Sunday 21/06/2020 - Tony Rixon - Float Only - Avalon Match Lake

This was to be the first of Tony Rixon's float only league but due to the Covid was changed this year to opens. Hence it was nice to fish a match with nearly every peg in with 46 fishing and 48 pegs available. Also nice was to see Mark Cook a returnee today whom I last saw on the ferry returning form Denmark. It sounds as if we will see more of him - hope so.

Paid the pools and Vic Bush drew me peg 41. Told it was an open water peg and should be good for Silvers - good news. For company I had Martin Lenaghan who is more likely these days to be catching Carp over 30 lb but hidden by a tree. On the other side Glenn Calvert a good all round angler. With all the pegs in the bank looked like pole alley - picture right.

Looking at the weather forecast it was likely to be windy and from my experience pole fishing can be difficult once the tow starts so in preparation made up a 2 gram and 4 gram rigs. Luckily I was able to easily get a way with a 4x16. The short Ronnie rig was set up and a margin paste rig attached to the Drennan 25 elastic - no prisoners today - my margin was nearly 5 foot deep! So just the three rigs. I nearly set up a normal waggler to fish for Silvers but the wind put me off.

In case the wind did get up I decided to fish the 4x16 at top-set plus two barrels to fish worm over GB laced with caster and a bit of chopped worm - "the messy business" which on the "all in" I fed three balls of at the start. I left this to start on the Ronnie rig with single caster over loose fed same. Thankfully this worked and started to catch Ronnie's to 3 oz and Golden Rudd. I Hooked a Carp which I lost in the overhanging branches of the tree. So decided to give this a rest and tried the long line with worm and didn't have any indications. So a change of plan I switch to feeding micro, caster and worm leaving off the GB. Whilst this settled I went back on the Ronnie, keeping an eye on the long line for any signs. Kept the Silvers coming until I hooked another Carp which I lost in the tree roots. Decided to clear out any Carp with the paste rig and had two Carp before I spied some blow over the long line so out again and this time I had two decent Skimmers. Fed again and on to the Ronnie rig and a few more Silvers, it slowed again so on the paste and another two Carp owiked out. Back out on the long line and two more Skimmers. By following this cycle I finished with six decent Skimmers and six Carp. I'm embarrassed to say I got platformed by a big Hybrid!! With an hour to go I had to make the decision whether to stay with the Silvers or go all out for the Carp. Glenn suggest he would stay with the Silvers which I did.

Along came the scales which looked like a mobile Guillotine (pictured above right) designed and manufactured by Vic Bush - very effective - ("that's the way to do it").

My Silvers (pictured right) weighed 29 lb 9 oz comprising 20 lb of Skimmers and 10 lb of Ronnie's for a Silvers win. My six Carp weighed 25 lb 9 oz for a 7th overall 55 lb 2 oz. Hindsight tells me I should have switched to Carp as I was clearly ahead on the Silvers - but you can never be sure.

The Match was won by the venue paste expert Glenn Bailey aka Two Pots (pictured below with his catch and the Silvers winner) with 88 lb 9 oz from peg 36. Glenn caught six Carp on the first hour on paste, five more in the middle four hours on the waggler and five more on the paste at 13 metres. He explained how he landed a 12 lb Carp on 12 inches of top-set which was the only bit remaining after being smashed against the platform.

Result:

1. Glenn Bailey 88-09-0 peg 36
2. Neil Mercer 75-10-0 peg 5
3. Martyn McMahon 76-02-0 peg 23
4. Russ Peck 68-05-0 peg 29

Silvers:

1. Mike Nicholls 29-09-0 peg 41
2. John Dursley 18-09-0 peg 18
3. Paul Faiers 16-09-0 peg 22

Weigh Sheets: