Sunday 25/05/2014 - KP Series Round Five - Acorn Fishery - Paddocks

Bela deputised for Glenn Bailey today who was inebriated from yesterdays Bristol Rugby hospitality. It must have been worth while missing the match as he was in flyer section B.

The breakfast was OK Bela gorged it as usual. The weather has made a changed for the worse with the temperature dropping, rain all day Saturday and the bloody winds blowing as usual on this venue the fishing was going to be hard for 75% of the anglers.

I was in C section which I think is most unfair, as if you aren’t on the two bridge pegs then you are fishing for third in the section. Into the draw box and out comes peg 25 – Not happy with this as it’s next to the peg I struggled on last time in this section, plus it was the peg the wind was hitting first – bugger at least I wasn’t on peg 23.

I set up exactly the same as the last match and fished it he same – well nearly!!

Starting on the half hard 4mm pellet over hard 4’s at 5 metres I had a 8ox Skimmers first dob, followed by a few smaller versions. I then fouls hooked a Carp which I landed. I was kindering some 4’s with every put in and s blow started over it so out went the paste and a Carp first try. Out again then another Carp. The swim then completely died.

I tried the margin where I had been feeding caster and hooked a Perch on the caster rig which party company on the way to the net. That was it for the two margin lines to the down wind RH side.

In desperation I broke with tradition and went 11.5 metres over to the far side down the second shelf and had three more Carp and some more Skimmers. After two hours I couldn’t get a bite from anywhere – crap.

So I went for a walk around the venue and as expected there were plenty of fish coming from B section where Bela had drawn peg 40. I watched him for 5 minutes during which he missed 20 bites before foul hooking a small carp which didn’t reach his net. That said he did pick up with a section and overall third. That’s moved Glenn up the league.

 Back to my peg and it wasn’t until the last 30 minutes that I had another Carp and a Skimmer – bloody wind.

My six Carp went 22lb 14oz and my few accidental Silvers 3lb 10oz for a total of 26lb 8oz for 5 section points.

I am away for the last match in A section and I am not disappointed.That said Dave Wride has agreed to stand in for me.

The match was won by Kevin Lloyd (pictured right with the Silvers winner) from peg 7 with 90lb 12oz. Kevin caught on various baits with corn being the most productive fished over various feeds – GB, micro and pellet.

The Silvers was won by Paul Faiers with 24lb2oz from peg 5 (waste of a good Carp peg). Paul caught Skimmers on his top set plus one with caster hook bait over caster feed. Paul fed 2 pints through out the match.

Full Result:

1. Kevin Lloyd 90-12-0 peg 7
2. Pete Bartlett 82-12-0 peg 12
3. Bela Bakos 67-12-0 peg 40
4. Lewis Jones 62-08-0 peg 22
5. R. Fogg 62-08-0 peg 6
6. Andy France 54-0-0 peg 1 

Top Silvers:

1. Paul Faiers 24-02-0 peg 5
2. Eddie Wynne 15-06-0 peg 9
3. Chris Fox 15-06-0 peg 10

Weigh Sheets:

Thursday 22/05/2014 - Bathampton AA - Over 55's and Disabled - Bridge Pool

Felt a bit jaded this morning after a long but satisfying and memorable day yesterday. I nearly didn’t go because the forecast was for up to 40mm of rain. Luckily they got it wrong (again) and we stayed dry all day. This forecast probably did put off a few.

Arriving at the draw I was very disappointed and sad to hear that BAA is not running the Pensioners match this year. This would have been my first qualifying year to fish it and was hoping to follow Dads footsteps. Dad couldn’t drive but always bought a BAA membership just to fish the Pensioners match, back then he used to get a lift from home from volunteers from the committee. I haven’t been told why they have cancelled the match, I know lot of Pensioners will be disappointed as they get at least 30+ attend.

In to the draw bag and out comes “Mike’s” peg 32. I seem to live on this peg. Walking to the peg I noticed that some predator had had a good breakfast on Duck eggs (Pictured right).

I set up just two rigs my Ronnie rig for caster over caster and a 0.3 gram Silverfox PC set at 3 foot for the down wind LH margin. The plan was to fish for Silvers until it died and then on to the paste for Carp. And that’s exactly what I did. At the two hour mark the swim died but had caught some Hybrids, Ronnie’s and Skimmers, losing a foul hooked Bream and a Tench which did me in the Bankside weed - bugger. On to the paste dripping hard 4’s over the top for the rest of the match and although it was slow I did manage four Carp pulling out of a fifth.

It was a result that gave me a double third with 50lb 9oz and 13lb 5oz of Silvers.

The match was won by Rich Coles (pictured right with the Silvers winner) with 126lb 7oz of Carp from peg 11. Rich caught in his LH margin fishing whole worm over dead maggots.

The Silvers was won by Barry Fitchew with 21lb 14oz from peg 21. Barry caught on caster at 5 metres over GB laced with caster.

Full Result:

1. Rich Coles 126-07-0 peg 11
2. Pete Greenslade 57-09-0 peg 18
3. Mike Nicholls 50-09-0 peg 32
4. Bob Price 47-14-0 peg 29
5. Alan Jones 41-04-0 peg 28
6. Pete Phillips 39-02-0 peg 6

Top Silvers:

1. Barry Fitchew 21-14-0 peg 21
2. Mike Jones 15-12-0 peg 30
3. Mike Nicholls 13-05-0 peg 32

Weigh Sheets:

Wednesday 21/05/2014 - Avon Angling - Pole Only Open - Viaduct Fishery - Campbell

Another beautiful day in the sunshine, tee shirts and shorts weather. It all started at Cannards Well for Glenn and me where we had a leisurely breakfast and finishing up a great day out in Winston’s Fish bar in Shepton on the way home where we played guess who was Mrs Thick. Excellent battered fish and the Carlsberg was probably the coldest ever, which helped with the aches and pains.

Glenn and I had a part walk around the fishery and reminisced about the match where I was on peg 121 and Glenn on peg 135. And today it was swim reversal with Glenn on peg 121 and me on 135. We were both happy with these draws.

I was especially happy as the wind was blowing in to the peg albeit it being very light. However, there was a down side to this, the wind was building the water surface scum in the margins. There was also plenty of Carp on the surface for the Muggers (sorry Stalkers).

Two rigs a 0.15 gram Silverfox PC paste float for each side margin and a 0.3 gram paste float for 5 metres at 12 o clock.

As I said the scum was building in the margins and after a few attempts and wasting ¼ pint of hard 4’s I had to abandon the margins as the scum was firstly holding up the paste then the float!! My entire match was therefore fished at 5 metres.

I started with paste fed inside the kinder cup with some hard 4’s and as expected I had a Carp first try. Next try another. Then I lost a foul hooked fish.  “No Nuts” Rixon was on peg 130 and started catching by “Stalking” which I thought would only last a few fish. The upshot was that for the next three hours I added only two more Carp whilst “No Nuts” carried on catching throughout this period – all against the odds. Luckily I did have a better fifth and sixth hour adding another 14 Carp, two Tench and a Skimmer.

My Silvers weighed 5lb 8oz and my Carp 115lb 9oz for a total of 121lb 1oz. for a marginal third place.

As expected “No Nuts” (pictured right with some of his catch of Common Carp) easily won the match with 188lb 3oz from unfancied peg 131. He caught Stalking…see his blog for all the gruesome details.

 

The Silvers was won by John Bradford the tidy partner of Avon Angling (pictured lower right). John caught Tench and Skimmers primarily in his RH margin using caster and worm.

Full Result:

1. Tony (No Nuts) Rixon 188-03-0 peg 130
2. Dan White 158-09-0 peg 112
3. Mike Nicholls 121-01-0 peg 135
4. Paul Attwood 120-15-0 peg 132
5. Tom Thick 112-05-0 peg 115
6. Steve Kedge 106-09-0 peg 119
7. Glenn Bailey 96-07-0 peg 121

Top Silvers:

1. John Bradford 35-02-0 peg 111
2. Steve Kedge 25-08-0 peg 119

Weigh Sheet:

Sunday 19/05/2014 - AA Float Only League - Round One - Viaduct - Campbell and Carey

A later start meant more traffic and not getting home until 20:00. Breakfast was in Cannards Well where it was buffet style and at £7.50 it was great value as Bela had at least £20 worth!!

A very warm May Day greeted us which has got the Carp thinking about multiplying.

In to the draw tin and out comes peg 102 AGAIN! I was on this peg in last weeks match and the match before 103. Unlike the river (Boys Hole, Arm Chair, Sugar Hole, etc…) commercial pegs don't usually take on a name rather than a peg number. We do have the Monk, Pretty Bush and Spit. Well we now have “The Step”. Peg 102 has a huge step down to the platform and at the end of the match it felt like I had been to aerobics’ classes!!

The important thing in fishing the same peg consecutively is it to try and take some learning in to the next match. However, in this league Silvers on their own is not going to win many section points or wonga especially on this venue.

So I was hoping to catch Carp at 5 metres early then double up the weight in the margins later. So two paste rigs 0.4 gram Silverfox PC’s and a Ronnie rig in case! My eggs were almost in one basket as I only had paste and caster hook baits.

On the start I fed a big pot mix of dry micro and caster 3 metres down the edge. Starting at 5 metres with paste over kindered hard 4’s it didn’t take long to catch my first Carp I quickly followed this up with a fouler which really gets the nerves twitching as you don’t know what’s going to break, luckily in this case the 0.18 hook length broke. That was it for some time as I was getting pestered by small Skimmers, when this happens you know the Carp aren’t there. So I tried the paste down the edge and found the same nibblers there as well. So I went on the Ronnie rig and started to catch 4 – 8 once Perch. Whist Ronnie-ing I kept hand feeding (definite advantage of fishing short) 4’s over the paste line until I saw a sensible blow then I would go over with paste and either  would catch a Carp or the Nibbling would frustrate. And that’s how my match went in and out picking off the odd Carp whilst adding Some Silvers.

On this venue you don’t ever give up as even I can catch 100lb in the last half hour. However, unlike last match I didn’t have any Carp from the margin which was my banker for the last hour or so. Interesting enough my Silvers weigh was 3lb more than last match and I fell one Carp short weighing five for 48lb and with my 15lb 2oz of Silvers gave my a section third total weight of 63lb 2oz. The Silvers making a difference.

Glenn Bailey did well winning our section with 130lb from peg 99.

Steve Long said that the Carey Diagonal bank hasn’t been fishing well foe some time. That said you still need a low ton for section wins, which is enough for me.

The match was won by Tony Rixon (pictured right with the Silvers winner – not identical twins) with 187lb from peg 88. Tony caught… see his blog.

The Silvers was won by Scott Russell with 46lb 10oz from peg 94. Scott caught Skimmers on hard 6’s fished a depth fished over pinged 4’s caught accidentally whilst fishing for Carp.

As Scott was in Bela's section he picked up the section by default.

off the Viaduct again on Wednesday but can't draw 102 again as the match is on Campbell only - can I?

Full Result:

1. Tony Rixon 187-0-0 peg 88
2. Joe McMahon 167-05-0 peg 85
3. Gary O’Shea 151-07-0 peg 128
4. Craig Edmonds 146-08-0 peg 79
5. Steve Segar 138-07-0 peg 118
6. Bob Gullick 137-09-0 peg 129

Accidental Silvers:

1. Scott Russell 46-10-0 peg 94
2. Tim Clarke 43-06-0 peg 123

Weigh Sheets:

Wednesday 14/05/2014 - Avon Angling Open - Landsend Fishery - Match and Sidney's Lakes

With very few open matches on this week I thought I would reacquaint my self with The Shipham Café and Landsend Fishery. It didn’t start too good as the breakfast prices had gone up the start of this week. The breakfast was OK though and still cheap by any standard.

Even though it’s a late 10 o clock draw I have the choice whether as to leave to make it just in time due to the school runs I encounter or go early and have a leisurely drive. I left at 07:10 and took my time.

Arriving at the fishery and having dipped my sun dried nets I had a walk around the match Lake to see plenty of submarines with their periscopes up – A mugger day me thinks. As there was enough anglers to put some pegs on Sidney’s Lake Ron Hardiman and I went to check which pegs were available. So a walk around the Lake and there was no Carp visible up in the water. Five pleasure anglers on the near side so we could have the far bank pegs 41 to 55, my preferred pegs today.

Back to the car and I realised I had left my Boss wheels home so a near draw – like peg 1 would be very welcome. In to the draw box and out comes peg 41. Mike Duckett kindly lent me a small wheel barrow (pictured right - not recommended) which meant two trips up to Sidney’s. Luckily that kind angler John Thompson helped me back with some of my gear; however, I had 7 trips today! Good job I’m a Pensioner!!

That said I was well pleased with the peg, once I settled in and got my breath back. This is an excellent Silvers peg F1’s, Crucian’s and Skimmers. All my target.

A fair bit of depth this end on the Lake which required a 4x14 Jolly which I intended to fish at 6 metres. I backed this up with a 0.4 gram Silverfox PC paste float for the same line and a 0.3 paste float for the LH margin.

I started on the semi hard 4’s on the hook over micro with a dash of hard 4’s and had four small Crucian’s and an F1. Just as I was thinking I was going to have a good Silvers day the positive bites stopped and I was pestered by 2oz Skimmers that wouldn’t take the pellet properly. I persisted with this until the 1 ½ hour mark and decided to switch to the margin on my Sensas long top set with paste over kindered hard 4’s. For the next 4 ½ hours I caught Carp steady until the end needing three nets for my 31 Carp.

My Silvers weighed 7lb and my Carp 155lb 13oz for a match winner total of 162lb 13oz.

The Silvers was won by fellow Coffin Dodger Martin Alexander (pictured above with the match winner) with 21lb 8oz from peg 17. Martin fished short initially with maggot catch Perch and on and off switching to banded hard 8’ pellet fished over 8’s which landed him five decent Skimmers. Well done matey fish and chips tonight!!

Full Result:

1. Mike Nicholls 162-13-0 peg 41
2. Tony Rixon 131-04-0 peg 24
3. Tom Thick 112-12-0 peg 51
4. Ron Hardiman 91-08-0 peg 22
5. Mash 89-14-0 peg 15
6. Andy Hembrow 86-01-0 peg 45

Top Silvers:

1. Martin Alexander 21-08-0 peg 17
2. Paul Attwood 20-11-0 peg 11

Weigh Sheets:

Sunday 11/05/2014 - Ivy House Open - Match Lake

The wind was horrendous on Saturday which continued all through the night and forecast to blow all through today’s match, which it did. Although not cold the wind spoiled it for many.

Arriving Bela didn’t recognise the fishery due to the hard work Andy Lloyd has put in. After one of Kerens breakfasts it was in to the draw box and out comes peg 3. Bela drew peg 33 which had won the Silvers the day before and was opposite me (pictured right).

Andy had spread the pegs well out with everyone having plenty of space. The wind was going to play a major part in the results today and I was a little disappointed to find that the swim I had drawn is very shallow close in taking five metre to find a sensible margin depth. I then had to go out to 7 metres to find 4 ½ foot for the Silvers. The bloody wind was off my left shoulder blowing in at 8 o clock so would be bouncing the pole around, particular the gusts.

So it was a 4x16 jolly for the Silvers at 7 metres and two paste rigs in and out swims. Both swims were towing against the wind at a rate of knots faster than the Avon at Newbridge!

I started on the paste at 5 metres kindering some micro with a few fours and although I had one liner I didn’t catch anything, I did manage to keep the paste on for a reasonable amount of time against the tow. I tried expander over this line and again I didn’t have a bite I was wondering whether the fish didn’t fancy feeding and swimming against the tow. I hate this sort of gusting wind.

Out on the 7 metre line where the tow was a little less, but not much. The tow is normally stronger in the shallower water due to the inertia cause by the volume of water. Again I repeated the hook baits and feeding method and after an hour I was blanking. I decided to switch to double caster and started to catch the odd Skimmer to 2lb. In the last hour “Carp o Clock” I hooked five Carp losing one to the scaffold pole of the aerator.

My Carp weighed 21lb 8oz and my 10 Skimmers 13lb 14oz for a total of 35lb 6oz. I was a bit disappointed at losing the first hour using the wrong bait as that hour is usually most productive for the Silvers. However, I wasn’t disappointed when Bela picked up second in the Silvers.

The match was won by Stu Foale (pictured right with the Silvers winner) with 157lb 8oz from peg 14 where the wind was blasting in to his face. Stu caught the majority of his Carp down his RH margin using a bunch of maggots over maggot feeding about 2 ½ pints.

The Silvers was won by Bob Davis with 16lb 12oz from peg 5. Bob caught Skimmers on pieces of worm fished over potted micro.

I appeared that the anglers with the wind blowing into them caught the most – probably less towing.

Full Result:

1. Stu Foales 157-08-0 peg 14
2. Chris Davis 87-08-0 peg 21
3. Joe Thompson 85-14-0 peg 7
4. Mick Gale 83-05-0 peg 39
5. J Bohane 69-05-0 peg 37
6. Sam Nobbs 66-04-0 peg 19

Top Silvers:

1. Bob Davis 16-12-0 peg 5
2. Bela Bakos 15-08-0 peg 33
3. Red 15-07-0 peg 45

Weigh Sheet:

Thursday 08/05/2014 - Viaduct Fishery Cost Cutter and Campbell and Carey

Glenn Bailey was keen to try the Thursday Viaduct cost cutter today and with Huntstrete fishing inconsistently, I was easily swayed to join him away from the Coffin Dodgers. After breakfast in Cannards Well where I hear that a previous guest was heard to say “You know what, there’s a real “Well” in the bar – She served me this morning”!!

The Gimp originally started the Thursday Cost Cutter as an alternative to Huntstrete and even though there are a good few Coffin Dodgers in attendance there are also some skivers which made the numbers up to 31 today so we were spread over both Campbell and Carey.

My plan was to try and qualify for the Silvers final. So if I was drawn on Carey that would be my quarry, if Campbell Carp. In to the draw tin and out comes peg 102 on Carey. Happy with this as there is usually plenty of Silvers in this area which can be caught short. There were plenty of warnings about my plan from this peg with only 18lb winning the Silvers on Carey the day before due to the Silvers spawning, for which there was plenty of margin evidence. Plus Steve Long said there were plenty of Carp down the margins. Silvers it was then!

Two rigs for 5 metres – 4x14 jolly for 8mm meat and a 0.3 gram Silverfox PC paste float. For the margins my Ronnie rig and a 0.2 Silverfox PC paste float.

Whilst shotting one of the floats I had a 3lb Skimmer take the bare hook. Was this a sign of plenty of Skimmers short?

I started by feeding two balls of Gimps Gold at 5 metres and fishing paste over it whilst loose feeding casters down the LH margin. First put in I landed a 15lb Mirror Carp. Second put in another Carp taking my weight to 25lb!! Next put in I foul hooked a Carp which can be Bum clenching, luckily the 0.18 G Line hook length separated us. Fourth put in and at last my quarry a 2 ½ lb Skimmer. That was it; even though I tried topping up with GB all I could get was small fish nibbling at the paste. So I decided to convert the line to meat feeding some micro meat with a dash of 8mm and fishing 8 mm on the hook. This produced exactly the same nibblers.

Time to try the margin with the Ronnie rig and caster. I fished it quite hard but found it really slow catching a few of most Silvers species except Skimmers. I would catch a few then it would go quiet for long spells. With 40 minutes to go it went completely dead so I tried the paste over the caster and I was soon obvious why the Silvers had vacated as in my last six put-ins I hooked six Carp losing two. My six Accidental Carp weighed 63lb 15oz and my Silvers a miserable 12lb 8oz for a total of 77lb 7oz.

 I admit I got it back to front today and should have fished for Carp. That said I don’t think I would have threatened the top three framers. In mitigation I was really out of touch with the fishery as I haven’t fished it since the Winter League. I must get down more.

The match and the Silvers was won by fellow “OAP” Paul Blake (pictured above) with a 38lb 14oz of Tench and with his carp getting to a total of 255lb 4oz from peg 119. What paste is to me meat is to Paul. Paul caught all his fish at either 5 metres both out in front and down his RH margin catching on 10 mm meat hook bait using three tins of SPAM including feed throughout the match. Well done matey can still show the youth how to do it.

Full Result:

1. Paul Blake 255-04-0 peg 119
2. Mash 244-09-0 peg 85
3. Dan White 238-05-0 peg 86
4. Keith Ashby 187-11-0 peg 125
5. Ryan Jordan 169-08-0 peg 110
6. Gary Flinders 165-0-0 peg 80

Top Silvers:

1. Paul Blake 38-14-0 peg 119
2. Keith Ashby 31-12-0 peg 125
3. Vic Nugent 27-12-0 peg 123

Weigh Sheets:

Sunday 04/05/2014 - KP Series - Round Four - Acorn Fishery - Paddocks

Bela and I went out for beer yesterday afternoon and at 4:45 it was sad (or in Bela case hilarious) to see a 6 foot 4 inch grown man cry when it was confirmed that Bristol Rovers were relegated out of the football league in to the Conference. I could go on about this sad day, but will limit my frustration to the Rovers management not hiring Ian Holloway as manager when he was available (the Ian that has just done the Houdini act for Millwall FC).

I travelled again with Glenn Bailey with today being a free half way league draw. In to the container and out comes peg 7 in B section. Happy with this as I did had some room to my left because peg 8 isn’t in the league, plus the peg was second on the previous match.

I set up four rigs: A 4x16 Jolly to fish at 5 metres with semi-hard 4’s (hard 4 soaked for 10 minutes then drained). I now prefer this pellet over expander because it has a higher density which the fish seems to take more confidently – for now anyway. I followed this up with a 0.5 gram Silverfox PC paste float to fish over the same 5 metre line with paste. Two margin rigs – a 4x12 Jolly for the caster in the LH margin and a 0.2 gram Silverfox PC paste float for the RH margin – job done.

I started by feeding all three lines, starting on the half hard 4. I caught small Skimmers straight off losing a decent flyer. After catching 3lb 7oz of Silvers I had a couple of Carp. So time to switch to the paste over the same line adding another four before I kindered the Carp up in the water. The Carp were more patient than me and would not go down, but instead waiting for the next morsel from my kinder two feet off bottom.

We were all then interrupted by the EA bailiffs wanting see register our licences. I had been loose feeding hard 4’s down the RH side for the paste. I thought this a banker, but no, I didn’t have a bite!

I had been loose feeding casters down the LH margin at 5 metres (wind assisted). So with single caster on the hook I started to catch some decent Carp, until I started to foul hook them. With hour and a half of the match remaining I switched to the paste rig over the caster and didn’t look back catching Carp to 12lb. One eight pounder of note; during playing it I noticed what I thought was a bead of water on the elastic, after shaking the elastic I realised that the elastic was hanging on by a thread. So I pulled hard and quickly tied a tight loop over the damaged area (see picture right) – quick thinking or what – or bloody lucky again.

I finished the match with 18 decent Carp for 91lb 10oz giving a total of 95lb 1oz for first overall and 10 points.

The Silvers was won by half the organising duo Chris Fox (pictured right with the match winner) with 13lb 6oz from peg 17. Chris caught short using double maggot over lose fed maggot – see Chris’s bog for the finite details.

Full Result:

1. Mike Nicholls 95-01-0 peg 7
2. Russ Peck 87-15-0 peg 12
3. Tom Thick 81-15-0 peg 33
4. Brian Slipper 69-08-0 peg 9
5. Mark Broomsgrove 54-14-0 peg 36
6. Kev Perry 53-05-0 peg 10

Top Silvers:

1. Chris Fox 13-06-0 peg 17
2. Charlie Barns 10-09-0 peg 30
3. Lance Tucker 10-04-0 peg 25
4. Glenn Calvert 10-04-0 peg 38

Weigh Sheets: