Weight - 96lb 1oz
Catch - 18 Carp
Weather - Cool, cloudy and rain later
Match - Club - 3rd out of 12
Today was the first Saturday afternoon/evening (5hr) club match and we were all expecting a good day, however it didn't turn out as we expected.
I would have been happy with peg 4, but with peg 3 in, it meant the left margin was likely to be unproductive (and it didn't produce a single bite). I couldn't fish the right hand margin because a tree was in the way, which just left the bottom of the shelf, which was 7ft. For the 3rd consecutive match I had a deep peg and no real shallow water to target.
Because peg 3 is quite close, I decided to target the bottom of the shelf to my right, initially with paste, which produced 2 carp, but lost 3 more. A switch to fishing banded 8mm pellet (HB dweezil 0.5g > .16 > 16 B960), lifting and dropping produced better bites and fewer loses.
In the meantime I kept pinging pellet at 13m, hoping to catch shallow. After my 3rd attempt of trying I landed a shallow carp, which was followed by 4 more in a 30min spell, before the wind dropped and it became cooler as the rain the started.
Instead of the swim getting stronger in the last 90mins it proved to be a real struggle. In the end I caught a couple more carp fishing left handed fishing past the tree, resting the pole in the branches.
Sometimes you have to wonder whether you are getting the rub of the green. After 3 indifferent draws, the fish I was catching were only averaging 5lb, when normally I would expect a 6.5-7lb average and a 5lber jumped out of the net. Whilst the jumper didn't cost me in terms of position, the lower average size certainly did.
1st 119-12 - Glen Putterill - p6 (caught to his left in 3ft of water)
2nd 105- 2 - Roger Putterill - p10
3rd 96- 1 - Ken Rayner - p4
4th 77-13 - Andy Lord - p1
5th 75-15 - Dave Bradley - p12
6th 69- 8 - Andy Bradley - p23
Sunday, 26 April 2015
19/04/15 - Trinity Waters - Woodlands
Weight - 41lb 2oz
Catch - 8 Carp, 1 Skimmer
Weather - Cold start, mostly sunny
Match - Short Pole Series - rd1 - 17th out of 27, 4th out of 7 section
Today was the first round of the short pole series (3+2) organised by Tony Rixon on Woodland lake at Chiltern Trinity. This is one of those venues I seem to struggle with and really wanted to get to grip with.
With 28 booked in, although 1 couldn't make it, there wasn't going to be much room, even for a short pole series, so a draw with some space was required.
Before the draw standing by peg 28 the wind felt really cold and I didn't want a second day being blown off my peg. At least P18 was sheltered, but it put me in the middle of 4 along the narrow right hand bank. For company to my right on P17 was Clint Wotlyla which is always entertaining and Dave Evans on p19.
Must admit I forgot how deep this lake is and had to set up a couple of fresh rigs to fish in open water. My intention as was to fish pellet, meat and paste, so no caster or maggot as I wanted to focus on the carp rather than worry about catching silvers.
As well as the open water swim, meat/hemp was fed to my left at an angle at the bottom of the shelf and meat/pellet in my right margin. My concern was the lack of any shelf, since the open water was 7ft and the margins 5ft, which I thought might be too deep.
Starting on paste at 3+2 over pellet, I had 2x 7lbers after an hour, but it was slow going. Clint had caught a few skimmers on soft pellet, which prompted me to switch when no more carp showed, however only had 1 skimmer. I decided against setting up a lighter rig to target the skimmers properly, preferring to concentrate on the carp.
The middle part of the match was really hard foulhooking a couple of fish, one from the long line and one down the margins, which just confirmed my fears that the carp didn't really want to settle in the deep water.
I had noticed some carp moving around the reeds to my left. I hadn't bothered setting up a rig, because when I plumbed up the left margin it immediately sloped away to 6ft, when I moved away from the reeds. However I had no choice but to at least try and managed to find to a hand sized clear patch in the reeds (see picture). Even here it was 4ft deep. The only problem was a snag that only came to light when I tried lifting and dropping, turned out to be some old line, which I managed to pull out after the 3rd time of catching it. So with that out of the way the rig (powertrap 0.3g > .17 > 16 carp feeder) settled better.
The last 75mins proved to be my best period. Initially I only getting liners but by toss potting meat and a little hemp, with double meat on the hook resulted in 7 carp being hooked, landing 6.
Well done to Mike Nicholls and Trigger who made the most of there corner pegs in my section, which offered a little more space and shallower water. In hindsight I should have set up a shallow rig, because a few fish had been caught this way and an extra fish or two could have pushed me into 3rd in section. I also wish I had dumped in a cup of pellet over my long line earlier than I did, because as I was packing up the line fizzing well.
1st 117- 9 - Mike Nicholls - p15
2nd 96- 5 - Tim Ford - p33
3rd 94-13 - Paul Elmes - p10
4th 88- 0 - Bela Bakos - p12
5th 84- 3 - Craig Edmunds - p20
6th 77- 0 - Tony Rixon - p30
Silvers
1st 18- 4 - Dave Evans - p19
2nd 16- 5 - Chris Fox - p28
3rd 15-13 - Paul Faires - p27
Catch - 8 Carp, 1 Skimmer
Weather - Cold start, mostly sunny
Match - Short Pole Series - rd1 - 17th out of 27, 4th out of 7 section
Today was the first round of the short pole series (3+2) organised by Tony Rixon on Woodland lake at Chiltern Trinity. This is one of those venues I seem to struggle with and really wanted to get to grip with.
With 28 booked in, although 1 couldn't make it, there wasn't going to be much room, even for a short pole series, so a draw with some space was required.
Before the draw standing by peg 28 the wind felt really cold and I didn't want a second day being blown off my peg. At least P18 was sheltered, but it put me in the middle of 4 along the narrow right hand bank. For company to my right on P17 was Clint Wotlyla which is always entertaining and Dave Evans on p19.
Must admit I forgot how deep this lake is and had to set up a couple of fresh rigs to fish in open water. My intention as was to fish pellet, meat and paste, so no caster or maggot as I wanted to focus on the carp rather than worry about catching silvers.
As well as the open water swim, meat/hemp was fed to my left at an angle at the bottom of the shelf and meat/pellet in my right margin. My concern was the lack of any shelf, since the open water was 7ft and the margins 5ft, which I thought might be too deep.Starting on paste at 3+2 over pellet, I had 2x 7lbers after an hour, but it was slow going. Clint had caught a few skimmers on soft pellet, which prompted me to switch when no more carp showed, however only had 1 skimmer. I decided against setting up a lighter rig to target the skimmers properly, preferring to concentrate on the carp.
The middle part of the match was really hard foulhooking a couple of fish, one from the long line and one down the margins, which just confirmed my fears that the carp didn't really want to settle in the deep water.
I had noticed some carp moving around the reeds to my left. I hadn't bothered setting up a rig, because when I plumbed up the left margin it immediately sloped away to 6ft, when I moved away from the reeds. However I had no choice but to at least try and managed to find to a hand sized clear patch in the reeds (see picture). Even here it was 4ft deep. The only problem was a snag that only came to light when I tried lifting and dropping, turned out to be some old line, which I managed to pull out after the 3rd time of catching it. So with that out of the way the rig (powertrap 0.3g > .17 > 16 carp feeder) settled better. The last 75mins proved to be my best period. Initially I only getting liners but by toss potting meat and a little hemp, with double meat on the hook resulted in 7 carp being hooked, landing 6.
Well done to Mike Nicholls and Trigger who made the most of there corner pegs in my section, which offered a little more space and shallower water. In hindsight I should have set up a shallow rig, because a few fish had been caught this way and an extra fish or two could have pushed me into 3rd in section. I also wish I had dumped in a cup of pellet over my long line earlier than I did, because as I was packing up the line fizzing well.
1st 117- 9 - Mike Nicholls - p15
2nd 96- 5 - Tim Ford - p33
3rd 94-13 - Paul Elmes - p10
4th 88- 0 - Bela Bakos - p12
5th 84- 3 - Craig Edmunds - p20
6th 77- 0 - Tony Rixon - p30
Silvers
1st 18- 4 - Dave Evans - p19
2nd 16- 5 - Chris Fox - p28
3rd 15-13 - Paul Faires - p27
Monday, 20 April 2015
18/04/15 - Windmill - Match Lake
Weight - 20lb 8oz
Catch - 5 Carp
Weather - Sunny, but cool and very windy
Match - Big Money Qualifier - 8th out of 14
Cold and windy - it must be the weekend. Like last week, mid week was nice and settled, but come the weekend the wind picks up. This time is was a cool north westerly.
I drew peg 2, which Paul Elmes struggled from last week. Apparently it is a good peg, if you can reach the island 16-17m away. There was no chance of that today. Plumbing up a short line and margins, revealed 7ft of water at 5m, sloping up to the margins, with no shelf's.
Ideally I would have liked to fish on the slope in 5ft of water, but the wind and tow meant it was difficult to gain any presentation. I did foul hook 2 carp fishing at the bottom of the slope, which just confirmed my thoughts the carp didn't want to feed in such depth of water.
Despite the wind, I could at least catapult 8mm pellet to the island and fish straight lead over the top, which produced 4 carp. My fifth came from the right hand margin on meat.
Only my second visit to the venue and it would nice to see its true potential, without being blown away.
The only thing I could have done differently was fish the feeder. Scott Maunders to my right on p32 caught on the meat feeder, but to be honest feeder fishing isn't my bag, much preferring to catch on the pole. Fingers crossed for a calm day in 2 weeks when I try again.
Well done to Pau who qualified from the end peg, which is opposite where last week winner came from, whilst Barry came 2nd from a peg 2 away from last weeks 2nd.
1st 74-15 - Paul Elmes - p10
2nd 68-12 - Barry Richards - p24
3rd 54-15 - Scott Maunders - p32
4th 33-13 - Sean Wilson - p27
5th 29- 7 - Andy Lord - p21
6th 29- 1 - Craig Challingsworth - p23
Catch - 5 Carp
Weather - Sunny, but cool and very windy
Match - Big Money Qualifier - 8th out of 14
Cold and windy - it must be the weekend. Like last week, mid week was nice and settled, but come the weekend the wind picks up. This time is was a cool north westerly.
I drew peg 2, which Paul Elmes struggled from last week. Apparently it is a good peg, if you can reach the island 16-17m away. There was no chance of that today. Plumbing up a short line and margins, revealed 7ft of water at 5m, sloping up to the margins, with no shelf's.Ideally I would have liked to fish on the slope in 5ft of water, but the wind and tow meant it was difficult to gain any presentation. I did foul hook 2 carp fishing at the bottom of the slope, which just confirmed my thoughts the carp didn't want to feed in such depth of water.
Despite the wind, I could at least catapult 8mm pellet to the island and fish straight lead over the top, which produced 4 carp. My fifth came from the right hand margin on meat.Only my second visit to the venue and it would nice to see its true potential, without being blown away.
The only thing I could have done differently was fish the feeder. Scott Maunders to my right on p32 caught on the meat feeder, but to be honest feeder fishing isn't my bag, much preferring to catch on the pole. Fingers crossed for a calm day in 2 weeks when I try again.
Well done to Pau who qualified from the end peg, which is opposite where last week winner came from, whilst Barry came 2nd from a peg 2 away from last weeks 2nd.
1st 74-15 - Paul Elmes - p10
2nd 68-12 - Barry Richards - p24
3rd 54-15 - Scott Maunders - p32
4th 33-13 - Sean Wilson - p27
5th 29- 7 - Andy Lord - p21
6th 29- 1 - Craig Challingsworth - p23
Monday, 13 April 2015
12/04/15 - Lands End - Johns
Weight - 46lb 12oz (15lb 2oz - silvers)
Catch - 8 Carp, 9 F1s, 9 Skimmers, 3 Roach, 1 Crucians
Weather - Mostly sunny with cloudy periods.
Match - Open - 19th out of 26, 5th silvers overall
With 26 fishing, it was 13 each on Match and Johns lake. There was also a club match on Speci, so the car park was certainly busy.
I found myself on p68, which has shown some recent form and it won yesterday's match with over 90lb - so no pressure then!
I had forgotten to bring any expanders, but wasn't overly concerned sticking with hard pellet and meat, since I didn't expect to be targeting silvers. With payouts per lake, it was going to be difficult to pick up, since our lake was like a baggers convention. Opposition was Paul Elmes (p41) and Tom Magnall (p42). To my left on p70 was Neil Mercer who was getting advice on how to target the silvers from Mike Duckett and to my right on p66 was Trigger.
Decided to target the island early, whilst letting the 5m line settle for as long as possible. Well it didn't go according to plan!
Toss potting 4s tight to the island (SM Pellet 0.2g > .12 > 18 B911) with 6mm banded pellet I started catching F1s and a couple of carp. There were a number of carp swimming around and tried slapping an 8mm pellet around, but they weren't interested.
After 2 hours, I began to struggle for bites and was wasting too much time chasing carp trying to entice a take shallow. At my end of the lake we were all struggling for bites, but the grapevine suggested Anton Page on p50 was already up to 100lb and I could see Adrian Clark on p45 catching well.
The middle part of the match proved to be a struggle and when Rod Wootten (p62) came down for a wander he said that Mike West (p61) had a few skimmers, but no one else had caught many silvers. I knew Neil had caught a few skimmers, although he said he hadn't caught any F1s, which meant the fish I had seen him land were small carp, which meant targeting the silvers was probably going to be my best chance of a pick, particularly since Trigger had started catching carp, as had Tom and Paul opposite.
Setting up a new swim in open water feeding mostly 4s to target some silvers, resulted in a few skimmers on 6mm pellet, but regretted not bring some expanders, because the skimmers were small and were pecking at the pellet, rather than taking it properly.
In the meantime I kept feeding 6s towards the island and meat at 5m. The first fish over the meat line was a F1, which was handy for the silvers, but suggested there wasn't many carp in the area. With no more fish, a switch back to the island resulted in a couple more F1s and carp.
A switch to my open water swim, resulted in a hooked carp, but lost the whole rig as the fish found an underwater snag by the island. With only 45mins left I decided against setting up a new rig, so concentrated on the island and 5m, but could only add another 2 carp.
Come the weigh in I was little surprised when Neil said he had about 15lb of silvers. Turns out some of those small carp, were in fact F1s! Fortunately I came 2nd in silvers on the lake for a pick up. I could have kept with the carp, but genuinely don't believe there were many carp in the area. Paul and Tom had 60lb & 70lb respectively. Trigger on p66 had 103lb for 3rd on the lake, catching most of his fish from the margins or the reedbed, with only a handful of carp at 5m.
1st 209- 0 - Tony Rixon - p3
2nd 171-12 - Sean Townsend - p18
3rd 160-14 - Anton Page - p50
4th 133- 3 - Allan Oram - p19
5th 121- 9 - Russ Peck - p16
6th 117- 5 - Adrian Clark - p45
Silvers
1st 30- 2 - Paul Faires - p24
2nd 26- 1 - Tim Ford - p11
3rd 19- 2 - Neil Mercer - p70
4th 17- 1 - Gordon Cannings - p5
5th 15- 2 - Ken Rayner - p68
6th 11- 0 - Mike West - p61
Catch - 8 Carp, 9 F1s, 9 Skimmers, 3 Roach, 1 Crucians
Weather - Mostly sunny with cloudy periods.
Match - Open - 19th out of 26, 5th silvers overall
With 26 fishing, it was 13 each on Match and Johns lake. There was also a club match on Speci, so the car park was certainly busy.
I found myself on p68, which has shown some recent form and it won yesterday's match with over 90lb - so no pressure then!
I had forgotten to bring any expanders, but wasn't overly concerned sticking with hard pellet and meat, since I didn't expect to be targeting silvers. With payouts per lake, it was going to be difficult to pick up, since our lake was like a baggers convention. Opposition was Paul Elmes (p41) and Tom Magnall (p42). To my left on p70 was Neil Mercer who was getting advice on how to target the silvers from Mike Duckett and to my right on p66 was Trigger.
Decided to target the island early, whilst letting the 5m line settle for as long as possible. Well it didn't go according to plan!
Toss potting 4s tight to the island (SM Pellet 0.2g > .12 > 18 B911) with 6mm banded pellet I started catching F1s and a couple of carp. There were a number of carp swimming around and tried slapping an 8mm pellet around, but they weren't interested.
After 2 hours, I began to struggle for bites and was wasting too much time chasing carp trying to entice a take shallow. At my end of the lake we were all struggling for bites, but the grapevine suggested Anton Page on p50 was already up to 100lb and I could see Adrian Clark on p45 catching well.
The middle part of the match proved to be a struggle and when Rod Wootten (p62) came down for a wander he said that Mike West (p61) had a few skimmers, but no one else had caught many silvers. I knew Neil had caught a few skimmers, although he said he hadn't caught any F1s, which meant the fish I had seen him land were small carp, which meant targeting the silvers was probably going to be my best chance of a pick, particularly since Trigger had started catching carp, as had Tom and Paul opposite.
Setting up a new swim in open water feeding mostly 4s to target some silvers, resulted in a few skimmers on 6mm pellet, but regretted not bring some expanders, because the skimmers were small and were pecking at the pellet, rather than taking it properly.
In the meantime I kept feeding 6s towards the island and meat at 5m. The first fish over the meat line was a F1, which was handy for the silvers, but suggested there wasn't many carp in the area. With no more fish, a switch back to the island resulted in a couple more F1s and carp.
A switch to my open water swim, resulted in a hooked carp, but lost the whole rig as the fish found an underwater snag by the island. With only 45mins left I decided against setting up a new rig, so concentrated on the island and 5m, but could only add another 2 carp.
Come the weigh in I was little surprised when Neil said he had about 15lb of silvers. Turns out some of those small carp, were in fact F1s! Fortunately I came 2nd in silvers on the lake for a pick up. I could have kept with the carp, but genuinely don't believe there were many carp in the area. Paul and Tom had 60lb & 70lb respectively. Trigger on p66 had 103lb for 3rd on the lake, catching most of his fish from the margins or the reedbed, with only a handful of carp at 5m.
1st 209- 0 - Tony Rixon - p3
2nd 171-12 - Sean Townsend - p18
3rd 160-14 - Anton Page - p50
4th 133- 3 - Allan Oram - p19
5th 121- 9 - Russ Peck - p16
6th 117- 5 - Adrian Clark - p45
Silvers
1st 30- 2 - Paul Faires - p24
2nd 26- 1 - Tim Ford - p11
3rd 19- 2 - Neil Mercer - p70
4th 17- 1 - Gordon Cannings - p5
5th 15- 2 - Ken Rayner - p68
6th 11- 0 - Mike West - p61
11/04/15 - Windmill - Match Lake
Weight - 33lb 10oz
Catch - 8 Carp, 1 Skimmer
Weather - Mostly sunny, but windy!
Match - Big Money Qualifier - 7th out of 15
My first visit to Windmill Fishery near Westerleigh (North Bristol). Four lakes were dug a couple of years ago, including a 32 peg match lake which is roughly rectangular in shape with 2 central islands. Depths vary from 3ft to 10ft plus, which to be honest doesn't make it the fairest venue. However the lakes are still developing and weights are improving. Personally, I hope it works out, because the venue is only 10mins from home, which makes a pleasant change from the normal 45mins drives and Bristol is sadly lacking a decent commercial fishery.
Todays match was a qualifier for a Big Money Match in July, where the top 2 from each qualifier will have a chance of grabbing a £1000 top prize. Although I have walked the venue a couple of times, I have yet to fish it, so thanks to Trigger who qualified last week for some information. Since it was the top 2 who qualified, there as no point over complicating matters, so bait was kept simple with meat and pellet.
The area to avoid was p10-20, so a little disappointed to draw p20. However, after a week of warm weather and an island within reach at 14m, I quite fancied it for a few fish. Typically being the weekend the weather changed to much cooler conditions so I wasn't sure how it would go.
It was good to met up with some people I hadn't seen for while, including Barry Richards who made the trip from over the bridge and John Fuidge. I hadn't seen John for years since we both fished for Thornbury AC on the rivers and it was good to catch up after so many years.
Back to my peg and the wind was blowing through the gap between the 2 islands at an angle into my face, but generally it was manageable. Plumbing up revealed a wide shallow area against the island, before it dropped away sharply into 5ft of water. As for a short line, I decided to target the bottom of the slope at 5m with meat. And finally the margins, with no marginal shelf I found an area where the slope wasn't too severe, feeding pellet & meat.
Starting across by the island (SM pellet 0.2g > .12 > 16 B911) with 6mm expander toss potting 4s. After 10mins I had my first carp, soon followed by a second. I had started catapulting 6s, but couldn't get a proper bite, so switched back to toss potting pellet, but the wind was beginning to strengthen, so switched to fishing meat, which resulted in some proper bites.
After 2 hours I was up to 5 carp and a small skimmer, which from those I could see was leading the way. Unfortunately the wheels then fell off as the wind strengthen further and was now blowing down the lake, which meant I couldn't fish the island the way I wanted.
The next 4 hours was a struggle. I managed 2 carp over the short meat line and 1 carp on the straight lead by the island. In the meantime I could the anglers in the better area to my left catching, as was John to my right who was making the most of the space fishing down the margin to win the match.
I came away from the match quite frustrated, because I am certain I would have caught much more had I been able to fish the island properly, but when the wind is blowing so hard that holding 5m is difficult I didn't really stand a chance.
On a positive note the fish are in very good condition and fighting fit.
1st 75- 6 - John Fuidge - p18
2nd 54- 8 - Sean Townsend - p27
3rd 50- 6 - Barry Richards - p24
4th 43- 4 - Craig Challsingworth - p26
5th 42-12 - Scott Maunders - p28
6th 38-12 - Luke Pester - p22
Catch - 8 Carp, 1 Skimmer
Weather - Mostly sunny, but windy!
Match - Big Money Qualifier - 7th out of 15
My first visit to Windmill Fishery near Westerleigh (North Bristol). Four lakes were dug a couple of years ago, including a 32 peg match lake which is roughly rectangular in shape with 2 central islands. Depths vary from 3ft to 10ft plus, which to be honest doesn't make it the fairest venue. However the lakes are still developing and weights are improving. Personally, I hope it works out, because the venue is only 10mins from home, which makes a pleasant change from the normal 45mins drives and Bristol is sadly lacking a decent commercial fishery.
Todays match was a qualifier for a Big Money Match in July, where the top 2 from each qualifier will have a chance of grabbing a £1000 top prize. Although I have walked the venue a couple of times, I have yet to fish it, so thanks to Trigger who qualified last week for some information. Since it was the top 2 who qualified, there as no point over complicating matters, so bait was kept simple with meat and pellet.
The area to avoid was p10-20, so a little disappointed to draw p20. However, after a week of warm weather and an island within reach at 14m, I quite fancied it for a few fish. Typically being the weekend the weather changed to much cooler conditions so I wasn't sure how it would go.
It was good to met up with some people I hadn't seen for while, including Barry Richards who made the trip from over the bridge and John Fuidge. I hadn't seen John for years since we both fished for Thornbury AC on the rivers and it was good to catch up after so many years.
Back to my peg and the wind was blowing through the gap between the 2 islands at an angle into my face, but generally it was manageable. Plumbing up revealed a wide shallow area against the island, before it dropped away sharply into 5ft of water. As for a short line, I decided to target the bottom of the slope at 5m with meat. And finally the margins, with no marginal shelf I found an area where the slope wasn't too severe, feeding pellet & meat.
Starting across by the island (SM pellet 0.2g > .12 > 16 B911) with 6mm expander toss potting 4s. After 10mins I had my first carp, soon followed by a second. I had started catapulting 6s, but couldn't get a proper bite, so switched back to toss potting pellet, but the wind was beginning to strengthen, so switched to fishing meat, which resulted in some proper bites.
After 2 hours I was up to 5 carp and a small skimmer, which from those I could see was leading the way. Unfortunately the wheels then fell off as the wind strengthen further and was now blowing down the lake, which meant I couldn't fish the island the way I wanted.The next 4 hours was a struggle. I managed 2 carp over the short meat line and 1 carp on the straight lead by the island. In the meantime I could the anglers in the better area to my left catching, as was John to my right who was making the most of the space fishing down the margin to win the match.
I came away from the match quite frustrated, because I am certain I would have caught much more had I been able to fish the island properly, but when the wind is blowing so hard that holding 5m is difficult I didn't really stand a chance.
On a positive note the fish are in very good condition and fighting fit.
1st 75- 6 - John Fuidge - p18
2nd 54- 8 - Sean Townsend - p27
3rd 50- 6 - Barry Richards - p24
4th 43- 4 - Craig Challsingworth - p26
5th 42-12 - Scott Maunders - p28
6th 38-12 - Luke Pester - p22
Tuesday, 7 April 2015
06/04/15 - Rood Ashton
Weight - 15lb 15oz
Catch - 6 Carp
Weather - warm & sunny, easterly breeze
Match - Open - 10th out of 13
Following reports of good weights, Mark organised a knock up at Rood Ashton to take advantage of the extended weekend. Numbers had been limited to 15, because the car park bank had to be left free for pleasure anglers. In the end only 13 turned up, but it still meant pegging was a little tight.
When I saw my peg, I was really disappointed as I was in the middle of 3 anglers in an area that normal suited 2. I had no trees to fish under, no margin and open water in front. Have to say I considered going home, because I knew I would be in for a tough day.
Plan of attack was simple. Straight lead at 25m firing 8s over the top, pole/pellet at 13m. Meat was also fed in the deepest area on my top 4 at an angle.
It was cold overnight, so I wasn't expecting too much to start, but it took 2hrs 10mins before I landed my first fish. Jamie Read to my left had 4 or 5 fish on the method, whilst the angler to my right had 3 fish also on the method. I considered setting up a feeder, but decided to stick with the straight lead, because I thought the fish would eventually settle over the pellet, plus the fish on the feeder tend to be on the small side.
My next fish arrived an hour later. I tried the pole, but only got nibbles from roach. I even tried throwing in a load of bait a couple of metres off the margin, which resulted in 1 lost foul hooker, but nothing else.
In the end I sat it out on the tip with 8mm pellet and managed to restock some of my hooklengths (I had to relief the boredom some how). The last 15mins turned out to be the best period, with 4 fish, when they finally settled over the pellet.
Not a great day, but the first match of the year at Rood Ashton signals the start of spring/summer and the weather today was gorgeous providing the first sunburn of the year.
1st 130-0 - Craig Edmunds - p7
2nd 76- 3 - Glen Picton - p5
3rd 58- 9 - Mark Poppleton - p3
4th 42- 8 - Kevin Crabbe - p10
5th 34- 8 - Ryan Heard - p4
6th 33- 5 - John Moody
Catch - 6 Carp
Weather - warm & sunny, easterly breeze
Match - Open - 10th out of 13
Following reports of good weights, Mark organised a knock up at Rood Ashton to take advantage of the extended weekend. Numbers had been limited to 15, because the car park bank had to be left free for pleasure anglers. In the end only 13 turned up, but it still meant pegging was a little tight.
When I saw my peg, I was really disappointed as I was in the middle of 3 anglers in an area that normal suited 2. I had no trees to fish under, no margin and open water in front. Have to say I considered going home, because I knew I would be in for a tough day.
Plan of attack was simple. Straight lead at 25m firing 8s over the top, pole/pellet at 13m. Meat was also fed in the deepest area on my top 4 at an angle.
It was cold overnight, so I wasn't expecting too much to start, but it took 2hrs 10mins before I landed my first fish. Jamie Read to my left had 4 or 5 fish on the method, whilst the angler to my right had 3 fish also on the method. I considered setting up a feeder, but decided to stick with the straight lead, because I thought the fish would eventually settle over the pellet, plus the fish on the feeder tend to be on the small side.
My next fish arrived an hour later. I tried the pole, but only got nibbles from roach. I even tried throwing in a load of bait a couple of metres off the margin, which resulted in 1 lost foul hooker, but nothing else.
In the end I sat it out on the tip with 8mm pellet and managed to restock some of my hooklengths (I had to relief the boredom some how). The last 15mins turned out to be the best period, with 4 fish, when they finally settled over the pellet.
Not a great day, but the first match of the year at Rood Ashton signals the start of spring/summer and the weather today was gorgeous providing the first sunburn of the year.
1st 130-0 - Craig Edmunds - p7
2nd 76- 3 - Glen Picton - p5
3rd 58- 9 - Mark Poppleton - p3
4th 42- 8 - Kevin Crabbe - p10
5th 34- 8 - Ryan Heard - p4
6th 33- 5 - John Moody
05/04/15 - Lands End - Match
Weight - 90lb 12oz
Catch - 16 Carp, 7 F1, 2 Roach, 1 Skimmer, 1 Chub
Weather - Mostly sunny
Match - Open - 5th out of 26
Today was the unused reserve date for the winter league and at last the weather is improving. 26 had booked in, which meant 13 on each of Match and Johns (no3) Lake.
I found myself on p13, which had been very consistent so far this winter and on arrival there was a number of carp basking in the sun. Yesterday's match had only been won with 70lb and was a struggle for most in a cold northerly wind. The silvers was won from p11 opposite with 39lb. I didn't expect the skimmers to feed in any numbers again (well not at this end of the lake), so set up various rigs to target the carp on pellet and meat, although I did set up silvers pellet rig just in case, but only had 2 roach on it.
For company I had Mike Duckett on p15 and John Bradford on p11. On the all in I had a carp straight away on the stalker rig & 8mm pellet, but they quickly sunk away. Slapping the rig resulted in another carp, but I was getting some quick bites, so switched a more conventional rig to fish 6mm pellet on top of the shelf by the island and down the left hand bank. A run of F1s revealed the reason for the quick bites, but only a couple carp. Mike was also catching a few F1s and carp off the island, but after 2hrs the fish seem to have drifted away.
The rest of the match was spent continually rotating swims, because I couldn't catch more than 1 or 2 fish before having to swap. From the start I had fed meat/pellet down the right hand margin, but this only produced 1 carp. However I had noticed a number of carp sitting under the left hand bush in range of my top 3, but couldn't tempt them out of their sanctuary so fed some meat a little further along the bank, which produced 5 carp.
Must admit it was a little frustrating that I couldn't catch consistently, I had hoped by keep pinging the pellet to the island and down the left hand bank I would catch late on, but I must have overdone it, because the carp were happier the other side of the rope with John who was doing his best to avoid them.
Despite a few failed attempts to catch at 5m on meat, they eventually turned up with 15mins to go, when I landed 4 carp to overtake Mike, but knew I was a long way behind Bela and Tony.
1st 216-12 - Bela Bakos - p19
2nd 146-11 - Tony Rixon - p18
3rd 143-12 - Craig Edmunds - p7
4th 114-13 - Rich Heatley - p21
5th 90-12 - Ken Rayner - p13
6th 76-12 - Mike Duckett - p15
Silvers
1st 54-15 - Rod Wootton - p22
2nd 32- 2 - Craig Edmunds - p7
3rd 19- 4 - Dave Hodgson - p3
4th 17- 0 - Bela Bakos - p19
Catch - 16 Carp, 7 F1, 2 Roach, 1 Skimmer, 1 Chub
Weather - Mostly sunny
Match - Open - 5th out of 26
Today was the unused reserve date for the winter league and at last the weather is improving. 26 had booked in, which meant 13 on each of Match and Johns (no3) Lake.
I found myself on p13, which had been very consistent so far this winter and on arrival there was a number of carp basking in the sun. Yesterday's match had only been won with 70lb and was a struggle for most in a cold northerly wind. The silvers was won from p11 opposite with 39lb. I didn't expect the skimmers to feed in any numbers again (well not at this end of the lake), so set up various rigs to target the carp on pellet and meat, although I did set up silvers pellet rig just in case, but only had 2 roach on it.For company I had Mike Duckett on p15 and John Bradford on p11. On the all in I had a carp straight away on the stalker rig & 8mm pellet, but they quickly sunk away. Slapping the rig resulted in another carp, but I was getting some quick bites, so switched a more conventional rig to fish 6mm pellet on top of the shelf by the island and down the left hand bank. A run of F1s revealed the reason for the quick bites, but only a couple carp. Mike was also catching a few F1s and carp off the island, but after 2hrs the fish seem to have drifted away. The rest of the match was spent continually rotating swims, because I couldn't catch more than 1 or 2 fish before having to swap. From the start I had fed meat/pellet down the right hand margin, but this only produced 1 carp. However I had noticed a number of carp sitting under the left hand bush in range of my top 3, but couldn't tempt them out of their sanctuary so fed some meat a little further along the bank, which produced 5 carp.
Must admit it was a little frustrating that I couldn't catch consistently, I had hoped by keep pinging the pellet to the island and down the left hand bank I would catch late on, but I must have overdone it, because the carp were happier the other side of the rope with John who was doing his best to avoid them.
Despite a few failed attempts to catch at 5m on meat, they eventually turned up with 15mins to go, when I landed 4 carp to overtake Mike, but knew I was a long way behind Bela and Tony.
1st 216-12 - Bela Bakos - p19
2nd 146-11 - Tony Rixon - p18
3rd 143-12 - Craig Edmunds - p7
4th 114-13 - Rich Heatley - p21
5th 90-12 - Ken Rayner - p13
6th 76-12 - Mike Duckett - p15
Silvers
1st 54-15 - Rod Wootton - p22
2nd 32- 2 - Craig Edmunds - p7
3rd 19- 4 - Dave Hodgson - p3
4th 17- 0 - Bela Bakos - p19
Friday, 3 April 2015
29/03/15 - Lands End - Johns
Weight - 38lb 12oz
Catch - 11 Carp, 6 Skimmers, 5 Roach, 4 F1, 1 Crucian
Weather - Gales! and some showers
Match - Winter League - 2nd out of 6 - section. 24th overall
Apologies for the lateness of this blog, but I haven't had much spare time this week.
Todays match was the final round of the Winter League and I was lying 6th with an outside chance of breaking into the top 4 paying positions, but needed a minimum of a section 2nd and at last 2 others to drop points.
With Mike away at trade show in Cornwall, I let his wife draw p46 for me. Not what I wanted, but as the draw was completed I managed to avoid Tony Rixon, Rod Wootton, Adrian Clarke and Craig Edmunds in my section.
Since I needed to target a section win a positive mental attitude was required and with that in mind I was hoping to catch what I could on pellet, then switch to meat late on. Starting at 13m fishing (SM Chimp 0.4g > .12 > 18 silverfish pellet) 4mm expander over 4s & micros was quite an achievement considering the gales, but fortunately the wind was coming in from the south west which meant I was slightly sheltered from the worst of the wind.
Instead of toss potting bait, decided it would be easier in the wind to pot a small amount of pellet every 2nd or 3rd fish. This worked with some skimmers, F1s and a couple of small carp, but the wind was switching more to a westerly direction blowing straight down the lake and it was increasingly difficult to present a bait.
In the meantime I had been feeding meat & pellet down the left hand margin. After only producing a couple of roach early on, I then caught 2 carp in 2 put ins later on, which I thought would be the start of catching a few, but disappointingly that was it from the margins.
All the fish so far seem to have been caught from the other side of the lake. I did ask Paul Faires opposite on p66, who had caught from the off to push some carp over my side. As for my side it was much more of struggle. Chris Fox on p41 was targeting the silvers and the only person who seemed to be catching was Jim Jenner on p50 and judging by the amount of elastic coming out of his pole and the time it was taking to land fish I suspected he was catching some proper fish.
My short line did produce 1 small carp, but I was going nowhere fast. Despite the wind I got the feeling that some carp were hanging around the island and had started pinging pellet. First drop in with 6mm expander at half depth resulted in a carp, then an F1. The rest of the match was a case of catch a couple of fish from the island either on 6mm expander or 8mm pellet, before trying the margins. The wind was really frustrating, because I couldn't fish 16m into the gap, where I was convinced I would have caught much more, but for the wind.
My the all out, I was fairly sure Jim had beaten me, by vurtrue of catching some bigger fish, which turned out to be the case. As it happen the 7lb of silvers I caught early on proved decisive as both Kieran Guppy on p45 and Bob Wheeler on p42 had caught some better fish late on.
Overall the whole venue fished very well and I managed to sneak 4th place in the league, just beating Paul Elmes who had the same number of points, but 24lb less weight over the league. From the pegs drawn this year I was pleased to have claimed 4th, which made up a little for missing out by one place recently in the Todber League and Emerald Pool silverfish league.
Thanks to those who fished the league and despite all the piss taking usually at my expense I hope the majority enjoyed the league. Next year I will be looking to tweak the league a little to try and improve it further . Dates will be supplied shortly.
1st 209-12 - Sean Townsend - p22
2nd 172-12 - Tony Rixon - p68
3rd 140-10 - Bob Gullick - p13
4th 134- 3 - Kev Molton - p28
5th 125-15 - Mark Poppleton - p19
6th 121-11 - Paul Faires - p66
Silvers
1st 39- 7 - Nigel Bartlett - p20
2nd 30-12 - Russ Peck - p15
3rd 23- 8 - Martin Pettifer - p7
4th 20-10 - Mike West - p11
5th 16- 6 - Gary O'Shea - p25
6th 10-10 - Nick Chedzoy - p32
League top 4
1st Tony Rixon - 29pts
2nd Nick Chedzoy - 27pts
3rd Steve Seager - 26pts
4th Ken Rayner - 25pts
Silvers League top 2
1st Chris Fox - 28pts
2nd Gary O'Shea - 27pts
Catch - 11 Carp, 6 Skimmers, 5 Roach, 4 F1, 1 Crucian
Weather - Gales! and some showers
Match - Winter League - 2nd out of 6 - section. 24th overall
Apologies for the lateness of this blog, but I haven't had much spare time this week.
Todays match was the final round of the Winter League and I was lying 6th with an outside chance of breaking into the top 4 paying positions, but needed a minimum of a section 2nd and at last 2 others to drop points.
With Mike away at trade show in Cornwall, I let his wife draw p46 for me. Not what I wanted, but as the draw was completed I managed to avoid Tony Rixon, Rod Wootton, Adrian Clarke and Craig Edmunds in my section.
Since I needed to target a section win a positive mental attitude was required and with that in mind I was hoping to catch what I could on pellet, then switch to meat late on. Starting at 13m fishing (SM Chimp 0.4g > .12 > 18 silverfish pellet) 4mm expander over 4s & micros was quite an achievement considering the gales, but fortunately the wind was coming in from the south west which meant I was slightly sheltered from the worst of the wind.
Instead of toss potting bait, decided it would be easier in the wind to pot a small amount of pellet every 2nd or 3rd fish. This worked with some skimmers, F1s and a couple of small carp, but the wind was switching more to a westerly direction blowing straight down the lake and it was increasingly difficult to present a bait.
In the meantime I had been feeding meat & pellet down the left hand margin. After only producing a couple of roach early on, I then caught 2 carp in 2 put ins later on, which I thought would be the start of catching a few, but disappointingly that was it from the margins.
All the fish so far seem to have been caught from the other side of the lake. I did ask Paul Faires opposite on p66, who had caught from the off to push some carp over my side. As for my side it was much more of struggle. Chris Fox on p41 was targeting the silvers and the only person who seemed to be catching was Jim Jenner on p50 and judging by the amount of elastic coming out of his pole and the time it was taking to land fish I suspected he was catching some proper fish.
My short line did produce 1 small carp, but I was going nowhere fast. Despite the wind I got the feeling that some carp were hanging around the island and had started pinging pellet. First drop in with 6mm expander at half depth resulted in a carp, then an F1. The rest of the match was a case of catch a couple of fish from the island either on 6mm expander or 8mm pellet, before trying the margins. The wind was really frustrating, because I couldn't fish 16m into the gap, where I was convinced I would have caught much more, but for the wind.
My the all out, I was fairly sure Jim had beaten me, by vurtrue of catching some bigger fish, which turned out to be the case. As it happen the 7lb of silvers I caught early on proved decisive as both Kieran Guppy on p45 and Bob Wheeler on p42 had caught some better fish late on.
Overall the whole venue fished very well and I managed to sneak 4th place in the league, just beating Paul Elmes who had the same number of points, but 24lb less weight over the league. From the pegs drawn this year I was pleased to have claimed 4th, which made up a little for missing out by one place recently in the Todber League and Emerald Pool silverfish league.
Thanks to those who fished the league and despite all the piss taking usually at my expense I hope the majority enjoyed the league. Next year I will be looking to tweak the league a little to try and improve it further . Dates will be supplied shortly.
1st 209-12 - Sean Townsend - p22
2nd 172-12 - Tony Rixon - p68
3rd 140-10 - Bob Gullick - p13
4th 134- 3 - Kev Molton - p28
5th 125-15 - Mark Poppleton - p19
6th 121-11 - Paul Faires - p66
Silvers
1st 39- 7 - Nigel Bartlett - p20
2nd 30-12 - Russ Peck - p15
3rd 23- 8 - Martin Pettifer - p7
4th 20-10 - Mike West - p11
5th 16- 6 - Gary O'Shea - p25
6th 10-10 - Nick Chedzoy - p32
League top 4
1st Tony Rixon - 29pts
2nd Nick Chedzoy - 27pts
3rd Steve Seager - 26pts
4th Ken Rayner - 25pts
Silvers League top 2
1st Chris Fox - 28pts
2nd Gary O'Shea - 27pts
Wednesday, 1 April 2015
28/03/15 - Lands End - Match
Weight - 42lb 2oz (16lb 2oz - silvers)
Catch - 8 Carp, 22 Skimmers, 12 Rudd, 10 Roach, 5 F1, 4 Crucians
Weather - Mostly cloudy and breezy
Match - 4th out of 7, 2nd in silvers
With an eye on tomorrow's winter league, I was pleased to see todays match on no3 lake, instead of the Match Lake which was hosting a club match. However we only had 7 anglers, so more of a knock up. Don't think it helped that with Mike in Cornwall doing a trade show and no phone reception, some people couldn't book in and weren't prepared to turn up on spec.
I found myself on p70 again, which is great for silvers, but I really wanted to draw further up the lake. As we know the carp in this corner tend to be on the small side and if the rest of the lakes fishes, it is difficult to compete for the overall placing. With that in mind, I felt silvers would be the best chance for a pick up.
The match went pretty much the same as the last time I fished the peg a few weeks ago.
I started on the meat, hoping for a few early carp, but caught rudd, so that was soon binned. A switch to fishing soft pellet over 4s by the weed bed produced a run of mostly skimmers, but fewer F1s than last time. After a couple hours the rudd where proving to be a real pain.
A further switch to the point of the spit produced a few more skimmers, but it wasn't prolific and the F1s were conspicuous by their absence.
In the meantime I had been pinging pellet to the spit in the hope of pulling in some carp and F1s for later. The issue however was the wind blowing more and more rubbish into my end of the lake, making it difficult to present a bait. In the end I managed a few carp fishing a 6mm expander at half depth down the left hand margin tight to all the snags, but dodging the debris was a pain and the carp I was catching were on the small side.
A short meat line only produced 1 carp and more silvers, so ended up concentrating on chasing the carp, but by the end of the match started to wonder whether I should have stuck with the silvers. As it happened Rod Wootton put an excellent 28lb of F1s & quality skimmers on scales from unfancied p45. Fortunately Rod came 2nd overall leaving me to collect the silvers pools by de-fault.
1st 62-11 - Rich Heatley - p41
2nd 59-8 - Rod Wootton - p45
3rd 53- 8 - Mark Walsh - p58
4th 42- 2 - Ken Rayner - p70
Silvers
1st 28- 2 - Rod Wootton - p45
2nd 16- 2 - Ken Rayner - p70
Catch - 8 Carp, 22 Skimmers, 12 Rudd, 10 Roach, 5 F1, 4 Crucians
Weather - Mostly cloudy and breezy
Match - 4th out of 7, 2nd in silvers
With an eye on tomorrow's winter league, I was pleased to see todays match on no3 lake, instead of the Match Lake which was hosting a club match. However we only had 7 anglers, so more of a knock up. Don't think it helped that with Mike in Cornwall doing a trade show and no phone reception, some people couldn't book in and weren't prepared to turn up on spec.
I found myself on p70 again, which is great for silvers, but I really wanted to draw further up the lake. As we know the carp in this corner tend to be on the small side and if the rest of the lakes fishes, it is difficult to compete for the overall placing. With that in mind, I felt silvers would be the best chance for a pick up.
The match went pretty much the same as the last time I fished the peg a few weeks ago.
I started on the meat, hoping for a few early carp, but caught rudd, so that was soon binned. A switch to fishing soft pellet over 4s by the weed bed produced a run of mostly skimmers, but fewer F1s than last time. After a couple hours the rudd where proving to be a real pain.
A further switch to the point of the spit produced a few more skimmers, but it wasn't prolific and the F1s were conspicuous by their absence.
In the meantime I had been pinging pellet to the spit in the hope of pulling in some carp and F1s for later. The issue however was the wind blowing more and more rubbish into my end of the lake, making it difficult to present a bait. In the end I managed a few carp fishing a 6mm expander at half depth down the left hand margin tight to all the snags, but dodging the debris was a pain and the carp I was catching were on the small side.
A short meat line only produced 1 carp and more silvers, so ended up concentrating on chasing the carp, but by the end of the match started to wonder whether I should have stuck with the silvers. As it happened Rod Wootton put an excellent 28lb of F1s & quality skimmers on scales from unfancied p45. Fortunately Rod came 2nd overall leaving me to collect the silvers pools by de-fault.
1st 62-11 - Rich Heatley - p41
2nd 59-8 - Rod Wootton - p45
3rd 53- 8 - Mark Walsh - p58
4th 42- 2 - Ken Rayner - p70
Silvers
1st 28- 2 - Rod Wootton - p45
2nd 16- 2 - Ken Rayner - p70
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