29/12/13 - Todber - Park Lake

Weight - 36lb 7oz
Catch - 15 Carp, 7 Roach, 2 Skimmers, 1 Perch
Weather - Hard overnight frost. Bright & sunny day
Match - Open - 13th out of 24

The weather forecast was for a bright day with light winds, however the hard frost was a bit of a surprise. I travelled down with Tim Ford which made a pleasant change from driving down sole and the roads were a little slippery in parts with the temperature gauge reading -5c in some more sheltered parts. The question was would the lake be frozen. Unfortunately it was, but fortunately it was only thin.

24 were booked in and I was more than happy to draw p5, which was also ice free – bonus. Everyone was a little unsure how it would fish particularly since yesterday’s club match was won with only 10lb (5 carp).

Plumbing up my peg it was deeper to my right close in, swallowing up towards the far bank. I plumbed up by a clump of sedges on the far bank, but didn’t really fancy the fish to feed in the shallow water. Instead I started in the deeper water, where I fed micros. I expected a slow start, but after 15mins I had to switch from 4mm expander to maggot to get my first fish a small roach. A further 15mins later I managed by first carp, but I was already falling behind everyone around me, except for Martin Lenaghan on p7.

It was a real surprise I couldn’t catch down the track, whilst those around me were catching across in the shallower water despite the heavy frost. So I had no choice but to switch across and I was soon catching on double maggot, feeding micros and maggot. Action was unfortunately short lived.

For most of the match it was a case of rotating swims, setting up new swims to try and find some feeding fish, but the only place I could catch any number was tight across by the clump of sedges.

So a disappointing day. Martin McMahon and Steve Nadin on pegs 2 & 3, both caught more & bigger fish than me, Martin Lenaghan only had 1oz less than me, before the weights started to improve again. Dave Romain on p38 got to flyer catching well by the island, but caught very little fishing down the right hand margin, which wasn’t far from my far line swim. Speaking to the anglers who caught it seems most caught on maggot over micros and looking at the results sheet it just seems the carp were shoaled up in certain areas, but that’s winter fishing!

Happy new year to everyone and thank you for reading my blog.

1^st 98-7 – Phil Harding – p37
2^nd 94- 2 – Steve Nadin – p3
3^rd 81- 5 – Tony Rixon – p35
4^th 80-10 – Nick Merry – p11
5^th 74-15 – Mike Nicholls – p10
6^th 69-13 – Fred Roberts – p34

 

28/12/13 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 18lb 12oz (9lb 9oz - silvers)
Catch - 11 Perch, 1 Golden Tench, 1 Skimmer, 2 Carp
Weather - Frosty start and sunny all day
Match - Open - 1st out of 7

We can’t seem to win with the weather at the moment. It’s either blowing hard and raining or freezing cold. This morning the wind & rain was replaced by a frosty start. With only 7 of us today I wasn’t too worried were I drew, because the fish would soon disappear into the quiet areas of the lake.

I ended up on p13, which has shown some recent form and for company Jim Jenner was on p11 and Rod Wootton on p15. I had hoped to catch on pellet, but recently caster seemed to be better, so decided set up swims to cover both options. Caster was fed by p14 pallet and down the left hand margin, whilst micros & a few 4s were fed in open water by the aerator and 14m towards the island.

 

Rigs for the day were:-

- HB frostie 0.2g >.10 > 18 silverfish pellet (left hand margin)

- HB frostie 0.3g > .10 > 18 silverfish pellet (open water)

- Ackoo Carrat 0.3g > .12 > 16 B911 (p14 pallet)

 

Starting down the left hand margin I had a carp on double maggot, but that was the only bite after 30mins. I did try here later in the match, but the fish obviously didn’t want to be in the shallower water. Both the pellet swims only produced a few nibbles from roach.

 

The only place I could catch was on double caster by the p14 pallet, where I had all by perch up to 1¼lb. Rod in the meantime was catching skimmers on pellet, which was frustrating because I simply couldn’t get a bite.

 

A new swim fed with caster & dead maggot at the bottom of the left hand shelf only produced 1 carp. It was fishing hard, with 90 mins left everyone seemed to be struggling, with most of us having a couple of carp and a few silvers, so it was still wide open,  but I couldn’t get a bite from anywhere. Fortunately neither could anyone else.

 

With 30mins left, it was time to try by the aerator again, after feeding some micros and dead maggot. With 15mins left I had this golden tench on double dead maggot, followed by a skimmer 10mins later, which was very welcome. By the all out it wasn’t clear who won what. Fortunately my late fish sealed the win.

 

Failure of the match was Rod, who had been feeding in the deep water by the bush, but hadn’t fished it yet, until after the match when he had an 11lber first drop in. He wasn’t happy.

 

1^st 18-12 – Ken Rayner - p13

2^nd 16-10 – Eric Fouracre – p20

3^rd 15-15 – Tom Mangnall – p22

4^th 15- 6 – Rod Wootton – p15

5^th 12-14 - Andy Hembrow – p5

6^th 6- 9 – Jim Jenner – p11

 

Silvers

1^st 12-10 – Tom Mangnall – p22

2^nd 11- 2 – Rod Wootton – p15

3^rd 9- 9 – Ken Rayner – p13

22/12/13 - Lands End - Speci

This blog will be very short! Well it’s very difficult to write loads about catching 2 perch.

 

My drawing arm has really deserted me recently, with only 1 flyer in the last 15 matches, so I shouldn’t have been surprised when I opened up the ticket to see 25 staring back at me. This part of the lake has simply been awful recently, even when the lake didn’t fish well it was usually worth a few fish.

 

However, not today.  I tried soft pellet over micros and lost 1 decent fish after an hour. I eventually caught a perch down the left hand bank after 3.5hrs on maggot, but with just over an hour left I had enough and packed up early.

 

At least I had a few laughs with Paul Elmes (p40) & Nick Duckett (p39), because there wasn’t anything else to do. Kev Molton on p26 only had 1 skimmer, so this end of the lake is definitely one to avoid for the 3^rd round of the Winter League on 3^rd Jan.

 

Look on Tony’s blog for the results

21/12/13 - Todber Manor - Park Lake

Weight - 23lb 4oz
Catch - 12 F1, 8 Roach, 7 Skimmers, 3 Carp, 1 Rudd
Weather - Windy! and showers
Match - Todber Christmas Match - 15th out of 27

I was looking forward to getting plenty of bites for today’s match, however forecast heavy wind & rain was going to makes things difficult. In the end 27 turned up and I found myself on peg 29, which meant any chance of winning had already gone. Although I picked up a section from p28 last month, with the calibre of angler fishing today a decent draw really was needed, as the photo below shows.

 

For company I had Steve Denmead on p30 and an angler I don’t know on p27, so at least I had some space, however it was upwind so wasn’t sure whether I could take advantage. Only 2 pole rigs today, 1x fish the margin/far shelf and another to fish down the track. I also had a tiny pellet feeder in case the wind got too much.

 

Ideally I would have wanted to fish tight across, however there were loads of brambles, plus the wind meant it I could only fish 14m. Starting on double dead maggot over micros, I had my first fish, as a small roach after 15mins. A switch to 4mm expander produced a few F1s, but getting any presentation was difficult. If I could hold the float still for longer enough I would get a bite, so there was definitely feeding fish.

 

Trying the tiny pellet feeder, surprisingly only produced a small carp and 2 roach. Fishing down the track at 6m only produced 1 F1 and a few skimmers & roach. With 90mins left of the 5hr match the wind seemed to getting stronger and fishing across was no longer possible. I had been feeding down the margin towards p28 and so far only had bites from small fish, however I eventually had a carp on pellet, followed by a bigger fish 10mins later. Unfortunately I lost the next 2 carp, 1 of which was definitely foul hooked.

 

Overall a disappointing day, which was badly affected by the weather. Well done to Des who made the most of an average draw.

 

1^st 53-15 – Des Shipp – p14

2^nd 48- 3 – Ben Bentley – p9

3^rd 46- 3 – Mark Harper – p5

4^th 44-12 – Faletto – p27

5^th 44- 4 – Addie Damon – p26

6^th 36-10 – Nick Chedzoy – p35

15/12/13 - Harescombe - Match Lake

Weight - 41lb 7oz
Catch - 32 F1s, 1 Carp
Weather - Very wet & windy
Match - Club - 3rd out of 10

The attitude of some people leaves you surprised and on this occasion stunned. 2 weeks ago a club member reversed into my car and drove off despite the attempts of other members who witnessed the event. The damage was only very minor and I assumed the driver didn’t feel the impact and didn’t see a 6ft 4in bloke waving their arms to attract his attention as he drove off. However after cleaning the car last week the damage was obvious, although probably inexpensive to repair, so I wasn’t too bothered. Fast forward to today I was just finishing my breakfast at the venue café, when the member walked in. Bearing in mind the damage was minor I was quite relaxed about, so I told the member he had hit my car. What happened next surprised everyone on the café. Before I could say anything else, he denied hitting me, it was my word against his, he was on private land so it didn’t count, and I was having a go at an old man. A couple of us tried to explain there were witnesses and the private land argument was irrelevant. However, said member got very agitated, saying I can go f*** myself and the club can throw him out of the club. I actually said very little during all this, but hoped to have a quiet chat after the match when he had calmed down. Unfortunately this didn’t happen, another member tried to have a chat to him on the bank explaining there was witnesses, but he has flatly refused to accept responsibility. The reaction was completely over the top to a very minor incident, and I was prepared not to take it any further. However, this is now a point of principle and I will let my insurers sort it out. Unfortunately the member refused to provide their insurance details, which just compounds the situation, but the cost of their excess, the potentially for losing their no claims discount and increases in next year’s renewal will cost more than an apology.

Back to the match, after the clubs visit in October we were keen to come back, because everyone had a few bites. Today was originally booked in for the Harescombe Christmas match, but clashed with another local match, so the owner asked us if we wanted to fish instead. Only 10 could make it, with a few late drop outs, but at last we would have plenty of space, but the weather looked like it would have a big impact with wind & rain forecast.

Speaking to the fishery manager suggested that maggot was the best bait and the corner pegs were best, particularly 29 & 30 which were at the sheltered end of the lake. I drew 18, which was on the far side, 3 pegs from the corner which Kev Millard drew and who would be very difficult to beat.

Only 2 rigs for today, an Ackoo carbon carrat 0.3g > .08 > 22 B911 to fish the far shelf and 4x18 polar ice for down the track, but I never had a bite on that. The nice thing about this lake is there is nothing bigger than 5lb in the lake, with most fish being F1s between 8oz & 2lb, so you can fish light without fear of being broken by a rouge munter.

Starting on the far bank toss potting maggot & micros I was soon catching, but presentation was difficult in the strong wind which was blowing straight down the lake, which meant plenty of lifting and dropping. The only annoying aspect was lost fish. I lost a few fish using the double 5 elastic, a switch to a single 5 resulted in a fewer loses, but took longer to land fish and still had a couple of hook pulls at the net. In the end I found it best to use a size 20 silverfish maggot hook, still with .08 bottom and 6-10 hollow.

I caught steadily all match, except for the 4^th hour when I spend time sorting out rigs (a lack of pre match prep) and disappearing fish. The last 45mins proved to be best with 7 fish all falling to a single red or bronze maggot. To keep in touch with the fish I had to keep moving back and forth along the far bank. An enjoyable day, except for the weather and I was thankful for my new Gore-Tex which was certainly tested.

As expected Kev won the match from the corner and Andy came 2^nd from a very sheltered end peg – I’m not bitter – lol. So 3^rd was the result, which I was happy enough with, but those earlier lost fish cost me 2^nd.

1^st 52- 9 – Kev Millard – p16
2^nd 44- 2 – Andy Lord – p24
3^rd 41- 7 – Ken Rayner – p18
4^th 38- 4 – Andy Bradley – p3
5^th 37- 4 – Dave Bradley – p29
6^th 20- 0 – Tim Allen – p30

14/12/13 - Bristol Avon - Barton Farm

Weight - 4lb 8oz
Catch - 69 Roach, 2 Perch, 3 Minnows
Weather - Chilly, foggy start. Increasingly cloudy & breezy

Something different for Saturday, instead of fishing Lands End, Mark suggested fishing the river at Barton Farm. Initially I said no, but Mark persuaded me with tales of big bags of roach.

 

So at 7.30 the kit was being wheeled down to the river. The early start was influenced by the weather with wind and rain being forecast for later in the afternoon, so avoiding that seemed like a good idea. Another relative mild week, but this morning was a little chilly, after the skies cleared following some overnight rain.

 

I really wanted to fish the rod & reel, instead of the pole, which meant a crowquill set at 10ft and a waggler to fish across in the hope of a few late chub.

 

After feeding 5balls of groundbait (with some added mole hill soil), with a pinch of caster, pinkie & hemp, I started on the crowquill, feeding a small ball of feed every 5^th fish. In the meantime I kept feeding maggot across the river, but the waggler only produced a few roach.

 

I certainly had plenty of fish, but mostly very small. I was not bothered since it was nice to get out on the river and dust of the rods. After nearly 4hrs fishing the wind was picking up and we decided to call it a day. Mark finished with a nice net of mostly pole caught roach and a couple of waggler caught pound chub, 10-7. I have no doubt a proper river angler would have caught much more, or if I used a pole, but I had a plenty of bites, just a shame I couldn’t catch anything bigger than 3oz.

08/12/13 - Lands End - Johns

Weight - 40lb 15oz (10lb 11oz - silvers)
Catch - 6 Carp, 25 Skimmers, 4 Crucians, 3 Perch, 2 Roach, 2 Rudd
Weather - Mild, mostly sunny with a light breeze
Match - Winter League - 7th out of 36 (2nd - section)

2^nd round of the Lands End Winter League and it was my turn for Johns (no.3) Lake. After the first rounds disappointment I was really hoping for a decent draw and any of the corners would do me. With only 2 tickets (p41 & p46) left in the bucket Tom Thick plucked 46, leaving me with 41. Result, happy with that, at least I would have a few bites – I hoped, particularly since there was a little more colour than expected in the water.

For company I had Tony Rixon on p42, who seemed to be enjoying the fact I was pegged next to me! Opposite was Pete Nurse (p70) and Gordon Canning s (p68). I wasn’t convinced I would catch too much fishing short, so focused on 2 swims, feeding 4s and some micros at the end of the spit and towards the aerator in open water. I also started feeding some caster into the right hand corner.

Starting on corn hoping for an early carp, but other than a few knocks had no proper bites, so a switch to my soft pellet rig (HB Chump 0.3g >.10 > 18 silverfish pellet) and soon started catching 4oz skimmers. The aerator swim seemed to be best by toss potting a few 4s and micros and since I wasn’t catching too many from the spit started pinging 4s over the top to draw some carp in.

After 3hrs I was still catching mostly skimmers, plus a couple crucians and a 2lb perch all on 4mm expander or a JPZ. I lost 2 decent fish, the first I’m not sure where it was hooked, but the hook pulled half way back, but the 2^nd fish was definitely a carp hooked in the rear which eventually snapped me as it tried to bury itself into the left hand weed bed. The lack of carp was a little concerning and I was thinking about sticking with the silvers, but both my far lines were fading. A look in front of the spit only produced a couple of small fish and fishing into the corner resulted in a small perch.

As far as the section was concerned, everyone seemed to have caught a couple of carp, so it was likely I was last in section, although my silvers was probably top. The next hour was quiet, but noticed a few carp starting to move around in amongst the bushes along the right hand bank. So far I had ignored feeding here because underwater branches meant it’s a bit of a tackle graveyard, however since the silvers had slowed I felt I had no choice but to give it a go.

I kept feeding caster and some dead maggot into the right hand corner, plus 4s & micros at 13m along the end bank, where I hoped was a clear a spot, although I lost 2 hooklengths striking into an unseen branch. During the last 90mins (Ackoo Carrat 0.2g > .14 > 16 B911) produced 6 carp, 2 from the 13m swim on 6mm pellet expander and 4 from the corner including a double figure common on double caster.

A pleasing end to the match and thankful to have claimed 2^nd section and a de-fault section pick up as Tom won the lake thanks to 3 large carp caught late on. Overall Johns Lake fished better than Speci and Match, however to put into context we could be at Westerleigh Lakes was won with only 18lb and there was only 3 weights over 10lb. Hopefully there will be a little more colour in Match and Speci by the 3^rd round on 5 January 2014. Draw will be 8.30, fishing 10-3.30.

1^st 72- 4 – Mark Poppleton – p33
2^nd 71-13 – Dave Wescott – p11
3^rd 55-15 – Tom Thick – p46
4^th 52- 4 – Bob Gullick – p7
5^th 49-15 – Mark Brennan – p58
6^th 44- 1 – Pete Nurse – p70

Silvers
1^st 22-12 – Mark Poppleton – p33
2^nd 20- 8 – Bob Gullick – p7
3^rd 14- 5 – Tom Mangnall – p40

08/12/13 - Lands End Winter League - rd 2

Top 10 Overall Weights
1st 72- 4 - Mark Poppleton - p33 (speci)
2nd 71-13 - Dave Wescott - p11 (match)
3rd 55-15 - Tom Thick - p46 (johns)
4th 52- 4 - Bob Gullick - p7 (match)
5th 49-15 - Mark Brennan - p58 (johns)
6th 44- 1 - Pete Nurse - p70 (johns)
7th 40-15 - Ken Rayner - p41 (johns)
8th 39- 1 - Keith Fielder - p36 (speci)
9th 38- 4 - Nick Merry - p13 (match)
10th 32-10 - Aaron Britnall - p66 (johns)

Top 10 Silverfish Weights
1st 22-12 - Mark Poppleton - p33 (speci)
2nd 20- 8 - Bob Gullick - p7 (match)
3rd 14- 5 - Tom Mangnall - p40 (speci)
4th 13-10 - Leon Hubbard - p5 (match)
5th 12-12 - Chris Fox - p32 (speci)
6th 11-13 - John Bradford - p34 (speci)
7th 10-13 - Pete Nurse - p70 (johns)
8th 10-11 - Ken Rayner - p41 (johns)
9th 10- 4 - Nigel Bartlett - p20 (match)
10th 9- 4 - Aaron Britnall - p66 (johns)

Top 10 Overall League Positions
1st - Dave Wescott - 12pts (149- 3)
2nd - Craig Edmunds - 12pts (99- 5)
3rd - Bob Gullick - 11pts (108-11)
4th - Mark Brennan - 11pts (72- 8)
5th - Mark Poppleton - 10pts (122- 1)
6th - Chris Fox - 10pts (70-10)
7th - Mike Duckett - 10pts (62- 8)
8th - Adrian Clark - 9pts
9th - Tom Mangnall - 8pts (105- 3)
10th - Nick Merry 8pts (69-10)

Top 6 Overall Silverfish Positions
1st - Bob Gullick - 12pts (49-11)
2nd - Nigel Bartlett - 12pts (27- 6)
3rd - Chris Fox - 12pts (21- 0)
4th - Mike Duckett - 10pts (18-14)
5th - Mark Brennan - 10pts (18- 1)
6th - Ken Rayner - 10pts (15-14)

01/12/13 - Fishponds

Weight - 123lb 6oz
Catch - 18 Carp
Weather - Cloudy with a slight northerly breeze
Match - Club - 2nd out of 14

14 turned up for today’s match which was a bit of a surprise, particularly since a couple of members couldn’t fish because they were fishing the Sedges Winter League. Today was also the final of the knockout and I was up against Ian Pople. With 14 on the lake it would mean a couple of tights spots and I really wanted an open water swim, but my drawing arm let me down again as I drew p17, which was in the top corner of the lake. Opposite was Roger Putterill and Ian was to my right on p19, so at least we could keep an eye on each other.

I had hoped to fish the waggler, but due to the lack of room, decided it was a 2 swim pole job. 13m slightly to my right and 8m to my left next to the willow bush. 2 rigs were set up, an Ackoo powertrap 0.3g, by the bush fishing hair rigged double corn (I needed a big hook and bait on strong kit to pull the fish out of what has been a tackle graveyard). The other rig was a HB Dweezil 0.3g > .16 > 16 B911 fished at 13m in 7ft of water. I also had a straight lead rod already set-up, but only had a couple of casts on that.

Feed was 4s, corn and some micros to kick start each swim. After 30mins I landed my first carp at 13m on 6mm expander, which was followed up by a 10lber on 4mm expander. After an hour I had those 2 carp, but lost another 2. Ian in the meantime had 3.

During the 2^nd hour I landed a further 4 at 13m on 4mm expander, however Ian was up to 7. Fortunately Ian struggled from this point, as I put a further 4 carp into the net during the 3^rd hour. The bush swim started to produce a few fish and the remaining 2 hours, it was a case of rotating left and right with most fish caught on corn.

By the all out, I thought I may have won, however Tim Allen did well from peg 4 with 20 carp meaning I finished 2^nd and won the knockout.

1^st 138-10 – Tim Allen – p4
2^nd 123- 6 – Ken Rayner – p17
3^rd 77- 2 – Nick Pople – p12
4^th 73- 0 – Nick Jordell – p7
5^th 68-11 – Andy Bradley – p10
6^th 63- 5 – Craig Davidge – p6

30/11/13 - Lands End - Speci

Weight - 34lb 13oz (7lb 14oz - silvers)
Catch - 3 Carp, 7 Roach, 4 Skimmers
Weather - Bright & sunny with little wind
Match - Open - 2nd out of 11

1 of us today on Speci lake and I think most of us were looking forward to a change from fishing Match lake. However, the lakes were iced over mid-week and the water certainly looked quite clear, so a challenging day was on the cards.

Mark Poppleton had threatened mid-week to go home if he drew p36, so he was really happy when he actually drew p36. After spending several minutes in the car park contemplating what to do, he eventually decided to fish, but he wasn’t in the mood for any banter- lol.

As for me, my drawing arm seems to have deserted me recently and p28 hardly filled me with joy. However the last time I fished here earlier in the year, I picked up in the silvers, so that was my intention today, because normally you would expect the carp to come from the end of the lake.

For company Andy was on p26 and Martin Heard on p29, but at least the sun would be behind us on what would be a very bright day with very little wind. Fishing was 10.15 – 15.45, it was suggested we have an earlier draw, but I don’t think Mike West can get out of bed any earlier!

On the all in some micros & 4s was deposited at 13m and some caster on top of the far shelf. I started on double corn fished at 14m to my left hoping for an early carp, but didn’t have so much as liner, which just confirmed my fears there were no carp about. To fair no-one was catching much, although Martin had a few skimmers on pellet.

A switch to my pellet line produced nothing, I even set up a 2^nd pellet swim to my left at 14.5m, but again not a bite even on maggot, whilst Martin was still getting the odd skimmer. I like to feed some groundbait with my micros and normally add some sweet fishmeal, but today I was trying some Marukyu Nori silverfish groundbait, but just got the feeling it was too pungent for a cold clear lake, so mixed up some of my normal mix, re-feeding my 2 pellet swims.

A switch to the far line produced a small roach on maggot. So after an hour and 35mins I avoided a blank. Another roach soon followed, but they didn’t hang about in the shallower water.

So back on the pellet, using a HB Frostie 0.3g > .10 > 18 silverfish pellet and I had a 2lb skimmer on 4mm expander. Was it the change in groundbait? I don’t know, but I felt more confident using bait that I have used successfully before.

3 more skimmers came by rotating left & right, then I hooked what I thought was another skimmer, but as I shipped back it became obvious it was a carp. 15mins later a big common weighing 13-2 was safely netted, which put me back in contention, before Martin landed 2 smaller carp.

Unfortunately both Martin & I struggled to catch for the next 90mins or so. Those skimmers obviously didn’t like the carp charging around and neither of us caught another skimmer for the rest of the match. I had a couple more roach from the far bank, but it didn’t last.

It was difficult to assess my position in the match, because it was very close. Mark had a few silvers and a couple of carp, Allan Oram on p31 had 3-4 carp and Steve Martin on his first visit to the venue on p33 was probably leading.

So target the silvers on maggot/caster or stick with pellet? Another look over my 5m line produced a roach, but I had to wait for a bite, so decided to stick with pellet. Fishing 16m to my left at the bottom of the shelf, produced 2 carp in the last 10mins and was now fairly certain I had framed, which is how it turned out. Even without the carp, I would have picked up the silvers by double-default.

1^st 49-10 – Steve Martin – p33
2^nd 34-13 – Ken Rayner – p28
3^rd 32-14 – Mark Poppleton - p36
4^th 31- 1 – Allan Oram – p31
5^th 18-12 – Martin Heard – p29
6^th 16-13 – Mike Duckett – p38

Silvers
1^st 11- 0 – Mark Poppleton – p36
2^nd 10- 8 – Steve Martin – p33
3^rd 7-14 – Ken Rayner – p28
4^th 7- 8 – Martin Heard – p29