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)