First match fishing with the guys from Pawlett Legion Angling Club, with some new faces, whom I will get to know at least their names, some familiar faces and a few from yesteryear.
We had 36 (i think) booked in for todays meet. so Mike let us use 3 lake, Match, Speci and Lake 3.
I arrived at the fishery at 7:40 for an 8am draw, it was a nippy morning, plenty of fog in Bridgwater, but by the time I got to East Huntspill it had cleared (obviously come in on the tide). There was a slight frost in places, so after last time out's struggle, I knew that things were going to be hard. The bright sunshine we were expected to get wouldnt help methinks.
There had also been a match yesterday(16/2), but I am unaware of the results, just got told peeps fed plenty. Nice!!
After a bit of chit chat with a few guys and girls, pumped up someone's flat trolley tyre and lent a couple bags of pellet, which I got given back unused. I queued up, paid my £13 and picked peg 8. Hmmm, not ideal. And when pegs 15 and 60 got picked as golden pegs, I knew where the winner was coming from.
Anyways, the short walk to peg 8 was a little muddy and it turned out I had Paul Purchase on peg 6 and someone on peg 12, nobody inbetween. On Peg 15 (golden peg) was John 'Lucky' Dursley, now from recent match reports, peg 15 was consistantly in the frame. The pressure was on 'Lucky' to do well.
3 rigs for the day: these consisted of a silvers rig (0.12-0.10-size18 silverfish pellet) for 10am and 2 o'clock at 8m or so (Nick Gilbert Silverfish Caner in 0.6g) this was also used for searching the swim it was shotted with well spread no.10's.
One rig for the bottom of the far shelf at around 11.5m in front and for my left and right margins towards empty pallets (NG Decker in 0.6g 0.14-0.12 to 16 B611)
One for 13m towards the tree/bush thing at 1 o'clock (another NG pattern, the HD in 0.4g 0.14-0.12 size 16 B611) or maybe if the margins were not too snaggy.
Baits were simply dampened micro, caster and a few dead and live reds...and some poxy soft expanders in 2 and 4mm, I also mixed a few small balls of dark Sonu groundbait for one silvers line.
With few 'fishy' signs I could hear people expecting a tough match, and so it was to prove.
On the whistle I cupped in a pot of caster down my left margin, 1 soft and 1 hard ball of GB with a few maggots at 10 o'clock, a half a cup of micros with a few sample hookbaits at 2 o'clock and then a bigger helping of micros at 11.5m. The far side was to be baited through the toss pot as I wasn't expecting many fish to be in shallow/cold/shaded areas.
I started fishing across at 13m, feeding small toss pot helpings of micros and caster, well I worked the far bank for half an hour with only a small roach, which dropped off, to show for my efforts.
The guy in 12 had a carp on the tip, he was casting a small bomb all over the peg, I guess to pick up wandering fish. Nobody else on my side had had a bite. Peg 15 had a couple fish, I could not see what they were though.
I soon came back down the middle to my 8m swims, alternating both lines with varying hookbaits, I did think I had a bite, but the float was hard to see at times with the sun, greenery, shade and sky all reflecting off the water. So, no joys here, i re-fed a little bit on each line and decided to try and sit a while at 11.5m as the bottom of the far shelves have been producing reasonably consistantly.
An hour and a half had passed and other than John on 15, only 2 or 3 carp had been caught, not many silvers either. 10 minutes later my float was away, and it kept going, going and going, soon I had a scale back in my hand.
I had to wait another hour for my next bite, this time, again from 11.5m, I had hooked a carp in the mouth, just. After a five minute battle I had the carp on the surface, reached for the landing net and ping the hook pulled out, I could see the hook was literally just on the lips of the fish, lightly hooked is an understatement.
So we forward to 2:30, in the 60 minutes or so since my lost carp I had tried shallowing up and laying on, but bites were hard to come by, I dumped aload of feed down my margins and over my GB line went a few more balls. But I had landed 3 or 4 small roach and a baby perch from my pellet silvers line. But already people on this pond were packing up biteless or fishless at least, on my bank there was only pegs 1, 3 and me on 8 left at 3pm.
I even managed to hook a tree(a few metres up, was checking bait!!) so had to pull for a break.
At 10 past 3 I had another fouler run around my swim for 5 mins before escaping, this occured again a few minutes after, before another lightly hooked carp of 3lb fell off. I was a bit peeved to put it mildly, but still at least there was not any rain.
I had a few more looks over each of the lines without success. Word had come round that speci lake was a struggle with only half a dozen carp in total coming out, lake 3 was more consistant though, with Eric Fouracres, Chris Ware and a couple other guys doing ok I was told.
Fifteen minutes before the all out I began to pack up, tipping back my silvers as they'd be worth bum all.
Back at the car, a lot of other anglers had already headed for home and a few had packed up and were waiting to watch the weigh in. It had been hard pretty much all over.
The results I could get were.
1st) P15 (golden peg) with 34lb on the nose. John Durlsey. Carp, tench and silvers mostly at 6m.
2nd) P42 on lake 3, Eric Fouracre, 25lb 6oz, included 12lb of silvers.
There were a few low 20lb weights, from lake 3. With that lake most consistant. Some decent sized carp and plenty of silvers were taken on maggots, corn and soft pellet.
Speci lake saw a couple double figure weights, nothing special, but a couple were all silvers weights from peg 33 and 36 of 12lb 1oz and 10lb 6oz respectively.
Top silvers on the day was 14lb odd from peg 21, Pete Manning doing well on a difficult day on Match lake.
As it turned out pegs 1 and 3 never weighed aswell(prob had a couple pound between them) meaning that whole bank (Pegs 1 to 12) never weighed in.
All in all, those 2 lost carp didnt cost me anything as they were only 3lb fish and my ounces worth of silvers wouldnt have made a slightest bit of inrodes to the overall outcome.
Still, as I was told, I was not meant to try and win my 1st match with the club!! Still they all seemed a nice bunch of anglers and I am looking forward to 2013 already.
Next up for me looks to be either a trip to the Bristol Avon's Crane stretch (3/3/13), or failing that a first trip for me to Shiplate (17/3/13). Again a new club outing for me, Clevedon FWAC. I hope it is as much fun, with more fish and more friendly peeps.
Next week I am off to the Big One at Farnborough, taking the wife too..............
Take Care and have fun
Woolavy.
Sunday, 17 February 2013
Monday, 4 February 2013
Landsend Feb 3rd 2013.
So I begin, my 1st blog ever...........
I had booked in to Sunday's match on Landsend Fishery, a venue that I had not set foot on in a dozen years, so with my lack of up to date knowledge or experience of the venue, I was not expecting instant success........Luckily.
A quick read through of various blogs gave me a few ideas, and after chatting to Tom Mangnall and Vince Brown in the week, plans had been roughed out in my head.
Now, whether it is the laid back-ness of my nature or the fact I prepared some of my gear on Saturday, this consisted of 4 whole rigs......which to those who know me, these days that is like hundreds (I have alway hated making rigs.......).
Two rigs were on NG silvers floats, these were a 0.4g with strung number 9's and a 10 dropper and the 2nd with a 0.6 version, bulked 18" from the hook and a single no.10 dropper. Both rigs were 0.12 to 0.10 matchteam line and size 18 Kamasan B511 barbless. The ideas being they would be for 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock at around 11m, they'd also do for swim searching.
The other couple of rigs were on 0.14 to 0.12 to a size 16 Drennan Silverfish pellet hooks. The floats were a 0.2 NG float (of which i forget the name) for up against the island and tight against the margin. And a 0.4 version for the bottom 3rd of the near shelf and far shelf.
Anyways, getting to the venue at 8:30, we were greeted with a slight nip in the air from a short overnight frost, infact one or two puddles had bits of cat-ice on them. The weather was due to be mild enough at 10 degrees and maybe the odd bit of drizzle or shower.
With Mike West, well being Mike West, there was a discussuon on how to peg the match as we had 14, so it ended up being 12 on Match lake and 2 on speci pegs 32 and 33. Payouts were top 5 and 2 silvers......fishing 10:15 to 16:15, thats like an age, 5hrs seems long at times.
Anyway, after a bit of a chat with a few of the guys, who mentioned the saturday match was hard-ish, I stuck my hand into the bucket and drew peg 13, which was, unknown to me, a corner peg, which can be a flyer.
So i grabbed the carp-porter, which incidently I find better and stronger than current match trollies, and bombed off to my peg.
I stuck my box on the platform, which just had enough room for my side tray too. Set up my keepnets, which I was informed was 80lb max in each, only to be told thar no netsto be put in until 10 mins before the all in.........odd rule!!
Either way, out came the pole, baits made up and rigs attached, 2 lighter rigs on middy 8-10, 2 heavier on slack 10-12. Plumbed and re-plumbed.
On the all in I didnt put any bait out as both Tom and Vince said have a go at dropping in around teh swim and hope for a bite. 15 mins later = biteless. So I cupped in a ball of Sonu dark GB at 2 o'clock and half a cup of damp micros at 10 o'clock, some casters towards the pallet of peg 14 and some mag/caster near the chopped tree on the end bank to my left. Also fired some caster and 4mm hards to the point of the island at 16m.
For hook baits I had red mag, mixed pinkies, couple pints of caster and some horrible 2mm and 4mm expanders......Which I guess I need to practice.
2hrs in, myself and peg 11 had not had a positive bite, I could see and hear a few fish being caught down towards peg 19 and the chap on 15 had caught a couple from the bottom of the far shelf.
Loads of foul hooked fish were the order of the day and I could hear and silvers were hard to come by.
Then at around 12:30 I had a couple of knocks, then a proper bite from my gb line, a small roach came back in, next put out bought nothing. Peg 11 had 2 carp in a short time.(it turned out he had 6 bites all day, 3 carp a skimmer and a roach.) I missed a few bites, trying my lines and all over the unbaited areas, even against the aereator. Suddenly a flurry of activity, a perch about a pound from against the end bank, a 5oz roach from the gb line, a couple roach and rudd from both open water lines and a lost fish and rig, which actually took some laccy - possibly a skimmer or decent perch, before the rig came off the connector....numpty.
That was it for me, I gave it 20 mins more and when peg 15 had carp number 5? and 11 had number 3 I decided to pack up with an hour left. I heard that a couple silvers weights were around 8lb so my approximate bag was 3lb-ish was tipped back to swim another day.
I wandered over to peg 33 on speci and seen my mate Slaps, he'd had maybe 15lb of silvers and a couple carp, Nick Duckett on 32 had not much.
I didnt get all the results, but Slaps won the silvers with 15lb, 2nd silvers was 11lb and overall there was a 76lb and a couple 50's/60lb weights......then not much, it fished hard, the cold frost knocked sport a touch.
Anyways, onto my next match. Hopefully I will find one for next saturday and/or sunday and as it's my birthday I may fish both days.....haha.
Hope you enjoyed, they should become better as time goes by.....
Be Safe
Lee
I had booked in to Sunday's match on Landsend Fishery, a venue that I had not set foot on in a dozen years, so with my lack of up to date knowledge or experience of the venue, I was not expecting instant success........Luckily.
A quick read through of various blogs gave me a few ideas, and after chatting to Tom Mangnall and Vince Brown in the week, plans had been roughed out in my head.
Now, whether it is the laid back-ness of my nature or the fact I prepared some of my gear on Saturday, this consisted of 4 whole rigs......which to those who know me, these days that is like hundreds (I have alway hated making rigs.......).
Two rigs were on NG silvers floats, these were a 0.4g with strung number 9's and a 10 dropper and the 2nd with a 0.6 version, bulked 18" from the hook and a single no.10 dropper. Both rigs were 0.12 to 0.10 matchteam line and size 18 Kamasan B511 barbless. The ideas being they would be for 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock at around 11m, they'd also do for swim searching.
The other couple of rigs were on 0.14 to 0.12 to a size 16 Drennan Silverfish pellet hooks. The floats were a 0.2 NG float (of which i forget the name) for up against the island and tight against the margin. And a 0.4 version for the bottom 3rd of the near shelf and far shelf.
Anyways, getting to the venue at 8:30, we were greeted with a slight nip in the air from a short overnight frost, infact one or two puddles had bits of cat-ice on them. The weather was due to be mild enough at 10 degrees and maybe the odd bit of drizzle or shower.
With Mike West, well being Mike West, there was a discussuon on how to peg the match as we had 14, so it ended up being 12 on Match lake and 2 on speci pegs 32 and 33. Payouts were top 5 and 2 silvers......fishing 10:15 to 16:15, thats like an age, 5hrs seems long at times.
Anyway, after a bit of a chat with a few of the guys, who mentioned the saturday match was hard-ish, I stuck my hand into the bucket and drew peg 13, which was, unknown to me, a corner peg, which can be a flyer.
So i grabbed the carp-porter, which incidently I find better and stronger than current match trollies, and bombed off to my peg.
I stuck my box on the platform, which just had enough room for my side tray too. Set up my keepnets, which I was informed was 80lb max in each, only to be told thar no netsto be put in until 10 mins before the all in.........odd rule!!
Either way, out came the pole, baits made up and rigs attached, 2 lighter rigs on middy 8-10, 2 heavier on slack 10-12. Plumbed and re-plumbed.
On the all in I didnt put any bait out as both Tom and Vince said have a go at dropping in around teh swim and hope for a bite. 15 mins later = biteless. So I cupped in a ball of Sonu dark GB at 2 o'clock and half a cup of damp micros at 10 o'clock, some casters towards the pallet of peg 14 and some mag/caster near the chopped tree on the end bank to my left. Also fired some caster and 4mm hards to the point of the island at 16m.
For hook baits I had red mag, mixed pinkies, couple pints of caster and some horrible 2mm and 4mm expanders......Which I guess I need to practice.
2hrs in, myself and peg 11 had not had a positive bite, I could see and hear a few fish being caught down towards peg 19 and the chap on 15 had caught a couple from the bottom of the far shelf.
Loads of foul hooked fish were the order of the day and I could hear and silvers were hard to come by.
Then at around 12:30 I had a couple of knocks, then a proper bite from my gb line, a small roach came back in, next put out bought nothing. Peg 11 had 2 carp in a short time.(it turned out he had 6 bites all day, 3 carp a skimmer and a roach.) I missed a few bites, trying my lines and all over the unbaited areas, even against the aereator. Suddenly a flurry of activity, a perch about a pound from against the end bank, a 5oz roach from the gb line, a couple roach and rudd from both open water lines and a lost fish and rig, which actually took some laccy - possibly a skimmer or decent perch, before the rig came off the connector....numpty.
That was it for me, I gave it 20 mins more and when peg 15 had carp number 5? and 11 had number 3 I decided to pack up with an hour left. I heard that a couple silvers weights were around 8lb so my approximate bag was 3lb-ish was tipped back to swim another day.
I wandered over to peg 33 on speci and seen my mate Slaps, he'd had maybe 15lb of silvers and a couple carp, Nick Duckett on 32 had not much.
I didnt get all the results, but Slaps won the silvers with 15lb, 2nd silvers was 11lb and overall there was a 76lb and a couple 50's/60lb weights......then not much, it fished hard, the cold frost knocked sport a touch.
Anyways, onto my next match. Hopefully I will find one for next saturday and/or sunday and as it's my birthday I may fish both days.....haha.
Hope you enjoyed, they should become better as time goes by.....
Be Safe
Lee
Intro......
Hi,
I am Lee Williams, 34-ish yrs old and currently living in the 'lovely' town of Bridgwater.
I am married with a couple of kids, who, thankfully love a spot of fishing.
In my blog, I hope to summarise my fishing exploits, which in my current 'mode' will be mostly match style dominated, but a few days carping, piking will arise no doubt and I may even have a dabble on the fly......lets see what 2013 and beyond will bring.
My google profile.......
I am Lee Williams, 34-ish yrs old and currently living in the 'lovely' town of Bridgwater.
I am married with a couple of kids, who, thankfully love a spot of fishing.
In my blog, I hope to summarise my fishing exploits, which in my current 'mode' will be mostly match style dominated, but a few days carping, piking will arise no doubt and I may even have a dabble on the fly......lets see what 2013 and beyond will bring.
My google profile.......
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