On my own today as Geoff preferred the Windmill match. Stopped at the Bridge Hotel for breakfast, not knowing what the food will be like, as it can be variable to say the least. Luckily the Chef that can cook was on duty today so an enjoyable breakfast. Arrived at the fishery in plenty of time for a quick look at the Lake. With it overcast with a bit of rain expected and the temperature still up for the time of year I expected some good weights and predicted 30 lb would be needed. There was some wind on the Lake with the worse blowing into pegs 4,5 and 6 so would hope to avoid these. Into the draw box and out comes peg 5! For company I had Mike "Curley" Jones and Andy Gard. I set up the waggler, the Ronnie rig and a 4x12 Winter Titan to fish at top-set plus 4, which was about as far as I could hold the pole in the wind. Due to the wind the Ronnie rig was a no hoper so abandoned. I started on the long line with Pinkie over GB laced with Pinkie and had a few small Skimmers and a couple of Ronnies. I was soon apparent that the Ronnies had shut up shop. I persevered with the Pinkie but it wasn't happening. The rig was hammering though with the wind which was ever increasing. I could see those out of the wind catching Skimmers so knew I was out of the running early on. The wind was very frustrating. I decided to have a play with the 4 mm expander fished on the same line over micro and blow me I caught a 12 oz Skimmers first try on the drop. It didn't last. So I mixed up some different GB to feed the micro with. This worked well enough catching five small Skimmers. I persevered with this line until the wind got the better of me, so threw the towel in and played around with the waggler. The presentation further out was much better and fishing single LR over loose fed LR's resulted in another skimmer and some Ronnies. I experimented by putting an expander on the hook of the waggler and providing it stayed on after casting I would get a bite immediately. I missed most of them Ronnies me thinks. I did have another Skimmer messing around with the expander. On hindsight I should have anticipated the increase in the wind and had a line closer in where I could have presented better. The waggler also might have been a better option to fishing long. I finished with 14 lb 6 oz and also ran but did beat Two Pots. I hate the wind especially when it affects my fishing. As I predicted it fished well with a lot of 30 lbs. The best being Tony Rixon (pictured right with his catch) with 39 lb 4 oz from peg 2. Tony caught long on the caster over GB laced with caster....see his blog for further details. Most of the framing weights came to caster hook bait.
Result: 1. Tony Rixon 39-04-0 peg 2 2. Rob Wotton 33-06-0 peg 14 3. Dave Wride 32-12-0 peg 17 4. Dave Willmott 30-0-0 peg 15
Another good turnout of 18 anglers, including matey Graham Beever (pictured right) who is never short of a story or two. Today it was his banana. Graham had written a note not to forget his bait in the fridge on his banana - it didn't work!! It was to be another very sunny day and a UK record for February. So I didn't want a draw on the car park bank as the sun would be a nightmare. So I was very happy to draw peg 13 - unlucky for some. Peg 13 is an end peg next to the power cables, so one neighbour John Merchant. I set up a light waggler and a 4x12 Winter Titan both with 0.1 GLine to a 20 - 808. It was easy shipping back as there is a large hole in the hedge so choose to fish the pole at 11.5 metres. I expected to catch some Skimmers from this peg, so started by putting a heavy and a loose ball of GB laced with Pinkie. I started to catch tiny Ronnies which lasted about hour before it dried up I had been kindering a top-up, So tried loose feeding which didn't work, so tried the waggler over this line and had some more bites from even smaller Ronnies missing most of them because I doubt if they had the hook in their mouths. It was fishing very hard - no wind and very bright sunshine so shouldn't be surprised. I was glad when the dinner bell was sounded. A cup of tea and bangers and chips greeted us - all consumed and back in the saddle. Behind me all day there has been a group of women shouting and laughing, apparently it's a dog training school. Don't they relised dogs got better hearing than humans. Well things didn't get any better if fact I thought it impossible for things to get worse, they did! I kept switching between the pole and the waggler to catch the odd 1/2 oz Ronnie. I was glad to hear the all-out. I weighed 2 lb 41/2 oz for midway. The match was won by Colin Butler (pictured right with his catch) with 5 lb 12 1/2 oz from peg 2. Colin caught on the pole using expander over micro, with most of his fish coming in the first half of the match. This corner was the place to draw today I think the fish have moved here because it's an area that has the least sunshine. It's a great venue for discipline. I do enjoy these matches with great company. Result: 1. Colin Butler 5-12-08 peg 2 2. Norman Ferris 5-3-08- peg 25 3. Andy Gard 5-01-0 peg 32 4. Graham Beevor 4-12-0 peg 4 Weigh Sheet:
Once I heard that they were catching F1's on the waggler on the new Heron Lake at Ivy House I wanted to have a go. So having a free Sunday booked in. Got the car packed and removed some slush/ice from the windscreen and took a steady ride to the fishery having to keep to 40 mph due to some dense fog. I arrived just as Keren started cooking breakfast, so first to be served. Very nice it was too.
I had a walk around the fishery with matey Adrian Jeffery. It was a bit foggy to fully appreciate the work that Andy and Karen has done to this fishery (pictured upper right). No doubt a lot of investment has been put into this fishery in recent months. Into the draw tin and out comes peg 2. I had no idea what the peg was like, but as per usual there are plenty of anglers willing to tell me - the consensus was not good. For company I had big Al Oram on peg 3 and believe it or not Adrian Jeffery on peg 1 (pictured right in full concentration). Great company - but not all Bristolians.The corner pegs of the Lake are arranged such that they share the far bank in terms of space, with peg 1 having a narrow point to fish to and peg 2 back in a bay.(see pegs layout pictured right). I named them space-saver pegs! I started to set up a waggler but soon relised I was under a tree so the choice of waggler was changed from a light to heavy so I could side swipe the cast - not very elegant. Also I was actually facing peg 1 which meant I had to cast at 10 o'clock to my peg which wasn't great for the wind as I immediately had a bow in the line. I set up a 4 x12 Winter Titan to fish at 11.5 metres at full depth which is about 5 foot. On the all in I fed some LR's over and was content that they were landing more or less in my peg - thanks to Al for his patients. I also fed some micro on the pole line. I started on the waggler and had a good run for about 1 1/2 hours catching F1's. That was until the sun came out and finding difficult to see my yellow topped float I changed to a red top which I had nail varnished so it glistened in the sun. I had a few more F1's but the swim just gradually died. In between I tried the pole and didn't have a bite on either soft pellet or maggot. With 2 hours to go and unable to revive the peg and with the sun unbearable blazing from the reflection on the water, I decided to have a walk round to get a feel of what the other pegs were fishing like. Six anglers were doing reasonably well and with only one person I could find had caught anything on the pole at 16 metres. Back to my peg and with only two more F1's in the net and half hour to go I decided to pack up ealy and help Karen weigh in.
I weighed 27 lb 4 oz for joint second in the section with matey Alan Oram and a defaut pickup. And I only hooked the tree once.
The match was won by Jason Robinson (pictured right) with 47 lb of small Carp and a few F1's from peg 21. Jason likewise caught on the waggler and because he had a problem reaching the far bank with loose maggots fed some hard 4's with maggot hook bait. I did enjoy the day and will definitely be back, Even though there are no Silvers in the Lake I love this sort of fishing. Andy said he would trim the tree branches back which would help in future. As can be seen the framing weight were very close, which is always good. Result: 1. Jason Robinson 47 -0-0 eg 21 2. Billy Ockwell 45-02-0 peg 17 3. Mike Etheridge 42-06-0 peg 8 4. Andy Lloyd 40-04-0 peg 14
Geoff and I had our usual breakfast at Hungry Horaces. Today seemed better than usual, was it the spring like weather or just cooked differently. With the school run on holiday it was an easy drive to the fishery. Why don't all kids walk to school like I had to! Bridge Pool having a recent waste of money siltexing had now turned a brown colour - probably an Algae. I didn't fancy it at all and didn't know where the best pegs would be today but would be happy with peg 14. As can be seen from the video below I had drawn Cliff who was downunder with his wife on holiday so fished against his stand in Cliff Rolfe! Late into the draw bag and out comes peg 15 - near enough I'm thinking. For company I had Hughie Evans on peg 14 and Mike Jones on peg 16 who, when he wasn't fighting with the opposite innocent brambles was knocking my top-sets with his very long whip. I set up the usual 4x16 Winter Titan to fish at top-set plus four barrels at 11 o'clock and a light waggler to fish over to the end of the island. I started on the pole with single maggot over GB laced with Pinkie which just sat there whilst Hughie was catching decent Skimmers short on soft pellet. I reckon he had 8 lb in the net before I had my first fish - a micro Ronnie. I persevered with this line by topping up regularly, which only resulted in more tiny Ronnies. With no signs of Skimmers I was only left with section second to fish for, so picked up the waggler rod. With single LR on the hook fished over loose fed half and half caster and LR's started to catch some better Ronnies. In and out I kept feeding the pole line which didn't show any sign of Skimmers. The upshot was I spent the rest of the match on the waggler and towards the end started to catch some F1's mixed in with the Ronnies and a 1 lb Perch. I must admit I enjoy this type of fishing. The varying wind was a bit of a nuisance at times. My Silvers weighed 7 lb 1 oz and my F1's 8 lb 14 oz for a section second of 15 lb 15 oz. Plus I beat Cliff Rolfe on the knockout.
The match and the Silvers was won by Tony Rixon (pictured right with his Skimmer catch) with 20 lb 12 oz and 32 lb 4 oz overall from peg 5. Tony caught on GB and casters. See his blog for the details... Geoff finished joint second overall with 18 lb 6 oz from peg 6.
Result:
A Section - Tony Rixon 20-12-0 peg 5 A Section - Geoff Francis 18-06-0 peg 6 B Section - Steve Dawson 11-08-0 peg 10 B Section - Mike Nicholls 15-15-0 peg 15 C Section - Dave Gillard 8-15-0 peg 24 C Section - Ken Morgan 18-06-0 peg 21 D Section - Dave Wride 13-08-0 peg 28 D Section - Ray Bazeley 11-10-0 peg 30 Keynsham Angling Voucher - peg 4 - Pete Greenslade
The weather is staying mild but some wind forecast, not good for this venue. Fifteen fishing today, the numbers being swelled due to the Severn bridge tolls being scrapped me thinks. Peg 21 was pulled for the golden peg which did stand a good chance of winning. I was hoping to be at the car park end pegs 24 or 25 so to have the wind off my back. Into the draw box and out came peg 2. This peg was right in the wind which I knew would be a problem. For company I had John Clark, who broke his Daiwa number six section and was lucky to get the remainder out of the Lake. John subsequently FOE'd. I set up the Ronnie rig which got trashed in the process, so not a good start. The only other rig was the usual 4x16 Winter Titan to fish at top-set plus 4 barrels. I was expecting to catch a few Carp here today, I started by cupping in some micro and LR's and with a single on the hook and was soon losing a foul hooked Carp. I started to loose feed LR's over the top and started to get bites from tiny Ronnies. Then the wind picked up totally spoiling presentation with the float being driven by the wind. I persevered with the pole and was rewarded by a 4 lb Carp. The wind got so bad a Ronnie I caught ended flapping in the wind and was blown off the hook. I decided the pole wasn't the answer so thought I would have a go on the waggler and maggot. So set this up with the float set well over depth. My feeding was quite good due to the wind being consistent and helping with the distance. I started to catch a 1 oz Ronnie every cast which surprised me because the presentation was still awful. I did hook a 10 lb Carp which went in the margin sedges which I did persuade to come out but it had another run in him and snapped my 0.14 hook length. I stayed on the wagger for the rest of the match putting circa 100 Ronnies in the net.
My lonely Carp weighed 4 lb 6 oz and my Ronnies 5 lb 4 oz for third in Silvers. The match was one by Tom Baker (pictured right with the smiling Silvers winner) with 81 lb 8 oz from peg 19. Tom caught at 13 metres using sweet corn hook bait fished over hard 4's. The Sivers was won by Smilier Paul Haines with 7 lb 12 oz from peg 16. Paul fished 13 metres using maggot over maggot and micro feed.
Result: 1. Tom Baker 81-08-0 peg 18 2. John Osborne 54-15-0 Golden peg 21 3. Scott Hedford 37 05 0 peg 23 Silvers: 1. Paul Haines 7-2-0 peg 16 2. Glenn Bailey 7-05-0 peg 24 3. Mike Nicholls 5-04-0 peg 2 Weigh Sheet:
We were promised a bright sunny and warm Valentines day and that's exactly what we got. Anyone not convinced of global warming would have been today with how hot the sun felt. First stop for Geoff and me, the Bridge Inn for breakfast. This in't one of my favourite places to eat. The black tea was OK. A quick walk around the Lake with Geoff which revealed nothing. Tony limited the match to weight chasing 16, whereas I think 19 to 20 would acceptable. Into the draw box and out comes peg 1. This happened to be permanent peg 1, which would have been one of the last three of choices. At least a short walk, but it is outside the toilets and the entrance to the fishery which meant plenty of visitors for me today. For company I had the affable Paul Barnfield, who managed to get through the match without too much moaning. The other side on peg 16 was someone new to me and spent most of the time on his mobile.
Out of sympathy Tony said my peg was black with Roach - Yea right. Still with this in mind I set up the Ronnie rig, but was concerned that the Ronnies might not come in close enough, so as backup I set up the 4 metre whip with a home made small waggler. Both to fish six inches off bottom. Final rig was a 4x12 Winter Titan to fish at 10 metres at full depth which meant my pole went across the toilet path, so eyes and ears open in case. Set up so had a walk up to Two Pots peg and noticed something interesting on his bait tray. asked him what it was (pictured right) "Dead Maggots" Hum, you decided. Apparently Tim Ford gave them to him - what are friends for! Like to see him feed these in a catapult. To get in coin from this peg thought I would have to catch Ronnies short. But first I tested the peg at 10 metres by feeding GB laced with maggot. With single on the hook I had a Ronnies straight away and kept this up for half hour but realising it was far too slow I went on the Ronnie rig with caster - nothing so switch to loose fed maggot and caught two 3 oz Ronnies the longer line was more productive, so abandoned this and after feeding a ball of GB on the whip line fished this for an hour or so catching Ronnies much quicker. The swim slowed but was rewarded with a 2 lb Skimmer. After 10 minutes without a bite made the decision to fish the match out on the 10m metre line with the hope of more Skimmers. I was finding the fish had moved up in the water so shallowed up. I then chose to feed a mix of loose maggot and GB with a hard ball so feeding all areas. I found that the fish would only take a moving bait (I was now wishing I set up the waggler). I lost a bit of time working this one out but started to catch a mix of Hybrids, Ronnies and Skimmers to 1 lb regularly and was enjoying the fishing and sunshine. Unfortunately I lost 4 to 5 of these pounders without reason. I thought the match was ending at 16:15 so half hour before the all out I re-fed only to hear the all out at 15:45!! Duh.
I weighed 20 lb nearly exactly just missing out on a pick up by a pound or so. As seen by the weigh sheet it was a very close affair. No point on dwelling on the lost fish which probably cost be first or second. The Silvers are in excellent condition which is more than I can say about the one Carp caught - My guess angers using barbed hooks. The match was won by Dave Wride with 24 lb 8 oz from peg 10. Dave caught on the pole in the water using his favoured soft pellet and micro/hard 4's approach. Runner up was Paul Faiers (pictured right) with 22 lb 9 oz from next peg 12.
Geoff and I decided to stop on the way home for food, so choose the motorway route unfortunately there had been a fatal accident in the ring road rendering all of North east Bristol gridlocked. Anyway we managed to circumnavigate most of it arriving at our Curry House dead on opening time. Geoff got me off a four months waggon with a pint of draft Cobra - my favourite - Geoff Valentine pictured right. Excellent curry. Result: 1. Dave Wride 24-08-0 peg 10 2. Paul Faiers 22-09-0 peg 12 3. Andy Gard 21-13-0 peg 5 4. Mike Jones 21-05-0 peg 15 4. Shawn Kitteridge 21-05-0 peg 8 6. Mike Nicholls 20-0-0 peg 1 Weigh Sheet:
I had heard that the fishery had been fishing OK for Silvers, plus I have been wondering what the stop for lunch thingy was all about. So a call to Ken Morgan to be advised to just turn up, draw 08:30. The weather is forecast to becoming mild over this week, however, there was a hard frost to clear from the car before setting off this morning on the five miles or so to the fishery. I arrived in plenty of time finding a good few already there. In fact Ken ended up having to accommodate 19 anglers. Booking in might be necessary in future me thinks. After paying my £10 pools which also includes the lunch time snack ablely prepared by Danielle. The rules are you have to leave your peg but can feed before you set off. I knew I was up against it with Enigma fishing as its his home ground. However, he did up date me which was very useful as I haven't been here for a few years. Apparently you can no longer win with Roach alone, instead needing some of the better Skimmers/Bream now in residence. In to the draw bag and out comes red milk bottle top 30. This put me halfway along the car park bank. My thinking was I would rather be on the opposite side because I would either have the sun in my eyes or wind or as in this case both initially. Th peg had a high bank behind me so without a high roller I would need to unship, which isn't a real problem. I worked out it adds 3 to 4 seconds to the shipping out time. I set up the waggler with a straight light waggler, which didn't get used. I fished all day using 4 x12 Winter Titan which I fished at 10 metres at 1 o'clock. On the all in I fed a small ball of GB with some Pinkies and with a single on my 20 hook it wasn't long before I was catching tiny Ronnies. I kept topping up with loose GB and Pinkie and found the Ronnies got a bit bigger. It went quiet and soon was losing my first Skimmer. Out again and I had one weighing about 1 1/2 lb followed by one of 3 oz. The Ronnies moved back in so ending my very short run of Skimmers. Lunch time, so I opened another line with a large ball of GB before going to the cafeteria. Danielle had prepared pasta and Bolognese with some garlic bread and a welcomed cup of tea. Very nice too, I heard she was a good cook. Back in the saddle and found it very difficult to get the Ronnies back, so spent some time sitting over the other line with bigger baits in hope of another Skimmer, it didn't happen, all I could add was another 2 lb of Ronnie Roach before the end. I was surprised my fished weighed in at 7 lb, which put me second overall. The Lake didn't fish that well due to the weather conditions being against us, plenty of DNW's on our bank As I expected Enigma won the match (pictured upper right with his catch) from peg 20 with 10 lb 8 oz. Steve caught at 11.5 metres initially with pellet over micro catching some Skimmers to 3 lb and after lunch due to the Carp moving in switched to maggot over GB. Result: 1. Steve Dawson 10-08-0 peg 20 2. Mike Nicholls 7-0-0 peg 30 3. Steve Tanner 3-09-08 peg 17 Weigh Sheet:
Into the draw box and out comes peg 5! For company I had Mike "Curley" Jones and Andy Gard. I set up the waggler, the Ronnie rig and a 4x12 Winter Titan to fish at top-set plus 4, which was about as far as I could hold the pole in the wind. Due to the wind the Ronnie rig was a no hoper so abandoned. I started on the long line with Pinkie over GB laced with Pinkie and had a few small Skimmers and a couple of Ronnies. I was soon apparent that the Ronnies had shut up shop. I persevered with the Pinkie but it wasn't happening. The rig was hammering though with the wind which was ever increasing. I could see those out of the wind catching Skimmers so knew I was out of the running early on. The wind was very frustrating. I decided to have a play with the 4 mm expander fished on the same line over micro and blow me I caught a 12 oz Skimmers first try on the drop. It didn't last. So I mixed up some different GB to feed the micro with. This worked well enough catching five small Skimmers. I persevered with this line until the wind got the better of me, so threw the towel in and played around with the waggler. The presentation further out was much better and fishing single LR over loose fed LR's resulted in another skimmer and some Ronnies. I experimented by putting an expander on the hook of the waggler and providing it stayed on after casting I would get a bite immediately. I missed most of them Ronnies me thinks. I did have another Skimmer messing around with the expander. On hindsight I should have anticipated the increase in the wind and had a line closer in where I could have presented better. The waggler also might have been a better option to fishing long.
