30/09/23 - Trinity Waters - Woodland

Weight - 9lb (4.090 kilo)

Catch - 1 Carp, 1 Roach

Weather - Sunny, with cloudy periods

Match - Uzit Bomb & Feeder League - rd 1 (18 fished) - 1st in section, 10th overall

I fancied doing something different and decided to enter the Uzit Bomb & Feeder series at Trinity Waters on Woodland Lake. I also hoped it would be a chance to improve my tip fishing.

As I haven’t fished the venue for 7 years I had a practice on Wednesday and after an initial slow start managed to catch 82lb, including fish up to 15lb, mostly at 5m or down the margins. Paul Homewood also turned up and caught well, so expectation for today was for a few fish to be caught.

Unfortunately, the lake had suffered a fish kill due to an oxygen crash last month and the fishing had been hard, but as Paul & I had caught mid-week it was hoped the fish had recovered.

Today was the first of 5 matches and points would be split over 4 sections. The league rules meant no feeding by hand, which proved to be more difficult than you would expect, although feeding by catapult was allowed.

The draw put me on p20 in the corner, which I was told is a good peg, although the wind was blowing down the other end and I felt the other end would be better.

As for the match, there wasn’t much to write about as the lake fished a lot harder than expected.

I fed 4 feeders full of Thatcher’s green and p-nut 2mm pellet soaked with green betaine towards the end bank. Whilst that settled, I fished a t-bag parallel to the willow tree, but never had a liner.

I then fished a method to the end bank and on the 3^rd cast caught a small roach on a 6mm wafter! At least that saved the blank!

I also fed a 13m line with groundbait and micros hoping for some skimmers as the carp weren’t feeding. However, other than one small skimmer caught on dead maggot which dropped off as I tried to swing it to hand, I again had no bites.

With 90mins remaining I fed meat soaked in A-krill cloud at 6m via a large bait up feeder and eventually with 30mins left caught my one and only carp. Fortunately, it was enough to win my section.

As expected, the better weights came from the windward end of the lake, however there were 3 blanks and the lake fished well below par.

All weights are in kilos.

1.    16.470 – Ken Cocks – p9

2.    15.550 – Steve Jackson – p32

3.    13.600 – Paul Rossiter – p6

4.    12.190 – Robert Dumitrescu– p26

5.    11.180 – Dan Squires – p8

24/07/16 - Trinity Waters - Woodland

Weight - 7lb 13oz - silvers (31lb 2oz - total)
Catch - 53 Skimmers, Roach, Rudd & Perch. Plus 3 carp
Weather - Muggy & showery
Match - Open - 1st out of 21 - silvers (14th overall)

Have to say this lake is turning into a bit of bogey water for me, I seem to do OK for silvers, but struggle to catch any number of carp.

I was pleased to draw p11, which gave me an empty peg to my left. Clint Wotlyla was on p13, which meant it was never going to be a quiet day and Adrian Jefferys to my right on p10.

Before the start I cleared out the right hand margin, which was solid with roots and branches, whilst I cleared out most of the debris there were still a few bits left, which I only snagged up on a couple of times. Fortunately the left hand margin was a lot clearer.

To be honest I didn't fish a good match today. I tried shallow at various depths, as well as a long line rig without success. A look down the right hand margin on paste, where I had seen a fish swirl, presumably grubbing around the bottom which had been disturbed when I cleared out the roots. However one small skimmer and lots of nibbles from silvers was all I could muster.

After an hour and no carp I decided to go back down the right margin again where I had kept feeding 4s with a semi-strong rig fishing worm. This produced a number of small skimmers, plus a few better sized perch. I started feeding caster which was a mistake, since it just encouraged more tiny rudd into the swim. Fishing caster on the hook was pointless, so struck with worm which was a bit more hardy.

I kept the long shallow line topped up which didn't produce, as well as a 10m paste line where I had 2 carp.

The left margin was fed with meat & hemp. I hooked a carp, but it did me around the front leg of the pallet. Clint caught 2 carp on corn from the other side of the pallet losing a 3rd.

A change to the worm rig down the left hand side produced more perch, plus a carp, but it was mostly small roach & rudd.

By the all out, I wasn't particularly pleased with my efforts, but was surprised to have won the silvers with sure a low weight. In hindsight I should have set up a pellet/meat rig to fish on the desk to pick up carp and hopefully a few better sized skimmers.

1st 108-15 - Tony Rixon - p15
2nd 88- 4 - Clayton Hudson - p24
3rd 74- 6 - Martin McMahon - p2
4th 70-10 - Jason Radford - p26
5th 68- 5 - Joe McMahon - p18
6th 65- 2 - Dave Evans - p20
Silvers
1st 7-13 - Ken Rayner - p11
2nd 7- 5 - Steve Seager - p27
3rd 6-10 - Clint Wotlyla - p13 

09/08/15 - Trinity Waters - Woodlands

Weight - 16lb 1oz (13lb 0oz - silvers)
Catch - 62 Roach, 4 Skimmers, 4 Perch, 2 Hybrids, 1 Tench, 1 F1
Weather - Mostly cloudy and light winds
Match - Short Pole Series rd 4 - 2nd out of 28 - silvers

The final round of this short pole series and looking at the league table I was lying 9th, 2pts behind a payout position in 5th, which meant I had a very outside chance of a pick up. It would mean those above me blowing out and me winning my section with a big weight. Peg 13 gave me decent chance.

Before the draw I was chatting to Paul Faires who said he was going to target  the silvers regardless of where he drew and he ended next to me on p12. Because he was solely targeting the silvers he wouldn't be targeting the margins between us, leaving them free for me to attack.

The other side of me was Trigger, who lets be honest is probably the best angler on our circuit at the moment. Fortunately he was in the next section, so I couldn't worry about what he was doing.

With a positive mind set I decided not to set up any silvers rig, leaving them for Paul to catch. I also decided to feed positively for the carp and unfortunately I think that was my undoing.

Starting on paste I had a big skimmer after 45mins, but nothing else. Trigger in the meantime had 2 fish on paste and started to catch down his margins. A switch to meat failed to produce as well. Things weren't going according to plan, although other than Trigger no one was catching much. Everyone's peg were fizzing like a Jacuzzi, but very few bites.

I had feed some meat and hemp down the deeper left hand margin under the tree, but again no bites. With just over an hour gone and still only one skimmer in the net I quickly setup a caster rig (jolly 4x14 > .12 > 18 silverfish maggot) to fish under the tree as I had seen some swirls when I feeding the meat.

Taking me up to the half way point of the match I probably had 8lb of silvers including a tench and a couple of 1lb perch, but really needed some carp to show. Whilst catching  the silvers I kept flicking 6s out long to draw some fish in and catch shallow, plus groundbait down the shallower right hand margin.

I only caught 1 3lb F1 shallow and nothing from the right hand margin or my left margin which I had fed quite heavily with more groundbait. Looking down my section I started to see carp being caught along with any hopes of doing well enough in section and league.

I hadn't seen many silvers being caught, so decided to spend the last 90mins concentrating on them to hopefully pick up 2nd place, because Paul was already streets ahead catching mostly skimmers on worm.

Another 5lb of silvers meant my 13lb  did indeed claim 2nd in silvers, so at least I managed a pick up on a difficult day.

Talking after the match, those that caught well had been fed fairly cautiously which probably explains why my very positive approach didn't work today. The fishing this summer has been difficult as the fish just don't seem to have settled down, probably due to constantly changing weather patterns.

Congratulations to Trigger for winning the league and giving me proper battering off the next peg.

1st 135- 6 - Craig Edmunds - p14
2nd 81-14 - Kev Molton - p17
3rd 64-13 - Tom Mangnall - p7
4th 56-10 - Tim Ford - p24
5th 52-12 - Mike West - p4
6th 51-10 - Glenn Bailey - p25

Silvers
1st 22-10 - Paul Faires - p12
2nd 13- 0 - Ken Rayner - p13

12/07/15 - Trinity Waters - Woodlands

Weight - 44lb 12oz (3lb 15oz - silvers)
Catch - 7 Carp, 37 Roach, 3 Skimmers, 3 Rudd
Weather - Mostly overcast and showery
Match - Short Pole - rd 3 - 7th out of 28, 2nd in section

I'll be honest. I wasn't really looking forward to this match, mainly because I have struggled to come to terms with the venue, although to be fair I haven't had the best draws. So today was about just trying to have a days fishing, which meant my carryall was weighed down more than usually with various baits. The intention was if I couldn't catch carp, I would at least try for some silvers.

For the 3rd week on the bounce we have had nice weather during the week, but come Sunday it was back on with the Gore-Tex as it rained on and off for most of the day.

At the draw and peg 14 put me one peg away from the favoured corner of 15 where Martin Lenaghan sat. My section started with me going round the end bank to p22, which included Tony Rixon on p19 (with the big snag now removed) and Trigger on p22, which won the section in the last round.

When I sat down on the peg, I quite fancied the margins to produce as I had a little more space than some pegs. The right margin was about 2.5ft deep, so that would be fed with groundbait later in the match and the left margin was 4ft deep, which would be initially fed with caster, with the option to fed pellet later depending on how the match progressed.

At the start of the match I hedged my bets a little feeding 6s to my right and groundbait/caster to my left. Starting in the right hand swim with paste was a little slow, eventually hooking my first fish, a 3lb 'flying' bream after 15mins, which promptly threw the hook mid air - bugger.

Despite loads of fizzing I couldn't get another bite on paste, so switched to a 1g silvers rig and double dead reds on the hook. Netting a 3lb carp. The left hand swim failed to produce, so decided not to bother with it. Everyone else seemed to have caught a couple of early skimmers or carp, but after an hour everyone was now struggling.

A switch to the left hand margin fishing with one of Mike Nichols favourite float patterns, a 4x14 jolly I started catching some very small roach on caster, with the occasional bigger 2oz fish. At one point the swim went quiet and I thought perhaps a carp had moved so tried the paste rig without success. Switching back to the caster rig and the swim was now full of motherless minnows (no doubt attracted by the paste) and I couldn't get a proper bite.

The right hand depth swim was proving to be a nightmare. There was loads of fizzing, but simply couldn't get a bite. A number of people were experiencing the same issue and can only put it down to the fish feeding a couple of feet off bottom. In an attempt to force the fish down I feed a big pot pellet, fishing worm which produced 2 skimmers, but nothing else.

I had also started feeding 6s to my left in an attempt to catch shallow mostly at 2ft deep on 6mm banded pellet. This produced a few better roach, but pulled out of a couple, so switched to a light 6-10 hollow. Typically my next bite was a carp, which kited right snagged up on Dave Evans rig. Fortunately Dave was very good about it and I managed to unhook his rig, before landing my carp. A 2nd carp soon followed, but the ripple had now moved out in the middle of the lake, before going flat calm. I couldn't get another bite after that.

So with 2hrs to go I had 3 carp and my silvers. I knew I was behind Martin, Tony and Trigger, but from what I could see not much was being caught.

I had started feeding groundbait down my edge an hour previously, but so far couldn't get a bite using my favourite Carrat float. I tried bunches of maggot, worm, double corn and meat. Eventually I had a carp on double 8mm meat. I couldn't get a bite anywhere else so for the last 30mins stuck with the margin and caught 3 more carp all on meat. Needless to say the margin was solid by the all out, oh for an extra 30mins.

It looked like Trigger had at least won the section, but it would be close between Tony and myself. During the weigh in it became obvious the lake had fished harder than expected. By the time we got to Trigger I was leading the section, beating Tony by 3lb and needed Trigger to frame so I could pick up the section which he duly did.

1st 110- 2 - Mike Nichols - p31
2nd 59- 8 - Craig Edmunds - p22
3rd 52-15 - Glenn Bailey - p4
4th 52-12 - Paul Elmes - p3
5th 52- 4 - Gordon Cannings - p7
6th 46-10 - Rod Wootton - p2

Silvers
1st 23- 9 - Vic Bush - p30
2nd 9- 1 - Dave Evans - p13
2nd 9- 1 - Tom Mangnall - p25

17/05/15 - Trinity Waters - Woodlands

Weight - 31lb 7oz (5lb 15oz - silvers)
Catch - 4 Carp, 10 Skimmers, 1 Roach
Weather - Mostly cloudy, cool NW breeze
Match - Short Pole Series rd 2 - 19th out of 28 (4th out of 7 - section)

Writing a blog means there is no hiding place when things aren't going well, particularly out on the bank and I have received plenty of encouragement recently! However the banter is one of the reasons I look forward to my weekends fishing, particularly after a hard weeks work. Could just do with a decent draw.

The 2nd round of this short pole series and all 28 turned up. I drew p28 which at least meant a short walk, but other than that its not the best area of the lake. Speaking to a couple of anglers who fished the area in the last round, said they caught very little in the margin, which wasn't a surprise, since this bank doesn't have the best margins with nearly every peg in.

With a light but cool breeze blowing left to right down the lake, I decided to feed 4s & 6s long (3+2) left and right, plus meat (and hemp) in the margins.

Starting long on paste I had hoped for an early carp, but other than a liner no fish. A switch to expander after 45mins resulted in 4 skimmers in as many put ins, before they disappeared.

Sticking with expander did produce a couple more skimmers, but by the half way point no more showed. In fact the lake was fishing harder than expected and by the sounds of it only a handful of carp had been caught in my section (p23-29), so still all to play for assuming I could actually catch a carp.

Most of the fish seem to be caught from the opposite bank. Bobby G and Trigger in particular were playing who's got the smallest!? The number of 2lber's landed that looked 5lb+! Pinocchio comes to mind.

As for me, I tried slapping a pellet around without success, but did manage a 9lb carp on my skimmer rig. I just wish I brought some dead maggot or worm to catch a few more silvers, but will never know.

My margins proved to be a little more successful, producing a decent skimmer and a small carp, both on meat.

Since I couldn't catch any skimmers and the swim seemed devoid of life, I decided to feed a full pot of pellet to my left and fish paste over the top. This produced another carp, but no more, so another big pot this time to my right and another carp before the end.

Paul Elmes won our section with 87lb and Tom Mangnall was 2nd with 55lb, but as for the rest of us in the section we all had 4 or 5 carp and a few silvers.

1st 117-12 - Rod Wootten - p6
2nd 87-12 - Paul Elmes - p25
3rd 79- 4 - Mike Nichols - p22
4th 79- 3 - Craig Edmunds - p9
5th 61-13 - Bob Gullick - p13
6th 59-11 - Adrian Jeffery - p33

Silvers
1st 25- 7 - Paul Faires - p31
2nd 14- 3 - Chris Fox - p18
3rd 9- 6 - Steve Evans - p27

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

07/09/14 - Trinity Waters - Woodland

Weight - 16lb 10oz (3lb 8oz - silvers)
Catch - 3 Carp, 4 Skimmers, 2 Roach
Weather - Warm & sunny - no wind
Match - Avon Angling Open - 12th out of 21

This wont be a particularly long blog simply because for most it was a real struggle to catch. With 21 fishing, we were all expecting a decent days sport and when I arrived at peg 26, there was plenty of fish moving around. However there was an algae bloom which when combined with flat conditions may have contributed towards the poor fishing.

 

Since there were a number fish showing themselves, I started the match at 14.5m fishing shallow, feeding 8s with a banded 8mm pellet. I tried a conventional shallow rig, a long line rig and a crystal pellet waggler throughout the match, but only had one roach and a single carp.

 

A spare peg to my left, afforded me a bit of space, so I cupped in soften 4s, 14m at an angle. This produced a carp, plus skimmers, but again very slow going. The 5m line was also a bust, with only 1 carp on meat 15mins from the end.

 

This just leaves the margins. From the start I fed the right margin with 4 & 6mm pellet, but other than small fish nipping at the bait didn’t produce anything. I had left the left hand margin until the last 2.5hrs, feeding 4 balls of groundbait with a small amount of hemp, pellet & meat mixed in. I tried, worm, meat and bunches maggot on the hook, but again could only get bites from small fish. However what was noticeable was the fish moved straight onto the groundbait and where gone again within a few minutes, so I tried fishing straight after feeding, this produced a few wobbles on the float, but no proper bites until 10 seconds from the end on a bunch of maggots. Knowing how badly the venue had fished, I hoped this fish would steal the section for me. It felt like a 10lber, i.e.it was just wallowing using its weight to pull back, but after a couple minutes on the top kit, the hook pulled – gutted! I only needed 8lb to steal the section, which meant no pick up today.

 

Speaking to a number of people after the match the same story kept repeating. Loads of fish showing themselves, but they wouldn’t open their mouths.

 

1^st 65- 0 – Dick Bull – p9

2^nd 38- 8 – Rich Heatley – p14

3^rd 38- 1 – Lee Werrett – p3

4^th 37-12 – Adrian Jefferies – p2

5^th 28- 1 – Tom Mangnall – p19

6^th 27- 7 – Tony Rixon – p6

 

Silvers

1^st 14- 1 – Gordon Cannings – p24

2^nd 13- 5 – John Bradford – p23

3^rd 10- 6 – Nigel Bartlett – p31

22/09/13 - Trinity Waters - Woodlands

Weight - 24lb 13oz (13lb 13oz - silvers)

Catch - 2 Carp, 20 Skimmers, 3 Roach, 1 Rudd

Weather - Mostly cloudy warm and no wind

Match - Avon Angling Pole Only - 1st out of 25 - silvers

 

Woodlands is one of those lakes I have struggled to get to grips with. Speaking to Chris Fox in the shop on Friday he said he was having a poor time there as well, due to drawing the “wrong” pegs and I jokingly said I wanted to be well away from where ever he drew. Having drawn his peg, Chris expressed his displeasure at another poor draw. As for me I managed to stay well clear and ended up on p9. Speaking to Martin McMahon who framed from it last week, told me how he caught, however today the lake was flat calm.

 

With 25 anglers on the lake, meant it would be a pole only match to save any argument about peoples casting. For company I had Adrian Jeffrey on p8 and Martin Lenaghan on p10, which was a little cozy.

 

As I was setting up, my gut feeling was we would struggle. There were fish moving on the surface, but with no ripple I didn’t expect any shallow fish to hang around, although I still set up a shallow long line pellet rig just in case. 3 other rigs were set up as follows:-

- Preston classic 1 – 1.25g > .14 > 16 B911 – maggot/soft pellet – changed to .12 & 18 silverfish pellet

- HB dweezil .75g > .16 > 16 B911 – soft pellet/meat at 6m

- HB dweezil .50g > .16 > 16 B911 – meat bottom the marginal shelf

 

On the all out I cupped in 8s at 6m and started pinging 8s at 14m. After swinging the shallow rig around for 15mins for 1 roach that dropped off, I never picked up the rig again. Adrian & Martin McMahon opposite both had a carp shallow, but it was obvious unless the wind picked up you were on a hiding to nothing. So a cup of soften 4s and 50:50 groundbait was deposited at 14.5m with some 8s.

 

Whilst that settled I caught a skimmer on 6mm expander at 6m. Going onto the long line with 6mm expander produced a couple more skimmers and a 5lb carp. As the match progressed there was a definite lack of carp action expect for the anglers to my right on the end bank. I caught a few more skimmers on double red maggot, but also bumped a couple.

 

Since there didn’t seem to be many carp in the area I switched to a lighter hooklength and elastic to target the skimmers properly, because winning the silvers was the only way I could see myself picking up today. As the match progressed I found it best to cup a small ball of feed every 2^nd fish, but had to wait for bites despite all the fizzing in the peg. Whenever I fed the long line I would try for 5mins either the 6m line that I kept topped up with 8s or the bottom of the marginal shelf to my left which I kept topped up with meat & corn. Neither swims produced much other than a couple of skimmers or small roach.

 

Back on long line the swim seemed to have died, but when I was looking towards the end bank watching Paul Elmes land another fish, I felt the pole being pulled down as a 6lb carp accepted the double maggot. I did hook another carp shortly afterwards, but the hook pulled.

 

With no more carp, some of the better skimmers started to put in an appearance, but with 90mins left the swim just died completely. There was obviously still fish in the area, because the swim was still fizzing, but I couldn’t buy a bite. John Bradford opposite had a few silvers and I was sure I was ahead of him, but I wasn’t sure how the anglers to my left were doing and felt I needed to catch a few more skimmers to be safe. So a new swim was set at 16m at an angle to my left with another cup of 4s and groundbait, which produced another 5 skimmers. Most fish came to double dead maggot, which seemed to be better than 4 or 6mm expander.

 

By the all out I felt I had at least 10lb, John was admitting to 8-10lb and Fabio reckoned he had about 8lb. When I plonked 13-13 on the scales Tony said I would win the silvers and that was the way it ended.

 

As I was packing up, 4 sections of my pole rolled into the lake and I had no choice but to go in after it. So I stripped off and dived down 7ft finding the pole almost immediately. Thanks to Adrian for grabbing the pole and Martin for pulling me out of the lake, which Tim Ford very kindly took a photo! I was just pleased it was September and not January!

 

1^st 106-12 – Paul Elmes – p3

2^nd 90- 1 – Shaun Townsend – p2

3^rd 88-12 – Craig Edmunds – p15

4^th 81- 8 – Tony Rixon – p28

5^th 74- 0 – Gordon Canning – p7

6^th 63- 9 – Glen Bailey – p29

 

Silvers

1^st 13-13 – Ken Rayner – p9

2^nd 11- 9 – John Bradford – p30

3^rd 11- 1 – Phil Harding – p25

03/01/12 - Trinity Waters - Woodlands

Weight - 17lb 2oz (4lb 14oz -silvers)
Catch - 2 Carp, 7 Skimmers, 2 Roach, 1 Motherless Minnow
Weather - Mild, cloudy, light winds
Match - Avon Angling Open - 9th out of 19

I am still on my festive holiday for the rest of the week and decided to booked into this match, although after the last time I wasnt that enthusastic, but reasoned my luck has to change soon. Initally when I drew p10 I was quite pleased, until I realised I was 1 of 2 pegs without a spare peg either side, with Ziggy on p9 and Steve Wynn on p11.

I set up to 2 rigs, 4x18 polar ice > .12 > 18 silverfish pellet and a 4x18 jolly > .10 > 20 silverfish maggot. I also set up a rig to fish in the margin more in hope than expectation and finally a straight lead rig.

As we were setting up there was a few fish boshing in the middle of the lake and was regretting not bring a waggler rod.

On the all in a ball of groundbait and caster was deposited at 9m and I continued to cup in caster/dead maggot, but only had 1 skimmer over this line all match. At 15m slightly to my left, a small amount of 3s & 4s was deposited. Whilst I let that settle I tried the straight lead without sucess as did Kev Molton who was opposite me.

After a 10min wait on the 15m line I managed my first skimmer on soft pellet, before losing a carp when the hook pulled when I had it on my top kit. I also lost another fish under my pallet which took the bait when I was filling my tosspot. Initially I thought had hooked my keepnet, but it pulled back before breaking me.

On the hour Misha brought my sausage bagette. So back out with the straight lead & punched meat and convientantly the tip pulled round after I had finished eating. No more followed, so back on the pole and the middle part of the match was a real struggle, I couldnt buy bite even on single maggot, I even tried a popped up boilie on a 5ft tail.

At just over half way I fed some grounbait at 15m, but that didnt work, so a new swim was set up at 15m slightly to my right with 3s & 4s again, pinging 4s over the top.

The last hour was my most productive, when 3 good skimmers in as many put ins on soft pellet, then another carp on the straight lead.

A difficult day for most with the majority of the weights coming from left hand end of the lake. At least I beat the pegs either side of me, who both weighted 7lb.

1^st 66- 0 – Mark Poppleton – P31
2^nd 40- 8 – Anton Page – P17
3^rd 28- 0 – Dave Evans – p6
4^th 27- 9 – Steve Evans – p2
5^th 27- 5 – Phil Harding – p3
6^th 23- 2 – Eddie Wynn – p7

Silvers

1^st 13- 2 – Nick Collier – p32
2^nd 10-14 – Phil Harding – p3
3^rd 10- 9 – Tony Rixon – p26

16/12/12 - Trinity Waters - Woodlands

Weight - 11lb 13oz
Catch - 14 Roach, 7 Skimmers, 1 Rudd, 1Carp
Weather - Mostly sunny and breezy
Match - Avon Angling Open - 12th out of 20

I was hoping after the recent mild weather the lake would fish and it did for some, but most struggled. Being such a deep lake the water temperature takes longer to warmer up and it was still feeling the effects of last weeks ice.

The last time I fished this lake was 15mths ago and was told dead maggot over micros was the way to go. Peg 26 however wasn’t ideal, but at least the forecast wind would mostly be off my back.

For the first 30mins I searched the swim with corn on the hook, initially trying at 5m, 16m, then the straight lead out into the middle, but other than a couple of liners on the lead nothing. Andy Hembrow opposite had an early carp on the method from the middle, but no more followed.

In the meantime Steve Seagar on p27 & John Bradford on p24 had both started catching small roach. I went out to 14.5m where I deposited some micros & 4s and started catching small roach and skimmers, but it was hard work, particularly when they came off as you shipped back. I did hook a carp in the tail, which I eventually netted and I hoped a few more would turn up. Unfortunately they didn’t.

I had set up a positively fed swim at 14.5m to my right, but again only small roach. I tried soft pellet, but only had 1 bite on that. I had also been feeding 4s & corn at 5m, hoping to catch later on, but this didn’t yield anything. In fact most of the fish seem to have been caught to my left, whilst those to my right where struggling, except for Dave Evans on p15 who was catching down the margin on corn.

With the expectation of carp I had been fishing with .12 bottom and 18 silverfish pellet. I did swap to .10 & size 20 hook with a lighter elastic later on, which meant fewer bumped fish, but in reality I was going no where fast and was quite pleased when the match ended.

1st 66-10 - Martin McMahon - p32
2nd 50-14 - Rod Wootton - p31
3rd 48-15 - Mike West - p29
4th 45- 0 - Tony Rixon - p9
5th 43-12 - Kev Molton - p2
6th 42-12 - Dave Evans - p15

Silvers
1st 8- 8 - Andy Hembrow - p13
2nd 8- 5 - John  Bradford - p24
3rd 7- 9 - Tony Rixon - p9

22/07/12 - Trinity Waters - Wildmarsh

Weight - 26lb 0oz (9lb 8oz - silvers)
Catch - 3 Carp, 96 Rudd, 79 Roach, 4 Motherless Minnows, 2 Perch
Weather - Hot & sunny.
Match - Avon Angling Open - 7th out of 30 (3rd out of 10 - section)

After yesterdays fiasco, I really needed a good match and Wildmarsh Lake has been quite good to me in the past. With 30 booked in, Tony split the lake into 3 sections, with 1 section made up of carp pegs, with most concentrated around the island.

I drew 16 which was in the carp section and the feedback suggested it wasn't the best, however with the wind blowing my way, although not much ripple I was hopeful. The peg itself is set at an odd angle, facing pegs 14 (Mike West) and 15 (empty corner). I had a reed bed and small tree down my right hand side, but due to the angle of the peg and the height of the reeds, I ended up setting my box to the far left of the peg making full use of the extending legs, so I could get out into the water as much as possible (next time I fish this lake I bring my penrose platform).

Once I finally got myself settled I noticed a few rudd in front of me and knew from experience that generally the carp dont show in any numbers, so a back up line was required. I also set up a line 13m to my left into the open water, feeding 3 pots of groundbait, caster, worm and pellet. To be honest this was a throw away line, since I didn't expect too many skimmers to be in this part of the lake and that's what happened, after 2 attempts during the match and only 2 roach, this line was binned.

On the all in, I went straight over to the reeds with paste hoping for an early carp, but after 20mins and only 1 roach it was obvious there was none around. A switch to my top and I was soon catching tiny rudd on maggot, feeding caster. After a few rig adjustments and a switch to caster I continued to catch slightly better rudd, but more roach began to show. As the match progressed, I had to fish top 3 and by fishing a little deeper managed a few better roach up to 3oz.

In the meantime my margin swim was topped up every 30mins with 1/2 pot of meat & pellet. I also set up another swim at 11m straight in front and this got a regular top up as well.

With 75mins to go my short line was slowing and it was time to catch some carp, having given them plenty of time to settle. First put in on meat produced a carp after 5mins, followed by a better one 10mins later on paste, before the small fish re-appeared. The 11m line failed to produce anything other than a couple knocks from suspected silvers, whilst Mike had 3 carp for 30lb in 3 put ins from his long line. Back into my margin and I had 1 final carp on paste.

Just 1 more carp would have seen me claim the section by default, with Dean beating me by 2lb, but I had an enjoyable day with plenty of bites.

1st - 58-12 - Paul Locke - p22 (paste @ 13m)
2nd - 57- 07 - Mike West - p14 (paste)
3rd - 38-11 - Anton Page - p11
4th - 30-14 - Tony Rixon - island 3 (paste!)
5th - 30-13 - Dave Roper - p6
6th - 28- 4 - Dean Malin - p42

Silvers
1st - 34- 0 - Paul Lock
2nd - 20- 8 - Tony Rixon
3rd - 20- 3 - Nicky Collins

09/10/11 - Trinity - Woodland Lake

Weight – 29lb 12oz
Catch – 5 Carp, 5 Skimmers, 1 Roach, 1 Motherless Minnow
Weather – Mild, breezy & mostly cloudy
Match – Club – 5th out of 16

With 16 anglers booked in I managed to spread everyone around the lake, with most on the favored far bank. I don’t like someone else drawing for me, so as I was holding the draw bag, I saw the pegs on the far bank disappear, leaving me with p22 in the corner. Today’s match was also the semi final for our knockout and I had Andy who beat me in last year’s final. Conveniently he was on p19 on the end bank so at least we could keep an eye on each other.

As I was walking around selecting the pegs, a car pulled into the car park and the occupants got out surveying the lake with the intention of fishing. By the time I walked back round I told 1 of them there was match on, before asking whether they read the big white board at the entrance, which clearly stated that Woodlands was closed. However, despite stopping in front of the board they still managed to miss seeing it!

The weather forecast was for strong winds, so it was a pleasant surprise to see a flat calm lake, although the wind picked up as were setting up. With the expectation of strong winds I didn’t bother with a long pole, only a rig for the margins, plus a method feeder to fish slightly to my left as not to interfere with peg 19 and a straight lead to fish to peg 20 on the end bank.

With the wind blowing down this end I quite fancied it for few a fish, however after 2hrs 25mins I had yet to catch, whilst Andy had 2 carp. After Fridays practice I had decided to concentrate on the method, whilst building my margin swims. I did lose 1 fish and had a few liners, but no fish. Since the wind wasn’t quite as strong as expected (although when I went round to the opposite bank during the weigh in I realized I was slightly sheltered from the worst) I decided to set a shallow pellet rig at 13m after seeing a couple of fish boshing close by. 20mins later I had my 1st carp on 8mm pellet and thought I sussed it, but ½hr later no more followed. They just didn’t want to come in close, although they were boshing further out in ripple.

I was in danger of getting pre-occupied trying to catch shallow, so decided to give it up as a bad job and focus on the margins where I had kept feeding 4mms and corn. After a few rig adjustments, finally started to catch on 6mm expander, unfortunately they were small skimmers, but at least I was catching and I was confident the carp would turn up.

I hooked 6 carp down the edge, losing 2 (1 was definitely fouled as it shot off), but 2 of the 4 landed were proper 8lb fish. Fortunately Andy only had 4 carp, although he lost a couple, so I knew I would be in the knockout final.

The winners came from the middle of the lake, where the fish seemed to be happiest today.

1st 82-8 Kev – p28 (12 carp. 10 in the last 90mins down the edge on worm)
2nd 78- 6 Chris – p13 (shallow 8mm pellet)
3rd 43- 4 Graham – p11
4th 32- 6 Tim – p7
5th 29-12 Ken – p22

07/10/11 - Trinity Waters - Woodlands Lake

Weight – 50lb 6oz
Catch – 8 Carp, 5 Skimmers, 1 Tench, 1 Roach
Weather – Showery, strong NW wind

Well my back injury wasn’t quite as bad as first feared. I did go fishing last weekend at the Winterbourne Duck Pond just to see how it felt and successful came though a busy session catching small skimmers. Sadly there was a major fish kill at the pond since last year, which has meant the majority of the big skimmers and carp have died, however there seemed to be plenty of 1-3oz skimmers, plus a few 2oz carp of various colours (discarded pets?).

Today’s session was about practicing for Sunday’s club match. I haven’t been to Woodlands lake since all the landscaping and what a change, although I’m not sure about the individual pegs being set back into little bays.

Tim Allen from our club decided to join me and as they say 2 heads are better than 1. I had already been told of the better areas, but decided to settle on p27, which is an average peg in the middle of the lake. With the strong wind, it would also give me a chance to sort out some pole rigs.

Initially started on the method, but mixed the green swim stim and micros separately so I could mix and match to see what worked. After 45mins I had tried meat, hard pellet, soft pellet and maggot without success. Tim in the meantime had 2 carp on a standard cage feeder with corn on the hook, so I opened a tin and hey presto a carp! Another carp followed shortly after, but the cold wind was having an effect on the fishing.

I deliberately didn’t want to target the silvers, since Sundays match wouldn’t have a silvers payout, so the 6m line was fed with 4mm & corn, as were the margins. Started with a 0.8g rig, but it wasn’t longer before I tried 1.25g rig due to the tow, which did produce a few skimmers, plus a near 2lb tench on red maggot. Although I stayed with it for a while the pole just wasn’t working due to the windy conditions.

After 2hrs a local old boy turned up, who knew “everything” and with the whole lake to choose from promptly set up next to me on peg 26. With Tim on the other side it now meant the margin I had started feeding could now be redundant, particularly now he started crashing about. I tried explaining to him what I was trying to do, but being a know it all he reckoned it wouldn’t make a difference. Muppet!

Since the pole line wasn’t working (including the margin which I had feed for 3hrs), I concentrated on the feeder, I had set up 2 rigs, 1x method feeder and 1x pellet feeder, fishing 17 turns out, so a gentle lob. The method was the better way to go and I found by moulding more micro pellet, then groundbait seemed to get bites quicker. Also corn was the best bait, although according to “know it all” corn doesn’t work.

Unfortunately I lost a few carp on the feeder, a couple when the free running feeder bounced the fish off the hook. I also lost a few when the hooklength snapped. Really not a fan of the method, but sometimes needs must, so a softer rod and stronger hooklengths for Sunday.

A worthwhile practice, but I think I will be a happier if I draw the other side. Tim also had 30lb.