Tuesday 18/04/2023 - Acorn Cost Cutter - Paddocks

It's 1 year and 4 moths to the day that I last fished Acorn - Paddocks. Since then the venue has been drained down, desilted and refurbished - very pretty too. Some work still to do at the top end which won't be long knowing the Bartlett's - well done to you all. The tackle shop is very well stocked with everything you would need.

Took some advice from a carp slayer and two silver anglers that have been doing well down here since the changes. So today was more of a toe dipping trip. Spoke to Mark Bartlett who thought it would fish hard today but should all have a day's fishing - certainly knows his stuff.

Glenn and me were welcomed by a nasty NE wind, overcast and bloody freezing - can't wait for this global warming thing to come back. Because of no trolley put my self down for a non island draw and pulled peg 16. Spoke to a few anglers about my draw and got what I expected turned up noses. Glenn pulled peg 13 so it was a case of two old gits helping each other unload the kit to the pegs - my knee and his back.

The wind was again going to plague me driving up the leg at 4 o clock. So the toe dipping started by setting up the full armory. No past or feeders.

Spent a while plumbing around and set up a 4 x 14 Titan to fish just down the furthest shelf at one barrel. A 4x13 MR to fish the middle shelf at top set and a 4x14 Roob for the top shelf up to the boards which was about 2 foot deep. Plus short and long Ronnie rig and a 7" red waggler, had doubts about this due to the wind but foul hooked and landed a carp on a practice cast!!

Running the rigs through and the tow against was horrendous, presentation would be poor.

Fed the Titan and MR lines with GB laced with caster and Pinkie fired some LR's over to the far side hoping they would land on the middle tier. Started on the short Ronnie rig with single caster over loose fed caster. Getting indications straight away loads of interest but the rig was going against too fast, only really hungry fish were going to be fooled into taking the hook bait especially as the Ronnie's are of a good stamp. Had an indication every put in netting two decent dumb Ronnie's. Rig roosted picked up the long Ronnie rig and had only one indication. Tried the Titan over the same line trying triple Punkie, single caster and single and double LR's and had one decent Tench and Perch on the latter. Came in on the MR and couldn't believe the number of indications I was getting and occasionally bringing back tiny silver fish scales, think were from small Skimmers. Fouled hooked a few skimmers. Kept topping up with laced GB, adding a few skimmers in the mouth. Decided to have a look down the margin up to the boards with triple maggot and had a carp first try, but no more slipped on a worm and had a another decent Perch - that was it. Due to the wind and the boards the float was rocking, very strange sight. Time to try the waggler but didn't expect much, double LR's on the hook and a few more fed. The waggler was going through with the wind but would hold due to a lot of line on the bottom. Float disappeared from view thinking it was lost in the poor light struck and had another decent Perch. The next six cast produced four skimmers, one Ronnie and a 4 lb Carp. The visibility/wind was so bad abandoned it after 15 minutes without a bite. Spent the remainder of the match being tormented by silver liners adding three small Tench and some decent Skimmers. Three minutes to go hooked a big carp which broke the hook length due to my extreme bullying.

For most of the match Glenn was having an off day breaking his number six section £££ and only catching late on but had some decent size carp on his favored paste.

My silvers weighed 26 lb 4 oz which was joint 4th on the day and my two small carp weighed 9 lb 8 oz. Really enjoyed it today, toe now dipped and please the silvers was only a pound or so off a pick up and more importantly close to Faieresy and Perry the local silver slayers. I'm sure under the right conditions the waggler is going to prove a very usual tool. The silvers are certainly of high quality, no white bait here.

The match was won by Chris Harrison (pictured with the silvers winner) with 109 lb 4 oz from bridge peg 33. Chris caught late on down his right margin on the upper tier on paste. Well done matey.

The silvers was won by John "Turkey" Thompson from peg 1 with 47 lb 7 oz. Turkey caught short fishing worm over caster/chopped worm feeding 2 pints and 1/4 kilo of chopped worm. His catch included 4 tench for 20 lb. Well done matey.

Result:

1. Chris Harrison 109-04-0 peg 33

2. Neil Robins 106-04-0 peg 7

3. Andy Gard 93-09-0 peg 21

Silvers:

1. John Thompson 47-07-0 peg 1

2. Kev Perry 27-14-0 peg 38

3. Paul Faiers 27-05-0 peg 12

Weigh Sheets: