Wednesday 27/10/2010 - Carps AC - Bitterwell Lake

This was my first visit to Bitterwell Lake since last winter. After the usual wait for Clive to open the gates it was first in to the draw bucket for me and out comes peg 11 – again. It can be a good Skimmer peg as it is one of the deepest swims with 6 foot. Because of the high turn out the pegs were really tight, having only 5 metres between me a Nick Davidson. I set up the usual Ronnie whip to use with caster and a 4x14 Jolly with 0.1 hook length and a 18 - 808 to use with the usual Skimmer baits I elected to fish at 10 metres with swims at 11 o clock and 2 o clock, well away from Nick. It was a good job, as on the whistle Nick started to bombard the 10 metres line with caster and maggot. I fed the 11 o clock line with Cats and Dog’s crushed green micro to fish 3 mm expander over and kinder potted in dead red maggot with caster at 2 o clock. I tried the pellet line, but as I said it was far too close to Nick’s bomb site, hence resulted in no bites. I went over the 2 o clock line with double dead red and had a run of Skimmers, about five to 1lb. On the hour mark the swim died even through I kept topping up with caster and maggot. The answer - the Carp had moved in, and I was soon playing a 2 pounder. At this juncture I should have changed over and fished for them, by upping the line and feed but as I was winning the Silvers I decided to stick with them, switching to the maggot and caster on the 4 metre whip I did add about 2lb on this method but it was hard going. So back out at 10 metres where I had I dire middle two hours feeding lightly catching the odd decent Ronnie, whist watching Colin and Leyton Palmer catch Carp. I did have a few more Skimmers towards the end, but with half hour to go the Carp moved in again so I fished for them landing three small ones and loosing five!! My last fish was a 2lb Skimmer landed on the whistle which was my saviour, sneaking me in the coin. My four Carp weighed a meagre 13lb 2oz and my Silvers 10lb 8oz for a not so grand total of 23lb 10oz. This put me sixth overall and second in the Silvers.

The match was won by Leyton Palmer (see video of his weigh in bootom left – keep the volume low if you don’t want to listen to some swearing) with 51lb 5oz from peg 9. Leyton caught 15ish Carp on corn over potted (big pot) casters fished at 13 metres.

The Silvers was won by Andy Gard (pictured right with his superb catch) from peg 4 with 14lb of quality Roach. Andy fished at 5 metres shallow with maggot hook bait fished over loose fed caster.

Full Result:

1. Leyton Palmer 51-05-0 peg 9
2. Colin Golding 48-04-0 peg 8
3. Steve Jefferies 38-07-0 peg 7
4. Nick Davidson 37-06-0 peg 10
5. Mike Snudden 34-08-0 peg 12
6. Mike Nicholls 23-10-0 peg 11

Top Silvers:

1. Andy Gard 14-0-0 peg 4
2. Mike Nicholls 10-08-0 peg 11

Sunday 24/10/2010 - Carps AC - Wednesday's Qualifiers Final - Sedges Fishery

There was a clash of matches between the Carps AC Wednesday Qualifiers final at Sedges and the SW Teams of Four at Landsend. My first priority was not to let the team down, but knowing John Bradford would jump at the chance of fishing for Charlie’s Angels at Landsend, I asked him to stand in and he did. So the Sedges it was then with Mark Tanner. We had breakfast in the Hill Top café and to be fair it wasn’t too bad, at least they now have brown and tomato sauce back on draft.

Another great welcome from Denise and Jamie awaited us at the fishery, with a lovely cup of tea. With thirty fishing all of Brick Lake was pegged plus all of the near side bank of Tile Lake, pegs 40 to 35. My priority for peg choice for Silvers was pegs 4 to 8 and 19 to 13 on Brick and 40 to 36 on Tile. Bound to get one of those you would think. No it wasn’t to be. First into the draw bucket and out comes peg 32. This was one from the far end on Tile Lake – not been here before. With the wind blowing from the North in to peg 40ish I wasn’t that hopeful especially against the pegs behind me. However, if the Skimmers on Brick don’t feed then I might have a chance of framing in the Silvers. I do try to keep positive! First of all I set up the maggot feeder to fish live red maggot against the far tit for the small Carp. I managed to set it up and fold it away without a tangle – and that’s as much as it was handled all day. I set up a 4x14 – PB14 to fish CW&C on the top set, where I had 3 ½ foot of water. I was really only using this at a test bed for the CW&C as this bait can kill the swim very quickly this time of year. I then set up the main attack which was a 4x16 yellow topped Jolly to be fished at 10 metres with caster and maggot and at 11.5 metres with soft pellet. The same rig sufficed for both as it was similar depth at 9 footish. The swim was dead calm so dotting down was easy enough. I started by putting in 50ml of CW&C at 1 metre, followed up with one small ball of GB (Gimps and Magic) laced with dead reds at 10 metres. Lastly I fed 25ml of wetted micro and 2mm expander at 11.5 metres. The plan was to start fishing over the CW&C and if I caught positively I would started feeding it through a kinder pot over the 10 metre line. However, I had nothing, so decided this bait would be far too risky. So out on the 10 metre line with double dead red and I had a run of Skimmers to 2lb. After every fish I would kinder in a few dead reds with twice as many casters. This kept the fish coming albeit very slowly. I did catch two small Carp on this line to 2lb. I kept trying the 3mm expander at 11.5 metre but could only get line indications. Back on the 10 metre line and I had a run of five Eels to 1lb which was enjoyable – I love catching these fish. My thinking was that the 2 mm expander pellet was falling through the water too slowly, bring the fish up. So I had a brilliant idea I put the feed expander in the GB. This appeared to do the trick (but you never really know what’s going on down in the depths) as I had another two small carp and five Skimmers. I kept alternating between these two lines until the end. I did have a problem once the sun came round which made it necessary to tip the float with a bit of black as sometime I could see the yellow, other times the black. I did miss two bites because of visibility near the end. My four Carp weighed in at 6lb 4oz and I was surprised when my Silvers weighed in at 20lb 7oz, giving a grand total of 26lb 11oz for fifth overall and first in the Silvers – Brick Lake Skimmers failed to make a presences – yippee. It wasn't only a very pleasant memorable days fishing but, also a good pay day - the best of the year - so far.

The match was won by John “Turkey” Thompson (pictured right with the Silvers winner) with 68lb 15oz from peg 19 on Brick Lake. John started on the usual GB and then pellet. It wasn’t until John switched to corn at 14.5 metres did he start to catch Carp. John initially fed one (opened) tin of corn (very brave I thought) and fed another three tins through the remainder of the match.

I must mention runner up Terry Bruton (pictured right with his best fish of the match) who weighed 44lb 1oz from peg 34 on Tile Lake. I thought Terry fished a very tidy match using 6mm expander over kinder potted hard 4’s. Well done matey.

Full Result:

1. John Thompson 68-15-0 peg 19
2. Terry Bruton 44-01-0 peg 34
3. Vince Brown 35-09-0 peg 40
4. Dave Bacon 32-03-0 peg 20
5. Mike Nicholls 26-11-0 peg 32
6. Mike Owens 26-10-0 peg 18

Top Silvers:

1. Mike Nicholls 20-07-0 peg 34
2. Mike Snudden 19-0-0 peg 39
3. Terry Bruton 15-08-0 peg 36

Wednesday 20/10/2010 - Avon Angling Open - Landsend Fishery

The forecasters promised it to be a cold bright day. Again driving down the temperature touched zero.

As the Carps AC had cancelled their match at Withy I decided to fish Rip Off’s match at Landsend. It’s much better for the Special One and me now his draw times are earlier, at 09-30 fishing to 16-45. This gets me home at 18:30 for dinner which was Beef stew tonight – scrummy – never enough, even though it’s running over the edge of the plate.

I was hoping to draw in the sun and luckily I did, drawing peg 5 on Match Lake, as opposite me they all looked froze as I sat in just three layers. I was told by Leyton Palmer that Martyn Rayett struggled on the peg Saturday weighing in 16lb. However, as I said the peg was in the sun and I still fancied it for a few Silvers and Carp. The water looked fairly clear and was about 18 inches down on the normal level. So I decided to take it steady and keep everything tight. This meant one 4x12 yellow top Jolly to fished at 12 metres which was just down the bottom of the far shelf to be fished with 3mm expander pellet. And the same again with a black top to be fished at 10 metres to peg 6 pallet with caster for the Perch etc… I started by being positive on the caster line putting in a big pot of caster with a dash of dead reds. I started on the soft pellet kinder potting in a tiny amount of expander 2’s (all Sensas pellet which can be purchased from Avon Angling - if there is any left). I didn’t have to wait long for my first foul hooked Carp which didn’t end up in the net. After every bite I planned to top up with the kinder cup by counting out 12 pellets. I was worried I would over do the feed today. The next bite resulted in a 4 lb Carp which fought well, diving a couple of times for the pallet. I then had a couple of Skimmers and F1’s. It seemed that every time you hooked a fish its mates would do a runner, taking a while to be coax back. I think this was due to the clarity of the water. So after an hour I went down to the pallet with double caster in anticipation of catching one of the 4lb Perch that I hear are caught in Match Lake. The bait had just settled and the float disappeared. Well what a surprise to find an 8 to 10lb Carp tail walking with my hook in its mouth, but not for long as the fish crashed down on my line and away it swam. I think the Carp was as surprised as I was! Next put in resulted in a lost foul hooker, where are all the Perch, as next put in I landed a Carp of about 3lb. The swim then died. I re-fed and went back on my pellet line. I did try the caster line from time to time catching a couple of Ronnie’s and yes one 4oz Perch. It appeared to be fishing hard all round so I decided to concentrate on the pellet line. This resulted in another four Skimmers and three more F1’s and six more Carp. I was wondering whether it would have been more productive to have had two swims going so that I could rotate – on the other hand it might have made things worse – who knows. I did notice that the Carp appeared to have backed off, down to between pegs 7 & 8. My eight Carp weighed in at 31lb 12oz (too small) and my Silvers went 13lb 8oz giving me a total of 45lb 4oz for fourth overall and highest weight on Match Lake.

"We always know when we over feed but never know when we under feed" (Mike Nicholls 2010)!

The match was won by Nick Duckett (pictured right with the Silvers winner on the left of picture) with 59lb 14oz from peg 31. Nick caught al his fish on hard 6mm pellet at 16 metres over the the corner bush.

Kevin Moulton won the Silvers with 34lb 5oz from peg 35. Kevin fished CW&C down the far shelf with caster hook bait, switching later to up the shelf using worm over caster. Kev caught quality Silvers including F1's, Bream, Perch and Chub.

Full Result:

1. Nick Duckett 59-14-0 peg 31
2. Jamie Brown 55-03-0 peg 28
3. Kevin Moulton 52-09-0 peg 35
4. Mike Nicholls 45-04-0 peg 5
5. Tony Rixon 42-0-0 peg 40
6. Craig "Trigger" Edmonds 37-10-0 peg 16

Top Silvers:

1. Kev Moulton 34-05-0 peg 35
2. John Bradford 26-04-0 peg 13
3. Tony Rixon 25-11-0 peg 13

Sunday 17/10/2010 - Carps AC Autumn Silvers League - Viaduct Fishery - Round Three

With Bela away down at Stafford Moor it was breakfast at home and a lonely drive down to Viaduct. It was also the first real frost of the season with the temperature falling to zero in the dips on the way down. It also promised to be a cloud free day, with no wind. This added to the fishery having its £1,000 Silvers final fish off the day before all promised a difficult day. This led my thinking to fishing the waggler at 25 metres with double dead red over loose fed caster.

I drew peg 99, which is a reasonable Skimmer peg. I discovered that Rip Off was on the peg the day before and fished 16 metres. I was guessing, but I assumed he put plenty of feed in. So the waggler was definitely on the cards. So this was the thing I first set up. With little to no wind it was just on the threshold to feed 25 metres. I also set up two Ronnie rigs as I knew Rip Off wouldn’t have pestered this species. I then set the usual 4x14 Jolly to be fish at the full Monty, so out came 13 meters of pole – still looks new! I started by feeding half a cup of casters with a small ball of GB at 13 metres. I commenced feeding the Ronnie and waggler lines with casters. I decided to go for the Ronnie and soon discovered that they weren’t coming out to play today. So before picking up the waggler I had a quick look over the GB at 13 metres and had a 3oz Skimmer on dead red - then nothing. I was itching to have a go on the wag so out it went and I must say the presentation wasn’t half bad. The problem was the feeding, I couldn’t group the loose feed tight enough for my liking, and in fact I felt I was spraying the casters all over. I did have a couple of small Skimmers on double dead red in addition to loosing a couple. Steve Jackson on next peg 100 was also fishing the waggler and wasn’t really catching on it either at this stage. So with a good hour on it I gave it up. I came back over the GB line and because the sun had moved behind the LH Willow the swim was now shaded and I couldn’t see any float colour I tried. So Looking around I could see Simon Jones and Mark Boomsgrove catching and they were surely using CW&C. So I opened up another 13 metres swim in a light channel where I could see a black topped float by kinder potting in some dead reds, caster and a bit of CW. I soon had a 2lb Skimmers followed by a couple of small ones 12oz to 1lb. After each fish I would kinder top up with the same mix. I then had a Tench and a 3lb Skimmer. I then decided to up the feed which resulted in three foul hook Carp which luckily didn’t hang around long, the last one breaking me, so I took this opportunity to scale down to a 0.12 hook length. I then foul hooked a 3lb Skimmer which came off at the net – Oh bother. At this stage I think I was winning the section then Jacko hooked a big Perch which probably put us level, he quickly followed this up by landing a foul hooked 3lb Skimmer. With 5 minutes to go I hook a Tench which came off at the net. I knew this would cost me the section and it did Jacko beating me in to second by 1lb 11oz!! I weighed 9lb 7oz for section second and 2 points.

The match was won by Mr Pin-up - Vince Brown (pictured right with runner up Mark Broomsgrove) with 26lb 14oz from Campbell peg 129. Vince caught most of his fish on either a small piece of worm or single caster fished over CW&C fished at 16 metres. Vince fed 1 kilo of worm and 2 pints of caster as I have said before rich he must be rich.


Full Result:

1. Vince Brown 26-11-0 peg 129
2. Mark Broomsgrove 26-04-0 peg 88
3. Steve Long 26-0-0 peg 115
4. Simon Jones 22-02-0 peg 96
5. Nick Collins 17-0-0 peg 112
6. Ian Coyd 16-03-0 peg 94 (not sure about his name)

Thursday 14/10/2010 - Bathampton Over 55's - Withy Pool

With most fisheries slowing down due to the change of season I was expecting Withy Pool to fish rock hard. However, I think it fished much better than anticipated under the circumstances. Whatever, I was looking forward to the match as I like fishing this time of year. The weather could only be described as dry, dank and coldish.

It was yet another good turn out with 27 fishing. I was hoping for either pegs 43, 44, 45 and 47. I decided to leave the draw bag to a little later to get away from any of the disabled pegs. I pull out peg 63. Umm, I hadn’t been here before. But I did know it’s a very good winter peg for Carp. After plumbing around it was clear that fishing short wasn’t an option. The margin was 6 inches deep and at 5 metres just a couple of feet. I needed to go out to 11.5 metres to get over the stony bottom and reach the shelf. So the one all round rig it was to be – 4x14 Jolly with 0.14 bottom to a 16 Tubertini 808. This rig would suffice from single maggot, caster, expander pellet (3’s and 6’s) to corn. On the whistle (two minutes early according to the Dodgers) I fed four tangerine sized Gimps Gold and Sensas Magic. I started on double maggot and soon switched to single as the fish I was catching were tiny Ronnie’s and Skimmers (again - why me, why here). It was fishing hard but I could see at least four anglers catching Silvers quicker that me, my speed being hampered by fishing at 11.5 metres. After four hours I held my own but the swim gradually died a death with the fish getting even smaller. The upshot was that the Silvers were no longer an option to coin. So I decided to swap to corn hook bait, kinder cupping in four grains topped up with caster every 3 minutes. With an hour to go I started to get some indications.

At this point Tom Coulson who was diagonally opposite me decided to go for a walk. But what we didn’t know was, Tom had left his pole in his pole roost baited up. The first I saw of it was 11 metres of pole shooting across the lake towards me with a fish on the hook. The call went out for Tom, but by his return the fish and pole was in my swim. The fish then headed for the centre of the Lake and then did a U turn. Steve Jefferies who was on the next peg to Tom decided he would claim savage rights and caught the line and pole on his lead rod (pictured right). Steve’s lead pulled free, by which time Tom had caught it from an empty peg on his lead rod, but it took Colin Golding to pull the pole to the bank with his walking stick (which I had a photo of that one), at this juncture the fish came free. I have heard on anglers leaving baited up feeders before, but this is the first time in my knowledge for it to happen with a pole. Tom you are a twit.

Back to my fishing. The reason I didn’t get a photo of Colin and walking stick was because I had my first bite on the corn and was playing a teenage Common Carp. With that in the net I had another two smaller Carp straight away. So with three in the net I reckoned I needed another three to take the match and with 30 minutes left it was possible. However, I did hook another two Carp straight away but both were foul hooked – bugger - not good. I did hook another with two minutes to go to bring the tally to four. My Silvers weighed in at 4lb 12oz and my four Carp went 36lb 13 for a total of 41lb 9oz. This put me second overall, but only just as Dave Bacon was just 5oz behind in third place.

The match was won by Bob Price (pictured right with his catch) from peg 60 with 58lb 6oz – an all carp catch. Bob amazingly caught his fish on the waggler with the “Conker” hook bait (hard 10 mm pellet wrapped to paste). Bob caught six Carp to 13lb. It was interesting to see Bob cast his float as the hook bait was much heavier that his float – Conker on the swirly whirly!!

The Silvers was won by Terry Bruton from peg 53 behind the Island with a credible 13lb 4oz. Terry caught mostly Roach on maggot fished short.

Full Result:
1. Bob Price 58-06-0 peg 60
2. Mike Nicholls 41-09-0 peg 62
3. Dave Bacon 41-04-0 peg 63
4. Ray Bazeley 22-06-0 peg 50
5. Bob Tilley 20-01-0 peg 69
6. Alan Jones 19-01-0 peg 48

Top Silvers:

1. Terry Bruton 13-04-0 peg 53
2. Bill Ferris 10-06-0 peg 59
2. Mike Jones 10-06-0 peg 47

Wednesday 13/10/2010 - Carps AC - Cider Farm - Yarlington Mill

I stopped in Budgens at Churchill for a breakfast baguette and a quick read of the Daily Mail – its great news that they have got some of the Chilean Miners out and it’s all go for all 33 being out by time I wake up tomorrow.

I hear from Mark Gibson that John Dursley was disqualified Sunday for having two nets over the 70lb limit. Apparently John has taken umbrage. Come on John, Mark (bless him) explains the rules before every draw. Why didn’t you use the two nets beside you on the bank? In any case I expect to see you back their next season.

It was a good turn out with 18 fishing, so the match was moved from Dabinett to Yarlington Mill. I drew peg 41 – another bloody Carp peg. However, I decided to keep my options open this time. I set up all the usual Silvers rigs plus a paste rig (not used – Darve Vader will be pleased) and a Drennan wire stem 4x10 chop for corn in the margin. I started at 7 metres with a 4x16 jolly with double dead red maggot fished over a 125ml pot of the same and had a 12oz Skimmer first put in. It then deteriorated from here to 2oz Skimmers with the odd Ronnie and was very slow. I decide to put in a bit of micro and switch to 3mm expander – nothing - but impatients. I switched to corn and had four Carp to 3lb. Not what I was after. I decided to go for an early banana walk; I was bloody cold – coldest since last winter. The most Carp was Nick Collier with twelve; however, it was apparent that the Silvers were not responding. Because the fishing was slow I decided that if I switched to a Carp attack I wouldn’t catch up. So the best option for coin was to stick with the Silvers. So I switched to the margin with single maggot sparingly loose feeding the same. All I could catch was 1oz fish and if I over done the feed (by feeding twice) I would snare another Carp. With my bed now made I stuck with these tiny fish to the end. I did muster 16 carp in the process which weighed in at 32lb and my Silvers went 6lb 4oz for a total of 36lb 4oz. This got me in the Silvers coin, but only by 1oz!

The match was won by Nick Collier (pictured right with some of his catch) with 91lb 10oz from peg 40. Nick caught the majority of his fish down the far shelf using corn hook bait over kinder potted 4’s. Nick fed about three pints throughout the match.

The Silvers was won by Steve Dawson from peg 54 with 11lb 11oz. Steve caught mostly Skimmers fishing 3 mm expander fished over the same feed at 7 metres. It was good to see Nick back out fishing again after a short rest - we can't afford to lose good anglers like Nick from the circuit - especially as he gives me his left over casters!!

Full Result:

1. Nick Collier 91-10-0 peg 40
2. Matt Tomes 75-01-0 peg 25
3. Anton Page 67-09-0 peg 32
4. Andy Gard 57-06-0 peg 14
5. Paul Lock 50-14-0 peg 36
6. John Bennett 45-0-0 peg 19

It was 1,2 and 3 for the Landsend brigade.

Top Silvers:

1. Steve Dawson 11-11-0 peg 54
2. Mike Nicholls 6-04-0 peg 41
3. Steve Jefferies 6-03-0 peg 28

Sunday 10/10/2010 - Carps AC Autumn Silvers League - Viaduct Fishery - Round Two

Bela and I both agreed after today's breakfasts at Shipham that they are on the decline. So we had a scout around Street and found a Wetherspoons (open at 07:00) and The Bear Hotel (open at 07:30), so next trip we are planning on trying both. Turn right at the mini roundabout taking you into the town centre both venues are on the left.

A number of anglers were moaning about Lodge being in today (including the organiser). Personally I like Lodge and was hoping to draw one of it's pegs. And I did peg 68. I was told I wouldn’t beat pegs 69 and 70, we will see! Arriving at the peg the water looked fairly clear - that is compared with Carey. It also promised to be a bright day and with the water levels down it was a case of easy as you go. I set up three Ronnie rigs – for the margin, for 5 metres and the last for 6 metres. I then set up 2 – 4x12 Jolly’s to be fished at 11.5 metres one at 2 o clock and the other at 10 o clock where I could only find 3 foot of water. I decided to leave the middle for CW&C – if required. On the whistle I commenced by feeding a very small amount of micro at 2 o clock followed up with a small ball of Gimps Gold at 10 o clock. Starting on the 3 mm expander pellet over the micro and first cast I had a bite which was missed, out again and another missed bite – small fish me thinks so I put on double micro pellet and had a ½ oz Ronnie. Out again and another ½ oz in the net. I went over the same line with corn which was footballed about by these tiny fish. Over the GB line with double dead red maggot and the same again more ½ oz fish. Time to try the caster on the Ronnie rigs and nothing – not a bite – these tiny fish would not come any closer than 6 metres, which surprised me. So it was decision time – which was to feed walnut sized GB over the 6 metre Ronnie line with single dead red on the hook. It was a struggle all round no one was catching in my section. I stayed with this until the last hour when I decide to feed two 125ml pots of CW&C over the 11.5 metre GB line as an investment should the Skimmers show up late. With half hour to go, by my reckoning I was winning the section and was hoping no one caught any late Skimmers – bugger it wasn’t to be. Rich Coles on peg 69 had three Skimmers and a near Bream in the last 30 minutes and Steve Denmead had an Eel and a decent Bream on peg 71. It was far too late for me to switch to my CW&C line. They both weighed 7lb with Rich Coles beating Steve by 12oz with 7lb 13oz. I weighed circa 150 fish for 4lb 5oz for a section 3rd. What a grueler it was on Lodge today and why didn't it fish that well - simple becasue it was the 10/10/10 - not that I am superstitious. It hasn’t changed my mind about this lake though!! The Dude won Lodge Lake from peg 60 with 15lb.


The match was won by Phil Cardwell (pictured right) from peg 87 on Carey with 34lb 7oz. Phil fished at 14.5 metres alternating between CW and caster fish over CW&C. Phil caught mostly Skimmers plus three bonus Tench. Phil fed ½ kilo of worm and 1 ½ pints of caster all over the same line.

Full Result:

1. Phil Cardwell 34-07-0 peg 87
2. Dick Bull 26-13-0 peg 88
3. Tom Magnell 21-15-0 peg 97
4. Stu Foale 21-09-0 peg 94
5. Steve Long 21-03-0 peg 101 (waggler)
6. Bella Bakos 20-11-0 peg 103 (waggler)