Sunday 28/09/2014 - Ivy House Open - Match Lake

Another beautiful autumn day adding to a pleasant drive to the fishery. After breakfast Bela and I had a walk around the Match Lake and noticed that between pegs 22 and 25 there were a lot of big Carp in the margins.

Arriving back in the café we all had a good belly laugh at Andy Lloyd’s expense. Five minutes before the draw Andy asked wife Karen if he could fish the match today. She wasn’t that happy about it and conditioned him doing so on washing up. For the next five minutes Karen stopped calling him Andy referring to him as Andrew!! He managed to fish albeit a very embarrassed red face and full of humble pie!!

Third into the draw coffee tin and out comes peg 2. The last time I was on peg 47 this peg won the match fishing down the LH margin. Although I had come to fish solely for the Silvers I still reluctantly set of a 4x12 jolly with 0.16 hook length to fish down the margin at 7 metres. As I said in a previous blog you need Skimmers to win the Silvers so had planned to fish two lines one at 4 metres with the Ronnie rig and the other at 6 metres for the Skimmers. For this I set up the 4x14 jolly and the Ronnie rig.

No paste today!

I started by feeding all the three lines. The 4 metre line with five big cups of 50/50 Sensas Magic/Black Lake laced with plenty of caster. Then into the 6 metre line a big pot of softened 4’s. Lastly I wasted some bait by feeding a big pot of dead reds and micro down the margin towards peg 1.

I started on the Ronnie rig with single caster loose feeding the same over the top. I had a few better Ronnie’s but it was much slower than anticipated. My thinking was that there were carp around doing their disrupting. But I hadn’t hooked any which would have been usual.

So the one and only look down the margin produced nothing. That said I didn’t give it very long. I kept an eye on the margin but there wasn’t any sign of Carp until an hour to go. I wasn’t tempted at this point in the match.

So I re-fed another five balls of GB laced with caster at 4 metres and tried the 6 metre line with semi hard 4’s on the hook. I started by catching small 3oz Skimmers gradually building to the one pounders leading on to the better Skimmers. I had a very satisfying match catching Skimmers regularly until an hour to go with only two flying off and catching just the one 6lb Carp. I then during re-feeding bounced the pole and the 4’s made a splash which rang the dinner gong for the Carp. I lost four fouled hookers landing another six pounder and two Stockies. I didn’t feed again for half hour until I was sure the Carp had buggered off. In the last few minutes -I had another three decent Skimmers.

My Silvers went 44lb 2oz for a Silver win (my catch upper pictured right).

I was delighted when matey Bela won the match (seen in the selfie with the Silvers winner) with 102lb from peg 29. Bela fished at 16 metres out in front shallow between 12 and 18 inches with hard banded 6 on the hook. Bela swung the rig out rather than splashing. Bela either caught straight away or just sat on it to get bites. Bela fed 4 pints of hard 4’s.

We had a better than usual laugh in the Bar-gar-age sinking a few Pinky Ponks.

A memorable day for both.

Alan Oram and John Cambridge on pegs 21 and 24 where we had spotted Carp in the margins on our earlier walk had some big beautiful Common Carp losing a lot more than they landed.

Full Result:

1. Bela Bakos 102-0-0 peg 29
2. Andy Lloyd 87-04-0 peg 19
3. Dean Malin 78-13-0 peg 6
4. Mike Nicholls 60-06-0 peg 2
5. Dave Young 59-12-0 peg 13
6. Mark Lane 59-04-0 peg 38

Top Silvers:

1. Mike Nicholls 44-02-0 peg 2
2. Rupert Garner 34-0-0 peg 44
3. Jamie Compton 17-09-0 peg 42

Weigh Sheet:

Thursday 26/09/2014 - Coffin Dodgers Day Out - Ivy House - New Canal

With Huntstrete Lakes closed for matches (re-opening on Thursday 9^th October for our first match) the Coffin Dodgers decided to have an away day to Ivy House – New Canal. The canal has been fishing well so it was surprising that only seven CD’s plus one new member, John Barker were in attendance (pictured below centre).

Andy and Karen made us very welcome providing an excellent breakfast and all you can drink coffee/tea for £5.50.

In to the draw coffee tin and out comes peg 8. Well it didn’t matter where you drew as we all had two pegs. For company I had Dave Poole and Mike Keys. My peg was about 12 metres wide just outside a bay to my left.

The water coloured looked very coloured indicating to me that there has been plenty of feeding fish. I had only brought paste and pellet. So set up two paste rigs one for down the middle the other for the down wind RH margin. The main attack however, was to be a 4x12 Sensas Stainey also fished down the middle. The first strange thing (which I have experienced before) was that the wind was blowing in both directions between pegs 6 to 10. The next strange thing (which I haven’t seen before) was the colour of the water changed before my eyes going emerald green.

I started on soft pellet over some kindered micro and got a few tiny indications from I guessed small fish. It took me 55 minutes to get my first bite a small Ronnie! I had a walk and everyone was struggling for bites. I scrounged a handful of casters from Dave Poole, some maggots and corn from Mike Keys and had another go. I did have three small Carp and an 8 pounder on the caster, plus a few Silvers. tried the paste long and in the margins with out any indication of a size or type of fish. The fourth hour was dire so with 45 minutes left I got the rest on the pole out including the coloured storage tube. I attached a 4x12 jolly and caught another two small Carp and one Ronnie – it was hard.

My 3lb 3oz of Silvers put me second to last and my six Carp took my weight to 18lb 10oz for third.

Mike Jones won the match from peg 1 with 26lb 8oz which included a 10 lb Carp. Mike mainly caught on maggot.

Keeping up the new member tradition John Barker (pictured right with his three big Skimmers and bits) won the Silvers with 11lb. John caught his Skimmers either maggot, corn or caster!

It was a shame the venue didn’t fish to form, but we all agreed it was a fairish venue and we will be looking to go back gain.

My drive home from Pucklechurch was a nightmare as some of the roads were closed due to a burst water main. Arriving home we were one of the homes affected. Luckily I had some Pinky Ponk in the garage!

Full Result and Weigh Sheet:

Sunday 21/09/2014 - Ivy House Open - Match Lake

Another beautiful autumn day with temperature well above average, with that unique English nip in the air. This added to a pleasant drive to the fishery.

Two large breakfasts were devoured, me having passed my black pudding and tomatoes to Bela Bake-off.

Another good turnout with 28 fishing. There are more consistent Wonga pegs than others but to predict the winning peg is difficult, because the winner has come from a multitude of pegs. Second in the draw queue and out came peg 8 – happy with this, but always concerning when the section pegs are so spread out. Bake-off drew peg 45 which I didn’t fancy with so many pegs in around him.

The Lake was flat calm and with bright sunshine it was going to hard I thought especially for catching Skimmers. So the plan was to go out and out for the Ronnie’s and hopefully the odd Skimmer. So I set up a 4x14 jolly and the Ronnie rig both to be fished at 4 metres, the Jolly on the deck for Skimmers over GB laced with caster and dead maggot and the other up and down over loose fed caster.

I put the Ronnie rig in the margin to assess the depth and found 30 inches just a few inches out from the bank so ideal for Carp later in the match so set a combo rig of paste and a 4x12 jolly for a bunch of dead maggot up just in case.

I started by feeding two small balls of GB laced with caster and dead reds. I started over this with the Jolly and caught small Skimmers and Ronnie’s, but was dropping some so switched to the Ronnie rig where I stayed for most of the match loose feeding over the odd ball of cupped GB. I did have an accidental 4lb 6oz Common Carp on the Ronnie rig which is always interesting, trying to save my hook length. However, the fishing wasn’t easy with plenty of anglers struggling. The last hour was very hard so I did have a look in the margin with both margin rigs which produce not even an indication.

My Silvers weighed 12lb 15oz and with the accidental Carp 17lb 5oz. This put me in for second in the Silvers coin.

I don’t seem to be able to pin down the bigger Skimmers which are really needed to win the Silvers. It would be easy to be beaten by accidental Skimmers on this venue. So next time I intend to fish a additional longer line with micro and soft pellet.

The match was won by Steve Waters (pictured right with some of his better Carp) with a run away weight of 115lb 8oz from peg 31. Steve caught down to the peg 30 pallet using dead maggot fished over dead maggot. Steve fed about 3 pints throughout.

The Silvers was won by Joe Thompson (pictured lower right) with 20lb 8oz from peg 5. Joe initially caught a few long on soft pellet over micro and later coming short catching some better Skimmers on double corn over micro.

Full Result:

1. Steve Waters 115-08-0 peg 31
2. Paul Blake 77-04-0 peg 23
3. Martyn Lenaghan 67-07-0 peg 21
4. Jamie Compton 53-05-0 peg 27
5. Chris Cottrell 46-10-0 peg 29
6. Glen Picon 44-02-0 peg 34

Top Silvers:

1. Joe Thompson 20-08-0 peg 5
2. Mike Nicholls 12-15-0 peg 8
3. Steve Chandler 11-5-0 peg 12

Weigh Sheet:

Sunday 14/09/2014 - Avon Angling Top Six League - Final Round - Chiltern Trinity - Woodlands

Two Chews Bakos wanted a quantity breakfast today so it was off to Lillypool Café where a large breakfast was shown no mercy.

Earlier draw today 09:30 still later than I would like. A walk up to the Lake with Steve Segar revealed little to no signs of feeding fish, we both thought it would fish hard as it did last week.

In to the draw and out comes peg 25 again. I wasn’t too bothered about it as I was lying tenth overall with no chance of catching up so I planned to fish for the reliable Ronnie’s who I suspect would still show. For company I had Glenn Bailey on 26 (who went on to second in the match and winning the knockout) and Dick Bull on 24 so not a lot of room for us.

I set up a two Ronnie rigs, one to hand and the other a 4x12 Jolly, both rigged for caster. I also set a margin paste rig to fetch out any intruding Carp.

So it was heads down. After half hour it was clear that the venue was fishing hard with few Carp showing and the Ronnie’s not competing as usual for the caster. I kept my head down until half way when it went quite so in went the paste and a 7lb 1oz Common went in the keep net. It still takes a while for the Ronnie’s to recover, so rested the swim and had a walk up to Two Chews who was on peg 31. Amazing no one in his section had caught a Carp!!

I went back and carried on with the Ronnie’s until the last ¾ of an hour went the Carp were up on the top taking the caster so it was a question of chasing around for those extra ounces until then end. I was Amazes That I didn’t hook a Carp during this time.

I though I had about 300 Ronnie’s which would give me around 16lb. However, I was disappointed to find the scales go to 13lb 14oz. I usually under estimate my weight so I checked my keep nets when I got home for holes. There wasn’t any a ½ ounce Ronnie could get through. I count my fish in batches of 50 and put a 4 mm pellet to one side then count the total. I now reckon I added one too many pellets over estimating by 50 fish. This left me last but one in the section and fourth in the Silvers – 16lb would have put me second – but I didn’t catch that many!!

Bela came good in the last two hours of the match catching 50lb of Carp shallow at 6 metres giving him a section win and the Pinky Ponk honours.

The match was won by Shaun Townsend (pictured right with his catch) from end peg 23 with 72lb 11oz. Shaun caught a few shallow on pellet, with the majority coming from his RH margin on meat.

The Silvers was won by Joe McMahon (pictured right) with 19lb 3oz of Ronnie’s from end peg 32. Joe caught similar to me caster to hand.

The league was won by Paul Elmes (pictured right with the top three individuals).

Sunday 07/09/2014 - Ivy House Open - Match Lake

What a lovely easy drive it is to this fishery. Bela and I have committed to fish the Todber Manor Autumn league coming up soon, but we both thought we would reduce the number of leagues we fish, so decided on the way back that we would give the Viaduct Silvers league a miss for this year. Hence, will be able to pick and choose a bit more where we fish.

I have been feeling that I have lost my way with the Silvers fishing, as over the summer I have been in the main catching Carp with half hearted attempts for the Silvers. I do find fishing for Carp repetitive and a tad boring, especially playing the larger variety. After the last match at Ivy House where I drew a Carp peg I found that there were plenty of Ronnie’s to be caught so promised myself on the next visit I would do a trial fish for them. The lake was flat calm and bright sunshaine usually means the Skimmers wouldn’t feed.

Because Huntstrete isn’t available for matches I have booked the Ivy House New Canal for Thursday 25/09/14 for the Coffin Dodgers. Mike Jones will be in contact with details. So after one of Karen’s breakfasts I borrowed a near waterproof marker pen and wrote some of the peg numbers on the pallets of the new Canal.

It was then time to jump the draw queue and out comes corner end peg 47. Not the peg I would have chosen for Ronnie fishing as in tends to be a big Carp peg, long down the RH edge. The furthest I was prepared to go was 11.5 metres.

So I set up two paste rigs (why!) a Ronnie rig and a 4x14 jolly. Both of these rigs to be fished at 5 metres.

I fed a pot of wetted micros down the end margin at 11.5 metres, followed by a small helping of micro and caster on the 5 metre line. I started feeding caster at 1 metre out from the bank down the LH margin, but not for long as I snagged up and trashed the rig before I had a bite. Instead of attaching a new rig (which I should have done) I picked up the Jolly and with double caster I started to catch Ronnie’s, which persuaded me to out another Ronnie rig which I fished over the 5 metre line. I had a run of Ronnie’s but if I over fed they would disappear up in the water so it was a question of getting the feeding right for the depth I fished. After about two hours I fancied Carp ad chased the Ronnie’s off. With no Carp I was well behind as Anton Page who was catching well on peg 27 behind me, so was a couple of other anglers I could see. SO WHY ON ERTH DID I SPEND THE NEXT TWO HOURS TRYING TO CATCH CARP!! I caught a Ghost Carp first try down the end margin on paste followed by a foul hooker which disappeared under my platform along with my rig. WHY DID I PUT ANOTHER RIG ON!!

The upshot was I went back on the caster and Ronnie rig for the last hour with only a hand full of caster left because I had put three big pot full’s down the margin chasing Carp, WHY!! I had a reasonable 45 minutes as in the last 10 minutes I landed two decent Skimmers with one flying off the hook and another foul hooker coming off.

IF ONLY I HAD STAYED ON THE SILVERS I WOULD HAVE DEFINITELY PICKED UP SECOND SILVERS COIN – BUGGER.

Lesson learnt. I did learn a lot from fishing for the Ronnie’s but it would be impossible to win the Silvers with them unless the Skimmers switch off – which they do.

My lonely Carp weighed 7lb 13oz and my Ronnie’s 16lb 14oz just 1lb 11oz from coin.

The match was won by Jamie Compton (pictured right with some of his better Carp) with 116lb 2oz from peg 2. Jamie caught on bunches of maggot fished over potted Ringers margin GB fished just over half way to peg 1.

The Silvers was won by Dean Malin (pictured right with his catch of decent Skimmers) with 34lb 13oz from peg 44. Dean left his method feeder on the bank fishing instead the pole at 13 metres. Dean caught his Skimmers on bunches of dead maggot fished over small balls of GB laced with maggot.

Full Result:

1. Jamie Compton 116-02-0 peg 2
2. Anton Page 106-07-0 peg 27
3. Steve Candler 78-09-0 peg 27
4. Dean Malin  66-02-0 peg 44
5. Jason Robinson 63-14-0 peg 15
6. Dave Young 60-12-0 peg 12
7. Bela Bakos 49-09-0 peg 4

Top Silvers:

1. Dean Malin 34-13-0 peg 44
2. Dave Young 18-08-0 peg 12

Weigh Sheet: