Wednesday 05/05/2010 - Carps AC - Tanhouse Farm

It was interesting to see that the Lake owners have installed four rotating flashing buoys (see pictures right) equally spaced along the length of the fishery. I assumed they are to scare predatory birds. On one side of the bouy there are mirrored vanes and on the other side a face – I must admit it scared me as it looked very much like my first girl friend! I was left wondering if we will be seeing more of these as I only see one Coot chick and its Mother all day.

Colin asked me to peg out the match – well - put the pegs where he told me to. Colin still can’t let go. I wasn’t sure about peg 1 as the wind was blowing in the opposite direction towards the other end. I pulled out peg 1 (see I don’t always draw well). I really like fishing this venue as it is primarily a Silvers venue, plus the peace, quiet and tidiness. However, it is a disused quarry and therefore has a stone infrastructure, hence the deep water is clear at the best of times and the water temperature kept down. Because of the change in weather conditions I wasn’t expecting it to fish very well. I was right, for my end of the Lake at least. My prime target would be Ronnie’s and Skimmers, so I set up a 4x16 jolly set just tipping the bottom in 10 foot of water. I intended to fish 3mm soft pellet over micro pellet on this line. I also set up a 4.5 metre whip waggler to be fished at various up in the water depths with caster. On the whistle in went a 125 ml of wetted micro at 7 metres, starting on the whip with caster hook bait. I tried numerous depths to no avail. It wasn’t long after suspending the whip that I had also suspended fishing the pellet at 7 metres. I switched to maggot over this line kinder potting in some maggot and caster. From the whistle it took half an hour to catch my first fish – a Perch – not a good sign. I then had a run of Ronnie’s to 4oz but every time I fed I had to wait 20 minutes for the fish to follow the bait to the bottom. Chris Davis came down and said he hadn’t had a bite nor had Colin Golding. I subsequently resulted to fishing on the drop, adding a few more Ronnie’s to the net, but it was really slow. The last two hours were really painful adding only to more Perch. I weighed 4lb 13oz for 4th in the match and a pick up of £10.


The match was won by Steve Dawson (pictured right with runner up Andy Gard) from peg 8 with a credible 25lb 12oz of Skimmers to 2lb. Steve caught all his fish on 6mm expander over loose fed 6 mm pellet. Steve fed approximately 5 pellets after every fish.

Full Result:

1. Steve Dawson 25-12-0 peg 8
2. Andy Gard 11-09-0 peg 9
3. Mike Snudden 8-08-0 peg 6
4. Mike Nicholls 4-13-0 peg 1
5. John Bennett 4-06-0 peg 5
6. Bill Ferris 3-05-0 peg 2

NO CARP CAUGHT – TWO LOST!

Wednesday 28/10/2009 - Carps AC - Tan House Farm

The gout was a lot better even though I had a bad night. So I decided to fish the local Carps AC match at Tan House Farm especially as the weather was absolutely perfect (19 degrees today). Steve Jefferies and I rescued Colin from the pegging as he is having problems walking; he is now using a walking stick. I drew peg 1. I was a bit disappointed especially when I got there and found that the little wind had started to blow in to my end. This can be good for the fishing, however, there were a lot of thick green algae and leaves covering most of my swim (it wasn’t like that when we pegged it). This caused me problems all through the match (see picture above). I set up one rig that would cover all of my chosen options. I decide on a CW&C line at 10 metres at 10 o clock and a pellet rig at the same distance at 2 o clock. There was only three inches difference in the depth. I marked the difference in depth with a black marker pen on the rig line sighted against the top float rubber – this is very precise and prevents having loads of white tippex marks on the top set. I started on the worm expecting a bite straight away – nothing. Over the same line with double red maggot – nothing. After 30 biteless minutes I switched to the 3mm expander pellet. On the hour mark I had a bite which I missed. I then had a 4oz Skimmer. The word on the bank was only a couple of small fished had been caught, which was enough to keep me going. Over the second hour I had five more fish. Then the fishing improved catching the odd 4oz Skimmer very steadily. The dilemma was whether to re-fed or not. I chose to feed, and potted the same amount as the initial feed - 125 ml of micro. It went quite for half an hour I then started to catch at the same rate as previous. I ended the match with 25 Skimmers for 6lb 12oz which was enough for second overall and a pick up of £30.

The match was won by Mike Snudden (pictured right) with 19lb 2oz of Skimmers from peg 4. Mike alternated between Maggot and worm hook bait fished over chopped worm. Mike fed ½ Kilo of worm. Mike said once he had run out of worm he stopped catching.

Full Result:

1. Mike Snudden 19-02-0 peg 4

2. Mike Nicholls 6-12-0 peg 1

3. Chris Gay 6-06-0 peg 9

4. Bill Ferris 6-01-0 peg 6

5. John Bennett 3-09-0 peg 10

6. The rest of the field DNW

Wednesday 27/05/2009 - Carps AC - Tan House Farm

My blood boiled every time I heard the very sad story of baby Peter. The judge obviously felt differently about the thugs that murdered him than I did. A sentence of five and three years is not enough. However, let’s hope we see some natural justice whilst they are banged up. Inmates remember that the cowardly thugs pulled out Peter nails, cut off the tops of his fingers and broke his back – this for starters please. How I wish I was in the same cell as these bastards. Rest in peace Peter.

Back to one of my local venues; Tan House Farm, also known as “Yate Rocks”. The owners have been cutting the grass and generally tidying the venue up (see picture right – looking up the venue). If I was a “Shed puller” that liked a bit of fishing this would be a good quite (another place you can't hear a motorway) place to spend a few days.

The weather has decided to revert back to early spring with gusting North Westerly winds and showers. The bloody wind in my face once again.

I drew peg 8 which was the first peg in to the woods. Steep narrow bank and a bit of a Parrots cage. I set up the Ronnie rig and a soft pellet/messy business rig (getting too old for the messy business). I started on the worm at 10 metres - nothing. On to the GOT pellet – nothing – Blimey I’m in trouble!  It was the Ronnie’s that save me. I caught Ronnie’s and Hybrid’s on caster steady for the rest of the match for a weight of 25lb 8oz and first in the Silvers and a pick up of £48.

The match was won by Chris Davis from end peg 10 with 47lb 4oz. Chris caught just off bottom using worm over caster and worm (the messy business).

Full Result:

1.      Chris Davis 47-04-0 peg 10

2.      Colin Golding 30-02-0 peg 1.5 (With permission Colin moved his peg)

3.      Mike Nicholls 25-08-0 peg 8

4.      Andy Curry 12-04-0 peg 9 (broke his top five)

5.      Steve Jefferies 10-0-0 peg 7

6.      Bob “The Bread” Price 7-09-0 peg 6

Top Silvers:

1.      Mike Nicholls 25-08-0 peg 8

2.      Chris Davis 24-02-0 peg 10

Wednesday 15/04/2009 - Carps AC - Tan House Farm

There is normally a closed season on this water but Carps managed to book it, so it hadn’t been fished since the 15 March. I thought the water looked more coloured than usual. I drew peg 6 which was the last peg in the first field before the woods. I thought it to be a reasonable draw. I set up a 4x16 rig that was plumbed to eleven feet at both 11.5 metres and 10 metres. I decided to use a 14 hook as I planned to use either 6mm expander or chopped worm hook bait. I also set up a 4metre whip for the Ronnies. I cupped in 250ml of micro pellet on the 11.5 metre line and the same quantity of CW&C (a messy business) on the 10 metre line. I started on the whip and caster, but didn’t have a bite and as Tom Thick on the next peg was catching 3oz Skimmers on double maggot, so I went out on the worm. This resulted in about 6 lb of decent Skimmers and Hybrids. This dried up and I did my usual CW&C feed it to death trick. Out on the pellet and a steady flow of Skimmers over the next 2 hours resulted. I then had a Bream and then the swim started to slowly die. Should I re-feed or not? Of course I re-fed the same amount, which brought the Skimmers back for another hour, after which the peg slowed right up and I was left catching the odd 3oz Skimmer. With one hour to go I tried the caster and whip and managed about 3lb of quality Ronnies. I weighed 26lb 1oz of Silvers for third overall and first in the Silvers and a pick up of £45.


The match was won by Chris Davis (pictured right) on peg 13 with 13 Carp I'm not superstitious, but this may be why Chris broke a number 6 section) for 76lb 10oz. Chris caught at full depth (11 foot) at seventeen metres, Chris used 10mm hard pellet hook bait fished over 8mm hard pellet feed.

Full Result:

1. Chris Davis 76-10-0 peg 13
2. Steve Jefferies 30-09-0 peg 9
3. Mike Nicholls 26-01-0 peg 6
4. Pete Sivell 25-0-0 peg 7
5. Tom Thick 19-0-0 peg 5
6. Andy Curry 14-01-0 peg 2

Top Silvers:

1. Mike Nicholls 26-01-0 peg 6
2. Pete Sivell 25-0-0 peg 7 (all quality Roach)