27/10/13 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 28lb 8oz (19lb 12oz - silvers)
Catch - 18 Perch, 7 Skimmers, 3 Roach, 2 Tench, 3 Carp
Weather - Showery and windy
Match - Avon Angling Open - 1st silvers on match (4th silvers overall)

Today had originally been booked for a MFS match, however unless the match is at Viaduct, getting a decent number of anglers to commit is difficult, because there isn’t a high concentration of MFS anglers in the South West, with us being spread around from Bristol, down to Yeovil and across to Bournemouth. So rather than lose the date it proved ideal for as a practice match for the Winter League starting in 2 weeks.

A bit of cock up at the draw on my part, as I put 23 pegs in the bucket instead of 22. I should have double checked the list, but never mind. The peg not drawn was 21 and Trigger drew 19, who doesn’t need to any help to frame at the moment, but gifting him a space peg meant he was favourite to win.

Fabio drew 24 for me, leaving yesterday’s winning p7 for himself. The last couple of times on 24 it’s been Ok, but I wasn’t that confident today, since the bulk of the fish seemed to be in the central area of the lake. For the second match running Keith Fielder was opposite on p1 and Clive Feddery to my left on p22.

I set up a couple rigs to cover both carp and silvers, but only caught on 2.
- HB billybob 0.1g - > .14 > 16 B911, later changed down to .12 > 16 B911 (tight to the end bank)
- HB chump 0.4g > .12 > 18 silverfish pellet

With storm St Jude on its way, we were quite fortunate the wind was blowing from behind, which meant the trees acted as a wind break and we could all fish the pole sensibly.

On the all in caster was deposited at 6m to my left at an angle, micros & 4s at 14 at the bottom of the shelf and then 4s tight in to the bank at 14m. First drop in on pellet against the end bank resulted in a carp, but it was a loner and I couldn’t get a proper bite other than from little fish nipping at the pellet.

So after 30mins and only 1 carp, it was time to see whether I could catch any silvers. The decision was made easier by Keith who wasn’t fishing long against the end bank, which meant any carp weren’t under any pressure to come my side. So I started to feed caster against the end bank, which resulted in a run of perch on double caster ranging from 4oz up to 1½lb, before that line died. Since there wasn’t any carp about I also switched down to a .12 bottom which brought a few more bites.

I had kept the 6m line topped up with caster and eventually caught a decent skimmer, then a tench on double dead maggot, but it was slow going. It was then just a case of rotating swims, because I couldn’t catch more than 2 fish before the swim died.

With just over 2hrs to go, my swims seemed to have died.  Fishing towards p23 pallet only produced 1 little perch, a few smallish fish came from 6m and a few more perch from the end bank. The pellet line was the surprise, since I was expecting a few fish, but only had a small carp and a roach.

It was time to try something different so a cup of caster with some micros was deposited at 13m in open water. Whilst that settled I had a decent tench from my pellet line, plus a big perch from 6m. Initially when I went over the dumped caster I had a roach, so left it for another 10mins, when I had a proper skimmer, quickly followed by 2 one pounders.

After the slow start I was gradually putting together a decent net of silvers. By continuing to rotate swims, a couple more perch & skimmers were put in the net. In the end I nearly ran of caster, as I fed 2pts to keep my swims.

Clive who had been targeting the silvers, packed up early and the only other person to have caught any of silvers was Martin McMahon on p11. Fabio tried to wind me saying he had a load, but I knew it wasn’t true, because I overheard him shouting to Trigger at the end of the match about the lack of silvers showing. However, at least I didn’t go 9lb over my net limit, dropping me from 3^rd to 5^th on the lake!

Martin’s silvers weighed 14-11, which meant I picked up the silvers for Match Lake. Trigger made full use of the extra room romping home to win. Allan Oram won Speci Lake with 135-6 from p34, whilst Mike West won the speci lake silvers with 36-8 of mostly perch on caster. With the colour starting to drop out, those perch are definitely on the munch.

1^st 177- 9 – Craig Edmonds – p19
2^nd 135- 6 – Allan Oram – p34
3^rd 112- 5 – Tony Rixon – p17
4^th 101-11 – Tom Mangnall – p13
5^th 98- 4 – Mike Duckett – p3
6^th 94- 3 – Phil Harding – p6

Silvers
1^st 36- 8 – Mike West – p39
2^nd 27- 8 – Kev Molton – p36
3^rd 24- 0 – Allan Oram – p34
4^th 19-12 – Ken Rayner – p24

26/10/13 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 51lb 14oz
Catch - 14 Carp, 6 Roach, 5 Skimmers, 5 Perch 
Weather - Cloudy and windy
Match - Open - 4th out of 10

10 for todays match and we were on Match Lake. There was a few unfamiliar faces, plus one I recognised from Jamie Riches blog, but never met, Martin Heard. I introduced myself and he was relieved that I recognised him from the blog rather than anywhere else!

Peg 13 was my home for the day, which used to be one of my favourite pegs, but it hasn’t been great so far this year and the smaller stamp of carp seem to have taken up residency. For company Keith Fielder was opposite on p11 and Dave Wescott on p15.

There was a few fish showing themselves along the end bank, so hopeful of a few a fish. I also hoped to be sheltered from the worse of the forecast strong winds, however it was blowing directly from behind through the gap in the trees, which was a bit drafty on the back of my neck.

On the all in pellet (4s & micros) was feed at 6m in front and at angle to my right, 4s along the end bank and 14m towards the island. Starting down the end bank, toss potting 4s with either a 4 or 6mm expander I had a 3 carp after 45mins, but it was slowing going. A lot of rain fell overnight and wondered whether that was having effect, as the fish weren’t really feeding and soon dropped back into p12.

My 5m line only produced a couple of skimmers and a small carp, whilst my long line only produced a skimmer. So I was going nowhere fast. I had started to feed caster and corn by the p14 pallet, which produced a couple perch on double caster, but nothing on corn.

By the half way point , there was a number of carp moving by the island. Initially I had decided not to fish here since its 17m away, but felt I had no choice, because I couldn’t catch anywhere else and the wind was manageable. Plus, Rod on p17 and Dave on p15 where both catching from the island. I managed 7 either on 4 & 6mm expander, before they backed off again.

Another look on the long line, resulted in a carp which I lost at the net as the hook pulled. This was 2^nd lose at the net and hoped it wouldn’t prove costly.

I kept the caster and corn going in down by the p14 pallet and spotted a swirl, so went in with corn. Not a bite. Double caster produced another perch, which was a bit frustrating. However, I kept feeding catching 2 carp on double caster, losing a 3^rd 5mins from the end, when my pole was jolted by the wind.

Come the weigh in, it became obvious any one of the lost 3 fish  would have put me in the frame, but it wasn’t to be today.

1^st 106- 0 – Martin Heard – p7
2^nd 78- 3 – Rod Wootton – p17
3^rd 52-15 – Eric Fouracre – p1
4^th 51-14 – Ken Rayner – p13
5^th 40- 0 – Dave Wescott – p15
6^th 39- 6 – Ray White – p19

Silvers
1^st 17- 8 – Ray Witcombe – p21
2^nd 16- 3 – Eric Fouracre – p1

20/10/13 - Harescombe - Match Lake

Weight - 47lb 11oz
Catch - 35 F1s, 6 Carp, 6 Skimmers, 3 Roach
Weather - Mostly cloudy with showers & windy
Match - Glenfall V Abbotswood - 3rd out of 16

A completely new venue for me, in this head to head match between my club Glenfall and Abbotswood. Originally I wasn’t booked in to fish, but the week before realized there wasn’t any match being run, due to the Viaduct silvers league. Fortunately someone dropped out so I was in.

 

I had already seen some reports on the venue, which is 5mins off the motorway tucked away in the Cotswold near Gloucester and some research revealed it was full of F1s, small carp up to 3lb and skimmers, although I found out on the day there was also roach, chub, perch and gudgeon. The last time I fished Harescombe was 6 years ago, when I visited one of the other 3 lakes and the match lake hadn’t even been dug. The lake is a purpose built 30 peg match venue, with a single thin island running its full length 13m from the bank, in an attempt to create a fishery without features to make it as fair as possible. Unfortunately 6 of the pegs have been lost to a landslide, but speaking to the fishery manager, they identified 3 natural springs further up the hill, which have now been re-directed, which should stop any further movement. The plan is to re-claim the 6 pegs.

  
 

With the southerly wind blowing up the lake, I fancied a draw towards that end and was happy enough with peg 11, which was a very short walk from the car. The issue today would be the wind, which was forecast to gust up to 30mph, although at times the lake just went flat calm, before the next gust of wind came through. Plumbing up revealed a narrow 2.5ft deep shelf by the island and 5ft down the middle.

 

Rigs for the day:-

- HB chump 0.3g > .12 > 18 silverfish pellet (fish on top of far shelf)

- Polar Ice (wire stem) 4x18 > .12 > 18 silverfish pellet (down the track)

- HB ratcatcher 2 > .12 > 18 B911 (lasso 6mm pellet shallow)

 

I also set up a feeder rod just in case but never used it. There aren’t many rules, but one I thought a bit odd was groundbait can only be introduced via a feeder, so no cupping or throwing groundbait. Oh well balling it was out of the question then. Instead I cupped in micros, 4s and a bit of corn on top the far shelf and at the bottom of the far shelf. I also started throwing 4s & corn short for later.

 

Not sure what to expect I started by the island with double dead maggot and soon had a 1oz roach. Next put in the maggot was replaced with a 4mm expander and I soon had an F1, followed by another 6 by the end of the first hour. However the wind was proving to be a pain and I was missing bites due to fishing over depth in an attempt to get some sort of presentation.

 

By the end of that hour the fish seemed to have drifted away, although catching the far bank shrubbery a couple of times didn’t help, smashing 2 floats in quick succession. I did mention it to the fishery manager, who had already raised the problem with the owner.

 

I had hoped that catching down the track would be my banker line, but it was a struggle. I could see Barry on p14 catching well using worm over caster and Craig opposite him was also catching well, whilst all I could muster  were small skimmers, roach and the odd small F1. I stuck at it thinking the swim would build, but it just didn’t feel right, so started pinging 6s towards the island in the hope of catching shallow.

 

The shallow rig was only set up as an after thought, because the winner a week or so ago had a huge weight on the method, but with the recent rain I wasn’t sure it would work. Fortunately it did.

 

This venue is a fish race and there were a number of people of catching and any chance of a pick up was looking remote. The first 30-45mins shallow proved difficult, as I again caught the island vegetation, above and below the water line! Also I tried using the lasso as a hair rig for the first time, I definitely see the advantages, but need a little practice to speed up the process as it’s a little fiddly. Eventually I got it sorted catching F1s up to 1.5lb and 6 carp up to 2.5lb. The fish would drift in and out of the peg, but by continually lifting/dropping and slowly dragging the rig around I kept the fish coming.

 

Occasionally I had to rest the swim, either fishing my 5m line, which only yielded a couple of small skimmers or the margin fed with dead maggot & micros only produced a small F1. During the last hour the fish seemed to have disappeared a together, so I started to employ a tactic I rarely use, which was slapping the water and bugger me if the elastic get ripped out of the pole. But again the fish just kept drifting. With 10mins to go another quick look down the margin produced nothing, but the rest did the far line some good as 2 decent F1s and a 2lb carp went into the net in the last 5mins to nick 3^rd place.

 

In hindsight I probably overfed my swims down the track and I should have switched shallow a little sooner, but in all fairness I doubt I would have caught up Barry & Craig, who both got off to a good starts.

 

It’s a perfect match venue and I would definitely go back. As you can see the weights were quite close and normally the weights are better, but the wind made presentation difficult today.

 

1^st 89-12 - Barry Summers – p14 (Abbotswood)

2^nd 77-11 - Craig Davidge – p17 (Glenfall)

3^rd 47-14 - Ken Rayner – p11 (Glenfall)

4^th 46- 9 - Tom Moyle – p20 (Abbotswood)

5^th 45- 0 - Andy Lord – p8 (Glenfall)

6^th 43- 3 – Nick Jodrell – p15 (Glenfall)

 

Glenfall won with a combined (top 6) weight of 286- 5 to 253- 2.

19/10/13 - Todber Manor - Park Lake

Weight - 157lb 12oz
Catch - 60 Carp, 4 Roach
Weather - Sunshine & showers, becoming increasingly windy
Match - Open - 1st out of 15

Today’s match was organised by Fred Roberts and I enjoy fishing Park Lake because you always get a few bites. Unfortunately we didn’t have the whole lake, since pegs 1-11 were left out for pleasure anglers (that never turned up) and with 15 anglers at the draw, we all wanted p38, which I duly drew. Happy days! At least I would get a few bites, well I had proper red letter day, when most things went to plan.

 

A path has recently been laid, which made walking around the lake a lot easier and there was 1 or 2 jealous looks as I made my way to my peg.

 

The weather forecast was for sunshine and showers, with an increasingly strong wind blowing up the lake. As such decided to target the island initially toss potting meat and a little hemp whilst the wind was still light. This would also allow me to build up the right hand margin, which was fed with 4mm pellet and corn. I also set up a 6m line fed with meat.

 

Whilst I set up 4 rigs I only ended up catching on 2:-

-  4x8 > .16 > 16 B911, later changed to .14 > 18 B911

-  Ackoo carrat 0.3g > .16 > 16 B911 – 6m line

 

As I was setting up there was plenty of fish moving on the island, so didn’t see any point feeding a big pot of bait. Using a toss pot, I had a carp almost immediately. I found it best to fish as tight as possible to the far bank and after an hour had 11 carp. I had planned to only fish the far bank for an hour, but because I was still catching, decided to keep going and a further 12 carp came out over the next hour.

 

By now the wind was beginning to increase in strength and the far swim was starting to fade, which meant it was time to switch to the right hand margin. I had been feeding at the bottom of the shelf, expecting the bigger fish to prefer the deeper water, but it soon became apparent that wasn’t going to work and ended up fishing tight to the bank, toss potting 6s and corn, with corn being better than pellet on the hook.

 

The third hour proved difficult as I tried to work how best to catch with only 7 carp and 3 roach, although I didn’t think I was helped by someone feeding caster and quite a floaters ended up in my swim and there was 1 or 2 slurpers on the surface. The fourth hour was much better with 9 carp & 1 roach, including a couple of those surface feeding fish. However I did have to change rigs, as I lost the lot when the Garbolino 12-14 hollow elastic snapped just above the connector and I won’t be buying that brand of elastic again. I actually like how the elastic performs, however it simply doesn’t last as long as other hollows I’ve used. A new duplicate rig was set up, but this time with a lighter .14 bottom and 18 b911.

 

I was conscience that most of my fish were on the small side (2lbers) with only a few bigger fish up to 5lb. I could see Paul Homewood landing some better fish and I really needed my 6m meat line to work, which I kept regularly topped up. Moving into the fifth hour I had a further 5 carp from the right hand margin, plus 4 from the 6m line, where the fish were slightly bigger, although not coming regularly enough.

 

The final hour proved to be my best with a further 12 carp, 2 from the margin and 10 at 6m. I knew I had beaten the guys I could see and thought I had between 120-150lb, because I didn’t have any of the bigger fish.

 

The weigh in started at the other end. Chris Perry put 117-8 on the scales and I was confident of beating that, although I wasn't so confident of beating James Knights 135-11. The remainder of the weights were very close with a number of 90s and fortunately I had a little more than expected.

 

1^st 157-12 – Ken Rayner – p38

2^nd 135-11 – James Knight – p21

3^rd 117- 8 – Chris Perry – p12

4^th 104- 7 – Paul Homewood – p35

5^th 99- 5 – Nick Merry – p25

6^th 96- 8 – Mark Poppleton – p18

13/10/13 - Viaduct - Cary

Weight - 85lb 12oz (11lb 12oz - silvers)
Catch - 7 Carp, 14 Skimmers, 2 Perch, 1 Hybrid, 1 Roach
Weather - Rain, but light winds
Match - Wests Tackle Open - 7th out of 19 (1st - silvers)

When I originally booked into this match the weather forecast was for a cloudy day with light winds, but as the weekend got closer, rain was forecast. And it certainly rained.

 

Steve asked someone to draw him a peg, so Mark “what’s a bad peg” Poppleton steps up & pulls 2 pegs, allowing Steve to select 1, which turned out to be p85 and Mark ended up on p74.  See what I mean?

 

As for me p105 was my home for the day. Nick Merry came 4^th from yesterdays open, so at least there was a few fish around. With the cooling weather I wasn’t entirely sure how to approach today and in the end decided to keep the groundbait & meat in the carryall, concentrating on feeding pellet & corn. The intention was to catch carp and maybe a few skimmers if the carp didn’t feed. As such I set 3 rigs to fish open water, but only ended up catching on 2.

- Ackoo Carrat 0.3g > .16 > 16 B911 (open water)

- HB Chump 0.3g > .14 > 16 B911(open water)

- HB AK47 0.2g > .17 > 16 (margin)

 

On the all in I potted in 3mm krill pellet & soften 4s at 13m to my right and 6s & corn 13m to my left. Whilst I let that settle I cast out the lead & meat, but got bored after 10mins, so switched to the pole. The right hand swim was fizzing a little, whilst the left hand swim wasn’t. Corn produced a couple of knocks, but 6mm expander produced the fish.

 

I kept feeding pellet & corn by catapult into the left hand swim, whilst toss potting 4s & corn into the right hand swim. After 2hrs it was the right hand swim that produced 5 carp and a number of skimmers, whilst the left hand swim only produced a handful of small skimmers.

 

So far the rain had stayed away and from those I could see was doing Ok, however as soon as the rain started bites dried up. A switch to the light rig produced a few more skimmers on 4mm expander, but I was reluctant to drop to a .12 bottom, in case a carp turned up.

 

Before I knew it there was only 2hrs left. Mark was catching a few, but also losing a few to the trailing branches of the willow tree, Paul on 77 was catching on the waggler and Steve on 85 was catching well down his margin. As for my section (p94-p109), feedback suggested most were struggling, so still all to play for. I had been feeding pellet & corn into the left hand margin from the start, but with no bites decided to make something happen.

 

A full pot of pellet and corn was deposited into the right hand 13m swim and another pot went into the left hand margin. I had also brought some dead maggot and last weeks unused caster, which were potted into the right hand margin with some corn.

 

The open water swims didn’t produce any further fish, despite some fizzing, which just left the margins. Fishing worm I had 2 carp, a big skimmer and a perch from the left hand margin. A few more silvers came from the right hand margin and I did hook 2 more carp, but lost both. The first was a proper lad, which came in easily enough, but as soon as I started to get its head up, it decided it was time to visit the centre of the lake. The second was about 8-9lb, but the hook pulled at the net.

 

By the all out, I wished I had more time as I felt there was a few more fish to catch. I knew I hadn’t framed, but was hopeful of at least picking up in section, but Alan on p94 had 11 carp, which beat me, so it was a pleasant surprise my accidentally on purpose silvers was enough to take the silvers money to keep the good form going.

 

1^st 260-11 – Steve Ince – p85

2^nd 149- 1 – Paul Westlake – p77

3^rd 122- 8 – Mark Poppleton – p74

4^th 98-12 – Nicholas Ince – p86

5^th 93- 4 – Alan Aslett – p94

6^th 89- 7 – Tom Ince – p80

 

Silvers

1^st 11-12 – Ken Rayner – p105

06/10/13 - Fishponds

Weight - 115lb 6oz
Catch - 19 Carp, 2 Roach
Weather - Warm & sunny. Cooling breeze in the afternoon
Match - Club - 2nd out of 11

This match was originally scheduled for Walters Lake at Ridgeway fishery, but due to a lack of numbers was switched to our water, which I wasn’t too disappointed about. Transpired a few members were fishing the first round of the Sedges series.

Firstly an apology to Andy Bradley. During my blog about last month’s trip to the river, I described his car as a Range Rover, rather than a Land Rover Discovery. Obviously didn’t appreciate the upgrade!

11 of us were spread around the lake and I found myself on p22, which is one of my favourites. Nothing complicated today, so 4 rigs set up:-
- HB dweezil 0.3g > .17 > 16 B960 (hair rigged 8mm pellet)
- HB AK47 0.2g > .19 > 14 carp feeder (hair rig pellet/corn – margin)
- HB redneck 0.2g > 19 > 12 carp feeder (paste – margin)
- HB shady shallow > .17 > 16 B960 (shallow pellet)

Because I wasn’t too sure how the lake would fish, I set up 2 lines, left & right at 11m at the bottom of the shelf. The left hand swim was fed with mostly 8s and a few 6s, whilst the right hand swim was fed with more 6s and corn. Due to the overhanging reeds, I could only fish the right hand margin towards the p23 platform, which was fed with pellet.

During the first hour I had 8 carp from the left hand swim, although they were only averaging 4-5lb instead of the normal 7lb, but at least I was catching. By rotating left & right I was up to 17 carp just after 3hrs.

Unfortunately the wind picked up and my rig was struggling to cope in the 6ft deep swim. In hindsight I should have set up a heavier rig, however I decided to try paste and I expected the margin to produce. The paste only produced a couple knocks, whilst in the margin I hooked 4 carp, 2 of which bust me under the platform, the hook pulled out of a 3^rd and the one fish I did land was 8-9lb.

Corn in the deep water produced 2 roach, so that wasn’t tried again and I stuck with 8mm pellet. Fortunately, everyone except for Joe opposite were struggling, although I was aware Andy Bradley had caught a few, as had Tim. In the last 15mins the wind dropped and I caught 2 more carp on the deep water pellet rig, including my biggest of the day at 12-1. Must admit I was kicking myself for not setting up a heavier pellet rig.

Come the weigh in Tim was admitting to 22 carp, whilst Andy also had 19, so the weigh in was going to be interesting. As expected Tim won, Andy weighed 114-12 and I honestly didn’t think I had that, because I thought I had too many small fish. Fortunately my biggest fish just about swung it beating Andy by 10oz. Not much was said at the weigh-in about that!

1^st 130- 7 – Tim Allen – p6
2^nd 115- 6 – Ken Rayner – p22
3^rd 114-12 – Andy Bradley – p17
4^th 88-14 – Joe Thompson – p4
5^th 75-14 – Nick Pople – p14
6^th 58-11 – Don Smith – p1

05/10/13 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 89lb 9oz (5lb 2oz - silvers)
Catch - 17 Carp, 4 Skimmers, 4 Roach, 1 F1, 1 Perch
Weather - Warm & sunny - slight breeze
Match - Open - 2nd out of 7

With Acorns now re-opened, the numbers for this match was down slightly, so the 7 of us had plenty of space on Match Lake. With p19 not in, I was happy to draw 18, since a few carp have shown here recently. For company Keith Fielder was on p15, Nigel Bartlett on p20 and Mike West opposite on p5.

 

No silvers rigs today and the caster/maggot brought from Tony’s yesterday stayed on the bag. Based on previous matches, the fish have preferred to stay tight to the island in the shallow water, but have been difficult to catch down the track. I was hoping following some heavy rain over the last few days it would force the fish down and easier to catch down the middle.

 

Rigs for the day were as follows:-

- 4x8 > .15 > 16 B911 – tight to the island

- HB shindig 0.2g > .14 > 16 B911 (pellet/corn – down the track)

- Ackoo carrat 0.3g > .16 > 16 B911 (meat down the track)

 

With so much space, it would have been easy to over complicate matters, so I tried to keep it as simple as possible. Meat was feed by the tree to my right, 3mm krill pellet/corn 14m to my right towards the gap and 6s/corn 14.5m to my left at the bottom of the shelf.

 

I decided against cupping in a big pot of bait by the island, because it produces loads of tails waving at you, but no proper bites. So instead I toss potted some meat/hemp with 8mm meat on the hook and a few minutes later I was attached to my first carp. However these carp are cute and soon wised up. I managed 2 more by the end of the first hour, however Tom Mangnall on p1 was catching loads according to Mike, so it looked like we were all fishing for 2^nd already, although the fish at that end tend be much smaller.

 

The middle part of match proved really frustrating. I occasionally went back to the island, but the fish just won’t settle, which meant I needed my down the track swims to work. I kept catapulting 6s into my left hand swim, but was pestered by small roach, either on pellet or corn. The right hand swim produced more bites, with a few small skimmers and a F1. Because the breeze had picked a little I set up a HB chump 0.3g > .12 > 18 silverfish pellet in the hope of catching a few more skimmers and F1s, since the carp appeared to have stopped feeding. So it was no surprise that I caught a carp, but very few silvers. I actually hooked 3 more carp down the track but lost all 3, I suspect they were foul hooked. My meat line was also proving fruitless.

 

I had been feeding some meat into the right margin and did hook a carp, which promptly snagged me in a trailing branch, so I decided not to bother trying here again. The left hand margin was shallower, but did produce another carp.

 

With 90mins to go I only had 5 carp in the net and any chance of framing was rapidly disappearing, in fact I was probably close to last. Keith was catching on hard 6s down the track, Mike had a few big skimmers and a couple carp. Mike Duckett had also started catching following a slow start and Tom had slowed down, but was still leading.

 

With the sun dropping a little, the sun wasn’t shining quite as strongly against the island, so I decided to try shallow again, toss potting meat & hemp I started to catch consistently for the next hour. All of a sudden I was back in the race, including a few 7/8lbers. I had intended on fishing to the p17 pallet, but because I kept catching I never got around to it. My left hand pellet swim produced 1 lost carp. My meat line finally produced a decent carp towards the end, plus a big skimmer. So 12 carp for probably 60lb in the last 90mins and needless to say I was quite happy, wishing they had turned up earlier.

 

Tom was first to weigh his 22 carp and commented he couldn’t catch on the deck and suffered a bad middle period of the match, before starting to catch again towards the end. According Mike West, Mike Duckett and caught constantly for the last 3 hours, however he had lost a few. I was sure I had beaten Keith, so it was case of whether I had enough to beat Tom. My first net which was all the fish I caught in the last hour weighed 42lb, plus my other net meant I didn’t quite catch up Tom.

 

1^st 95- 1 – Tom Mangnall – p1

2^nd 89- 9 – Ken Rayner – p18

3^rd 63- 0 – Keith Fielder – p15

4^th 59- 8 – Mike West – p5

5^th 56- 9 – Mike Duckett – p11

6^th 39- 8 – Dave Wescott – p22

 

Silvers

1^st 23- 2 – Nigel Bartlett – p20

2^nd 14- 8 – Mike West – p5