Thursday 28/05/2020 - Lert's Match at Farleigh Woods

To keep fit during the lockdown I have been walking 10k most days. However, today having fished my first proper match I realised I should have sat on my seat box every day for six hours waving my arms around. Getting off my box today I was doubled over.

Chris Ollis was keen to run a match at his favourite venue and so were twenty others. Chris was emphatic that government guidelines were to be maintained. So to ensure no gatherings a rolling draw was ran by Dave Poole. So on arrival we threw our £20 in a bucket and the draw done for us and called out by Dave. We went straight to our pegs. The permanent pegs are at least 10 metres apart. The weigh in was done using the bucket system (Chris homemade pictured right), now used by many fisheries. So the bucket would be placed on the ground and the scales man would step back 2 metres whilst the angler put his fish in the bucket, he would then step away and the scales man would weight the fish and safely return them. Larger Carp would be weighed individually if the bucket would distress a number of fish. No following the scales rule was observed. All went to to plan.

I was shouted peg 21. The least popular area in my view. However, I was able to reverse right up to my peg. For company I had Paul "Cucus" Clayton who has been doing well on the Silvers of late - still not sure it's anything to do with the cucus he feeds though. The other side was gentle giant Lee Massey.

Our pegs were back in a bay/corner and mine sightly back further. I must admit the margins looked like they may do the business on Carp later in the day (pictured right) in the meantime it would be the small Silvers with the occasional Carp tester. I initially set up a 4x12 to fish topset plus three in 4 foot of water which was full depth in this part of the lake. Unfortunately due to the conditions and the sun being in the eyes I could barely see the float even after trying various colours. So I set up the Ronnie rig to fish shorter where visibility was much better. I set up the waggler to fish for Silvers in case it got really hard. And finally my banker a margin paste rig taking four number 11's. I prepared my bait but found it impossible to pump my expanders, thought it was the pump so borrowed a new one from Paul and found it to be the expanders probably due to being in the bait bag for so long! Anyway just used them soaked.

I started by feeding a small ball of crushed expander GB laced with dampened micro on the Ronnie rig line and with 4 mm expander on the hook started to catch stunted Skimmers to 4 oz. I managed to keep them coming for about two hours by loose feeding small balls of wetted micro over the top. After which the silvers faded. I noticed Paul next door was struggling on the Silvers. So having been feeding the margins with 4 mm pellet tried the paste which just sat there until it faded away. Switch the Silvers line to loose fed maggot and caught a few Ronnies which were bigger than the Skimmers. This died far too soon for my liking. In and out the margin which just didn't look as if the Carp would not put in an appearance. So out on the waggler with single maggot and had my biggest Skimmer of about 1 lb. I then had a run of Ronnie's before it went quiet. Soon after I hooked a Carp which I thought was foul hooked, but wasn't. Estimated to be about 8 lb and gave me a torrid time in and out of the bankside reeds before it escaped - fair play it worked hard for it. Spent some arm folding time on the paste as I had to given up on the waggler as I couldn't see it. No Carp. I think if I could and wanted to fish the method I would have caught well over to the island which was about 40 metres away.

My Silvers weighed 11 lb 2 oz. inconsideration that I was between two DNW's I was satisfied that I left very few Silvers in the peg.

The match was won by Harry Muir (library pictured above) with 64 lb 2 oz from peg 15. Harry caught on the method over towards the island.

The Silvers was won by Dave Willmott (pictured right with his catch) with 34 lb of Skimmer and Roach. Dave fished short starting on maggot and later switching to caster. Dave certainly got the Silvers sorted on this venue. Well done matey.

Considering the conditions and that it has been fished quite a lot recently it fish better than most expectations. With more matches the venue will improve even more. The fish definitely need feeding up.

Result:

1. Harry Muir 64-02-0 peg 15

2. Luke Fothergill 56-06-0 peg 13

3. Mark Tanner 51-04-0 peg 3

4. Clive Glisson 34-02-0 peg 23

Silvers:

1. Dave Willmott 34-0-0 peg 17

2. Chris Ollis 19-03-0 peg 9

3. Dave Lewis 18-10-0 peg 2

4. Andy Pratten 13-0-0 peg 14

Weigh Sheet:

Saturday 13/10/1990 - Division 5 - National Championship - River Trent - City of Bristol

Having left Fry's AA we resurrected the City of Bristol team under the sponsorship of Steve  Robinson the owner of ICEMECH. For me this meant starting again from the bottom in division five. 

I think it was only Tony that had fished it once before in the Matchman of the year final. I happened to meet Dennis Salmon on the Gloucester Canal the then Anglers Bookie. I asked what odds he would give me on Tony. "Who" he said and gave me 200:1 so I put £10 win on him. I saw Dennis again later and he made a point of saying he was shitting it for the first half of the match as Tony was well ahead of everyone else. Unfortunately for me and Tony his peg dried up.

We had a strong River team line up pictured.

We managed to get Wayne Swinscoe the Trent Legend to help us, spending the day with him walking all the sections. Wayne did arrange it so we were by the Lord Nelson pub. Wayne certainly liked his "Dark".

Pete Sivell had brought his feeder rod to check if was up to the long chucks to the far side. At Hoveringham Pete tied on an arlesey bomb and tried casting to where Wayne suggest he try to reach. Unfortunately for Pete he didn't have enough line on his reel and lost Line and sinker mid river.

I must say Wayne's knowledge of the river was impressive - nothing indecisive with this man. Peg by peg run down giving very few options of tackle. Just set up the feeder here and cast over there into the shadow for chublets, expect bites immediately. A whip here for Gudgeon  so on and so forth - he made things easy for us. I was left wishing I lived near this river.

No actual line wetting before the big day.

I booked the Sherwood Forest Hotel for our Friday overnight stay. Most of us had to work on the Friday and met up at Tony's shop at closing time. In convoy we didn't get to the hotel until after 21:00. It was a bit posh but not too shabby for me. However, the dining room had closed. After booking in we had to go through the lounge to our rooms where residents were sat with their after dinner drinks listening to a guy in dinner jacket playing a grand piano. It was interesting to see their response watching 12 anglers walking across the dance floor with grubby fishing tackle. As always on these Nationals we signed the official secrets act - what goes on at pre-national nights stays at pre-nationals.

98 teams of 12. 1,176 anglers. Decent turn out then.

I was drawn peg B8 section Holme March Weir Field. I could hear and smell the weir but not see it. Wayne was doing the rounds trying to get to us before the start. He told me to move my box upstream 1 metre (within the rules) and fish the waggler feeding on top of the the float. Delighted to hear it was a float peg. I just set up the waggler whilst everyone around me set up all sorts. The river was very wide which meant there were anglers opposite but wouldn't be an issue.

An easy match pursued fished at 25 metres with wag and mag. I think it was second cast I caught a 1 lb Tench!!! Didn't expect that nor the anglers around me. More amazement when I had another 1 lb Tench. I then started to catch the odd decent Roach whilst all around me were struggling. Ivan Marks was helping the team on the next peg who was blanking resulting in him fishing for fry in between large margin stones. Ivan came up to me and renamed me Tinca Tinca. Some years later we drew next to each other on the Trent and he immediately announced to his large gallery he was next to Mr.Tinca Tinca. Towards the end my peg got better with the penny dropping that I hadn't been feeding enough - bugger. Anyway with a blank one side and one tiny fish the other I was please to weigh 7 lb 8 oz for 54 points.

The team finished 24th but we weren't disappointed to find out that we didn't get promoted as the following year the National was on the Gloucester Canal - Home ground for us at the time.

The national was won by one of our local teams Avon Bait. With Team Bristol coming 4th just missing out on a medal. Unlucky.

Result:

Saturday 15/08/1987 - Division 4 - National Championship - River Severn - Fry's AA

The lads were delighted that having being promoted to the National Championship third division to find it was to be held on the mighty River Severn at Worcester. A river I had yet to fish and as a running running water venue I had always fancied. I don’t know whether it was due to our enthusiasm of being promoted or that the venue wasn’t too far away that we decided to have a practice match. I don’t think any of the other lads fished the river before either. The same team was selected. We understood that our normal feeder rods used on the Bristol Avon might not be man enough. So I had a look around for something suitable and was recommended the Severn - Trent 12 foot feeder rod hand made by Mel Storey. So I rang him and lucky enough Mel was having guitar lessons in Bristol so I met him at Eastville Park. The rod had three different top sections, very impressed.

The practice match was the usual pre-national affair with a big attendance. The draw was at the Worcester Horse racing ground which the Severn ran alongside. As I had a company car at the time Dave Clutterbuck travelled with me.

Dick Derrington was running the match and before the draw he announced that a certain section would have to wait to the side until the draw was complete. As it happened I drew this section. When Dick arrived he explained to the assembled group that we would have to follow him to a new car park which we must use or risk damage to our cars from a local farmer. I have to confess I had no idea where we were going and still don’t know where I had been. We arrived at the car park and once we unloaded Dick locked the car park gate. He gave instructions how to get to our pegs pointing out a pin point of a caravan on the horizon as a landmark to head towards – we were bound to hit the river! Now I was use to long walks but this proved to the furthest one to date. It wasn’t long before the moaning started about the walk. It got worse, once we arrived at the river we couldn’t find the peg numbers until someone ventured into the thick undergrowth to get to the river's edge and found a number. We worked out from this everyone's peg. However, it was necessary for me to walk through about 20 foot of undergrowth to get to the river's edge where I found a man made wall, which was handy for me to sit on to fish. I got set up with just two Rods the Mel Storey with a maggot feeder and a stick on the 14 foot Normark float rod.

I had no idea of the species I was fishing for so started on the maggot feeder three quarters over with double maggot hook bait. It wasn’t long before I was getting tiny twitches on the tip which I was sure was bootlace Eels. I kept striking and on examination found the maggots untouched. The twitches, striking and bait examination went on for a good hour with nothing to show for it. These indications stopped so picked up the float rod and started trotting down the inside where I had been loose feeding maggot. After about an hour I hooked something decent but it come off. On inspection I had a fish scale on the hook so foul hooked. I didn’t have a clue as to the species but decided in favour of a Chub. I persevered with this for another two hours just going through the motions when I realised the noise from the up stream angler had stop, I assumed he had packed in. I sat on the feeder for the last hour and didn’t get a bite. So a blank. The scales man came along whom I followed. There were lots of blanks with Steve Gardener winning the section with 14 lb of Chub on the maggot feeder. I noticed his peg was opposite a high natural cliff with a sheer drop into the river.

So I embarked on the long walk back. Nearing the end of the last field I noticed a group of anglers and was concerned someone might be in trouble, but as I got closer I could hear laughing and joking. When I arrived there were four angler’s playing cards using their tackle boxes and side trays as a card table. Rumours’ had it that some of the card players hadn’t even made it to the river, and some had packed in early. Anyway I followed Dick back to the Headquarters thinking who takes playing cards fishing. Perhaps it’s something you do on the river Severn?

I collected Dave who I think had weighed a couple of pound. We stopped in a local Chippy and had the best part of the day.

I couldn't stop thinking about the twitching I was getting. I asked the other lads but it seemed I was the only one who experienced this. Just before the National I read an article explaining how Barbel can blowing the bait about giving tiny indications. I'm was subsequently convinced I found my culprit. In my defence up to then I had only caught them on the float. So if I experienced this again I would have to ignore such indications until I had a wrap round.

The day of the national. The location and some of details of the practice match was vague, but it got worse. I travelled again with Dave Clutterbuck to the Race course. I can’t remember what peg I was drawn but located the appropriate transfer coach. I remember the coach arriving at the river and parked on road bridge. Luckily I didn’t have far to walk downstream to my peg. I did notice a huge lock gate 25 foot highish so there must have been a weir close by. Again I had to fight through some undergrowth to get to the river and was pleasantly surprised to find a wide shingle beach in front of me which was shallow with a slack in front enabling me to wade out. The main flow was on the far bank. The setup the same as the practice match. Again I started on the maggot feeder but with some extra lead to hold over in the fast water. After a few minutes with no indications or these tiny twitches I really started not to fancy it, but stuck with it for the first hour. With no indications I was glad to switch to the stick float where I had been loose feeding maggot on the crease of the flow and first try with maggot had a Dace followed by more Dace and the occasional Roach. I then hooked a decent fish which was a very welcome 8 oz Eel. What I had learnt from these 1000 peg matches you are generally fishing for ounces rather than pounds for good team points. So I kept on with the stick adding the odd Dace and Roach by casting around the swim. I heard two stewards meet up behind me with one explaining that an angler downstream from me had a 10 lb Carp! I didn’t expect to hear that. From memory I finished with about 6 lb which would have been very good section points. No need for the playing cards!!

It now gets vaguer I don’t know how the team did the last thing I remember is dropping Dave off at home.

The Mel Storey rod remained a virgin. I did get to win a few quid with it on the Bristol Avon when in flood. However, Dad took a liking to the rod and had it on permanent loan. It now resides in my garage holding fond  memories.

Team Browning took the team honours for the second year running.

Saturday 16/08/1986 - Division 4 - National Championship - River Witham - Fry's AA

Although I had been involved with Bathampton AA as Team Manager for some big matches including National Championships, this was to be my first National actually fishing rather than reserving myself.

I had been fishing both the Bristol Commercial House and AT Winter Leagues with Fry's AA. The Fry's club decided to join the National Federation of Anglers solely to fish the National Angling Championships. This would mean starting from the bottom, in division 4. I was selected to fish. I didn't realise at the time what a traumatic event it would prove to be.

We hadn’t practiced nor elicited any local help. I was told the river Witham was similar to the Huntspill, so that's OK then as all of us fished the river regularly.

The team comprised of those listed right.

The plan was to meet at the Fry’s bottom car park on Friday at 12 - midnight. John and Mike Angell were to drive a transit with the tackle in and the rest of us would travel in a mini bus driven by Gordon Bracey. We all expected where possible to travel by motorway when we found ourselves on the A46 heading towards Stroud we wondered where we were going only to be informed by Gordon that he intended to follow the Fosseway to Lincoln as he doesn’t drive on motorways!! Blimey what a journey it turned out to be. It wasn't long before Gordon lost the A46 in Cheltenham, so a nice drive around the town centre! No one slept as we were all busy talking tactics but mostly keeping an eye on Gordon. We arrived at 07:30 just in time for the 08:00 draw. My body now relised I hadn’t slept for 24 hours.

Got myself a program and found that 76 teams of 12 would be fishing 912 anglers. Typical numbers for a national back then.

Our Team Captain handed me peg C69. I had no idea where this was and to this day not sure, but think it was somewhere on the famous Kirkstead Bend. So off I go and find coach C covering the appropriate peg numbers. I was hoping to sit next to someone on the coach that had some knowledge, local or otherwise. The angler I found myself sat next to didn't have a clue either and hadn’t heard of the Huntspill so guessed he knew less than me. All loaded and names checked off when the coach driver - flat cap and about 80 years old was asking us for directions and as no one could help it looked as if I was the most knowledgeable at least I knew where the Huntspill was! After some advice from another coach driver who directed him to a bungalow in the far distance where he was advised he could get a cuppa (very flat landscape similar to the Somerset levels). We were soon driving alongside the River Witham. The driver came to a stop by the bungalow I wasn't sure he should have driven along the bank and should have dropped us off at the end of the main road instead. The Bungalow was selling drinks so I joined the driver and got a black coffee - God it was so welcome. I then went in search of my peg, which luckily was right in front of the Bungalow – I’m thinking thanks driver – but would it be a long walk back to the road?

The banks of the river were very dry and crumbly, so getting my seat box down I fell over with all the contents of my Ken Collin’s tackle box being strewn over the bank. I also spilled the near full cup of coffee. Just as I was sorting myself out the search steward arrived to check for any hidden fish with the contents of my box on full display he didn't bother much. He did look up the landing net handle for Eels.

I decided I needed coffee so went and got another. I now only had time to set up the pole to fish at about fours sections over the marginal weed and a GB feeder rod to fish as far as I could – it was twice as wide as the Huntspill – but did seem a lot like it.

I sat waiting the very few minutes for the all in and fell asleep falling of my box! I had missed the all in as anglers around me were already fishing. With my performance so far I suspect neighbouring anglers were thinking what a plonker. I started on the feeder and to say the fishing was slow during the first hour I hadn’t had a bite nor had anyone I could see – very much like the Huntspill then. My eyes were beginning to close again when I saw the tip move slightly and stuck into a bootlace Eel. This woke me up and had four more bootlaces. I had been loose feeding white maggot over the margin weed and decided I was awake enough to try the pole with triple white on the hook. First try I had an 8 oz Eel followed by a smaller one. Then a two fish a small Roach and a Perch. The match then ended which left me thinking the five hours passed quickly – did I sleep some more I wondered.

Being at the end of the section it took a while to weigh in my 880 grams (1 lb 15 oz) which beat both sides. Fishing similar to the Huntspill at the time. The driver obviously wanted another cuppa so drove back along the bank to pick us up which left no one with much of a walk. We arrived back at Headquarters where the driver got a round of applause and a few tips. I think he was winding us up about not knowing where he was going.

I’m not sure how many points I or the team had but we did get promoted to division 3 earning a place on the River Severn the following year.

Paul Stanton won the match with 17 lb 3 oz of Bream on Whitehouse Bend.

The London top outfit Trev’s came out top team.

I remember Mike Angell taking over driving the bus from Gordon and drove us back on the motorway, but not before we had some fish and chips just outside the Headquarters. I slept all the way back as did the rest of the team.

RIP matey Gentleman Gordon Bracey.

Thursday 19/03/2020 - Bathampton AA - Silvers Priority and Carp - Bridge Pool - Sponsored by Premier Angling

So with the over 70's having to go in isolation next week  I am thinking ways I could still go to the over 55's starting next week and still comply with the government's advice. It's going to be difficult because we have to think of others in the household who would be at risk if I caught it. That said Dave Gillard and the rest of us did all we could to minimise the risk of contamination. Dave looked good in his wifes Marigolds.

The draw being done for us again, I was allocated peg 27. Not my favourite for Silvers but I have won a few matches with Carp from it. The peg does throw up a few good Skimmer weights occasionally across the year, but at the present I was thinking not. I don't think Junior will want to draw for himself ever again as he was allocated peg 18 the one he wanted.

Found out the peg 26 wouldn't be in due to its close proximity to 27 which is a great help space wise. For company on 28 was John Smith alka Cliff, so good company. Behind me and in the next section on peg 24 was Premier Angling top salesman Tony Rixon so I won't be keeping an eye on him.

It's the first time I've been fishing and getting soaking wet without seeing a dimple of rain on the water. It must be very close to fishing in a cloud. The NE wind was bloody freezing. But unusually I was shielded from most of it by the opposite island.

I must say the island looked very tempting for the waggler so this was the first thing I set up. Two others rigs - a 4x16 to fish for Silvers at top-set plus three barrels and a 4x12 to fish around the margins if things got desperate - thankfully it didn't get used.

I started by feeding LR's over to the island to let the Carp know food was in close proximity. I then fed the Silvers line with a kinder pot size of wetted micro compacted in milled expander. It wasn't long before I was catching small Skimmers and the odd Ronnie. After topping up a couple of times the swim appeared to fade. I was getting some indications which I thought were either Carp or more likely F1's. This was confirmed when a few bubbles appeared. This was all I needed to abandon the freezing cold pole. So onto my beloved waggler, which I had set it to 4 foot deep - no plumbing for me. The way I fish these islands it to cast close let the float settle and if the float is shotted correctly it will show a fair amount of tip, I wait to see if any F1's are close in and prepared to feed in the clear shallow water, I then slowly pull the float away until just off bottom as indicated by the float dimping down, this is where I am likely to catch Ronnies and Perch. Somewhere in between I'm looking for the better Carp. What I have found is due to these island pegs being popular for the method feeder certain areas along the bank the bottom is slightly deeper and cleaner, so I'm looking for this area to concentrate on. However, my feeding today was bad - really bad, for some reason I couldn't judge the wind which I now think was affected by the island. I did get some LR's where I wanted, Of course you can chase your feed but not recommended on this peg as it's full of traps. I lost my usual one waggler per match on Bramble gate chasing feed. My casting wasn't great either having lots attempts to get the waggler where I wanted.

So first cast a Ronnie followed by lots of micro Perch. It took awhile to catch my first F1. Two small Carp followed and three 12 oz Perch. Things were going well. The line died which was the sign of the bigger Carp being inattendance. I increased the feed and with double DR's on the hook landed my first proper Carp. The upshot was I landed two more better Carp with one hooked in the tail which to my surprise tail walked around the corner of my peg. Three more F1's caught before thankfully the all out.

My Silvers weighed 7 lb 8 oz and my Carp 33 lb 7 oz for second in the match total of 40 lb 15 oz and that important second in section pickup. I have to say again the Drennan 12 foot Carp waggler rod is a superb rod.

The Silvers was won by Paul Clayton (pictured above) with 24 lb 7 oz from peg 19. Paul caught on his usual 4mm expander over micro and couscous. His bait tray pictured upper right - simples.

The match was won by Tony Rixon (pictured right with his small Carp catch)  with 44 lb 1 oz from peg 24. Tony did also have a net of quality Roach. See his blog for details.

The usual battle of the GAS and Shithead pursued with the GAS coming out on top with a 6 lb Bream sealing a late win for Cliff - pictured below right.

Most gave the pub a miss for obvious reasons.

Result:

Section A:
1. Hughie Evans 13-06-0 peg 3
2. Ray Bazeley 15-06-0 peg 5
Section B:
1. John Fry 17-08-0 peg 10
2. Rod Dufferty 31-11-0 peg 11
Section C:
1. Paul Clayton 24-07-0 peg 19
2. Tony Rixon 44-01-0 peg 24
Section D:
1. Paul Haines 13-15-0 peg 31
2. Mike  Nicholls 40-15-0 peg 27

The Premier Angling Voucher went to Wayne Storey.

Weigh Sheets:

17/03/2020 - Acorn Costcutter - Paddocks

I had an invite to Acorn from Junior who is really getting back into his fishing and wanting to spread his wings. As is Kev Winston. So with Two Pots already up for it The Three Amigos set off to Acorn in Juniors enormous work bus.

Not been to Acorn since last September so out of touch. Looking at past results the Silver fishing had improved immensely so that would be my focus. 

A good turnout considering all that's happening at the moment with 20 fishing (don't think fishing can be considered fishing from home - can it?).

Eddie Wynne and Mike Chapman run these matches who were completely prepared to minimise the risk to anglers of transferring the Coronavirus. They were locked in the hut and took money with gloved hands through a window opening. They also did the draw in booking in order - so no real contact except the elbow and kicking greetings of Anglers - all well done. However, this meant I couldn't draw my usual flyer, but Eddie did it for me announcing I was on peg 9 to many groans. Further groans followed when Junior was on peg 5 and Two Pots on 3.

Gathered some info on the peg and it seemed it was more Carp than Silvers - bugger. However, I still wanted to try out some things I have been experimenting with feeding for Silvers. The peg is the narrowest on the venue reaching the far bank with 10 metres with ease. I set up just the two rigs - a 4x12 set to 3 foot to fish either the far bank or the left hand margin. The right would have been my preferred choice but for the wind blowing in at me at 2 o'clock. A 4x14 to fish down the track at top-set plus three barrels, this rig was also suitable for top-set plus two barrels.

So after lots of self debating I decided to leave the far bank but keep catapulting some LR's going in on this line. I fed some GB and Pinkie at the short line and on my banker wetted micro compressed into a ball to help prevent the Carp intercepting it. So Started on the 4 mm expander on a 18 - 808 and was quickly getting indications from what appeared to be micro fish, but soon had a 1 lb Skimmer followed by another. So happy with the start - meanwhile Junior was emptying it on peg 5 with some right lumps. I had an enjoyable few hours on this line picking off the odd hand size Skimmer and small Tench however, the wind was a slight nuisance either pulling the rig off line - both in and out. I did have the occasional accidental Carp. To give the line a rest I came in over the GB line with a single LR to only catch micro Ronnies. GB didn't seem to be the meal of the day. So had a look over with double DR expecting to catch Carp but was immediately pestered by tiny Ronnies with most falling off. So back down the track and carried on adding some Silvers and the odd accidental Carp. With an hour to go I had two consecutive Carp and could see more activity over the feed. So decision time Carp or stay with Silvers? Two Pots had started to catch on paste and Junior was well ahead in the match and thought I was up there in the Silvers so stayed with them by switching to the margin with single LR over minimal feed of the same - glad I did as I had two lovely Ronnies. Had I switched to Carp I would have fished the same line but used corn hook bait.

My Silvers weighed 17 lb 2 oz for second Silvers pick up and my six Carp weighed 29 lb 11 oz for a sixth overall 46 lb 13 oz. I think I could have easily picked up with the Carp had I went the other way, but more enjoyable this way.

The match was won by Junior (pictured upper right with his catch - photographed from a safe distance) with 74 lb 10 oz from peg 5. Junior caught on corn fished over wetted 4's long over to the island in two foot of water.

The Silvers was won by Eddie Wynne (pictured right - now a confirmed member of the "Black Hand Gang") with 19 lb 8 oz from peg 17. Eddie caught on GB and maggot.

Two Pots was pissed off by Dave Wride who was next to him and FOE leaving the weigh board behind him without a bye or leave and face upwards for it to get wet in the rain.

But was soon his chirpy self after the weighing in his late run of big Carp on PASTE got him second overall. So a van Triple Bubble - a first for me. So this meant a stop off in the pub on the way home - don't tell Boris. Another memorable day for me and a well done to Eddie and Mike for being so thoughtful on how they ran the match.

My thinking is that week day match attendances are going to increase as it did during the three day working week!

Result: (pictured at the top - Top three overall and scribe)

1. Gary Bowden 74-10-0 peg 5
2. Glenn Bailey 57-07-0 peg 3
3. Ant P (no one can say or spell his surname) 55-10-0 peg 7
4. Martin Lenahan 53-11-0 peg 13
5. Craig Challingsworth 52-06-0 peg 22
6. Mike Nicholls 46-13-0 peg 9

Silvers:

1. Eddie Wynne 18-08-0 peg 17
2. Mike Nicholls 17-02-0 peg 9
3. Mike Chapman 16-08-0 peg 31

Weigh Sheets:

Thursday 12/03/2020 - Logarithmic Shotting

I had planned to fish Tony Rixon's Silvers match at Plantation today but unfortunately couldn't be too far a toilet roll. I dare not take one with me in fear of being mugged for it! So boredom has ensued. Hence the following to answer questions I have been asked many times about the Logarithmic shotting pattern I use. 

Back in the 70's I met up with Ray Munford an Angler I held in high esteem for his lateral thinking.We ended up being pegged next to each other at Newbridge on the Bristol Avon. I believe he explained he was investigating continental poles and associated tackle with some French Anglers. We got chatting and he explained the Logarithmic shotting pattern and how it improved presentation. I spent some time trying it out on the Avon in conjunction with the Image Sticks. Then came along the the commercial fisheries in the late 80's. I started going to Hillview at Tewksbury. One day I fished a match on the first Canal and used one on my canal floats - a 4x12 Jolly which at the time wasn't considered an appropriate float for strength, especially Carp fishing. It had a logarithmic shotting pattern. I easily won the match with 55 lb of small Carp using maggot on top-set plus one. Now that I only fish commercial fisheries all my rigs are initially made up this way.

The floats I use on Commercials tend to be anything from 4x10 to 4x18 - nothing heavier. I only use one size of shot ZLT 11's. This means I could have 14-16 shot on the line for a 4x16 float. This pattern significantly helps to keep the line straight from float to hook, which I am trying to achieve. I have experimented with fine wire as main line to get a direct stiff line from hook to float. These shot fit easily on GLine upto 0.22 (for paste fishing) and for some reason tend to stay on better than most other shot. If I do lose one I know the size and have them to hand. The shot can also be moved easily so the pattern can be spread further or reversed when fishing on the drop. Example of shotting pattern picture below - Drop shot 6 inches form first shot next shot 5 mm, then 10 mm etc...

I won't go into the maths but there is no set start point or initially spacing size, I adjust to suit the species of fish, depth of water your fishing and environmental conditions - wind etc...

I always use a number 11 back shot which I initially set 10mm from the tip of the float. I think sometimes I shot the float too fine but I'm convinced this can be very important during the winter when trying to sense fish in the peg (the straight stiff line enables this). I can adjust the sensitivity of the float by moving the back shot. The nearer the float the more weight added to the shotting moving further away has the opposite affect - simple mechanics. During the dead of winter I have used through wire Sensas Jean Francois Floats and have shotted it with upteen 13's with a single maggot over shotting it!! As sometimes encountered the float can become over shotted especially after a few hours into a match. This can be due to many things, not just water ingress to the float. The main culprit is usually fine particle build up on the lines we use today - I think there is some electrolysis taking place from line static. After a match just check with some white kitchen roll how much "stuff" is all up the line well away from fish slime.

Eyes Open, The Science Is Never Over, Keep Thinking, No Fear, Be Safe.