26/06/16 - Lavington - Ellis Lake

Weight - 98lb 8oz
Catch - 21 Carp, 1 Roach
Weather - Bright sunny start, and surprise, surprise rain later.
Match - Airsprung - 1st out of 12

Breakfast in Devizes with Mark & Nick was a nice way to start the day, just a shame the egg was crispier than the bacon, but the sausages were lovely.

With 12 of us, it meant we all had at least 1 space peg and my draw put me opposite the island, with the wind blowing left to right. The lake is very deep and when I fished it last year I caught very little fishing on the deck, so decided not to bother with any deep rigs. The plan was to target the island with the a small hybrid feeder, feed 6s at 13-14m to fish shallow later and then come down the margins late on.

Starting on the method with a band 'um pellet, initially feeding 4s I didn't have a bite until I switched to groundbait and an orange band 'um after 30mins. Unfortunately I had the clutch set too tight and the fish broke me.

55mins into the match I was about to switch to the shallow rig, when I netted a 5lb fish and felt obliged to have another cast. The tip went round again and carp no.2 was soon netted.

A switch to the shallow line didn't produce, so back on the method and I had a 3rd carp, losing another which just dropped off. The carp in this lake have small mouths and fish loses aren't uncommon.

Back on the shallow line, the slapper rig didn't produce, so switch to a more conventional shallow rig set at 2ft deep and I started to catch on 6mm pellet. It was never hectic, just feed, lift and drop, feed, give it a quick slap, feed.

At the half way stage I was up to 8 carp and with 90mins left I progressed to 17. However the shallow swim was fading on me which coincided with the wind dropping and the rain starting.

I had been feeding my right hand margin from the off with meat, but never had a bite, so started feeding groundbait down to my left. In the last hour I hooked 6 carp on 8mm meat, landing 4 including my biggest of nearly 12lb.

On the all out I knew I had won, because no one was admitting to as much as me. Weighing 98lb was a little more than I thought and I was really pleased to chalk up my 3rd win in 3 days.

I didn't take note of the overall weights, but I think Nick Merry was 2nd with 78lb, which included a 16lb carp. Tom Ince had 60ish as did Andy Fox. Mark Poppleton snapped his 14m section (I know how that feels) and Craig Knight tipped back 20-30lb which would have won the section by double de-fault - oops.

25/06/16 - Fishponds

Weight - 235lb 4oz
Catch - 35 Carp
Weather - Frequent showers, some thunder and lightning
Match - Club - 1st out of 6

A second evening match in as many days, this one being fished between 2-7. Only 6 of us, which is another disappointing turn out, however it at least meant we were well spread. At the draw everyone wanted peg 5, as it has won the last 3 matches and Paul Lewis was happy to find himself on it.

I drew p10, which is one of the deepest pegs on the lake. being 7-8ft at 5m and where targeting the margins is the best way to attack the swim. Only 2 rigs, both to fish paste, 1 to fish the left hand margin which was 5ft deep and the other for right hand margin which was 4ft. I did set up a shallow slapper rig, but it never got used

Starting down the right I had 3 carp within 15mins and it looked like a good day was on the cards. After an hour I was up 7.

As the match progressed, it was the left hand margin which proved to be the best, feeding a small handful of 8s after every fish, adding a further 8 fish in the 2nd hour and then 9 in the 3rd hour.

The 4th hour went a bit iffy, losing 3 fish and 2 rigs!, but still managed to put a further 8 carp into the net.

With 45mins to go I had used up my 3pts of paste and being in a rush this morning I forgot to pick up another bag from the tackle shop. A pellet rig was quickly assembled  to fish 8mm pellet, but it wasn't the same and the fish were a smaller stamp. I would have finished with 36 carp, but a 5lber made a successful bid for freedom jumping out of the net.

Overall the lake fished well and its strange why so few turn up.

1st - 235lb 4oz - Ken Rayner - p10
2nd - 182lb 7oz - Paul Lewis - p5
3rd - 152lb 7oz - Andy Bradley - p1
4th - 152lb 6oz - Andy Lord - p12

24/06/16 - Rood Ashton

Weight - 96lb 12oz
Catch - 24 Carp, 1 Roach
Weather - Wet start, clear and sunny later
Match - Airpsrung AC - 1st out of 9

I always look forward to the first match of the year at Rood Ashton since it means summer is on the way, although I think its hiding as it was chucking it down when I arrived in the car park.

Today was an evening match fished 6-9.30 and with 9 fishing we were well spread around the lake, so no really bad pegs. I drew peg 1, which is the first peg by the car park. A good peg which tends to have a lot of smaller resident fish, but with so much space I fancied it for a few.

Only 2 rigs today, both to fish meat down the margins. 1x to fish the right margin where it was only 1ft deep and the other to fish to my left towards the tree where it was 2ft deep, that rig would also serve to fish in the open water if necessary.

Tactics today where simple, meat over groundbait down the right and just meat to my left.

On the all in I started down the right at 6m where the fish moved in immediately onto a ball of groundbait, but getting a bite was difficult despite tails showing right next to my float. For the 90mins I concentrated down the right switching between 6m where I was hoping to catching more quickly and 13m by the bush, where I was cupping in groundbait. After an hour I only had 4 fish, but after 90mins I was up to 9, before both swims went quiet. A switch to left produced a couple of unhittable bites, before a roach came flying out, so not too many carp down that side.

A text from Mark pegged opposite the island said he had 10 and I could see Steve Martin further down catching and I didn't think I was to far off the pace.

I had also being pinging pellet at 13m as a back up, but couldn't get a proper bite, so discarded that line after 10mins of trying.

Back down the left the carp had arrived, catching 3 fish on the bounce, before the fish disappeared again and this was really the pattern for the evening. The short margin swim had died completely, which meant I had to keep swapping between the left and right 13m swims, fishing 10mm or double 8mm meat.

With 30mins the left hand margin had died completely and decided to start a new margin 6m to the left tight to the bank in the shallow water. It didn't take long for the fish to turn up and in the last 15mins I managed 4 more carp, including a 7lber.

On the all out Steve was admitting to 18 carp and as news filtered down it was starting to look like I may won, which is the way it turned out. Really pleased with that result, as that was my best Rood Ashton evening weight. 

1st 96-12 - Ken Rayner

2nd 78-4 - Mark Poppleton

3rd 65- 8 - Rich Whitmarsh

4th 50- 0 - Steve Martin

19/06/16 - Viaduct - Cary

Weight - 95lb 7oz
Catch - 9 Carp, 3 Perch, 2 Roach, 1 Skimmer, 1 Tench
Weather - Dry start, but drizzle/rain for most of the day.
Match - Spring League - 28th out of 56 overall, 4th out of 6 section

With no match planned this weekend, I was hoping to get in on the Spring league and fortunately Mark Poppleton posted his desire on facebook to attend his son's football tournament rather than fish the last the round of the league. With fee's already paid it was just a case of turn up and hopefully draw a Campbell flyer.

109 is neither a flyer or on Campbell. That's 7 out of the last 9 matches on Cary and only once on Campbell. Ideally I also wanted to avoid any pegs that required pulling angry carp from snags because of a dodgy no6 section on my power legion, which had more tape than carbon. Needless to say it give way half way during the match, but I've already got another section on order.

Back to the match, a quick chat with Dave White who won from the peg a few weeks ago, revealed most of the fish came from the left hand bank, which did plumb up nice. There was also the overhanging tree in front and the margins to my right which were a lot shallower than the left hand bank.

The peg is a boom or bust, if they are in the corner great, otherwise it could be a struggle, but there were a few fish showing themselves by the overflow pipe, so I was hopeful of a few fish. For company, although I could hardly hear anything over the water gushing out of the pipe was Chris Fox on 74 and Emma Drysdale on 105.

On the all in meat was feed at 6m out in front and a couple of bits were thrown in by the overflow pipe. Fishing 10mm meat I had 2 doubles by the overflow after 35mins, before they disappeared. A switch to the 6m meat line produced a roach and a skimmer, before the fish returned to the overflow pipe and I had another 2 carp, plus a 2lb perch.

With 2hrs gone, I thought 2 carp an hour would get me to approximately 120lb, unfortunately the middle 2hrs turned out to be a bit barren.

So far I had left the left hand bank alone to settle and give the carp a quiet place to fall back to. Fishing meat only produced 2 perch, a switch to feeding pellet didn't produce anything! Speaking to Chris on 74, he said he didn't have anything down to his right, so it would appear for what ever reason the carp didn't want to be along that bank and I didn't see any movement along the bank all match.

My short meat line only produced nibbles from roach as they tried to whittle down the 10mm meat and the swim towards the over hanging tree was the same. I did lose 3 carp down the right hand margin, all of which were foul hooked.

In the meantime I could see Emma catching a few on the lead, I tried the lead, but casting was difficult due the over hanging branches all around me, so I didn't stay long on it. Although I did have some fun when Emma decided to cast too far towards me. Taking the hooklength off I cast over her line and slowly wound back. Two "unmissable" bites later I think she realised what was happening and stayed within her peg :)

With 2 hours to go, my swim sparked into life with a 6lber from my short meat line. I also started feeding groundbait 13m down my right, which produced 3 carp, plus a double figure fish from the short meat line.

In the end a little frustrating. I genuinely don't believe there was a big head of feeding fish in my corner of the lake, however, I cant shake the feeling I didn't quite get the groundbait fed margin swim right. There was a lot of debris down the margins and in hindsight I perhaps should have used a heavier float. Having said that I doubt I would have challenged the 161lb which won my section from p100.

1st - 243lb 15oz - Craig Edmunds - p125
2nd - 220lb 15oz - Mike Williams - p66
3rd - 211lb 9oz - Paul Elmes - p121
4th - 209lb 0oz - Dan White - p127
5th - 192lb 6oz - Rob Jones - p128
6th - 188lb 14oz - Gary O'Shea - p114

12/06/16 - Lands End - Speci

Weight - 62lb 6oz (15lb 2oz - silvers)
Catch - 6 Carp, 10 Roach, 7 Skimmers, 3 F1s, 2 Chub, 1 Tench, 1 Perch.
Weather - Wet start, mostly cloudy, then sunny later.
Match - Float Only rd 2 - 16th out of 41, 4 out of 6 section

Today's match was spread over 3 lakes, 15 on Match and No3 lake and 11 on Speci. I didn't mind which lake I drew since I was fishing for section, but p25 on Speci would have been one of those to avoid, because I was in with the p31-34 which is normally the better end of the lake. I really knew I was up against it when Tony drew 33 and a very hung over Trigger drew 34. The rest of my section included Tim Clarke (31), Chris Fox (32) and Steve Seager opposite on 40. Both Steve and I thought we would be battling for last, but you never know since this end of the lake can throw up some weights.

I was pleased to see p26 was vacant, with Dave Roper on 27 being the next angler, which meant I could target the point of the island, but it would require all 17.5m of pole.

I didn't expect to catch much in open water so intended on targeting the island and down the left hand bank with paste or pellet, but I did set up a short meat line and just in case I needed a few silvers a pellet/caster rig.

Since I needed carp, I started down the left hand bank on paste, catching a carp, then a big F1, followed by a roach in the first hour. The pellet rig didn't produce either down the left or to the point of the island. In the fact the island didn't produce anything, despite pinging pellet all match - there wasn't even any slurppers off the island. There just didn't seem to be many carp at this end of the lake. Steve was similarly struggling, although any carp he did hook more often than not found their way into the cage.

After 1hr 20mins and no further fish, I decided to try and put some fish in the net and fed 2 swims in the open water hoping for some skimmers/f1s on expander. All I caught was small skimmers and roach and going no where fast, so decided to bin these swims.

My short meat line became more productive, unfortunately no carp, but a couple of F1s, skimmers and some quality roach.

With 2 hours to go Dave Roper had enough and packed up, although he said he wasn't feeling well (sounds familiar). What it did mean I wasn't sharing the p26 platform anymore and I needed to do something different, so a full pot of caster and some meat went in, followed 20mins later by a 1/2 pot.

At last my managed a carp from the short meat line, followed by another roach. The last 90mins proved to be the best of the match, catching 3 carp, including 2 doubles on double caster by the platform, plus some quality silvers. I also had a double figure carp from the short meat line, to beat Steve and Chris who weighed 36lb and 50lb respectively.

The good news was Trigger, Tony and Tim all framed which meant I picked up section by triple de-fault - yay!

1st 298-2 - Craig Edmunds - p34 (image what he would have caught has he been sober!)
2nd 130-13 - Tony Rixon - p33
3rd 126- 5 - Tim Clark - p31
4th 118-11 - Sean Townsend - p15
5th 116- 5 - Chris Davis - p35
6th 107-13 - Bela Bakos - p13
Silvers
1st 26- 8 - John Fuidge - p1
2nd 23- 4 - Tom Thick - p16
3rd 20- 0 - Mike Nicholls - p19
4th 19- 8 - Matt Tomes - p42
5th 17-10 - Tony Thick - p46
6th 15-12 - Chris Davis - p35

11/06/16 - Lands End - Johns (no 3) Lake

Weight - 98lb 7oz
Catch - 23 Carp, 2 Crucians, 1 F1, 1 Skimmer, 1 Perch, 1 Roach
Weather  Cloudy, muggy & still
Match - Open - 3rd out of 9

Back to Lands End and I really wanted a good day to put my last performance here behind me - not that many people took the piss about me leaving early. With 9 of us, we were well spread around no3 lake and was pleased with p51, although it was likely Dan White on p68 was going to be difficult to beat.

Rigs for the day, was a shallow pellet rig to fish the margin and across to the island, a paste rig, 5m meat rig and a meat rig for down the margin.

On all in I started on paste fishing to the point of the island and started firing 6s to island where the bank has collapsed to my left. I soon had a decent carp, but then foul hooked 2, which prompted a pot of pellet and a switch to the were the island had collapsed. By the end of first hour I was up to 5 carp (3 on pellet and 2 on paste) and a skimmer.

The 2nd hour proved to be more difficult, but no one seemed to be catching much so just kept rotating between the 2 swims, although I set up another shallow rig which was better to target a narrow shallow shelve were the fish seemed happier to feed. The only problem was the overhanging sedges, which I caught on more than one occasion!

The majority of the middle part of the match was spent fishing shallow. I even mugged one as it swim past me. At one point it looked like it was snowing as a lot of white fluff got blown from the surrounding trees and fortunately it wasn't too thick, so at least I could get my rig in the water.

With 2 hours to go, the grapevine suggested it was between Dan and myself. So far the fish from the island included a number of smaller 2lbers and I was hoping for some proper fish from my margin and short meat line.

I had fed my margins with meat and hemp and initially struggled to get a proper bite, after a few rig adjustments resulted in 3 carp in 3 put ins. But then I struggled and balls it up some how. There were obviously fish moving in, but getting a proper bite was difficult. In hindsight I think I should have fished down the shelf.

In the last hour I only added 2 carp. The island swim proved increasingly difficult and my 5m meat line was full of silvers! So not a great end to the match and I had a gut feeling I had blown any chance of a pick up, because Dave Ings had caught well in the last 2 hours.

The weigh in revealed I missed out on 2nd by 9lb, which to be honest I should have caught. There was no beating Dan though, class angler on a good peg - well done mate.

1st 153- 2 - Dan White - p68
2nd 107-10 - Dave Ings - p65
3rd 98- 7 - Ken Rayner - p51
4th 88-10 - Dave Wescott - p45

Silvers
1st 21-10 - Ray Whitcombe - p70
2nd 19- 9 - Rod Wootton - p42
3rd 18- 0 - Dan White - p68
4th 12-12 - Andy Hembrow - p58

05/06/16 - Shiplate - Main Lake

Weight - 57lb 14oz (10lb 12oz - silvers)
Catch - 7 Carp, 14 Roach, 9 Skimmers, 4 Eel, 3 Rudd, 1 Tench, 1 Hybrid
Weather - Hot & sunny
Match - Club - 1st out of 7

I was looking forward to this match, because I have never fished the main lake on my previous 2 visits to the venue and thought it would useful to get an idea of how to fish the lake in case I drew it in the Float Only series next month. 

However it was really disappointing (and embarrassing) to have only 7 anglers turn up, particularly since the whole lake had been booked. Fortunately we sorted something out with the owner only taking one half of the lake (pegs 1 - 9).

At the draw I found myself on peg 5a, only 1 of 2 pegs put in without an island chuck, so all the rods stayed in the bag and the intention was to fish shallow on the pole. From the information gathered the lake can fish quite hard at times and this was confirmed by the owner, but at least the sun was out and a nice day was forecast.

Rigs for the day were a conventional shallow rig, a long line rig, pellet rig to fish on the deck, a short meat rig and a paste rig.

On the all in, I started at 14.5m after feeding a half pot of 4s & 6s, fishing a banded 6s on the deck, pinging pellet over the top. After 45mins I managed 1 skimmer and fishing shallow proved fruitless. There had been plenty of ripple as we were setting up, which soon disappeared, with the majority of the ripple being on the opposite bank, leaving it flat calm in front of me.

Due to the lack of carp action, I started feeding caster (left over from last week) down the left hand margin, with small balls of paste. By fishing half a worm I started catching silvers, including some quality roach, all the while I kept pinging 6s at 14m.

After 2.5hr the ripple returned and I caught 5 carp in a 45min spell, however any thoughts of amassing a good weight were soon scumpered when the wind dropped. The rest of the match was a case of switching between the margins catching silvers, whilst hoping for the carp to turn up and fishing shallow where I managed 1 more fish. I tried the long line rig, as well as the waggler, but the carp were proving very hard to tempt in the flat conditions. Fish spotting was also difficult due to the amount of "white" water in front of me.

At the half way point I also started feeding meat at 5m and managed to net a 14lb 2oz carp late on, but no other were forthcoming. A wins, a win but would have been happier had more members turned up.

1st - 57-14 - Ken Rayner - p5a
2nd - 30- 7 - Andy Lord - p8
3rd - 23-11 - Andy Bradley - p9 

30/05/16 - Lands End - Match

Weight - DNW
Catch - 4 Carp, 1 Skimmer
Weather - warm & sunny
Match - Open

Having not slept particularly well for most of the last week, I was feeling a little rough and considered calling in sick, but don't like letting people down.

Anyway I well pleased to pull p13 which has been the form peg recently, however as the results show I made a complete balls up of it. I really don't know what happened, or didn't happen. I managed 1 carp fishing 17m to the island, whilst Tony opposite on p11 couldn't stop catching. I had a couple of fish down the margins, but I was just going through the motions.

I was hanging anyway and it didn't take much persuasion for me to pack up with 2hrs to go. It did take the shine off what has been a good weekend, but there is always next weekend.

29/05/16 - Viaduct - Cary

Weight - 161lb 5oz
Catch - 16 Carp, 1 Skimmer, 1 Tench
Weather - Warm & sunny
Match - Float Only - rd 1 - 5th out of 41, 1st out of 5 section

One of the reasons I have fished Viaduct a lot recently was with this match in mind, the first round of the Tony's Float Only series. I really wanted to get off to good start and like everyone else a draw on Campbell was the preferred option, however I had to be content with p94 in the corner of Cary.

When I got to my peg the wind was blowing into the end bank and there were 1 or 2 fish showing themselves. So hopeful of a few fish, but the priority was to win my 5 peg section, which ran from 86 to 95.

Cary fished hard yesterday with only 117lb winning the lake from p80 and I was expecting a tough day. 2 meat rigs were set up, one to fish at 5m and the other down the right hand margin, a pellet rig to fish for skimmers in case it got really hard, a shallow pellet rig and finally a waggler to fish towards the end bank.

After feeding 4s at 14m and meat at 5m, I started down the margin toss potting 4 bits of meat and some hemp. 10mins later I landed a 6lb carp. With an hour gone that was still my only fish and in fact the one fish caught in our section! Although Steve Seager next to me did land 18lber shortly afterwards.

A switch to the waggler produced one of the newly stocked mini tench on 8mm pellet, which was my only fish on that rig.

Back down the right hand margin, I snagged up losing a hooklength, but by continuing toss potting meat/hemp I started to catch. However the snag proved to be a problem. After the 3rd time of catching it, I managed to pull out a mass of blackened branches all wrapped up in loads of line. I didn't have any more problems after that, although I don't think continually having to pull my rigs out helped the carp settle.

After 3hrs, I was winning the section, with Steve probably my closest rival. I don't think he had a single fish under 10lb. During a quiet spell I did have a look over the skimmer line, but one bumped small fish suggested I was wasting my time and started pinging 8s to fish shallow later.

The remainder of the match went fairly smoothly, catching the majority of my fish down the margin, plus 2 munters from the 5m line. In the end I never tried the shallow rig. Paul Elmes on p86, Tom Mangnall on p88 and Alex Nadin on p90 were struggling to catch the shallow, and I was catching quicker down the margin. Tom did manage to get a few together late on to beat Steve into 2nd for the section with 90lb, but as expected it was tough going for most.

1st 204-10 - Dave White - p109
2nd 182- 3 - Nick Ewers - p76
3rd 181- 7 - Chris Fox - p135
4th 165- 7 - Chris Davies - p131
5th 161- 5 - Ken Rayner - 94
6th 144-12 - Dan White - p123