The Royal Wedding has been confirmed as 29 April 2011 and a bank holiday decreed. The Special One is already planning for it, as I am. I will be doing the same thing as the last Royal wedding – going fishing.
Plantation has a good head of both Carp and Silvers (particularly Ronnie’s) and is a venue I always look forward to. Unfortunately the banks are not what you would expect from a commercial fishery. I drew peg 7 and it took me 20 minutes to find a suitable position for my seat box, when I did it was under a tree and on some soft bank. It was difficult and uncomfortable to say the least. The picture top right say’s it all. But the irony is that the car park has a mound of chippings, if the owner had provided a wheel barrow and shovel I would have been happy to have back filled the swim, however, there would have been a queue. Come on fishery owner sort this easy one out.
I set up one Skimmer rig a 4x14 Jolly to be fished at 11.5 metres in 3 foot of water at 2 o clock and 10 o clock where it was 3 inches deeper. The lake gets deeper the further to the left you go. I also set up two Ronnie rigs one shallow and the other at full depth. On the all in put in two 125ml cups of GB in at 2 o clock and some micro and 2 mm expander on the other skimmer line. I started on double dead red over the GB whilst loose feeding the
Ronnie line with caster. I caught small Ronnie’s straight away, plus a bonus 1 ½ lb Skimmer. However, I thought the long pole was a bit too slow for catching any numbers of Ronnie so decided to switch to the shallow Ronnie rig, which accounted for nought. I added the 3 inches and put on a 4 mm expander and caught more small Ronnie’s – not going to plan as I did expect to catch a few Crucians on this line. So I tried the full depth Ronnie rig and caught Ronnie’s to 8oz for about an hour, after which it slowed so I had another round on the GB and pellet lines with just a few Ronnie’s and a couple of 4 oz Skimmers to show for it. So I decided to persevere with the full depth Ronnie rig to the end, however, the fish kept disappearing. Once the light started to go (last 15 minutes of the match) I had a 2lb Skimmer and a 1 lb Ronnie. I was hampered all match by the tree I was sat under, catching it at least ten times and having to climbing up it once to retrieve my rig – to Charlie Barns amusement. I must have retied a new hook half a dozen times. I weighed 15lb 7oz for 5th in the Silvers, that bloody tree costing me coin as I was 5oz out from picking up coin!
The match and the Silvers were won by Tom Thick (pictured upper right with his Silvers catch) with 98lb 2oz from peg 17. Tom caught on his usual soft pellet over pellet fished at 13 metres out in front.
As Tom took the over match the Silvers went to Rich Coles (pictured right with his 
catch) with 23lb 8oz of Skimmers and Crucians from peg 13. Rich fished similar to tom with soft pellet hook bait.
As I said I was pushed out of the Silvers by 5oz by Mike Owens who weight was helped by three big Perch. The pictured lower right shows Mike hiding the tail of his biggest - a near 3 pounder – nice fish.
Full Result:
1. Tom Thick 98-02-0 peg 17
2. Chris Davis 83-11-0 peg 8
3. Derek Vowles 42-08-0 peg 5
4. Rich Coles 29-12-0 peg 13
5. Bill Ferris 22-02-0 peg 3
6. Leyton Palmer 20-13-0 peg 25
Top Silvers:
1. Tom Thick 36-08-0 peg 17
2. Rich Coles 23-08-0 peg 13
3. Steve Dawson 16-10-0 peg 29
What’s good about team fishing is that you can’t get ridiculed for drawing a flyer. Or can you? Fate put me on peg 85 apparently the best Carp peg in the southern hemisphere. Having a quick chat around and I discovered that Dave Roper was on peg 86 the previous day and caught 25lb of Silvers on the waggler with caster, hooking the occasional Carp. That will do me then. Arriving at my peg I found myself sandwiched between the second best angler in the South West Rip Off and the best in the SW and future world champion Des Shipp. I knew Rip Off would find it difficult to compete from peg 81 (so long as I could keep him out of my swim) as it has variable form, but Des, well end of story really.
I untangled the Silvers waggler and the Carp Slaying straight lead (just for team orders). And because there was plenty of time I also set up a 4x14 Jolly to be fished at 11.5 metres I was surprised how deep the lake is at this end. At this stage Des started to do a dance on the bank as he had forgotten his waggler rod, he paced off for 10 minutes and came back with Neil Mercers waggler rod a 12 and a bit footer as apparently there was nine inches missing from the tip (good one Neil – but not good enough).
I started buy cupping in 100 ml of casters at 11.5 metres which I only ventured over with double caster for 5 minutes – end of. I started on the waggler with double dead red fished over loose fed caster – loose being the operative description because the casters were going everywhere. I was soon in to my first Ruff – a male of the species – one point then. I quickly followed this up with a female – much easier to unhook. Next I believe I foul hooked a Carp which I played for about one minute before the hook pulled free. I then hooked and landed a 9lb Carp. I then definitely foul hooked another Carp which I tried to stop going through Des’s swim breaking me so I took the opportunity to up the hook length to 0.16 from my favourite 0.14 G Line, plus reducing the hook size to an 18 - 808. Next fish was another 9lb Carp that would not lift its head and was difficult to play out I thought for a long while it was one of the lake beasties. That was it for the Carp as I think they had had enough of me and backed off to the end of the spit. Good, as I started to put a few Silvers together, Skimmers to 2lb, but they were far and few between. At 2 minutes to 3 o clock I decided to fish the lead for 7 minutes, Starting on four dead reds - nothing – switched to corn – time up and back on the Silvers waggler, landing another 1lb Skimmer and loosing a 2lb Skimmer on the whistle. My two Carp weighed in at 19lb 3oz and my Silvers 9lb 7oz putting me 6th overall and 6th in the Silvers – not quite good enough.
Although we gave him half a rod and reel line that was 2 mm thick Des (pictured right with half his catch of nine Carp) still won the match from peg 86 with 70lb 4oz. Des fished the straight lead for an hour and had one Carp on corn, subsequently switching to the waggler fished at 40 yards where he caught another seven Carp. Des caught mostly on corn hook bait with the odd fish falling to maggot. Des fished at variable depths with most fish coming shallow (half depth). Des had a similar experience to me with the fish backing off out of reach. Des fed very little because the furthest we could feed was 25 yards.
The Silvers was won by Paul Elmes (pictured right) from Spring Lake peg 24 with 21lb 8oz. Paul caught Skimmers at 14.5 metres on double red maggot fished over GB.
This was the end of the series and I thought it was well run by Rip Off and manic Mallin - they make a good team, thanks guys.
Team wise Team Westerleigh (pictured right) won the overall league by a big margin – see Tony Rixon’s blog for the ins and outs. Well done lads - the team to beat – again!
Full Result:
1. Des Shipp 70-04-0 peg 86
2. Neil Mercer 62-01-0 peg 8
3. John Howell 59-10-0 peg 18
4. Ryan Shipp 42-08-0 peg 15
5. Dean Mallin 40-07-0 peg 78
6. Mike Nicholls 28-10-0 peg 85
Top Silvers:
1. Paul Elmes 21-08-0 peg 24
2. Matt Parsons 15-13-0 peg 7
3. Tony Rixon 11-0-0 peg 81
I had a phone call from son Steve on Friday tempting me to fish Hillview. I wasn’t keen as I had already fished three matches this week and again this Sunday. However, The Special one persuaded me to go. On arrival we had our usual bacon and egg toasty followed by a walk round the lakes. Heron was bright green and Moorhen gin clear. So which one to draw – don’t ask me as Heron would have been my choice but last week the lake was won with 11lb! Any way the draw hat would decide. So in I go and out comes peg 5 on Moorhen – Clear Lake is was to be. Steve drew behind me on peg 38 on the Green Lake. I set up a 0.2 gram corn float for the margin down to peg 2 pallet (without high expectations). Then I set up the usual 4x14 Jolly to fish at 7.5 metres at 10 o clock. I choose this line because the wind was blowing into me at 2 o clock and it was a bitter cold North Easterly. I noticed there were a lot of fish showing around the island opposite peg 7. I noticed that anglers were setting up the straight lead, which is unusual for this venue. I started on the corn over a dash of micro and corn – nothing. I tried allsorts of baits and couldn’t buy a bite. I switched to single caster over caster and started to catch Perch to 1lb. I kept trying the corn but to no avail. I did have a little try down to the pallet where I had some knocks from Ronnie’s. I stayed on the caster at 7.5 metres until the end as the only anglers 
catching were on the lead fishing towards the island and I was hoping that they would frame. With half hour to go I decided to throw the towel as Steve behind me had been catching well on corn throughout and I watched him. I weighed 12lb 7oz of Perch for 8th overall. Steve (pictured right landing his last fish dead on the whistle – in the dark) finished 2nd overall with 58lb 6oz and a pick up of £56. It was good to see that I have weaned Steve off the Chianti on to the Jolly. Steve fished a 4x16 at 13 metres and 5 metres with corn over corn.
The match was won by Gerry Tweed (pictured right – again in the dark) from peg 7 with 75lb 4oz. Gerry fished hair rigged corn on the straight lead 1 metre off the opposite island.
Full Result:
1. Gerry Tweed 75-04-0 peg 7
2. Steve Nicholls 58-06-0 peg 38
3. Shaun Wilson 41-0-0 peg 35
4. Richard Ahearn 37-06-0 peg 22
5. Andy Griffiths 24-14-0 peg 29
6. Bob Ginster 17-06-0 peg 2
Mike Jones has published the 2011 Coffin Dodgers match dates which follow (all Thursday's):
Bridge 31/03/2011
Bridge 14/04/2011
Withy 28/04/2011
Bridge 12/05/2011
Withy 26/05/2011
Bridge 09/06/2011
Withy 23/06/2011
Bridge 07/07/2011
Bridge 21/07/2011
Withy 04/08/2011
Bridge 18/08/2011
Bridge 01/09/2011
Withy 15/09/2011
Bridge 29/09/2011
Bridge 13/10/2011
Withy 27/10/2011
Bridge 10/11/2011
Withy 24/11/2011
Bridge 08/12/2011
Bridge 12/12/2011
The other important piece of information is that the Coffin Dodgers 2010 Christmas Match draw will be at 08:00 sharp.Back to today. Apparently the Coffin Dodgers now have a swear box deducting 1lb of your weight for every naughty word. There were a few DNW’s today!!
In to the draw side tray and out comes peg 50. Umm, a noted Carp peg with little Silvers history. In fact the peg is Bob Price’s favourite, who generally elects to fish the waggler on top the bar off the end of the island. So with this in mind I set up one Silver fish rig – 4x16 Jolly and a 0.3 gram Corn Float set to 3 foot. I started by cupping in four balls of GB at 2 o clock at 10 metres followed up with three balls by hand as a bit of advertising (I keep 
imagining this heap of ground bait in a 6 inch circle). Anyway it woke up Mike Jones (pictured right focused on the job in hand) on the opposite peg 58 who I had to look at all match. I followed up by feeding a few grains of corn and caster at 13 metres over to the island in 3 foot of water. Starting on the single maggot over the GB I had small Ronnie’s from the off (1 – 2oz). These must be the evicted Ronnie’s from Bridge – second class citizens then. I did have the very occasional 3 oz fish – Ronnie’s and Hybrids. Everyone seemed to be catching a similar stamp of fish. I had a quick look on the corn on the Carp line with double maggot which resulted in another 1oz Ronnie. So back on the Silvers line where I kept them coming until the last 1 ½ hours when I decided to give the Carp a real go to the end, after all Bob Price wouldn’t forgive me if I didn’t. So out I go with single corn kinder potting in three grains of corn with caster. First put in I foul hook a small Carp which came off. Next cast I hook and land a 12 oz Perch – unusual on corn. I then hooked and landed a 3lb Mirror Carp followed by another foul hooker. After a quiet spell I did land another Carp, a 4lb Common. My Silvers weighed in at 7lb 1oz and the two Carp 7lb 10oz for an overall weight of 14lb 11oz. This put me sixth in the Silvers and first overall. I was the only angler today to catch Carp.
The Silvers was won by Steve Jefferies with 11lb 6oz from peg 47. Steve caught on both pole and GB feeder, his weight being boosted by a feeder caught 3 ½ lb Bream.
The pictured right shows the overall winner and not a vagrant living rough at Huntstrete as one might think, but the Millionaire and Silvers winner Steve Jefferies. So if you don’t know what a millionaire looks like you do now. The smile says it all!!
Full Result:
1. Mike Nicholls 14-11-0 peg 50
2. Steve Jefferies 11-04-0 peg 47
3. Mike Jones 9-11-0 peg 58
4. Rich Coles 9-0-0 peg 49
5. Bill Ferries 8-13-0 peg 45
6. Terry Bruton 8-08-0 peg 62
Top Silvers:
1. Steve Jefferies 11-04-0 peg 47
2. Mike Jones 9-11-0 peg 58
3. Rich Coles 9-11-0 peg 49
Whilst eating one of Karen’s OK breakfasts the “Gardener” (Phil’s son) came in to collect the peg fee as Phil was spending a few days in Rome. It’s the first time I have seen him. There was some discussion on which pegs should be in or out. The “Gardener” (sorry don’t know his name) suggested we didn’t put peg 7 in the draw as it is full of rubbish. Someone shouted out “Well get it out then”! Umm.
There were fourteen booked in and with two no-shows which amounted to the ideal no of anglers on Match Lake under present fishing form. In to the draw bag and out comes peg 22. I have drawn this peg a many times and know it well. On arriving at the peg I noticed that the water was very clear – in fact no colour at all, which is very unusual for this venue. Apparently its to do with the weed killer used on the reeds. The other observations were that the water level looked to be up to its winter level, plus I had a new platform. Unfortunately it appears to be built 3 inches below the water level; thankfully I had my boots on. The wind was blowing quite strong from right to left, add the rain and I was in for an uncomfortable day. However, one of the pluses was that the wind would give a bit of cover over the clear water. As the water was so clear I decided not to fish the margins, which can be good on this peg. Particularly the LH side. So I only set up the one rig a 4x12 Jolly to be fished in the open water at 12 o clock. I plumbed around and found the deepest part of the peg was at 1 metre, with it shallowing the further I went out. Obviously this was far too short to fish today and decided on 6.5 metre line. As I thought it would be a hard match I also decided to stay with the one line as I didn’t want to split the fish. I started by feeding a small amount of wetted micro (scrounged from Dave Wride and Steve Dawson as I had left mine home bringing 8’s by mistake). I used both 2 and 3 mm expander on a 16 808 hook. I initially found it very difficult to present the bait primarily due to the wind. I readjusted the back shot many times to try and get the balance right. I soon had four Crucians in the net but found that due to the water clarity the fish would scare off for about 15 minutes before returning. After netting about nine Crucians I had what appeared to be a typical slow Bream bite and I was right as a 3 ½ lb specimen ended up in the net. As planned I stayed on this line all match adding fish in pairs with fishless periods. 
The last two Crucians were 2 pounders which were in excellent condition. I weighed 18lb 9oz for 1st in the match and 1st in the Silvers. However, I did think Andy Curry (pictured right with a bag of Crucians) on peg 17 had beaten me hands down so I was surprised to find I had piped him by 1lb 7oz. Andy’s weight put him 2nd overall and 2nd in the Silvers – well done matey.
No matter how, lets say “untidy” the fishery is, it still remains for me the best Crucian venue in the South West and that has to be good.
Full Result:
1. Mike Nicholls 18-09-0 peg 22
2. Andy Curry 17-02-0 peg 17
3. Pete Sivell 9-12-0 peg 25
4. Dave Wride 8-08-0 peg 30
5. Paul Lock 5-02-0 peg 27
6. Bill Ferris 3-08-0 peg 18
Top Silvers:
1. Mike Nicholls 18-09-0 peg 22
2. Andy Curry 13-04-0 peg 17
Bela and I stopped at Budgens for breakie, 1 ½ breakfast baguettes each – scrummy. Unfortunately the drinks machine was broke again, so we had to wait until we got to Viaduct before we had a wet. The BBC weather people are now really pissing me off, forecast the odd light shower --- and it rained all day with the occasion heavy down pour!!! I was surprised to find that we were to fish a full six hour match finishing in the dark and cold at 16:15 – too late for me.
Once I had heard that Spring Lake was to have three sections I was sure I would draw either pegs 2 or 3. these pegs seem to stick to my hand. And out comes peg 3!! I have yet to fish Campbell in this league. I was told by Steve and Paul that pegs 1, 2 and 3 were fished the day before and all caught Ronnie’s up to 1 ½ lb, with 25 lb being the highest weight – lovely me thinks, that will do me. I set up two Ronnie whips – 4 metre and 3 metre to solely fish the caster, plus a 4x12 Jolly with a yellow tip to fish just in to the dark zone for Skimmers at 11.5 metres. On the whistle I cupped in three Tangerine balls of GB laced with live Pinkies on the Skimmer line. I started by fishing the 3 metre whip shallow with single caster over loose fed caster and immediately had a swirly indication – umm some Ronnie about then - under the float goes and I am latched into Carp which I hung to for 1 minute in case it was a 10lb Ronnie, that was until it broke me!!! Tried the 4 metre whip at full depth, but with no further indications I gave up on the Ronnie’s. Out to 11.5 metre with double dead red and I caught twenty or so small Skimmers (2 to 4 oz). After an hour the swim completely died, so out with some more Pinkie laced GB. But it really didn’t turn it back on – I wish now I had fed more at the start. Looking around my section no one was catching. So the only option left for me was to set up the waggler. I knew it would be important to keep the loose feed tight so decided to fed six casters regularly for accuracy (any more casters would flare off in all directions). I fished double dead red on the hook and had an 8oz Skimmer first cast so I upped the feed, which was a mistake as I hooked and landed a 10 lb Carp. I eased off the feed and kept the odd Skimmer coming to the end. I reckon I had 5lb on the pole, with a similar amount coming on the waggler. I weighed 10lb 5oz (no Ronnie’s) for a section win and 10th overall.
By the time the all out was sounded it was so dark and the only thing I could see was Chris Davis on peg 20 with his fluorescent coat on!!
The Silvers van went home happy (£120 happy) as Bela also won his section from peg 9 with 14lb 3oz (nearly 10lb clear of runner up Mark Broomsgrove). Oh yes Bela broke his pole again (no six section this time) I will have to get some special foam gloves for him.
The match was won by Matt Parsons (pictured right) from peg 19 with 33lb 11oz. Matt caught the majority of his Skimmers on the pole fishing caster, maggot or pinkie over GB – FI and Gimps Gold. Matt occasionally rested his pole line by adopting the waggler off the end of the island, picking up the odd bigger Skimmer with a smattering of Carp!!
Isn’t it amazing, Spring Lake was drained down, fish removed, dredged out and refilled with water and the same fish, only for them all to return to the same pegs.
Full Result:
1. Matt Parsons 33-11-0 peg 19
2. Steve Jackson 22-07-0 peg 127
3. Rich Coles 19-06-0 peg 123
4. Steve Long 16-13-0 peg 18
5. Chris Davis 16-0-0 peg 20
6. Nigel Easton 15-11-0 peg 128
I wasn’t sure I would be able to fish as yesterday snot was streaming down my nose. As the lake was sold out and the weather promised to be bright and sunny I was dead keen to fish, so I decided to get up an hour earlier to see if I could get myself motivated in time. I did have a reasonable night sleep and didn’t feel too bad, albeit a bit slow to get going.
There was only one no show and that was Leyton Palmer who had a bloody good reason, he was in hospital having suffered a heart attack. By my reckoning Leyton must have been suffering a heart attack at Cider Farm last week and still managed to weigh in 124lb of Carp– cripes, this must be a first. Get well soon matey.
I pulled out peg 9 which meant I would have the sun in my eyes for the first few hours. However, you do get the red carpet treatment on this peg. Someone has put a large piece of Axminster down as protection from the mud. I’m not sure what the original colour was but its bright red now! The water level is up about 18 inches so I was able sit on top of the bank. I set up two Ronnie rigs and 1 Skimmer rig a 4x16 Jolly to be fished at 10 metres down the inside shelf. I decided to feed four tangerine balls of GB over this line to fish maggot, caster or soft pellet. But I was never to find out whether this line worked or not as I never fished it. Because of the sun I started on the top set with Ronnie rig one, a 4x14 PB14 (modified) using caster hook bait over loose fed caster. I caught quality Ronnie’s to 12oz from the start, but would loose them from time to time. I put this down to feeding too much inviting the Carp in have a look. After two hours I switched to Ronnie rig two - a “to hand rig”, with a home made float fished on a 3 metres Drennan whip (flick tip). I basically kept the Ronnie’s coming, again losing them if I over did the feed. In the last ten minutes I decided to up the caster feed finnishing off my 3/4 of a pint to try my theory wrt Carp. And yes I hooked and landed a 6lb 2oz Mirror on 0.1 line and flick tip. My Ronnie’s (pictured right) weighed in at 28lb 2oz totalling 34lb 4 oz including the one Carp. This put me first in the match and first in the Silvers.
I’m glad I made the effort as I had a memorable days Ronnie fishing, plus I didn’t sneeze all day.
Runner up in both the Silvers and overall was Steve Dawson on peg 11 with 18lb 8oz of Silvers and a total of 21lb 3oz mainly made up of Chub, which Steve caught on the maggot feeder fished over to the island.
Full Result:
1. Mike Nicholls 34-04-0 peg 9
2. Steve Dawson 21-03-0 peg 11
3. Kevin Dicks 19-02-0 peg 1
4. Bob Price 18-05-0 peg 4
5. Chris Davis 18-04-0 peg 6
6. Andy Gard 17-12-0 peg 5
Top Silvers:
1. Mike Nicholls 28-02-0 peg 9
2. Steve Dawson 18-08-0 peg 11
3. Chris Davis 16-0-0 peg 6
The Royal Wedding has been confirmed as 29 April 2011 and a bank holiday decreed. The Special One is already planning for it, as I am. I will be doing the same thing as the last Royal wedding – going fishing.
catch) with 23lb 8oz of Skimmers and Crucians from peg 13. Rich fished similar to tom with soft pellet hook bait.
3. Derek Vowles 42-08-0 peg 5
