Sunday 22/06/2008 - Carps AC - Rood Ashton

The strong gusting South Westerly winds, which blew all day spoiled the match for most. The venue is very shallow, with eighteen inches of water in most pegs (if your lucky) the water had coloured up some what, due to the wind. I drew peg 16 and had the wind blowing off my right shoulder. I set up three rigs, two for paste right and left of the swim and one for pellet out in front. I started by kinder potting hard pellet with GOT expander on the hook. Straight away I had a liner, out again, another liner. Fed again which resulted in a lost foul hooker. Out again - then nothing - fed again - nothing - um!!! Decided to pot 250 ml of hard pellet in to my right hand swim. Out over this with paste and a lost foul hooker - plus one rig! It occurred to me that the fish were not having the feed. Lucky enough I had kept my left hand swim free of feed, so decided to try the paste. Although the wind made it difficult to present the paste properly, I had a fish immediately and did not look back. I caught 22 Carp (but only weighed twenty one as one jumped the net, giving my ticker a rush of adrenaline) and one Crucian for a total weight of 76lb 2oz for second overall and a pick up of £45. The Crucian weighed 1lb 10oz which gave me third in the Silvers!! It was easy packing up as I had trashed so many rigs I was down to my last one. I will be calling Gerry's of Nottingham in the morning for a top up of his corn & paste floats.
The match was won by John Thompson (pictured top right - apparently on a day out for good behaviour - NB: handcuffs hidden from view) from peg 3 with 78 lb 12 oz (the fish that jumped ship would have given me first overall). John fished the ground bait feeder throughout with hard Pellet on the hook.

The Silvers was interesting with Bill Ferris (pictured right) winning with 7lb 4oz of Roach on whip and caster from peg 15. Bill qualifies for the Sunday Carps AC Silversmania. The second weight was a mere 2lb 15oz!

Full Result:

1. John Thompsom 78-12-0 peg 3
2. Mike Nicholls 76-02-0 peg 16
3. Shaun Townsend 73-08-0 peg 7
4. Jamie White 68-02-0 peg 12
5. Darren Gillman 66-10-0 peg 1
6. Bob Gullick 59-14-0 peg 21

Top Silvers:

1. Bill Ferris 7-04-0 peg 15 (Qualifies for the Carps AC Sunday Silversmania)
2. Tom Thick 2-15-0 peg 13
3. Mike Nicholls 1-10-0 peg 16

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

Sunday 15/06/2008 - Carps AC - Summer Individual Series - Round Three - Sedges - Brick and Tile

Unfortunately I missed round two at Landsend Fishery as I was in Majorca with my wife Brenda. However, I asked Darren Gillman to keep me informed of the result, it was nice to have a text from Darren informing me that he had won the Silvers from peg 11. Our return flight was delayed five hours therefore, I was not as prepared as I could have been, I also didn't feel focused. I was hoping to draw on Tile Lake as the Silvers had not been showing on Brick. I drew Brick peg 5. I was reasonably happy with this, as it did have some form with Silvers. I fed at 11.5 metres for Skimmers and started after the Ronnie Roach. The Ronnies were not responding, so went out for the Skimmers with 6mm GOT expander pellet. The next 15 minutes cost me - I lost my first four Skimmers which would have added at least 6 pound. I put the loss down to going for them too early - leading to light hooking. The upshot of the match was I had one Ghost carp for 9lb 10oz and a mix of Silvers for 12lb 15oz for a total of 22lb 9oz. This gave me one section penalty point in the silvers and three penalty points overall. I now have three points in the Silvers and five overall.
The match was won by Geoff Rogers (pictured above right with some of his Carp catch - well hidden by the net) with 114lb 10oz from Brick peg 9 with an all Carp catch to double figures on the pellet waggler. Runner up was Glenn Bailey from Brick peg 11 (I can't remember him drawing any other peg on this lake!) with 82lb 7oz - Glenn caught half on the pellet waggler and half on the pole in to the end margin, again all on pellet.

The Silvers was won by Jerry Pocock from Brick peg 8 with 34lb 2oz of Bream and Skimmers on 6mm expander pellet. Jerry was 14lb a head of runner up Darren Gillman who had 20lb 13oz from Tile peg 27.

Full Result:

1. Geoff Rogers 114-10-0 peg 9
2. Glenn Bailey 82-07-0 peg 11
3. Andy Neal 69-11-0 peg 13
4. Tom Magnel 61-04-0 peg 35
4. Roger Young 61-04-0 peg 40
6. Rod Wotton 55-04-0 peg 12

Top silvers:

1. Jerry Pocock 34-02-0 peg 8
2. Darren Gillman 20-13-0 peg 27
3. Alan Oram 18-15-0 peg 24
4. Dave Hodgeson 18-07-0 peg 24

I thought it worth publishing the 31lb net of Rudd caught by Bill Ferris (pictured above right - pictures courtesy of Mark Gibson) at a Carps AC Wednesday match at Cider Farm - Shepherds lake. Bill caught at two metres on caster and only managed 2nd in the silvers as he stopped catching due to Carp moving in to his swim. Dave Bacon (pictured above right) won the match with 133lb 7oz!

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

Wednesday 04/06/2008 Carps AC - Landsend Fishery - Specimen Lake

I drew peg 40 on Specimen Lake, which is the first right hand corner peg from the car park. Jamie Dyte thought I might had trouble with the Willow casts and the subsequent surface scum it makes. Jamie was right for the second match on the trot I have spent time cleaning my rigs (rod rings) trying to get them to cock properly. I set up four rigs one for the caster and Ronnies, one 4x14 for 4mm pellet, one 4x16 for 4/6mm pellet both at 10 metres and of course one paste rig at 4 metres. I caught Crucians on all four rigs - but it was difficult. I ended up with three more rigs - Paste at 10 metres (did not produce) - 4 metre whip shallow with caster (caught some small Ronnies) and paste rig in to end margin (produced one speared 2oz Ronnie). I kept all the lines going through out and ended with 21lb of Silvers - no Carp, which were conspicuous by their absence. The Skimmers had just finished spawning so were also absent. This gave me second in the Silvers and fourth overall and a pick up of £35.

Before the match John Bennett (pictured top right with his net of Crucians) asked how he might fish the venue. I Suggested that he selected one bait e.g. corn to start and select one line and feed sparingly - I had my suspicions that it was going to be a hard match. I wished I had taken my own advice! John won the Silvers from peg 36 with 26lb 12oz of Crucians and qualified for the Carps AC Silversmania final. John had a total weight of 46lb for second overall.

The match was won by Adrian Bishop from peg 39 with 70lb 8oz. Adrian did it the hard way, fishing 16 metres (which necessitated unshipping three times) to the end of the island with hard pellet over loose fed hard pellet.

Full Result:

1. Adrian Bishop 70-08-0 peg 39
2. John Bennett 46-0-0 peg 36
3. Tom Coulston 23-02-0 peg 29
4. Mike Nicholls 21-0-0 peg 40
5. Ryan Bishop 19-08-0 peg 28
6. Pete Sivell 18-08-0 peg 33

Top Silvers:

1. John Bennett 26-12-0 peg 36 (Qualifies for the Wednesday Carps AC Silversmania)
2. Mike Nicholls 21-0-0 peg 40
3. Pete Sivell 18-08-0 peg 33

Sunday 01/06/2008 Carps AC - Viaduct Fishery - Campbell

How about that I drew the same peg as last week, Campbell peg 127. My plan was to either join the Slayers and fish the pellet waggler or focus at 10 metres with corn over corn. Both should avoid the millions of nuisance fish (I don't like the term nuisance because there has been times when I have won money with 4oz!). I potted 250 ml of corn at 10 metres and started on the waggler. It was generally quiet around the lake and I was itching to try the corn, so out went the pole and in two put ins I had a 2lb Tench and an 8lb Common. I started then to drip in corn through the kinder pot and had another 8 pounder. Barry Fitchew (Fox tackle rep) started to catch well on the waggler, so I had another thrash and caught two Carp. The Willow trees where shedding their seed shucks which was catching in the rod rings and causing casting problems, so good excuse to go back on the pole, which lead to a couple more Tench and three more Carp for a total of 54lb 3oz. How lucky can you get - this took the section by triple default and a pick up of £25.

Roger young won the match (again!) from peg 130 with 157lb 15oz on the straight lead. They call him the Purple Plonker - I understand the Purple bit - but he is no Plonker when it comes to fishing this venue.

Shaun Townsend (picture top right with his excellent net of Tench - nearly smiling) took the Silvers with 64lb 14oz of Tench. Shaun caught on caster into his end margin.

Full Result:

1. Roger Young (Purple Plonker) 157-15-0 peg 130

2. Fred Roberts 121-06-0 peg 128 (fish pellet to the end on the spit)

3. Dave Luke 102-08-0 peg 111

4. Barry Fitchew 88-01-0 peg 115

5. Shaun Townsend 85-02-0 peg 135

6. Lee Werrett 84-11-0 peg 124

Top Silvers:

1. Shaun Townsend 64-14-0 peg 135 (Qualifies for the Sunday Carps Silversmania)

2. Mash 45-04-0 peg 121

3. Paul Cardwell 42-14-0 peg 114

Wednesday 28/05/2008 Carps AC - Burley Fields

Well this venue produced the best match for me in 2007 with 60lb of Skimmers, and has done so far in 2008 with 58lb 6oz of Roach - with a smattering of Skimmers! Even the incessant rain could not spoil the day, as it gave my tackle a good clean! I drew peg 7 on the day which put me in the far right hand corner (looking from the car park). At the last Carps AC match Gordon Canning's had some Skimmers in this peg, so off to the peg with anticipation. I started on the 3 metre whip with caster and caught Roach to 8oz straight off. I then tried for the Skimmers at 10 metres with paste having fed earlier with 25o ml of pellet. This resulted in a run of six Skimmers to 2lb - then pestered by Roach. I fed the line again then back after the Roach with caster. After an hour back out on the Skimmer line which resulted in a couple more Skimmers, then again pestered by 10oz Roach! I decided to fish the remainder of the match on the 3 metres whip with a change to GOT expander pellet, which resulted in a number of quality Roach to 1lb.

My mate Darren Gillman (pictured top right with his 8lb Carp) drew peg 1 which was one above the bridge on the left hand bank. Darren pipped me on the silvers by 1lb 2oz! Darren also had one 8lb Carp for a winning weight of 67lb 8oz (Darren's Silvers also included three Barbel for 7lb - yes Barbel there are also big Chub in the lake to 6lb). Darren picked up £40 and myself £30 for the Silvers pool - by default. When we both pickup we have a stop in the pub, this time it was the Essex Arms in Kingswood. We both also picked up an Indian curry next door in the Curry Kings - end to a perfect day.

Full result (mostly Silvers)

1. Darren Gillman 67-08-0 peg 1 (Qualifies for the Wednesday Carps Silvermaina)

2. Mike Nicholls 58-06-0 peg 7

3. Steve Jefferies 47-11-0 peg 6
4. Dave Bacon 42-01- 0 peg 5

5. Andy Gard 40-01-0 peg 2

6. Andy Britt 36-04-0 peg 3

Top silvers:

1. Darren Gillman 59-08-0 peg 1

2. Mike Nicholls 58 -6-0 Peg 7

3. Andy Britt 36-04-0 peg 3