28/09/14 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 107lb 13oz
Catch - 17 Carp, 4 Skimmers, 4 Roach, 1 F1, 1 Ide, 1Perch
Weather - Warm & muggy
Match - Avon Angling Open - 8th out of 20 (3rd on lake)

20 at Lands End meant 10 on each of Match and Speci. I actually fancied drawing Speci, but found myself on p22, which hasn't been a great area this summer. Fortunately I had some space to my left with Gordon Canning on P19 and John Bradford on P24 to my right.

 

As I was setting up I wasn’t sure whether to target carp or silvers, but decided to start on carp and see where we go. The water levels are down by at least a foot and in desperate need of some rain. I was in 2 minds about targeting the far side, but a few fish moving around by the island persuaded me to set up a rig. I also mixed up some groundbait to fish the margins for later.

 

On the all-in 6s were feed at 5m left and right, and meat/hemp in front of the p21 pallet. Starting across by the island on meat, feeding meat & hemp, I soon had a carp, followed by another 10/15mins later, but I also lost a couple of foul hookers. To change things around I started pinging 6s to the point of the island, but again struggled to properly hook fish.

 

The 5m pellet lines produced 2 skimmers, but it was very slow and decided to concentrate on the carp, instead of the silvers since John had a few skimmers and I fully expected Nigel on p13 to be catching. Back out by the island it was still a struggle getting a proper bite so decided to knock up some paste, which eventually improved my catch rate. However I was already behind Trigger (p17), Tim Clark (p15) and Gordon.

 

My 5m pellet lines still failed to produce and therefore switched to feeding meat at 7m which improved matters periodically a catching a few more carp.

 

With 2.5hrs to go, it was time to try the margins and each side got 3 cups of groundbait, which certainly brought the fish in. Starting on a bunch of maggots resulted in a 10lber, but the fish were ripping up the bottom and not settling, which resulted in loads of liners and a couple of foul hookers.

 

Cutting down on the groundbait and increasing the amount of caster & corn helped, but in the end simply feeding pellet & corn with double corn proved to be best. Unfortunately, I worked this out too late and didn’t give myself enough time to catch the extra 4 fish needed to frame. To be honest I became pre-occupied with using groundbait, when I should have struck with feeding particles.

 

1^st 202-14 – Craig Edmunds – p17

2^nd 144- 2 – Tony Rixon – p40

3^rd 129- 0 – Tim Clarke – p15

4^th 123- 0 – Chris Fox – p25

5^th 114-13 – Paul Elmes – p38

6^th 110- 5 – Steve Seagar – p33

 

Silvers

1^st 29- 5 – Nick Collins – p34

2^nd 24- 1 – Tom Mangnall – p29

3^rd 18- 2 – Nigel Bartlett – p13

21/09/14 - Merrits - Lavington

Weight - 131lb 0oz
Catch - 19 Carp, 9 Skimmers, 4 Roach, 1 Chub
Weather - Mostly sunny and light breeze
Match - Airsprung - 3rd out of 12

After having a weekend off last week, mainly due to work and feeling absolutely knackered I was looking forward to getting out on the bank, so booked myself into Airsprungs match on Merritts Lake in Lavington.
I haven’t fished here for over 2 years and wasn’t sure how it would fish, although I was told pellet & paste had been working. My home for the day was peg 12, seemed like a good draw at the top end of the lake. Plumbing up revealed it was a bit deeper than I remember and was grateful for the 90mins setting up time, or it was because Andy Fox takes longer than me!

Since the water was a little clearer than expected, I wasn’t convinced about the advice of fishing as tight as possible to bank where it was about 18 inch deep. Instead I decided to target a flat spot about 1m off the bank where it was about a foot deeper. This also left me the option to go tight in if required or to fish against the p13 pallet at 13m, which offered 2ft of water.

As for bait I really wasn’t sure what to take. The venue used to be a corn, meat & hemp water, but in recent years pellet has been allowed, which had changed the dynamics of how the fish fed. In the end I settled on paste, plus pellet and meat. I also had hemp & caster for feed.

Starting at 6m at the bottom of the slope on paste, I had a carp after 10mins. Regular feeding of 6s via a toss pot with the paste resulted in a few dinks on the float, before a skimmer took the bait. A switch the pellet rig produced a couple of roach & skimmers, but no more carp.

In the meantime Ade opposite had 3 carp, but I wanted to leave the margin to settle, feeding a ½ cup of pellet & hemp, every 15mins. I had my first look after an hour on paste and soon had my 2^nd carp. Over the next couple of hours it was a case of rotating between the margin and the 6m, as not to put either swim under too much pressure, which worked catching a few more carp from the margin and more skimmers from the 6m line.

By the time I was up to 6 carp, Ade was on 8 or 9, catching at 6m. I thought he was catching on the deck, but it transpired he was feeding caster and catching shallow on 6mm pellet. I was reliably informed shallow fishing doesn’t work! There was certainly a few carp moving around shallow and I had set up a long line just in case, but every time I shipped out they would disappear. 

Both my margins and 6m line had slowed down a little, which wasn’t helped by lost fish. Unfortunately the mouths on some of these fish are either very small or badly damaged, which meant a few hook pulls for no particular reason.

 

In an attempt to catch Ade, it was time to blast a few casters at 13m and slap an 8mm pellet around. Within 10mins I had a proper lump and being over 10lb had to weigh it individually. At 13lb 6oz it was certainly worth having, although it wasn’t the biggest on the day. That honour fell to Nick Ince on p2 who had one of 17lb. Walking to the scales gave me an opportunity to see how everyone else was doing. Both Tom Ince (p6) and Steve Musitano (p4) opposite the island had about the 8 or 9 fish which was about what I had.

 

Back at my peg I had another carp shallow, but it had become noticeably cooler and the shallow fish had disappeared. Even Ade had stopped catching and I was left regretting not switching earlier and felt I really missed a window of opportunity.

 

The 6m line was still only producing silvers, so it was time for the margins to kick into life. The 6m margin line was slow going, so with 90mins decided to go longer down the margin to the pallet, which also proved very slow on the meat. A switch to paste resulted in a better response, including a couple of 9lbers and I was catching Ade up. In the end I didn’t quite do enough, claiming 3^rd in what turned out to be a very tight finish.

 

Overall a nice day, in nice surrounding. Just wish I had tried the shallow line earlier.

 

1^st 135- 0 – Steve Musitano – p4

2^nd 134-13 – Ade Tiffin – p18

3^rd 131- 0 – Ken Rayner – p12

4^th 108-10 - Nick Ince – p2

5^th 103- 0 – Dave Wareham – p20

6^th 102- 6 – Tom Ince – p6

07/09/14 - Trinity Waters - Woodland

Weight - 16lb 10oz (3lb 8oz - silvers)
Catch - 3 Carp, 4 Skimmers, 2 Roach
Weather - Warm & sunny - no wind
Match - Avon Angling Open - 12th out of 21

This wont be a particularly long blog simply because for most it was a real struggle to catch. With 21 fishing, we were all expecting a decent days sport and when I arrived at peg 26, there was plenty of fish moving around. However there was an algae bloom which when combined with flat conditions may have contributed towards the poor fishing.

 

Since there were a number fish showing themselves, I started the match at 14.5m fishing shallow, feeding 8s with a banded 8mm pellet. I tried a conventional shallow rig, a long line rig and a crystal pellet waggler throughout the match, but only had one roach and a single carp.

 

A spare peg to my left, afforded me a bit of space, so I cupped in soften 4s, 14m at an angle. This produced a carp, plus skimmers, but again very slow going. The 5m line was also a bust, with only 1 carp on meat 15mins from the end.

 

This just leaves the margins. From the start I fed the right margin with 4 & 6mm pellet, but other than small fish nipping at the bait didn’t produce anything. I had left the left hand margin until the last 2.5hrs, feeding 4 balls of groundbait with a small amount of hemp, pellet & meat mixed in. I tried, worm, meat and bunches maggot on the hook, but again could only get bites from small fish. However what was noticeable was the fish moved straight onto the groundbait and where gone again within a few minutes, so I tried fishing straight after feeding, this produced a few wobbles on the float, but no proper bites until 10 seconds from the end on a bunch of maggots. Knowing how badly the venue had fished, I hoped this fish would steal the section for me. It felt like a 10lber, i.e.it was just wallowing using its weight to pull back, but after a couple minutes on the top kit, the hook pulled – gutted! I only needed 8lb to steal the section, which meant no pick up today.

 

Speaking to a number of people after the match the same story kept repeating. Loads of fish showing themselves, but they wouldn’t open their mouths.

 

1^st 65- 0 – Dick Bull – p9

2^nd 38- 8 – Rich Heatley – p14

3^rd 38- 1 – Lee Werrett – p3

4^th 37-12 – Adrian Jefferies – p2

5^th 28- 1 – Tom Mangnall – p19

6^th 27- 7 – Tony Rixon – p6

 

Silvers

1^st 14- 1 – Gordon Cannings – p24

2^nd 13- 5 – John Bradford – p23

3^rd 10- 6 – Nigel Bartlett – p31