Thursday 13/11/2014 - Coffin Dodgers @ Emerald Fishery

At Mike Jones request I arrived early at the Lakes to help him peg out because Emerald Lake was closed for weed removal we were given both Sapphire and Ruby Lakes to ourselves. However, we didn’t know for sure what to peg. Because of the threat of high winds and heavy rain we went for the far banks of both Lakes. But the wind stayed in the South all day so we didn’t get that right. Mike and I discussed the pegging after and decided it might had been better to have put us all on one Lake.

Mike decided on equal payout - one overall and one Silver on each Lake.

In to the draw bag and out came peg 12 which was the corner peg on the far left of Ruby Lake.

Chris Fox had passed on to me the bag of his “last Avon Angling casters” (thank you - pictured right). So I decide to fish caster all match with Silvers the target.

Just the one rig that I would be used all match - the faithful Ronnie rig. The wind was blowing hard right to left so I fished the rig down wind letting it run up the shelf to try and get some presentation. We did have some really high gusts of up to 60 mph bringing down a tree by the railway – bit scary at times.

I started well on single caster catching some decent Ronnie’s. Unfortunately the Carp heard the caster going in and it wasn’t long before they were getting to the bait first. I tried backing off the feed but the Carp were there for good!. The Carp I was catching were very small up to 2lb, but I was catching them quicker than anyone else on the Lake. However, I noticed Rich Coles was catching Carp which were two to three times bigger than mine. So it was the Silvers or no coin. So it was a question of fishing around with minimal feed to pick off the odd Ronnie, but it was hard to avoid the Carp. Looking around I couldn’t see anyone catching Silvers – plenty of Carp though. So with half hour to go I upped the feed and caught some more small Carp.

My Carp weighed 79lb 8oz and with my Lake winning Silvers (pictured right – the casters weren't wasted Chris) of 11lb 12oz took me to 91lb 4oz for third overall. Another great days fishing at this venue.

As expected Rich Coles (pictured lower right) won the Lake and the match with 176lb 4oz fish his top set in his LH margin with Dendrabena hook bait fished over caster and maggot.

Result:

Sapphire:

Overall: Dave Bacon 103-09-0 peg 7

Silvers: Mike Jones 22-10-0 peg 3

Ruby:

Overall: Rich Coles 176-04-0 peg 8

Silvers: Mike Nicholls 11-12-0 peg 12

Weigh Sheet:

Thursday 17/04/2014 - Coffin Dodgers Day Out - Emerald Fishery - Ruby and Sapphire

Ray Bazeley organised another match at the very popular Emerald Fishery for the Coffin Dodgers. This time we had the back banks of both Sapphire and Ruby. Ray and I travel with Paul Haines and had a great breakfast at the Hill Tops café.

Alan the Fishery owner was waiting for us to ensure we had enough room for our 14 Dodgers – he made another couple of pegs was made available if needed, plus had fenced off out pegs.

It really didn’t matter where you fished as we were all in for a great days fishing. In to the draw container and out comes peg 10 on Ruby. The peg was two down from the corner which was reserved for John Smith. There are a few islands dotted about but luckily I had open water and a bare margins both sides.

I was looking forward to plumbing up as I had fished Ruby two times whilst waiting for the match to start on Emerald, but have yet to plumb. I set up two Ronnie rigs one for on the bottom which I was surprised to find six foot of water and the other 30 inches. I also set up a margin paste rig set to 3 foot which is where I could hold up the plummet because the margin was quite steep running down quickly to full depth. I had made up some experimental paste but didn’t expect to fish this much, but to concentrate on the Silvers.

The weather wasn’t up to much and we were lucky that we all had the wind off our backs, plus some shelter from the conifers behind us on Ruby. There wasn’t much sun today either which could only help.

I started on the full depth Ronnie rig with caster over caster. This didn’t last long as the fish were up in the water in a flash. So in to the shallow Ronnie rig and I started to catch Rudd and Ronnie’s to 8oz. This was interrupted by the odd small accidental Carp. After an hour I started to get pestered by the motherless Minnows which were a sign that the decent Silvers had backed off.

So I thought I would try my paste where I had been feeding some soaked 4’s and it was manic catch a small Carp (up to 1 ½ lb) a bung. However, the Motherless was becoming a nuisance because they were pecking off the loose bits of the soaked 4’s. So I changed to hard 4’s which improved it no end. It was a Carp a bung and as the match progressed the Carp got bigger up to 3lb. With 10 minutes to go I had only three bullets left in the magazine and missed two bites catching a Carp with the last piece of paste. For the last five minutes it was back on the shallow caster and I caught one more Carp for a total of 90.

We throw more bait away than at the fish so it's always satisfying when you just run out of bait and win the match. 

My Carp weighed 157lb and my Silvers 18b 8oz for a total of 175lb 8oz which left me first overall and second in the Silvers.

The Silvers was won by John Bradford (pictured right with the match winner) with 40lb 6oz of Roach and Rudd, all falling to caster shallow.

As expected and as the weight sheets show everyone had a great days fishing. Thanks Ray.

Full Result:

1. Mike Nicholls 175-08-0 peg 10
2. Dave Bacon 114-14-0 peg 13
3. Rich Coles 94-02-0 peg 5
4. John Smith 84-12-0 peg 8
5. Andy Shields 78-04-0 peg 11
6. Dave Gillard  67-08-0 peg 14

Top Silvers:

1. John Bradford 40-06-0 peg 3
2. Mike Nicholls 18-08-0 peg 10
3. Ray Bazeley 17-00-0 peg 7

Weigh Sheets: (One sheet pegs round wrong way and weights not summed)

Wednesday 30/04/2008 Carps AC - Emerald Pool - Sapphire

First of May tomorrow and the weather is still bloody freezing, which is due in the main to the North Westerly winds and the constant heavy showers. When will see the water getting warmer? The owner of Emerald Pool is building some holiday chalets, which are bounded by a fence some two metres behind pegs 18 to 15 on Sapphire pool. This fence seriously impacts the unshipping of poles and generally hinders fishing. Rich Coles drew peg 16 and decided not to fish due to this issue. I am sure it won't be long before three or four slats are missing from the fence behind these pegs and ad-hoc conversions to pole rollers! Most of the pegs on this pool required some work on them particularly peg 7.

This is the second visit for me, last time I won from peg 2 with 50lb, this time I pulled peg 3. This peg is in open water between two islands. I thought immediately that the waggler into the open water would might be good later in the match, as the fish may back-off. Oh, I suddenly realised left my waggler rod at home! I Quickly nipped round to Bill Ferris who kindly lent me a suitable float rod, which I set up with banded pellet for on the deck. I set also set up a paste rig at five metres and a light pellet rig at ten metres. The intention was, that if the paste rig did not produce I could switch this rig to meat at ten metres at 11-0 clock. I started on the paste and after five minutes did not have any indication. I cupped in some chopped meat at the ten metre line, but started on my ten metre light rig. I started to catch Silvers (Ronnies) straight away (for some reason no Silvers pool today - why not I wondered!). In between the Silvers I caught the odd Carp to 2lb. I tried the meat rig and caught two small Carp, but was pestered by Ronnies. I fished the light pellet rig for the rest of the match and weighed 16lb of Silvers and 25lb 13 of Carp for a total of 41lb 13 oz. This gave me 4th overall and a pick up of £35. Due to the wind picking up in the last hour the waggler rod was returned to Bill without being tested!

Young Tom Thick (pictured top right) won the match from peg 12 with a credible 81lb 14oz of Carp. Tom fished long pole with either expander pellet or sweet corn on the hook over loose fed 6mm hard pellet fished along side an opposite island. I am sure once Tom develops some finesse he will be a very difficult act to beat.

Carps AC Life President who works tirelessly for the club (anybody not been rung up by John yet - let me know) came a credible 6th from peg 17.

Full Result:

1. Tom Thick 81-04-0 peg 12
2. Adrian Bishop 64-08-0 peg 18
3. Ian Dawe 48-08-0 peg 15
4. Mike Nicholls 41-13-0 peg 3
5. Colin Golding 40-10-0 peg 11
6. John Bennett 38-08-0 peg 17