Tuesday 16/06/2020 - Acorn Cost Cutter - Paddocks

Another visit to this popular fishery and once again sold out with 28 fishing. Credit where credits due Mike Chapman does a great job running these matches in his calm professional way - thanks Mike.

I was told Leyton Palmer was to make a come back today, who did just manage to make it to peg 15 before the all in. He said he was a bit rusty, need to get back to basics and learn how to set the alarm clock would be a good start. Hope he makes another attempt. I hardly recognised him at first with his slimmed down body and hair.

Why is it that whilst thinking about the various pegs you always draw one that you didn't considered. This time Mike called me peg 31. Not the best of pegs for Carp which made my decision to fish for Silvers easy. I thought I had an empty peg both sides until Eric Cantana look-a-like arrived aka Brian Slipper on peg 30. Two pegs down on bridge peg 33 was Paul Nichols - not related doesn't have enough ll's.

Set up a 0.3 shotted paste float for the LH side, a short Ronnie and long Ronnie rig and a 4x12 to fish at top-set plus two barrels. Bait tray: LR's, wetted micros, hard 4's, 4 and 6 mm expanders and my Skimmer GB.

At the start I fed a small ball of GB on the 4x12 line, starting on the short Ronnie rig with single LR on the hook over loose fed LR's. This produce Skimmers and Ronnie's immediately, and noticed a large amount of fizzing over the GB - so won't being going there for a while. Stayed on the shorty for about two hours when it slowed. No sign of Carp so far. Decided to try over the GB with single LR After a too long a wait I had a small Tench and a Skimmer. Deciding it was too slow fed a small ball of GB on the long Ronnie line and went back on the shorty until the fizzing died off over the GB. Again a nice run of Silvers albeit the fish were smaller, but Carp decided to have a look and had two 5 lb fish. With the 4x12 retired I had a go on the long Ronnie rig again with single LR, feeding some LR's over the top. Again kept a few Skimmers and Ronnie's coming - just happy to have bites and put ounces in the net. I noticed the Carp starting to take interest in the loose feed. So had a go on the paste and although I had a couple on this I was foul hooking too many and being well behind Paul decided to get back on the shorty again with single LR and had a run of ten decent Carp!!! Bugger. I did have some better skimmers to 2 lb which was welcome. Back on the long Ronnie rig which was soon trashed by a foul hooked Carp. So back on the shorty and some more Carp and my float tip got trashed in the landing net and with only 5 minutes of the match left fished with it hanging out and had another 2 lb Skimmer on it! I fancied some better fished had now arrived.


I must say I really enjoyed today match except for the thunder storm 30 minutes from the end soaking every thing. My Silvers weighed 28 lb 3 oz for a silvers default pickup with my Carp weight of 63 lb taking me to 91 lb 11 oz which was only good enough for halfway today so the Carp had a right munch.

The Match was won by Paul Nichols (pictured right with some of his catch - I left Gardy in the picture has I've not taken one recently) with 144 lb 12 oz from bridge peg 33. Paul caught most of his fish short in his RH margin fishing worm over GB.

The Silvers was won by Incognito (pictured right and centre bottom) with a terrific weigh of Tench for 88 lb from another bridge peg 22. Eddy caught on pellet over loose fed/cupped pellet. Very nice net of Tench to 6 lb.

Result:

1. Paul Nichols 144-12-0 peg 33
2. Eddie Wynne 139-15-0 peg 22
3. John Thompson 129-13-0 peg 1
4. Walshy 118-14-0 peg 4

Silvers:

1. Eddie Wynne 88-0-0 peg 22
2. Mike Nicholls 28-03-0 peg 31
3. Paul Faiers 27-14-0 peg 40

Weigh Sheets:

11/06/2020 - Farleigh Woods - Lerts Open

Left in plenty of time, probably a bit too early as we were all kicking our heels waiting for the organisers, but this did give us some distancing socialising, which is something I have been missing. However, I was being too closely followed around by one angler luckily I was "Alert".

It was forecast to be windy with showers for most of the day - glad  I had the umbrella! 

Finally got a draw and was shouted peg 19. A bit better than last time. For company I had Wayne Storey on peg 17. To be honest for some reason I didn't have my heart in it today.

No point in explaining each rig I set up as I only used the Ronnie rig albeit at two distances. I started on a single bronze maggot over loose fed mixed maggot and caught small Ronnie's, Skimmers and nuisance micro Perch from the off. I basically stayed with this for most of the match until the peg completely died and it wasn't long before I relised I had fed the Carp into the peg foul hooking one. The peg was dead, so mixed up some of my Skimmer GB which I fed neat, again with single maggot (red and bronze was best) this worked and wished I used it from the off because it resulted in some better Skimmers. I then hooked and landed a 7 lb Carp quickly followed by one 12 lb. The small fish then returned and was catching reasonably well at the end. The Carp did affect my Silvers weight but on the positive side helped me towards a bigger overall weight. Should I have fished the paste in these last knockings?

What was noticeable today was the affect the wind had on the tow. It was probably due to where the peg was situated in relation to the island. But it mainly towed left to right but once it switched in the other direction the peg faded. The peg never sat still as the change in direction was fairly quick. I am fascinated with the hydraulics of fisheries.

My Silvers weighed 21 lb 7 oz and my two Carp 19 lb 6 oz for 40 lb 13 oz and a third overall pick up and fifth in the Silvers.

The match was won by Clive Glisson (pictured right) with 60 lb 6 oz from peg 2. Clive had two Carp on the waggler then caught more Carp in both his margins using meat over all sorts of feed. I tell you this picture really made me feel old as I use to fish with Clive's Dad - lovely bloke.

The Silvers was won by Paul Barnfield (pictured right) with 33 lb 1 oz from peg 8. Paul caught on white maggot over GB laced with micro.

To be fair the Lake owners have done a lot of work during the lock-down. They have dug out the pegs and covered the clay with a thin layer of gravel. However, today after the rain the gravel embedded in the clay and both stuck to my boots and found myself walking around in platform boots! For the cost of four paving slabs in each peg would result in an 100 % improvement.

Today saw a weight of near 500 lb by Chris Davis at Ivy House. However, these sorts of weight are not for everyone with many anglers preferring the sort of fishing this venue provides as it's something between a natural and Commercial. I think 100 lb is more than enough to win a match. I think this venue will become more popular.

Result:

1. Clive Glisson 60-03-0 peg 2

2. Chris Ollis 55-0-0 peg 15

3. Mike Nicholls 40-13-0 peg 17

Silvers:

1. Paul Barnfield 33-01-0 peg 8

2. Stu White 29-06-0 peg 16

3. Andy Gard 24-03-0 peg 3 

Weigh Sheet:

Tuesday 09/06/2020 - Acorn Cost Cutter - Paddocks

Another trip to Acorn Fishery which was sold out with numbers limited to 28. Done the usual safe transfer of my £13 and was drawn peg 4 on the Island. No emotion as I didn't mine where I drew, just nice to be out fishing with decent weather. However, a bridge peg would have been my choice as the learning from the last match was that the Silvers have migrated under them probably to get away from the bright sunshine we've had recently. For company I had Dad to be Lewis Walker on peg 5. Two Pots was on peg 1.

Adrian Bartlett decided my peg would be the best one to measure the dissolve oxygen from (pictured right). There's plenty of oxygenating equipment available if needed - non required today though. I was hoping it was a fish attractor.

The set up was the same as last match. As we all arrived early most of us were kicking heels for an hour. Exception to this was Tony Rixon who floated off his casters a bit too efficiently and spent some time chasing floaters around his peg. I also noted Andy Gard was keen to get started as he sat with his pole pot extended over the water for 9 minutes!

Watching the fish behavior I could see it was going to be a difficult start going for them straight away, swimming around on the surface very fast and scatty. I started by feeding 1/4 of pot of micro at top-set plus two for Silvers and started to loose feed LR's again for Silver for the Ronnie rig. There's no doubt the fish here like their micro but are pretty clued up and know exactly how to feed on them without being caught in the mouth. Plenty of activity over the feed, but decided to let if settled otherwise it would have been foul hook city. Instead picked up the Ronnie rig and found the Carp were responding to the maggot in a similar way. Their action obviously would keep the Silvers at bay. So all this lead to a slow start. I did manged to land one foul hooker after which I had a spell catching Perch, Ronnie's and Skimmers. By now I knew it would be unlikely that I could pick up in the Silvers (bridges remember) I stayed with them as I was putting fish in the net in this early part of the match. Things slowed and after a lost fouler went out on the 4x12 on 4 mm expander and straight away was getting liners from Carp. I was soon playing another Carp which was only just foul hooked! I decided to re-fed this line with micro and watch the cleverness of the Carp feeding on them whilst they fell though the water, I don't  think they follow the feed to the bottom. Back on the Ronnie rig again in a new part of
the peg and had another run of small fish. Two and half hours gone so time to try the paste using a 0.3 gram rig fished over loose fed 4's. Again the fish were really scatty, they wanted the feed but not at any cost to them. So I eased off the loose feed bow waving in and out of the swim and started to pot some micro and left it as a trap which worked to some extent, this resulted in a good hour. However, careful feeding was the name of the day - but I didn't get it quite right. The last 45 minutes became very difficult and only hooked one more Carp a decent Ghosty, which I landed only for the landing net handle to come apart. I managed to retrieve it, but with no fish, but it was still on the hook but only for a few more seconds - bugger.

My Silvers weighed 16 lb 3 oz and my Carp 93 lb 3 oz for fourth overall but a third default pickup of 109 lb  6 oz.


The match was won by Tony Rixon (pictured right with Two Pots who was runner up) with 171 b 13 oz from peg 16. Tony caught "Stalking" his favourite method which he has got right sorted - see his blog for all the sordid details.

The Silvers was won by Eddy Wynne (pictured right incognito) with 59 lb 3 oz from Bridge peg 21. Eddy caught all his fish on pellet. His catch included a good few of the large Tench that are now showing as per the two 5 lb fish that Lewis Walker caught next to me also on pellet.

Result:

1. Tony Rixon 171-13-0 peg 16
2. Glenn Bailey 120-03-0 peg 1
3. Eddy Wynne 111-07-0 peg 21
4. Mike Nicholls 109-06-0 peg 4

Silvers:

1. Eddy Wynne 59-03-0 peg 21
2. Alan Q 31-07-0 peg 40

Weigh Sheets:

Wednesday 03/06/2020 - Meat Head's Knock up - Rood Ashton

Martin Rayet aka Meathead organised an eight peg knock up at Rood Ashton. Because the match was so small I wasn't going to blog but when  heard Barry Fitchew had passed away I felt the need to write something on both. 

I have known Barry for many years and never seen him in other than a jovial mood. As well as meeting with Barry on a number of open matches he started to fish the Over 55's and Silvers league at Hunstrete and showed his class with the caster, picking up on many occasions. The Over 55's will always fondly remember Barry for when he lost his valuable wrist watch in peg 11. Barry paid a diver to go in to find it which failed. I always think of him when I fish peg 11 but especially now. RIP Baz. Talking pictures - saves a thousand words.

.

So eight of us met up on the banks of Rood Ashton Lake. Meathead had booked the top and woods banks, worked out we had 12+ pegs so could have had more fishing. I had a chat with Alan who said he's been very busy. For those that hadn't been here before were impressed with size and quality of the banks although there are no platforms to fish from.

Martin threw the peg cards in the air, I picked up the one nearest which was permanent peg 17, right by my car! The only other angler I could see was Mark Tanner on the next peg 18. With all the hot weather as of late and the fact the Lake is on average two foot deed, sheltered from the wind and no form of aeration I was concerned about the oxygen levels. There was a good few Carp on the surface.

I set up a paste rig for the LH margin where I had a decent depth of two feet. A 4x12 Speedy to fish at 5 metres (Alan had told us that he had used the digger to deepen the lake but only went out 5 metres). I started out in front with 6 mm expander on the hook over kindered hard 4's. The float just sat there with no indications not even form silver fish. I then had a Carp of about 7 lb, followed quickly by a 5 lb Carp. It was clear the Lake was fishing really hard. I couldn't get a bite so switched round to 10 o clock and added another section and caught two more Carp. So I thought I had sorted something out so started switching all over the place in the search of more fish. On all the numerous lines I did get a liner only to see the lone fish bow wave off. I had been feeding the margin with hard 4's so tried the paste which just sat there until it mingled with the silt. I tried the maggot for a silver or two, not a sign. So after two bite less hours I had enough so threw the towel in and decided to watch the method men fishing the island. I found out from Junior that something called a White Washed Out Wafter was best banded bait on the Method. On examination it didn't smell of anything and looked plastic! I did take a pictured of my fish because they did look pristine - about 20 lb.

The match and the biggest fish payout was picked up by Mark "Methodman" Tanner with 12 Carp for 41 lb comprising one 9 lb 11 oz which was the last fish of the match caught on paste. Well done matey.

Result:

1. Mark Tanner 44-0-0 peg 18

2. Lee Massey 38-02-0 peg 20

3. Gary Bowden 38-01-0 peg 15

Tuesday 02/06/2020 - Acorn Costcutter - Paddocks

With weekend matches fully booked I have decided to concentrate on week day matches and save the weekends for Tony Rixon and Windmill matches. So today I was off to Acorn which was sensibly limited to 28 anglers. All the matches so far including this one has been run in accordance with the current guidelines. However, in doing so reduces the social side which is a big element for me. No gossip and limited piss taking. Some social distancing photography though.

It was a rolling draw so no time to discuss with anyone their favoured draws, tactics, etc... That said I’m told you can get a days fishing from any peg, which is about right. Paid my £13 and sent to peg 25. Not a peg you would run to, but I wasn’t that concerned as plenty of Silvers have been showing all round so always a good fall back to keep me occupied. For company I had Granty Junior on peg 27 and Mark “No Pots” Bailey on peg 24. Plenty of time to set up and have a social distancing walk around.

Set up a 5x11 paste rig, 4x12 F1 and the Ronnie rig. Bait wise LR’s, 4 mm expander (not pumped), wetted micro, hard 4’s and ground expander GB – simple.

I started by feeding a small ball of GB laced with a few micros down the track (Snake Lake) and l started loose feeding LR’s on the Ronnie rig line. Started on the 4x12 rig with 4 mm expander and soon had a 12 oz Skimmer. However, far too soon the Carp disrupters moved in above the feed. So re-fed the GB and picked up the Ronnie rig with single LR on the hook started to catch more 12 oz Skimmers and Perch but the Ronnie’s weren’t showing. The line hit a brick wall and I persevered too much with this and after foul hooking a Carp which I lost, I looked at the watch and already two hours into the match. So picked up the F1 rig and had another Skimmer and a small Tench before the same happened. The penny made a big clunking sound as it dropped. Onto the paste rig set to fish down the inside shelf. The upshot was that in the next four hours I put 100 lb of Carp in the net. I caught over loose fed hard 4’s, feeding about ½ a pint.

Along came Mark Bartlett with the distancing weighing system (pictured upper right). Must say the cheapest and most effective system Iv'e seen yet. My Silvers weighed 7 lb 12 oz and my Carp 100 lb 1 oz for a third overall total of 107 lb 1 oz. the question is what would I have caught had I not spent two hours trying to catch Silvers? Does it matter - no, as it was a very enjoyable day but would have liked a visit to the pub on the way home.

The match was won by Dave Turberville from peg 28 (pictured right a safe distance from runner up Zac Williams) with 133 lb 6 oz. Dave caught on hard pellet over and down to the empty pallet on next peg 29 where he caught most of his Carp.

Matt Vowels won the Silvers from peg 22 with 25 lb 2 oz. Not sure how he caught but do know he disappeared for an hour during the match! Any Gard needed another 10 minutes!!

Result:

1. Dave Tuberville 133-06-0 peg 28

2. Zac Williams 131-15-0 peg 13

3. Mike Nicholls 107-01-0 peg 25

4. Tony Rixon 95-01-0 peg 39

Silvers:

1. Matt Vowles 25-02-0 peg 22

2. Andy Gard 23-04-0 peg 23

Weigh Sheets:

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: