggling, as it seemed was most others, except for Fred. A switch to the 13m line coincided with wind picking up - typical. However I managed 6 skimmers/bream on pellet, before the wind just got too strong and good presentation wasn’t possible.

 

In the meantime Calum started to catch on the tip and was now 4 carp ahead of me. So any thoughts of a pickup disappeared. Since I couldn’t catch on the pole and the short line was a waste of time, I had no choice but to fish the tip.

 

I had been fishing meat without success, so switched to 8mm pellet coated in predator plus. Over the next hour I had 4 carp and was now only 2 behind Calum. With 90mins left I stayed on the tip just hoping it would continue to go round. It didn’t for 30mins, but they returned with a further 3 carp, landing the last one 2mins from the end, but I was still 2 behind Calum and it looked like it was between the 2 or us for the 2^nd in section money.

 

45mins previously I had dumped a pot of meat in the margin, followed up with a further pot. A previous look on the pole only produced knocks from roach, but as I was playing my last carp, I noticed a carp being spooked by the weigh in on Lodge Lake. So with only 2mins to go, instead of casting out, I decided to drop the lead rig into the margin and bugger me if the tip didn’t go round, although it wasn’t the expected carp, but a 3lb bream. That will do.

 

As it turned out it was an inspired move, because Calum had 10 carp to my 8, but I knew I had more silvers. However, Calum has hooked a carp 10mins from the end and was still playing it after the whistle. I stood behind me to check his progress and I may have mentioned that he would need that fish, just as I said that the hook pulled and I beat Calum by 3oz to claim 2^nd in section!  Fred won our section with 113-6 and Ben Bentley won the lake from p88 with 115-4.

 

Overall Cary fished harder than yesterday, but Campbell fished its nuts off with only 2 anglers weighing less 100lb.

 

1^st 249-15 – Adam Mitchell – p110

2^nd 211-10 – Dave Brittan – p123

3^rd 207-12 – Richard Wyatt – p132

4^th 200-13 – Alex Murray – p115

5^th 193-14 – Russell Graves – p130

6^th 180- 4 – Roland Lucas – p125

 

Silvers

1^st 69- 8 – Alex Murray – p115

2^nd 58- 4 – Roland Lucas – p125

3^rd 37- 2 – Steve Musitano – p126

4^th 29- 0 – Dave Brittan – p123

14/06/13 - Viaduct - Campbell

Weight - 143- 9 (20- 1 - silvers)
Catch - 24 Carp, 7 Bream, 5 Tench, 1 Eel
Weather - Bright sunny start, becoming cloudier and cooler
Match - MFS - 4th out of 25 (2nd - section)

Without a car Mark picked me up for the first of a 2 dayer at Viaduct organised by MFS (Match Fishing Scene), which involved a 30 mile detour for Mark, so a big thank you doing that, greatly appreciated.

With 25 fishing we would be split over 4 sections, 2 on Campbell and 2 on Cary. The first match was an open draw, then the 2^nd would rotate to the other lake.  Ideally Mark & I both thought that fishing Campbell first would be the better option, because with heavy winds forecast for the Saturday  Cary would be more sheltered. In hindsight we were proven wrong.

I got my wish drawing P128 on Campbell and Mark got 118. What information I got suggested my draw would be OK, it would be just a question of how strong the wind would get. Fortunately the spit sheltered me from the worst.

Viaduct is a venue I have struggled with, probably because I don’t fish it often enough, but generally my results are improving. In a perverse sort of way I was pleased to draw 128, because the last time I drew here I got it completely wrong chopping and changing instead of concentrating on one thing.

The results from Thursdays cost cutter suggested the fishing hadn’t been easy, with 200lb+ winning from p132, but 2^nd was a long way behind with 111lb. I did set up 2 leads rods, which were already in made up, but other than 1 cast whilst sorting out a rig they never got used.

Rigs for the day were

- Ackoo Powertrap 0.3g > .16 > 16 carp feeder – hair rigged meat

- HB Shady Shallow > .17 > 16 B960 – pellet shallow

- HB Shindig 0.4g > .14 > 18 B911 – hair rigged pellet

The one thing I have picked up reading other blogs is that feeding too much can kill your swim so a little & often approach is usually best. With this in mind I started at 10m by the overhanging willow toss potting 5/6 cubes of 8mm meat. After 25mins I had my first carp and after 90mins I was up to 6 before the swim died.

In the meantime I had been regularly feeding pellet at 13m in the hope of catching shallow. I had a 9lber and then a bream, but then nothing. I tried later catching another carp, but they just didn’t seem to want it. Eventually the fish just disappeared, but I think it was more to do with the weather, because it started bright and sunny, becoming duller and cooler in an increasingly strong wind.

By the end of the third hour I was up to 12 fish (9 carp). I had been feeding a small handful of 6s at 5m to my left from the start, more as a back-up to catch skimmers if I was struggling to catch carp. I didn’t really want to chuck the tip out, so went out at 5m and soon started catching skimmers, tench and more carp. This line just got stronger and accounted for half my overall weight catching on hard 6s.

I had been feeding meat towards the point of the spit, but for some reason it didn’t really get going, because I only managed 3 more carp and bites took a while to develop.

Throughout the match I was ahead of Fred Roberts (p126) on the carp front, but he was catching loads of big skimmers & tench, plus his carp looked to be a bigger stamp than mine, so it was likely to be very close between the 2 of us.

Ultimately the fact I couldn’t catch some better fish on the meat late on cost me at least 3^rd in the match and Fred had a great last hour to overtake me, winning the match.

 

Overall I was really happy with how the match went and pleased to have finished 2^nd in section picking up a brown envelope.

1^st 164- 2 – Fred Roberts – p126

2^nd 160- 6 – Steve Hutter – p115

3^rd 148- 1 – Gary Mitchell – p102

4^th 143- 9 – Ken Rayner – p128

5^th 138-12 – Tyrone Hull – p119

6^th 128- 1 – Rob Anker – p97

 

Silvers

1^st 44- 9 – Fred Roberts – p126

2^nd 43- 7 – Mike Walker – p125

3^rd 36- 5 – Alex Murray – p86

4^th 32- 4 – Steve Hutter – p115

 

 

09/06/13 - Lands End - Johns Lake

Weight - 28lb 6oz (7lb 2oz - silvers)
Catch - 6 Carp, 8 Skimmers, 4 F1s, 2 Crucian, 2 Roach
Weather - Mostly sunny and a gusty breeze
Match - Club - 5th out of 14

Apologies for this blog entry being a bit late, I had already written it once, but lost it and couldn’t be bothered to re-write until now.

The phrase it never rains, but it pours couldn’t be truer at the moment. Work is currently very difficult and in fact it’s probably the worst it’s been for 3 years. Working in a specialist role, means I am more exposed when things don’t go according to the “plan”. The good news is when it does work properly I will prime position to take advantage and earn some money, because there are quite a few jobs around the house that need paying for.

A few weeks ago I took my car back the garage. Having already spent £2000/£2500 in 18 months, which included a new cam gear and belt, the car was making a whirring noise when the engaging a gear. So back into the garage and I now need a new gear box which will cost a minimum of £1700, yet the car is only worth £1500. The garage has given me a good p/x on my car and I brought a new one. I was already to pick it up, only to be told the finance company won’t release the funds to the garage because my driving licence (the ID part card) expired 2009!!! Doh! So new driving licence sorted but it takes up to 3 weeks for the DVLA to issue a new one. It’s now 2 weeks gone and I’m still waiting!

Back to this match, which was a club match and a big thank you to my neighbour Sally, who lent me her car. With 14 booked in, pegging was always going to be a bit tight. The news was the carp had spawned the previous week so the hope was the fish would be keen and eager to have a munch.

I drew p41 which I was happy with and as we were setting up there was a number of fish cruising the surface, so I was fully expecting a few fish. To cut a long and boring match short it was hard work. Those cruising fish just didn’t want to open their mouths, you would drop a pellet or meat in front of them and they would just swim around it.

I decided to keep feeding pellet to the point of the spit with the expectation the fish would get their heads down later in the day. Half way through 3 carp on the bounce fishing 8mm meat shallow tight to spit, I thought I had it sussed, unfortunately not.

I had a few fish on the deck fishing 6mm meat, but it didn’t really work so a change to a soft pellet rig and feeding 4s brought a better response.

In the end the better weights came the top half of the lake, but generally it was hard work for most.

1^st 59- 0 – Glenn – p61 (pellet feeder)
2^nd 56- 2 – Andy L – p50 (pole/maggot down the track)
3^rd 38-14 – Roger – p55
4^th 33-15 – Andy B – p53
5^th 28- 6 – Ken – p41
6^th 19- 0 – Ian – p68

30/05/13 - Leechpool

Weight - 31lb 8oz
Catch - 21 Carp, 6 Bream
Weather - Bright start, Northerly breeze, showers later
Match - Wiltshire Angling Evening Float Only - 6th out of 9

Back at Leech Pool for the next Thursday evening sprint and reports were the lake had been fishing hard with only 60lb winning at the weekend. The continually changing weather has got to be having a negative effect and tonight there was a northerly wind blowing into the house bank. Mark Poppleton was complaining about the lack of pick ups he hasn’t had recently, following another blow out at Viaduct. He didn’t get much sympathy!

At the draw I didn’t need to drive to my peg, because I was already there. A popular pleasure anglers peg, because its next to the car pack, but not the best match peg, usually because the prevailing westerlies blow into the opposite bank. Having said that, today with the northerly wind there was a nice ripple on the water and a few fish were showing themselves, so fingers crossed for a decent match.

I set up 3 rigs:-

- HB billybob 0.2g > .14 > 16 B911 – soft pellet on the deck

- HB redneck 0.2g > .17 > 12 carp feeder – paste

- HB ratcatcher 2 > .14 > 16 B911 – hair rigged pellet shallow

 

We should have started at 5.45, but Gary Etheridge took so long setting up on the peg next to the house, we were a few minutes late, although it was fun watching him set up his platform as it wobbled on the slippery stones.

 

Half a cup of 4s & 6s was deposited into each margin, with the intention of keeping them topped up ready for the last hour. I started at 11m on paste, catching 2 small carp and then a third on soft pellet. However it didn’t seem right, because there seemed to fish in the swim, but they were just messing about with the bait. Also Tony Gilbert was already 3 or 4 fish ahead fishing shallow. So after 15mins I was on the shallow rig and for the next 1hr was I catching consistently on 6mm pellet and probably had 20lb already, including some better carp up to 3lb.

 

Unfortunately this is where the catching stopped. The fish just disappeared. I added another section and caught a few more, but it had definitely slowed down. Tony was in the same boat, so at least I knew it wasn’t me. The carp had moved into the middle of the lake.

 

My margins produced a few small fish, but it was hard going and the skimmers also started to show themselves, which is always a worry. I persevered with the shallow rig, mainly because I couldnt catch anywhere else. A new swim lightly feed with 4s 11m to my left only produced skimmers and a single carp on expander, so a puzzling end to the day.

 

I also thought it was good to have a heavy rain shower 15mins before the end and the persistent rain whilst packing up. My kit needed a clean!

 

I don’t have the full results this time, 60lb won from the cattle drink swim and Mark in the next peg had 26lb – so another match and no pick up ;¬)