Avalon Winter Teams of Three, Round 2, December 29th 2013 - Avalon Match Lake

Yesterday's match was the 2nd in the Winter Teams of Three series down on Avalon Match lake. My Woolavy's Wanderers side had posted a 2nd place result in the last round, only being denied top spot by weight. Myself, James (Withers) and Paul (Wharton), were looking forward to this and generally seemed confident of doing ok, if, the weather and draw paid us a bit of luck.....

After a sharp frost overnight, I made my way to the lake for 8:10, it was a rolling draw meaning as soon as we paid our pools we could pick our sections and peg number. James and Paul arrived 10 minutes after me coinciding with a sharp, heavy and cold shower. We paid our monies and I wrote the 3 names on the sheet, I let James pick the section I would be in, he drew C, thus meaning he was in B section and Paul in A. I picked peg 7, so I'd have permanent peg 40, James on p24 and Paul p10.
Not a bad pick with 24 being a flyer and the other 2 being ok (Vic has tried to keep the better pegs in this series, but with fish being fish.......).

I quickly made my way round to my peg, luckily I could park behind my swim, which is a bonus.
Thankfully I had made a few, well 5, rigs on Saturday and popped  my new Daiwa reels onto my 10ft feeder rods as I wanted to try these out.
Water levels were up a couple of inches and the water was well coloured, more so given the rain and wind we have been having of late.

View of Peg 40, Avalon match lake



As I was unloading the car, Phil Clapp stopped to say hi and informed me of his Sedge's side's draw, he had p33 but even better for them was Jamie Cook had the in-form peg (Peg 5) and Keith Clapp, who was my knock-out opponent, was in his favoured (well he always wins from that peg) Peg 20. So my knock-out progression looked to be over unless I bagged up and Sedge's looked, on paper, the team to beat on the day,
Also Paul Chapman arrived netless, so I lent him a landing net and a keepnet, while Phil also lent him a net for silvers.

For company I had Mosella's Pete Wild to my right, with Paul Chapman the next along. Opposite me I had Mosella's local star in Tom Mangnall. To my left on peg 42 I could just make out John Andres.

Rig wise I set up a 0.6g NG Silverfish Caner for 13m (skimmers the target), a NG Decker 0.5g for if carp turned up in numbers and a 0.3g NG Silverfish Caner for a close in line (roach?).
I also set up, twice, after snagging a reed that was under the surface near the island, a 3AA waggler for anything that swims.
A lead and bread/pellet rod was assembled and a small cage feeder rod was put together with corn or maggot the hookbait for this. Both were clipped up for 2 spots near the island.

Bait wise I had 1/2pt of wetted micros, 1/2pt of 4mm pellets, 1/2pt corn, 1/2pt caster, 1pt of red maggot, 1/2 pint of pinkie and mixed up 2pts of groundbait (mixed in a bait tub as left mixing bowl at home). I also had some expanders in 2, 4 and 6mm sizes, some 6 and 8mm pellets for in the band and some bread to try on the lead.

After plumbing and re-assembling my waggler rod I was ready. The all in was called and I lobbed the lead out, within 10 seconds I could hear that Jamie over on peg 5 had a carp on..!! Wall and Writing sprung to mind!!
I gave the lead 10 minutes before I had a few casts on the waggler, this bought a single roach before snagging something on the bottom, so I had to pull for a break, which resulted in me losing a waggler (last seem drifting about like a giant lighthouse over towards pegs 7-10).

I fed my 2 long pole lines after 1/2hr of the match, 1 line with corn and 4mm's for carp at the 1pm position and wetted micros and a few reds on the 11am line. Float visibility was awful with no background for the contrast, I had to keep it in about a 4 inch area between the reflection of two trees.

I chucked the feeder out, while setting up another waggler, and the tip remained motionless. Back onto the lead, the bread didn't bring a response, but the 6mm pellet I did try saw a 3oz roach landed....nice. I gave the wag a few casts, but this only saw a couple roach put into the net.
Meanwhile the two Jamies, Cook on p5 and Parkhouse on p44, had landed a few carp. Paul Chapman had landed a couple and I think Pete on p38 had landed one. Tom, across from me had lost a foul hooked carp and landed a few decent silvers.

I had a look on the pole line over the corn and pellet, without a bite, never to try again for the remainder of the day, so no more of that. The topkit plus 1 section was tried throughout the match and gave me a single 1oz rudd.
So I pretty much stuck to the pole line over micros. At around 12:30 I had a flurry of activity bringing me a decent skimmer of a pound, a few 6-8oz blades and a solitary carp, which was welcome. Then it died.
I did put together a margin rig for some carp and I fed towards the empty pallet of peg 41 and by the snags to my right, but this was pointless as I never even had a bite from either.

The last two hours were very slow for me, I had a handful of roach on the wag or pole lines. Single red maggot the only bait giving a response. The lead and feeder rods didn't give me a fish other than the early 3oz roach. Meanwhile Pete landed some decent skimmers/bream from his long pole line, Paul on p37 had landed 3 carp and hooked a 4th on the whistle.
Elsewhere on the lake, Vic Bush on peg 23 had a few carp, with my team-mate on peg 24 landing 3 carp and a few silvers. Keith on p20 was flying and looked to be winning, according to the bank walkers that is. The 2 Jamies had maybe 30-odd pounds each and Tom Mangnall had spent 3/4 of an hour landing a double figured carp on no5 elastic. Everyone else seemed to be struggling.

The all out sounded at 3pm, if it was not a team match then maybe I would have been tempted to pack up early, but luckily I had packed most of my rigs away by 3pm and I had loaded the car by 3:20.

I thought to myself I was maybe 2nd last in section as Pete, Paul, Jamie Parkhouse and Steve Fouracre on peg 48 had landed a decent amount of fish, while the rest seemed to have a few more than me.
I made my way to the scales, which were approaching peg 6, Jamie Cook had put 36lb 15oz on the scales from p5. The rest of the section didn't give much in the way of weights, only Tom Mangnall on p10 putting double figures on the sheet, his net gave him 20lb 7oz (including top silvers of 8lb 13oz).
Most of the other weights in 'A' section were about 3lb or so.

'B' section was weighed, p20, Keith Clapp amassed 59lb 6oz. Vic on p23 saw his efforts total 39lb 10oz. James Withers(my team mate) put a whole 12lb 14oz on the team sheet. Other than that there was a few 7-8lb weights, an 11oz effort and Mike West moaned his was to 8lb 8oz of silvers from peg 26.

'C' section, where I was, produced 6 weights of double figure, which was the most of the 3 groups of sections. Pegs 30, 32 and 33 had just over 12lb between them before Martin Weston (15lb 4oz), Paul Chapman (17lb 5oz) and Pete Wild (13lb 5oz) did a bit better. My carp went 3lb 6oz and my silvers 5lb 5oz for a total of 8lb 11oz. John Andres weighed 3lb 12oz, which is well short of what I though he had. Then came Jamie Parkhouse, Chris Derreck and Steve Fouracres, they put 30lb 7oz, 10lb 5oz and 24lb 9oz on the scales respectively.

A good few guys left before the results were called but I hung around for these and they were:

1st - K Clapp - 59.06
2nd - V Bush - 39.10
3rd - J Cook - 36.15

1st in silvers - T Mangnall - 8.13
2nd in silvers - M West - 8.02

3 section winners were M Graham, J Withers and J Parkhouse

Top teams on the day were Mosella with 27 points, Sedges had 25 points and Enterprise Angling amassed 21 points.

My Woolavy Wanderers side totalled 20 points, the same as Over 50's, but again lost out on position on weight. We are now 4th in the league, which considering I am the only 'regular' match angler in the side, is pretty good, better that I really expected. But we will hope to do better in a couple of weeks time in the 3rd round of the series.

Weigh Sheets - Avalon Winter Teams of 3, 29/12/13

 



All in all it was a difficult day for the majority, trying to pick out the odd 2nd or 3rd carp seemed to be the order of the day for 28 or so of us, maybe if I had sat on the tip all day I may have caught a couple more carp than I did, but maybe I wouldn't, as it was a team event it is better to put something on the scales, more so given our position after the 1st round.
Yesterday some people even struggled to put 4lb on the scales, but well done to Sedges and Mosella, they did well on the day.

Next up for me is possibly a match on Sedges Brick lake, if not then it is the next round of the Avalon Winter Teams of 3, this is on the 12th Jan.

Until next time take care

Lee

Results board for

Avalon Winter Teams of 3

end of play after Round 2.

 

 

 

 

Clevedon FWAC Xmas Match, Plantation Lakes, 22-12-13

Sunday's match was Clevedon FWAC's Christmas match. Both Horseshoe and the Main lake were in use by the rabble of attendees.
The weather forecast was showing as strong winds couple with heavy showers, some of which had a chance of being hail.

I arrived for the 8:30 draw in plenty of time, but alas it was delayed due to Horseshoe lake needing to be pegged. So the numbers went into the tub for a 9am draw.
I fancied a peg on the Horseshoe lake as it'd make a change, plus most thought it'd be a better chance of catching. There were 11 pegs on Horseshoe and about 20 on the Main lake, and with the payouts identical, top 3 plus 2 silvers on each lake, the chance on an envelope was significantly better on Horseshoe..
Anyways, I pulled out peg 27 on the main lake, the flyers of pegs 7 and 8 went to Lance Tucker and John Woolsencroft respectively. My peg had an island around 25m in front, but with 26 and 28 both pegged I didn't have any margin lines.

View from Peg 27, Plantation Main Lake

 

I set up a whip for any silvers, a pole rig for 13m on two spots (8/10 laccy, 0.4g NG Decker 0.14>0.10>b911f1 size 18) and a method feeder for towards to island.

Bait wise I had 1/2pt of each caster, pinkie and maggot. I also had a pint of micros and mixed a mix for the method. Some corn and pellets for hook baits finished off my tray.





I plumbed up on the pole line to find that the swim had a slightly deeper (2 inches) spot around 6ftx4ft big on the 10o'clock direction, so that would be my main attack. This was for micros/expanders.
The 2nd pole line was in the 2o'clock direction, this would be for maggot/pinkie/caster.
The whip line was fed with pinkie/maggot and to fish maggot, pinkie or caster on the hook.

The all in was at 10:15 and would fish for 5hrs. I baited small amounts of baits onto each line and I started on the method and within 10 minutes I was getting indications, but no bites, just a few liners etc. I tried various baits, dropped short, cast across with no bait on the feeder, all with no joy.
After the first hour the only angler I could see who had caught fish was Jonny Page, over on  peg 18. Everyone was struggling, we had been treated to a couple showers and the wind was gusty rather than constant.
At 11:30, after trying the pole line with no joy, just a single missed bite, I tried the whip and within 10 seconds I had a bite, I struck into some resistance. I landed the fish, a carp of around 1lb. Bonus.
Well I stuck with the whip for 10 minutes without another touch.
By 12pm the 2 anglers to my right had not caught, the angler on my left had a carp of around 3lb and I had been told that peg 8 was bagging. Jonny on peg 18 had landed a couple carp and Mike Owens on peg 12 had landed a few nice perch. Don Sutherland, on p31, had landed a carp or 2 fishing towards his island.

I spent the next two hours trying the method, pole and whip, all without luck, I missed a bite on the soft pellet over micro line during a rain/wind shower. So at 2pm I decided to do what I should have done from the start and set up a waggler. The liners on the method early on made me think about it, but the weather made me stay on my box.
First cast on the waggler cast towards the island, single maggot on the hook (0.10>b611 size 18), float dotted to a dimple. Within 10 seconds it disappeared and a 3oz roach was in the net, 'cool' I thought. Maybe a run of roach will come?
The next half hour saw me miss a couple bites before we has a massive hail storm coupled with really strong winds, some brollies blew inside out and everyone was frozen. This coincided in me not being able to see my float and I promptly lost a fish to the island when I saw the mainline rise out of the water. Bugger.
I tried the pole for 10 minutes at around 2:40 without a bite. So I was back on the waggler for the last half hour.
During this 30 minutes I landed a skimmer of a pound and a similar sized perch, I also lost a foul hooked carp and bumped 3 fish, whether they were perch or carp I don't know, but they felt ok sized.
I was also getting indications, which was a bonus, although 4 hours too late.

Elsewhere Paul Faires on peg 38 had been lead a merry dance by a carp hooked at the wrong end on light tackle. Don on peg 31 had a run of 3 or 4 carp. The angler to my left hadn't had any more fish, even trying the pellet wag. The chap on peg 26 was fishless, as was Rod Wotton on p25.
A few guys had packed up ages before and by all accounts Horseshoe was dire as well.
Even the flyer peg 7, with Lance Tucker at the helm, had not given him a bite.

The all out sounded and everyone packed up, peg 8 had obviously won, I think he had 12 carp, and there were a couple 15-19lb catches. But it had been hard.
The scales arrived at me, my carp went 1lb 7oz and my 3 silvers went 2lb something.

We had the presentation and raffle in the café, which was great, I managed to wangle 3 winning tickets, which made up for the lack of fish. But the biggest cheers went to the anglers who blanked, including Lance Tucker and Rod Wotton among the 8 who never caught.

The results:

Main Lake:
1st - p8 - J Woolsencroft - 64lb 10oz
2nd - p31 - D Sutherland - 25lb 8oz
3rd - p1 - P Nicholls - 19lb 12oz

1st silvers - p12 - Mike Owens - 6lb 14oz
2nd silvers - p23 - B Slipper - 5lb 3oz

Horseshoe Lake
1st - R Lovering - 15lb 5oz
2nd - G Calvert - 11lb 8oz
3rd - P Deacon - 8lb 3oz

1st silvers - A Hembrow - 2lb 2oz
2nd silvers - S Carvelo - 1lb 8oz

So all in all it was a very tricky day with over a 1/4 of the field not catching, plus we had a few weights of under 1lb, including 2oz and 4oz weights. But I enjoyed it, although I should have tried the waggler earlier.
My silvers was enough for 3rd or 4th best silvers weight, which shows how poor it was....lol

A great thanks to Adie and Clevedon FWAC for their generosity and everything this year, lets look to 2014 being just as good.

Next up for me is a match on the 29th, where I am on Avalon for the teams of 3 series, where I hope we can do well.

Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year to all the readers of my blog.....Thanks.

Lee


P.S......Bridgwater AA's Xmas match on the Bridgwater/Taunton canal was won with a massive 81lb of tench to Simon Garbutt, well done him. 2nd was 50lb+ and 3rd 30lb+. Plenty of roach, rudd and perch were caught throughout, which shows how good a venue the Bridgwater/Taunton canal can be, yet so under fished these days,

Pawlett Club, Xmas Match, The Sedges, December 8th 2013

Today's match was with Pawlett Legion Angling Club, the Christmas match, at the Sedges fishery in Bridgwater.
It was the first visit there for a while for me, but I was looking forward to it, well I was less so after finding out the results of the fishery's own Christmas match yesterday. It was patchy with a few struggling while others made hay, so to speak.

Anyway, back to today, I arrived at the fishery at 7:45 as it was a 8am draw....which over ran a touch, fishing 10:00 to 15:30. After a chit chat with a couple of guys the draw was called, we had 26 fishing, which was less than expected due to a few people pulling out late on. I must say if I got on Brick lake then peg 6 would be my choice, maybe peg 10, anywhere on Tile would do otherwise, I expected the latter to do the majority of better weights thanks to the larger numbers of smaller carp.

I drew about halfway down the rabble of hands and reached for a ball from the container and pulled out peg 5, not too bad. Peg 4 done 50lb of skimmers yesterday, so would they be put off by that or would they be in the area feeding again?
Next to me on peg 4 I had Kev Crouch (again) and the likeable Colin Haggett on peg 6.

View from my box - peg 6 - Brick Lake - Sedges



It was quite a mild day, a touch of drizzle in the air and a breeze (on and off) from the southwest, so over my right shoulder slightly.
I set up 3 pole rigs today and a waggler rod, I didn't fancy staring at a quiverttip, so never set up a feeder rod, although I had 2 in the bag, which may have been an error, but none the less it wasn't what I wanted to do.
The 3 rigs consisted of:
Two for silvers on no.6 laccy and 0.10>size 20 B911f1, one bulked for a deep area at 11m (skimmers area?) and another on the drop rig for topkit+1slightly to the right, for roach, but I never had a bite on that so I wont mention it again. I also had a heavier rig for carp (no. 12 elastic, b911 to 0.14 hooklength) at 14.5m where the water was shallower and hoped to bag a lump or two, but only had a greedy 2oz roach from there so no more on that either. At Sedges a couple carp could be 10lb or 35lb, so a single fish could make a big difference.
The waggler was for around 20 metres out where I could comfortably cast and feed accurately. 0.10>20 B911f1 hook was the end tackle, I had 3 number 8 shot spread evenly in the last 3ft of water.

On the whistle I cupped in a single ball of groundbait on the 11m line, half a pot of 4mm pellets with a few bits of corn and 6mm expanders on the 14.5m/carpy line. I also flicked a few casters on the short, fishless on the day, line.
I started on the waggler baited with double red maggot, firing 5 casters every minute over the top.
It took 15 minutes to get a bite, which produced a 3oz silver bream, then I had a second before I hooked a slightly heavier fish, gently I played and netted a 1lb skimmer. A couple more silver bream followed before decent skimmer number 2, another 1lb specimen.
After 90 minutes I probably had 3lb in the net, and only 1 carp had been landed on the lake.
Elsewhere Keith Clapp behind me had lost a carp and landed one, and I heard of a few getting landed from various swims on Tile.

Between 12 and 2 I managed to net a handful of silver bream and roach upto 4 ounces, but it was hard going. I had also lost a lump of a carp on the waggler, it was a decent double, but was foul hooked and left me with a scale as a thank-you parting gift.
Kev on peg 4 had landed a carp on the waggler slightly further out than me, Mike Davis up on peg 9 landed a few, Will Puddy on 10 had lost and landed some carp. Otherwise everyone on Brick was struggling, the skimmers that did show yesterday obviously didn't want to play as only a handful were caught.
Jamie Cook on peg 40 (Tile) was into a few fish as was peg 37 also Phil Clapp on end peg 30 of Tile had landed some carp according to his brother. But Rich Coles was bagging on end peg 31 of Tile.

At 2:15 I had another tentative bite and struck into something lumpy, I had hoped for a better 3lb skimmer, but a little more of my no.6 elastic came out on the strike and I was into a 'bonus' carp...it chugged around for a while on my topkit and made a detour towards peg 4, I just held tight in the knowledge that I was a good way behind on the carp front, but alas it plodded it's way back where after 5 minutes more I netted a double figured mirror, well hooked in a barbule...bargain.

With an hour to go I was well behind the people catching on Tile and looked well behind Mike Davis up on peg 9. Nick Selway on peg 18 had landed a couple carp now, both decent lumps. Other than that not much was caught.
I spent the remaining hour scratching around hoping for another good double figure carp, or better still 3 or 4 better skimmers, none of which came and all I put in the net was 3 roach and a siiver bream. The horn sounded at 15:30. I knew I hadn't done much to bother the envelopes, maybe 4lb-5lb of silvers and that single carp of maybe 11-12lb.

As I packed away I was told that Tile had done better than Brick, as expected, and it looked close between Rich Coles, Jamie Cook, Phil Clapp and the angler on 37.
Nick over on 18 had landed 5 carp, I missed him play/land 3 of them!! and only Mike Davis had more that 3 carp on my side of the lake.

I loaded the car and caught up with the scales on the road bank of Tile lake, where to be honest not much had occurred from the first 5 anglers with only Lewis Hembery on p23 putting 29.8lb on the scales and Eric Fouracre had a decent 7lb 15oz of silvers.
Pete Manning on p29 put 24lb on the scales before Philip Clapp put 39lb 12oz on the board.
Rich Coles, who had broke a pole section during the match, plonked top silvers weight of 9lb 14oz on the board along with 50lb 3oz of carp for a leading weight of 60lb 1oz.
The next few anglers didn't weigh 25lb between them before peg 37 put 36lb 2oz on the scales, the next 2 pegs were free of anglers before we got to Sedges owner Jamie Cook on end peg 40, his combined silvers and carp weighed in 43lb 2oz to move into 2nd spot overall.
Brick lake weighed in, with the first angler, Roy Baker not weighing, Kev Crouch on peg 4 had his single carp and few silvers total 8lb 5oz.
Next up was me, my silvers weighed 6lb 11oz and that single carp went 12lb 8oz for a total of 19lb 3oz. Colin didn't weigh, Brian G on p7 had 3lb 5oz and then came Mike Davis on p9, his catch weighed 28lb 11oz. Will Puddy on p10 had 12lb 4oz.
The far bank had the first 5 anglers put a dnw and 17lb of fish between them on the board before Nick's 5 carp and single skimmer totalled up 32lb 12oz for the top weight on the lake (section winner).

After the weigh in we headed off to Pawlett Legion for a presentation of the envelopes and a prize for all that fished was a great touch. A bit of banter, based on the fact that a certain angler spent a good while playing and landing a carp before promptly missing the keepnet....he weighed in a sorry 10oz on the day, so no names mentioned... All in all it was a jovial hour or so in good company after the match.
We also had sausages and chips laid on, which we were grateful for, so thanks to the club and the efforts to put this on.

Results:
1st on the day was Rich Coles (P31)with 60lb 1oz, he also had top silvers weight. Qualifying for silvers and all winners final.
2nd was Jamie Cook (p40) with 43llb 2oz
3rd was Phil Clapp (p30) with 39lb 12oz

Silvers winner, by default was Eric Fouracre. 7lb 15oz.

Tile Lake's weigh sheet.

 

Brick Lake's weigh sheet.

 

Overall I was ninth, 3rd on my lake and 3rd best silvers weight, so it wasn't too bad. The fish were not in front of us (pegs 3 to 8) in any amounts, or they just were not interested.
It seems as though the corner pegs, as expected, done the best, giving 4 of the top 5 weights. Maggots were the best bait, the fish were finicky and I had to dot the floats right down and strike at every knock. This produced most of my fish.

I enjoyed today, though a few more skimmers would have been great, but cant be greedy.
Next up for me is a couple pleasure sessions, maybe down on Avalon, maybe carp fishing.
Next weekend I don't have any matches on the calendar, so the next scheduled match is on the 22nd when it is Clevedon FWAC's Christmas match on the Plantation complex.

Until next time, take care.

Lee.

Clevedon Club, Trinity Woodlands, December 1st 2013

Todays match, with Clevedon FWAC, was at the popular Trinity Waters complex near Bridgwater. We were to fish the main match lake that is Woodlands.
The lake had loads of carp, skimmers, plenty of roach and a few tench and perch for good measure.

Anyways, todays draw was 8:30 and fishing was 10:00 to 15:50, there was 15 of us spread on the 2 long banks.
I woke at 7am, had a cuppa and some cereal, loaded the carp and set off at 8am....I had driven about half a mile and decided to grab a breakfast roll from Munchkins food van. So the 5 minute drive took 20 minutes, lol.

I arrived to a car park with plenty of vehicles in, but I wasn't last to arrive, Nick Harvey, Kev Perry and a couple others arrived after me.
I unloaded the car, loaded the barrow, paid my £20 and waited for the draw. After a couple of 'hellos' and chit chat, the pegs were in the bag. Top 3 and 2 silvers were the payouts.
I drew towards the end of the rabble, plucking peg 27. Not too bad, but I would rather have been further up the lake on either side, as the little wind we had seen recently was pushing that way.
For company I had Adie Baker on p26 and Kev Perry on 29. Opposite I had Simon Ryall and Nicky Harvey.

Peg 27, Trinity Woodlands.





 



I had fished peg 28 earlier in the week, making a couple rigs up and attempting to catch silvers, which was my ideal plan for today. Now I did have between 20 and 25lb on Wednesday in 4hrs fishing, but I never managed a skimmer over 4oz or so, but had a great big roach near to 2lb and a nice sized perch. I only hooked 2 carp on Wednesday which was a surprise given it's relative mildness.
So I had ideas, and rigs, that'd sort my fishing out, so I thought!!

For bait today I had a pint or so of caster, some maggots, a kilo of Sensas matchblend and magic mix, some micros, corn and 4mm pellets. I had some expanders in 4 and 6mm, plus bread for hookbaits.
I set up a waggler with 2 no.8's down the line, this was for various baits at around 20m.
A bomb rod for the waggler line, plus searching, this had a 18" tail, on which a size 16 hook with a band was tied for bread and pellet as bait.
4 pole rigs were assembled:
The first was 0.4g margin float for tight in to my left, 0.20>0.16>size 16 B911 with corn or 6mm expander. Solid 18/20 was my choice of elastic.
The 2nd was a 0.4g NG Silverfish Caner, set up on 0.12>0.08>22 B511, no.4-6 laccy for a topkit line.
3rd was a 0.6g NG Decker, bulked 18" and a no.10 dropper. 0.12>0.10>B911f1 size 18, no. 4-6 solid laccy. This was for 14m out, slightly right in deeper water (it sloped Left to right). Aiming for skimmers mostly.
Lastly was a 0.5g NG Power Pencil on 0.20>0.16>size 16 B911, to be fished at 9m at 10 o'clock sort of line and 14.5m at the 11 o'clock position as it was the same depth. Baits would be 6mm expander pellet or corn. Laccy was a 10/12 middy solid.

The all in was called at 10am and I spent a little while cupping in several balls of groundbait on the skimmer line. A cup of mixed 4mm pellet and corn was deposited on my 14.5m carp line, the same went in on the shorter line. A few casters were flicked to the topkit line, as this line was the one I expected to make the bulk of my catch, like I found it had earlier in the week.
I didn't bait the margin swim, leaving that until 90 minutes from the end.

I started on the wag with maggot and waited 5 minutes for my 1st fish, a little 1/2oz roach, followed a couple minutes later by a 3oz roach. Switching to corn never bought a bite, so I lobbed the lead and bread out for 20 minutes, this didn't bring much, just a single liner.
By the end of the 1st hour a few carp had been caught, but nobody I could see had landed more than 2. I had a few small roach in the net.

The following 90 minutes went ok though, well I say ok, but I would rather not have hooked carp on the lighter lines, but I did, and by half past 12 I had 3 carp in the net. 1 on the topkit line and 2 from over where I wanted skimmers. They were a while to land, but I succeeded.
Adie, next door on 26, had landed a good few silvers, and possibly had 5lb of them. The guys directly opposite were struggling as was Kev Perry on p29. Word had it that the end peg on my bank, Mark Walsh had landed a few carp as had the end peg opposite him.
I was stuck on whether to try and bag a bunch of slivers, which didn't seem like playing ball for me, I was even struggling to get bites on maggot....only soft 4mm bought me the old silver fish. Or fish for carp, which seemed most plausible for a pick up. Although even that would be a struggle as I would be playing catch up to at least 3 people. To be fair I was going nowhere, sort of in limbo so to speak, not close enough for a silvers pick up, but as the carp go to upper doubles, 3 fish could be 40lb...so carp it was then...........so I thought.

Between 12:30 and the all out was a struggle for me, I did land 2 carp in quick succession. 1 each from the 14.5m and 9m lines, but bites seemed to come when I cattied 4mm's over the float. The fish may have been up a bit in the water, but the shallow edge rig was dropped in with no response.
I even struggled for silvers.
Other anglers had started to catch, Jonny Page even bagged one on a pub chuck while he packed up the pole etc. Adie was getting good amounts of silvers and Rich Heatley on peg 30 was catching well, as he had been all day. Much to the amusement of Kev Perry, or should I say to the amusement of those watching from the other side.....good banter....lol.

The all out sounded and I had come nowhere, but I packed up and duly helped out with the weigh in.
First up was end peg 23, Mark Walsh, he weighed in a possible winning weight of 66lb 5oz.
Lewis on peg 24  targeted silvers all day, bagging himself a 12lb 14oz  mixed bag.
Adie Baker weighed in a total of 27lb 5oz, of which 14lb 2oz was his silvers.
I weighed a poxy 3lb 5oz of silvers and my 5 carp went 26lb 2oz. 29lb 7oz total.
Kev Perry (p29) weighed 14lb+
Then came Rich Heatley, his carp weighed 74lb 6oz, his silvers 3lb 4oz. He now looked the winner with 77lb 10oz total, a good weight.
Peg 32 had 7lb+ of silvers then there were a few 20lb-ish weights before Simon Ryall put 1oz less than me on the scales. Nicky Harvey DNW'd.
The last 2 to weigh were Jonny Page and Phil Nash. Jonny picked up the odd fish during the match, including his late lead caught carp. His total went 37lb 11oz from peg 14.
Phil, on end peg 15. He had been catching a few lumps, some looked doubles from what I could see. So in the almost dark conditions I called his weights, they totalled 48lb 11oz (2lb 3oz silvers in that). That was 3rd overall, so well done him.

So overall it was a fair, tricky match, which is how I like it. Maybe I could have had a few more of both silvers and carp, but despite trying various things, the fish never responded. I do think a pellet wag attack could have given a few fish. There were a few mooching in the upper layers. All if's and but's.

Weigh sheet...





Results:
1st- R. Heatley, 77lb 10z
2nd- M. Walsh, 66lb 5oz
3rd- P. Nash, 48lb 11oz
Silvers:
1st- A. Baker, 14lb 2oz
2nd- L. Walker, 12lb 14oz

So next up for me is the Pawlett Xmas match on Sedges next sunday, which should be enjoyable.

Until next time, take care and enjoy yourselves

Lee.

Apex Lake, Clevedon Club, November 24th 2013

Sunday's match was a club affair at Apex Lake in Burnham/Highbridge.
Now I like the venue, it has loads of silvers, eels and a decent head of carp. It is a venue that gives rewards to those who think about their angling. The only slight is that it is a public park and occasionally dogs (and their walkers) can enter your swim in certain areas.  But generally there isn't any problems. The swims are decent, platforms or solid bank and the water is of a nice depth (3-6ft as a rule).

Anyways onto the match. I arrived at the car park around 8:10 in time for the half past draw. It was a nippy morning with a bit of a frost. Slowly the others arrived, and we were soon handing our money over to Mark Bartlett and Rob Fogg who were sorting us out while Adie was not present.
I had been down to have a look on Saturday, where a mate had been fishing, and it was hard, in fact he waited a long while before his bites began, but sport was slow. The frosts had knocked the fishing a bit, so we need a settled period for it to pick up again. Apex can be an excellent winter water, I have had weights to over 40lb of skimmers and bream.
The most popular pegs would be 1-6 and those from 43 back to around 32. I fancied the mid 30's really, along the footpath, or maybe peg 2 or 3. Peg 4 is seen as a/the top peg, but I have never really done well there,
There was 13 or 14 of us down to fish, only 1 no show.

Into the bucket goes all the hands, out comes a piece of paper, peg 4....decent enough, and I expected a few fish. So a quick jump in the car and I drove round to the other car park. Once in my swim I set about getting my kit sorted and any luggage placed back on the barrow as rats can be a pest on this lake, some of them are super friendly and are not shy...

Peg 4, Apex Lake.



Once I had mixed my groundbait (50/50 mix of sensas matchblend and magic), pumped some expanders and organised my box etc I set up 4 rigs, which I actually made on Saturday.....now I am getting good at a little prep...lol.
These were all Nick Gilberts Silverfish Caners. A 0.6g float on 0.14>0.12>B511 size 18 for soft pellet or if I was to be catching steadily, this had a bulk and a single no.10 dropper.
The 2nd rig was the same float, with a 0.10 hooklength to a size 20 B511, for maggot/caster, maybe soft pellet.
The 3rd was a 0.4g, spread shot, 0.08 hooklength and a size 22 B511, this was for the roach on the drop or up in the water, should they show.
Lastly I had another 0.4g float, but this was on 0.12 and a size 16 B611, for chopped worm next to the tree to my left (you can make out the edges of the tree in the pic). Maybe a decent perch or a rogue carp being the target here.
I also set up a small guru feeder with a 2ft tail of 0.12 to a size 18 b611. This was my banker tactic.

In the hour or so before the whistle I never saw one fish top, not one bubble, nothing, so I was expecting a struggle.
The all in sounded at 10am, and I cupped a decent pot of worm and caster by the tree, but I never had a bite there, so no more on that.
I cupped a Satsuma sized ball of groundbait at 13m in the 1pm position, a pot of wetted micros and a few soft pellet went in at 13m on the 10am position. I was feeling positive. Sadly I never had a bite on these 2 lines either, despite varying my rigs, mostly using the lightest rig and feeding softly softly.

Anyways, there is not much to tell you about the next 5 hours except I had my 1st bite at around 11:15 when a suicidal skimmer took my bait on the feeder. Others had caught a few, some were still biteless and the remainder were on 1 fish...it was tough.
I did bump a baby skimmer off when the poor thing took my single red maggot on the feeder, that was around 13:30, so at this point it was 2 bites, 1 in the net, 1 bumped....Lance Tucker on peg 32? was in the process of packing up after only having 1 bite, others had packed their poles away as I don't think anyone except Mark Bromsgrove on peg 8 (apparently he was getting plenty) had a fish on that line...

Around 2:30 I started packing up, an hour before the whistle, I left 1 pole rig and the feeder set up, but I had switched to a larger feeder and a 5ft tail, 0.08>size 22 b611, a scratching feeder rig...lol
At 3pm something happened....another bite, a minute tap on the tip, which I missed, I chucked back out and low and behold 5 mins later I was into another fish, a 4oz skimmer was netted. Sadly I only had 20 minutes left!!....at 15:15 I bumped a fish which never registered on the tip, it fell off when I was pussy-footing in bringing it in, it felt a decent skimmer...a couple mins later I landed a small 4oz skimmer, then I missed a couple bites in quick succession and then bumped another baby skimmer. The fish were only lightly hooked and these smaller skimmers have really soft mouths. The bites were taps on the tip, not positive knocks.
So bites were coming and as the all out sounded I missed a bite.....But I was glad it was over!!

I was soon packed up, a few of the others had packed up with plenty of time left!!
Rob Fogg came and weighed my 4 or 5 fish, they went 3lb 8oz, which he said looked ok for the section....if he could remember what pegs were in what sections....lol
The other pegs on my right didn't weigh in as they were fishless, Rob himself was on peg 6 and had packed up early, but informed me that Mark Bromsgrove on peg 8 was bagging...maybe over 20lb in his net.
During the match I could see Nick Harvey, Paul Faires and Phil Deacon catching the odd skimmer from the pathway pegs opposite me and were looking like contesting the placings, but Mark Bartlett on peg 42 only had 1 small skimmer and dnw'd. Also the far peg opposite me (peg 35?) had Simon Carvallo catching a few all day, especially at around 1-2pm where it seemed like he was getting a bite a chuck on the feeder.

Anyways, I loaded the car and scooted back to the main car park for the results.
As expected Mark Bromsgrove won with 28lb+ from peg 8, I guess it makes sense as that peg gets the sun all day and was out of the cold winds we had for the last couple days. Maybe the water was warmer? But well done him....
Alas I never got my section as Phil Deacon and Kev Perry both had better weights, but I think it was Phil who won my section.

Results:
1st, Peg 8, Mark Bromsgrove, 28lb 8oz
2nd, Peg 40?,  Paul Faires, 16lb 4oz
3rd, Peg 35?, Simon Carvallo, 11lb 10oz
Sections: Phil Deacon, Peg 41, 9lb 4oz. Kev Perry, Peg 33, 6lb 13oz.

Weigh Sheet.....

 

So all in all a tough day, not un-expected as we'd had a few frosts and a cold northerly. Other fisheries were slow by all accounts on Saturday, lets hope it improves.

I was a little surprised that everyone, except the winner, didn't catch on the pole, and feeder weights were the outcome. But I am not surprised that I had bites late on, a little too late, because that is how Paul Wharton had found out on Saturday.

Maybe I should have switched to a lighter hooklength earlier? Maybe a bigger feeder should have been put on earlier? Maybe I did everything ok (except land a couple fish), that's fishing...that's why we keep going.....

 

Next up for me looks to be a match on Trinity Woodlands on Sunday, I know PSV had a match there on Sunday, but the blog has yet to be done, I think......but 5lb separated their top 4 with around 30lb winning.

 

Until next time...stay safe and have fun...

 

Lee





River Parrett, Langport. Pawlett Club match 17th November 2013

Todays match was a running water adventure in the form of the River Parrett in Langport.
I have not fished here for the best part of 2 decades, so I was looking forward to it.

On Saturday morning I took the kids over for a look, and despite the nippy air and lack of breeze, the river looked appealing, especially the pegs around Bow Bridge, loads of small fish topping, with pike creating havoc amongst them. It certainly whetted my appetite.

So the rest of Saturday (well an hour perhaps) was spent making a couple rigs for the pole, a couple for the 4.5m whip and removing anything that doesn't need to be taken to a river .... 16 pints of pellet being the main removal. Along with a few rigs and some hooklength boxes.
I did put a few stick floats, larger wagglers and some 1g-3.5g pole floats in the box.

Onto today, it was an 8am draw, so the alarm was set for 6:30, which meant a couple hours sleep.
I woke before the alarm and waited for the wife to move before moving myself.
I dressed, had a cuppa and toast (courtesy of the other half), and loaded the car. I made the 20 minute trip over to the industrial estate by the Bow Bridge for the draw. I loaded the trolley and chatted to a few guys, Vic Bush was going down the groundbait road, as were one or 2 others, most people were also likely to be using the reliable hemp/caster combo as roach are the mainstay of catches, though bream and chub may be bonus fish.... the tench and carp sometimes appear in the summer. Everyone seemed to looking forward to a bit of stick float fishing.

We had 14 fishing today, 7 pegs below the bridge on the Stuckies bit (permanent pegs 39-45), and 7 pegs above, which I believe is lower Cocklemoor (pegs 38 back to 32).
The draw for the golden pegs was done, pegs 40, 39 and 43 were selected, decent pegs.
The main draw followed and I put my hand in about 4th or 5th person down, Giffy (Chris Ware) told me to pick him a peg along with mine, so I did. Out comes two tickets, I gave Chris his, peg 43. Nice.....now I never draw golden pegs, let alone 'flyers'. My ticket was peg 40....golden peg......good peg. That's my luck gone for the year...lol.

I headed to my peg and found I had Kev Crouch to my left and Kev Locke to my right, although he had set up on the wrong side of the bridge an had to re-locate himself to the correct swim, he even had his nets in I believe.....lol.
There were less fish topping in the area than on Saturday and the water was a little lower and clearer as well. But I knew I would be getting bites, as should everyone else.

Upstream towards Bow Bridge

My peg - permanent p30

Downstream view from my peg

 

I looked at my peg and decided to fish a 4.5m whip, on a light-ish 0.5g pencil type float, 0.14-0.10-size 18 b611. I also set up a groundbait feeder for 3/4 the way over, with a size 16 hook to use various baits, more in hope for a bream or chub really.

Lastly I set up a 5AAA waggler, a straight waggler made by Dave Harrell Angling, it is similar to a small pellet wag, but the weight of it allows accurate and comfortable casting plus it isn't easily pulled under by the bottom should I want to drag on. This was on 3lb mainline and a 0.12 hook length on which was tied a b611 size 18.

I did consider a stick float and a pole line, but didn't want to over complicate things, and really couldn't be bothered, thus rendering my Saturday rig-making time semi un-worthwhile.....

 

 

For bait I mixed up 2kg of  Sensas Matchblend, Sensas Roach and a bit of Sensas Lake, this was well mixed to make it heavy-ish. I also had 2 pints of caster, a pint of mixed maggot, 3pts of hemp and some worms and bread for hook bait changes.

I made up 8 decent sized balls of groundbait, which was amply laced with hemp and caster, sealed them and put them to one side. 

 

The 9:30 all in shouted and I lobbed the feeder out with a worm and caster on the hook, I fed my whip line with a few handfuls of hemp, maggot and caster and catapulted some caster over the feeder/waggler line.

Ten minutes in and no fish, only a few taps on the tip and a chewed worm. So I balled the groundbait over that area and switched to the whip.

Kev C. had started on the feeder and caught a couple small silvers. Kev L. had started on the stick float and also had a couple small fish.

 

My first drop on the whip bought me a 2oz roach, followed by another similar and then a ruffe. So I stuck with it for an hour or so. Sport was not hectic, but I was trickling the odd fish up to 4oz into my keepnet. I did hook a lump of a fish, which hung on for 20 seconds, before the hook pulled out, possibly a perch, maybe a chub, but it felt weighty.

I had another look on the feeder at around 11:30, so I could have a cup of tea, but again I was getting 'bitted out', even on bread flake.

It was back onto the whip and the small fish continued, slowly to come, I was being bashed up by a pike or 3, infact by 1pm I had lost 3 fish of at least 6oz to them and I was getting swirls, follows and even acrobatics by these predators in an attempt to rob me of my fish.

I tried the waggler, and this bought a run of 3-5oz fish before going quiet.

 

By 1:30 I had maybe 4lb of silvers, including roach, rudd, perch, ruffe, dace, silver bream and chublets. Dave Nash had landed a near 5lb chub on the whip and Kev C. next to me was getting a good few better roach. Kev Locke had landed a nice skimmer, but cant be sure how nice....

 

My whip line had pretty much died due to the pike and the feeder had finished it's work for the day (all 30 mins worth), so the rest of the match was to be spent 90% of the time on the waggler, feeding maggots and caster over that area.

2pm came and everything went wrong, I managed tangles galore on the waggler and had to re-tackle. So I also had a cup of tea and a choccy bar. It did seem like I was doing kind of poo, but I persevered.

 

The last 90 minutes saw a bunch of rudd appear, I had a run of about 20 fish up to 6oz+ and these boosted my weight. But no signs of any bream or chub. Peg 39 had quietened too, but Crouchy on 41 was still getting decent roach. Elsewhere, Dave Nash had landed a 3lb pike, which don't count, but the others, so it filtered down, had a few small fish, not much else.

 

The all out soon sounded, it seemed pretty dark, so I packed up as quick as possible and went an loaded the car. I admitted to around 4lb or so to those who asked.

As Mark had to get the weigh board I walked back to end peg to begin the weigh in with him.

He was 1st to weigh and plonked 7lb dead on the scales. Brian G and the Giffy weighed in 7lb 7oz and 5lb 13oz.

Dave Nash's chub went 4lb 13oz, which is exactly what I said it would....we had guesses from 3lb to near 6lb!!! He totalled 15lb 6oz to go well into the lead, Kev Crouch pushed him close with 14lb 7oz of nice roach mostly.

Next to weigh was me, my 4lb weighed 11lb 7oz....ooopps. Those rudd weighed ok I guess.

Kev Locke weighed 7lb 5oz. So it kind of looked like any form of pay out was gone for me.

 

We ventured to the other section, the first to weigh was peg 38, Kev Hunt, he put 15lb 6oz on the scales, all small fish, to go joint leader with Dave Nash. We weighed a couple more guys before we got to Vic Bush on peg 35, had his groundbait (and leam) attacked worked? well he put 20lb 13oz on the scales to take the lead and with the last 3 admitting to nowhere near that it looked like he was the winner.

So it proved with Pete Manning on the upstream peg next to him weighing 14lb and the last couple of guys totalling around 12lb between them. Vic's catch looked like it was made up with small silvers, no bonus fish of note, so he must have had a busy day. But he did well, so fair play.

 

Weigh Sheet.....

 







So the results were like this:

1st from peg 35, Vic Bush - 20lb 13oz

2nd= Dave Nash, peg 42, - 15lb 6oz

2nd= Kev Hunt, peg 38, - 15lb 6oz

 

Section winners were Kev Crouch and Pete Manning with 14lb+ weights.

 

So it was an enjoyable day, I don't get to match fish running water much, but I do hope there is a few more matches in 2014 on rivers and drains.

Perhaps if the pike in my swim had bogged off and not stole a couple pounds of fish, then I would have definitely had enough for 2nd as my whip line will have given a few more pounds. Vic said he never had pike problems, so maybe his fish never became unsettled as much?

Maybe a pole line could have been a better choice? Always if's and but's...!! lol.

 

Next up for me is a match, with Clevedon, next Sunday at Apex. So another non-carp match. Cool.

 

Until then take care and stay warm

Lee

Plantation Fishery - Match Lake - Clevedon Club - 10/11/13

A first for me today, a trip to Plantation's Match lake in Kingston Seymour. A venue I had only seen pics in blogs and  a quick glance across the lake from the bridge.
I had gathered that the hot/best/flyer pegs tended to be island ones, with pegs 7, 8 and a few in the 20's being most consistent.

Well after a late night/early morning, I had little sleep before the 6:30am alarm was due to wake me.
I also had to take Mrs W. to work in Weston on the way up (and get her on the way back), so I had planned to drop her in Weston at around 7:45 and get to Plantation at 8-ish. Alas this went wrong, little did I know that Weston is being dug up and put back in a better state, well the roads are it seems.
So I got the car loaded and had a cuppa before setting off, as we approached junction 21 we could see cones....the north bound slip road was closed, so my foot pressed a touch harder on the accelerator and it was up to the next junction, and back down the M5 to the south bound exit at Weston. An extra 20 miles thus far!!.....we got into Weston at 8am. I left the wife and made my way back towards the M5, the road was closed, so the diversion was taken....all out to Banwell and then onto the A38, then back into Congresbury.......gggrr....a few extra miles driven and more time taken, I expected to be late but luckily, I arrived at the car park at 25 past.  As it turns out, the slip road on the M5 northbound should have been open at 5am, but they hadn't opened it!!

I went into the café and the draw was made, Nick Harvey wasn't present, he was told or thought it was a 9am draw. So we drew his peg first.
I drew my ticket about halfway along he array of hands and pulled out peg 33, this meant bum all to me, I had not ever seen any blogs or results which had this peg written on it, but everyone told me it was a waste of a peg, the worst peg in the match if not on the lake....Pagey and co pointed me in the direction of the pegs, none of which were numbered. They said it shouldn't be in and I would possibly struggle...more joys.
The general census was that the lake may fish hard with the cooler nights and recent rains, but today it began warm enough, so much so I sat in tee-shirt until the all out when it had become rather nippy.

Anyways I found my peg and it looked ok, nothing more, it was a bay type peg off the main lake.
For company I had nobody...well I had Kev Perry behind me on peg 31 and Rich  over on whatever peg number it was - probably peg 37?, well it was the point of a spit opposite the end of the island.

Peg 33....Plantation Match Lake

 



My focus was always going to be fishing for silvers, well unless I drew peg 7 that is.....so I had with me a couple pints of caster, some 4 and 6 mm pellets for in the band, some micros and expanders and I mixed up some groundbait. Lastly I had some worm for chopping. Caster had been doing well on here from reports, so this was my banker bait.

 

Rig wise I set up my 3m whip set at 2.5ft deep, this is now my usual go-to silvers rig at the start of a match, more through enjoyment than anything, but it does me ok.

I also set up 2 identical 0.4g NG floats for 11m in front left (in line with blue keepnet) and in front slightly right (in line with silvers net). The left hand side was a couple or so inches shallower, and was baited with mostly micros, the right-hand side was for groundbait with caster on the hook. Both lines were for the skimmers, which apparently run to over 2.5lb and maybe a few roach.

I also used the un-banded rig for over my whip line as the depth was the same. A chopped worm/caster line down my right margin was assembled, this was tried a couple times without even a sniff.....

 

The all-in was shouted and I potted 3 walnut sized ball of groundbait over that 11m line, a decent cup of wetted micros over the other 11m line. A small helping of CW&C down to my right

I began on the whip and after 5 or so mins I had a roach of maybe 3oz, then nothing for a bit before a similar sized roach was plonked in the keepnet, by the end of the first hour I had 4 or 5 roach around 3-4oz each, most people were struggling from what I could see, except Rod Wootton over on peg 39? who after a quiet period on the long pole line had switched to the margin and started catching a few carp.

 

The next hour or so only bought me a few more roach, mostly on the whip, though 1 from the groundbait line gave me false hope as this was only 1 of 3 fish from open water all day for me. The roach were all same sized and if they had stuck around in numbers were good weight builders, but that is a big IF...

By the time 2pm had arrived, I maybe had 2lb of roach. So I quickly set up another rig for tight into 2 new margin swims, one to my left at 11m towards the empty peg and another to my right, closer in than the original cw&c line. Both lines were dealt big helpings of caster and worm, with the left margin given some loose groundbait.

Word had it that Paul Faires would easily win the silvers as he'd had some skimmers of a big size and Glen Calvert was doing ok. Also Rod had landed a good few carp, and the pegs in the 20's behind me had produced a few, along with plenty of foul-hookers from what I could hear. Peg 7... the hot peg...had Mark Bromsgrove on it, and he was doing very well, so 1st and 2nd seemed between him and Rod. Elsewhere a few carp were getting caught, but I really didn't know where people were at with the silvers, but I thought that maybe a couple decent ones or maybe a perch of a couple pound would help me.

 

So the last hour was spent fishing the two margins, with the odd look out in front.

I would love to say that the perch and skimmers had arrived, but I cant, I landed 3 more roach and two lumpy carp, both on double caster, one of which was landed on skimmer gear within 15 seconds....it was around 12lb came from the right hand edge swim, the smaller from the left towards the empty swim. Both were an unwelcome bonus, but beats waiting for nothing as the silvers were notable by their absence.

The all out sounded and I knew I hadn't done anything to worry the pay-outs, but felt I had done ok given the peg. The last hour saw Kev behind me boost his carp tally to around 6 and Rich over on the point swim had topped his carp tally to 4 or 5. Rod had a quiet last hour from what I gather. Lance Tucker on peg 5? had landed a few carp during the match and had done ok.

The temperature had dropped noticeably and the fish had slowed as well in the last hour. So much so that I had to put my coat on as soon as I got off my box.

 

I loaded the car and wandered back to get my catch weighed, everyone commenting how hard and disappointing the day was. There was 2 sets of scales, so weighing didn't take long.

First I plonked my couple of carp on the scales, they totalled 18lb 6oz.

My roach weighed in at 3lb, giving me 21lb 6oz.

 

Elsewhere Mark Bromsgrove won the match (peg 7 - 78lb 40z), Rod Wootton (p39 61lb 4oz) was 2nd, Lance Tucker 3rd (36lb 8oz p5) and 4th was Brian Slipper (p12 28lb 8oz).

Silvers was won by Paul Faires with a great catch of 15lb 8oz, 2nd silvers was Glen Calvert with 7lb 4oz.

 

Weigh Sheet....No peg numbers.

 





So all in all it was a hard day with most struggling at times, the weather was pleasant enough for November, but I enjoyed it and will be keen to go back at some point.

 

Next up for me is a match on the River Parrett, a venue I have not fished for around 18 years...cool...roach fishing....let the rains keep away a bit more this week.

 

Until then, stay safe and have fun.

Lee

 



Avalon Teams of 3 - Avalon Fisheries - November 3rd 2013

Today was the 1st round of 6 matches. A teams of 3 event, with my partners being Paul Wharton, a guy who generally doesn't fish many (any) matches, and James Withers, a bloke who talks a good match, but doesn't get out to fish much (bless him), but not and bad angler really....Nice guys though..lol.

We have 11 teams for this series. With pay outs pretty well spread and quite generous, we wanted to do well. But there are 30 other anglers who are very capable. The likes of Rich Coles, Vic Bush, Tom Mangnall and Eric Fouracre were in attendance. Coupled with some of the guys who fish with either Clevedon and Pawlett clubs and a few regular framers at Avalon it was going to be tough...

Anyways, after a rainy, windy, stormy and nippy night, I arrived at the fishery at around 8:10, plenty of time before the half past 8 draw. The lakes looked 'weathered' and we were unsure what to expect.
I took my team-mates' pools money off them and went and paid our dues.

After a bit of banter and chitter chat about how we expected it to fish, the draw was made.
Now it was down to the team captains to pick their section and this, coupled with pre-determined pegs, saw an angler from each team in the corresponding peg of each section.

I drew section B, peg 2. Meaning that James had C section peg 2 and Paul was in A section peg 2.
These translated into permanent pegs 19, 32 and 3 respectively.
We all made our ways to the pegs, well wishing each other, hoping the 'team' does well.

I arrived at peg 19 and surveyed the scene, a slippery platform of decent size (phew), some far bank cover and ok-ish looking margins. I had to my right Keith Clapp, who was the 1st peg in my section. To my left I had silvers specialist Ron Stark, then Vic Bush and Rich Coles (another silvers angler), finally I had John Dursley as the last peg on this bank, the rest of the section were the other side of the island and out of sight.

My peg....Peg 19

 

The corner of the island - Peg 19

 

 

I had made up a few rigs on Saturday and went about setting up my tackle, the usual 3m whip was assembled, a lead/8mm pellet rod to cast to the point of the island as I could not get close out in front due to the overhanging trees. I also assembled 3 top kits.

1 for down towards the reeds in the edge to my left, this was for chopped worm/caster. The same rig was also used for 7m in front slightly to the left, again using chopped worm and caster.

Another rig was for soft pellet fished half depth or so. This was to be used over the 13m line where I set up a 0.6g NG decker float for soft pellet over wetted micros, but fish will often come off bottom when using micros as feed.

I also set up a pellet wag as a few fish were moving near the surface in other swims. But alas I cast this up a tree, re-tackled with a lighter float and promptly hooked a carp of 12 or 13lb on a bare hook, before the whistle....not a good sign..!!

 

The all in sounded at 10:15 and I potted various baits to the designated swims and loose fed some caster for the whip line. My 1st half hour was spent on the lead, with no joy. There was not even any swirls from small fish on the whip line. No blowing on the pole lines and the weather was all over the place, windy, calm, rain and sun. The fish looked to have been put off by the multi-seasonal conditions.

Meanwhile Keith on peg 17 was landing a few carp by fishing into the calm off the end of his island.

Vic had landed a carp. Me and Ron were struggling.

 

For the next couple of hours I rotated tactics, only picking up odd roach and rudd on the whip. The lead and waggler tactics never produced a bite, and the pole only gave 2 little fish over the 7m worm line. At around 12:15 I had a look over the 13m line with a 4mm Bait Tech expander and the float went under, a carp was hooked, and after a spirited scrap a 7lb fish was netted. Soon after a second carp followed, though this one was around 3lb. Then things died again.

 

The next couple hours was spent rotating swims, though there was a little more blowing over the long line. I picked up the odd small fish on the 7m and whip lines. I couldn't buy a bite down the edge and gave that up.

2pm came and I reckon I had around 2.5lb of bits and 2 carp for about 10lb. But I was well behind Keith who had a good few fish early on in the match and possibly had 30lb in his net. I was maybe a little ahead of Ron who wasn't catching consistently either. Vic had landed a few carp, maybe 5 or 6, plus some silvers, but by my reckoning he was plenty behind Keith.

 

Another look over the long line produced my 3rd carp, a 4lb fish. I had also figured that by firing a few 4mm pellets over the float bought a response. The last hour bought me 3 skimmers of maybe 12oz each and I did lose 2 foul hooked carp in 2 drops, both were of a decent stamp.

Things died for me in the last hour, but Ron did land a carp, as did Keith. Vic also had a few fish and I could hear Rich and John had landed some fish. It was going to be close on my bank, in my section, for 3rd and lower, as I guessed Keith and Vic were possibly the 2 tops spots.

I did see my team-mate James land a couple carp on the pellet wag over on peg 32 (you can make him and Jonny Page in my 2nd photo), but I was unsure on how he was doing.

 

The all out sounded and I was really unsure on what I had, 3 carp and 4lb of silvers were what I guessed at being 18lb.

I packed up and waited for the scales. I was unsure of the weights in section A, but Keith weighed 35lb 11oz to go into the lead overall and obviously top spot in B section.

After Keith it was my weigh, my 3 carp went 15lb 7oz and silvers weighed 6lb 4oz. 21lb 11oz total.

 

I loaded my car and headed back for the results.

 

It turned out it was a low-weight match, but pretty fair and lots of close weights.

 

1st on the day was Keith Clapp with 35lb 11oz peg 17

2nd was Matt Harris, 34lb 7oz from Peg 42

3rd was (by default) Paul Wharton with 32lb off peg 3

 

Silvers winner was Eric Fouracre, 17lb 13oz of mostly skimmers, from peg 7. He did have 15lb 4oz of carp for a total of 33lb 1oz, which was 3rd top weight.

2nd Silvers was Keith Builder from peg 16, his silvers weighed 10lb 5oz.

 

The top team on the day (by weight) was Sedges, the team of Jamie Cook plus Keith and Phil Clapp.

2nd team on the day was my team Woolavy Wanderers.

Both teams had 26 points from a total of 33.

 

Pay Outs and Team Results

Section Results.

 

So all in all it wasn't a bad day for me, 4th in section and my team came joint first on points, losing out on weight to the Sedges team. Paul Wharton also picked up £40 for his efforts, well done buddy.

 

The next round of the series is December 29th, maybe it'll be tougher, but given this country's weather conditions, you can never be sure it will actually be much colder.









 

Next up for me could see me at Plantations Match lake with the Clevedon Club next Sunday.

Until next time, take care and have fun

Lee

 



Pawlett Club Match - Avalon Fisheries - October 20th 2013

Sunday was my first match since early/mid September, and to be honest I wasn't in the mood given my late night  (early morning). A lack of sleep doesn't warm my initial mood.

Anyways, I thought I would give it a go, especially as I have entered the teams of 3 series Vic is running over the coming few months. I needed have a look really, maybe learn a bit....

I duly woke up at 6:30, less than 2 hours after getting to bed, and was tempted to roll over and get some more zzzz's. Alas I ventured to the bathroom, then onto the kitchen and a cuppa to start the day.
I loaded the car and ate a banana, my enthusiasm was still lacking, but the tiredness had taken the back burner.

So with no preparation of note, well I had bought some maggot and caster on Friday along with taking my KSD rigs out of my box and chucking in a few Sedges rigs. Coupled with removing 3 keepnets from the bag and removing 6 pints of 8mm pellet from the bait holdall. I was semi-ready.

I made the 20 minute drive after leaving home at 8:20, I paid my monies and stood around waiting for the draw, in a world of my own (sleepyland), I noted how quiet it was....Giffy Ware wasn't fishing.
So everyone (all 28) paid up and the draw was made, I had wanted peg 32, don't know why, but that area was my fancy, maybe it is because I have never, from memory,  been drawn further up than peg 10 on the left side or 38 on the right.
I picked my peg, I was maybe 10th to draw, and out came peg 5. Not too bad.

Peg 5...Avalon Match Lake

I hadn't really arrived wanting to target the carp, in fact if I didn't get one on the tip after the first 20 mins I wouldn't bother as it was the skimmers I wanted to catch, along with some other silvers. Hopefully to qualify for the club's silvers winner final.

I set up a 3m whip to fish up to 2ft deep, but mostly around 18" would work. 0.14 to 0.10 to a size 16 B611 hook. The float was a small canal type waggler as the wind was due to pick up.
A banded 6mm pellet rig, just in case the carp were a pest and needing catching. This was for 6m out to my left slightly. 0.20-0.16 to a size 16 B911 hook. Size 20 solid middy elastic.
A 0.6g NG Decker was set up for 13m at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock positions. This was on 0.14 to 0.12 to a size 18 B911F1 hook, elastic was 10/12 middy solid on a puller.
I also set up a 0.4g NG Silverfish caner float to fish over the same 13m lines and the whip line. Line was as on the 0.6g rig.
I also had a small groundbait feeder to fish across with banded 6mm pellet on the hook, but this was only a 'I am bored' tactic.

For bait I had 1pt of each caster and maggot, some 6mm pellet, 3pts of micro and some 2, 4 and 6mm expanders for the hook. I would have bought worm, but my wormery now resembles a kindergarten for dendras....all the worms are babies with no large ones in sight (how do they breed with no fully grown ones?).
I also mixed up some groundbait, mostly a fishmeal based mix with added gros gardons, which has lots of hemp in.

After a bit of a chat with a couple of guys, the all in sounded. I immediately potted a couple pots of damp micros at the 13m line to my right, and 6 balls of groundbait were potted at the 10 o'clock line at 13m. I also fed a couple pots of 6mm pellets at 6 mtrs hoping to draw the carp away from my slivers.
I lobbed the feeder out towards the boards and started to lose feed my whip line, planning on sticking it out on the tip until the rudd were visible on the short line.

It took 10 mins and no indications on the feeder to make me try the whip, and straight away I was swinging in fish, only small rudd and roach upto 3oz, but it kept me ticking over.
I pretty much stuck on the whip for the remainder of the match, catching rudd and roach to 8oz along with the odd rogue perch. I also lost a carp on the whip.

After 4 hours I had around 6lb I think, though I did spend around half hour faffing over the long lines, with no rewards.
So things were not exactly happing at a rapid pace, and I had bumped a good few fish, shedding the hook, possibly perch, but defo the odd decent roach on the whip...would they cost me?
We did have a great shower and strong winds as we approach the last 3rd of the match, it almost went dark....

Word had it that it had fished hard, especially for the silvers, and that most were struggling.
I had a look over the micros line at around 3pm and despite the bubbling I never had a touch on soft pellet, maggot or caster. So a look over the groundbait, where there was no bubbles, produced a skimmer of around a pound. No more were forth coming, so I re-fed both lines and returned to the whip, continuing to catch small silvers.

With about an hour left my long lines were showing more activity, so I had another look over my micro line, and after 2 minutes I was into a fish, but it was a carp around 4lb, which was netted after a spirited battle. I did hook another 10 minutes later, but it broke my hooklength as I shipped back un-fussed if I landed it. I spent another 15mins waiting for a decent skimmer or maybe a tench, but none were around.
So for the last 15 mins or so I carried on with the whip, infact I missed the keepnet with a 3oz rudd on the whistle.....this would come back to haunt me wouldn't it?

Anyways the all out sounded and some guys had already left, some were in the process of packing up as DNW's and most remarked how slow it had been. When asked by some of the guys, I stated that I had 1 carp of around 4lb and maybe 9lb of silvers, which wasn't too bad they told me.

I packed my kit away and waited for the weigh in, Keith Clapp obviously won overall, admitting to 100lb, but the 2nd and 3rd spots were less obvious and rumour had it Eric Fouracre had caught a couple slab bream and had over 12lb of silvers, he along with Jamie Cook, looked good for the top 2 silvers (only 1 pay out in silvers).

As I was 2nd  or 3rd to weigh, Phil Clapp said he had about 10lb of silvers and was hoping to get to the silvers final......so I plonked my carp on the scales, 4lb 6oz. Next my silvers.....10lb 6oz (remember the bumped fish and that 3oz rudd....).
I followed the scales round and noted the amount of DNW's and low weights, with 40lb winning until we got to peg 20, Keith had fished the conker method to a gap in the vegetation to amass 98lb 7oz of carp for an easy win (didn't get 100lb though,,,lol).

On with the weigh in, Vic Bush on corner peg 24 had 45lb 3oz, Jason King on p26 had 48lb 10oz.
Eric on peg 29 weighed his silvers for 13lb 3oz, including a couple proper bream. Jamie's silvers went 12lb 5oz from peg 33 pushed me into 3rd silvers, but as he and Eric had qualified for the silvers final, I needed more than Phil Clapp to qualify.
Dick Hurford on p37 weighed 52lb 7oz to take overall second, then came peg 38, time for Phil to weigh in. His carp went 5lb 10oz, then his silvers weighed 10lb 9oz.....bugger that dropped rudd....bugger bugger.
Ah well, he qualified for the final, I will have to go again next time out

Back to the hut for the results and presentation, it was a memorial match also, so Keith got a trophy.

1st was Keith Clapp, 98lb 7oz from peg 20
2nd was Dick Hurford, 52lb 7oz from peg 37  (all winners final qualifier)
3rd was Jason King, 48lb 10oz from peg 26

Silvers: Eric Fouracre, 13lb 3oz from peg 29

Section winners: Vic Bush, Will Puddy (after a maths error...lol) and P. Manning.

Weigh Sheets

So all in all a difficult match for 27 of the 28. But pretty fair.
On reflection I feel I should have won the silvers overall, as I probably bumped a couple pounds of fish and maybe spent too long on the long lines for not-present skimmers.
If I had fished for the carp, I think I would have done ok, as there seemed plenty across towards the island, but I didn't fancy them.

I did learn a few things and am looking towards the series that starts in a couple weeks.

Next up for me is possibly a Clevedon match on Trinity Woodlands this sunday, if not the the following week I am down Avalon again for the teams of 3 series.

Take Care and Tight Lines
Lee