Sunday 30/12/2012 - Avon Angling Open - Shiplate Farm - Specimen Lake

Two chews had fasted all the previous day because we were once again paying a visit to “A sausage too far” café. No belly aching today then!

 

Not the first time at this venue, but the first time on the Specimen Lake. Apparently the lake has had some pegs added hence a number of “A” pegs. So with twenty booked in the pegging was going to be interesting. With high winds forecast I was hoping to be on the far bank which placed our backs to the South West, so any peg from 10 to 15 would be OK, but by choice end peg 15 would be preferred.

 

In to the landing net and out comes peg 14, two away from the end peg, but delighted nonetheless, even though it was an unusual long walk for these days. Arriving at the peg my peg, peg 14A and 14B were really close which caused a some discussion; however, I don’t think it affected the fishing, in fact it may have improved it!

 

I set up just the one 4x16 jolly and the Normark feeder rod with a small Drennan feeder. Having plumbed up with the Jolly it was apparent that the wind was causing some considerable tow, left to right against he wind. Although this was a good indicator that the Skimmers might feed I thought the tow was a tad too sever to catch on the pole at 10 metres. So the feeder was going to be the main attack. On the “all in” I fed the 10 metre line with four balls of GB laced with a few Pinkies, dead reds and Pinkies. Starting on the feeder at 25 metres with the same laced up GB I had a liner first cast which resulted in a lost foul hooked Carp. Next cast I hooked and landed a 5lb 14oz Common Carp (the last and only). I spent the next couple of hours catching small Skimmers to 8oz. These fish gradually became sparser so it was the turn of the pole and first run through resulted in a one of the Lakes big Bream being foul hooked and eventually lost – bugger. After one small Rudd and a couple more of small Skimmers I re-fed and went back on the feeder and another few small Skimmers was in the net falling to one dead red and one Pinkie (it was difficult to determine the maggot from the Pinkie as they were so small – or was the Pinkie big?). After trying the pole a few more times which yielded nothing I spent a difficult last 2 hours adding a few more ounces on the feeder.

I must say I enjoyed fishing the feeder today - twitching and slowly winding in to the small Skimmers - whilst it lasted, I'm sure the venue didn't fish up to it's fish stocks.

 

My Silvers weighed 9lb 9oz which with the lonely Carp weighed a total of 15lb 7oz for fourth overall and a section win.

 

The match was won by Clint Wojtyle (pictured right with the Silvers winner) from peg 1 with 25lb 10oz. Clint caught two Carp and two large Bream and one Ruffe on the pole both out in front and down his RH margin.

 

The Silvers was won by Tony Rixon from end peg 15 with 18lb 12oz. Tony caught on ….see his blog for details.

 

Full Result:

 

1.      Clint Wojtyle 25-10-0 peg 1

2.      Matt Tomes 23-12-0 peg 14A

3.      Tony Rixon 18-12-0 peg 15

4.      Mike Nicholls 15-07-0 peg 14

5.      Chris Fox 12-04-0 peg 13

6.      Nick Collier 10-02-0 peg 12

 

Top Silvers:

 

1.      Tony Rixon 18-12-0 peg End peg 15

2.      Matt Tomes 16-05-0 peg 14A

3.      Chris Fox 12-04-0 peg 1