Thursday 24/09/2008 Carps AC - Summer Evening Series - Shangri La - Round Nine

This was the last match of the series which meant that we all now had fished each peg once - in turn. Due to the nights drawing in the match was rescheduled for the the afternoon: 13-30 to 18-30. A five hour match. I was on peg 5, which I think is the best peg on the venue. Today I caught my first Grass Carp (I had not previously even seen one). It was only 2lb, but what a beautiful fish. It is often described as "Chub looking". I would describe it more, Dace like, with a miniature Masheer looking scaling. If I every get round to specimen hunting this fish would be at the top of the list.

I fished my usual paste over pellet, winning the match with 82lb 10oz and a pick up of £40. After the match it was all ("all" pictured top right tucking in to beer and grub - pictured courtesy of ten year old William Tanner) back to the Upton Inn for sausage and chips, kindly provided by pub owner Martin Bennett (John's son).

Full result of the day:

1. Mike Nicholls 82-10-0 peg 5 (Five hour venue record)
2. Bob "The Bread" Price 55-12-0 peg 4 (Carp to 13lb)
3. Bill "The Maggotman" Ferris 36-04-0 peg 2

Series final Result (points are based on dropping lowest result):

1. Mike Nicholls 59 points (£135)
2. Phil Coulam 56 points (£81)
3. Bob Feltham 49 points (£54)
4. Bob Price 40 points (missed 2 matches!)
5. Steve Jefferies 39 points (missed 2 matches!)
6. Mark Tanner 38 points
7. Bill Ferris 37 points
8. Colin Golding 36 points
9. Tom Coulston 30 points

Some Series statistics:

1. Total amount of fish caught: 1,780lb
2. Highest weight: 82lb 10oz
3. Lowest weight: 8oz
4. Best peg: 3 with 6 match wins and a total of 374lb of fish
5. Worse peg: 8 with 49lb of fish
6. Everyone in the series picked up pools money at least once.

Finally a thank you to:
Martin Bennett and Wife Tracey for providing the superb venue. and John Bennett for always being there to open the gates for us (and of course Betty for allowing John out)!

Thursday 11/09/2008 Carps AC - Summer Evening Series - Shangri La - Round Eight

We nearly got through to 19:30 with out it raining, however, it was reasonable warm for those with the wind off their backs. One of the advantages of moving peg by peg is that you can watch how your next peg is being fished, so one eye on your float the other on the next peg. I was on peg 4 this week and I was a bit disappointed with how I fished. For a start I discovered that the 8mm hard pellet I was feeding, was in fact floating! I fed through the kinder pot which was 12 inches from the top of the top-set and I did not allow for this with my initial feed (which probably floated in to Mark Tanners swim any way). It wasn't until I got some bait in did I start catching. I caught all of my fish on paste either out in front or in the right hand margin. I weighed 28lb 9oz for third in the match and a pick up of £20.

Bob Price (no photograph this week as it was dark and raining) won the match for the second consecutive match from peg 3 with 44lb 13oz. Bob caught most of his fish from the right hand margin, fishing paste over hard pellet/corn.

Mark Tanner weighed 28lb 8oz but had left a 8oz Carp in his net which would have given him second overall instead of fourth! The lesson cost him £25 - Lesson learnt.

Phil Coulam still leads the series with 52 points, me on 50 and Bob Feltham on 44 (all with worse result dropped).

Full Result:

1. Bob Price 44-13-0 peg 3
2. Bill Ferris 28-12-0 peg 1
3. Mike Nicholls 28-09-0 peg 4
4. Mark Tanner 28-08-0 peg 5
5. Colin Golding 22-12-0 peg 6
6. Phil Coulam 8-12-0 peg 8
7. Tom Coulston 7-08-0 peg 2
8. Bob Feltham 2-14-0 peg 9

Thursday 28/08/2008 Carps AC - Summer Evening Series - Shangri La - Round Seven

I was disappointed that Steve Jefferies could not make the match due to him working in Leeds. I missed his competition and his MOAN, MOAN, MOAN, MOAN, MOAN, MOAN...Hope you can make the next match matey, starting 16:30 until 19:30. The last match I am hoping will be a start of 14:00 fish to 19:00.

I was on peg 3 this week, I struggled again with the feeding (as did others), however, I think I have now got it sorted (we will see next match). I only took paste (my new Tuna flavour) and 6mm hard pellet. I caught down the margin (top set) and out in front at 9 metres. I weighed 50lb 13oz for second and a pick up of £25. I lost a 4 pounder on the whistle which I thought had cost me the match - and it did!

Bob "The Head" Price (pictured top right : nice to catch some anglers without their hats) won the match from the from form peg 2 with 53lb 8oz. Bob also caught on paste at 9 metres. Bob also nearly landed the aerator cable (twice) - what line is he using!

Phil Coulam still leads the series with 46 points followed by Mike Nicholls 43 points and close in third is Bob Feltham with 42 (all with worse score dropped). It's going to be an interesting last two matches.

Full Result:

1. Bob "The Bread" Price 53-08-0 peg 2

2. Mike Nicholls 50-13-0 peg 3

3. Bob Feltham 27-09-0 peg 8

4. Phil Coulam 26-12-0 peg 7

5. Mark Tanner 24-07-0 peg 4

6. John Lewis 15-0-0 peg 9

7. Colin Golding 14-14-0 peg 5

8. Tom Coulston 9-0-0 peg 1

Thursday 14/08/2008 Carps AC - Summer Evening Series - Shangri La - Round Six

After the down pours earlier in the day it turned out a nice warm evening (by Shangri-La standards), and surprise, surprise, it was flat calm. I always arrived first to meet John Bennett, who has the gate key. John as usual, had Charlie (pictured top right -King Charles Spaniel) with him. If you fish Carps AC matches and had not heard of Charlie before, you most certainly would had heard him. Charlie is renowned for his deep grunting snore, You can hear him from on any twenty peg venue - even with the wind blowing! Any way another ugly mug for the gallery.

My turn for flyer peg 2. I decided to fish paste all match at 6 metres, fished over 6mm hard pellet. I must say getting the feeding right is very important on this venue. Steve Jefferies was on the other point peg 5 and we had a bit of a battle all night. I thought I had won, but by a smaller margin than I actually did. I won the match with 80lb 2oz which included a near 20lb Mirror (must take a larger landing net next time!) and a pick up of £35. Steve was second with 59lb 4oz, which included three doubles from his right hand margin on treble sweet corn.

Phil Coulam's remains the series leader with an evening third.

Full Result:

1. Mike Nicholls 80-02-0 peg 2
2. Steve Jefferies 59-04-0 peg 5
3. Phil Coulam 27-12-0 peg 6
4. Mark tanner 23-0-0 peg 3
5. John Baker 15-09-0 peg 9 (again)
6. Bob Price 12-0-0 peg 1
7. Bill Ferris 9-13-0 peg 8
8. Bob Feltham 9-10-0 peg 7

Thursday 31/07/2008 Carps AC - Summer Evening Series - Shangri La - Round Five

A definite improvement in fishing conditions - no wind in the face and the warmest night so far. The fishing however, appears to be gradually getting worse. The same pegs are taking the top spots, but with proportionately lower weights. I was on peg 1 tonight, which is on the decking. I caught straight away on paste, but was soon pestered by the widger Crucians. I fished for them in the left hand margin, for about thirty minutes and put about 7lb of them in the net. For some reason the corn did not work, so back out on the paste and landed another six small Carp to 2lb for a total weight of 19lb. This gave me fourth spot and 6 points.

It was Mark Tanner's (pictured top right - in near total darkness - probably best) turn to fish the flyer peg 2. Mark did not disappoint, winning the match with 29lb 8oz of Carp to 3lb. Mark fished paste both out in front and down the left hand margin towards the hay bale.

The man of the match must be Phil Coulam (Cat meat specialist) who arrived two hours late and finished third with 26lb!

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Full Result:

1. Mark Tanner 28-08-0 peg 2

2. Bob Feltham 26-04-0 peg 6

3. Phil Coulam 26-0-0 peg 5

4. Mike Nicholls 19-0-0 peg 1

5. John Baker 18-04-0 peg 9 (Reserve for Bob Price)

6. Steve Jefferies 15-12-0 peg 4

7. Colin Golding 14-12-0 peg 3

8. Bill Ferris 5-12-0 peg 7

9. Tom Coulston 0-08-0 peg 8

For full points and placings see carpsac.co.uk website

Thursday 17/07/2008 Carps AC - Summer Evening Series - Shangri La - Round Four

Hopefully my pegs will now start getting better. Once again the wind blowing direct in to my face. I had another plan in place to target the lager Carp on Corn at 6 metres then come inside for the Widger Crucians on 6mm pellet and top set. Well it didn't go to plan - in fact it was exactly opposite - caught Widgers at 6 metres and some better fish on the top set! That's fishing. I weighed 18lb, which I was pleased with from this peg which, just about keeps me in contention for a league placing - hopefully.

The match was won by Bob Feltham (pictured top right with his 12lb 8oz Mirror) from point peg 5 with 38lb 12 oz. Bob caught on paste at 8 metres over 8mm hard pellet. It was a night of big fish - Steve Jefferies (pictured bottom right with his 15 pounder - doesn't he look pleased with himself) came from no where to fourth with a 15lb Mirror.

The league Leader is Phil Coulam on 32 points (one result to drop) with second place Steve Jefferies on 26 points (one result to drop) and Bob Feltham on 25 points (no results to drop).

For full points and placings see carpsac.co.uk

Full Result:

1. Bob Feltham 38-12-0 peg 5

2. Phil Coulam 32-12-0 peg 4

3. Colin Golding 27-04-0 peg 2

4. Steve Jefferies 25-0-0 peg 3

5. Mike Nicholls 18-0-0 peg 9

6. Bill Ferris 15-06-0 peg 6

Thursday 03/07/2008 Carps AC - Summer Evening Series - Shangri La - Round Three

This was the warmest I have been at this venue, but still needed a fleece! I was dreading the next peg 8, as it has the worse weights so far. However, I did have a cunning plan, which was to fish for the small Crucians. The Crucians are anything from 1oz to 8oz. I started on the corn and landed four Carp to 4lb - then nothing. Tried the paste in the margin and caught a small Crucian. Put on a 6mm GOT pellet on my paste rig, complete with a 12 hook and caught fifty small Crucians. Out on the corn for the last half hour and anther two small Carp. I was surprised to weigh 22lb 12oz for third place and a pick up of £20.

The match was won by Steve Jefferies (the shady character - pictured top right). Steve fished soft pellet over loose fed hard pellet for a weight of 35lb 1oz.

Runner up Phil Coulam with 28lb 4oz retaining the lead on 24 points.

Full Result plus points to date:

1. Steve Jefferies 35-01-0 peg 2 - 20 points
2. Phil Coulam 28-04-0 peg 3 - 24 points
3. Mike Nicholls 22-04-0 peg 8 - 18 points
4. Bob Feltham 18-0-0 peg 4 - 15 points
4. Bill Ferris 18-0-0 peg 5 - 11 points
6. Mark Tanner 11-15-0 peg 9 - 9 points
7. John Bennett 11-12-0 peg 7 - (Reserve for Bob Price)
8. Tom Coulston 8-04-0 peg 6 - 16 points
9. Colin Golding 8-01-0 peg 1 - 10 points (but watch this space)

Bob Price has 8 points

Thursday 19/06/2008 Carps AC - Summer Evening Series - Shangri La - Round Two

As I said after the first round the next three pegs were not good. My next peg 7 produced the lowest weight first match, so expectations were low. I started on corn which resulted in three pound and half Carp. Then the rot set in, I struggled all through picking up the odd very small Carp on 6mm pellet soft pellet (pinched from Colin Golding). I weighed 12lb for 7th and 3 points.

The match was once again won from peg 2 by Phil Coulam (pictured top right with his colourful catch) with 45lb. Phil is leading the series now with 16 points. With no bad draws a head of him Phil must be favourite to win the series.

Full Result (with overall points scored after 2 rounds):

1. Phil Coulam 45-0-0 peg 2 - 16 points

2. Bob Price 39-08-0 peg 6 - 8 points

3. Tom Coulston 23-08-0 peg 5 - 13 points

4. Steve Jefferies 18-02-0 peg 1 - 11 points

5. Bill Ferris 16-0-0 peg 4 - 5 points

6. Colin Golding 13-0-0 peg 9 - 8 points

7. Mike Nicholls 12-0-0 peg 7 - 11 points

8. Ryan Houghton (Reserved for Bob Feltham) 7-0-0 peg 3

9. Mark Tanner 4-0-0 peg 8 - 5 points

Thursday 05/06/2008 Carps AC - Summer Evening Series - Shangri La - Round One

This was round one of the Carps AC Summer League fished at Shangri La - Landsdowne. The draw for the series is based on one draw and then rotate clockwise one peg every match there after. This will allow flexibility in setting up time as the draws are 16:30 with fishing 17:00 to 20:30. I drew peg 6 on the night and weighed 50lb 8oz for second overall. However, from the results on the night, I have got three bad draws to come, whereas the winner Bob Feltham (pictured above right) with 60lb, drew peg 2 and has four good draws ahead of him, one saving grace he will miss the next match! This is a six match series where your top five results count i.e. drop one result. After the match it was back to the Upton Inn for a pint and a warm up, everyone was freezing - what happened to blazing June!!

Full Result (with accumulative points):

1. Bob Feltham 60-0-0 peg 2 - 9 points

2. Mike Nicholls 50-8-0 peg 6 - 8 points

3. Phil Coulam 41-8-0 peg 1 - 7 points

4. John Bennett 33-9-0 peg 3 (Series Reserve)

5. Tom Coulston 25-2-0 peg 4 - 6 points

6. Steve Jefferies 22-14-0 peg 5 - 5 points

7. Colin Golding 16-0-0 peg 4 - 4 points

8. Mark Tanner 5-0-0 peg 5 - 3 points

9. Bob Price (AWOL) - 0 points

10. Bill Ferris (Holiday - Whiteacres) - 0 points

Thursday 03/04/2008 Shangri-La

John Bennett invited me to help one of the Carps AC new juniors at Shangri-La, which I agreed to do. For those that have not fished this nine peg pool I have attached a photograph (right). The house and pool is owned by John's son Martin. I can remember Martin fishing for the Flowerpot back in the "real" winter league days. The pool is stuffed with Carp varying from 2oz to 20 lbs. There are also Tench and Chinese Koi. Shangri-La is the venue for the Carps AC Thursday evening league.

The junior was fourteen year old Ryan Houghton who had not caught a fish before. Colin Golding kindly gave Ryan an old Trabucco 13 metre pole. I set him up with a 4x14 Carp float he had in his box to 0.22 G-Line straight through to a 16 Colmic Nuclear hook. The swim was five foot deep (twice that of Bullocks Farm!). Decided that it would be best to fish corn at dead depth at 7 metre (there is a 10 metre maximum rule). Cupped in twelve corn kernels. Ryan's first put-in resulted in a three pound Mirror Carp and Ryan's first fish in the net! As the picture (bottom left) shows Ryan was really pleased - what a smile - makes it all worth while. Ryan and I decided that the best feeding pattern was three fish for every twelve kernels of corn. I must say I was impressed how quickly Ryan adapted to pole fishing (one to watch for in the not too distant future). Ryan fished for five hours and weighed in 43lb 12oz. The photograph (bottom right) shows part of Ryan's first Carp bag.



Note: Juniors fish for free with Carps AC and get one to one tuition! For more information go to http://www.carpsac.co.uk