Wednesday 01/08/2012 - Avon Angling Open - Acorn Fishery - Paddocks

I watched some of the Olympic Swimming last night and thought some of the swimmers were disrespectful to the crowd who were cheering them on whilst some of the USA Swimmers wore their iPod head phones.

It was a nice surprise to see Pete Notton back out fishing. Pete caught 50lb which got him keen to fish again.

In to the draw bucket where there was only two left, one for me and the last one went to Tony Rixon. I pulled peg 15 and Tony peg 4. I think we would have both been happy with either peg.

The wind was blowing down the venue so I was hoping my empty peg would be down wind. Luckily it was.

I set up the usual caster rigs and paste rigs. One of each rig for the margin and one each to be fished at 3 metres. Starting on the margin caster rig I caught a menagerie of Silver fish straight off, unfortunately it only lasted an hour before I lost two big Skimmers (foul hooked me thinks). That seemed to be it as I could only catch small 1oz Perch. I had been feeding hard 4’s at 3 metres so tried the paste over it. There were a few Carp there but due to the wind the tow made presentation difficult with paste. I missed four bites or liners) before hooking my first small Carp. I had to give this line up as it became very frustrating; before I did I tried a worm over the top and missed a few perch tugs. So back on the margin caster and a few more Silvers, but it appeared that the swim was being disrupted by Carp. So on to the margin paste rig switching to feeding hard 4’s instead of caster. I caught the odd Carp, but it wasn’t until the last hour and half that I started to put a Carp weight together, with the last 30 minutes adding ten better Carp.

The tow is usually a lot stronger in the margins as it was today, with it strong enough to pull the paste off before it settled properly. The opposite is true in that the tow is not so strong down the track. It's all to do with the hydraulics and volume/mass of water.

My silvers weighed 11lb 6oz and my Carp 106lb 8oz for a total of 117lb 14oz. This put me fourth overall and a section win.

The match was won by Tony Rixon (pictured right with a polish catch) on peg 4 with 166lb 5oz. Tony caught … see his blog.

The Silvers was won by Craig “Trigger” Edmondson (pictured lower right with his excellent catch of hand size Skimmers) from peg 16. Craig caught down the track using caster over kinder potted caster.

Full Result:

1.      Tony Rixon 166-05-0 peg 4

2.      Adrian Jefferies 132-02-0 peg 10

3.      John Thompson 127-11-0 peg 7

4.      Mike Nicholls 117-14-0 peg 15

5.      Matt Tomes 89-06-0 peg 36

6.      Tom Thick 87-05-0 peg 12

Top Silvers:

1.      Craig Edmonds 41-14-0 peg 16

2.      John Bradford 20-04-0 peg 9

3.      Nick Collier 20-0-0 peg 27

Sunday 29/07/2012- Avon Angling Open - Sedges - Brick Lake

It was another good breakfast in Hilltops Café and Bela then headed off to Chiltern Trinity – doh – “where we going Bert” – Sedges! We finally arrived at our destination; I put it down to the Pinky Ponk Juice.

Nice to meet up with fishery owners Denise and Jamie again, I do miss fishing this venue regularly as I have in the past. Today saw the first time out for my new Boss tackle box, so was concerned about if it had the same luck as my previous box. So in to the draw bag and out comes peg 1. It looked as if the tackle box was going to get stuffed in to the back of the garage if I draw crap pegs like this. Peg 1 is an undesirable. No moaning as you have to take the rough with the smooth in this game and make the best out of it and try and get a days fishing.

Steve Segar came down to console me explaining that he had once caught a match winning 100lb of Tench from the swim – no consolation, but it did make me smile.

The wind was blowing over my left shoulder at 2 o clock, basically in to peg 20, which meant the swim was becalmed, which may be benificial if the wind picked up as forecast - it didn't.

I set up a 4x16 Jolly to be fished at 10 metres at 10 o clock for the CW&C, a paste rig for over the same line and a paste rig in to the end margin. I fed five balls of GB laced with chopped worm and Caster over the Skimmer line, flowed by a dozen or so hard 4’s in to the end margin.

Starting on the worm I had the float lift – excellent – missed the bite, drop in again same again, the float would not cock properly. I persevered until I caught the culprit a 2 oz Skimmer. I had to abandon the line because the small fish would not leave the bait alone. So it was out in to the end bank margin with paste cupped in with some 4’s. Once again the small fish were pecking away at the paste. Time for a rethink, so out came the Ronnie rig to be fish over small balls of GB laced with casters with single caster on the hook. I started to catch the small critters that were worm tugging on the 10 metre line. Blimey they were small, but with very few fish being caught around me I stuck with them. I kept testing the end bank for Carp but only found the nibblers waiting. That was until the last ¾ hour when I saw a blow and with the paste rig sitting motionless I was soon in to my first 10lb Common. This was followed by an 8lb Ghost Carp, then a 9lb Kio Carp and the last fish to be landed just after the whistle was a 12lb Common.

The Carp weighed a total of 39lb 3oz and my 200 odd plips adding 11lb 6oz for a total of 50lb 9oz for fifth overall and my 10 peg section by default. I must admit I was well pleased with this result, especially considering that Steve Evans on peg 2 blanked!!

The match was won by Martin Lenaghan (pictured right - is he asleep) from peg 10 with 103lb 15oz. Martin caught both in to his margin at 14 metres and out in front at 16 metres using 10mm banded pellet fished over loose fed 6mm pellet. Martin fed about six pints of 6’s.

The Silvers was won by Steve Segar (pictured lower right with the match winner) with 26lb 3oz from peg 3. Steve caught on meat fished over pellet at 13 metres.

Full Result:

1.      Martin Lenaghan 103-15-0 peg 10

2.      Pete Wild 68-13-0 peg 12

3.      Alan Oram 52-05-0 peg 15

4.      Mike Nicholls 50-09-0 peg 1

5.      Dave Roper 45-14-0 peg 13

6.      An-Ton Page 44-10-0 peg 6

Top Silvers:

1.      Steve Segar 26-03-0 peg 3

2.      Dave Roper 25-02-0 peg 13

3.      An-Ton Page 25-04-04 peg 6

Wednesday 25/07/2012 - Avon Angling Open - Lands End - Match and Specimen Lakes

After putting in a lot of effort in to yesterdays match in the blazing sun I was a little slow getting focussed on today’s match at Landsend. After a cool shower and breakfast in Shipman with two of my Coffin Dodger mates Ray and Paul it was in to the draw box and with only two tickets left, pegs 34 and 21 I was hoping it would be peg 34 as it does have a good record for the Silvers, but no peg 21 comes out a real Carp Slaying peg. Arriving at the peg I found myself surrounded by them all up in the water. Luckily, Tony Rixon arrived at peg 19 so hopefully Tony would keep them occupied as it was to be an out and out Silvers match for me as being realistic I cannot compete mentally or physically with the up in the water Carp Slayers and that is what you would need to do for any overall coin today (roll on winter).

Peg 21 does have a great LH margin accessible with a top set plus a bit of the number four. It also has a reasonable flat bottom with not too many snags to contend with. So two rigs, a margin Silvers rig for caster and worm (not a Ronnie rig) and a paste rig as the margins do offer some of the larger Skimmers to this bait.

I started by potting in some caster by now Tony was playing his first Carp! I think I was second to catch a fish, a 2oz Perch on double caster. It wasn’t long before I abandoned this as the tiny Perch would mash one of the casters on the drop and mash the other on the bottom, if I did hook one they often fell off. So on to the worm over the caster and similarly the small Perch were tugging off the worm. I did have a couple of 8oz specimens before I put the paste out. This lead to four decent Skimmers to 2lb losing two foul hooked ones at the net – this was a bugger because as at it happened these would have got me coin by default.

Time for experiments me thinks. So I got out a deep paste rig and another pole section to fish at five metre just down the inside ledge. It’s amazing how I could get fish fizzing over just the paste hook bait with no feed. I think they are feeding over the particles that fall away from the paste just above bottom as it took a while to get any indication. I did have one more Skimmer and a couple of Ghost Carp. Back in to the margins and in the last hour the Carp had arrived landing six more. My eight Carp weighed 47lb 8oz and my Silvers 11lb 8oz of a total of 59lb - no coin today.

The match was won my Tony Rixon (pictured above centre complete with his stalking/mugging attire – I thought he looked more like an Ice cream Man) with a new venue match record of 351lb 10oz from peg 19. See Tony’s blog on how he captured this many fish. Still the second best Angler in the South West - not ready for "Filp Flops" yet matey - well done - pleasure to witness.

I have had the pleasure of fishing next to both these venue match record holders and to be truthful there isn’t much difference between their rigs and methods. Tony will tell you he’s “Stalking” and Anton will tell you he’s a “Slapper”. Neither of them fed any bait (that’s the only part I like about this method). The difference between them for me is that Anton has the youth and the endurance strength. However, Tony has the smoothness and experience – done it all before. I must say I didn’t have a ripple from Tony’s peg when landing his fish, and I bet he used the same rig all day.

The Silvers was won accidentally by An-Ton Page (pictured right) with 28lb from peg 34. Anton caught Chub and F1’s shallow with 8mm banded hard pellet – slapping it around – sickening isn’t it.

Full Result:

1.      Tony Rixon 351-10-0 peg 19 (New venue match record)

2.      An-Ton Page 227-13-0 peg 34 (Ex record holder)

3.      Dean Malin 161-03-0 peg 5

4.      Tom Thick 158-0-0 peg 24

5.      Martin Lenaghan 129-05-0 peg 11

6.      Dave Roper 100-13-0 peg 15

Top Silvers:

1.      An-Ton Page 28-0-0 peg 34

2.      Martin Lenaghan 19-0-0 peg 11

3.      Joe McMahon 15-04-0 peg 36 

Tuesday 24/07/2012 - Acorn Open - Paddocks

With my Granddaughters away for week’s holiday, I had a day off the baby sitting, so I sneaked off to Acorn Fishery for their very popular Tuesday open. Into the draw bag and out comes lottery ball number twelve. I was very happy with this peg as it on a bend offering plenty of room which would be crucial today under the blazing bright sunshine.

On peg 13 I had Andy Smith (pictured right sat in his car next to his peg assembling his traditional waggler) for company. When I see Andy I always think Bath AA. But of course he his now a Director of Amalgamation Limited and has been for more years than he was Secretary of Bath AA.

On a lighter note the weather has been scorching hot as it would be today, so it was a question of minimum clothes without getting sunburnt. An-Ton Page (pictured right) was modelling the latest men’s underwear – I suppose we will all be wearing them next year!! I was surprise he didn’t have Sensas emblazed on his backside.

My plan was to target the Silvers by starting on the Ronnie rig with caster for down the LH margin. In case this didn’t work I set up two paste rigs – one long at 3 metres and one in the margin over the caster line. So starting on single caster I had a 4lb Carp first and second put in – not what I wanted.  I then had a run of ten different species of Silver! However, none were of any size. I was interrupted by the odd Carp and after nearly four hours I foul hooked a Carp which bent the wire stem on my Ronnie rig into a U shape. Looking around there didn’t seem to be many Silvers being caught so with about 20lb of Silvers captured at the cost of half pint of casters and six Carp in one net. I decided to switch to the paste over the caster changing the loose feed to hard 4’s. Basically it was a Carp a bung until the end. I fed about ¼ pint of pellet.

As I didn’t add to my Silvers the weight stayed at 21lb 10oz. This put me second in the Silvers so some coin earmarked. I was surprised when my Carp took my total to a winning weight of 150lb 9oz. So, should I have fished for Carp from the off – probably, if I was a carp Slayer, that said you can’t do much better than win the match and have a Silvers second.

The Silvers was won by matey Dave Wride (pictured right with his net of “peas-in-the-pod” Skimmers) with 28lb 8oz from peg 24. Dave caught on meat and soft pellet.

 Full Result:

1.      Mike Nicholls 150-09-0 peg 12

2.      An-Ton Page 135-06-0 peg 15

3.      Chris Davis 107-0-0 peg 16

4.      Matt Tomes 93-08-0 peg 32

5.      Mike Chapman 91-07-0 peg 5

6.      Andy Gard 88-03-0 peg 4

Top Silvers:

1.      Dave Wride 28-08-0 peg 24

2.      Mike Nicholls 21-10-0 peg 12

3.      Dave Bacon 18-09-0 peg 30 (plus the biggest Tench award (2lb 8oz)

Sunday 22/07/2012 - Viaduct Fishery Open - Campbell Lake

After a week away to spoil the Special One in the Holcombe Valley (just outside Weymouth) it was back to Viaduct – Campbell. It was breakfast in Woody’s, who tried put my breakfast on top of Bela’s, then tried to put four beans on toast and four eggs on my plate! Two chews Bela would have munched through the lot without breathing.

It looks like the weather has changed for the better fro holiday makers that is – not sure about us anglers though.

Campbell has had a match on it 23 times in the last 25 days. So would it fish well? Of course it would, as it is the best fishery in the country.

Last but three in the draw queue with 132, 115 and 131 left, not me I hope, yes, that went to Mash, peg 132 went to Lee Werrett and luckily I pulled peg 115. Perfect as I was targeting the Silvers to try a qualify for the all winners final which I have fell at the last hurdle five times this year! Last time I fished this peg I had 42 lb of Silvers only to be beaten by Paul Greenwood on peg 127 who had 57lb. This time I had Silvers expert John Green on peg 126 so someone to keep an eye on!

There was a club match on Carey and the old guy (don’t get to say this often) said he fished my peg the day before and weighed in 5lb! Blimey!

It must be fifteen years since I used hard banded pellet in earnest, abandoned due to the advent of soft expander pellet. I was impressed with how Tony Rixon just pipped me for the Silvers last week using this method. So I set up a 4x14 jolly with a size 20 hook, banded with a Mosella micro band hair rigged to 0.14 G Line to be fished at 4 metres. Just in case, I set up a paste rig to fish over the same line. I followed this by a paste/worm rig for the LH margin (even though the light wind was blowing the rig towards me).

I started by feeding a pot of wetted micro into the margin swim, then it was out on the banded hard 6mm at 4 metres and loose feeding hard 4’s over the top. First dob in I had a 5lb Carp followed by six more, losing two, with the last Carp trashing my rig. Not going to plan then. Blimey I have accidentally put together a slayers rig. So it was out on the paste, and after a short wait I had a 2lb Skimmer and that was it for this line as the Carp was swirling around on the surface taking the 4’s. So I put the two 4 metre rigs well away from foot crunching distance and went in to the margin where I had been feeding hard 4’s. With paste on the hook I had a run of Tench before the small fish started to gnaw the paste to oblivion. So a switch to whole Worm well nearly I like to head and tail them to reduce the wriggle factor. This resulted a few more Tench, a couple of Perch to 2lb and a couple of Bream with one of them jumping out the water on to the weeded bank, which necessitated me gently easing it back in to the water. It was easy to land from then onwards. The swim went quite so back on the past and with some further gentle feeding of hard 4’s and a few more Tench resulted. This is how the rest of the match went switching between the two hook baits I kept the Tench coming. I was reminded six times today how very much fishing for Tench in the margins is so similar to the Chub on the river Avon diving for freedom if you fish too tight and no matter how hard you pull they get away - fair play I say. With 30 minutes to go I had a run of six Tench which luckily I put in a separate net (I always put four nets in on this venue – not in anticipation - but to help keep the fish from palletising me).

My five early Carp weighed in 27lb 10oz and my Silvers 58lb 11oz for a total of 83lb 5oz. This put me 8^th overall and more importantly first in the Silvers and qualifying for the all winners final – AT LAST - beating John Green by 10lb.

The match was won by Martin Preston who is a Primary School Teacher. I take my hat off to this profession as you need the patients of “Old Nick”, which is an essential ingredient for being a great Match Angler – which Martin is (pictured right with one of his sunburnt pupils and Silvers winner). Martin landed 211lb 8oz from peg 125. Martin fished popped up bread, fished at about half depth on the lead feeding 8mm pellet over the top. Martin hair rigged various sizes of bread from 2 inch square to thumb size to keep the Carp coming throughout the match. It took three pints of pellet and half a loaf of white bread to amass this great total on a blinding hot sunny day.

Full Result:

1.      Martin Preston 211-08-0 peg 125

2.      Tom Mangnall 185-06-0 peg 127

3.      Glenn Bailey 148-08-0 peg 119 (after the usual they are all at the other end grump)

4.      Dan White 141-11-0 peg 118

5.      Lee Werrett 114-04-0 peg 132

6.      Kevin Crouch 104-03-0 peg 116

Top Silvers:

1.      Mike Nicholls 58-11-0 peg 115

2.      John Green 46-0-0 peg 126

3.      Bela Bakos 16-10-0 peg 129

Sunday 15/07/2012 - Avon Angling Open - Viaduct Fishery - Campbell and Lodge Lakes

I thought yesterday’s Fish o Mania was another success. The only comment was that all of the anglers interviewed said the trophy was more important than the money – not for me – keep the trophy and get the cheque in the bank!! I wish for more angling matches to be televised.

After another meat free breakfast in Woody’s it was in to the draw queue and found myself one of the last three to draw. Pegs 127, 112 and 131 left in the coffee tin. I just didn’t want to draw peg 131, luckily for me this was left to Chris Davis who not surprisingly DNW’ed as like me he won’t fish the lead. I had peg 127 and Dean Malin 112, my preferred peg as it has a great margin.

For two weeks on the trot I was surrounded by the South West top Carp Slayers with Tom Mangnall on next peg 126 and An-Ton on peg 123 and Tony Rixon on peg 124. I was resigned to being battered again, as the Carp were well out and up in the water. So the focus was solely the Silvers for any path to coin. So it was a start on meat at 9 metres with a 4x14 jolly and two paste rigs one for over the meat line and another for the margin.

Starting on the 6mm meat kindering in 5 pieces, I foul hooked a Carp first put in, which luckily wasn’t on long leaving the rig intact. This was quickly followed by two 6lb Carp. That was it, no more Carp throughout the match as Tom Mangnall had been blasting in the pellet causing the biggest fizzing area I have witnessed, some 12 foot diameter at 14.5 metres. So on to the Silvers and after a few small Skimmers the small Ronnie’s took charge and I was pestered by them. So it was on to the paste over the meat line which just sat there, until the paste dissolved popping the float up. It was early in to the margin then, whilst I loose fed hard 4’s over the nine metre line to see if I could get some fizzing, which I didn’t, so never fished this it again. The margin was full of small fish which made both paste and caster impossible to fish. The only hook bait that would stay on long enough to catch anything decent was a big piece of worm. So I stayed with this, feeding caster and hard 4’s over the top. I didn’t feed any worm. I caught five Tench losing one and Perch to 2lb, but no Skimmers. I did lose quite a few Perch due to the hook pulling free. My two Carp went 13lb 8oz and my Silvers 29lb 12oz for a total of 43lb 4oz. This left my marginally fourth in the Silvers. However, I did manage a default pick up as Tony Rixon won his section.

The match was technically won by Tom Mangnall (pictured right sporting his new ASDA “Smart Price” glasses no wonder he dosn't smile) from next peg 126 with 242lb 12oz. Tom fished shallow at 14.5 metres using banded pellet over loose fed pellet. Fortunately for Tom An-Ton Page (pictured lower right looking distraught) had gone over the 70lb limit by 4lb and then went over the 90lb limit on another keep net and lost his complete net, having altogether 94 lb deducted which would have gave him a grand total of 287lb 3oz!!

The Silvers was won by Shaun Townsend (pictured bottom right with the real match winner now smiling as he only lost out by £10 pools money) from peg 66 with 31lb 15oz. Shaun caught on 6mm banded pellet feeding hard 4’s.

Full Result:

1.      Tom Mangnall 242-12-0 peg 126

2.      An-Ton Page 193-02-0 peg123

3.      Craig Edmonds 162-14-0 peg 59

4.      Tony Rixon peg 138-06-0 peg124

5.      Alan Oram 126-07-0 peg 119

6.      Dean Malin peg 85-10-0 peg112

Top Silvers:

1.      Shaun Townsend 31-15-0 peg 66

2.      Tony Rixon 30-09-0 peg 124

3.      Nigel Bartlett 30-06-0 peg 118

4.      Mike Nicholls 29-12-0 peg 127

During the match a red ants nest decided to make home in my net bag I thought I had
cleared them all out however, by the time Bela and I reached "Bar Gar-age" Bela was bitten
all round his ankles with the red ants crawling all over him.

Wednesday 11/07/2012 - Avon Angling Open - Landsend - Match Lake

Today was a Coffin Dodgers day out, with Ray Bazeley, Paul Haines and me (last of the Summer Wine seems more appropriate). After a meat free breakfast it was off to Landsend. With 15 fishing we were all on Match Lake which had fish extremely well on Sunday. However, I knew it wouldn’t fish that well again today.

Amazingly we had sunshine for most of the day, “Dodging” the rain all day. Amazing really because just down the road at Shepton Mallet they had floods!

In to the draw bag and out comes peg 1 happy with this as it has plenty of margins to fish. The problem was which one?

I think the platform on peg 1 is designed for the disabled and is well up off the water, with a high board across the front which necessitated raising the legs on my box. Unfortunately, I can’t tighten the legs up as I use to. So when I sat on the box both back legs collapsed and I fell off the box backwards hurting my hands and elbow. Luckily there were no top sets about at the time!

Starting on the 4x14 jolly at 9 metres with soft pellet over kindered micro resulted in a stampede of Carp on the surface, foul hooking and losing two. This was followed by a run of small Ronnie’s and nothing else. So I re-fed and it was an exact repeat of the first feed. That was it up the bank with this plan. In to the end margin with CW&C with worm on the hook, this produced a run of small Perch, with many coming off. I soon had enough of this so I fed CW&C out on the 9 metre line and it was a repeat, with the Carp right up on the surface taking the feed  before it got down a foot – another foul hooker followed and one Rudd. By half time all I had to show for my desperate efforts was 6lb of Silvers. I even tried the Ronnie rig but was soon aware that the Ronnies weren't playing fair - missing loads of bites and putting nothing in the net.

I decided to fish out the match in my banker swim, which was in the RH margin as tight in to the bank as the over grown vegetation would allow with a 0.4 gram Gerry of Nottingham Paste and corn rig for the paste. I had been dripping in hard fours and it wasn’t long before I had a 3lb Carp in the net – my first. This swim has a bloody great tree in it so you fish here at your peril; hence I had tightened the elastic right down to “walk the dog”. I then hooked a double figure Common Carp and because I had tightened the elastic right down I pulled out of it. On the next fish I adjusted the elastic as I played it to get some sort on compromise. This work well for most of the match losing only two to the tree branches only because the Carp had come up in the water on the strike. I felt I had turned a disaster in to a resemblance of a match, enjoying the second half putting 14 Carp in the nets.

My Carp weighed in at 73lb 6oz and adding my Silvers took me to 79lb 6oz for third overall – as I expected the Lake fish slightly below par.

The match and the Silvers were won by Tom Mangnall (pictured right admiring the runner up and match organiser) from peg 8 with 102lb10oz (Tom had gone 7lb over in one net which was deducted). Tom caught all his fish over to the far bank using caster over caster.

Full Result:

1.      Tom Mangnall 102-10-0 peg 8

2.      Tony Rixon 87-0-0 peg 15

3.      Mike Nicholls 79-06-0 peg 1

4.      Adrian Jeffery 70-12-0 peg 13

5.      Tom Thick 70-07-0 peg 21

6.      Nigel Bartlett 56-10-0 peg 24

Top Silvers:

1.      Tom Mangnall 22-10-0 peg 8

2.      Tom Thick 19-07-0 peg 21

3.      Nigel Bartlett 17-14-0 peg 24

I am now thinking ahead to Sundays match at Viaduct on Campbell and Lodge.
The question is should I take a waggler rod for Lodge? Doubt it.