Tuesday 31 May 2016

PSV Match, Sedges Brick Lake, 29/05/16

Not too long a blog for this match as it wasn't too interesting for around 16 of us!! 2 guys did well though!!

I arrived as normal, declined a cuppa as I was a bit toastie and had just finished one at home not 10 minutes before arriving at the venue. The carp were spawning everywhere and the wind was pushing from the north into pegs 1 and 20.....hmm I wonder where the carp would mostly be?
It was an impromptu pairs match also and I think I was paired with Matt Williams, alas that went out of the window at 2:30 when he and Lee Waller packed up!!

I drew peg 8, happy enough with that, not expecting to get into the top 2 in silvers or carp, but hopeful of a few bites. I had Adam Caswell on my left and Degsy Williams on my right.
I put up a silvers rig on soft 8 elastic for 14m in front. Maggot over groundbait here,
A pellet waggler (unused)
A short meat rig (fishless) and a pellet rig for a metre off the bank to my left away from the spawning fish on my right, this rig went fishless. I am not keen on fishing amongst spawning fish.
Lastly a long line mugging rig.

At the all in I started on the pole for skimmers and had a 6oz fish was put in the keepnet.
Then that was it.......
After 3 hours.....yes 3 hours I was up to 6 roach, 2 small skimmers and a 1lb eel. I had switched my laccy to 4-6 as I was bumping the odd silver fish.
Of the 14 others I could see, only Rich Jones on peg 20 was doing ok, the rest had odd skimmer and at most 1 or 2 carp. Pooe Adam hadn't had a bite and Lee Waller was walking the banks.
Tile lake behind looked to be suffering the same fate!!

As we approached the 4th hour I hooked a big eel, it simply hugged the bottom, and despite 14m of pole high in the air I couldn't shift it, soon enough the inevitable occurred and the rig flew back at me with a big mass of eel slime and a load of debris off the lake bed!!
I then had a skimmer of 10oz or so and popped the odd rudd in the net.
I managed to mug a carp at around 2:30 before getting off my box to set up a 0.1g silvers rig for topkit fishing down the edges.
I began feeding maggots down each edge and after a while was getting the odd small roach and stuff, I also managed a couple carp on single maggot, both landed on 0.08 hooklengths.
A couple foul hooked carp were lost and I stepped up to 0.10 hooklength.

At 3pm I think Adam had his 1st fish, he had his 2nd soon after, both skimmers. Lee Waller and Matt Williams had both packed up and everyone except pegs 1 and 20 were struggling.
I thought I had hooked another carp on the silvers kit so tried to quickly get back to my top kit when a nice skimmer popped up.....and fell off....teaches me for rushing!!

Then the all out came, I finished with 3 carp and I figured between 7 and 8lb of silvers, so unlikely to win any coin. As it happens, that skimmer cost me as Mike Wilson won the silvers with 10lb and a few ounces and Chris Gay had 6oz more than me with 8lb 5oz. I had 7lb 15oz plus 18lb 1oz of carp.
My 26lb was around 9th.
The top 2 on the day had over 320lb between then with Will Dearlove having 184lb 1oz to Rich Jones' 145lb 12oz from pegs 1 and 20 respectively. Matt Taynton was 3rd with 49lb+, the rest of the weights ranged from 2lb to 33lb and dnw's.

Results:
1st, peg 1, Will Dearlove, 184lb 1oz
2nd, peg 20, Rich Jones, 145lb 12oz

1st silvers, Mike Wilson, 10lb 15oz from peg 2
2nd silvers, Chris Gay, 8lb 5oz from peg 15

Pairs winners were Will Dearlove and Chris Gay.

So, hopefully, the fishing will now start to settle, hopefully, we will get some winds from the south, and hopefully everyone can start to catch a few as the fish spread post-spawning.
On a side note, looking at the match results across the area, it was defo a weekend where the fish were on the wind!!

Oh it is my last fisho attempt of 2016 this coming Sunday at Larford, would love to draw a good peg there, I haven't as yet. The wife is coming with me, so at least I have company on the trip up.

Until next time, have fun.
Lee

Saturday 28 May 2016

Saturday Combi Series. Round One. Landsend Match Lake - 28/5/16

Today was the 1st round of my 1st attempt at running a series, originally it was going to be a silvers series, but after several discussions with fisheries it was dropped as a silvers series, but runs as one where the silvers are just as important as the carp, and vice versa!!
We have 5 matches, Landsend today, Trinity Wildmarsh (the 'dodgy one' as some call it, I prefer the one where it's not all carp) on 11th June, Sedges Brick on July 9th then Avalon and Cary in August.

Up until Wednesday we had 14 or 15 booked in so the half of the speci lake was dropped with Mike, we had the Match Lake only as 15 was ok for that, but by 6am this morning (thanks Nick Harvey), we were up to 18. A nice figure, but a squeeze on the match lake at Landsend, but that's the way the cookie crumbled.
The way the series is worked out is 3 sections of 6, 6 points down to zero for catching the best net of carp, the same goes for the best silvers net in section (0 points for no weight of either), so a maximum of 12 points on offer.
The points are arranged in order and the section's top point scorer gets 1 point for the series, 2 for second and so on down to 6. So it should be tight for the series and points could be clawed back.
You just need a bit of thought into what to catch in relevance to your 6 peg section (simply a 6 peg match)
I am paying top Carp and top Silvers net in each section, not overall payments on the day, as its about the series not individual matches. Anyways the weigh/score sheets will explain.

On to today, after getting there in plenty of time I walked around the lake, there seemed to be a few fish mooching, mostly along the middle half of the lake. The speci fish were spawning.
I got the paperwork done, took the remaining entry fees. Had a sarnie and put my gear on the trolley.
I explained a few things, some miss-heard, but the draw was made just after 9am.
The 3 sections were 3 pegs each side at the near end would make 1 section, the 3 each side in the middle made another and 3 pegs each side at the far end made the last section of 6.
I had the last or 2nd last ticket and found peg 22 in my hand, didn't mean much to me but Rich Lovering said its a nice silvers peg!!
For company I had Ziggy Slowinski on my right and Paul Nichols on my left, whom I had to later on give a quid, I could see Lance Tucker (p1) and just about make out Alex Nadin and Ricky Mills on pegs 3 and 2 respectively (that's my 6 peg section).

Looking left and where a quid was heading (Paul Nichols)

Looking left to the man who prefers to hook csrp on silvers kit (Ziggy)

My view in front....can you make out Lance over on peg 1?

I made up a silvers rig for mostly expander over micro, with the odd try with caster or maggot, this would be for 2+2 in front.
A second rig was for meat and hemp at 2+2 off in the 2 o'clock direction.
An edge rig for down to my right and a long line shallow rig for stalking/mugging.
Bait I had was 6 and 8mm pellets, wet micros,  meat and hemp plus some expanders, caster and maggots for the hook.

At the all in I fed the edge and meat line, plus a small helping of wet micros for the silvers. I started by trying to mug a few cruisers, but they were not really having it, more inclined to roam around in 2s and 3s pre-spawning I guess.
So after 30 wasted minutes I went out to catch a silver fish, I managed that with a 4oz skimmer.
Paul on peg 21 had a better skimmer before putting a couple carp in the net.

It too me an age to catch my 1st carp, which came shallow in open water, more by luck than planned as I was having a drink when I felt the laccy come out. But a 6lber was welcomed.
Ziggy was struggling and had 2 carp, but after 2hrs he was targeting silvers, and hooking, mostly losing, carp!!
I had a couple roach and 1 nice skimmer on the silvers line, 1 roach from the edge and foul hooked a couple of carp.....as it approached 3pm!! During this time Paul had 9 or 10 carp to around 15lb from down his left edge, he also lost a couple to the legs of his platform!!

I just couldn't seem to catch any carp, or silvers for that matter but at 4pm I had a flying skimmer, this was followed by a roach, which fell off from down the edge, but I soon managed another carp on my silvers rig. Then a nice 2.5lb ide from my margin helped add to my silvers.
With 45 minutes to go I was surely last in section for the carp, not sure on the silvers as Ziggy had a couple skimmers and Paul also had a few decent skimmers, a crucian and a few roach.
I tried my short meat line and had 2 and foul hooked 2 in the last period.

The all out was called and I wasn't too expectant of my results and expected last in section in both categories!!
I had counted Paul's 14 landed carp so maybe 85lb or so, Lance had a nice run of fish late and Ziggy was losing more than landing on his silvers gear, which wasn't really catching much silvers either!!
Alex and Ricky sounded like they had done well from the splashings.

I packed up and Paul Berry came to help do the weigh in.....
I wont write too much in this but there were a good few 30-60lb nets of carp but only 2 or 3 nets of silvers over 10lb. Lewis Jones (p13) took top carp honours and Vic Bush (p5) took the best silvers net with 100lb+ and 19lb+ respectively.

I managed 8lb 12oz of silvers and that was enough for section 2nd in silvers, sadly my 24lb of carp was 5th in section for carp weights!! So no pick up today.

I wont post the full results, but the highlighted names won the relevant section prizes on the day and if you study the sheet then you will see how catching a decent amount of each category to score good points.

After the 1st round the top 6 (with weights determining when points level)
1st - Brian Slipper with 1pt
2nd - Alex Nadin with 1pt
3rd - Mark Saunders with 1pt
4th - Paul Nichols with 2pts
5th - Mark Hanham with 2pts (thanks to Andy Hembrow)
6th - Vic Bush with 2pts

Weights....

Individual Category scores, carp on the left, silvers on the right.

Top 3 on the day were:
Lewis Jones peg 13, 101-14 (inc best carp net of 100-12)
Paul Nichols peg 21, 90-12 (82-08)
Brian Slipper peg 17, 81-14 (72-06)

Best silvers was Vic Bush on peg 5 who had an assortment of silvers for 19lb 4oz.

Top points scorer was Alex Nadin who managed a great 11 points from a possible 12 from peg 3.

So a tough day, but on the whole it went as well as I could have expected, I would have personally expected a few more carp, and definitely more silvers.
The next match for the series is in a couple of weeks on the Wildmarsh Lake at Trinity, it'll be a tough one for sure, so it could be interesting....or a dull day!!

Tomorrow I am at Sedges, Brick lake with the PSV lads. Not sure if/where on Monday.

Until then,
Lee


Sunday 15 May 2016

Pawlett Match, Shiplate Westpool and Hawthorns

An odd one today, the weather was lovely though!!
The day started off ok, a bit of sun and reasonably warm as myself, Paul Berry and Mark Watkins stopped off at The Hobbs Boat Inn for their all-you-can-eat breakfasts.
So after 6 sausages,  6 bacon, 3 tomatoes, 3 eggs and a load of toast......plus some fresh fruit and yoghurt, it was time to head off to the fishery with bellies full.
27 or so of us were to be spread across the 2 canals, all 15 pegs were in on Hawthorns, though peg 1's angler couldn't make it, while on Westpool left out 2 or 3 pegs.
There was also an open match on the Main Lake, so the parking was tight but the place was a hive of activity. I made chatter with a few guys and mentioned that I fancied Hawthorn peg 3 or either 11 or 13 on the Westpool.

I let the rabble get on with the draw and plucked the 3rd last peg, Hawthorns peg 8. Splat bang in the middle of the lake and a couple short of peg 10, which is a nicer peg, though I did have the aerator in my swim. Ziggy and Jamie Cook had the last couple pegs, Jamie on the furthest peg on Westpool. Ziggy was in the middle somewhere.
I got to my peg, there looked to be a few fish around the area, I had Mark Watkins above me and Jason King below me on peg 7.

Hawthorns Peg 8, Shiplate

I went about sorting my gear, 4 rigs today, none for silvers as I didn't fancy fishing for them.
A shallow pellet rig for generally towards the aerator, a depth pellet rig for the same area.
A meat rig for my left edge where I had a snaggy area that looked fishy and there were fish in the reeds and tree roots behind where I would fish.
Lastly a rig for around 2ft off the far bank in the shallowest water I could find.
Bait was 8mm meat, 6mm pellets, hemp, some groundbait for potting across and a few 8mm pellets if needed.

On plumbing up I knocked into a few fish, this gave me hope for the day ahead. There were some skimmers and chub spawning across in the grasses and this would no doubt pull the carp off any bait fed. I couldn't get tight over due to the grasses.
At the all-in I began down the edge, not feeding, hoping to snare a mug fish or 2. But this never happened, so out with the depth pellet rig just off the aerator, loose feeding 6mm pellets hoping to draw the fish up in the water.
I started to get some fizzing and odd liner so I switched to the shallow rig, I never had a bite. I did foul hook a couple though on the deeper rig.
Meanwhile, Paul Berry a bit further along, had a carp 1st drop. Mark Watkins also had 1 or 2 in the 1st hour......me, I tried a few areas but after 2hrs I was on 7 scales....No fish.

So into the 3rd hour and I kept plugging away and managed my 1st fish at around 2:15pm!! A big double figured carp was landed after a prolonged fight. The carp don't half hang on in these lakes, especially the larger stamp fish of 5lb+.
I was well behind a few guys, Mark Watkins, and the 3 guys to my left had around 6 fish each, it was slow going for everyone really.
My 2nd fish came at 2:30 and it was a skimmer than let milt out all over me....nice.
I had another skimmer a few minutes later that did the same, both skimmers came from my furthest line.

So far, so boring....my fish count at 3:30 was 2 skimmers and 1 carp along with 9 scales!!. I still expected to pick up a few more in the last hour, so to my delight I dropped in my left edge and pulled out a 2lb carp, then a even smaller carp that was almost swingable. It then went quiet so back out on the shallow rig, I managed a 3lb fish that took my pellet as I slowly shipped back!!
4pm came and I snuck a 7lb fish from my right edge where I hadn't fed, then a 3lber from the same spot. I missed a few bites, pricked a few carp also, but that's not unusual.
With 15 minutes to go I was nearly drawing level with the guys around me, so I was glad to put 4 more carp to 6lb in the net in the last quarter of an hour. All from my left edge.
At the all-out my clicker showed 34lb plus that last fish was around 6lb which had to be added.
So a tidy final period after earlier going 3.5hrs with only 7 foul hooked fish to show for my efforts.

On my lake, rumour had it that only Phil Clapp on my favoured peg 3 had done well, and a good few peeps were admitting to between 4 and 8 carp, I had 10 and the 2 skimmers.
I loaded the gear onto the barrow after I had packed up, took it up the slope before following the weigh-in, Brian Gatis had 29lb and Phil had 70lb, then we had a few 30lb nets before my attempts went 51lb plus 1lb 8oz for my 2 skimmers to move into second spot. This is how the lake finished.

I went and loaded the car before going to wait for the results.
The Main Lake had fished just as hard and other than peg 1 and 1a who both had around the 120lb mark each. 45-50lb was a decent weight on there today and the silvers was won with a lowly 12lb, so they still have fish-sex on their minds too.....
The results from Westpool filtered through and John Fuidge had 67lb or so, but not too sure on the others. It turned out that Jamie Cook had 6oz more than me with 52lb 14oz. He had over 14lb of silvers in his catch!! Nice. So I'd won my section.

Results:
1st, Phil Clapp, 71lb 4oz (H3)
2nd, John Fuidge, 68lb 11oz (W9)
3rd, Jamie Cook, 52lb 14oz (W15)
4th, Lee Williams, 52lb 8oz (H8)
5th, Mark Sweeting, 48lb 14oz (W1)
6th, Keith Clapp, 45lb 13oz, (W7)

Silvers:
1st, Jamie Cook 14lb 12oz (W15)
2nd, Robb Dodd, 7lb 8oz (W13)
3rd, Ziggy Slowinski, 7lb 2oz (W12)


Weigh Sheets....

So a frustrating day, I am sure I could have done a little better, maybe pulled the maggots out of my carryall and tried for some silvers, maybe opened a new line at the bottom of the far shelf? All hindsight I suppose.
I will try and figure out how to catch fish in the middle 4hrs of the match on the canals at this very good fishery.....one day!

No matches planned for me next weekend, so I may go pleasure fishing next Sunday somewhere.
The following Saturday is the 1st round of my Saturday Series, this round being on the Match Lake at Landsend fishery.
I still have 4 or 5 spaces, £60 to enter, £20 match day pools. You can get cover for any round/s.
Dates are:
28th May, Landsend Match Lake
11th June, Trinity Wildmarsh
9th July, Sedges Brick
6th August, Avalon
20th August, Viaduct Campbell

Until next time, Tight Lines.
Lee

Monday 2 May 2016

27/4/16 to 02/5/16, Various Wanderings......

A busy last few days for me, after my win over at Apex last weekend I was keen to get out and catch some more fish, I had the Makins Fishomania qualifier on the Wednesday, then I had right the way through to today (Bank Holiday Monday) off and fancied doing something different for my fishing on a few of these days.

So first up was the Makins match, I would love to say how I sacked up and qualified, or at least was in with a chance......it didn't happen.
A 2hr 15min drive took 4hrs thanks to M42 and M6 accidents......luckily I had the ultra keen wife with me, otherwise I would have turned around and fished elsewhere, but she insisted I carry on!! Around 20 peeps never bothered and a few reserves got on.
I got to the fishery 15 minutes after the draw had began and I waited in line to draw, there wasn't any sort of pegs I wanted, the weather was awful and we were predicted to get cold rain, snow, winds....nice!! Geoff Ringer was in front of me in the queue and was generally asked about various pegs by anglers as they passed.
I got to the draw, the missus had gotten herself a bacon and hashbrown sarnie and I plucked Thames peg 15........means nothing but got told 4lb-10lb fish is the norm and that it was not a good draw.
I toddled up the road to phase 3 and found my peg. I had Somerton and newly sponsored Dan Squire just behind me and along on Outer Avon.....he done worse than me and left before me, it was dire.

Thames peg 15, front and left (note Dan Squire in the bottom pic)
I set up half a dozen rigs, edges, middle and across and shallow.
All I caught, apart from a chill, was a handful of gudgeon, so had an early bath. The snow and rain was freezing....

The next day, Thursday, I had a late start for a pleasure session on a club water, a bit of long range feeder fishing and deep water pole fishing at Combwich.
After 2 hrs I had 2 roach on the feeder at 65 turns. Nothing on the pole in top 5 depth of water.

Combwich Pond
So I then made my way to another club lake, Dunwear, where I managed to get drenched in the heavy rain, and struggled at times to hold a pole.
I did manage around 15lb of rudd, roach and skimmers, plus I hooked a couple carp. I really enjoyed that couple or so hours on light gear.
Dunwear South Pond
Friday was a day spent with the wife, so Saturday I went back to Dunwear armed with just a feeder rod, some caster, maggot and corn plus groundbait.
I fished the Senior Lake, the largest on the complex, it holds plenty of bream and roach that don't get fished for much and can be patchy at times, though there has been some really big 100lb+ nets of bream over the last few years.
I fished for 4 hours at 48 turns and managed one solitary 6lb bream and around 15lb of roach, but I was totally roached out as my maggots came back ragged more than I care to mention. An enjoyable day though and I will have another bash soon.

Dunwear Senior Pit
So, onto Sunday, a PSV match at Viaduct on Campbell Lake, we had 19 fishing and I waited until peg 130 had been drawn before plucking peg 125 for myself.

Peg 125 Campbell, Viaduct

The match the day before showed peg 123 had 200lb to win and the pegs 124 to 129 were ok with 119, 118, 116 not brilliant.
To cut a short story shorter, I set up a meat short rig for carp and went trying to catch silvers, so had a 13m groundbait line and an edge caster rig. I also had a lead rod assembled for a carp or two.
The day went slowly for myself, Lee Waller on peg 123 who dnw'd and Brian Shanks on peg 126 who caught 3 of hos 4 lumpy carp in the last 45 mins or so, he also had 16lb of accidental silvers. Though Degsy Williams on peg 124 did well to catch 90lb or so.
I managed 6 carp (5 on the lead) and 10lb of silvers, mostly nice perch. And was again sat opposite the framers...!!

Results:
1. Steve Sewell (116) .... 139-1
2. Alan Healey (119) ..... 106-14
3. Ross Sewell (111) ..... 104-6...
4. Matt Williams (130) .... 99-2
5. Ron Hardiman (114) ... 94-14
6. Steve Burgess (128) .. 92-0
7. Degsy Williams (124) .. 91-9
8. Adam Caswell (118) ... 87-2
9. Mark Radford (136) .... 68-11
10. Will Dearlove (132) ... 68-8
11. Keith Ray (129) ....... 62-15
12. Mike Wilson (113) .... 58-1
13. Brian Shanks (126) ... 51-11
14. Lee Williams (125) .... 48-10
15. John Bradford (127) ... 33-9
16. Simon Belcham (112) .. 19-3
and 2 dnw's.


Silvers:
1. John Bradford .... 33-9
2. Simon Belcham .... 19-3
3. Brian Shanks ....... 16-9
4. Lee Williams ....... 10-8
5. Ross Sewell ..... 8-0
Ron Hardiman ... 8-0
Mike Wilson ...... 8-0


So last up is todays match on Trinity Woodlands, with 8 or 9 of us pegged along the far bank, the weather was due to get a bit pants later in the day with a good helping of rain to go with the already brisk wind.
Misha had 2 golden pegs, they were 17 and 6, with 17 the current in form peg and peg 6 always worth a good few fish. The Golden Peg was worth 100 quid and venue regular Mark Hanham drew it and would be the odds on favourite to win.
I picked peg 15, so again it looked like I could watch the winner all day....ho hum. For company on my right, well I could not see him, was Polish angler Ziggy Slowinski. He said Him, Me and Mark should fill the top 3 spaces, with Mark winning....!!

Trinity Woodlands p15 lhs

Trinity Woodlands p15

I set up a method feeder, only cast 3 times, so no more on that.
A rig for 11m down to my left, not too close to the margin as it was snaggy as hell....1 carp and a few skimmers from here along with a 2lb perch. This rig was also used by the bush to my right and here I had a small carp and 2 small silvers.
A silvers rig for 11m in front, 3 skimmers from here and a roach, plus 3 foul hooked carp lost.
A rig for shallow pellet, no fish on this, though if i could have fished it long then I reckon that I may well have caught on it.
Lastly a rig for 2+2 for meat over pellet, this gave me 1 tench and a couple skimmers (one I tried to swing in and it fell off....costly).
It wasn't an eventful match for me, in hindsight, once Mark started catching, after 1hr he was on around 8 carp, I should have just fished for the silvers.
It was a struggle for most as the wind was tricky.
I finished with 3 carp and 10lb 14oz of silvers, I was pipped to the silvers payout by Ziggy who weighed in 11lb 8oz, so that skimmer I should have netted cost me, ho hum
Mark won the match and the extra £100, he had 104lb, second was Phil on peg 6, he bagged up in the last hour or so once the wind had changed direction a little.

So a few nice days pleasure fishing away from the commercial type venues was really enjoyable.
The bream look to be spawning soon as everywhere I have caught them this week they have been all spotted up and rough skinned. But with the weather warming, swallows and swifts in the skies, things may well be picking up.....lets bloody hope so....oh and less wind would be awesome.

No idea where I am fishing next weekend, the following week I am at Shiplate with Pawlett.

Until then, take care.
Lee


P.S. I still have one or 2 spaces left on my Saturday series and I have started taking the £60 entry/pegs/payout fees, a good few have paid and I expect it to be a good series and laugh.