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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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