Sunday 08/05/2011 - Avon Angling Float Only League - Round One - Viaduct Fishery

I remember now why I haven’t fished a complete Float Only series before, I get home too late. By the time I get the result, drive home, have a Pinky Ponk Juice in my garage with Bela for the post match post-mortem, put the tackle away and have my dinner it’s 21:00. Then there is authoritive question from the Special One “Why are you so late”?

I have a new Cardinal Rule: Never take the Michael out of a DNW’er as you may draw his peg next time out!!

As destiny would have it in to the draw bag and out comes peg 130. The same peg that Nick Collier DNW’ed on last Thursday’s match. However, I was reasonably happy just to be on Campbell Lake, but have this little nagging doubt as Nick is a good angler. I set up two identical 4x14 rigs one with 0.14 line the other 0.16 to help fish faster if bagging (I don’t think you do get them out much quicker though as you adjust the force to be less tahn the hook pull out factor), both to be fished over the same line at 7 metres with meat. Two paste rigs one to be fished out as far as the really nasty gusting wind would allow, which was 9 metres! The other paste rig was for plundering the LH margin. Umm.

Starting on the 8mm meat over kinder potted 6’s. I had a Carp as soon as it reached 1 inch off bottom. I then had 3 more in quick succession, then four Tench – happy days. If the final whistle had gone now after half hour I would have won the match putting a smile off the Special One’s face fro being home early. I then foul hooked two Tench consecutively (I could tell they were Tench because of their thick slime on the line), quickly followed by a lost flying Bream which seemed to by waving goodbye because from that point on I really struggled, picking the odd Tench and Carp off on the paste from the margin and 9 metres. Most of the anglers on my bank struggled (relatively speaking). There appeared to be total lack of undertow, which I think is important for the fish to feed properly. With 15 minutes to go I reckon I needed a couple more decent Carp for a section win and willed the paste float to go down and landed a 4 lb Carp. Out again and with 30 seconds to go the paste float went down again and a definite lump on. Great – not, it snagged my elastic in a very strange way. The Carp broke the line and my elastic was deeply chafed, so a sad good by to another Middy Blue which I have had for two years!

My Silvers weighed 17lb 4oz and the Carp 52lb 9oz fro a total of 69lb 13oz. This put me second in the section by 7lb which was won by good mate John Baker on peg 128. This left me 14th in the match and 11th in the Silvers.

The match was won by Tony Rixon (pictured right with some of his catch) from peg 112 …see his blog for details. But I bet he misses the part where after losing a pole rig Tony decides to recover it with his waggler, instead immediately hooked a Carp (there might have been a few fish in his swim then) . He also retrieved his rig, the float is no doubt back on the shelf at the shop for sale at £1.99.

The Silvers was won by Tom Thick (pictured lower right with the overall winner) from peg 94 with 33lb 3oz of Skimmers. Tom caught on 6mm expander pellet fished over the same fed through a kinder pot, some thing he’s copied form the legend Colin Golding.

Full Result:

1. Tony Rixon 192-10-0 (209-10-0 defaulted) peg 112
2. Clayton Hudson 121-07-0 peg 116
3. Kevin Moulton 118-04-0 peg 111
4. Matt Tomes 117-02-0 peg 121
5. Bob Gullick 110-15-0 peg 113
6. Ron Hardiman 97-04-0 peg 118
7. Craig Edmonds 97-03-0 peg 87

Top Silvers:

1. Tom Thick 33-13-0 peg 94
2. Craig Edmonds 30-13-0 peg 87
3. Chris Davis 30-14-0 peg 123

Saturday 07/05/2011 - Hillview Open

I had a phone call Friday afternoon from son Steve inviting me to Hillview. I must say I was feeling tired so initially declined. However, the Special One talked me into it. So as Steve was driving I decide to go.

After breakfast I was looking around the Café and spotted two poems by a Mr. W. Urm. Keith said that he was regular pleasure angler at the venue; however, Mr. Urm passed away aged 97 last week. I understand he was also an artist and like to paint from photographs. To celebrate his life I thought I would publish two of his angling poems – below left and right in his own hand (clich on then to expand).

Keith put both Moorhen and Heron Lakes in the draw and I was nearly last to draw as I was chatting again! Out comes peg 4 on Moorhen. I wasn’t disappointed even though it’s a corner peg because the last time I fished it I won the match with a ton plus. I couldn’t remember how I fished it, but do remember beating Darren Gillman off the next peg. Steve drew on the same Lake with peg 12, another decent peg.

I set up a 4x14 rig to fish 5 metres with 3mm expander pellet over hard 4’s with a dash of micro and a paste rig for the LH margin towards the end and Aerator. Trevor Chalk tried to convince me to fish at 13 metres over the Aerator ROPE! – Suicide I think. I started at five metres by kinder potting in some pellet and soon had a small 3lb Carp. I followed this up with a few F1’s (I like these fish but it’s a pity their dorsal fins catch in the nets). After a few Skimmers the swim dried up a tad. I really couldn’t work out the feeding and after 2 ½ hours had about 20lb. The Lake appeared to be fishing hard. After trying the close margin swim to no avail where I had been feeding hard 4’s since the start. I decided to not waste a pint of ageing casters I had in my bait bag, so set up a short light rig. First put in I had a 5lb Carp followed next cast by a 3 pounder – got it cracked then. I then had a 3lb Skimmer, then the Perch moved in and it was one a bung. I reckon they were at least five to the pound. I kept on this catching the odd Skimmer and big Ronnie in between the Perch. I was enjoying this and I reckon I had now increased my weight to 50lb. I really wanted to carry on with it but knew I needed some of the bigger species to ensure some pay back. So reluctantly I went to the long margin swim which I hadn’t so far fed. So down with the paste with hard 4’s in the kinder pot and in the last hour I had six biggish Carp to 10lb. In the last 15 minutes for unknown reasons I lost three more through the hook pulling out. I weighed 85lb 7oz for a Lake win and fourth overall.

The match was won by Martyn Howard (pictured right) with 129lb 6oz from peg 28. Martyn caught at 5 metres with meat feeding three tins and the straight lead with pellet.

Steve finished with 68lb just missing out on a section win having a day of foul hookers as did many others.

Full Result:

1. Martyn Howard 129-06-0 peg 28
2. Chris Phillips 102-12-0 peg 22
3. Steve Delbear 92-04-0 peg 24
4. Mike Nicholls 85-07-0 peg 4
5. Arthur Hicks 83-05-0 peg 10
6. Neville Groves 79-13-0 peg 32

Thursday 05/05/2011 - Viaduct Cost Cutter - Campbell and Carey

As we was unable to fish the Thursday Coffin Dodgers I decided to give the Viaduct Thursday cost cutter a go for the first time. It was good to see ten of the Dodgers at the draw. Plus I am fishing the Avon Angling float only on the venue Sunday so an opportunity to have a practice and put some of the refinements and lessons learn from Fridays match in to practice.

I decided on one tin of 6mm meat was needed, so I found C&P Meat Cutters ltd; (Collier and Page) – fast and accurate. In to the draw box and out comes peg 116. I was content with this. Arriving at the peg I found the wind was off my left hand shoulder but swirling a bit. I much prefer the wind either left to right or vice versa, so I can use the tow. I set up exactly the same as Fridays match but found my new 4x14 Jolly for some reason only took 7 no 11 shot, but the cost of the float was the same! Peg 116 is back a fair way from peg 115 so I was hoping this would work to my advantage for the Silvers. Feeding meat through the kinder pot at six metres with similar on the hook I had a Carp first put in – Umm. I kept a few pieces of meat going in and in return caught more Carp to Steve Long’s amusement who was on peg 118. I then started to catch a few big Skimmers with the odd Tench. As opposed to Fridays match the big Silvers stayed with me in between the Carp. I caught a mix of fish steady all through and was still catching with an hour to go but decided to give the paste a try in the margin where I had been lightly feeding hard 4’s since the start. The up shot of this I caught three big Carp to 14lb, plus a couple of smaller verity, three more Tench and three big Bream to 4lb, best stop as I am starting to sound like Ken Rayner. My Silvers went 49lb and my carp 123lb 6oz for a total of 172lb 6oz. This put me first overall and second in the Silvers (so not quite Carp Slayer yet).

The Silvers was won by Jim Baines (pictured right with the match winner, plus the DNW’er who occupied peg 130) with 58lb 9oz from peg 127. I am not sure how he caught, but he seemed to be fishing the margin for the majority of the day.

What a magnificent venue well done, Steve and Paul – thank you. What ever the peg fee is it is well worth it. I will be back.

Full Result:

1. Mike Nicholls 172-06-0 peg 116
2. Anton Page 170-13-0 peg 129
3. Terry Bruton 137-02-0 peg 128
4. Tim Pallant 119-04-0 peg 111
5. Rich Coles 98-12-0 peg 123
6. Jim Baines 98-03-0 peg 127

Top Silvers:

1. Jim Baines 58-09-0 peg 127
2. Mike Nicholls 49-0-0 peg 116
3. Rich Coles 45-10-0 peg 123
4. Steve long 44-14-0 peg 118

Wednesday 05/05/2011 - Carps AC - Tockenham Reservior

Carps AC decided that today would be a training day for the youth of the club and under the supervision of Bill Ferris Tom Thick was allowed to peg. Tom did a reasonable first time effort. However, one golden rule is always look up before you decide on the peg. Tom luckily drew peg 3 (unlucky for the rest of us) which had a huge branch precariously hanging over his head (see picture right).

I drew peg 7 which put me out of the leg for once. But was told I had a pleasure angler next to me. Arriving at the peg I found I was pegged next to Roger Warlock (pictured lower right) a SWWL and Commercial House stalwart. Roger hadn’t realised that there was a match on this bank and started to pack up. I tried to persuade him to stay, but being a match angler he moved down to the dam where he met up with his buddy. Before Roger left we had a good chat about the pros and cons of fishing the river - more cons that pros these days. Nice hat mate!

Colin drew next to me on peg 6 and moaned about his peg all day (Tom). Colin’s peg was similar to mine in that you needed at least 16 metres of pole to clear the Sedges each side of the narrow swim with cut down stick-ups down the middle. Luckily I had a feeder rod – Colin’s didn’t. For the first time for about five years I left the pole in the holdall, setting up the feeder rod and waggler, both to be fished over the same line at 25 metres where I had about 8 to 9 foot of water. I started on the traditional feeder methods of red maggot, caster and worm. However, I was getting bitted out so switched to the micro pellet in the Skimmer GB with 3mm expander on the hook. I caught small 6oz Skimmers steady all day but they really needed tackling with the pole as I struck far too many times on liners. I did hook a couple of Bream which kited off in to the Sedges and cost me a couple of hooks. I did have a go on the waggler but the wind didn’t help with the presentation, I did have a small Ronnie on it though! All in all it was quite a frustrating day with too many small Skimmers in the swim and not enough in the net. I ended up with 29lb 12oz for third overall.

The match was won by Tom Thick (pictured right nice pantaloons) with a massive 49lb 12oz of Skimmers to 2lb from peg 3. Tom fished the pole at 7 metres and 16 metres using 6mm expander pellet on the hook fished over the same feed. Tom fed about four pins of 6mm expander throughout.

No Carp were caught.

Full Result:

1. Tom Thick 49-12-0 peg 3
2. Mark Tanner 39-0-0 peg 10
3. Mike Nicholls 29-12-0 peg 7
4. Steve Dawson 24-05-0 peg 2
5. Bill Ferris 23-0-0 peg 1
6. Charlie Barns 17-0-0 peg 4

Friday 29/04/2011 - Viaduct Royal Wedding Escapee Pole Only Open - Campbell, Carey & Lodge

The Special One had invited her friend around to watch the Royal Wedding, so I had my marching orders. So it was off to Viaduct with the other escapees. Looking around at the draw it was the who’s who of Viaduct regulars. There was some chance of heavy showers which didn’t realise. It wasn’t only the match anglers escaping today, every peg on the venue were taken up over the day. I am not surprised as there have been some colossal weights recently, both Silvers and Carp. I some how seem to miss these matches.

I decided to hang back in the draw and rub against Tony Rixon. I think this was the best decision of the day. In to the draw ice cream container and out comes peg 111 on Campbell. Umm, has some winter form for Silvers. A quick chat with Steve Long and Carp was mentioned, similarly Andy Lloyd thought Carp. The venue has been responding well to meat – that is all species – Carp, Tench and Skimmers. That makes it difficult to single out the Silvers species, making it very peg dependant. As I drew late I looked at my section and soon realised that with Ray Hayward on peg 110 and Andy Power on 116 that a section win was an unlikely option. I sat on my peg for some while unsure how to attack it for the Silvers – meat or meat or go for the Ronnie’s with caster (for those that don’t know what a Ronnie is, it’s a 2oz Roach that nibbles away at any soft Carp bait). I opted for the meat to be fished at 6 metres and 7 metres. In hindsight (I have a PhD in hindsight) this proved to be the wrong decision as I could have won the Silvers on the day with Ronnies.

I set up a 4x14 Jolly with a Tubertini no 14 - 808 to 0.14 hook length. I decided that the best way to focus the Silvers would be to feed lightly through the kinder pot (3 pieces of 6mm Spam) with similar on the hook (6x4 mm Bela’s meat cutter is broken). I started well catching 10lb of Skimmers and a couple of Carp at 6 metres in the first half hour. It then all went tits up when the Carp came chasing in. I realised at this point that Carp was going to be the order of the day. However, even feeding 3-4 pieces of meat after every fish lead to missing a lot of bites. I tried fishing off the bottom, which lead to even quicker and more missed bites. I decided that the fish were taking the meat on the drop but would only take it whilst falling. So I opened up the 7 metre line feeding it in the same way. A pattern then materialised, which was a question of feeding the short line whilst fishing the long line and vice versa. I could catch three to four fish on each line before having to change. I ended the match with 19 Carp for 113lb 12oz and my half hour Skimmers went 10lb 10oz for a total of 124lb 6oz. This left me no where in the Silvers but fourth overall. It was very satisfying for a Silvers Slayer to pip the two venue experts – one by 1lb 2oz and the other by 4lb 13oz especially as Ray put a five pound  whistle fish back (talk to Ray about this one)!! I fed around ¾ of a large tin of Spam.

I lost three fish: One palletised me: One lightly hooked and once again I experience that extraordinary event where whilst applying high load on the fish the hook pulls and my Jolly float has completely vanised even though it was held to the line by four rubbers (I never use the eye of the float).

The match was won by Matt Parsons (pictured right with the Silvers winner) from peg 132 with 147lb 14oz. Matt caught down to the end bank and out in front at 7 metres using meat hook bait over loose fed meat.

I think it well worth a mention that the runner Steve Kiefer (pictured right) caught sone very big Carp from peg 113 (which isn’t usually pegged) with once again that in form meat, fished at 7 metres. Steve fed about 1 ½ tins.

The Silvers was won by Phil Harding with 25lb 1oz all Skimmer catch from peg 71. Phil caught initially on meat switching to 6 and 8mm hard pellet hook bait. Phil caught at both 7 metres and 14 metres.


Full Result:

1. Matt Parsons 147-14-0 peg 132
2. Steve Kiefer 137-09-0 peg 113
3. Nick Collier 133-10-0 peg 94
4. Mike Nicholls 124-06-0 peg 111
5. Andy Power 123-04-0 peg 116
6. Ray Hayward 119-09-0 peg 110

Top Silvers:

1. Phil Harding 25-01-0 peg 71
2. Alan Healy 23-07-0 peg 121
3. Matt Parsons 21-14-0 peg 132

Wednesday 27/04/2011 - Carps AC - Chilton Trinity - Woodlands

With the good weather staying with us I was really looking forward to going back to Trinity – Woodlands. This I was time travelling with Mark Tanner.

With only pegs 1 to 22 reserved we had to cram in a bit more than Sunday’s match but all 15 anglers had a reasonable peg. However, the match the previous day fish very bad with the Carp really getting in to unprotected sex.

In to the draw box and out comes peg 11. The peg Bela had Sunday. I was happy with this as it is a middle Lake peg. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake as Sunday trying for the Ronnie’s and Skimmers on the traditional baits that didn’t produce Sunday – fair enough you think. So I intended to start where I finished last match – on paste in the margin. I was soon in to a 1 ½lb Skimmer – happy days! Next I had a 6lb Carp followed quickly by another. Then I hit the wall. I couldn’t get another meaningful bite from either margin. It was clear that the Lake wasn’t fishing no near as good as Sunday. I had buggered about with the paste for far too long, so with two hours to go I decided to try and catch some Ronnie’s and Rudd with the remaining half pint of casters I had in the bait bag, so I set up a 4metre whip and a short Ronnie rig. Garry Cross on next peg 10 was blanking and came round for some maggots to save a blank; Gary obviously thought he was fishing a team match!! Starting on the whip ended in disaster as I hooked three Carp 2 foot deep the third finally trashing the rig. However, the short rig really came up trumps with a small fish a bung. The upshot was that this match was a complete reversal of Sundays ending up with 14lb 5oz of Ronnie’s without being too bothered by the Motherless the two Carp went 12lb 6oz for a total of 27lb 7oz. This put me 1st in the Silvers and 6th overall.

This goes to show once again that you can not second guess fish.

The match was won by John Page (pictured upper right with some of his catch and lower with the Silvers winner) with 62lb 12oz from peg 6. John caught the majority of his fish long in to the end margin.

Full Result:

1. John Page 62-12-0 peg 6
2. Darren Vowles 52-15-0 peg 9
3. Mark Tanner 33-15-0 peg 20
4. John Thompson 32-02-0 peg 8
5. Colin Golding 27-07-0 peg 3
6. Mike Nicholls 27-07-0 peg 11

Top Silvers:


1. Mike Nicholls 14-05-0 peg 1
2. Rod Wotton 10-09-0 peg 16

Sunday 24/04/2011 - Carps AC - Chilton Trinity - Woodlands

Stop Press:

The Coffin Dodger matches have been cancelled until further notice – see BAA website for details.

Today Anton Page fishing Landsend broke the venue record by a significant margin. Anton weighed 342lb 8oz (45 fish) from peg 31 fishing shallow with 8mm banded pellet feeding nothing, just slapping his hook bait (fed less than me then). Anton used six keep nets and threw back 10lb of Silvers to make a net available for Carp – shame on you.

Tom Mangnall broke the Viaduct record yesterday with 319lb 5oz (25 fish) from peg 94. Tom caught on banded 8mm catching a few on the waggler with the lions share falling to the pole shallow dapping around. Tom did feed 4 pints of a combination of 6’s and 8’s. His catch included two twenties. Not the only record broken by Tom this weekend.

Today I was back at Chilton Trinity and Woodlands Lake. It’s amazing that we have temperatures in the high twenties and there are still Bluebells in full bloom (see picture right). The last time we had temoeratures higher than this week was in the April the year I was born - 1949.

In to the draw box and out comes peg 16. Apparently a right Carp peg but I remember Nicky Collins catching some Skimmers using CW&C from this peg last year. So I set up two rigs one for the CW&C to be fished at 13 metres using a 4x16 Jolly and a paste rig for the snag pit margin (they have removed the tree to the left) set to four feet deep. On the whistle I fed a pot of CW&C at 13 metres and started to feed a few 4’s in to the RH margin, where there were a lot of small fish spawning. Starting on the worm produce bugger all, not quite true I had one 4oz Eel. I then had a period of Silvers mania and set up another four various Ronnie rigs, all to no avail as the Motherless Minnows gets to the bait before anything else (except Carp). After two hours I had about 2lb of Silverfish fish in the net. I had a call of nature and a drink and decided to swap to Carp even though I could hear Tom Mangnall bagging on peg 20. So into the RH margin with paste and first put in - cripes a 3lb Skimmer –change that back on the Silvers then! I had six more and a Tench before the Carp decided to intervene. It was then a question of getting the Carp out as quick as possible to get back for a Skimmer, but the Carp were winning this one. It was then a question of keeping the Carp from going under my platform and in snags which accounted for six lost Carp. My Silver weighed in at 23lb 15oz (accidental Silver I suppose) and my Carp weighed 66lb 14oz for a total of 90lb 13oz. This left me 2nd  in the Silvers and 3rd overall –no mans land.

The match as expected was won by Tom Mangnall (pictured right with the Silvers Winner) from peg 20 with a new venue record of 205lb 90z. Tom alternated between his margins and shallow with either meat or 8mm banded hook bait. Well done matey two records in two days.

I carried Tom's rod bag back to his car and I can confirm thta it is heavier than all my tackle combined!

The Silvers was won by the legend Colin Golding from peg 10 with 30lb 12oz. Colin fished his usual plop-plop method (6mm expander fished over loose fed 6mm expander) at 5 metres. An excellent weight of Silvers on the day. Colin lost two of his pole sections in the lake, but as usual, he didn’t let it spoil his day.

Full Result:

1. Tom Mangnall 205-09-0 peg 20
2. Chris Davis 107-09-0 peg 6
3. Mike Nicholls 90-13-0 peg 16
4. John Page 77-02-0 peg 13
5. John Bennett 71-08-0 peg 22
6. Shane Casswell 65-05-0 peg 14

Top Silvers:

1. Colin Golding 30-12-0 peg 10
2. Mike Nicholls 23-15-0 peg