Monday 9 April 2012

Monday 09/04/2012 - Acorn Fishery Bank Holiday Open - Paddocks

Tony Rixon and I were chatting in the shop about how much water a tree consumes, the discussion came about due to the drought in some parts of England and how many of our local Commercial Fisheries fish suffer serious water loss in summer. So I had a quick search of the net and come up with the following surprising information:-

“A large oak tree can draw up to 50 or more gallons of water per day. Some trees use 15 gallons of water per hour on a hot day, and some can draw as much as 150-200 gallons of water on a hot day! The most water demanding is:

Elm
Oak
Poplar
Willow
Silver Maple
Manitoba Maple”

The dry winters are apparently here to stay so droughts are only going to get worse – thought provoking me thinks.

It now seems daft to discuss drought in this blog as we had torrential rain and high winds today from being picked up and to being dropped off. It was my third visit to the fishery and it was good to see that the new trees are planted well back from the Lake. Bela and I decided to have breakfast at the fishery and my litmus as to the quality is Bela – who thought it was spot on – I agreed. I was surprised to see twenty five Anglers turn out especially as the bad weather was forecast.

All I knew about the venue was that peg 5 would be a good draw and either side of one of the three bridges, with the Silvers inhabiting the pegs in the teens. In to the draw bag and out comes a ping-pong ball with 38 on it. Luckily Bela parked more or less behind my peg – Bela wasn’t far away on peg 31. For company I had cider specialist Kev Perry on peg 40 next to a bridge and Lance Tucker on peg 37. Peg 5 was occupied by matey Glen Bailey. Having a chat Mark Broomsgrove and Paul Faiers it was clear that my first choice of catching Silvers was scuppered but I could expect Carp.

I initially set up a 4x14 Jolly to be fished down the track, but switched to a 4x16 due to the wind and depth. I paste rig for down the inside shelf at 4 metres and similarly a paste rig for the LH margin – second shelf. I also set up a Ronnie rig for caster also at 4 metres. Starting at 7 metres down the track kindering some 2.4’s and with 3 mm expander on the hook I had four Carp in the first four put-ins. Because I had kept some feed going in I foul hooked the next four, then caught a few Skimmers 5lb 2oz to be precise before after feeding again I had another couple of Carp. As I had been feeding the margin with hard 4’s I gave it a go with paste and caught nought – I didn’t try it again. So it was now the turn of caster at 4 metres where I had been dripping some in and first put in I hooked a Carp on double caster - no Silvers about then. I started to get liners so tried the paste over the caster and that’s where I stayed for the remainder of the match, picking off the odd Carp, loose feeding a few micros and caster combo. Unfortunately I did lose more than my fair share through either pulling too hard (the fish that is) or foul hookers. There is also a snag at 10 clock just up the shelf at 4 metres where I lost two Carp and one very important one on the whistle! My total with the few Skimmers weighed 84lb 6oz for third overall with any one of those lost fish elevating my to second spot. 

The match was won by Glenn Bailey (pictured right with the Silvers winner) with 120lb 10oz from peg 5. Glenn caught 50% on hard banded 6mm pellet kinder potting the same size pellet down the far shelf and the remainder at 7 metres on paste (apparently Glenn has eyes in the back of his head as he said he spotted me using paste so gave it a try) again kinder potting hard 6’s.

The Silvers was won by Steve Mayo from peg 15 with 42lb 14oz of Skimmers. Steve caught on soft pellet over similar down the far shelf and some in his margin using caster over caster.

Full Result:

1.      Glenn Bailey 120-10-0 peg 5
2.      Des Shipp 85-12-0 peg 21
3.      Mike Nicholls 84-06-0 peg 38
4.      Rich Healey 80-14-0 peg 6
5.      Kev Perry 79-04-0 peg 40
6.      Lance Tucker 69-09-0 peg 39

Top Silvers:

1.      Steve Mayo 42-04-0 peg 15
2.      Mark Bartlett 35-04-0 peg 1
3.      Paul Faiers 17-08-0 peg 30 

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