26/10/14 - Todber Manor - Park Lake

Weight - 37lb 0oz
Catch - 9 Carp, 9 F1s, 1 Skimmer, 1 Roach
Weather - Mostly cloudy, cool breeze
Match - Todber Series - rd 1 - 18th out of 24, 2nd out of 6 section

Before covering Sundays match, just want to say how sad I was to hear that Avon Angling will be closing. It certainly will be an end of an era and hopefully Tony will find a new role somewhere that will allow him to abuse his customers with a smile! John will no doubt retire, at least he won’t need to worry about servicing customers. All the best for the future.

Today was the first round of a 4 match series at Todber Manors Park Lake, organised by Mark Poppleton and Nick Merry, with 24 anglers split over 4 sections, with each angler fishing all sections.

For the 3^rd time in the last 5 visits I drew peg 28, which isn’t the best. However I only needed to worry about my section which ran from p22 to p29. Included in my section was Steve Tucker (p22), Dave Morrison (p23), Bob Wheeler (p25), Clint Wotlyla (p26) and Roland “Roly” Lucas (p29).

As well as all new colmic keepnets supplied by the venue, the island also got a trim, which meant you could fish tight across. I decided to concentrate fishing across, setting up 2 rigs to fish expander and an “on the drop” rig to fish hair rigged 6mm pellet. A meat rig to fish at 6m, plus a margin rig (that never got used) completed my set-up.

After feeding meat & hemp at 6m, I went straight across toss potting pellet, which produced a few liners, but no fish. After 15mins something wasn’t right, because most of us were fishless, which is very unusual for this venue.

I decided to concentrate on the soft pellet rig, toss potting 6s & some micros to my left, building the swim gradually, whilst I kept pinging 6s to my right under the tree. I caught my first fish, an F1 after 30mins. It was slow going, but I gradually started to put a few F1s in the net, plus a carp.

After 90mins I noticed a swirl under the right hand tree, so went across with the hard pellet rig and caught 3 carp straight away fishing as tight as I could to the far bank, before they backed off.

At the half way stage, Tucks was on walkabout to see how the section was doing and I was leading with 4 carp and 8 F1s, whilst he only had 2 carp. I just needed to keep putting fish in the net. It was noticeable the anglers on the other side of the lake were now catching, particularly Fabio on p20, but on my side it was quite frankly dire. By swapping between swims and rigs I managed to catch a few more carp.

I had hoped my meat line would produce late on, but only had 1 carp. As for my margin, I couldn’t fish left due to a tree, which meant sharing my right hand margin with Roly, who tried it a couple of times without a bite. Unfortunately Tucks had a good last hour down his margins to claim the section win with 54lb, leaving me 2^nd in what turned out to be a very hard section. Clint and Roly only had 6lb & 8lb respectively, so actually really pleased to come away with 37lb and a brown envelope.

1^st 156- 2 – Tony Rixon – p38
2^nd 123-10 – Bela Bakos – p37
3^rd 91- 3 – Mike Nicholls – p7
4^th 90- 0 – Phil Harding - p20
5^th 86- 6 – Fred Roberts – p16
6^th 86- 2 – Ashley Tompkins – p1
6^th 86- 2 – Chris Fox – p3

25/10/14 - Emerald Pool

Weight - 39lb 3oz
Catch - 74 Skimmers/Hybrids, 12 Tench, 3 Rudd, 1 Roach
Weather - Mostly cloudy.
Match - Silverfish League rd 2 - 4th out of 9

The 2^nd round of this silvers league and after a bad first round I needed to put in a better performance. 

Peg 8 was home for the day, which put was on the shallower left hand side of the far bank, which is a nice peg, but it is a bit of birdcage with low overhanging branches, which meant I had to be careful where I placed my box to ensure the branches would cause the least problems.

 

Plumbing around I decided to fish 8m left and right, as well as the margins. Only 2 rigs got used a SM Chimp 0.3g > .12 > 16 silverfish pellet and a Jolly 4x12 > .10 > 20 silverfish maggot.

On the all in, 2 balls of groundbait went in to my right and a single ball to my left. Starting on the left hand side I soon caught a few skimmers and tench on worm or maggot, but after an hour only had 13 fish, which I didn’t feel was quick enough. I had been toss potting a small ball of groundbait/caster, which certainly pulled the fish in, but it was taking too long to get a proper bite and I had to change something.

Since the chimp rig sat better in the skimming breeze I switched to a lighter .10 > .20 silverfish pellet hooklength and stopping feeding groundbait into the right hand swim, simply feeding caster/maggot i.e. toss pot. I still kept feeding groundbait into the left side.

This definitely improved matters catching a lot quicker over the right side with either single or double maggot. Whilst I couldn’t catch as quickly over the left hand groundbait it did produce slightly better sized skimmers.

By the half way stage I was up to 53 fish and really enjoying my day. Unfortunately the fourth hour proved difficult, losing 2 tench at the net and on both occasions my rig ended up in the overhanging branches. The 2^nd time it happened I couldn’t save the rig so had to set up a new one from scratch, since ruining my duplicate plumbing up whilst setting up.

Throughout I had been feeding caster into the left side margin and groundbait/caster into the right. Strangely the left margin only produced 1 bite after feeding it for 4 hours, so I ended up concentrating on the right side catching some decent skimmers and a few more tench, including a 3lber which I thought it was another carp when I hooked it, quickly getting it back onto my to top kit. When I realised it was a tench, I played it a little more carefully!

During the last 90mins I got back into a rhythm catching more from the margin. Come the weigh in I have to admit I was disappointed to miss out on framing and a pickup. Those 2 lost tench proved costly. This is the 3^rd match on the trot where lost fish has cost me money. Losing rigs to overhanging trees didn’t help either.

That aside it was an enjoyable day with plenty of bites and this was my best silvers weight from the venue, so an improvement on my part. Dom definitely has the venue sussed at the moment, easily winning and he will be difficult to beat for the overall league.

1^st 61-2 - Dom Sullivan – p7
2^nd 43-10 – Tim Lewis – p3
3^rd 40-13 – Kev Jeffries – p5
4^th 39- 3 – Ken Rayner – p8
5^th 27-11 – Barry Fitchew – p4
6^th 26-14 – Darren Greenwood – p2

18/10/14 - Ivy House - Match Lake

Weight - 64lb 6oz (7lb - silvers)
Catch - 7 Carp, 7 Skimmers, 5 Roach
Weather - Mostly cloudy and breezy
Match - Open - 4th out of 17

With no match at Lands End, I didn’t fancy fishing Acorns and decided a trip to Ivy House was overdue. The last time I was here was 3 years ago and always felt the venue had loads of potential if someone took the time and investment. Well as we all know Andy now owns the venue and the transformation so far is quite dramatic with new platforms, loads of trees cut back and a remodelled café/shop.
Having not fished here for some time I fully expected to have my arse handed to me, but I intended to enjoy my day. I fancied a draw where there would be some ripple, but peg 46 put me on the causeway and the sheltered end of the lake. Andy told me he caught late down by the p47 platform, but a couple of others said they don’t come down into this corner that often. 

Anyway because I wasn’t sure what to expect I set a rig to fish for silvers (SM Chimp 0.4g > .12 > 18 silverfish pellet) and carp (carrat 0.3g > .14 > 16 B911) at 13-14m and a margin rig.

On the all in micros/groundbait/4s was deposited at 13m and the same again at 12m to my left at a 45 degree angle. After an hour I only had 2 small skimmers, but by regularly toss potting micros/4s I started to get more regular bites, landing a 2lb mirror. Unfortunately the next carp hooked was an 8lber, but the 6-10 hollow elastic let go at the puller bush, which meant I lost everything. Fortunately a couple minutes later I saw my orange elastic running along the end bank. After catching hold of the elastic from the middle of the end bank, I managed to pull the fish back to my peg, landing the fish by hand lining. It’s amazing how little pressure you need to apply. 

Well at least by retrieving the rig completely intact saved me setting up a new one. Over the next couple of hours, saw me catch carp up 18lb on maggot and chimp rig, but only a couple carp on the heavier carrat rig. Most of fish came from the 13m line, only catching a couple of skimmers from the left hand 12m line.

 

I lost a couple fish, but think they were foul hooked, but no dramas and with 2hrs left felt I was up with the leaders. A brief look down the margin where I had been feeding caster/4s only produced a couple of roach so far.

 

My long lines seemed to have dried up, although there was still the odd bubble coming up, so not sure what was happening. Having said that Dick Young on p44 who roughly had the same as me had also slowed up, but I felt I needed at least another carp. Frustratingly my margin line wasn’t producing and time was slipping away as was my chances of framing.

 

On the long line I fed a section longer and with 20mins to go I hooked a carp. Knowing how important this fish could be, I took my time only for the hook pull out of a 6-8lb fish - gutted. The last 10mins it was back down the margin with 4 maggots on the hook. With a minute to go the float dipped, but nothing was attached expect for a bit of weed – another chance missed?

 

Well come the weigh in I was left pretty disappointed to miss out on framing by a 1lb, but I could have won had I landed that last fish. At the moment I seem to having that sought of run, just missing out by a single fish, although Sue thinks stress from work is having an effect.

 

Anyway, I won’t hesitate to come back to Ivy House. It’s not easy fishing, but I certainly enjoyed it (except for those last 30mins) and I can only see the venue getting better.

 

1^st 70- 8 – Chris Davis – p41

2^nd 69- 2 – Vince Shipp – p16

3^rd 67- 8 – Dick Young – p44

4^th 64- 6 - Ken Rayner – p46

5^th 61- 9 – Andy Gard – p10

6^th 49-14 – Simon Stacey – p5

 

Silvers

1^st 17- 2 – Rob Terry – p32

2^nd 13- 9 – Vince Shipp – p16

3^rd 13- 0 – Chris Timms – p29

12/10/14 - Viaduct - Cary

Weight - 81lb 14oz (8lb 2oz - silvers)
Catch - 8 Carp, 6 Skimmers, 1 Hybrid, 1 Roach
Weather - Mostly cloudy and a cool northerly breeze
Match - Wests Open - 14th out of 37, 2nd in section

Today was a Wests Tackle Open over 2 lakes, namely Campbell and Cary. Of the 37 anglers fishing a number of them would be targeting the silvers, practicing for the silvers final the following weekend.

As for me I decided to take the wait and see option before deciding whether to target carp or silvers. P100 on Cary had me setting up the silvers rigs in the first instance, but with some time on my hands the lead rod was easily set up, a rig for the margin under the p101 pallet and finally a pellet rig to fish long if the carp interfered with the silvers.

On the all-in micros/4s/groundbait was deposited at 13m in front and caster at 14m to my left. Whilst I let that settle decided to cast out the lead rig giving it 15mins, just to see whether any carp were around.

Well 5mins later the tip pulled round and a double figure fish which accepted an 8mm pellet was soon landed. A further 15mins on the tip didn’t produce, so it time to see whether anything had settled over my bait on the pole line.

2 small skimmers on 4mm expander was followed by an 8lb carp, before the swim died. The caster line produced a couple of bigger skimmers, but it was very slow going. The wind also picked up from a northerly position, which had me reaching for a heavier rig and my fleece.

With 2 hours gone, I had a choice to make. The only way I could see me picking up any money would be to win my 6 peg section (98-105), because whilst I couldn’t see many silvers being caught I fully expected someone would be catching. I still kept the long lines topped up in case any big skimmers or even carp turned up, but it never produced.

Since I only had a handful of 8s with me, a bag of 8s was soon acquired from the shop so I could keep catapulting pellet over the lead line. My 2 carp currently put me 2^nd in the section behind Ryan on P99 who had 4 or 5 fish.

I gradually closed the gap with Ryan, but lost fish proved to be a problem, losing 5 when the hook just pulled for no particular reason, I assume because they were only lightly hooked, although at least 1 had snagged a full pole rig with the carp still attached and another felt foul hooked.

I was really hoping my margin would prove decisive and with 2 hours left started feeding groundbait initially, but mostly fed caster and 6mm pellet. I got my first bite here with 30mins to go when I landed a big hybrid on worm. With 10 mins left I hooked a big carp, only for the line to snap above the float and with no line left to set up another rig I dropped the lead rig into the margin and almost immediately hooked another carp.

Come the weigh in it became apparent how close I got to catching Ryan who weighed 90-6 to win the section, which meant I was 1 Cary carp behind. So I could have really done with not losing so many fish, but sometimes there is no accounting for unexpected breakages.

1^st 190- 7 – Mark Poppleton – p118
2^nd 183- 9 – Calum Craig – p112
3^rd 174-10 – Steve Southern – p87
4^th 137- 8 – Ben Ludwell – p94
5^th 133- 2 – Adrian Jeffrey – p86
6^th 126-14 – Ashley Tomkins – p126

Silvers
1^st 32- 9 – Nigel Bartlett – p111
2^nd 25-10 – Bob Gullick – p85
3^rd 19- 5 – Dick Bull – p125

11/10/14 - Emerald Pool

Weight - 29lb 6oz
Catch - 58 Skimmers, 25 Hybrids, 2 Roach, 1 Tench, 1 Perch
Weather - Mostly warm and sunny
Match - Silver Only Series rd 1 - 7th out of 9

I’ve been a little slack on my blogs recently, mainly due to a lack of time as a result of work pressures, so last weekend’s blog will be fairly short and both matches proved frustrating for different reasons.

Saturdays match was the first of 6 rounds of a silvers only league at Emerald Pool run by Dominic Sullivan. Originally I think Dom wanted 14 or so, however getting people to commit to a Saturday league proved difficult with the final total being 9. For this series the definition of silvers would exclude anything with carp in the name, so fantails, F1, goldfish and crucians wouldn’t count.

I have to admit my silverfish fishing with natural baits is a little behind some of the anglers fishing today. Ideally I would have wanted to have a practice but since I couldn’t decided to fish positively, targeting the skimmers and hybrid using pellet & groundbait.

I was happy with my draw which put me on the island, feeding groundbait/pellet at 10m left and right, plus a short caster swim.

I started really well at 10m, catching 40 fish in the first 2 hours either on 4mm expander or worm. Unfortunately, it gradually got worst. I had plenty of fish in the swim judging by the number of bubbles, but getting bites simply proved increasingly difficult.

My caster swim didn’t quite produce as expected and in hindsight I should have replaced my caster rig when it got busted by a carp. So despite the good start, a disappointing result in the end, although plenty learned. I certainly caught plenty of fish, however I didn’t have any bonus tench (except for a small one) or big skimmers.

Either way, nearly 30lb of silvers isn’t a bad days fishing.

1^st 51-11 Darren Greenwood – p1
2^nd 41- 3 Dom Sullivan – p7
3^rd 40-10 Kev Jeffries – p9
4^th 38- 8 Tim Lewis – p8
5^th 32- 4 Andy Gard – p3
^6th 30- 9 Barry Fitchew – p6

08/10/14 - Emerald Pools - Ruby

Weight - 87lb 6oz
Catch - 44 Carp, 5 Roach
Weather - Mostly bright, with odd shower & breezy
Match - Avon Angling Open - 8th out of 15 (3rd out of 9 - lake)

A week off work – yay! Since the budget announcement in March that no one needs to annuitise their pension, my position has effectively become redundant. So I have been working hard in other areas and as yet haven’t taken any prolonged time off, which was much needed.

No fishing last weekend due to Mark Poppleton’s wedding at Wookey Hole, which was a very enjoyable day/evening in excellent company.

Back to today, Tony had 15 turn up with 9 anglers on Ruby and 6 on Sapphire. I had thought about targeting the silvers with a view to the silvers league starting on Saturday and had today’s match been on Emerald I probably would have. Instead I decided to focus on pellet & corn.

My draw put me on Ruby opposite the small island with Emerald behind. Must admit I thought with the forecast wind I would be at the wrong end of the lake and I was disappointed not to have a proper margin to attack, with a willow tree to my left and reed bed to my right.

The intention was to fish pellet or corn at 5m left and right, but decided to set up a paste rig as well, just in case. A shallow rig was also set up to fish by the small island, which was 16m away.

 

Starting on the paste rig next to the reeds I soon had 2 carp, before I couldn’t a proper bite but loads of liners. A switch to the shallow line resulted in 3 lost carp which was frustrating, before I caught a couple of roach on 6mm pellet. 16m was too far to catch roach so concentrated on 8mm pellet, but I spent too long trying to make the shallow line work.

All the while Giles Cochrane opposite was catching well down his margin. Fortunately for me the 2^nd hour was much better by the reeds where I had kept feeding 6s by hand, catching 10 carp all on paste.

The middle part of the match proved to be more difficult. The shallow line produced only 1 carp, which meant I needed to concentrate on the 2 short lines. I had considered setting up a line at 11-13m, but with the increasing wind thought it would be a non-starter.

 

Of the anglers I could see, I thought I was doing OK. Giles had stopped catching carp and switched to silvers, John Thompson and Ron Hardiman were also struggling, as was the angler to my left. By cutting back on my feed I managed to keep the odd fish coming from the reeds on paste, but needed the left hand swim to kick into life.

 

I tried hard pellet, expander, corn and worm, but it was slow going. It may have been because the wind was starting to create a bit of a tow, even a switch to a heavier rig didn’t help, so I was back the paste.

 

The left hand swim eventually kicked into life, by toss potting pellet and a purple patch meant I quickly added more carp, although a little smaller than before, although I managed to nick a couple of better fish from the reeds. Unfortunately, I think I buggered up the last 25mins, by cupping in too much bait when the swim faded, which was disappointing.

 

By the all out I was confident of beating the anglers I could see, but it transpired my fears about being at the wrong end of the lake was well founded with Lee Pesticcio and Phil Harding catching behind the island. Sapphire was the lake to be on through with most anglers catching over a ton. So overall happy enough to claim 3^rd on the lake, but can’t help feel I should have got a ton had I got my feed right.

 

1^st 134- 5 – Lee Pesticcio – Ruby

2^nd 131-10 – Steve Kedge – Sapphire

3^rd 124- 4 – Tony Rixon – Sapphire

4^th 114- 2 – Matt Tomes – Sapphire

5^th 105-15 – Bob Price – Sapphire

6^th 98- 9 – Phil Harding  - Ruby

 

Silvers

1^st 18- 3 – Phil Harding – Ruby

2^nd 17- 4 – Giles Cochrane – Ruby

3^rd 16- 1 – Steve Kedge - Sapphire