03/12/16 - Avalon - Match Lake

Weight - 3lb 13oz
Catch - 9 Skimmers, 3 Roach, 1 Perch
Weather - Cold north easterly wind, cloudy with sunny periods
Match - Silverfish League - Last round - 12th out of 17 (3rd out of 6 - section)

Going into the last round I thought I was lying 2nd, but a miscalculation meant I was actually lying 4th and about 4lb behind Chris Fox in 3rd. 5th place was about 15lb behind me, so barring an absolute disaster I was at least guaranteed 4th place, which was worth £90.

Ideally I wanted to draw an end peg or one in a gap between the islands to give myself the best chance of improving on my position. Sadly p6 wasn't what I wanted, plus the cold north easterly was blowing straight into me. Either side of me was Tony Rixon on the end peg 5 and Ray Wickham on p7, with a spare peg to his left.

If I wanted to catch Chris I really needed some proper skimmers and to be honest I wasn't that optimistic following a frosty week and the wind today was going to make presentation difficult.

On the all in 2 balls of groundbait was fed at 13m, plus micros/groundbait at 13m to my left. Starting on a micro cage feeder, I had a micro roach on my 2nd cast, followed by a hand size skimmer 30mins later on dead pinkie.

Fortunately after the wind dropped a little after an hour and switched to the pole, but struggled for a bite. Because I was looking for skimmers, I kept both swims topped up, with groundbait and micros, moving out to 14.5m, fishing either double dead pinkie or maggot. The good news was the tiny roach population didn't bother me, nor did the proper skimmers, as I only caught hand size fish, although I did manage a near 1lb perch on the feeder, which was helpful.

With 90mins to go I concentrated mostly on fished 4mm expander in the hope of snaring one of those proper skimmers and at one point thought I might have a good finish as I netted 3 hand sized skimmers in a short space of time, but it wasn't to be, as they soon disappeared.

I really struggled today from what was on the day a poor draw and disappointed to finish the series on a low note. However, I am pleased to have finished 4th overall, picking up £90 in the process.

Overall the series went reasonably well, with a 1st and 2nd overall, but mistakes in the 2nd round cost me a higher result. I am certainly looking forward to booking next year

1st 16- 5 - Rich Coles - p34

2nd 13-11 - Pete Neate - p19

3rd 10- 4 - Tony Rixon - p5

4th 9- 1 - Vic Bush - p37

5th 8-15 - John Fuidge - p39

6th 8- 3 - Lee Williams - p17

Overall

1st 97-11 - Vic Bush

2nd 92-13 - John Fuidge

3rd 89- 0 - Chris Fox

4th 82- 1 - Ken Rayner

20/11/16 - Todber Manor - Hillview

Weight - 34lb 0oz
Catch - 14 Carp, 3 Skimmers, 3 Tench, 2 F1, 1 Roach, 1 Perch
Weather - Breezy start, flat calm later
Match - Pairs Series rd 3 - 4th out of 6 section.

As well as I am doing in the Avalon silverfish league, I am doing equally badly in this pairs series. A wrong tactical decision in the first round, a poor draw (on the day) in the second round, I was hopeful for a reversal of fortunate in the third round and it was my turn to fish the worst section (pegs 34-41).

Travelled down again with Tony and Chris Fox joined us due to an intermittent problem with his van. After a decent breakfast at Cannards Well, Tony managed to make it as far as Wincanton, before deciding he needed an emergency toilet break. An appropriate layby was found and Tony did the business, only to return to the van with a sore arse. He only got stung by some nettles. We didn't laugh much!

At the draw I found myself on 34 and felt I needed to be further along the section, but at least it made unloading the van easier, because Chris was behind on 62 Ash.

The overnight wind and rain was forecast to clear and fishing the pole at 13m was manageable in the side wind, which is where I fed some micros & 4s, 3 balls of groundbait & micros was also fed at 11.5m at an angle to my right, hopefully to entice the local skimmers into feeding.

On the all in the lead/bread was cast to various points along the island without so much as a twitch. After 30mins I switched to the 13m line toss potting micros and corn, with corn on the hook and had a small F1 straight away. Staying on the corn, the swim gradually built up and starting catching 3-4lb carp and after 2hrs felt I was probably close to leading the section.

Then the wind dropped, which was like flicking a switch, I just couldn't get a bite. A switch to fishing dead maggot produced a few smaller fish, but it was slow going. With the lake going flat calm, Alex Murray to my right on 35 started catching on the waggler, including some proper lumps. Ash and Alex Nadin were also now catching.

Unfortunately I didn't bring a waggler rod, but tried the straight lead along the island without any bites and the right hand 11.5m swim only produced a couple of small fish.

In an effort to make something happen I started pinging 4s at 14m and a new swim was set up 14.5m to my left with micros & 4s. Things improved a little, switching from maggot to expander, but still catching too many small fish, although I did manage a 6lber late on from the left hand swim.

A disappointing finish after my good start and for some reason I just got to grips with the venue.

1st - 90-12 - Nick White - p67 (ash)
2nd - 76- 8 - Allan Oram - p45 (hillview)
3rd - 69- 0 - Steve Tucker - p64 (ash)
4th - 64-14 - Fred Roberts - p60 (hillview)
5th - 63-12 - Chris Fox - p62 (ash)
6th - 55- 9 - Ash T

ompkins - p37 (hillview)

19/11/16 - Avalon - Match Lake

Weight - 12lb 8oz
Catch - 15 Skimmers, 14 Roach, 1 Golden Tench
Weather - Sleety start, mostly cloudy and slight breeze
Match - Silverfish League - rd 5 - 2nd out of 17

On the drive down it was sleeting heavily and the prospects for the day weren't encouraging. Fortunately on arrival the worst of the storm had passed and the rest of the day was quite pleasant, if not a little chilly.

Peg 9 hasn't been great this series, however Vic said it was one of the most consistent pegs and to be honest I was quite happy, because the peg was in a gap between the islands, plus p10 wasn't in which meant extra space. For company I had Ziggy to my right on p8 and Vic to my left on p11. With Chris Fox on p12, meant 3 out of the top 4 were all in a line.

Following a cold and wet week, I set myself a target of 10lb, although I expected 15lb or so would probably win.

On the all in 3 balls of gonuts black groundbait/micros was deposited at 13m, a small ball of groundbait/micros at 14.5m to my left and finally a small ball of groundbait plus caster at 5m. I started a small gripmesh feeder with dead maggot cast into the gap. After the 3rd cast without a bite a change to a micro cage feeder and pinkie produced a 2lb skimmer, but it was loner and no further bites followed.

On the 50min mark I switched to fishing the 13m line. Over the next hour I swapped between a double bulk rig (Dino Long Bream 0.75g > .10 > 18 silverfish pellet) and a conventional rig (jean francios 0.6g > .08 > 22 silverfish maggot).

With 2 hours gone I caught a big skimmer and a golden tench on the conventional rig and pinkie, which just put me ahead of Ziggy who also had a golden tench, plus a few smaller skimmers.

As the match progressed it was a case of topping up with a small ball of groundbait and micros at 13m, gradually pushing out to 16m and fishing the 14.5m left hand swim. When that swim died it was topped with mostly micros and a small ball of groundbait, before switching to the long line.  

I didn't catch any more big skimmers, but managed a number of hand size skimmers, plus a couple up to 1lb and felt I was keeping ahead of those around me, although it would have been a different story had Ziggy landed a foul hooked a big skimmer which he lost at the net.

A brief look over the short line and down the margin, only produced 1 roach, so with the match drawing to a close, I deposited 3 feeders full of bait. 15mins later I topped up both pole line and switched to the feeder. Unfortunately I got my timings wrong (as did a few others). When Vic called all out at 3pm, I was expecting a further 30mins. To be fair, I wasn't at the draw when Vic made the announcement.

When the all out was called I thought I had about 10lb, but started doubting myself when Pete Neate weighed 10-14 and then Ziggy weighed 10- 8. My 12- 8 was the best weight on the left hand bank and Jim Jenner won the match with pellet caught skimmers.

As for the league, I made up ground on Vic who weighed 6-10, Chris had 6-0 and John had 9-0, which means I'm now 2nd in the league, but its very tight between the 4 of us.

1st - 20- 2 - Jim Jenner (Avalon) - p37
2nd - 12- 8 - Ken Rayner (Colmic) - p9
3rd - 10-14 - Pete Neate (Trowbridge) - p5
3rd - 10-14 - Rich Coles (Bridgewater) - p35
5th - 10- 8 - Ziggy (Garbolino) - p8
6th - 9-12 - Eric Fouracre (Mosella) - p39

League Standings
1st - Vic Bush - 88-10
2nd - Ken Rayner - 84- 4
3rd - Chris Fox - 82- 5
4th - John Fuidge - 81-14
5th - Lee Woodhouse - 66- 9
6th - Eric Fouracres - 65- 1

6/11/16 - Todber Manor - Ash Lake

Weight - 35lb 10oz
Catch - 12 Carp, 13 Skimmers, 1 F1, 1 Tench
Weather - Mostly sunny, cold northerly wind
Match - Pairs - rd 2 - 14th out of 24 overall, 6th out of 6 section.

Travelling down with Tony and Judith I was a little late which Tony didn't appreciate! The breakfast as Cannard Wells eased the pain!

It was my turn to fish "D" section on Ash lake and with the prevailing northerly wind blowing straight down the lake a draw from 67 upwards would do. Unfortunately peg 62 would be my home. A tough day was likely, since it was the same peg I drew last week and with the cold wind blowing into my end of the lake, I wasn't very optimistic.

At least Tony was happier with his draw having the wind blowing off his back. Ash Tomkins was next to me on 64 and we debated who would be last for the section.

And my fears to be well founded when it took 20mins to catch my first fish, a hand size skimmer on 4mm expander and it was a further hour until I caught my first carp, again on 4mm expander at 13m. In the meantime the pegs further along were all catching.

I persevered with the pellet, toss potting a few 4s and micros at 13m where the bottom starts to slope up towards the end bank and at 13.5m to my right. It was slow going but bites were starting to come more regularly, including a big tench, before the wind picked up and bites stopped.

The lead & bread produced a 2.5lb carp, whilst a spell on the maggot feeder only produced 2 small carp. I was really going nowhere. Ash stayed on the pole, but was also struggling and we both had 17 fish with roughly 2.5hrs to go.

A switch to fishing further right, with double dead maggot still toss potting 4s & micros produced another run of fish including some proper skimmers, a big F1 and a couple more carp. I also managed a couple more carp in the last hour on lead/bread, plus a couple more at 13m from the bottom of the end bank where I had been pinging pellet all day.

However I was never going to compete with the middle pegs and finished bottom of the section. Ash finished with 3 more fish than me, but had more carp weighing 47lb and the other end peg only had 36lb, so you really needed to draw the middle of the lake at the moment.

Tony also struggled catching plenty of fish, but no real quality. As such we have slipped down to 9th, however its still really tight so there is still hope of a decent finish.

1st 79- 6 - Alex Murray - p70 (ash)
2nd 73- 4 - Calum Craig (Colmic) - p67 (ash)
3rd 66- 5 - Nick Ewers (Preston) - p48 (hillview)
4th 66- 4 - Alex Nadin - p73 (ash)
5th 58- 4 - Nick Merry (Colmic) - p43 (hillview)
6th 55- 9 - Ian Willetts (Devizes) - p60 (hillview)

5/11/16 - Avalon - Match Lake

Weight - 16lb 13oz
Catch - 27 Skimmers, 21 Roach, 1 Perch
Weather - Mostly sunny, but cold wind
Match - Silverfish League - rd 4 - 6th out of 20

A change in the weather system yesterday saw the winds switch to a northerly, which meant a freezing start and most of us thought it would be hard with 10lb likely to be a good weight.

Peg 14 is an open water peg, which in theory should be a good area, however a look at past weigh sheets suggested otherwise with only 10lb being the best this series.

4 pole rigs were set up, but only ended up using 2, one of them was a new float pattern I brought from dino floats spefically for fishing double bulk called "bream long" (see photo) 0.75g with an .10 bottom and 18 silverfish pellet hook. The other rig was an old jean francois 0.6g with an .08 bottom and 22 silverfish maggot hook. A small grip mesh feeder with .10 bottom and 18 B911 completed my set up.

On the all in 2 balls of groundbait with only a few casters and micros at 13m, plus a small ball of groundbait at 6m. Whilst that settled I started on the feeder, however Ray White and Pete Neate opposite also did the same, so wasn't too sure how productive it would be. After an hour I had a 1.5lb skimmer, 3 hand sized skimmers and a decent roach all on dead maggot. Neither Ray or Pete caught, but they didn't give it much time.

A switch to the 13m line proved to be a bit of struggle, catching another 1.5lb skimmer plus a few smaller fish over the next hour on the double bulk rig.

I really needed some decent skimmers because I could see a few further along landing some good fish.  Initially I wasn't overly concerned because it was still early and I just needed to be patience.

The 6m line turned out to be a surprise, as I had a good run of hand sized skimmers and roach on the light rig, over loose feed caster and the occasional nugget of groundbait.

Back on the feeder produced a 2.5lb skimmer, but nothing else, so the rest of the match was spent switching between the long line were I gradually moved out to 16m and the short line. It was really difficult to work out how best to feed. I had set up a pellet line at 14m at angle to my left, which didn't produce a single bite, yet the Nick to my right caught on pellet all day to win the match.

By the all out I probably had more fish than most, but only 5 proper skimmers which was disappointing. For what ever reason the skimmers didn't want to be in the area, with the other 3 weights in the gap weighing 7-4, 4-8 and 3-4. At least I kept myself in the running for the league as I'm currently now lying 4th overall with 2 rounds to go.

Despite the weather the lake fished very well, but I hope it warms up a little for the next round in 2 weeks.

1st 28-6 - Nick Fuidge - p13
2nd 21-13 - Rob Dodd - p12
3rd 20- 4 - Eric Fouracre (Mosella) - p16
4th 18- 4 - Chris Fox (Bristol) - p18
5th 17- 8 - Vic Bush (Mosella) - p6
6th 16-13 - Ken Rayner (Colmic) - p14

30/10/16 - Todber Manor - Ash Lake

Weight - 80lb 8oz
Catch - 52 Carp, 3 Skimmers, 1 Gudgeon
Weather - Mild, sunny and a light breeze
Match - Open - 5th out of 10

Nick Merry had arranged todays open/knock up, which was very timely in light of the fact I would be fishing Ash in next weeks pair's series and never fished the lake.

Peg 62 put me on the first peg, which everyone mentioned was a flier. However, now the weather is starting to cool down, I wasn't convinced it would be a flier, particularly when I saw a number of carp moving around in front of the middle pegs.

Due to the light breeze which was mostly off my back I set up a waggler, along with a method feeder (which was only cast once).

Plumbing up revealed a uniform flat bottom of around 5ft which sloped up to a couple inches towards the end bank.

On the all in, micros & 6s were fed at 13m where it began to slope up and started on the waggler with dead maggot. 2nd cast I had a small carp, followed by another shortly afterwards before that died.

A switch to the 13m line proved to be frustrating because there were obviously fish in the swim but lost more than I landed and just got the feeling the fish hadn't settled. In the meantime I had been pinging 4s 2m off the end bank and switched to let the 13m line settle, produced a beautiful 8lb mirrored ghostie, followed by a smaller carp soon after, before it than died.

Resting the 13m line did it some good, as I started catching and got into a rhythm mostly catching on corn over 6s. The end bank swim produced a few carp when I felt the need to rest the 13m line and looking down the lake I thought I was keeping pace with the middle pegs. Martin Preston next to me on p63 was by his own admission having a mare, probably spending too much time on the waggler.

As the match progressed the 13m line continued to produce most of my fish, but it was noticeable the fish were becoming smaller and I started to catch a few skimmers. In hindsight I made a mistake, cupping in a 1/2 pot of pellet, because the swim was never as good as it was before.

To honest I wasn't that concerned, a) because I was experimenting with feed and b) I fully expected my end bank swim to come on strong late on. I also had a number of fish on the waggler and with just over 90mins left I still felt I was in touch with the middle pegs. Unfortunately those last 90mins turned into a bit of a mare. It was if the fish simply moved out of the swim.

I still managed a couple of small carp from the 13m line, although the waggler produced a better stamp of carp, but it had slowed right down. The end bank swim didn't produce, so switched from feeding pellet to potting in groundbait and dead maggot. I had 1 gudgeon!

At the half way point I had also started feeding meat at the bottom of the near shelf, which didn't produce anything. So a really disappointing end to the match and felt had I kept catching at the same rate as the first 4hrs, then 100lb was definitely on the cards, but the peg simply died on me, as the middle pegs got stronger, where the top 4 weights came from.

Having said that, I cant be too disappointed with 80lb and plenty of bites at the end of October. Just wish the place was closer to home.

1st 114- 2 - Ash Tomkins (TackleUK) - p68
2nd 105-14 - Nick Merry (Colmic) - p66
3rd 95- 0 - Phil Cardwell - p69
4th 89-12 - Alex Nadin - p65
5th 80- 8 - Ken Rayner (Colmic) - p62

23/10/16 - Lands End - Match Lake

Weight - 25lb 13oz (8lb 9oz - silvers)
Catch - 3 Carp, 6 Roach, 3 F1s, 2 Skimmers, 1 Perch
Weather - Sunny, cool breeze.
Match - Open - 14th out of 25, 5th in silvers

 

Another lovely cooked breakfast by Di is a great way to start the day. With 25 booked in we had 13 on Match lake and 12 on Johns.

I was disappointed with p5, which hasn't been a great area, unless you have some room, which I didn't with Tony Rixon on p3 and Mike Duckett on p7. Fishing the island was a no go simple because Mike has yet to top up the lakes, which meant you could still see the bottom of the shelf.

P5 is normally a good silvers area, however the silvers haven't really fed on this lake recently despite some good silvers anglers targeting them. Therefore decided to focus on fishing pellet and hopefully pick up some skimmers and/or F1s along the way.

After feeding some micros/4s to my left at the bottom the shelf, I started on corn fished towards to the gap. I had a few liners, but no fish. A switch to fishing a 4mm expander didn't produce either. In fact the first 4 hrs was incredibly hard, with only 1 F1 and a handful of tiny roach on maggot. I did however pull out of 1 skimmer and lost 3 carp.

I tried down each margin were I had fed caster to my left and pellet to my right. Neither swims produced all match. The only place I had any confidence would produce a bite was fishing in the gap between the island. With 2 hours left I only had 1.5lb in the net, but I kept toss potting a pinch of micros/4s and eventually started to get regular bites on 4mm expander, netting 3 carp, 2 skimmers and 2 F1s.

Frustratingly I lost 6 carp in total, 3 were definitely foul hooked, but felt the other 3 were hooked properly. More disappointing was pulling out of a skimmer as I was shipping back which would have won me the silvers pay out on match lake.

Except for Trigger on p11, everyone struggled on Match lake. Tony had 29lb to my left and Mike to my right had 19lb. I am sure the lake is suffering from the lack of water and once the lakes are topped up which will happen this week it will fish much better.

1st 188-11 - Craig Edmunds (Mosella) - p11

2nd 94- 0 - Matt Tomes (Bristol) - p42

3rd 88- 9 - Tom Mangnall (Mosella) - p70

4th 68-12 - Steve Seager (Bristol) - p19

5th 55- 0 - Leon Hubbard (Bristol) - p68

6th 53-13 - Paul Elmes (Mosella) - p55

Silvers

1st 32- 7 - Rod Wootten (Bristol) - p41

2nd 10-12 - Matt Tomes (Bristol) - p42

3rd 9- 4 - Gary O'Shea (Thatchers) - p51

4th 9- 3 - Clint Wotlyla (Bristol) - p15

5th 8- 9 - Ken Rayner (Colmic) - p5

22/10/16 - Avalon - Match Lake

Weight - 22lb 9oz
Catch - 16 Skimmers, 7 Roach
Weather - Frosty start, mostly sunny with light easterly breeze
Match - Silverfish League - rd 3 - 1st out of 22

After my last round disaster I really needed a good day to put my myself back in contention. However with a cold frosty start I was fully expecting a difficult, low weight affair.

Peg 8 put me on gap between the islands. For company I had Ray White on p7 and Glyn Wickham on p9. 

I hadn't intended on bring a feeder rod, but glad I had done so now and it gave me a chance to try my new Colmic Scrape 10ft 35g and this was the first thing I set up. I just had a feeling that with every peg in between p5 & p18, starting on the feeder fishing beyond everyone potting in bait over their pole lines may be the way to go instead of targeting the smaller fish early like I have done in the previous 2 matches.

I also set up a rig to fish shallow for the roach/rudd and another rig for down the margin. The rigs I expected to catch most on was a chimp 0.5g (.10 > 18 silverfish pellet) and if the wind picked up a bit an old preston long carbon stem pattern 0.75g (.10 > 18 silverfish pellet), fished double bulk.

On the all in 3 balls of groundbait with a pinch of micros and caster where cupped in at 13m, plus a ball of groundbait with more micros at 16m slightly to my right. I started on a small gripmesh  feeder (.10 > 18 B911) and double dead maggot on the hook cast half way across. As I was waiting for the tip to go around I caught a whiff of what I thought was an agricultural smell. It was only on the 2nd cast it dawned on me what it was - my groundbait! My mix had been frozen, but for some reason had turned sour. So that was thrown away and a new batch of gonuts black hastily knocked up.

On the 3rd cast I had a little knock and a small 6oz skimmer was soon in the net. Over the next hour I had a 4 more skimmers up to 2lb before the swim died. So 6lb in the first hour was exactly the start I had hoped for.

I had been feeding caster at 5m hoping to catch a few roach or rudd shallow, but only gave it 10mins catching 4 transparent roach and didn't bother with it for the rest of the match. A couple of tries down my margin during the match didn't produce anything so I didn't waste too much time. A quick look over the short line with a full depth rig did produce a small skimmer and another small roach, but the majority of my time was spent fishing at 13m, toss potting a small nugget of groundbait with a pinch of micros and caster. When the wind picked up I switched to the heavier rig and stayed on it for the remainder of the match, gradually moving out to 16m to keep the fish coming.

As the match drew to a close, I knew I had done well, since those around had struggled and I felt I made all the right decisions, which hasn't been the case recently. More importantly I made up ground on the league leaders and now find myself in 3rd spot, so a really good day.

 

1st - 22- 9 - Ken Rayner (Colmic) - p8
2nd - 19- 4 - Vic Bush (Mosella) - p34
3rd - 14- 6 - Pete Neate (Trowbridge) - p40
4th - 13-13 - Ziggy (Garbolino) - p17
5th - 13- 8 - Nige Sanders (Trowbridge) - p15
6th - 12-13 - Derek Beard (Avalon) - p35

League Positions
1st - Vic Bush - 64- 8
2nd - Chris Fox - 58-1
3rd - Ken Rayner - 48-15
4th - Ziggy - 46- 6
5th - John Fuidge - 45-8
6th - Dave Chidzoy - 40- 2

15/10/16 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 36lb 9oz (12lb 13oz - silvers)
Catch - 4 Carp, 4 Skimmers, 1 Tench, 1 F1, 1 Perch
Weather - Bright and sunny start, becoming increasingly cloudy. Heavy rain later.
Match - Open - 2nd out of 18 - silvers, 7th overall

I was looking forward to coming back to Lands End after being away for 5 weeks and was pleasantly surprised to see 18 booked in, which meant 12 on Match and 6 on Johns Lake.

More than happy to draw p19 and with 150lb coming off it last week I was expecting a few fish. However as you can see from above, it didn't happen. The lake just completely shut down.

I caught my first carp after an hour, whilst Mark Poppleton on p7 had 2 and Lewis Jones on p5 had 1. Eric Fouracre and Ray White either side of me had only caught a few silvers.

After 2 hrs I had another carp on 6mm pellet at the bottom of the far shelf. I had been warned that last week it was slow going early on with the fish not turning up until the last 2 hours, so I wasn't overly concerned, although I wasn't expecting it to be this hard. I deliberately hadn't fed much, but started pinging pellet to my right, hoping the carp or big skimmers would settle over the feed late on - they never did.

Lewis had so far struggled to catch from the island, but was now catching down his left hand margin towards the vacant peg 3. Russ on peg 1 had also started to catch, but as for everyone else we were all struggling.

A new swim feeding a small toss pot of 4s towards the gap, produced 3 skimmers and an F1 again on 6mm pellet in a 30min spell. Another carp followed later but I really couldn't string anything together.

Lewis and Russ were still catching and looked like framing, with my best chance of a pick up being the silvers. With 2hrs to go and nothing to lose, a pot of caster with some meat went down by the p20 pallet, hoping a some decent carp or big skimmers/tench/perch.

This swim eventually produced late on, losing a carp, before landing an 8lber on double caster and then a tench. The only problem was when striking the pole lifted into a branch and I think I pulled out of a couple big perch which needed a proper strike to set the hook.

Have to say I was glad when the all out was called and a number of anglers didn't bother weighing.

The last 5 weeks has seen my pick up rate drop from over 2 in 3 during the previous 10 months, to 1 in 3. Disappointing and whilst I've had a couple of bad draws, bad decision making has been the main reason for my drop in form. At least today whilst the carp didn't feed, I had a bit of luck catching the skimmers in a short space of time, but making the decision to fish caster down the right pallet instead of pellet accounted for a tench which meant I beat Mike Duckett for 2nd in silvers and a much needed pick up. Hopefully a turning point in my fortunes.

1st - 92-12 - Lewis Jones (Thyers) - p5
2nd - 92-11 - Steve Seager (Bristol) - p41
3rd - 92- 9 - Russ Peck (Lands End) - p1
4th - 77- 2 - Kev Molton (Bristol) - p46
5th - 54- 1 - Rich Heatley (PSV) - p13
6th - 51- 5 - Rod Wootton (Brstol) - p42

Silvers
1st - 18-14 - Rod Wootton - p42
2nd - 12-13 - Ken Rayner (Colmic) - p19
3rd - 11-10 - Mike Duckett (Lands End) - p58

09/10/16 - Todber Manor - Hillview

Weight - 68lb 9oz
Catch - 39 Carp, 8 F1, 4 Skimmers, 3 Tench, 1 Roach
Weather - Cool north easterly breeze. Mostly dry & sunny.
Match - Pairs - rd 1 - 18th out of 24, 4th out of 6 section

Today was the first round of a pairs series and I travelled down with my partner Tony, stopping off at Cannards Well for breakfast, which was better than usual.

Originally 20 pairs had booked in and even in the week leading up to the first match, there were 15 pairs, however as happens far too often the usual late drop outs didn't disappoint and we ended up with 12. This meant 4 sections of 6, 3 on Hillview and 1 on Ash.

After my recent run of poor draws I was looking forward to catching a few a fish and was told p56 was one of the best feeder pegs on Hill View lake. Great, although today the cool NE wind blowing across the lake. 

Mark told me to fish the feeder for 5hrs then fish the pole short in the last hour. Not exactly my idea of fun, but if the tip kept going round then I wasn't going to complain. For company I had Ash Tomkins to my right on p58 and Ben Ludwell to my left on p54, so plenty of room, but that wind was definitely cold.

Starting on the banjo feeder cast a couple metres off the far side I caught my first carp on 6mm pellet after 10mins, but I was soon struggling. I tried groundbait, micros, a mixture of both as well as trying differing baits and dropping a little shorter of the far bank, but after an hour I only had 2 carp, 1 skimmer and a micro tench!

In the meantime those around me had already caught well, mostly small carp and silvers, and the better carp I was told would show on the feeder had yet to turn up. I had a decision to make. Stay on the feeder and hope the better carp turn up or switch to the pole? I viewed staying on the feeder, rightly or wrongly, as a gamble and to be honest I didn't feel confident I would catch.

A switch to the 5m line, where I had fed 4s and micros, I immediately started to catch small carp on 4 or 6mm expander. Feeding 4s seemed to bring the fish up in the water and when I switched to feeding a ball of micros my catch rate increased. At one point I felt I was catching Ash and started enjoying myself, but knew I needed a few better fish to make up for the poor first hour.

The feeder did produce one 4lb carp later, but the majority of fish were 1lb stockie's which I was catching quicker on the pole.

I had noticed Ash catching shallow, but due to the cold wind I hadn't set up a rig. With my short line fading a little and my feeder line not really producing, decided to start pinging 6s as 13m, hastily setting up a shallow rig. A switch 30mins later produced a bite much to my surprise and a short spell catching resulted in a number of F1's up to 1.5lb, but still none of the better sized carp I was hoping for.

I had also been feeding 6s to my left at 10m, 2m off the bank in 2.5ft of water. A previous try here only produced a small carp, but with 40mins left another look down the left margin and I soon had an 8lber, followed by a couple more better sized carp. Unfortunately come the weigh in they turned up a little too late and that poor first hour cost me dearly missing out on 2nd in section by 17lb.

Fortunately Tony came 2nd in his section and we currently lie 4th. A couple of errors today, mainly due to a lack familiarity with the venue, but will certainly enjoy coming back, although it could do with being a little closer to home.

1st - 148-12 - Nick Chedzoy (Preston Innovations) - p62 (ash)

2nd - 142-12 - Mark Poppleton (Colmic) - p70 (ash)

3rd - 125-11 - Steve Tucker (Garbolino) - p50 (hill view)

4th - 120-12 - Gary O'Shea (Preston Innovations) - p64 (ash)

5th - 117- 1 - Alex Nadin - p53 (hill view)

6th - 108-10 - Rich Wyatt - p67 (ash)

Pairs Standing

1st Nick Merry/Mark Poppleton - 3pts

2nd Steve Nadin/Alex Nadin - 4pts

3rd Nick Ewers/Nick Chedzoy - 5pts

4th Tony Rixon/Ken Rayner - 6pts (168-13)

5th Scott Russell/Ash Tomkins - 6pts (166-10)

08/10/16 - Avalon - Match Lake

Weight - 7lb 3oz
Catch - 98 Roach, Rudd, Skimmer & Perch.
Weather - Cloudy
Match - Silverfish League - rd 2 - 18th out of 19

Firstly apologies for the lateness of this blog, however I wasn't feeling well at the beginning of the week and a busy week meant I didn't have much spare time.

After the first round I was lying 4th in the league which is based on total weight and was looking forward to catching a some skimmers, ideally from an end peg.

Peg 37 put me on the same peg as the last round, with Nige Sanders on my left and Eric Fouracre on my right. The plan of attack was to focus on groundbait similar to the first round. 2 balls of groundbait with caster was deposited at 6m, 5 balls at 13m and finally a ball of groundbait with micros at 14.5m at an angle.

Starting on my top kit the intention was to spend 30mins catching shallow on caster, however I ended up spending an hour catching nearly 60 fish before it started slowing. Up to now most people had struggled so I was quite pleased with my start, but the skimmers had started to show around me.

Unfortunately they didn't show for me, I struggled all match focusing on catching those elusive skimmers only catching 1 skimmer of about 1lb, although I did manage 3 carp fishing, losing a further 3.

My margins only produced a few roach on either caster or worm and I was going no where fast. Starting new swims didn't help either and I left feeling a little frustrated and wandering what to do next.

A further 30mins on my top kit +1 produced another run of small roach, but it was too little too late and felt I needed to catch skimmers.

In hindsight I became side tracked by those around me who were catching skimmers, when I should have stuck with catching shallow, because I am pretty certain I could have doubled my weight, clinched the section by default and maintained a top 4 position in the league.

All in all a very disappointing day and I've dropped down to about 8th in the league. I really need to make amends in the next round in a fortnights time.

1. 22- 4 - Vic Bush - p34

2. 19- 1 - Chris Fox - p9

3. 17-12 - Eric Fourarce - p36

4. 17- 8 - Glynn Wickham - p7

5. 16- 0 - Tom Mangnall - p16

6. 15-12 - Ray Wickham - p12

01/10/16 - Viaduct - Lodge

Weight - DNW - tipped back about 40-45lb
Catch - 3 Carp, 19 Skimmers, 1 Perch
Weather - Cool wet start, sunshine and showers
Match - All Winners Final - 67 fished

At last the all winners final and the majority wanted a draw on Campbell, although I thought Cary or Spring might throw up a surprise.

As regular readers will know I can't get near Campbell and I really hoped today would be the day. Sadly not as my drawing arm seems to have completely fallen off recently, pulling 57 in the corner of Lodge and probably the one of the worst pegs I could have drawn.

Well this blog will be short, because I struggled to get any bites. I tried the straight lead towards the aerator and despite pinging pellets all match, never had a bite.

After an hour I switched to fishing 6mm pellet at 13m, looking to catch skimmers and hoping to pull in some carp. I did catch a few skimmers and lost 2 foul hooked carp, but wasn't going anyway fast.

I also hoped for a late run of carp down my margins on maggot or worm over groundbait, but 3 carp for about 35lb wasn't nearly enough.

A day to forget unfortunately and well done to those who framed.

1. Andy Power - 226lb 11oz - peg 105 (£1000)
2. Steve Shaw - 193lb 6oz - peg 115 (£300)
3. Fred Roberts - 187lb 4oz - peg 85 (£250)...
4. Dan Squires - 174lb 9oz - peg 127 (£200)
5. Craig Edmunds - 167lb 8oz - peg 60 (£150)
6. Alan Oram - 159lb 14oz - peg 114 (£100)

29/09/16 - Viaduct - Cary

Weight - 47lb 9oz (20lb 14oz - silvers)
Catch - 66 Skimmers, Hybrids, Roach, Rudd and Perch, plus 3 Carp
Weather - Mostly bright and sunny. Cooler later.
Match - Costcutter - 2nd out of 34 - silvers (1st on Cary)

Today was the last chance for a bit of practice before the all winners final on Saturday and I really wanted to be on Campbell. Well the law of averages has to come into my favour at some point!

Well not today. When I saw 77 on the draw ticket I had to laugh, but as Steve said I'll probably draw Campbell on Saturday - lets hope. Back to my peg and 77 hasn't been great recently although it has produced some silvers, which put me in a bit of a quandary. I hadn't come to catch silvers and being a cost cutter I didn't want to fork out on a couple of pints of caster. A chat with Dave White suggested I could catch on worm over groundbait, both of which I already had, which meant I had a fall back position should the carp not feed.

Plumbing up revealed over 4ft of water by the bush, which was deeper than expected, thanks to the aerators been constantly on and probably the reason why the carp haven't frequented the area of late. It was pretty much the same depth at 13m, before it shallowed up the further right you went.

Because I had spent too much time faffing about I wasn't quite ready for the all in, so chucked the lead with 8mm pellet towards the 2nd aerator whilst I got myself organised. With no bites after 10mins, I switched to fishing at 13m were it started to shallow up, toss potting a couple of pellets with a hair rigged 8mm pellet. My first bite was a small skimmer soon followed by a 6lb carp, before the skimmers returned trying to wittle away the 8mm pellet.

A look by the tree were I fed a few 6s & 8s, produced a tench, then another small skimmer. With an hour gone and only carp in the net, I decided to start feeding groundbait by the tree mixed with a few dead maggots and corn. The 13m was still producing nibbles from those small skimmers, so switched to a skimmer rig fishing 6mm pellet and promptly hooked a sizable carp - how many times does that happen?

Because of the tree I couldn't just ship back, because the carp would have snagged me, so I ended up playing the carp which had gone left with 13m of pole in the air in an attempt to stop it running and hopefully persuade it to move to my right. Eventually it did and after 15mins landed a 12lber.

With no more carp and the skimmers only averaging 4-6oz which I wasn't catching quickly enough, it was time to try by the tree. Fishing a segment of worm and regular top ups with a small ball of groundbait, I caught mostly small skimmers. Dead maggot only produced a tiny roach, so stayed with the worm.

When ever the swim slowed the swim was topped up with a large ball of feed and switch to the 13m line which was still only producing small skimmers. Down the right hand margin I only caught 1 perch.

I was a little surprised I had so far only caught 1 tench and the none of the better sized skimmers. Fortunately the better fish turned up in the last hour with a big hybrid and big skimmer to boost my silvers weight.

Overall an enjoyable day, with plenty of bites and winning the silvers on Cary. Since the payouts were the same for each lake I didn't need to worry about Nigel Bartletts 42lb from Campbell. However this is the 4th time this year I've come 2nd overall in the silvers missing out on the silvers all winners final, but you really need to be on Campbell for the better weights.

1. Nick Merry (Colmic) - 204lb 11oz - peg 74
2. Byron Woodsford - 192lb 2oz - peg 132...
3. Chris Fox (Bristol) - 171lb 13oz - peg 116
4. Ian Williets (Wiltshire Angling)- 151lb 9oz - peg 119
5. Roy Worth (Viaduct) - 148lb 6oz - peg 130
6. Paul Bowyer - 148lb 6oz - peg 105

Silvers
1. Nigel Bartlett (Sensas) - 42lb - peg 111
2. Ken Rayner (Colmic) - 20lb 14oz - peg 77
3. Titch Williams - 20lb 6oz - peg 126

25/09/16 - Todber Manor - Hillview

Weight - 43lb 6oz
Catch - 22 Carp, 8 Skimmers, 3 Tench
Weather - Bright and breezy, with one heavy shower.
Match - Marukyu Open - 48 fishing

With the forthcoming pairs competition in 2 weeks I was keen to see the new lakes and get some practice, so booked in for this match.

The new lakes are as you expect a little barren, but they will mature over time and being able to park behind most pegs will surely prove popular. The lakes are also a big change from those used to fishing Park Lake (which has now been redesigned and converted to a specimen lake) and Whiteposts. With the exception of Ash which is a strip lake, Hill View and Home Ground are open waters with central islands.

I managed to get quite a bit of information on tactics and pegs. The one thing I was told, was to avoid the bottom end of Hill View because for what ever reason it is a poor area of the lake. Well I drew smack in the middle of the poor area, peg 37. A text from Mark said it was the worst peg on the complex and I should go home! Well that is a nice way to start your day.

Anyway I made the effort to drive here, I wasn't going to simply turn around and go home, however when I got to my peg I wasn't confident of a good day. The wind was blowing left to right and I really fancied those pegs at the windward end of the lake.

After plumbing up I was a little surprised at how deep it was. From the margin it simply slopped away to about 6ft at 2+3. I had initially considering fishing at 13m, but soon binned that idea as a non-starter due to the depth and gusting wind, deciding instead to fish at the bottom of the slope, feeding pellet and corn.

With an island opposite a method was also setup feeding gonut micros and a banded pellet on the hook. On the all in and 2nd cast on the method  I landed my first fish, a 4lb carp. 2 more smaller fish followed, losing another at the net during the first hour.

In fact there didn't appear to be much happening on our side of the lake. A look over the short line produced a stockie carp first put in, but no more followed. I tried fishing shallow, but after 2hrs of pinging pellet at 13m I never had a touch, so that was binned.

Back on the method would produce a couple of fish then nothing, which meant coming back on the short line which was also slow. In the meantime, the anglers at the windward end of the lake started catching.

Out out of desperation, I had some dead maggot in the bag so started fishing that over the short line and at last started picking up some skimmers up to a 1lb and a few more stockies up to 2lb. A switch to corn later produced a couple of better carp, which was progress but knew I was falling behind the anglers to my right.

If I left the island alone for 30mins I would normally get a carp straight away but no more, before coming back on the pole. I also tried down my left margin, purely because that was were the spare peg was, feeding 6s. Unfortunately this line didn't produce a bite, although I wasn't the only one struggling to catch in their margins.

I wasn't unhappy to hear the all out. My fish weighed a little more than expected thanks to those stockies. I beat the 2 locals either side of me, so job done in some ways and from what I understand I didn't stand a chance of doing any good from the draw, so cant be too disappointed. 

Overall our lake fished hard by comparison with the other lakes. Dave Roper won our lake from p42 at the windward end. Well done to Nick Merry for winning the match overall and I'm looking forward to the pairs starting in 2 weeks. 

1st - Nick Merry (Colmic) 144lb 8oz (Peg 86 Homeground)
2nd - Gary O'Shea (Preston) 121lb 6oz (Peg 78 Homeground)...
3rd - Matt Skyme (Todber) 109lb 4oz (Peg 67 Ash)
4th - Nick Chedzoy (Preston) 108lb 9oz (Peg 77 Homeground)
5th - John Candy (Todber) 105lb (Peg 72 Ash)
6th - Alex Murray 104lb 12oz (Peg 81 Homeground)

Section A Hillview - Dave Roper 91lb (Peg 42)
Section B Hillview - Howard Kaye 89lb (Peg 53)
Section C Ash - Simon Diment 100lb 14oz (Peg 71)

Section D Homeground - Nick Ewers 99lb 3oz (Peg 84)

24/09/16 - Viaduct - Lodge

Weight - 82lb 4oz
Catch - 10 Carp, 5 Roach, 4 Skimmers, 3 Hybrids, 1 Perch
Weather - Bright & breezy
Match - Open - 25th out of 48 anglers, 7th out of 12 - lake

With 48 anglers booked in we were spread over Campbell, Cary and Lodge. With the All Winners final coming up next weekend and having not fished here for a few weeks I wanted  to get back in touch with the venue, particularly now the weather is starting to cool. A draw on Campbell would have been ideal since I haven't been on there since May as I keep drawing Cary instead. Well at least I wasn't on Cary, but p53 on Lodge wasn't great. General consensus was it hasn't been fishing well and looking at past results 70-75lb appeared to be the average weight.

As I was plumbing up the margins were less than 1ft in places and about 2.5ft all over.

Starting on 8mm meat, toss potting a couple of bits of meat and a few 6s by the left hand edge of the tree I soon had my first carp, but in the main the meat was getting attacked by small silvers. Over the next couple of hours, by pinging a few pellets at 14m towards the posts and down the left hand bank I picked up a few carp and quite happy with my progress, although I was no where near Roy Worth on 71 who had thrown away his lead rod and was catching down his right hand margin under the brambles. As for everyone else it was still up for grabs.

So far I had left fishing tight to the far bank alone, leaving a safe zone for the carp to back off to target later. In theory it was a good idea, the problem became the wind switched around a little and the fish I could see moving had disappeared.

Fortunately I had been feeding meat by the right hand edge of the trees, which produced a couple of carp, a few skimmers and a decent hybrid, but it was hard going.

With 2.5hrs left to go 8 pots of groundbait went in down the right hand margin where I found a flat spot about 18ins deep. I would like to say I went on to empty it, instead I had an incredibly frustrating end to the match, hooking 10 carp and only landing 2, either on double worm or bunches of maggot. I tried cutting back on the amount of feed, however the problem became I needed to feed to pull in the carp, but if I cut back I would get pestered by silvers. In hindsight I might of been better off using corn or meat.

I kept pinging pellet to my left, but the fish seemed to have vacated the corner and my meat line was mostly full of silvers, so I was reliant on the margins to produce the goods. Although I had a decent weight for the peg  compared to recent results, I still felt I got it wrong, but will be fishing Thursdays costcutter to hopefully make good on my mistakes.

1. Jon Mills - 300lb - peg 125
2. Craig Edmunds - 241lb 12oz - peg 129...
3. Mark Wynne - 236lb 7oz - peg 80
4. Roy Worth - 218lb 4oz - peg 71
5. Sam Powell - 217lb 9oz - peg 116
6. Dan Squires - 177lb 9oz - peg 130

Silvers
1. Steve Jackson - 65lb - peg 70
2. Paddy Curry - 45lb 3oz - peg 123
3. Nigel Bartlett - 44lb 13oz - peg 97
4. James Rock - 34lb 15oz - peg 100
5. Nigel Easton - 32lb 3oz - peg 78

18/09/16 - Lavington - Merretts

Weight - 82lb 6oz
Catch - 14 Carp, 4 Roach, 3 Skimmers
Weather - Bright start, cloudy later
Match - Airsprung AC - 2nd out of 12

When we arrived a couple of us walked around the lake to select the best pegs and after seeing 30 or so carp in the shallow water of the inlet at the top end of the lake, peg 14 became the number everyone wanted. Alas I ended up on peg 3 at the bottom end, not a great peg, but it can produce down the margins later in the match. For company I had,ex tackle dealer (and happier for it) Steve Ince on peg 1 and

Mark Poppleton on peg 5 opposite the island.

Plumbing up revealed it got deep very quickly, it fact it was too deep for any rigs I had set up. However I didn't realistically expect to catch in the deepest water, so ended up setting a paste and pellet rig to fish at 8m left and right were is was a little shallower but still 6ft. A long line mugging rig was also set up, together with 2 rigs to fish down the margin, one for paste rig and the other the fish corn or meat.

The water clarity was a surprise (and a concern), because I could see the bottom of the keepnets as they settled in 2.5ft of water. It would mean the fish were likely to be very spooky.

Starting off on the mugging rig with meat and soon had a 10lber in the net, which would have been followed by another of 7-8lb had the hook not pulled at the net, catapulting the rig into the tree above - no one laughed.

As expected the carp soon shyed away and became incredibly spooky. Unfortunately the light condition meant I had a lot of white water in front of me and spotting fish was a bit of a nightmare. Those fish I could see would turn for the bait when it was swung out, but wouldn't take the bait. Mark was having similar issues, however with the island being a natural fish magnet, managed to steadily put fish in his net, including a proper lump of 18lb 8oz.

As for me I was becoming increasingly frustrated. I was really struggling to spot any fish, so started to fish my 8m left and right hand swims to try and put some fish in the net, since Steve had managed a couple of carp on paste at 4m. Over the next hour or so I would fish the short line and when ever I spotted any fish coming into range switch to the mugging rig, but the fish more often than not disappeared before I could get the rig out. As for the short lines, I immediately lost a foul hooker then got unhittable bites either from small silvers or small carp who's mouth are so small they struggle to suck in a 6mm pellet (I'm not joking). A change to a pellet rig resulted in a few roach and skimmers, plus one of those small carp, however I wasn't going anywhere fast.

With 3hrs gone I had 2 carp in the net, whilst Steve had 6 and Mark was closing in on a 100lb. All this meant I needed my margins to come to life. I had started feeding 4s and 6s down the right hand margin 30mins previously and the first 3 put ins with gonuts paste resulted in 3 fish.

I had also started feeding groundbait/micros down the left hand side. Initially I couldn't get a bite, but kept cupping in the groundbait until I saw my first swirl. Fishing double corn I caught fish up to nearly 15lb and was much happier, despite putting a 9lber the wrong side of the net. It went very quite either side of me, at least they gave it 15mins before taking the piss!

I thought I was on for a 100+ weight, but the last 45mins was a struggle again. In the meantime Mark's edge swim was getting stronger and stronger putting 80lb in the net during the last 45mins, whilst I could only manage one.

As it transpired I had done enough to come from no where to claim 2nd overall, however I should have caught more in that last hour. Whether it was coincidence or not, but I added a load more particles (hemp & micros) to bulk out the groundbait and shortly after struggled for a bite.

Well done to Mark who got his tactics spot on today to claim a lake match record.

1st - 268- 2 - Mark Poppleton (Colmic) - p5
2nd - 82- 6 - Ken Rayner (Colmic) - p3
3rd - 76-14 - Tom Ince (Airsprung) - p21
4th - 73-14 - Steve Musitano (Browning) - p18
5th - 52- 5 - Billy Turner (Airsprung) - p14