Silverfox Match Angling

Thursday 02/02/2012 - Bathampton AA Silvers Championship - Bridge Pool - Round 3

2012-02-02T18:48:00.005Z

With the temperature at -4 degrees, a freezing cold NW light wind and a bright sunny day promised I was hoping for a peg between 15 and 3. All these peg will have the sun in the face all match, plus the wind would be off the right shoulder. I couldn’t believe my luck when I pulled out peg 8. Out of all the pegs, it would have been my choice; it has plenty of Silvers form!

When the weather gets cold and dry, it always seems to bring out the Robins as it did today. I shared my bait for most of the day with the cheeky fellow pictured right.

My New Year’s resolution – “I will not go fishing and break ice” - lasted all of January up to today. I was told it was only Cat Ice!! I needed the breaker as it was in fact 10mm thick. Lucky enough I had Harry Muir on peg 5 on hand, who swung the lead for me, I think he could easily qualify for the Olympic Irish Shot-put. On next peg 7 I had that nice man Andy Shields - again (pictured lower right with Dave Gillard hand lining for mackerel – I thought the line thickness was a bit optimistic).

With the ice cut out to 6.2 metres in line with the sun (11 to 12 o clock) with the plan that I would only suffer the suns reflection for the first hour or so. I set up the one rig a 4x16 Jolly to be fished in seven foot of water. With the Orvis Bifocal Polaroid glasses on I started by feeding a walnut ball size of my Skimmer GB combined with six loose pinkies. With double Pinkie on the hook I was soon in to a 3oz Skimmer. I followed this with a few 2oz Ronnie’s before feeding a few more Pinkies with the same amount of micro. I kept a few small Skimmers and Ronnie’s coming but noticed that after feeding I was getting liners. So I was thinking I needed to feed another ball of GB but was apprehensive as no one was catching and I suspect they had fed GB. Instead, after feeding I would change the depth and adjust it down after every fish. After 2 ½ hours I decided to feed another ball of GB and luckily enough it didn’t kill the swim, however, the fish were still coming up to intercept the feed, following it down. I also switched from Pinkie to big dead maggot trying all the colours, but still the Lion's share falling to my favourite red. I think I wore out the top 2ft of my rig through moving the float up and down. That said I did manage to keep the fish coming, one a bung. I did have a “senior moment” when I landed a 4oz Skimmer and a slice of ice, putting the slice in the net and the Skimmer back in the Lake – duh. The upshot was I had a lovely day’s fishing whilst remaining relatively warm. I was surprised to keep the fish coming all match and to weigh in 17lb 4oz which was well good enough for first overall, thoroughly thrashing Mike Jones (pictured lower right with his runner up catch) off the next occupied peg.

My pairs partner put in a great performance also winning his sections, it looks like the Mike's are on the march.

The Carp was won by Bob “The Bread” Price with luckily one of the smaller of the species weighing 8lb 8oz. Bob caught all his fish on bread fished at 5 metres. As Bob was the only one to catch an “Accidental” he picked up all the pools money.

Full Result:

1. Mike Nicholls 17-04-0 peg 7

2. Mike Jones 8-12-0 peg 11

3. Bob Price 7-04-0 peg 30

4. John Smith 5-04-0 peg 14

5. Dave Wride 5-02-0 peg 28

6. Andy Shields 3-06-0 peg 8

Accidental Carp Pool:

1. Bob Price 8-08-0 peg 30

2. No one

Sunday 29/01/2012 - Viaduct Teams of Five Winter League - Round Two - All Lakes

2012-01-29T20:47:00.003Z

When it comes to food Bela is very territorial, so for safety reasons we switched from queuing, fight for your self at the Globe to the Canards Well table service. I must say it was a good breakfast plus it was hot and the brown sauce was in a bottle (I hate those plastic sachets). But, we nearly didn’t get there, as on the way Bela’s van lost power. So applying my computer knowledge we switched the engine off and on again – bingo, no more problems for the rest of the way there and back.

Bela and I were talking about the pegs we might draw and Bela could only talk about peg 15 as he keeps drawing this peg on Spring Lake. Tom Mangnel came back with a decent draw (his golden arm is back). Bela was over the moon to be on – peg 15 AGAIN!! With myb turn on Match Lake I was even happier to be put on peg 43 – F1 city. For neighbours I had Dave Roper on peg 42 and Tom Thick on peg 44.

I was slightly concerned how the overnight frost might affect the fishing as Match Lake is usually the first to suffer from the cold weather as it’s the shallowest of all the Lakes. I set up the waggler and straight lead, finally the pole to be fished at 13 metres with a 4x12 Jolly. On the whistle I fed a small ball of GB with a few loose Pinkies at thirteen metres, I didn’t have a bite on this line, only indications from very tiny Ronnie’s, so this was shelved. So it was out on the waggler with double Pinkie hook bait and – nothing. Clayton Hudson on end peg 40 was soon in to fish on the lead with bread hook bait as was the lad on peg 45. Both were catching well whilst I sat bite less for the first hour. I was having difficulty in see the red top float, plus it wasn’t heavy enough. The Drake waggler I selected was a tad too long for the depth of water so I took the razor blade to it, shortening and whitening the tip with tippex. I also reduced the drop shot from 4x11 to 1x11. It was necessary to re-shot the waggler so I cast it half way and couldn’t believe I had a bite and landed a 1lb Skimmer – at least I was off the mark even though it was accidental. Out to the far bank with double white maggot (I choose white because of Clayton catching on bread) and I started catching F1’s regularly for an hour. Even though I was fishing well beyond feeding distance, I still couldn’t help loosing feeding casters through the catty. The swim died for a while until I caught three consecutive Carp – one 4oz, one 1lb and finally one 3lb. Flowing this I had a real hard hour waiting for the F1’s to return, which they did for the last ¾ hour. I was surprised that the F1’s and Carp weighed in at 37lb 4oz. I must admit I thought I had far less. F1’s fight twice their weight and weigh twice my estimate. Adding my 1lb 3oz of Silvers my total came to 38lb 7oz which was good enough for a Lake win. I was surprised at this because the first six pegs of Spring Lake are included in with Match Lake, which have been throwing up ton weighs of big Carp.

With Tom Mangnel coming third on his Lake and Bela third on his the team managed to muster 61 points which was good enough for joint third on the day even though Fabio blanked on peg 87 on Carey.

The match was won by Dave Cockayne (pictured right with the Silvers winner) from peg 115 with 126lb 14oz. Dave caught on the lead with meat feeding – NOTHING! Dave’s catch consisted of 25 Carp.

The Silvers was won by Des Shipp with 26lb 11oz from Lodge peg 61 (it was a case of us switching pegs that we fished the last match). Des caught on the pole fished at 16 metres with caster hook bait over GB and caster and the waggler fished with maggot over loose fed caster.

Full Result:

1. Dave Cockayne 126-14-0 peg 115

2. Dan “The Dude” Squires 111-03-0 peg 8

3. John Darby 110-0-0 peg 64

4. Dave White 90-11-0 peg 102

5. Nick Chedsoy 87-05-0 peg 113

6. Alan Oram 78-05-0 peg 114

Top Silvers:

1. Des Shipp 26-11-0 peg 61

2. Bob Gullick 25-02-0 peg 60

3. Rowland Lucas 14-01-0 peg 68

Top Teams on the day:

1. Viaduct Select 74 points

2. Thatcher’s Veterans 62

3. Silverfox TM 61

4. Viaduct All-stars 61

5. Thatcher’s PI 60

6. 4 way tie – Avon Angling, Moaning Maggots, Somerset Angling and Somerset Magic 58

Teams to date:

1. Viaduct Select 128

2. Somerset Angling 124

3. Toss potts 122

4. Avon Angling 10

….

12. Silverfox TM 94

Wednesday 25/01/12 - Avon Angling Open - Landsend Fishery - Specimen and Match Lakes.

2012-01-25T20:16:00.005Z

It was the turn of Abby’s café to provide this mornings breakfast. Bela went for the number three and was the only person to eat it all – biggest breakfast I’ve seen in many a year.

There has been a some correspondence regarding the names of the Landsend Lakes, so I spoke to the owner, Mike Sidney Duckett who confirmed the following:

Tadham Moor Lake (Specimen Lake) named such due to Tadham Moor being behind the Lake.

Tealham Moor Lake (Match Lake) named such due to Tealham Moor being also behind the Lake.

John Walter Lake (Third Lake) named such due to this being the Christian names of Mike Duckett’s Father.

Sidney Lake (Fourth Lake) named such due to it being a Duckett Family name e.g. Mike’s Granddad and Great Granddad.

Having paid the £21 pools money (the £1 apparently isn’t the VAT) it was in to the draw bucket and out comes peg 31. A Carp Slayers peg. This peg was going to be wasted on me as I can’t fish the 16 metres necessary to properly plunder the Carp. I bet this pissed-off match organiser Tony Rixon who was on next peg 29. I decided to focus on the Silvers and any accidental Carp at 13 metres at 12 o clock. As there were a few Ronnie showing I set a rig to fish for them with caster over caster and my usual Skimmer rig, a 4x14 Jolly. I couldn’t help noticing that the match organiser had his far bank feed between his pot and the water simultaneously to calling the all in - a perk of being the match organiser, I guess. I wasn’t far behind, with my dozen micros and 4 mm expander hook bait. I was surprised I wasn’t bitted out by the Ronnie’s, which is usual at the start, I did have a few though. I was soon in to my first of two early Carp. Followed by a few f1’s and Skimmers mixed in with more Ronnie’s. I did try the Ronnie rig but they weren’t prepared to feed properly deciding instead to be a bloody nuisance. I gave them up as it was all too slow. I kept on the same line for 99.9% of the match catching a few more Skimmers and the first Tench of the year. With an 1 ½ hours to go I upped the feed in the hope of to boosting my Carp weight, which did account for two more of the species, plus a couple of Skimmers plus two lost at the net worth at least another 3lb.

I think there are plenty of Silvers to be caught on this peg but once you have a 10lb Carp mooching around over your feed you aren’t going to catch the Silvers.

My Silvers weighed in at 14lb 10oz and my four Carp 36lb 6oz for a total of 51lb. This put me fifth in the Silvers and second overall.

Bela drew corner peg 33, I was expecting a lesson on how to fish caster shallow at 16 metres. However, the best it got was Bela setting up – pictured right. Bela lost eight foul hookers and landed three Carp plus one tree. Bela did come away with the spoils from a four way £1 bet initiated by Tony Rixon in the cafe, Bela won because he was the only one that understood the bet!!

The match was won by Craig Edmonds from peg 17 with 60lb 7oz, Trigger caught on expander pellet over micro.

The Silvers was won by Nigel Bartlett (pictured with the match winner and Fabio (centre), who apparently wasn’t happy with his picture last Sunday – I don’t know why as it has given us all a right laugh - window licker) with 26lb 11oz from peg 22. Nigel caught on maggot over loose fed maggot fished at 4 metres to hand, catching Ronnie’s and soft pellet fished over micro at 13 metres catching Skimmers and F1’s.

Full Result:

1. Craig (Trigger) Edmonds 60-07-0 peg 17

2. Mike Nicholls 51-0-0 peg 31

3. Tom Thick 49-01-0 peg 25

4. Stu Foal 48-05-0 peg 32

5. John Thompson 36-04-0 peg 24

6. Phil (Fabio) Harding 34-09-0 peg 36

Top Silvers:

1. Nigel Bartlett 26-11-0 peg 22

2. Tom Thick 23-12-0 peg 25

Sunday 22/01/2012 - Landsend Individual League - Specimen, Match and John Walter Lakes

2012-01-22T19:58:00.005Z

After breakfast in the Fountain Café with Bela (who didn’t eat all his beans) it was down the A38 to Landsend where we were both guesting again in the Landsend league, which was a free draw (all Lakes in the same draw bag). I wonder about this year’s mild weather, this morning the birds were singing again at dawn. And the sun was up a bit earlier and very bright (see picture right of the sun rising over the Somerset levels), However, I was slightly concerned about the strong gusting winds.

I was hoping for a draw on John Walter's Lake (Third Lake), I think I was the only one. I wasn’t disappointed when I pulled peg 50. However, whilst struggling up to the Lake against the high gusting wind, I started to doubt my choice. Arriving at the peg which allowed me to get my box right close to the water level the wind didn’t appear to be that bad. It was surprising to see at least five Anglers draw the Lake again, with Jason Radford (peg 41) and Alan Oram (peg 51) on the previous same pegs. Lady luck I guess.

I set up the same rigs as the previous match, one for fishing down the track and the other for the RH margin. On the whistle I initially fed the margin with a big pot of micro and caster, string on the 4mm expander pellet down the track over kinder potted micro. I had a small Ronnie first cast on the drop. The wind was so strong that the opposing tow was like fishing the river Avon in summer. To get better presentation I parked the back shot and used the wind to hold back the float (as you do on the river in the upstream wind). I started to catch a few small Skimmers and the odd Crucian. I then kept missing bites on the 4mm expander. Thinking this was small fish I slipped on a 2mm expander and missed a very positive bite first put in. As the pellet was so small I needed to ship back to see if it was still on the hook – it wasn’t. Out again with the same and an 8lb Common took it’s time getting in the net. With these hefty fish thrashing around in the swim the tendency was for the Caro to back off, so it was a question of catching a few more Silvers before the carp arrived back. This was how my matched progressed – a Carp then a few Silvers. Half way through I did have a bit of bad luck when I hooked a Carp and simultaneously my pole was hit by an extremely high gust of wind which I could not defend, pulling the hook from the fish – bugger. What made things worse next cast I foul hooked a carp which wasn’t on for long, its scale was big enough to put in the Carp net! With 1 ½ hours to go my arthritic hands were so painful fighting the wind that I had a try in the margin with triple dead red and was rewarded with a 4lb Carp which I nearly got in my landing net, but not quite – would it go in or out – out it was and off the hook - bugger. I was tempted to stay in the margin drinking coffee, but all it was now offering was miniscule Perch. So I spent the rest of the match fighting the bloody wind. My for Carp weighed in at 27lb 7oz and my Silvers 7lb for a total of 34lb 7oz which was good enough for a lake second and a lake first in the Silvers, which was coin back up in case I didn’t frame. I was surprised that my weight also put me seventh overall in the match.

The match was won by Tony Rixon from peg 32 on Specimen Lake with 59lb 15oz. Tony caught on …see his blog – you don’t give an Angler of Tony’s ability a flyer peg like this with out him making full use of it – do you Clint – lesson learnt. I am pleased Clint pick up the Lake Silvers by default, especially after the early tantrums.

The Silvers was won by Fabio (pictured right with his Landlord) from Specimen peg 38 with 21lb 10oz Fabio caught decent Skimmers on soft pellet over micro.

Full Result:

1. Tony Rixon 59-15-0 peg 32

2. Mike Duckett 53-10-0 peg 31
3. Brian Shanks 50-0-0 peg ?

4. Kev Moulton 49-0-0 peg 68

5. Dale Houseman 46-14-0 peg 33

6. Bob Gullick 45-12-0 peg 24

7. Mike Nicholls 34-07-0 peg 50

Top Silvers:

1. Phil (Fabio) Harding 21-10-0 peg 38

2. Nick Merry 14-10-0 peg 40

3. Adrian Jeffery 14-04-0 peg 36

Thursday 19/01/2012 - Bathampton AA Silvers Championship - Withy Pool - Round 2

2012-01-19T19:25:00.002Z

The temperature and air pressure is swinging wildly, not only day by day but hour by hour, very strange. The wind can’t make up its mind either.

Paying my pools to Mike Jones I couldn’t help noticing that he was stowing the folding stuff in an “ass wipe” container. Apparently, his wife’s doesn’t allow him to use them – he’s left with the rough stuff! At least it stops the money blowing off!

Today was the draw for the pairs and I was lucky enough to be paired with Mike Owens. At least he’s one of the few anglers that I don’t have to strain my neck to talk to. I think we have an outside chance of framing.

In to the draw container and out comes disabled peg 72. Initially I wasn’t that happy even though it was only twenty metres from my car. However, once everyone had settled in their respective swims I realised I had plenty of room, with two pegs each side empty, plus the opposite bank free of anglers – trying to tell me something? I was happy with this as there are plenty of small Ronnie’s in this area, but usually short of Skimmers. So I thought I would focus on Ronnie’s. Plumbing around the swim the best depth I could find was at 10 metres with some 5ft 7inches (just my height). The depth was on the boarder line between a 4x14 and a 4x16 Jolly, but as I had a 4x16 on the top set I decided to keep with this even though I had to loose 1 ½ metres of 0.18 line – bugger, another rig to retie for next match. I decide to start vary cautiously as this area of the lake froze last weekend. So in went a small ball of my Skimmer GB with a few loose Pinkies. With double Pinkie on the hook I had a bite first cast a 6 oz Ronnie. Next cast I had its twin. I then had a run of small Ronnie’s 1 – 2oz. I decided to up the feed by, not only feeding a small ball of GB, but also kindering a few Pinkies and wetted micro. After a few more Ronnie’s I latched in to a decent Skimmer of about 2 ½ lb. It was then a Ronnie a chuck until the swim died, even though I had been topping up regularly with GB and loose feed. I decided to switch to triple putrid dead red maggot hook bait and amazingly enough I caught six more Skimmers to 4lb 2oz in consecutive casts. The last Skimmer (no eight) I hooked was unfortunately fouled which put the lid on any more Skimmers. The last 1 ½ hours was spent gradually increasing the feed whilst catching small Ronnie’s hoping for an accidental Carp. With no Carp netted, my Silvers weighed in at 27lb 12oz for a section win and second overall.

The match was won by Dave Wride (pictured right with the runner up – again) with an incredible weight of 54lb 6oz from point peg 48. Dave caught Skimmers throughout the match fishing white maggot over small balls of GB. After the match Dave was asking me about the qualification to fish the over 55’s – We have until June 2012 before he starts fishing them, so best make the most of it between March and his Birthday!

The Accidental Carp was won by Chris Rolfe from peg 43; with a 17lb 2oz Common Carp (pictured right with the biggest Silver fish of the day winner, Paul Haines with a 4lb 4oz Bream).

Full Result:

1. Dave Wride 54-06-0 peg 48
2. Mike Nicholls 27-12-0 peg 27-12-0 peg 72
3. Alan Jones 23-14-0 peg 47
4. Paul Barnfield 18-14-0 peg 62
5. Rich Coles 10-10-0 peg 45
6. Chris Rolfe 9-0-0 peg 43

Accidental Carp:

1. Chris Rolfe 17-02-0 peg 43
2. Bob Price 6-13-0 peg 63

Sunday 15/01/2012 - Viaduct Teams of Five Winter League - Round One - All Lakes

2012-01-15T21:13:00.007Z

It was the start of the Viaduct Winter League, with nineteen teams of five taking part (95 anglers), with, I understand a number of teams on the waiting list. This makes it the biggest Commercial League in the South West and most probably in the country.

Silverfox TM had to make a team change as Steve Skelton had to miss the league due to family issues, let’s hope they are soon resolved so Steve is out fishing again. The Team captain brought in replacement Anton Page. So we now have two 2011 record breakers in the team!

After the help yourself to as much as you can get on your plate breakfast, followed by the passing around of huge sums of money, it was off to the fishery to unpack whilst team captain Tom Mangnel did the draw. The team draw Tom came back with was to say the least, indifferent – let’s hope this is a minor relapse for Tom’s draw arm.

With all the fishable pegs in the draw, added to this the cold snap over the past two days we all expected it to fish hard. I was hoping for a peg on Lodge Lake and I wasn’t disappointed to be given peg 61. A reasonable Silvers peg, so I could forget Carp completely, this was left to the four corner pegs which proved to fish very well for the species.

On peg 60 I had Welsh Wizard Andy Neil, to complete the sandwich peg 62 was occupied by Fred Roberts, both experienced venue regulars. I decided to set up a 4 metre Ronnie whip for caster over caster, a 4x14 Jolly to be fished at 13 metres at 11 o clock with GB and 1 o clock with caster, the same rig needing only an inch adjustment in depth. Finally, I set up the waggler, again for caster. On the whistle I potted a few casters on the 1 o clock and a nugget of GB at 11 o clock, but started on the whip to test if the Ronnie were going to have a go – it doesn’t take long to discover they weren’t in the mood. So onto the caster line which produced nothing, as it happened I didn’t have a bite on this line, which was surprising. So it was over to the GB line which produced two consecutive Skimmers on double Pinkie. The swim then died so I re-fed and picked up the waggler with single caster on an 18 - 808 hook. Loose feeding caster over the top resulted in a number of 1oz Ronnie’s (when is the tackle industry going to design a catapult that can feed casters within 1 metre of your target)? Having discounted the 13 metre Caster Line, I kept switching between the GB line and the waggler to keep the odd Skimmer (and one lonely Perch) coming until the final all out. As expected the Carp fed all round the venue Lake corners and the Silvers appeared to be in hibernation. My Silvers weighed in at 11lb 8oz for 12 teams points and third overall in the Silvers pool – happy days.

Team wise Silverfox TM were plumb last!!

The match was won by Ray Hayward (pictured with third overall and super pool second defaulter) from Spring peg 25 with 115lb 8oz. Ray Landed nine Carp with the first two weighing 40lb. Ray caught on the waggler at 20 metres using either corn or meat hair rigged hook bait.

The Silvers was won by Brian Shanks with 16lb 14oz from Middle peg 37.Brain caught on the pole with either red maggot or caster over potted caster. His GB line failed to produce a single bite.

Full Result:

1. Ray Hayward 115-08-0 peg 25

2. Ben Bentley 110-13-0 peg 3

3. Tony "Default" Rixon 106-15-0 peg 110

4. John Howell 93-06-0 peg 97

5. Martin Preston 93-01-0 peg 131

6. Russ Peck 74-0-0 peg 53

Top Silvers:

1. Brian Shanks 16-14-0 peg 37

2. Barry Fitchew 13-0-0 peg 56

3. Mike Nicholls 11-08-0 peg 61

Top Teams:

1. Toss Potts 72 points

2. Somerset Angling 64

3. Amigos 61

4. Dynamite Baits 58

5. Viaduct Select 54

6. Team Jinx 53

19. Silverfox TM 33

Finally, back at the pub for the result I caught a Picture of the Dude picking his nose!

Sunday 08/01/2012 - Landsend Individual League - Specimen, Match and Johns Walter Lakes

2012-01-08T20:16:00.007Z

Waiting for Bela this morning it felt more like Spring rather than mid winter, even the birds agreed brightening up the start of the day with their dawn chorus.

Bela and I decided to guest in the Landsend Individual League today with Bela deciding on Specimen Lake and myself on Johns Walter's Lake (the “Third” Lake). I choose this Lake because you don’t usually have to fish further than 13 metres off any peg, whereas Specimen it can be up to 17 metres! Many Anglers complain about the walk, I timed myself and it is five minutes with the tackle, not exactly a marathon.

After two days of bad luck with losing five fence panels and the Television breaking down and having to by a new one (when was it that they stop repairing them with new valves) I was anticipating the three bad lucks in a row today. So in to the draw plastic container and out comes peg 66. According to the specialist – Tony Rixon it wasn’t a good draw, so was it to be the third in a row?

Once again I had the Leicester Lad – Ray Bazeley for company who was on end peg 58. Ray is pictured right, photographed by Tony in his shop – “The Gangster without a gang”. Ray’s hat got a right ribbing from Tony’s coffee drinkers.

I set up two rigs a 4x14 and a 4x12 Jolly’s. The heavier rig was for down the track at 10 and 11.5 metres the lighter rig for either each side margin and over at 12 metres to the end of the island. I plumbed around a found the topography was all over the place it was deeper in the margin than out in front and the further I went to the left the deeper it got, at 10 o clock to the left it was a 10 inches deeper, which is significant in 3 foot of water. The sun was reflecting on the 10 o clock swim so I decided to leave this until Paul Haines on peg 68 (next peg to the left) had, had a few Carp and hopefully chased them into this swim. So I started out in front using 3mm expander over kindered micro and I kept missing un-missable bites, so switched to single maggot and soon found the culprits – 1oz Ronnie’s. So I switch round to caster over caster and had another six Ronnie’s before the swim died. I didn’t have another bite from this swim. Having cupped a significant amount of dead maggot over to the far bank I switched to this line, with double red on the hook, this resulted in two ½ oz Ronnie’s. I did have a "Mick Jagger", picking up some stones in the butt section and having them roll down whilst shipping out!! In to the RH margin where I had fed a few casters and I missed a bite on caster, I could see small Ronnie’s flashing up in the water. So I put on two floro Pinkies and had another tiny Ronnie. I started to feed the down wind LH margin with dead reds and micro. It was now half way through the match and I had less than a pound of captured Ronnie’s. So it was time for a coffee break and a chat with Paul Haines and Clint Wojtyle, both were struggling and both were beating me hands down. The sun had buggered off so I made up my mine to go on the 11 o clock swim and fish 3 mm expander over micro and keep just to this feed. It took a while but I had a small F1 followed by six Skimmers in six put-ins – happy days – could I win the Lake Silvers? No sooner than I thought this the swim died catching only two more tiny Ronnie’s. With only 45 minutes of than match left I overheard Clint say he had 7lb of Silvers, which was more than my net estimate so instead of persevering with the Silvers I switched to the LH margin with tripled dead red maggot in the hope of Carp. First put in I had a 3lb carp quickly followed by a 2lb Carp. It wasn’t until the last eight minutes that I hooked another Carp thinking that there was time for another before the end - not, as it took fifteen minutes to land the 13 pound Common. My Silvers weighed in at 6lb 4oz for third Silvers on the Lake and the Carp weighed in at 18lb 6oz for a grand total of 24lb 10oz for a lake win (just beating Clint by ounces). So my bad luck might be over - lets hope so.

The match was won by Mark Poppleton (pictured right with the Silvers winner) with 94lb 14oz from peg 7 on Match Lake. Mark caught eight Carp down the track on corn over corn and the rest over to the far bank using caster over caster. Mark fed through the kinder pot.

The Silvers was won by Paul Elmes from peg 15 Match Lake with 19lb 10oz of F1’s and Skimmers. Paul fished down the far shelf with soft pellet, later switching to caster over caster up the far shelf.

Full Result:

1. Mark Poppleton 94-14-0 peg 7

2. Tom Thick 82-12-0 peg 11

3. Scott Puddy 62-11-0 peg 31

4. Bob Gullick 49-10-0 peg 13

5. Craig Edmonds 48-0-0 peg 19

6. Andy Hembrow 47-0-0 peg 17

Top Silvers:

1. Paul Elmes 19-10-0 peg 15

2. Nick Collins 15-01-0 peg 3

3. Martin Pettifer 12-13-0 peg 5

Thursday 05/01/2012 - Bathampton AA Silvers Championship - Bridge Pool - Round 1

2012-01-05T18:50:00.005Z

Today was the start of the BAA Silvers League which is open to all club members – no need to be decrepit to join. The high over night winds did in five of my fence panels. I made them safe before I left for fishing. I think others were worse off than me. The high gusting winds were forecast to continue throughout the day until 15:00. I must say I wasn’t looking forward to the match much, so I was amazed that we had only one no show from the sale out series of 24 – I was expecting more absentees. It was good to see some new faces and a couple of new club members – Mike Owens and Dave Wride.

Bridge pool does have some shelter from the surrounding hills but the weather was so bad, extra shelter was essential. I had a number of pegs in mind so was glad when I pulled peg 26 a peg near the top of my list. The wind would be off my back at least, plus it’s a peg you can catch short on, plus no bloody trees to worry about.

Off to the peg only to find a tree had fallen across the path to the top car park. It was a choice of a bit of jungle warfare or a long walk – I went through the jungle. I was glad I didn’t draw peg 4 where the trees were groaning the last time I drew it in high winds – how wrong can you be. I had matey Ray Bazeley on next peg 25; however, Ray had to put up with looking at my back for most of the match as peg 26 is out on stalk – or is 25 is set back.

It was two rigs – a 4x16 jolly to fish at 5 metres and a 4x12 for down the RH side in some calm and shallower water – the fish might have moved in to the shallows – not.

As it happens I spent all but three minutes on the 5 metre line. I started by feeding a small ball of my Skimmer GB mix and fished five week old “putrid” red maggot on the hook (well they were red at one time but had gone pale due to being in a plastic bag). You have to be very careful hooking these maggots as you can get a skirt of white liquid in the eye. It’s a little like hooking Bloodworm as it is easy to spill the inners leaving just a skin. I started reasonably well catching Skimmers to 1lb. The swim went quite so I re-fed and foul hooked a Carp up in the water which lasted on the hook two nanoseconds. Next put in I hooked a Mirror Carp which took a while to land on my light elastic. That was handy as there is an “Accidental” Carp pool of £2. The Skimmer reappeared and I kept a few coming on the putrid. I decided to feed some micro and maggot, loose, and I thought I had completely buggered the swim as it went dead. The brain was working overtime as to what had happened and wondered if the skimmers had preferred the micro over the maggot. In to the bait bag only to find I had left my expenders in the garage. So as a trial I hooked two micros and had a Skimmer first try. In again and I missed bite. I kept missing bites or the theses tiny pellets or they wouldn’t stay on the long enough – frustration. Luckily Ray Bazeley came to the rescue and gave me a few 4mm expander which I put in to soak. I was soon catching 6 to the Pound Skimmers one a put in, which lasted to the end of the match. My Silvers weighed in at 15lb 10oz for second overall and a section win. The lonely Carp weighed in at 10lb 13oz for first in the lucky Carp pool. Yes the lake went flat calm at 15:00 on the “all out”.

The match was won by Dave Wride (pictured right with the runner up - we always let the new comers win their first match) with 21lb 12oz from peg 4!! Dave caught initially on red maggot then later switched to white maggot, both fished over GB. Dave found single maggot the most productive.

Considering the conditions the lake fished very well indeed.

Full Result:

1. Dave Wride 21-12-0 peg 4

2. Mike Nicholls 15-10-0 peg 26

3. Mike Jones 13-12-0 peg 11

4. Paul Barnfield 12-15-0 peg 15

5. John Smith 10-10-0 peg 21

6. Alan Jones 10-06-0 peg 28

Accidental Carp Pool:

1. Mike Nicholls 10-13-0 peg 26

2. Chris Rolfe 9-08-0 peg 30

Monday 02/01/2012 - Avon Angling Open - Shiplate Fishery - Hawthornes and West pool

2012-01-02T19:46:00.000Z

Today was the first match of 2012 which I usually choose to fish at Hillview Fishery, however, a change this year to Shiplate which is in some respects is similar in that we were fishing two canals – West Pool (W) and Hawthorne (H). The main difference is that Hillview is stuffed with fish and you only need to be a shrivelling pensioner to fish the far bank, opposed to Shiplate where you need to be built like a brick sh1t house.

After a breakfast at the Fountain café where Bela was well pissed because he was last to get his grub, however, “two chews” wasn’t last to finish by a long chalk!

On arrival we were met by Steve Oliver the fishery owner and his wife Carol (pictured right), who luckily enough was acting car park attendant for the day, arranging the cars in herring bone fashion, otherwise it would have been the usual mayhem.

I was hoping to draw an end peg on either of the canals. Into the draw landing net and out comes peg 10 on Hawthorns – not an end peg, but as usual not that disappointed, its great to be out in the fresh air after being a couch potato for ten days. Arriving at the peg I had the Gimp on peg 9 and Martin Lenaghan on peg 11. I had a chat with Tony Rixon and we both agreed that Silvers would be very much accidental on this peg, so it was Carp or Carp with the hope of catching some Silvers. I got out the full 13 metres of pole and after plumbing around I settled on fishing 11.5 metres which was two inches up the far shelf with my usual 4x14 Jolly. I didn’t set up a far bank rig as it was unfortunately well out of my reach. I started out in front by kinder potting in a 50/50 mix of wetted micro and dead reds (about 15 of each). First put in with double dead red on a 16 - 808 resulted in a 4lb Common Carp – happy days. Next put in the same again. Next put in resulted in a lost foul hooker. The struggle then started with very shy bites from tiny 2oz Skimmers. I decided to focus on these for a while and knocked up some of my Skimmer GB, putting a small ball at 11.5metres at 11 o clock. I had four skimmers straight off but the swim soon died. I went back on the Carp line and had another 4 pounder, before I had a few more Skimmers. I kept switching between the two lines and kept the tiny Skimmers coming. That was until in two put ins I had two more Carp, albeit slightly small stamp. With an hour to go the Gimp packed up and Martin started to catch me up fishing the far bank as the wind had dropped. Martin did have a 3lb Bream right on the death which when added to his two Chub assisted him greatly in wining the Lake Silvers with 4lb 10oz, beating my twenty “bottle tops” which went 2lb 12oz. My six Carp weighed in at 19lb 3oz for a grand total of 21lb 15oz, which put me about half way in the match.

The match was won by Tony Rixon from peg 6 on West Pool (old peg 1 where Dean broke the fishery match record a few weeks back). It’s the tee that appears to holding the fish – either leave the peg out or take the tree out. Tony caught on … see his blog.

The Silvers as expected was won from Westpool with 10lb 13oz by Alan Oram (pictured right with the overall winner). Alan caught on double dead maggot over micro and dead maggot fished at 13 metres from peg 13.

Full Result:

1. Tony Rixon 81-08-0 peg 6 W (old peg 1)

2. Chris Fox 50-11-0 peg 2H

3. Steve Wynne 38-0-0 peg 6H

4. Phil Harding 36-04-0 peg 14H

5. Martin McMahon 32-04-0 peg 5H

6. Martin Lenaghan 30-05-0 peg 11H

Top Silvers:

1. Alan Oram 10-13-0 peg 13W

2. Eddy Wynne 8-06-0 peg 15W

Review of 2011

2011-12-26T10:10:00.005Z

Another fishing year has quickly passed which has been successful for me on many fronts. The weather has been particularly kind with only two soakings all year and last years ice covering a distant memory. The fishing has also been extremely good on all the sixteen fisheries I have fished. Five of them left long lasting memories.

There are two Ronnie venues I must mention; the first is Boyd Valley Lake. Leyton Palmer ran a few “open” matches early in the New Year which I thoroughly enjoyed winning the Silvers a few times with 30lb Ronnie’s. The other venue is Plantation where Carps AC ran a Wednesday League, similarly catching 20 to 30lb of Ronnie’s with a few Skimmers every match, narrowly winning the highly competitive Silvers division on weight. On each venue I used my Ronnie rig with caster over caster. I believe I have developed a way feeding and presenting my caster in a unique way for my beloved Ronnie’s (which I have been keeping close to my chest until the book). However, it has its draw backs. This year being diagnosed with Osteoarthritis (wearing out of the joints) in my neck, foot and wrists (at least I have developed it in pursuit of pleasure)!!

After the bashing my joints got during the first quarter of the year I decided to rest the smaller fish and go for the bigger variety, Skimmers and Carp. There were two venues that I was able to put some big weights together of both these. The first was Viaduct which during the two mid quarters of the year fished its head off with 100lb weights often not making the coin. Steve and Paul manage this fishery extremely well, without over management or any tinkering. I had my highest Silvers weight on this venue from peg 116 (Steve Long on peg 118 thought he had me beat for the Silvers thinking I landing all Carp). In addition I had a good few 100lb Carp weights. The other venue I caught a few Carp on was the BAA Huntstrete Lakes, in five matches I managed to weigh in 710lb – satisfying but boring!

The fifth venue I must mention is Stafford Moor. I fished the October festival and discovered a wonderful Lake – Josephs, or as we named it Jurassic Park. I wish I could fish this lake more often. During the festival I won both the Lake Silvers and overall on peg 27. It’s a must fish Lake, especially around the back pegs where you can expect some magnificent hard fighting Carp. The Lake it full of dead trees etc… and you wonder it the next fish might be a Crocodile – wonderful place to spend the day or a week!!

This year saw Andy Power win the “Maver Match This” picking up £50,000. So it was “well done you”. This got me thinking back to the 1972 and 1973 seasons when a certain Mike Jones picked up over £3,000 in each of these years it didn’t end there). Transposing this in to today values, a 3 bedroom house cost £4,000 back then so by my reckoning it equates to £150,000 per year!! Where did it all go Mike surely not all on perms, hair colouring and facials to keep your Peter Pan looks.

I have fished 112 matches this year and thinking about it in terms of equating to almost three months of the year being away from the Special One left me with a bit of guilt. As it did when I took the family out to the Cross Guns at Avon Cliff where we walked the K&A Canal and River and as we walked I was tallying up the swims I had matched fished over the years in opens and league matches there were many. I wonder if I can reach fishing for a quarter of a life time. One thing for sure neither I nor anyone else will beat Colin Golding’s record; he must be close to half a life time.

When I retired five years ago I also gave up serious team fishing. I choose the word serious carefully because I do fish with Charlie’s Angels in the SW Teams of Four and this year Steve Long cobbled together a scratch team for his teams of Five Viaduct Winter League. I think we amazed everyone (including us) coming runners up to Somerset Angling. I didn’t contribute much to this success. It was mostly down to Captain Tom Mangnall with his golden drawing arm (I suspect Tony Rixon will now use Tom to draw for him at his shop matches). Tom did come second overall individual which helped a lot. We have entered the same team again this year. We will see how much of a fluke it all was – as long as we beat Avon Anglings team nothing else matters.

Tom was to later in the year break the Viaduct overall match record from peg 94 (the peg I blanked on in the winter league) with 319lb 5oz with just 25 fish. He was piped for the top weight in the South West by Anton Page’s match record at Landsend Fishery with 342lb 8oz comprising 45 fish from peg 31. Nice to see these youngsters (relatively speaking) doing so well. Both anglers have certainly gained my respect for their match fishing this year.

In this years statistics table I have included some financials. I don’t think the cost of £9/day (cost of less than 3 pints of lager in my local pub – there are plenty that drink this amount a day) will not surprise many match anglers. By publishing this I hope I haven’t broken a taboo as we do like to hide some of these facts from our Special Ones, limiting our discussions to the days we win! Still on financials I hear a lot about how popular the cost cutter matches are becoming, particularly at Viaduct. Although I see a need for these matches for the over 55’s (pensioners) we have to be careful that travelling anglers can still cover their costs from winnings. For example I reckon I need to win an average of £30 a match to break even.

The following table contains some, but not all the statistics of my match fishing for 2011:

	2011	2010	2009
Total Number of Matches Fished	112	109	99
Total Number of Anglers fished the Matches	3,463	2,551	2,701
Average Number of Anglers per Match	31	23	27
Number of Different Fisheries Fished	16	22	19
Total Carp Weight	3,377lb 11oz	3,246lb 2oz	2,470lb 15oz
Total Silvers Weight	1,943lb	1,506lb 7oz	1,1601lb 3oz
Overall Weight	5320lb 11oz	4,752lb 9oz	3,632lb 2oz
Highest Overall Weight	193lb 12oz	201lb 10oz	210lb 14oz
Highest Silvers Weight	54lb	44lb 10oz	44lb 7oz
Heaviest Carp	19lb 12oz	18lb 10oz	18lb 14oz
Average Weight per Match	47lb 8oz	43lb 9oz	36lb 11oz
Number of Times in top 6 Overall	58	54	43
Number of Times in top 3 Silvers	42	40	45
Number of Times won Both	4	6	6
Number of Pick-ups	68	67	59
Strike Rate	61%	61%	60%
DNW	0	0	2
Blanks	1	1	1
Peg Fees	£645
Pools Entry	£1,730
Travel Costs	£550
Bait Costs	£257
Capital Expenditure (spread over 3 years £500/3))	£167
Total Cost 2011	£3,349

Sunday 18/12/2011 - Avalon Christmas Match - Match Lake

2011-12-18T19:48:00.001Z

After a decent breakfast in the Fountain Café it was off to Avalon Fishery for their sell out forty peg Christmas Match. With a hard frost and fairly bright conditions the fishing was always going to be hard. I am not sure everyone was going to appreciated this.

I must say both Vic Bush and his wife Heather did us proud with great traditional prizes (pictured right) and post match cups of soup and home made mince pies – no wonder Vic always looks so well!!

I haven’t fished this venue yet this year and was looking forward to fishing it again as it is a well maintained venue, and always seems to keep it’s colour.

In to the draw tin and out comes peg 43 I wasn’t sure where I was and how good the peg would be. Arriving at the peg I found myself next to my travelling partner Bela on peg 44 and Dave Roper on peg 42. The peg looked as if it might have some Carp form as it had a tiny crooked bay opposite with some cover. I decided on two rigs a 4x16 jolly to be fished at 13 metres and a very small Drennan feeder for down the shelf of the far bank. I decide to have a wetted micro swim at 13 metres at 1-o clock in the shadow of three tree trunks and a GB line also at 13 metres at 10-o clock against a very think shadow of another tree trunk – the light (which was ever changing) was extremely bad because of the trees on the opposite island having shed their leaves. I had decided that I would fish both lines on the pole, and then determine which might be the best hook bait and feeder contents for the feeder. On the all in I feed a kinder pot of GB laced with ten dead reds, followed up with 20ish micro on the other line. Starting on triple maggot over the GB I finally had a 3oz Skimmer after 15 minutes, followed by five more before I re-fed and tried the micro line, again with dead reds. This resulted in a small Ronnie and a couple of small Skimmers. I switched to the 4mm expander pellet and had a couple more small Skimmers. Because the size of fish didn’t improve I switched back to the dead reds hook bait, because they are more robust during a long wait for a bite. By switching between the lines I kept a few very small Skimmers coming, but it was very slow all round me. I finally decided to try the feeder with GB laced with micro with dead reds on the hook. The bites on the pole were to say the least very shy, as it proved on the feeder catching another two small Skimmers. I did have one good bite which I initially thought was a better Skimmer and half way back the fish lunged which felt like a Pike had taken it. However, it proved to be a Carp (to Bela’s amusement), my one and only weighing 1lb 1oz! I soon got bored and came back in on the pole and had a run of Skimmers again over the GB, bringing my total number of Skimmers to 16 which unfortunately only weighed in at 6lb 5oz which was only good enough for third in the Silvers. My total weight of 7lb 6oz got me my coveted box of biscuits.

The match was won by Vince Brown (pictured right with the Silvers winner) from peg 19 with 48lb 4oz. Vince caught on the feeder compacted with micro pellet attached to a short 0.1mm hook length with hair rigged double 4mm expander pellet. Vince had two quality double figure Carp in his catch.

The Silvers was won by Tony Rixon with 9lb from peg 28. Tony caught on….see his blog.

I was surprised that Vic allows vagrants to fish his matches. I caught this one on camera after the match (pictured right).

Full Result:

1. Vince Brown 48-04-0 peg 19

2. Andy Gurd 15-08-0 peg 27

3. Darren North 1401-0 peg 10

4. Shane Caswell 13-04-0 peg 24

5. Chris Fox 11-11-0 peg 48

6. John Bradford 11-08-0 peg 9

Top Silvers:

1. Tony Rixon 9-0-0 peg 28

2. Alan Oram 7-14-0 peg 12

3. Mike Nicholls 6-04-0 peg 43

Thursday 15/12/2011 - Bathampton AA Over 55's And Disabled - Christmas Match - Bridge Pool

2011-12-15T17:28:00.008Z

Another good turn out for the Coffin Dodgers Christmas Match. With the weather forecast being do uncertain I was expecting a few to drop out, as it happened we had only one no show. The talk before the draw was whether or not we would miss the worst of the weather. Mike Jones got it right with a 09-15 draw fishing to 14-15. We certainty had the best weather of the week so far.

It was great to see BAA (Mike Jones) keeping the traditional Christmas match fare going (see picture right) – thanks Mike, it does take hard work which I know is well appreciated by all participants – keep it going matey.

In to the draw box and out comes peg 7 – another disable peg along the road side. I can’t complain as I have had my fair share on the natural side. I set up two rigs – one I didn’t use, so it was all down to the 4x16 Jolly. I had a good plumb round and found a deep scallop at 5 metres, which was about 4 metres wide and shallowed up at about 10 meters. Thought this area would produce a few Skimmers so started here with a small ball of GB laced with dead reds. With triple maggot on the hook in I went and sat there for an age watch John Smith on next peg 8 catching a 6oz Skimmer every put in, whilst my float just sat there. John explained that he fished the peg last week and struggled. I re fed and did have two decent Skimmers. I was struggling and was in a hole – literally! I plumbed around again to search of shallower water and found some towards John Smith. So I re-fed another ball of laced GB and had a run of decent Skimmers, but no where near enough to catch John. For the next two hours I had just one Skimmer. So with twenty minutes left I needed a Carp, so out on another two sections of pole and started to drip in some micro at 10 metres. With 8 minutes to go I was blessed with a bite and I was soon aware I had hooked a decent Carp. However, it felt strange and was worried it was foul hooked so I played it very carefully as it was going to be a very important fish. Just after the whistle I was relieved to have landed an 11lb 11oz Carp, in the nose!! I was surprised that my few Skimmers weighed in at 10lb 15oz to contribute to my 22lb 10oz overall weight which left me second overall behind as expected John Smith who also had a low double Carp.

The Match and the Silvers was won by John Smith (pictured right with his “peas in a pod” net of Skimmers) with 20lb of Skimmers and the one Carp. John caught at 10 metres) level with my 5 metres as he was set back behind me). John caught on red maggot over GB and potted casters.

Below is the picture of today attending Coffin Dodgers:

Full Result (From Left to Right):

Terry Church 1-05-0

Bill “Pikey” Ferris 5-10-0

Paul Haines 14-04-0 (4^{th peg 24})

Chris Rolfe 18-0-0 (3^{rd peg30})

Bob Warren 3-06-0

Terry Bruton 13-0-0 (6^{th peg14})

Mike Jones 12-04-0

Dave Gillard 6-04-0

Harry Muir 7-04-0

Ray Bazeley 0-03-0 (Last)

Rich Coles 11-10-0

John Smith (1^{st peg8})

Dave Greenslade 0-08-0

Alan Jones 2-05-0

Pete Philips 13-01-0 (5^{th peg 14})

John Wild 0-06-0

Dave Bacon 07-13-0

Dave Poole 0-08-0

Mike Nicholls 22-10-0 (2^{nd peg7})

Top Silvers:

1. John Smith 20-08-0 peg 8

2. Chris Rolfe 18-0-0 peg 30

3. Rich Coles 11-10-0 peg 5

4. Mike Nicholls 10-15-0 peg7

Thursday 08/12/2011 - Bathampton AA Over 55's And Disabled - Bridge Pool

2011-12-08T17:49:00.009Z

I was pleasantly surprised to find twenty plus Coffin Dodgers in attendance, especially after the weather warning given out – gale force winds and heavy rain later. I guess that we are all at the age where we would prefer spending our time doing the thing we all love with people of similar minds.

In to the draw box and out comes peg 4. It’s been a long time since I fished this peg. I went to the peg with mixed feelings as the wind would be horrendous along this section of the Lake. However, it is a peg you can fish short as the shelf is only at 5 metres. As I was setting up I could hear some creaking from the trees behind. Looking round there was three or four trees with some very large dead branches on them (pictured right). I was worried that if the wind got up I might get one on the head. I nearly went for a redraw but as I was now set up I carried on fishing, keeping an eye on the trees when the high gusts hit me – probably too late by then - allat my risk and not BAA's. Anyway I survived the full duration. And lucky enough Mike Jones timed the match to perfection; I was packed away before the deluge hit us.

This peg is probably one of the shallowest on the Lake. I set up the one rig, a 4x16 Jolly with 0.14 hook length with a 16 - 808. I decided to keep it simple and use the remaining GB from yesterday and dead reds on the hook. First put in, after feeding a walnut ball of GB I was amazed to hook and land a 1lb Skimmer – happy days. I re-fed another knub and had another Skimmer. The presentation was such that it was a question of laying on by riding the rig up the inside shelf to get some purchase. I decided to try a piece of worm with a dead red and surprise, surprise a 2 ½ lb Tinca Tinca in the net. The fishing then slowed, probably because of the commotion the Tench made in the swim. I later had a run of Skimmers to 2lb by feeding a knub of GB after every fish (or before the next fish – Mr Feltham).

As I hadn’t had a bite for an hour and heard through the bank side drums that Bill Ferris on peg 18 had caught a large Pike, so I went round with the camera and got the picture (right) of Bill’s PB Pike which weighed 23lb 8oz. Lucky enough a couple of guys from Eastern Europe came by and purchased it for £10 for their Christmas dinner. In my opinion predators of this size has no place in a Lake such as this.

Back to the peg. However, before I left, I fed a couple of whole pots of dead reds. I knew the tow was sure to be left to right (wind opposing), but hadn’t mange to pick it up because of the bloody wind. But on the two occasions the wind subsided I did I manage to “pick the trip” and had a Skimmer each time. My Silvers weighed in at 13lb 9oz, which I expected to be there or there abouts as the anglers I could see all struggled. As it happens this put me fifth overall and second in the Silvers. Those that beat me were those that had either sheltered swims or the wind off their backs.

The match was won by Dave Poole (pictured right) with three Carp plus some Silvers for 36lb 2oz from peg 21. Dave caught on either 4 or 6mm expander pellet fished over micro pellet. Dave fed about a pint of micro throughout the match.

The Silvers was won by Mike Jones with 16lb 4oz of Skimmers from peg 25 (wind off the back and peg 24 empty – again). Mike caught on red maggot fished over GB.

Full Result:

1. Dave Poole 36-02-0 peg 21

2. Terry Bruton 29-05-0 peg 11

3. Mike Jones 27-09-0 peg 25

4. Pete Greenslade 19-14-0 peg 14

5. Mike Nicholls 13-09-0 peg 4

6. Bill Ferris 7-10-0 peg 18

Top Silvers:

1. Mike Jones 16-04-0 peg 25

2. Mike Nicholls 13-09-0 peg 4

3. Dave Poole 8-08-0 peg 21

Wednesday 07/12/2011 - Carps AC Christmas Match - Plantation Match Lake

2011-12-07T18:57:00.001Z

There is always the first time for everything. Today’s pools of £22 included a mandatory £5 breakfast. Unfortunately it wasn’t the best one by a long way, in addition to me I heard a couple of anglers moaning about heart burn afterwards. Still no Christmas prizes even though the match was billed as such.

In to pass the draw box and out pops peg 38 with “island chuck” written on it, at first that I thought I had won the raffle!!. This is a point peg and has plenty of Silvers form. However, Paul Haines said he drew recently and had problems with the sun in his eyes, hence I was hoping it would be overcast all day, which isn’t usual with high gusting winds which was blowing right to left.

The picture left is the state of the sun after packing up – the best it was all day.

As per usual I decided to fish for the Silvers so initially set up a 4x14 Jolly, which would normally suffice for the depth I had at 10 metres, but because of the wind I had to park this rig and set up a 4x16 Jolly. The second and last rig was my usual Ronnie rig with caster over caster. Unfortunately the sun was out and very low at 10 o clock and would move to 2 o clock by all out. I anticipated this, but fed these lines nonetheless with GB laced with a few dead reds – this was a mistake. I started on the Ronnie rig and – nothing – “don’t believe it”. Out on the Skimmer line and after landing one Carp and losing one which very cleverly managed to untie my hook (how do they do this?) the sun was so bad my head was aching – now I understand the expression “blinding headache”. I decided to switch to a line at 3 o clock into the bay on the right with a red topped Jolly – much better. So I re-fed GB through the kinder pot with double red on the 16 hook. The presentation was also much better as I was now facing into the wind which was blowing the bait up the inside shelf. I landed another five Carp losing three foul hookers. I did manage a 1lb Perch plus a few Skimmers – but still no Ronnie’s! Because I was compromising on the pole elastic I lost a 2lb Skimmer bouncing off at the net. This was a very important fish as it cost me a Silvers win. I am now thinking I compromised the elastic too far towards the Carp – who knows. Two things that surprised me today – no Ronnie’s and catching Carp over GB.

My six Carp weighed in at 24lb 3oz and my Silvers 7lb 11oz for a total of 31lb 14oz. This left me fourth and fourth (another tin of buicuits has slipped me by)

The match was won by Rod Wotton (pictured right with his first weigh catch) with an amazing 85lb 6oz from peg 25. Rod fished various Carpy baits on the hook – hard pellet, corn and caster. Rod fed four pints of 4 mm pellet fishing towards empty peg 26.

The Silvers was won by Andy Gard (pictured right with the overall winner) with 9lb 6oz from peg 18. Andy fished maggot short.

I should now retie tomorrows rig which I used today, but because my face is now wind burning hot and the headache subsiding, I think I will settled down and doze through tonight’s TV instead.

Full Result:

1. Rod Wotton 85-06-0 peg 25

2. John Smith 48-09-0 peg 27

3. John Dursley 37-0-0 peg 31

4. Mike Nicholls 31-14-0 peg 38

5. Chris Fox 31-0-0 peg 4

6. John Bennett 23-0-0 peg 29

Top Silvers:

1. Andy Gard 9-06-0 peg 18

2. John Dursley 8-13-0 peg 31

3. Steve Dawson 8-0-0 peg 39

4. Mike Nicholls 7-11-0 peg 38

Sunday 04/12/2011 - Carps AC Christmas Match - Viaduct Fishery - Campbell and Carey Lakes

2011-12-04T19:56:00.002Z

Bela has at last moved in to his new abode. Very nice bachelor pad it is too. As has now become custom we stopped for breakfast at Canards Well, where we were joined by John Bennett and Gordon Cannings.

Before I start on the fishing I must have a rant about how this match was advertised – “Carps AC Christmas Match”. I, along with many other anglers fishing today was expecting the usual Christmas fare as prizes, alas not– just the usual cash payouts. I suggest such matches should be advertised as they are - a normal club match and not to purport to be something else – all very disappointing. Fur and Feather matches have been a wonderful tradition for many, many years and we should do all we can to retain them and not just throw them away in this fashion.

In to the draw bag an out pops peg 129. Yet another day fishing along side a spit. Bela joined me on a spit drawing peg 80!! I really don’t understand why peg 80 is always preferred in the draw over peg 79, which in my opinion is a much better peg?

There has been plenty of Carp coming to meat and straight lead from pegs 129 to 132 and the opposite numbers 114 to 110. So whilst walking to the van I decided that I would only take the straight lead rod. After unpacking I decided to add the Silvers waggler rod – just in case, but wouldn’t set up the pole! Arriving at the peg I changed my mind to add two pole rigs – a 4x10 Drennan Chop for the corner between the bank and the spit – a 4x14 Jolly for the Skimmers. I also untangled the waggler and straight lead rods. On the whistle I fed the Skimmer line at 11.5 metres with caster and a few chucks of 8mm meat, followed by a pot of caster along the spit. However, I started on the straight lead with meat pulled through a hair rigged band. After 15 minutes I was bored, but noticed fish blowing on the 11.5 metre line, so out went double caster and first put in I hooked a Carp rather than the big Skimmer I was anticipating. Unfortunately I lost it at the net from a pull out. Next put in the same again – another lost Carp – that was it for this line for the rest of the match even though I kept trying it in desperation rather that anticipation. Time for the waggler with triple dead reds on the 16 hook fished over loose fed caster. This resulted in my sum total of Silvers 1lb 6oz comprising two Skimmers and five small Ronnie’s. I did have a 5lb Carp before this swim died. In to the corner margin with double caster and the float buried and a decent fish – unfortunately it wasn’t a big Perch or Tench I was craving for, but another small Carp. That was it for this line!! Back out on the wager with double caster and another small Carp was all I had to show for my thrashing about. Whilst feeding the caster in the catty I had the occasional elastic pull off the pouch or the frame, but for the first time ever I had both elastics pull off the pouch at the same time, leaving the pouch and casters in one hand and the catty frame and elastic in the other. I found this very amusing – for a second. With twenty minutes left I decided to start packing up so launched the straight lead again and after ten minutes the whole rod bent round and Carp number four in the net. Out again and another rig tidied away when the rod went round again and Carp five in the net. My total Silvers and Carp weighed in at 26lb 2oz for unlucky thirteenth overall ( worth a tin of buscuits me thinks). I wish I could fish the straight lead for longer – perhaps it will come with age!

The match was won by Howard Webb (pictured above centre with the Silvers winner – the white spots aren’t bubbles or Fairies but bloody great rain drops on the camera lense) with 114lb 9oz from peg 110. Howard caught on the straight lead fished into the end margin. Howard caught on Tesco’s meat balls in tomato juice. However, Howard went on to explain how he cuts his balls up and the punches them for the hook and that Sainsbury’s brand is a bit tougher and ASDA’s are ---- at this point my eyes glazed over. What I will say is that Howard does get some right rap rounds as us on the opposite bank could see his “drag ins”, I was left wondering how many rods he loses using his balls.

The Silvers was won by Nick Collins with an incredible 37lb 6oz of Skimmers from Carey peg 78. Nicks weight was “head and shoulders above anyone else” – words not usually associated with Nick, I know! Nick caught on both the pole and a waggler using single caster over loose fed caster on the waggler and potted on the pole line. The majority of his fish came to Nick’s favourite waggler method. Great weight on the day Nick - I’m envious.

Full Result:

1. Howard Webb 114-09-0 peg 110

2. Ray Hayward 112-15-0 peg 119

3. Dave Roper 63-01-0 peg 77

4. Darby 54-0-0 peg 112

5. Nick Ewers 50-12-0 peg 130

6. Glen Calvert 45-10-0 peg 128

Top Silvers:

1. Nick Collins 37-06-0 peg 78

2. Steve Jackson 18-05-0 peg 76

3. Phil Cardwell 16-10-0 peg 116

Thursday 01/12/2011 - Viaduct Cost Cutter - Campbell and Carey Lakes

2011-12-01T19:33:00.002Z

I decided to stop on the way to the Skivers match at the Viaduct Fishery in the Canards Well for a lonely breakfast. I must say its good value for money and today I had a bunch of Cherry Tomatoes cooked to perfection with the skins just starting to split – scrummy.

Another reasonable turn out with both Campbell and diagonal bank of Carey in the draw – unfortunately not peg 80!! In to the draw tin and out comes peg 118. With the wind blowing down that way I was expecting a decent days fishing on the waggler and caster. Arriving at the peg the water levels was surprising high – winter level, I think. I have always manage to catch six to seven small Carp in the LH margin up to the Brambles (felt a bit like Darren Gillman drawing on the Canal), so I set a margin rig for this. I also set up a Silverfish rig to be fished at 11.5 metres, followed by the most important weapon - the waggler, Umm!

On the bait table I had dead reds and Caster - that’s it. I started by feeding caster in the LH margin and similarly at 11.5 metres. However, I started fishing on the waggler, feeding caster with double caster on the hook. What happened over the next to hours was a new experience for me – even after 50 years of fishing. I was getting drag away bites which resulted in nothing, not even a damaged caster. I tried double dead red which resulted in the odd tiny Ronnie. Back on the double caster, once again these strange indications. It was if the fish were dragging the line up in the water. I tried varying the depth but nothing seemed to work. I decided to try the margin and did have a run of the predicted small Carp on double caster – no Perch though. I tried the pole at 11.5 metres with double caster and was getting similar indications as the waggler – very frustrating, because I believe the culprits were Skimmers dragging against the line. Back on the waggler where I tried various forms of feeding – heavy, light, before casting, after casting, etc…Frustrating. I finished the match in the margin catching my usual seven Carp which weighed 16lb 11oz adding my 3lb 7oz of Silvers my total weight was 20lb 2oz, for nowhere.

It was a day when I wish I could see how the fish were feeding, assuming they were of course.

The Match was won by Dan White (pictured right with the Silvers winner) from peg 131 with 125lb 7oz. Dan caught on the straight lead using meat on the hook.

The Silvers was won by Steve Woods with 20lb 15oz from peg 123, who caught quality Skimmers primarily on the waggler fishing caster over caster.

It was nice to see Charlie Barns back on the bank after his recent illness and lucky for him he drew the end of Campbell where all the Carp seemed to have mustered.

Full Result:

1. Dan White 125-07-0 peg 131

2. Martin Lenaghan 120-14-0 peg 114

3. Charlie Barns 114-01-0 peg 129

4. Terry Bruton 77-06-0 peg 126

5. Paul Greenwood 70-0 -0 peg 110

6. Chris Rolfe 38-15-0 peg 119

Top Silvers:

1. Steve Woods 20-15-0 peg 123

2. Paul Greenwood 20-05-0 peg 110

3. John Green 19-14-0 peg 116

Sunday 27/11/2011 - Carps AC Silvers League - Round Six - Viaduct Fishery - Carey and Spring Lakes

2011-11-27T20:21:00.001Z

After another great breakfast in the Canards’ Well it was off to the final round of the Carps AC Silver’s League at Viaduct.

I was quite optimistic today even though the forecast was against us – bright sunshine and high winds. Once again everyone wanted to be on Spring Lake. It was pass the coffee tin, which I was third into and out comes peg 80. Not such a favourable draw, which also happen to set an unlucky theme for the day. That said I was still hoping for another 20lb to make it 20lb+ off every peg in the series.

I set up just the two rods – waggler and feeder with dead reds and caster on the bait table.

I discovered today that dry casters can be catapulted 5% – 10% further than wet casters. However, if you buy then from Avon Angling and wait two hours the casters will go miles further – because they sprout wings!

First cast on the double red maggot on the wagged fished over loose fed caster resulted in a bite. I struck unknowing that the line had caught around the pole roost (why I had used the pole roost beggars belief as I hadn’t set up the pole) and I broke the line at the reel. This was just the start of a bad day at the office. Whilst I set up again I chucked out the feeder with triple red maggot with five weeks old GB and caster in the feeder. I had nearly set on the waggler again when the tip went round and I landed a 1lb Skimmer, plus I retrieved the waggler line with a 4oz Skimmer on the end which fell off as I lifted the line. At least I got the line out and my new “second hand” waggler. As I was untangling the waggler line I mistakenly broke off the feeder rig, so I was left with nothing to fish with!! So after a failed rushed attempt to get fishing again it was a count to ten to calm myself down. Having set both rods up again I cast the waggler for the second time and hooked a good fish – not a Carp it wasn’t big enough for this Lake. I saw a spiky dorsal fin and was thinking big Perch, alas not; it was the smallest Carp in Carey a 3 pounder! That released and the third struggle of the season started. I must say the first half of the match wasn’t one of my best switching between feeder and waggler and managing to catch nought. It took the second half on the match for me to gain some sort on calmness and consistency, concentrating on the waggler. I started to put a few fish in the net in between hooking two more disruptive Carp. The frustration continued to some extent as I pulled out of five good Skimmers even though the fish I caught were deeply hooked (probable why - pulling out of the fleshy part of the throat). I must say I wasn’t unhappy when the whistle went. My net of Perch and Skimmer went 10lb 6oz which was fourth in the section. Not the 20lb I was hoping for, but considering the conditions I felt I did the peg justice especially taking into account my initial bad angling.

The match was won by Stu Foale’s (pictured right with his funny hat hiding his new hair do) from Spring Lake peg 16 with 38lb 3oz. Stu fished 13 metres with either caster or red maggot over GB. Stu operated two lines throughout.

Today’s weight plus three draws on Spring Lake helped Stu to overall league winner picking up £250 and a holiday in Majorca. Bela and I are waiting for the invitations to join him!! Well done matey.

I must say the league was a success with the final league result being close right down to the top sixteen anglers. Without fear of contradiction I believe that this league had the cream of the South West Silvers Anglers taking part – not an easy league to win without the help of the Gods me thinks.

Full result (on the day):

1. Stu Foale 38-03-0 peg 16

2. Lee Werret 34-09-0 peg 18 (drew this peg three times)

3. Steve Kedge 32-02-0 peg 76 (1lb 8oz Eel included)

4. Clive Pettit 24-11-0 peg 17

5. Tim Pallant 22-01-0 peg 105

6. Gordon Cannings 19-15-0 peg 78

Top Six Overall Money Winners (Final Position five matches count):

1. Stu Foale 7pts 152lb 9oz

2. Tim Pallant 7pts 127lb 11oz

3. Bob Gullick 8pts 115lb 12oz

4. Lee Werret 9pts 194lb 3oz - Ave 39lb per match

5. Rowland Lucas 9pts 142lb 5oz

6. John Green 9pts 131lb 10oz

Thursday 24/11/2011 - Bathampton AA Over 55's And Disabled - Withy Pool

2011-11-24T18:33:00.006Z

Another mild warm November’s day even though we had an early draw of 08:30 – next match the draw is 08:00! This day last year it was snowing, hopefully we will have an ice free winter, particularly as I have decided not to fish if the Lakes have a lid of ice.

Arriving at Withy Pool it was soon apparent that the aerator had a mechanical issue, either that or the Carp on peg 35 were sat under the paddles doing a bit of head banging!

In to the draw bucket and out comes peg 41, I have drawn this couple of times before and have won coin with Carp, with very few Silvers showing. I wasn’t that disappointed. However, looking at the water it was very clear (as is most fisheries at present) so wasn’t expecting to bag up today with two keenest being more than enough!!

I set up my usual Ronnie rig and a 4x16 Jolly with a 0.14 hook length with a Tubertini 808 hook to be fished at 7 metres out in front.

I fed the 7 metre line with a concoction of five chopped worms, pinch of dead reds and the remainder of the pot was topped with caster. I started on the Ronnie rig and unbelievably I didn’t have a bite or any indication, not even from the little Perch that can be a nuisance on this peg. That was it for this rig; I packed it away before picking up the Jolly. I started on a piece of worm and after 30 minutes had my first bite an 8lb Carp. I quickly followed this with my only Silver fish of the day – a 4lb 8oz Skimmer. An hour later I hooked another Carp which was a lump and just after adjusting the angle of the top set to the fish the hook pulled – costly I’m thinking. Two hours later after trying every conceivable bait and combinations, there of, I hooked and landed another 11 lb Carp on double caster. I decided to stick with this bait to the end and was rewarded with my fifth and last bite with five minutes to go – another Carp which after a minutes tussle broke me – was it foul hooked – don’t know and never will. My total weight was 22lb 14oz, which surprisingly put me in coin position third overall.

Similarly John Smith (pictured right playing his fouler - seven other Anglers are in the frame) hooked a Carp with five minutes to go, unlike me he landed his double which was foul hooked in the tail (big paddle inoperative) – jammy bugger.

The match was won by Ray Bazeley (pictured right with the Silvers winner) maggot over a mix of caster and micro pellet.

The Silvers was won by Bob Feltham (MD) (pictured right with his catch of quality Bream) weighing 19lb 6oz from peg 46. Bob caught on various baits, with the Lion share coming to a single piece f corn fished at 13 metres.

Full Result:

1. Ray Bazeley 36-0-0 peg 66

2. John Smith 31-06-0 peg 43

3. Mike Nicholls 22-14-0 peg 41

4. Bob Feltham 19-06-0 peg 46

5. Alan Jones 18-06-0 peg 45

6. Rich Coles 15-08-0 peg 61

Top Silvers:

1. Bob Feltham 19-06-0 peg 46

2. Rich Coles 15-08-0 peg 61

3. Martin Alexander 14-0-0 peg 42

Monday 21/11/2011 - Bitterwell Monday Open

2011-11-21T18:28:00.003Z

Waking today it was clear I was paying for the excellent days fishing yesterday on the waggler with my RH wrist in agony. Why is it that we grip the rod handle so tight – I think it’s the tension created in the anticipation of a bite. I had planned to fish Bitterwell, which is a rarity for a Monday as I am usually doing the weekly shop with the Special One. After a pain killer I decided to go but fish the pole short for Ronnie’s with caster.

Like most fisheries the water had gone clear, but because of the overcast conditions I thought the big Ronnie’s might put in an appearance. In to the draw box and out comes peg 8 which is on the far bank, two pass the big Oak towards the changing rooms. That’s OK as it can be good for the Silvers. On the end peg 7 was match organiser Steve Dawson who was having great difficulty in reconciling the pools money, he seemed to be one payment short. After Steve talk himself around the pegs everyone appeared to have paid – half hour later the penny drops and it was Steve himself who hadn’t put his tenner in - Duh!!

I set up two Ronnie rigs to fish with caster or dead reds the only baits I took. Starting on the 11.5 metre rig with single caster potting a few with the Kinder pot resulted in a lost foul hooked something – not sure of the species. With an hour in to the match I had nothing to show from this line. So it was on to the 4 metre whip again with single caster over loose fed caster. This resulted in about a dozen Ronnie’s and some tiny micro Perch. However, the swim died and with an hour to go |I decided to call it a day so weighed in my 3lb and packed up to take some photos instead.

The Lake fished hard but on schedule 15 minutes after the all out fish were topping everywhere because the light had gone.

The match was won by Terry Church (pictured right with one of his two big Carp) from peg 12 with 26lb 3oz. Terry caught on the maggot feeder fished out to the aerator with triple red on the hook.

The Silvers was won by Steve Dawson from peg 7 with 8lb 14oz. Steve caught the majority of his fish on the waggler, but needed to swap around to keep them coming although spasmodic.

Runner up in the Silver was Chris Davis with a quality Ronnie’s to 1lb (pictured right), caught on his favourite chop worm method.

Poor Ryan Jordan (pictured lower right) who drew fancied peg 1 thought he had scraped in to the coin until the last angler weighed in Beat him.

Full Result:

1. Terry Church 26-03-0 peg 12

2. Norman Ferris 22-02-0 peg 13

3. Ryan Jordan 19-06-0 peg 1

4. Lee Waller 18-0-0 peg 9

5. Steve Dawson 11-06-0 peg 7

6. Noel Fletcher 10-09-0 peg 11

Top Silvers:

1. Steve Dawson 8-14-0 peg 7

2. Chris Davis 8-05-0 peg 3

Sunday 20/11/2011 - Avon Angling Teams of Four - Final Round Six - Viaduct Fishery - Carey, Lodge and Match Lakes

2011-11-20T19:56:00.006Z

The majority of anglers from Bristol who needed a breakfast were heading for the Bear Hotel in Street. However, Bela and I decided on the Fountain café in St George. Arriving at the Café it was soon apparent that it wasn’t going to open anytime soon. So about turn and we headed for the Canard Well Hotel in Shepton Mallet. Both Bela and I thought it was a great breakfast, so have decided to make this our fist option when travelling to Viaduct.

With Charlie out with a bronchitis sick note, the Gimp was in and Steve Segar deputised as Captain. The draw made and Rich Coles was first to inform me that I was on the peg he won the Silvers from on the Wednesday – peg 47 on Match Lake - wonderful. After a run down from Rich, it was to be waggler and double caster over loose fed caster all match then. However, because I had plenty of time to set up I also put up a margin rig (a rare 4x10 Drennan wire stem chop) for the RH side.

On the whistle I fed the margin with a pot of dead reds, I then proceeded to fish the waggler. Having started with ridiculous light hook length which I struck off the first fish, what ever it was. So on went a 14 808 hook to a 0.12 G line hook length. I then started to pick off a few Skimmers to 3lb, but the skimming wind was making it difficult plus the water had gone clear added to the bright daylight, it was a case of catch a few then the disappearing act. I kept a few coming, but it really slowed come the last two hours when I decided to go tighter to the island and shallow up for Carp. This worked well, catching four small Carp and a number of F1’s until the last ten minutes when my waggler ended up in the River Carey behind me! So the margin wasn’t a complete waste of time but nearly – I didn’t have a bite on five maggots hook bait!! I weighed 20lb 6oz of big Skimmers and 22lb 5oz of Carp (F1’s count as Carp at Viaduct) for a total of 42lb 11oz for a Lake second (by 6oz) and a £60 section win. I was surprised to find this also put me 8^th overall. I fed about one pint of caters throughout the match. Another memorable day's fishing.

As the Gimp did an end of match disappearing act I wasn’t sure how the team faired. I think we beat Avon

England

again though – see Tony Rixon’s blog for the team results.

The match was won by Alan Oram with 183lb 9oz from peg 96. Alan caught on his favourite straight lead approach using 8mm meat hair rig by pulling a band through the meat. Alan landed 15 Carp fishing 25/30 metres out in to the “bowl”. Alan fed – NOTHING throughout the match!

The Silvers was won by England Star Des Shipp (pictured right with the match winner) with 48lb 3oz of Skimmers from Lodge peg 68. Des fished the pole on two lines at 14.5metres – one line over GB and the other over potted casters (feeding about 100 casters a time). Des caught primarily big skimmers on single caster. The swim did die in the last hour but his weight was soon boosted with a couple of big Carp.

Matey Bela was on the next peg to Des and was expecting to give him a lesson in waggler fishing – NOT.

Full Result:

1. Alan Oram 183-09-0 peg 96

2. Tom Mangnel 114-15-0 peg 87

3. Kev Perry 106-05-0 peg 100

4. Des Shipp 85-05-0 peg 68

5. Clayton Hudson 64-0-0 peg 101

6. Kev Moulton 47-0-0 peg 70

7. Neil Mercer 43-01-0 peg 42

8. Mike Nicholls 42-11-0 peg 47

Top Silvers:

1. Des Shipp 48-03-0 peg 68

2. Steve Kedge 31-06-0 peg 97

3. Nick Collins 26-04-0 peg 40

Wednesday 16/11/2011 - Teams of Four Practice - Viaduct Fishery - Lodge and Match Lakes

2011-11-16T20:04:00.000Z

As usual I have picked the grandchildren’s chest virus. I haven’t slept well for the past two nights, last night was no different – cough, cough, cough. Up at 06:00 and after a very slow cup of tea it was shall I or shall I not go. After deciding that going was far better than lying on the couch drinking coffee whilst watching black and white films wondering how everyone on the match was doing. No ones died of fresh air – have they? I had to speed up filling the car as I was going to the Bear Hotel for Breakfast where I met up with Tony and his cronies. Great breakfast.

With Lodge Lake and Match Lake full with 11 pegs on each I was hoping for a day on the waggler which really meant drawing Match Lake or the wider pegs on Lodge. If I were to draw a Carp peg I would choose peg 53 or 66, although I have never drawn 53. I was into the coffee tin one behind Tony Rixon who had pull pee 64 on the Monk. In I went and pulled peg 66 – very happy with this even though the wind was blowing into peg 53.

I walked around Bitterwell Lake to spectate the Monday League and was surprised to find a lot of Skimmers coming to the paste. So I made up a small amount of paste (the only pellet based substance allowed on the hook during the winter) in case I drew a corner Carp peg. With the waggler left in the car as this isn’t an option on this peg. I set up a Skimmer rig to fish over a bit of GB at 11.5 metres, a margin corn/caster rig for the margin up to the LH pallet which the front leg is 11.5 metres and the back leg is 13 meters and a paste rig to fish the same swim as the corn rig.

I started on the double maggot over kinder potted GB on the Skimmer rig and it was obvious that I was going to be pestered by the millions of ½ oz Ronnie’s in the lake (welcome when it’s frozen over) so gave that up in favour of a corn. This bait was just butted about without ant real takers. Tony opposite on the monk was having a similar experience. So it was time to try the banker margin. So in I went to the first leg of the platform (it’s very important that you don’t chase the fish out of reach too soon which is easily done on this peg) with corn, kindering in some caster. It look like the Ronnie’s were line up here too, so I switched to double caster to check and hooked the smallest Carp in the Lake – 1 ½ lb specimen – fought well though.

Tony had also gone in to his margin and also hooked a Carp on corn. However, he was using Girls elastic allowing the fish to go under his platform. So Tony had his Landing net one side of the platform and his top-set on the other – time for the Platform and top-set shuffle. I have never seen this done yet (plenty of attempts – usually ending in tears), if anyone can do it, Tony can and he did after taking out his keep nets – luckily for him it was a small fish (see picture right).

I decided to try the paste over caster and had another three small Carp to 4lb. With two hours to go it was time to go to the back leg of the platform at 13 metres (as far as I was willing to risk). Again with paste over caster I had another quick five Carp before in the last twenty minutes the fish had backed off out of reach. My nine carp weighed 41lb 5oz for third on the Lake and seventh overall and one out of the coin. Other than the winners weight the match results was very tight.

The match was won by lee Werrett (pictured right with his catch) with 92lb 3oz. Lee caught the majority of his Carp over to the tree using five maggots as hook bait. Lee fed about a pint of caster and a pint of maggot.

The Silvers was won by team mate and Coffin Dodger Rich Coles (pictured lower right) with an excellent weight of Skimmers of 41lb 4oz from peg 47 on Match Lake. Rich caught all his fish on the waggler using caster over loose fed caster, Rich fed about 1 ½ pints of caster.

John Green was runner up with another net of decent Skimmers caught on the same method as Rich from peg 62 on Lodge.

What a great day fishing these two anglers had – Just what I was hoping for!!

Full Result:

1. Lee Werrett 92-03-0 peg 53

2. Andy Lloyd 56-07-0 peg 51

3. Phil Harding 55-06-0 peg 59

4. S. Woods 50-10-0 peg 50

5. Mike West 46-13-0 peg 52

6. Clint t Wojtyle 45.05.0 peg 48

7. Mike Nicholls 41.05.0 peg 66

Top Silvers:

1. Rich Coles 41-04-0 peg 47

2. John Green 36-06-0 peg 62

Sunday 13/11/2011 - Carps AC Silvers League - Round Five - Viaduct Fishery - Carey and Spring Lakes

2011-11-13T20:17:00.007Z

With Bela up on a roof, it was a lonely trip down to Viaduct Fishery. However, there was little to no traffic. Luckily I arrived early enough for the earlier arranged draw for 08:30 – it’s now guess the draw time!!

In to the ice cream container and after dropping back two tickets stuck together (I never spilt them as I am convinced that I put the better peg back) it was deep down to the bottom and out comes peg 16 on Spring Lake – perfect. On current form not the best peg in the section but best to be here than the best peg in a crap section, me thinks. In any case I was expecting plenty of bites which fishing is all about. I had Nigel Easton on next peg 17 and Glen Calvert on peg 19 both excellent Silvers Anglers. Luckily for them peg 18 wasn’t drawn. This was going to make it more difficult for me to beat them – but I had an end peg with only some teenagers to worry about on the end bank casting their feeders etcetera around. I wasn’t sure how it was going to fish as the water had gone clear and the rain over recent days had topped the Lake up a bit.

I set up the waggle and a small feeder. I followed this with the usual Ronnie rig and Skimmer rig to be fished at 11.5 metres. Nick Collins said to expect to catch some Perch down to the RH margin late on, so I finally set up a Caster rig for this margin. On the whistle I fed six balls of GB laced with plenty of caster on the 11.5 metre Skimmer line, followed by a pot of caster down the RH margin, finally four catapults of caster out a far as I could into a skimming breeze. I started on the Ronnie rig and had a fabulous first half hour catching decent Ronnie’s with the odd Perch, losing two decent ones (as you do). I think I blunted my hook on the last one! However, it was all short lived as I couldn’t keep them coming so had to switch lines which resulted in another good run of Ronnie’s and a 2lb Hybrid which had a barbed hook still in it mouth. To Nigel’s amusement I had a 4oz Dace. Once again I couldn’t keep the fish coming so decided to try the Skimmer line and – nothing except one Ronnie and a small Skimmerette. So I set up the 4 metre whip and tried to keep the Ronnie’s coming which worked again for a while catching the smaller variety with a bonus 2lb Skimmer. Again the fish did a disappearing act so out went the feeder. It was soon clear that the Ronnie’s were nipping the ends of the triple dead reds. So back in the whip – the fish were gone. Now with ninety minutes left it was down to the RH margin to bag up with Perch. First put in and I soon have a 15 lb Common carp in the landing net on 0.12 hook length – if I wanted the fish it would have broken me!! That was it for the margin. I decided to spend the last hour on the waggler with dead red on the hook fished over caster. I had a run of three Skimmers and once again the fish disappeared. I think because of the water clarity the fish were being spooked so it was a question of feeding then being patient (which I find difficult at the best of times) until another three would come along including a 2lb Hybrid. Both Nigel and Glen had been catching Skimmers regularly throughout on the long pole. I thought Glen had won the section, with Nigel and me owning up to 26lb it was going to be close, but I didn’t think it was going to be as close as it was. I weighed 30lb 4oz as did Nigel Easton and Glen weighed 29lb 12oz – 8oz behind us. I think Nigel and I were deceived by Glen’s knicker elastic. This left Nigel and me second overall and Glen fourth with all of us picking up coin - perfect. It was a close well contended section and I think this sort of result leaves a bond between the anglers concerned.

The match was won by John Green (pictured with the joint runners up) from peg 99 with 41lb 8oz. John caught quality Skimmers on the waggler fished at 25 metres with caster over caster. John fed about three pints throughout. You need a bit of luck at this level - such as peg 100 not being drawn either!!

Full Result:

1. John Green 41-08-0 peg 99

2. Nigel Easton 30-04-0 peg 17

2. Mike Nicholls 30-04-0 peg 16

3. Glen Calvert 29-12-0 peg 19

4. Rowland Lucas 27-15-0 peg 98

5. Steve Kedge 26-04-0 peg 86

Top Six overall League:

1. John Green 9pts 136lb 10oz

2. Dave Roper 9pts (-12lb 2oz)

3. Stuart Foale 10 pts 148lb 8oz

4. Tim Pallant 10 pts (-12lb)

5. Rowland Lucas 11pts 144lb 6oz

6. Andy Neal 11 pts (-17lb 13oz)

7. Bob Gullick 11 pts (-18lb 6oz)

Thursday 10/11/2011 - Bathampton AA Over 55's And Disabled - Bridge Pool

2011-11-10T19:16:00.016Z

Considering the time of year it was another good turn out for the Coffin Dodgers match with 26 booked in. This speaks volumes of the venue, cost of pools and the short distance to travel (for most). The BBC once again promised us rain until 15.00 and luckily there was none, in fact it was exceptionally mild for the time of year, I am not sure the fish were going to be appreciative of this.

In to the draw container and out comes peg 16 – not again – no, I had torn the draw ticket and the number two in half so on second look it was in fact peg 26 – great, a Skimmer peg.

With the electronic gates being lock out at 16.30 the match was reduced to five hours 15 minutes. Apparently BAA imposes a fine of £25 for releasing anglers after this time – surely Mike Jones can afford this? It was going to be a question of pacing myself.

Rig wise it was easy. One 4x16 Jolly even though the swim is one of the deepest on the lake (next time I intend to try a 4x18) for the Skimmers. My usual Ronnie rig, which yielded nothing in the short time I used it – they weren’t feeding in any numbers. Finally a paste rig which will now be put on the back burner in favour of a corn rig as I think the season for it is nearly over. As I still had some worms left from Stafford Moor albeit them being a bit worse for wear I thought I would use another ten of them. So on the whistle I fed a pot of casters with five chopped worms mixed in on the five metre line at 12 o clock (the deepest part of the swim, it shallows up slightly the further you go out). I started with a piece of worm on the hook with a dead red to prevent the worm wriggling off. It took 15 minutes to get my first Skimmer, which heralded am excellent run of the species – no smaller than 6oz and no bigger than 2lb – excellent. At the half way stage the swim died by which time I reckon I had 12lb. It was time to stretch my back and eat the banana. Back in the saddle and I decided to drop the worm and switch to double caster feeding caser every fish through the kinder pot. This worked well until the end – well I thought was the end of the match but soon discovered that I had accidently put my watch back to British Summertime – another hour then which proved to be painful only adding another three pound of Silvers, however, one was a sizeable Perch, but alas not quite as big as the one Mike Jones landed - 2lb 8oz Lake record. Finally the whistle sounded putting me out of my misery. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my Silvers weighed in at 27lb 8oz, with no Carp. This put me first in the Silvers and fifth overall. What a memorable days fishing.

John Smith on the peg 25 next and behind me (need to know the pegs) was giving Paul Haines (pictured right) some stick throughout the match until on the whistle Paul hooked a double figure Carp which pushed him up from nowhere in the match to coin position third. John was teasing whilst he was playing it but Paul had the last laugh, managing to land it with two minutes overtime left!

The match was won by Ian Sheppard (pictured lower right with the Silvers winner) with 81lb 10oz from peg 11. Ian initially caught on double red maggot fished over kinder potted micro. Ian later switched to soft pellet over the same feed. His catch also included 22lb of Silvers. Ian fed a kinder cup full of micro after every fish.

Finally Mike jones has published the dates for next byears Coffin Dodgers Matches, which are pictured lower centre - just double click on the frame then put on the reading glasses!

Full Result:

1. Ian Sheppard 81-10-0 peg 11

2. Mike Key 77-15-0 peg 19

3. Paul Haines 36-02-0 peg 16

4. Ray Bazeley 33-06-0 peg 29

5. Mike Nicholls 27-08-0 peg 26

6. Bob Warren 26-13-0 peg 3

Top Silvers:

1. Mike Nicholls 27-08-0 peg 26

2. Ian Sheppard 22-08-0 peg 11

3. Mike Jones 15-08-0 peg 32

Sunday 06/11/2011 - Avon Angling Teams of Four - Round Five - Lands End - All Lakes

2011-11-06T19:56:00.005Z

It felt cold this morning at 06-30 simply because we had the first frost of the winter with ice on my car windows. However, it wasn’t widespread as Bela arrived without any on his van. It was an early warning that the fishing might be harder than of late.

Steve Segar deputised for Charlie and pulled a good peg for himself – peg 31 on Specimen Lake. I was pointed in the direction of peg 51 on Johns Walter – otherwise known at the “Third Lake”. This is my filth time on this peg and I reckon I knew it fairly well and wasn’t disappointed with the draw. That was until Nick Harvey arrived and tried to evict me as he was also sent to peg 51. After a quick call to the match organiser, I was able to stay put and Nick was sent to next peg 50. It was beginning to look like I would be the end peg – even better – until the Bristol dyslectic Tackle dealer and match organiser arrived on end peg 55 (pictured right clearing his end bank - was hoping for the big splash).

I set up far too many rigs as I was soon to find that I had them all set to approximately the same depth – three foot! That said I spent 90% of the match on the 4x14 Jolly fished at 11.5 metres, scaling down to 0.12 hook length an a 16 Tubertini 808. I would normally fish a 4x12 but the wind was gusting at me between the two opposite islands. After feeding the LH margin at 5 metres with caster and the far bank swim with some hard 4’s and a few grains of corn. I started on the 3 mm expander fished over kinder potted 20 wetted micro. First cast I missed a bite – second cast I landed a 5lb Common Carp which fought very hard. I then had a run of small Skimmers, Ronnie’s and four small Crucian’s. I then had another Common Carp of 8lb which heralded the end of the Silvers. I then went into struggle mode. So it was the turn of the margin with both corn and double caster – nothing. So it was the turn of my banker swim, 13 metres over to the far bank bush where I still had 3 foot of water just 12 inches off the far bank. First I tried corn – nothing, then pellet – nothing. I decided to put a big pot of dead maggot in on this line and hopefully pull some carp in later in the match. I still kept feeding the margin with caster again as insurance for the later part of the match, however, it proved to be fruitless as did the far bank swim – this was a big disappointment. Nick Harvey of peg 50 had been struggling for a bite but switched to banded 6 mm pellet down the track fished over kinder potted hard 4’s and started to catch some big Carp to 15lb. So I decided to go back on the 11.5 metre line. But the light had changed and I couldn’t see my float which ended up as guess the bite. I did bump something whilst checking for a bite. That decided me to switch lines. I moved into the clear lighter water and switched to corn over corn which accounted for another three decent Carp. My Silvers weighed in at 3lb 13oz and my five Carp went 32lb 5oz for a grand total of 36lb 2oz for fifth in the section. Nick Harvey (pictured lower right with his nice net of Carp – what part of two flashes don’t you understand Nick!!) stuck to his hard pellet and ended up with six Carp which went 54lb 1oz for a Lake win and 4^th overall – well done matey, real quality fish.

Charlie’s Angels finished joint fourth on the day with 25 points with reserve for Charlie – The Gimp fishing a similar match that we have come to expect for our illustrious captain!

The match was won by Trigger (pictured right with the Silvers winner) from peg Match Lake 22 with 86lb 7oz. Trig caught initially down the track with soft pellet. Then catching a few over on pellet, and then subsequently switching to caster down the margin late in the match to boost his weight

The Silvers was won by Nick Collins with 26lb 14oz from Specimen lake peg 38. Nick caught mainly Roach and Skimmers initially close in at 7 metres fishing double caster over loose fed casters feeing about 1 ½ pints. Nick later switched the caster to the 16 metres line over to the island catching a better stamp of Roach and Skimmers.

Full Result:

1. Craig Edmonds 86-07-0 peg 22

2. Brian Slipper 62-13-0 peg 29

3. Alan Oram 57-03-0 peg 27

4. Nick Harvey 54-01-0 peg 50

5. Matt Tomes 49-15-0 peg 60

6. Steve Segar 48-12-0 peg 31

Top Silvers:

1. Nick Collins 26-14-0 peg 38

2. Clayton Hudson 16-06-0 peg 32

3. Mike Duckett 14-05-0 peg 36

Wednesday 02/11/2011 - Carps AC - Autumn Series - Plantation Main Lake

2011-11-02T19:48:00.007Z

Fishing is about making choices, on Commercial fisheries these can be limitless, baits, method, species, etc...I choose today to guest in the last in the Carps AC Plantation series. Bela choose to fish Landsend, but as we are there Sunday I decided on a change – I wonder who provided the Pinky Ponk?

The league is split in to Silvers and overall, so being a guest I had the choice and decided to keep my options open dependant on where lady luck put me. In to the draw bucket and out came peg 12. I wasn’t disappointed with the draw because we were promised heavy rain (that didn’t happen – did it Ray) and high winds, the peg is in the top bay and well sheltered. It also has a bit more depth than most pegs. It has a lot of Carp form primarily fishing the LH margin – so one option. However, because I still had a kilo of worm (less four used at Huntstrete last week) left over from Stafford Moor I decided not to waste them and try my hand at fishing the messy business - CW&C. I haven’t really done that well using it, I think because I don’t give it long enough. So I set up my usual Ronnie rig – caster over caster, followed by a 4x16 Jolly for the Messy. I also set up a paste rig for the margin (this wasn’t used in earnest as the Carp appeared to be having a day off). I initially chopped up ten worms and fed a small amount with a pot of casters to kick start the swim at 9 metres. I started on the Ronnie rig and it was soon clear that after five or so fish that they weren’t feeding well enough to come close enough to make them viable. So messy went out and I started to catch a few Skimmers to 1lb. I regularly topped up the messy through a kinder pot and had a funny spell where after landing a 2lb Skimmer I lost three on the bounce, I can hear Dad tell me to let the fish take it well before striking, so I took off a number 12 shot. I then lost two foul hooked Carp before I landed two tiny Carp which nearly qualified for the Silvers net. I did have a 5lb Carp later to take the tally up to three. Half way through, and believe it or not I am still fishing the messy. Still toping up through the kinder pot I had a run of four big Perch these must have weighed 9lb or so – wonderful. The swim died for a long while and I was just nicking the odd Ronnie and small Skimmer before I had two big Crucian’s.

I made it through the whole match fishing the messy business. I fed four lots of ten worms and used about ten broken up for the hook, plus one pint of casters.

Ray Bazeley (pictured right) fishing next to me on peg 10 also had some quality Perch with his six going about 10lb. Ray thought one was 4lb - I suppose we all get excited from time to time!! Ray caught his on double caster – The Perch preferred bait.

The match was won by Dave Roper (pictured lower right with his Carp catch – Dave is a very difficult angler to photograph – a bit shifty me thinks). Dave caught some Skimmers on soft pellet fished over micro at 13 metres and a few short over CW&C. However, Dave’s Carp came from his LH margin fishing meat over meat.

The Silvers was won by Steve Kedge from peg 38 with 34lb 12oz. Steve fished soft pellet over micro at 8 metres. Steve caught mainly Skimmers, feeding just less than one pint of micro. Later after the Skimmers dried up Steve switched to caster short adding about 10lb of Ronnie’s.

Full Result:

1. Dave Roper 60-08-0 peg 8

2. Leyton Palmer 56-08-0 peg 28

3. Paul Fairer 46-03-0 peg 7

4. Steve Kedge 40-09-0 peg 38

5. Mike Owens 29-07-0 peg 5

6. Mike Nicholls 29-05-0 peg 12

Top Silvers:

1. Steve Kedge 34-12-0 peg 38

2. Mike Nicholls 21-04-0 peg 12

3. Steve Dawson 19-12-0 peg 18

Sunday 30/10/2011 - Carps AC Silvers League - Round Four - Viaduct Fishery - Carey and Spring Lakes

2011-10-30T20:56:00.001Z

I was surprised this morning how warm it was especially at 06:00, plus it was predicted it stayed dry all day and it did.

I reviewed the progress of the two lodges being built adjacent to Middle Lake. It’s amazing how quick these buildings are assembled from just a base two weeks ago to … see photo right.

I was fourth to pass the coffee tin and out comes peg 102 on Carey. The pegs in the hundreds have been showing some Skimmers of late so I wasn’t that disappointed (we all really wanted to be in the Spring Lake section). When i haven’t been to a venue for a couple of weeks it’s a question of starting off from where you finished. So I set up a Ronnie rig, A Skimmer rig to be fished at 11.5 metres, a GB feeder and finally a waggler to be fished over the feeder line at half way across the Lake, where I believe is the deepest part of the swim. I started by feeding three balls of GB at 11.5 metres, but started on the Ronnie rig with caster over caster. I had a few quick Ronnie’s and two half pound Perch, but it was soon clear that the fish didn’t want any feed. The Ronnie’s dried up so went over the GB with 3mm expander on the hook and was pestered by small Ronnie’s which were too quick fro me. I did have a 2lb Skimmer unfortunately it was foul hooked, but still ended up in the storage net. I decided to set up the 4 metre whip and had a run of small Ronnie’s, hybrids and tiny Skimmers on the caster, before that died through too high an influx of feed. At this stage although Bob Gullick had been struggling on peg 100 started to catch decent regular Skimmers on dead reds. So I tried my line again and as previous I caught more Ronnie’s. I decided to fish the feeder in to the deeper water and had a run of six Skimmers before that swim died. I went round the mulberry bush and had the odd small fish, but was going no where. Out once again on the Feeder with triple maggot on the hook and again a short run of Skimmers. The Skimmers appeared to be shying away from the feed – why – I don’t know. I decided to spend the last hour on the waggler over the feeder line again with triple dead reds on the hook. This accounted for another six Skimmers. I must say the bites were sublime compared with the feeder. I would have a nod of the waggler before it sailed away – wonderful. I weighed 21lb 10oz for fourth in the section – not nearly good enough. I must say it was rally dark packing up.

I must mention Tim Pallant who was on next peg 103. Tim was struggling by half way through the match until he switched to the waggler with 6mm expander on the hook (expands to about 10mm) fished catapulted hard 4’s. Tim subsequently caught decent Skimmers steady to the end for 30lb. I was amazed Tim only hooked one Carp fishing this way, as were most of the anglers in the section. – More food for thought!!

The match was won by Dave Roper (pictured right) with 42lb 11oz from peg 18 on Spring Lake. Dave initially caught on short at 7 metres using caster over caster whilst his 14.5 metre GB line settled. Dave switched to the 14. 5 metre line fishing various baits (worm. Caster, dead reds) over the GB caught big Skimmer steady to the end of the match.

Full Result:

1. Dave Roper 42-11-0 peg 18

2. Andy Neal 40-03-0 peg 19

3. Bob Gullick 37-13-0 peg 100

4. Rowland Lucas 34-12-0 peg 16

5. Stu Foale 34-02-0 peg 17

6. Lee Werrett 32-12-0 peg 105

League Leaders:

1. Lee Werrett 7pts 159lb 10oz

2. Bob Gullick 7pts (-45lb 5oz)

3. Dave Roper 7pts (-51lb 6oz)

4. Stu Foale 8pts 134lb 4oz

5. Andy Neal 8pts (-17lb 2oz)

6. John Green 8pts (-44lb 2oz)

Thursday 27/10/2011 - Bathampton AA Over 55's And Disabled - Withy Pool

2011-10-27T19:38:00.009+01:00

Don’t you hate it when the weather man gets it spot on, especially when rain all day is promised – and it did. However, we were all cheered up when Ray Bazeley passed round the donuts to celebrate his 65 birthday. After a rendition of happy birthday from his fellow “brothers” it was in to the draw box and out comes peg 60.

Peg 60 has some Skimmer form so that would be my quarry for the day. Theses pegs are very shallow close in and full of big stones so it is a question of fishing the pole as far as possible - or it’s the feeder. As I didn’t have a feeder rod it would be fishing the pole at 11.5 metres then. Actually it was a bit further than this as I set the box up in front of the platform because the water levels at right down (the rain will have some benefits). I set up the usual 4x16 Jolly for the Skimmers and a paste rig just in case the Carp turn up. I started by feeding a full 125 ml pot of a combination of caster, dead maggot and wetted micro. I started on the Jolly with 6 mm expander and nothing, umm. So I switched to triple maggot and after the first hour I had one Ronnie, one Perch and one small Skimmers not a promising start. Looking around everyone seemed to be struggling, so I stuck it out on the maggot catching what I could, mainly Perch and Ronnie’s. Then out of the blue I had two Carp one 18lb and the other 7lb 6oz. With an hour to go I tried a worm tail on the hook and hooked another Carp which I lost at the net, probably because of the large stones in front of me. I then had a run of three biggish Skimmers before I switched to the Paste for the last twenty minutes, which resulted in a lost foul hooked Carp. My two Carp weighed in at 25lb 6oz adding my 9lb of Silvers I had a total of 34lb 6oz which surprisingly put me third overall. I think I should have brought some GB for the Skimmers today – perhaps next time.

The match was won by Mike Key (pictured right) from peg 44 with 50lb 7oz. Mike caught on traditional waggler at full depth with maggot and worm on the hook fished over catapulted hard 4’s.

The Silvers was won by Alan Jones (pictured right with his catch of decent Skimmers) with 18lb 10oz from peg 61. Alan caught on the pole at 11.5 metres fishing worm over GB laced with chopped worm and caster.

Full Result:

1. Mike Keys 50-07-0 peg 44

2. Bob Price 44-03-0 peg 49

3. Mike Nicholls 34-06-0 peg 60

4. Chris Rolfe 31-10-0 peg 43

5. Terry Church 22-07-0 peg 68

6. Martin Alexander 22-04-0 peg 66

Top Silvers:

1. Alan Jones 18-10-0 peg 61

2. Harry Muir 16-03-0 peg 67

3. Alan Shields 16-02-0 peg 69

Friday 21/10/2011 - Stafford Moor October Festival - Day Five - Pines Lake

2011-10-22T16:43:00.004+01:00

We had planned to go out for a curry in Torrington with Brian Shanks, Ron Hardiman and Bela Bakos tonight, but they cried off because they wanted to stay in to watch Broke Back Mountain for the fourth time this week! Mark and I went to the New Inn again and had a delicious steak.

I was a little concerned that the weather this week might be a bit cold and damp. However, we managed to survive, although the wind had a chill about it, it hasn’t been too bad – went away dry every match.

It was obvious that yesterdays result would be the one to drop and I reckoned I would need either a section win or perhaps a section second to be in with a chance of some overall festival coin. So the draw was crucial in this respect. But Pines would suit my style of fishing. So in to the draw bag and out comes peg 14. A quick check on the previous four days results and it was clear that any hopes of any overall coin had evaporated. The peg had been last in section three days and a last but one the day before with a good Angler on it – Stu Foal’s with the highest weeks weight of 9lb. I found Stu who advised fishing for Ronnie’s and hope for the best. Having come to terms with the fact I was out of the Festival I was determined to improve on Stu’s results – fishing against myself I suppose. Arriving at the peg there was a lot of very small Ronnie’s topping, which got me looking forward to a days fishing.

I set three Ronnie rigs, a Skimmer rig, and a margin rig (it’s a corner peg come bay) and finally a Silver fish waggler in case the Ronnie backed out of the corner (this was only used whilst I ate my banana – nothing caught).

On the “Have a great day everyone – All in” Andy’s usual match starting cry. I fed a ball of GB at 9 metres at 10 clock for the Skimmers and started on the Ronnie’s at 3 metres with caster. The fish were tiny 1oz to maximum of 2oz, plus they weren’t coming as quick as I would like, so it a switch to the Skimmer line with soft 3mm expander and it was the same again – small Ronnie’s. I decide to feed some micro and caster in to the end margin at 9 metres, however, a slight skimming breeze started blow a lot of green slime in to this margin. Back on the Ronnie’s this time on the 4 metre whip. It was the same again but slight quicker this was because I was now fishing further out – and the maximum I could hand feed casters. I then noticed a blow over the GB so went back over it and started to get strange line bites. I then caught a Skimmer of 1 oz, then another and another it was taking too long to catch these blighters. I noticed that everyone was struggling with pegs 13, 12 and 11 fishless and these are the good Skimmers pegs. So I decided to get my head down for the remainder of the match with the 4 metre whip. With 20 minutes to go I noticed that the surface scum had cleared a bit so I thought I would try the margin and first put in with double caster on the hook resulted in a scale from a foul hooked Carp that was as big as my Ronnie’s to that went in the net. Ten minutes later the same happened again. I was first to weigh in my section and put 140 Ronnie’s on the scales for 12lb and I had beaten pegs 13,12 and 11 which unfortunately were not in my section, but still found this satisfying. I finished up better than anticipated with 5 section points with 30lb winning the section it from peg 28, again satisfying for me.

It was Mark Tanners turn on Josephs (or as Mark calls in Jurassic Park) and pulled peg 9 on the bridge. Mark's pole survived they day as it was only tested by two Skimmers. Not everyone was so lucky, Chris Davis came back with a "Top set necklace".

The match on the day was won by Andy Pell from peg 17 Woodpecker with 148lb 12oz. However, I must mention fellow Bristolian and very nice guy Ron Hardiman who finished second on the day from peg 24 with 131lb 10oz. Ron fished corn down to the next four empty pallets!! Well done matey pleased for you.

Dropping the worse result I finished the Festival on 11 points with 193lb (dropping the lowest points and weight).
The overall Festival final results were very tight as can be seen from the top 8 below. Overall I was very satisfied with how I fished four of the matches, but if I could re-fish the fourth match on Tanners I am sure I would had got another £60 to add to my overall winnings of £200 and would, I think had finished with 8 or 9 points overall, which would may have got me some overall Festival coin. This mistake I have put down to not knowing the venue as well as many of the regular festival goers – some have been fishing it for ten years. My favourite match was fishing the Josephs Dam Wall – paste at 13 metres in 14 foot of water - plus it was a new experience for me – lovely. I must say Joseph’s peg 27 came a close runner up – what I nice place to spend the day even if you don’t catch anything. My worries about my fitness standing up didn't materialise. I could have fished again on Saturday, Sunday, Monday ......!

I thanked Andy Seery for running it. Andy must be exhausted after each match because he fishes all the pegs for us. Those that know him will understand. What I will say is this man should not be let loose with a pen, he has the worse handwritting I have seen trying to determine the daily results for my blog was a nightmare. I now wish a took a photo of it.

So another one ticked off the fishing “Bucket List”. Unfortunately the others cannot be paid for I will have to rely on a great deal of luck to catch 100lb of Ronnie’s.

Part Result on the Day:

1. Andy Pell 148-12-0 peg 17 Woodpecker
2. Ron Hardiman 131-10-0 peg 24

Overall Festival Results:

1. Simon Keiffer 6pts – 272lb £1,000
2. Andy Poole 6pts – 231lb £750
3. Perry Stone 7pts – 379lb £500
4. Dave Stockton 7pts – 212lb £400
5. Joe Roberts 7pts – 171lb £350
6. Lee Farmer 8tpts - £300
7. Another 9pts - £200
8. Another 9pts - £150

Finally if Andy can’t accommodate you in his Chalets then, I would highly recommend the following which is where Mark and I stayed:

http://www.wansleybarton.co.uk/

Thursday 20/10/2011 - Stafford Moor October Festival - Day Four - Tanners

2011-10-21T19:11:00.001+01:00

Starting to feel the pace with the enthusiasm waning, but no moaning this morning! We were promised a frost last night but the temperature managed to stay at 4 degrees add the cloud cover it didn’t happen, we were also promised another dry day which we did.

Mark was on Woodpecker lake peg 25 and I thought it would suit him.

In to the draw bag and out comes peg 4 Tanners. Arriving at the peg I was in a Landsend sandwich, Mike Duckett on peg 6 and Dell Boy on peg 3. This morning I was third equal overall in the Festival so to be in a chance of good points it would have to be Carp, plus I was completely fogged by the fact that peg 3 has recent Carp form with two Match seconds. So I set up three rods, shallow pellet waggler, another full depth and a lead rod. As I had time I set up a paste rig to be fished at 7 metres – no more of this as it got bitted out by small Skimmers.

On the whistle I started to feed 8’s and fished a pellet waggler over it this resulted in two missed bites which I thought were Silvers which was proven correct as I had one of 8oz. Out with the full depth waggler – still feeding 8’s and I had a 6lb carp first cast on the drop – that’s it then – nope that was it for the waggler for the rest of the day. So out on the straight lead, the boredom was relieved twice with two very small Carp. After four hours peg three hadn’t had a Carp and peg 36 had five. I had enough of this slaying, so I got my Ronnie rig out the bag with the intentions of turning a bad day in to something more memorable. In the remaining two hours I had a lovely period of catching Ronnie’s up to 8oz using single caster over caster. The three Carp weighed 13lb 4oz and my Silvers 20lb 8oz for a total of 33lb 12oz. With only 30lb winning the Silvers (fished for from front to back) it was clear I had made the wrong choice and should fished for Ronnie’s from the off (I think if I had known the Lake better I would have done this and if I had listened to Glenn Bailey) – I reckon I would have had at least 40lb and another pick up – bugger. Isn’t this why we go fishing, wanting to reverse our wrong decisions? The result to drop I hope!!

The last day tomorrow and I am on Pines which will suit me much better than today – no slaying rods on this Lake, subject of course to a decent draw.

I was really pleased to hear Mark had caught well winning his section with 89lb 4oz. Mark choose to fish the first half on the pellet waggler both up and down with banded pellet, catching the Lion share in the last ninety minutes on the lead – Mark fed 8 pints of 8’s – he does look a tad tired now as does his catapult.

The match was won by Perry Stone (pictured right - tes thats his nromal look) with 188lb 12oz from peg 3 on Woodpecker – I have written enough this week about this flyer!

Full Result:

1. Perry Stone 188-12-0 peg 3 Woodpecker

2. Jake Marshall 147-14-0 peg 8 Woodpecker

3. Lee Jan 109-02-0 peg 34 Tanners

4. Neil Cottee 94-12-0 peg 11 Tanners

5. Allwyn 90-11-0 peg 35 Tanners

6. Mark Tanner 89-04-0 peg 24 Woodpecker

Wednesday 19/10/2011 - Stafford Moor October Festival - Day Three - Joseph Dam Wall

2011-10-20T19:57:00.001+01:00

Back to the New Inn for Tapas, which I must say was very good and a change from the usual pub grub.

Glenn went AWOL this morning. I was very sorry to see him leave. Why? Glenn will explain. Glenn would have been on 13 Pines, a corner flyer with loads of Skimmers!! Poor Mark drew the worse peg on Pines peg 6 – The “Bus Stop” Swim weighing only 2lb (hope I don't draw this one).

As I said yesterday I was hoping to be on the Dam Wall and by the time I got to draw there was only one peg left for Emily’s so out comes Dam Wall peg 5. Bela drew it first match and blanked and the Angler who fished it yesterday weighed 3lb, so not a flyer then!! For company, on next peg 4 was Landsend Mike Duckett.

My target was more than 3lb. So set up the usual two Ronnie rigs – both to hand rigs for the caster. These pegs are known for fishing paste at 14.5 metres and the quarry is larger than normal Carp in excess of 20lb. So I set up a 1g paste float and was amazed to find that at 13 metres (the most I was prepared to use) I had 14 foot of water – Umm. I also set up a margin paste rig. On the “All in” I fed the 13 metres paste line with about ten 8 mm pellet which I had soaked to make them soft and fluffy, which I planned to top up after every fish – I hoped. I do like to feed micro pellet when using paste so because of the depth I made up some wetted micro into small balls to help the on their way to the bottom. I then started on the Ronnie rig close in and had five small Silvers. It was soon apparent was going to be difficult day. I then noticed that the Angler on the opposite bank had hooked a Carp on the paste. So out mine went and first cast I hooked a Carp. Playing these fish in 14 foot of water is very difficult and can’t be rushed. I used the Sensas top set with the side pull-a-bung so I could land the fish on the top five. This was new to me and played the Carp which was about 8lb for 10 minutes, after which I had it beat, but bugger the hooked pulled just as I picked up the landing net. To say I was pissed is an understatement as I thought I had lost my only opportunity to catch a Carp. However, Dad was watching down and next cast I hooked and landed a 10 pounder which got the adrenalin pumping. Out again and another Carp but this time hooked in the tail. For some reason it was less of a fight than the previous fished hooked in the mouth? This was compensation for the one I lost- thanks Dad. I then had a run of two foul hooked fish – one straightened the hook and the other pulled free. I was quite happy at this stage as I had far more in the net than I had anticipated. About an hour later I hooked a Big Boy (18lb 8oz) which took me an age to land. However, there was a down side I broke the landing net frame lifting it out. I then spent the rest of the match bite less as did most of the other Anglers. My few Silvers weighed 6oz and when added to my Carp I had 42lb 14oz. The section was won with 45lb so the one I lost cost me another section win. However, I was delighted to come second and pick up another envelope reducing my Polo shirt down to £10, still too expensive!

On Tanners Lake tomorrow which seems to be very peggy with peg 36 or peg 3 winning every match. I hope I get one of these, however, I don’t think it’s going to suit me as it's like Woodpecker.

The match was won by Ade Marshall (pictured right) with 121lb 13oz from peg 36 Woodpecker. Ade caught on the full depth waggler using the proverbial pellet over pellet.

Full Result:

1. Ade Marshall 121-13-0 peg 36 Woodpecker

2. Bob Clarke 104-06-0 peg 26 Woodpecker

3. Ray Hayward 102-09-0 Peg 11Tanners

4. Simon Heiffer 86-12-0 peg 20 Josephs

5. Andy Poole 82-14-0 peg 35 Tanners

6. Mike Etheridge 75-14-0 peg 3 Tanners

Tuesday 18/10/2011 - Stafford Moor October Festival - Day Two - Josephs Lake

2011-10-19T19:56:00.002+01:00

Out to dinner again but this time at the Union Pub in Dolton, where we all had steak pies, chips and mushy peas. However, before we left mark Tanner decided to have a swim in out pool – yes that’s him right.

As I said I was looking forward to fishing Josephs Lake in to the draw bag and out comes peg 27. Andy said it’s called Blackpool Pier. It didn’t take long to discover why. The platform is 5 metres long! The peg wreaked Mr Crabtree. It reminded me a bit of one of the end swims at Rood Ashton. That said there wasn’t much sign of fish except a number of very small Rudd and Ronnie’s topping. There are many stories of lost big fish on this Lake so with plenty of features around me including an island at 16 metreish. I decided to use my margin pole at 7 metres in open water and as the Lake had been patchy the day before I decided to fish negative and set up a Ronnie rig and a 4x14 rig for any Skimmers that might be about.

That left me 1 ½ hours to have a walk around and found Mark Tanner on Tanners peg 18 and Glenn on Tanners peg 6 outside the Bollywood Chalet, where Dave Stockton was staying and made me a cup of coffee – thanks Dave. During the walk around I was informed that my swim does hold Cat Fish – cripes.

Back to the swim and on the “all in” I kindered in a dozen casters with a single on the hook, it took five minutes to get my first bite a ½ oz Rudd – saved a blank then! I started to catch them regularly so switched to my Ronnie whip fished to hand. I had a good first hour catching very small Skimmers, Ronnie’s and Rudd. I thought I would try and catch some of the bigger stamp and put a small 3mm expander on the Jolly and started to miss quick bites. Switched to the single caster and hooked a Carp which after a tussle I broke off as the fish decided to switch sides of Blackpool Pier! I jumped up and made up a paste rig and first put-in in foul hooked a carp and was once again left in wonderment of a huge scale. Back out on the paste and – nothing. I now had about 8lb of Silvers and with 9lb winner the Silvers the day before I thought bugger back on the Jolty and single caster still feeding through the kinder pot. And would believe it I hooked and landed four Carp in consecutive put-ins three of them were teen fish the biggest I guessed at 16lb. I went back on the Ronnie rig and caught another 3lb of small fish. As the swim went quite I was worried that I might hook another Carp so I went back out on the Jolly with single caster. I was right as I had another two small Carp making it six – another one and I would another net, however, this wasn’t necessary, because the next one bottomed my elastic (Middy blue tightened down). As the Silvers had dried up I decided to spend the last ¾ hour fishing paste having put in a huge amount of dead red maggot to no avail.

My Silvers weighed in at 11lb 3oz and my Carp 53lb 2oz for a total of 64lb 5oz for a lake win overall and a Lake Silvers win. This contributed £160 to my Polo shirt but it’s still costing me £50 – still too expensive!! This left me 10th overall.

It will be either Emily’s Lake or the “Wall of death – first eight pegs on Joseph’s dam wall. I was secretly hoping to draw here as it would be easier than trying to fish 16 metres on Emily’s.

The match was won by Simon Jones (pictured right) from in form peg 36 Tanners with 140lb 8oz. Simon caught on the straight lead and 8mm pellet.

Full Result:

1. Simon Jones 140-08-0 peg 36 Tanners
2. Derek Smith 134-0-0 peg 3 Woodpecker
3. Perry Stone 132-02-0 peg 3 Tanners
4. Nobby 121-14-0 peg 32 Woodpecker
5. Dave Stockton 91-11-0 peg 20 Woodpecker
6. Ryan Harris 86-12-0 peg 16 Woodpecker
10. Mike Nicholls 64-05-0 peg 27 Josephs

Monday 17/10/2011 - Stafford Moor October Festival Day One - Woodpecker

2011-10-18T19:08:00.001+01:00

We were out for dinner last night in the New Inn at Roborough. Nice local pub complete with the village drunk (been in there all day – me thinks). After a good pork and pineapple casserole in comes about ten hikers. Not ordinary hikers, these were from Barnstaple and were “All night Hikers” and were just starting out – they all had the same livery – “We do it all night”! Best not look this lot in the eye. And I thought the Bridgwater folk were strange!
After a Mark Tanner breakfast it was off to the draw, joining the queue of 80 Anglers. We were all presented with a polo shirt and a few bags of GOT pellets. If I don’t win any coin it will be the most expensive item of clothing I have bought. However, I am hoping as the week progressive that it will become less valuable!

Mark and Glenn drew the same section – Emily’s and dam of Josephs – luckily for me they were on Emily’s as there were four blanks on Josephs and I fear we would have been on our way home otherwise.

I was next to draw and out comes the peg I drew in the last match I fished, theMaver Pairs – peg 20 on Woodpecker. There is always good advice given out And I always listen to all of it before deciding what to do. Mel King, Brian Shanks and gentle giant Stu Foale are always worth the listen. Arriving at the peg the wind was blowing at me from 11 o clock, but just gentle enough for the waggler. So I set up a deep waggler, a shallow waggler, a 4x14 Jolly to be fished at 10 metres with soft pellet and a paste rig to fish over the same line (the peg isn’t 9 foot deep as published), finally a Ronnie rig to fish in the margin with caster. I decided on a gentle approach starting on the 6 mm expander over hard 4’s, to my amazement this resulted in nowt, not even an indication. In to the margin where I had been heavily (for me) feeding caster and I had two small Ronnie’s and one 8 oz Perch – then nothing. So out on the shallow waggler and by this time the wind had increased making presentation almost impossible with presentation lasting about ten seconds. So it was out on the full depth waggler which in reality was about three foot deep ¾ across. I was soon left wonderment at the size of scale that was left on the hook. Presentation was still not good enough; if I dragged it through it would lead to a foul hooker. So I succumbed and went back to the car and got the lead rod! The upshot was that I landed ten Carp on the banded 8 mm pellet, breaking on one. I kept feeding my pole lines and did the rounds from time to time. A few small Skimmers finally arrived on the 10 metre line landing 5lb of them. I spent an unproductive last hour on the lead.
What I found was that if you kept feeding 8’s over the lead the Carp would move up in the water allowing access underneath for the Skimmer which pecked at the hard pellet. So it was a question of stop feeding until the carp followed the bait down. However, I would catch one or two, subsquently the peg would die. I put this down to the fish tearing off in the shallow water scaring the few others away.

I weighed 74lb 8oz for 3rd in section and ninth overall. One out of a reduction in the cost of the Polo shirt!!

I am looking forward to fishing Josephs lake tomorrow.

Glen did well weighing 33lb 12oz for third in his section off Emily’s 7 and had a section pick up by default. However, can’t say the same for Mark who weighed 8oz off Emily’s peg 2, but not last of the Bristol boys because Bela blanked and Chris Davis had 5oz!

Mike Duckett did fish having made a miraculous recovery and caught 77lb until he broke his pole on peg 10 Woodpecker.

The match was won by Dave Churchwood (pictured right) with 132lb 5oz from peg 3 on Woodpecker. Dave caught on the shallow waggler until the wind got up making the last hour difficult. Dave fed 4 pints of 8’s with the same banded.

Full Result:

1. Dave Churchwood 132-05-0 peg 3 Woodpecker
2. Bob Clarke 129-08-0 peg 36 Tanners
3. Neil Cottee 126-04-0 peg 28 Woodpecker
4. Gary Thorpe 120-14-0 peg 15 Tanners
5. A. Mooreton 111-0-0 peg 26 Woodpecker
6. Mark Thomas 82-08-0 peg 10 Tanners
……
9. Mike Nicholls 73-13-0 peg 20 Woodpecker

Sunday 16/10/2011 - Stafford Moor October Festival - Non Fishing Day

2011-10-16T17:49:00.001+01:00

Today it was off to Stafford Moor Fishery to complete one of my remaining “Bucket” fishing list, which is to fish a Commercial Festival. I choose the Stafford Moor October Festival as it had been recommended by many fellow South West Anglers. For company I have Mark Tanner and Glenn Bailey. Mark booked the accommodation - Bramble Cottage - Wansley Barton. I must say for £110 each for the week self catering it was a good choice. Included, is a small fishing lake and a swimming pool. However, it is out in the sticks having to negotiate roads that have grass growing in the middle and hedgerow that scratch each side of the car and in one instance the nice lady cutting her hedge had to move her step ladder for us to pass. – Miss Satnav is essential.

I do have concerns as to whether I will last the full five days – purely because of my Arthritis. Hopefully I won’t have to resort to the straight lead!!

So looking forward to the first draw tomorrow when I will find out which 16 anglers I will be completing against for the remaining four days of the five day festival – dropping one result.

On arrival I paid the £210 entry fee – that hurt and then sulked around the venue and found Dave Downton in his Chalet and was offered a cup of coffee providing I made it! I then had the usual technical teach in on the benefits of Clurrusso (bet thats not the spelling) wagglers by Dave pictured right.

Back to the shop and Mike Duckett (pictured lower right with Andy Seery) was explaining how he ended up in hospital this morning, because last night Mike blacked out and fell on to the cast iron bath in his digs. Apparently it wasn’t anything to do with the six pints of cider Mike West fed him!! Mike was struggling to use his right arm. Let’s hope he’s able to fish tomorrow – bet he does, irrespective of his condition.

I have just heard that matey Darren Gillman won the Winter League today on the Bristol Avon with 89lb 3oz. Darren caught Skimmers and Bream on the pole from peg 12 – one above Newbridge Bridge – well done matey that will do me tomorrow!!

Thursday 13/10/2011 - Bathampton AA Over 55's And Disabled - Bridge Pool

2011-10-13T19:43:00.001+01:00

It was 14 degrees when I left home – Marvellous weather for the time of year and for a days fishing. Apparently all change next week just as I am off to Stafford Moor for the October Festival.

Standing in the Car Park waiting for the draw Colin Golding announced that he has bought a mobile phone (pictured right with his new technology) which only cost him £16. However, he was disappointed that he was yet to receive a phone call, even though he has given out his number. So Bob Price rang the number and everyone in the car park heard it – except Colin, even though he had it on full volume!! Apparently, Bob discovered that Colin also had five missed calls. I was going to give out his new number but thought it pointless!!

With a few of the disable anglers missing today’s match, there was a higher than normal probability that I would draw a disabled peg, and I did - peg 9.

I wasn’t disappointed with this peg as there are a few Skimmers on this peg. So I set up for a Silvers day – one Ronnie rig and a 4x16 Jolly for the Skimmers to be fished down the inside shelf at 5 metres. On the whistle I fed the 5 metre line with a mix of micro, caster and hard 4’s, starting on the Ronnie rig with caster over loose fed caster. This resulted in one small Perch, one small Hybrid and two 4 oz Ronnie’s. Not a good start as next thing a bloody great Pike sliced through the swim killing it dead. So out on the Skimmers and I had a lot of pecking from tiny Skimmers so dotted the float right down in to the surface film, which resulted in a few small Skimmer blades. Next cast and I hook and land a 7lb Carp. Looking around and everyone was struggling for both Silvers and carp. I was using Mike Jones (peg 15) and Rich Coles (peg 7) as my litmus on the Silvers – both were also struggling. So I made the decision to switch to paste in the margin fished over loose fed hard 4’s for the Carp. It took a while before I hooked my first a 18 pounder – happy days. The Lake wasn’t fishing that well and I caught very, very steady another eight Carp before the all out. My Silvers weighed in at 2lb 8oz and my Carp 98lb 1oz for just over the ton with 100lb 9oz for first overall.

The Silvers was won by Bill Ferris (pictured right with the overall winner – hiding his broken front tooth) with 17lb of Roach and small Skimmers. Bill caught on either maggot or caster hook bait fished short over regular small balls of GB. This weight was very impressive on the day as the next Silvers weights were tied on 8lb 8oz.

Full Result:

1. Mike Nicholls 100-09-0 peg 9
2. Dave Bacon 63-06-0 peg 25
3. John Smith 46-04-0 peg 33
4. Dave Gillard 38-09-0 peg 11
5. Rich Coles 37-14-0 peg 7
6. Alan Jones 32-14-0 peg 32

Top Silvers:

1. Bill Ferris 17-0-0 peg 30
2. Rich Coles 8-8-0 peg 7
2. Mike Jones 8-8-0 peg 15
3. Bob Feltham 8-07-0 peg 14

Sunday 09/10/2011 - Carps AC Silvers League - Round Three - Viaduct Fishery - Carey and Spring Lakes

2011-10-09T21:23:00.003+01:00

Bela and I breakfasted in the Hill Top Café which was very busy. I was surprised to see Lee Werret arrive at the café from Whiteacres s as he planned to be down there for two weeks, so a week early. Apparently the venue isn’t fishing that well, which can be read across most venues in the UK at present – we desperately need a deluge of rain to reinstall the Oxygen levels in our Fisheries – it could get serious for some fisheries if we don’t.

It was another case of pass the coffee draw tin. I nearly drew right handed, switching to my left out came peg 85 – another day in the section of death. Arriving at the peg I had for company Nick Collins (88), Bob Gullick (87) Mark Broomsgrove (86), me and Barry Fitchew (81). Not as simple because Steve Kedge arrived on peg 86, I did explain that Mark had drawn the peg, but Steve was insistent, explaining that he had drawn peg 15 on Spring Lake but had to redraw – this is when his head went. Steve then said “I might be on peg 81”, no Barry had arrived – peg 80 then no Gordon was there. So back to the shop and Steve was in fact on peg 98!! I have explained this to Matron, who said she will consider keeping Steve in next week!!

I had a feeder chuck so set that up first, but left the waggler tangled up as the wind was a bit too strong for any sensible presentation. I then set up a 4 x12 Jolly to be fished for Skimmers, plus anything else at 9 metres. Then the trusty Ronnie rig for the caster.

On the whistle I fed three balls of GB at 9 metres, but started on the caster at 4 metres, which resulted in a 6oz Rudd and a few Ronnie’s – the water has gone a bit clear, so the Ronnie’s weren’t really feeding. So it was out on the 9 metre line with 2mm expander pellet on the hook. I had an hour of catching small Skimmers from 2 to 3oz – enjoyable. The swim died so I re fed with GB which didn’t have the desired effect. So it was back on the Ronnie rig, but this time out to the right in the shallow water, where I had been dripping caster. I soon had a 1lb perch in the net followed by another two which I pulled out - bugger. I then had another 1lb Perch, followed by another pull out – bugger again. I was using a lighter elastic, so I blamed this – but who knows!! It was time to try the GB feeder, so out it went with triple “putrid” red maggot and a 2lb Skimmer first cast – this is how to do it, but not fast enough as it took an age to get the next one. My impatiens got the better of me once again, so I put a big pot of cater on the 9 metre line and had a 2lb Skimmer first cast on the drop. That was it except for a puzzling number of indications on double caster. I decided that the fish were up in the water. Back on the feeder for the last ¾ hour and I had a run of 2lb Skimmers with neat GB in the feeder, with a foul hooker on the whistle – justice served. My Silvers weight in not at 14lb as I told the rest of the section, but 24lb 3oz for a section second, with ace Nicky Collins taking it with a credible 34lb 7oz and luckily for me third overall leaving me with a section default payout!

It was nice to Lee Werret (pictured right) with a smile back on his face as he drew the same peg as last match peg 18 on Spring winning the match with 56lb 6oz of Skimmers. Lee caught initially short using soft pellet and later catching the Lions share on red maggot over GB and caster. Lee fed 2 kg of GB and 2 pints of caster throughout.

Full Result:

1. Lee Werret 56-06-0 peg 18
2. John Green 34-12-0 peg 17 (hard 4 mm pellet on waggler)
3. Nick Collins 34-07-0 peg 88
4. Stu Foale 33-02-0 peg 78
5. Glen Calvert 32-12-0 peg 16
6. Roland Lucas 32-10-0 peg 103

League Leaders (Points then weight order):

1 Stuart Foale 4
2 Lee Werrett 5
3 Glen Calvert 5
4 Tim Pallant 6
5 Andy Neal 6
6 Bob Gullick 6

06/10/2011 - Viaduct Cost Cutter - Campbell and Carey

2011-10-06T20:45:00.000+01:00

It always take time for us humans to adjust to the change to hot and cold temperatures, so no surprise today that I felt cold as the temperature has dropped 18 degrees over two days! I didn’t expect it to affects the fish though.

Another good turn out for the Skivers match. A new Skiver in the form of Josh Garrett, nice to see him back on the bank – unless he draws next to you!!

In to the draw tin and out comes peg 129 on Campbell. The peg below the Spit, I always feel as if I have only half a Silvers swim on these Spit pegs. I had Josh Garrett arrive on next peg 130. We were both glad we were on this bank as the wind was strong and gusting, but importantly off our backs.

The water still looked clear to me so I set up a full depth waggler for the 10mm banded pellet and a 4x12 Jolly for the caster up to the spit at 11.5 metres. I also set up a paste rig to fish out in front at the same length. On the whistle I put a full pot of casters down the shelf of the spit and fed some hard 4’s over the paste line. Starting on the paste I had one Carp whilst Josh next to me was catching a Carp a casts on the straight lead out to the Aerator, as was Charlie Barns on peg 132, sporting his new Drennan lead rod. I half heartedly tried the caster and had one small Ronnie. So out on the waggler and I had a run of five Carp in the net and five Carp foul hooked. With us now half way through the match and with Josh and Charlie still bagging on the lead I had a walk. Both Rich Coles (128) and Chris Fox (127) owned up to 10lb of Silvers. So I went back to the car (becoming a habit) and got my Skimmer feeder rod and some GB for a practice for Sundays Silvers League. By the time I was set up I had about 2 ½ hours left of the match. First cast with triple dead bloated red maggot on the hook and a small Carp in the net, not what I was after. Next cast a 3lb Tench – better, quickly followed by another – even better. That was it for the Tench but I did start catch Skimmers steady to the end, interrupted by the odd small Carp. However, due to the ghigh usting wind which swirled in the GB bowl giving me “GB Eye”. I don’t know what the put in the GB but it stings like hell – top tip don’t rub the eyes. My Carp weighed 41lb 1oz and my Silvers 24lb 14oz, This left me one out of a Silvers pick up and the total of 65lb 15oz getting me nowhere either.

The match was won by Josh Garrett (pictured right with some of his catch) with 215lb 7oz from peg 130. Josh caught all but one fish on the straight lead fished out to the Aerator. Josh used 10mm hair rigged hard pellet fished over loose fed 10’s. Josh fed about 2 pints throughout.

The Silvers was won by the other young gun Tom Thick (pictured lower right with the other young gun) with 50lb 10oz from peg 126. Tom’s Silvers also helped him to runner up spot with a total of 171lb 12oz. Tom caught on the pole at 11. 5 metres using banded 4’s and 6’s fished over kinder potted hard 4’s. Tom fed two Chinese take away containers (about two British pints) throughout the match.

It was nice to see these young lads doing so well, as it was for a not so young Charlie Barns. Charlie has had five tons in the last five matches beating his PB yesterday with 145lb. I hear he’s taking his rod back because it’s bending too much!! It won’t last he will soon be back on the Silvers.

Full Result:

1. Josh Garrett 215-07-0 peg 130
2. Tom Thick 171-12-0 peg 126
3. Charlie Barns 141-01-0 peg 132
4. Tica Williams 137 04-0 peg 118
5. John Green 120-13-0 peg 124
6. Dan Pither 117-01-0 peg 80
7. Mike Owens 107-02-0 peg 116
8. Jim Baines 104-03-0 peg 123
9. Craig Edmonds 102-11-0 peg 94

Top Silvers:

1. Tom Thick 50-10-0 peg 126
2. John Bradford 34-12-0 peg 96
3. Chris Fox 34-11-0 peg 127

Sunday 02/10/2011 - Avon Angling Teams of Four - Round Three - Acorn Fishery - Paddocks and Old Canal

2011-10-02T21:21:00.003+01:00

During the drive down to the Acorn Fishery Bela let slip that his middle name is Attila as in the “Hun”. I started to call him Hun but thought better of it after a while. His full name is Bela Attila Bakos pronounced “Bala Attila Bakoosh”. Either way not a person you upset!

I haven’t fished the venue since its opening day so arriving at the venue I had a walk round Paddocks with team mate Rich Coles who filled second spot in the venues previous Wednesday’s open ran by Rip Off. I must say that it looked completely different now with all the platforms completed and the bank side vegetation maturing. The venue has become very popular with many of my mates from the Coffin Dodgers. Unfortunately I baby sit on their Tuesday opens.

I think everyone was hoping to be on the Old Canal especially as there was only one section of 11 pegs, giving plenty of room, hence less peggy. Stand in Captain Steve Segar pull the team draw and I was to spend the day on peg 5 Paddocks. Luckily we had John Baker standing in for Charlie Barns and came to the peg with me explaining the way he would fish it. John explained that the LH margin was good for the paste feeding 8 mm pellets and down the far shelf not feeding anything over paste, nearly my type of fishing. As I didn’t have any 8’s John gave me a huge box full. Oh yes it was a flyer peg. One of these pellets is equivalent to 100 micro pellets; far more than I would normally feed in one go! So not to disappoint John I fed a couple of hand full’s on the bank!

I set up three rigs one paste rig for the LH margin set at 24 inches, similar again just down the far shelf in 6 footish of water and a 4x16 Jolly again for down the far shelf to be used with 6mm expander pellet – that’s it.

Because of the depth, I started by feeding a compressed bunch of wetted micro in the kinder pot with expander on the hook and happy days I soon had three 3 pound Carp in the net. Next put in I lost a foul hooker and that was it for this line except four 3 oz Skimmers. I was surprised how quick the bites were from these tiny fish, every time thinking they were Carp. That was the end of my Silvers.

Far too early for the margin I know, but I had to try it. I had been feeding three hard 4’s regularly from the start and with the paste rig dotted down I had a Carp first put in. Unfortunately the Common Carp on this venue fight very hard and as I learnt at my cost you have to take your time, but they do their best to ruin your peg. I always try hard to keep them out of the line I am fishing which was difficult enough. Landing these fish was upsetting the swims so once again after three or so fish it would go quite. I had been feeding a Silvers line at a “stretched” 4 metres. So gave that a try and I started to catch more Carp, but this time they stayed there for the last two hours. I switched between double casters on the Jolly and once I saw a blow would go over it with paste. Getting near the end of the match I was catching well and unfortunately this also started me try to force the fish to get back out for more, loosing three decent Carp for about 10lb – a spell of bad angling that cost me framing overall. My Carp and silvers weighed in at 55lb 4oz for a section win and sixth overall. I am still dwelling on my bad angling especially as it cost me second place. Top tip don’t try and force the fish on this venue – take your time – another lesson learnt.

The match was won by Tony Rixon (pictured right with his catch) with 76lb 10oz from Old Canal peg 9 (the meatier end of the dog bone). Tony caught …see his blog. I was impressed with how close the weights were on this Canal.

The Silvers was won by John Bradford (pictured with match winner and shop manger discussiing the issues of the week) with 12lb 12oz from Paddocks peg 10. John caught at 7 metres using worm over casters – John doesn’t feed worms because he would rather sell them in the shop!

I must mention Silvers runner up Kev Perry who was pegged next to me, what a class angler this man is.

Full Result:

1. Tony Rixon 76-10-0 peg 9 (Old Canal)
2. Andy Neal 63-12-0 peg 33 (Paddocks)
3. Nick Collins 57-01-0 peg 40 (Paddocks)
4. Paul Elmes 56-12-0 peg 1 (Old Canal)
5. Tom Thick 55-04-0 peg 22 (Paddocks)
6. Mike Nicholls 55-04-0 peg 45 (Paddocks)

Top Silvers:

1. John Bradford 12-12-0 peg 10 (Paddocks)
2. Kev Perry 9-09-0 peg 4 (Paddocks)

Saturday 01/10/2011 - Viaduct All Winners £1,000 Final - Campbell and Carey

2011-10-01T21:19:00.004+01:00

As this match was basically winners take all and no Silvers payout I came fully armed with not only the poles but two rods – lead and waggler all made up for Carp fishing. We all knew that the draw was important today and I fancied any of the corner pegs on Campbell – especially the end where the fished were! I was next behind Tony Rixon to draw and luckily he drew peg 76 – a peg I didn’t fancy (nor did he). I pulls peg 124. I was reasonably happy with this.

I was confident that the paste would work on this peg so left all my rods in the car. I found myself pegged between Andy Lloyd on peg 125 and Phil Cardwell on peg 123 (thanks for the coffee Phil). Two Viaduct Carp Slayers. I set up two rigs both paste, one to be fished at 10 metres and the other in the LH margin. On the horn I fed a smidgen of micro and hard 4’s and started to feed the margin, however, I could see the bait falling a long way down in the water so gave up feeding the margin as the clarity of the water would keep any self respecting carp out of the swim. First put on the paste I missed a bite. Next put in I hooked and landed a 10 lb Mirror, next put in another 10 lb Mirror was soon in the net – happy days – not. Next put in I lost a fish which might have been foul hooked.

Unfortunately I persevered with the paste far too long adding only three Bream and a Perch. It wasn’t until the last two hours that I went back to the car and got a bag of 8mm pellet and my waggler rod. Andy Lloyd had been fishing the shallow waggler and had only one Carp to show for it, so I wasn’t going to do any better, so I swapped mine to a full depth waggler with 8mm banded pellet. The up shot was that I added another seven Carp before the all out. My Silver went 8lb 6oz and my nine carp 68lb 2oz for a total of 76lb 8oz for fourteenth overall. The nearest I got to any coin was being handed the empty winners envelope (pictured upper right)!

Dean Malin (pictured right with some of his better fish) won the £1,000 prize with 174lb 3oz from peg 119. Dean caught a few on the straight lead at the start, but caught the majority on the pole fishing 16.5 metres to the end margin using hard hair rigged 8 mm pellet fished over a combination of potted and loose fed pellet.

Runner up was Phil Cardwell (pictured right with some of his catch) with 142lb 2oz from the opposite corner peg 123. Phil caught most of his fish on the lead utilising large pieces of bread fished off bottom. Phil went home £300 richer.

In third place was Trigger (pictured top right collecting his winnings with the other lucky sods from Fishery Manager Paul Greenwood) with 123lb 13 oz from peg 126. Trigger struggled for most of the match until he switched to the 5 metre line in the last hour using meat hook bait fished over hand fed meat.

Full Result:

1. Dean Malin 174-03-0 peg 119
2. Phil Cardwell 139-06-0 peg 123
3. Craig Edmonds 123-13-0 peg 125
4. Martin Preston 120-02-0 peg 85
5. Mash 108-09-0 peg 131
6. John Mills 105-09-0 peg 118
7. Matt Parsons 104-12-0 peg 105
8. Charlie Barns 103-14-0 peg 115

And finally, with temperatures once again in the high twenties it was the Angler on peg 112 (pictured lower right) that decided enough was enough and jumped in the Lake so say to retrieve his landing net.

Thursday 29/09/2011 - Bathampton AA Over 55's And Disabled - Bridge Pool

2011-09-29T20:04:00.002+01:00

What’s gone right with the weather – clear skies and daytime temperatures in the high twenties. Apparently the weather is confusing nature particularly plants. Let’s hope the fish aren’t as confused!
Looking at the Lake it appeared to be nicely coloured due to feeding fish. So I was anticipating a good days fishing. I had made my mind up to make it a Silvers only day to give the Carp arm a rest, except I wanted to try the new Sensas heavy top set a try, which I had borrowed from Dean Malin.

Lucky enough I drew a reasonable Silvers peg 31. Also I would be in the shade most of the day as the sun is already much lower in the sky, hence hidden behind the high bank behind me. Perfect.

Having checked that Terry Bruton was safely installed and tethered in his peg 15 it was off to my peg!!

I set up a Ronnie rig to be used at 4 metres with caster, a 4x16 Jolly to be fished down the nearvshelf at 6 metres and a paste rig for the LH margin – this rig was for test purposes only.

On the whistle I fed a small amount of hard 4’s on the Skimmer line and started to loose feed a few casters for the Ronnie’s. It was soon obvious the Ronnie’s weren’t going to play as I had two small samples and two small Perch on the caster. So I put on the 6mm expander on the Skimmer rig and I started to catch “Bottle Top” Skimmers 2 – 3oz. I did manage to keep these coming for the first hour after which things slowed, so I re-fed a mix of Caster, Micro and hard 4’s and tried the Ronnie’s again and caught another hard earned two more! Back out on the Skimmer line and I carried on catching the Swimmeret’s but it was a lot slower. It was apparent looking around the lake that the Silvers and to a certain extent the Carp weren’t feeding.

I thought I better do my Carp test whilst I rested the Skimmers. First put in with paste and I had a 15lb Common Carp this would test Dean’s top set. Now this top set has a 22 elastic on a side pulla slide. So I thought I needed to give it a pull to bring the Carp to attention – well the elastic was so tight I couldn’t pull it. After messing around with this the Carp broke me at the net. I then realised, although, it has a pulla set-up the elastic is meant to be fished in the traditional fixed style. I broke on the next put in on another big Carp followed by a lost foul hooked Carp, before I finally got a handle on the set up and landed a Common Carp weighing 9lb 9oz. I am glad I have ordered one of these top sets as they are spot on for the big Carp on this venue.

As I said today’s focus was Silvers so having completed the top set test it was back put on the expander and I caught a few more Swimmerets but as the match came to a close so did the fishing. My Silvers weighed in at 15lb 14oz for second in the Silvers, adding my Carp my total climbed to 25lb 8oz for seventh overall.

Overall the Lake fished poor, which I put down to the fish feeding overnight in the light skies, hence the coloured water this morning. I am sure they will feed again overnight tonight.

The match was won by Alan Jones (pictured right with his catch of Carp) with 57lb 1oz from peg 33. Alan caught at 10 metres fishing worm hook bait fished over CW&C in GB.

The Silvers was won by Batch tackle dealer Dave Bacon (pictured right) with a credible 17lb 2oz of decent size Skimmers. Again Dave caught at 10 metres using worm hook bait fished over CW&C.

It seemed to be a day of the worm – just a one off I hope!

Full Result:

1. Alan Jones 57-01-0 peg 33
2. Dave Gillard 49-06-0 peg 16
3. John Wild 47-05-0 peg 21
4. John Smith 41-14-0 peg 25
5. Terry Church 30-15-0 peg 17
6. Martin Alexander 27-06-0 peg 28

Top Silvers:
1. Dave Bacon 17-02-0 peg 27
2. Mike Nicholls 15-14-0 peg 31
3. Peter Greenslade 15-10-0 peg 32