29/09/13 - Lands End - Match Lake

Weight - 36lb 12oz

Catch - 8 Carp, 3 Roach, 2 Skimmers

Weather - Mostly sunny

Match - Open - 9th out of 15

 

Only 15 turned up for today’s match run by Trigger due to Tony being somewhere in Wales on his holidays. So he had 10 anglers on Match and 5 on Specimen. Looking at Saturdays weigh sheet, it looked like the fish were still spread around, although the top half of the lake seemed to be favourite.

 

P23 wasn’t what I wanted. It really is a horrible peg if you need to catch shallow against the island which is 16-17m away and the end bank into p24 was also 17m. The water level is still down by a foot or so and based on my experience 2 weeks ago the fish could prove difficult to catch.

 

And this is how is turned out. I set up 5 rigs, 2 shallow for pellet/meat and caster, a meat rig, a light pellet/corn rig and a skimmer rig.

 

I started off cupping in caster by the island and had a carp within 10mins on double caster, but couldn’t get another bite. It didn’t matter what I fed or how I fed it by the island, pellet, corn, meat, big bunch of dead maggot, but couldn’t get a run of fish together.

 

Towards the end bank I fed meat and had 3 carp reasonably quickly, but then couldnt get another and to be honest it was a long way to go so I soon discarded that.

 

As for fishing on the deck, I only had a small skimmer and a small carp on expander. I kept feeding a meat line and caught a decent skimmer, but no carp. Towards the end of the match I was feeding 6s, 2 pouches at a time towards the end bank at the bottom of the shelf and caught 2 quick carp before the end.

 

In hindsight, I should have learnt the lesson from my last match here and not spent so much time chasing fish on the island. I should have focused on the deck and made it work, having said that Kev Molton on p21 tried that and with an hour to go only had 2 fish, but landed 7 in the last hour.

 

Scott Puddy opposite on p1 was plagued by foul hookers when he fished by the island, but still managed to land a few fish. The bulk of his catch was made of meat caught fish by the right hand tree.

 

Overall a little frustrating and I think some extra water is needed. Someone mentioned low oxygen levels is why the silvers aren’t feeding, but I don’t believe that’s the case because Mike has his aerators on overnight. Personally I think the weather and in particular the air pressure has been so up and down the fish don’t know whether they are coming or going.

 

1st 155-13 - Craig Edmunds - p25

2nd 131- 3 - Paul Elmes - p17

3rd 116-14 - Scott Puddy - p1

4th 102- 0 - Mike Nicholls - p11

5th 87- 7 - Simon R - p19

6th 85- 3 - Gordon Cannings - p5

 

Silvers

1st 21- 1 - Craig Edmunds - p25

2nd 18-12 - Clint Wotlyla - p29

3rd 18- 7 - John Bradford - p13

4th 13- 7 - Gordon Cannings - p5

28/09/13 - Tylers Lake (Brimsham Green)

Weight - 14lb 0oz
Catch - 49 Roach, 11 Skimmers, 2 Rudd, 1 Perch
Weather - Mostly cloudy, cool easterly

A day at Brimsham Green with my god son, Ross and his Dad, which gave him an opportunity to try out his birthday present, a new pole. Unfortunately a strong easterly breeze meant the skimmers didn’t feed in any numbers and I struggled for the first couple of hours fishing expander or dead maggot over pellet/groundbait.

In the end I caught a few roach short on caster, which was quite enjoyable and not something I have done for a little while, which probably showed! To finish off I dumped a load of bait down the margin hoping for a carp or 2, but finished with 3 decent skimmers, the biggest being 2½lb.

An angler opposite in the trees where it was a little more sheltered, probably had 15lb, but again very few skimmers, most of his catch was made up of F1s and a couple of tench. There was also a young lad to my right who hooked a carp on .12 bottom and 8 elastic. But fair play he got it out and I weighed it at 11-4. Needless to say the lad was quite happy.

As for Ross and his Dad, they struggled a little, but still ended up with a tidy net of roach and small skimmers.

22/09/13 - Trinity Waters - Woodlands

Weight - 24lb 13oz (13lb 13oz - silvers)

Catch - 2 Carp, 20 Skimmers, 3 Roach, 1 Rudd

Weather - Mostly cloudy warm and no wind

Match - Avon Angling Pole Only - 1st out of 25 - silvers

 

Woodlands is one of those lakes I have struggled to get to grips with. Speaking to Chris Fox in the shop on Friday he said he was having a poor time there as well, due to drawing the “wrong” pegs and I jokingly said I wanted to be well away from where ever he drew. Having drawn his peg, Chris expressed his displeasure at another poor draw. As for me I managed to stay well clear and ended up on p9. Speaking to Martin McMahon who framed from it last week, told me how he caught, however today the lake was flat calm.

 

With 25 anglers on the lake, meant it would be a pole only match to save any argument about peoples casting. For company I had Adrian Jeffrey on p8 and Martin Lenaghan on p10, which was a little cozy.

 

As I was setting up, my gut feeling was we would struggle. There were fish moving on the surface, but with no ripple I didn’t expect any shallow fish to hang around, although I still set up a shallow long line pellet rig just in case. 3 other rigs were set up as follows:-

- Preston classic 1 – 1.25g > .14 > 16 B911 – maggot/soft pellet – changed to .12 & 18 silverfish pellet

- HB dweezil .75g > .16 > 16 B911 – soft pellet/meat at 6m

- HB dweezil .50g > .16 > 16 B911 – meat bottom the marginal shelf

 

On the all out I cupped in 8s at 6m and started pinging 8s at 14m. After swinging the shallow rig around for 15mins for 1 roach that dropped off, I never picked up the rig again. Adrian & Martin McMahon opposite both had a carp shallow, but it was obvious unless the wind picked up you were on a hiding to nothing. So a cup of soften 4s and 50:50 groundbait was deposited at 14.5m with some 8s.

 

Whilst that settled I caught a skimmer on 6mm expander at 6m. Going onto the long line with 6mm expander produced a couple more skimmers and a 5lb carp. As the match progressed there was a definite lack of carp action expect for the anglers to my right on the end bank. I caught a few more skimmers on double red maggot, but also bumped a couple.

 

Since there didn’t seem to be many carp in the area I switched to a lighter hooklength and elastic to target the skimmers properly, because winning the silvers was the only way I could see myself picking up today. As the match progressed I found it best to cup a small ball of feed every 2^nd fish, but had to wait for bites despite all the fizzing in the peg. Whenever I fed the long line I would try for 5mins either the 6m line that I kept topped up with 8s or the bottom of the marginal shelf to my left which I kept topped up with meat & corn. Neither swims produced much other than a couple of skimmers or small roach.

 

Back on long line the swim seemed to have died, but when I was looking towards the end bank watching Paul Elmes land another fish, I felt the pole being pulled down as a 6lb carp accepted the double maggot. I did hook another carp shortly afterwards, but the hook pulled.

 

With no more carp, some of the better skimmers started to put in an appearance, but with 90mins left the swim just died completely. There was obviously still fish in the area, because the swim was still fizzing, but I couldn’t buy a bite. John Bradford opposite had a few silvers and I was sure I was ahead of him, but I wasn’t sure how the anglers to my left were doing and felt I needed to catch a few more skimmers to be safe. So a new swim was set at 16m at an angle to my left with another cup of 4s and groundbait, which produced another 5 skimmers. Most fish came to double dead maggot, which seemed to be better than 4 or 6mm expander.

 

By the all out I felt I had at least 10lb, John was admitting to 8-10lb and Fabio reckoned he had about 8lb. When I plonked 13-13 on the scales Tony said I would win the silvers and that was the way it ended.

 

As I was packing up, 4 sections of my pole rolled into the lake and I had no choice but to go in after it. So I stripped off and dived down 7ft finding the pole almost immediately. Thanks to Adrian for grabbing the pole and Martin for pulling me out of the lake, which Tim Ford very kindly took a photo! I was just pleased it was September and not January!

 

1^st 106-12 – Paul Elmes – p3

2^nd 90- 1 – Shaun Townsend – p2

3^rd 88-12 – Craig Edmunds – p15

4^th 81- 8 – Tony Rixon – p28

5^th 74- 0 – Gordon Canning – p7

6^th 63- 9 – Glen Bailey – p29

 

Silvers

1^st 13-13 – Ken Rayner – p9

2^nd 11- 9 – John Bradford – p30

3^rd 11- 1 – Phil Harding – p25

21/09/13 - Larford - Specimen

Weight - 60lb 4oz (28lb - silvers)
Catch - 5 Carp, 28 Skimmers, 2 Roach, 1 Hybrid
Weather - Warm & sunny. Very light breeze
Match - Match Fishing Scene

A change of scenery for today’s match. Mark persuaded me to fish a MFS match at Larford on the Specimen Lake. This was only my second visit to the venue and the first time on Specimen Lake, which is a big water, holding a big head of carp and skimmers.

Being the second of a 2 dayer for the MFS crew, there was a lot of very tired looking faces and with a few extras turning for the Saturday match, there were 60 plus anglers spread out between Match & Specimen. Chat before the match was the winner was likely to come from specimen, because it had been fishing the best, plus you can catch some absolute brutes in excess of 20lb from the margins late on. Whilst most areas produced during day one, the best pegs definitely seemed to be the 60s on the chalet bank with 140lb or so winning.

I found myself on 74, whilst Mark was on 78, both behind the chalets and a high bank which reminded me of some of those steep banks on the Bristol Avon. I was just glad it wasn’t raining. As you go further along the high bank flattens out.

Prior to the match, I did some research by looking at old magazine & web articles. It became clear you could do 1 of 2 things, assuming you haven’t drawn a flyer. Either sit it out on the tip for a few carp and then down the edge late on or catch a weight of skimmers, hope for the odd carp to come along, and then try for munters down the margins. Since I prefer to get a few bites, I was fairly settled on the 2^nd option, although the high bank behind me would make shipping out to 14.5m awkward. The one disappointing aspect of my peg was the lack of a margin. Immediately to my right was a bush and to my left I could just about see the next pallet, but it was very shallow and I didn’t really fancy it because the water was clearer than I had expected. Pete Mercer on 72 didn’t have a bite next to it, so I’m glad I didn’t bother.

I did bring a method rod already set up, just in case. I also set up 3 pole rigs:-

- Preston Classic 1 - 1.25g > .14 > 16 B911 – skimmers at 14.5m

- Ackoo Carrat 0.6g > .16 > 16 B911 – meat at 6m

- Ackoo Powertrap 0.3g > .17 > 16 carp feeder – under the right hand bush

 

On the all in 2 balls of groundbait and soften 4s was deposited at 14.5m, plus a small ball of groundbait & meat at 6m. Starting at 6m, contrary to popular wisdom here were nearly everyone chucked out the tip, I landed my first carp after 10mins on meat. 10mins later I hooked another, but this one broke me, before losing a 2^nd which also broke me. A bit annoyed, because I shouldn’t have been snapped up and suspect I may have a dodgy spool of 0.16, because I lost a few at lands end a couple of weeks ago in the same manner.

 

After attaching a .17 hooklength I had a skimmer. Whilst fishing the short line I had kept the long line topped by catapulting 4s over the top, so after an hour I went out on the long line and started catching 8-10oz skimmers on 6mm expander or double dead maggot. With hardly any wind the lake was mostly flat, although there was a slight ripple blowing down my end of the lake, but hardly classic skimmer weather. I kept catching skimmers, but keeping them coming wasn’t easy and I found it best to top up by cupping in a ball of groundbait/pellet, instead of toss potting the bait, which just didn’t seem positive enough in the 8ft deep swim.

 

Over the next 2 hours whenever I topped up the long line I would drop back on the short meat line, which would either produce a skimmer or a carp. However with 2 hours to go of the 5.5hr match, I was starting to struggle. The skimmers on the pole line seemed to be getting smaller, although I did have a 3lb carp on double maggot and my short line seemed to have died.

 

One bit of advice I had received was to fish the method over the 14.5m pole line, because you can catch quicker than the pole and it combats the tow. Because there wasn’t much tow, I had been reluctant to fish the method, but needs must. So a full cup of pellet/groundbait was deposited and 10mins later I cast out the method and was soon attached to a carp and then a few bigger skimmers. This was the pattern for the remaining 2hrs, catch a few decent skimmers, before the smaller fish moved in, cup in more pellet and groundbait before switching to the short line. I did hook 2 more carp on the method, one which straighten the hook, so I think it was foul hooked and the other tore off, before it hit the clip that I had forgotten about from my previous trip, breaking me off – doh!

 

The short line produced one more carp, plus a couple more skimmers, before I finished with a couple of decent skimmers on the feeder. All the fish on the method came to double or triple dead maggot, but I never had a bite on mini boilies.

 

Overall an enjoyable day, 3 lost carp due to rig failure probably cost me some section money. The angler to my right finished with about 30lb, whilst Pete on my left had a decent left hand margin and managed 2 lumps late on to beat me. Not having a proper margin probably didn’t help, but it transpired I wasn’t going to compete with pegs in the 60s.

 

I don’t have the full results yet, but I think I probably came about half way. I think 220lb won from the 60s.

14/09/13 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 71lb 2oz (8lb 5oz - silvers)
Catch - 11 Carp, 4 Perch, 3 Ide, 2 Roach
Weather - Warm & sunny
Match - Open - 1st out of 11

Sometimes you know you are going to win and occasionally it comes as a surprise. Today’s match definitely fell into the latter category.

11 had booked in including a couple of Acorn regulars who were mixing a lot of groundbait. Well it would be interesting to see whether their approach would work. I found myself on peg 11, which is now officially the peg I have fished the most at Lands End over the last 5 years (I felt the need to check).  Allan Oram was opposite on 13 and neither of us really fancied this end of the lake, because it hasn’t been the best recently and I wasn’t sure how best  to approach the swim.

Following Friday’s heavy rain and today’s bright sunny conditions, I didn’t think the skimmers would feed, so felt targeting carp would be the way to go.

Rigs for the day were:-
-          HB ratctatcher 1 > .14 > 16 B911 (fish by the island)
-          Shady Shallow > .17 > 18 B960 (hair rig pellet – long line)
-          Ackoo Powertrap 0.2g > .16 > 16 B911 (meat)
-          HB Shindig 0.2g > .14 >  16 B911 (soft pellet)

After feeding some meat down by the p10 pallet and pellet left & right down the track I started by the island, which was only a foot deep due to the water level still being low. However there was a few carp moving around, although I didn’t expect the fish to hang around for too long in such shallow water, so decided to start on caster and catch what I could. After depositing a ½ cup of caster the carp moved onto it straight away, but when the float buried it was a perch. Another followed, before landing a small carp and then a big ide.

I preserved with the island, but it was really slow going, the carp still didn’t want to settle and there wasn’t too many silvers showing. A switch to the pallet produced a couple of perch and another big ide on 8mm meat.

In the meantime I kept firing 6s to the point of the island and there was plenty of tails waving at me. A switch to the long line pellet rig produced a carp straight away, but these carp are really cute and I couldn’t get another. In fact all match I had fish showing by the island. I tried toss potting caster, cupping caster, toss potting pellet, cupping pellet, but I couldn’t get any consistency, which was very frustrating.

A quick look down the track on soft pellet didn’t produce, which just left the p10 pallet. Talk around the lake suggesting it was fishing hard, although those on the other bank seemed to be catching best.

With 2hrs 15mins to go I had 4 carp, plus my silvers, but another look down by the pallet produced 4 carp in 4 put ins, losing a 5^th which felt like it foul hooked, but I couldn’t get another bite. A switch back to the island resulted in 2 lost carp, then another lost carp from the pallet, followed by another from the island when I switched back. 5 lost carp in 45mins and I thought I blown my chances of any pick up. Alan in the meantime had started to catch on soft pellet and I was fairly sure he had caught me up.

Another switch back to the pallet produced another carp foul hooked in the tail, before landing 2 more with 5mins to spare, including a 9-10lber. By the all out, I was fully expecting to be hoping I had enough for 3^rd, because apparently p19 had been catching all match and p17 had caught well in the last 2 hours. Fortunately p17 hadn’t quite caught enough and p19 had lost quite a few, so it was surprise when it transpired I had won my 6^th match in the last 10 outings.

1^st 71- 2 – Ken Rayner – p11
2^nd 65-12 – Mark Walsh –p24
3^rd 64- 3 – Andy – p17
4^th 60- 4 – Dan – p19
5^th 54-11 – Allan Oram – p13
6^th 47-7 – Gabriel – p21

Silvers
1^st 14-10 – Nigel Bartlett – p15
2^nd 8- 5 – Ken Rayner – p11

07/09/13 - Lands End - Speci

Weight - 64lb 4oz (6lb 10oz - silvers)
Catch - 10 Carp, 2 Skimmers, 2 Perch, 1 Tench, 1 Roach
Weather - Sunshine & showers
Match - Open - 3rd out of 11

I had planned to fish at Sedges today (Sunday), but I had a gentle reminder from Sue that it is our wedding anniversary – 13^th years – where does the time go? So I thought it best to stay home.

There was 11 of us on Speci, which included a couple of Acorn rejects. As most of us know Acorns has closed Paddocks Lake until the end of September, following some fish deaths. They were told to close for a week, but credit where credit is due they made the decision to close for a month. They have also banned meat with immediate effect and it will be interesting to see whether they cut back on the number of matches in the future. Speaking to Mike before the draw he reckons it takes 8 years for a lake to properly settle and he said in the early years he lost a lot fish. It also proves the point that over stocking a lake only has short term benefits and some angler’s obsession with huge weights needs to be tempted for the welfare of the fish.

Following a warm week, Thursday saw a drop in temperature and the first indication that autumn is on its way. P33 was my home for the day, with Mark Walsh on p34, Jamie Dyte opposite on p32 and Tom Mangnall on p31. I don’t actually like 33, because it’s the same depth all over the peg, with no shelf to fish on to. Even with the water level being down I still felt the peg would be too deep to catch properly. At least my rigs would do for all over the peg, 1 for meat and the other for hair rigged pellet. A shallow rig completed the set up for the day.

On the all in, the sun was shining, but the majority of my peg was in the shade. Following the cool overnight temperature, I decided to start on the deck, feeding meat down the left hand bank and 6s by the aerator. After an hour I had 4 carp, 3 on meat and the other on 6mm pellet, but the fishing was slow.

As the sun came round more of my peg was bathed in sunshine and a few fish were starting to show shallow by the aerator. So I tried the shallow rig for 15mins, however without success. Rather than persist trying to catch shallow, I decided to focus catching on the deck. I also binned feeding meat along the end bank, changing to pellet, simply to make it easier to switch between swims.

By continually feeding 6s via a large toss pot, I started to get indication by the aerator, but actually hooking the buggers in the mouth was proving frustrating with 4 lost fish on the bounce, before landing one hooked in the mouth.

Unfortunately a heavy rain shower meant no bites for a while. I persevered regularly feeding 6s via a toss pot, with the occasionally cup of pellet when I needed to rest the swim and the fish came back. Foul hooking was still a problem and the fish just didn’t settle. The strange thing was the fish were being foul hooked on the deck and those hooked properly were in the top lip, so I’m sure the 0.2g rig was right. To be fair everyone seemed to be struggling with foul hookers.

Mark didn’t fish longer than 6m, so there was a lot of fish by the island, which benefited Tom on 31 and Andy Hembrow on p36 who both caught the majority of their fish shallow by the island. On the all out Tom & Andy would contest 1^st & 2^nd, but 3^rd place was very much up for grabs and fortunately I managed to sneak it with my 9^th pick up in the last 10 matches.

1^st 107- 8 – Tom Mangnall – p31
2^nd 96- 2 – Andy Hembrow – p36
3^rd 64- 4 – Ken Rayner – p33
4^th 59-14 – Jamie Dyte – p32
5^th 56- 6 – Dave Wescott – p29
6^th 56- 4 – Mark Walsh – p34 

Silvers

1^st 20- 2 – Nigel Bartlett – p40

2^nd 17- 6 – Mark Walsh – p34

Bristol Avon-Upper Reybridge

Weight - 7lb 10oz
Catch - 24 Roach, 8 Chub, 4 Perch, 3 Bleak, 1 Pike
Weather - Warm & sunny. Cool start
Match - Club - 1st out of 13

Well today was my first river match for nearly 3 years. I actually like the river although prefer fishing the faster, shallower stretches, which is the complete opposite of the Upper Reybridge being slow and deep, before it goes over the weir into Lacock.

I was in the last 8 our clubs knockout, which was the only reason I decided to fish. So I dug out the river hooks and rigs, as well as lightening up my kit, because the walk to this stretch of river is quite arduous. Fortunately Andy Bradley was on hand with his Range Rover to transport people’s kit over the worst of the terrain. Once at the river the ground was actually quite flat.

The river itself was clear with no flow and combined with the bright conditions I thought 5lb would be a good weight. I drew towards the end of the straight and was pleased I brought my platform, which was covered in thick cobwebs when I retrieved it from the shed.  I could either sit 2ft above the water, which wouldn’t be ideal on a clear river or sit the cattle drink & soft mud.

 

Plumbing up revealed 14ft of water, so I set up a Drennan carbo 1.5g > .08 > 18 B520 at 14m, but even fishing the middle of the river, there was hardly any flow and I could have got away with a 1g float, but expected bleak to be a problem. I also set up a rig 0.75g to fish next to the lily pads with chopped worm and finally an insert waggler to fish maggot/caster along the far bank.

 

I had forgotten how expensive fishing a river can be, with 2kg of groundbait, caster, maggot, hemp and worms. Anyway on the all in 9 balls of groundbait (Match Blend 1kg: River 0.5kg: Black Lake 0.5kg) with a small handful of hemp and caster went in at 14m. First put in I had a roach, which dropped off, however over the next 2hrs I had 24 fish, mostly roach, either on maggot or caster. It was hardly hectic and I’m sure I could have caught quicker if I wasn’t so rusty fishing this way, but I did get it sorted and the 2^nd hour was better than the first.

 

The swim was slowing so switched to the waggler where I had been feeding hemp & caster from the start. First cast I picked up the catapult and had the rod pulled round and a chublet took the maggot. A few more chublets & roach followed before the swim slowed. A further switch to the lilies produced a small perch, then a 10ozer, followed by a small jack pike of 3oz.

 

The last 2hrs was a bit of a struggle. I topped up my 14m line, but never had another bite. I even tried cupping 3 balls of groundbait further down river, but again no bites.

 

The waggler only produced the odd fish and I lost a decent fish on worm by the lilies when it wrapped me round some underwater obstruction. I didn’t have another fish in the last 40mins and was glad I suggested a 5.5hr match instead of 6, as was everyone else.

 

I actually quite enjoyed the match and a different challenge, but this stretch of river is a pig to access. No doubt with a little more colour and flow a very decent weight would be possible.

 

1^st 7-10 – Ken Rayner – p10

2^nd 5-10 – Andy Bradley – p3

3^rd 5- 5 – Nick Pople – p5

4^th 3-12 – Joe Thompson – p1

5^th 3- 9 – Don Smith – p13

6^th 3- 4 – Marcus Hacker – p12