Pawlett Club - Viaduct Fishery - Campbell Lake - 28/7/13

So to the 2nd match of the weekend, again at Viaduct, but with pegs on Cary and Campbell, I had a half chance of either lake. On Saturday evening I thought I fancied Cary, but by Sunday I had decided I would rather be on Campbell, given that I would catch more fish on Campbell.

Well, more to the point, I couldn't be bothered to grab some worms from my wormery and didn't want to buy any caster, I also had some bait left over from Saturday. More so I wanted peg 110, 123 or 115/116 or 126/127 as these had done well on Saturday.
Cary 84/85, 90, 102 or 74 would be my picks if I had drawn that lake.

I arrived early at the draw, had a chat with a few of the 28 or so anglers and took a walk around Campbell with a couple guys, letting them know how it'd fished on Saturday. I said 126 or 116 would win and didn't fancy 112, 129 or 132.

The draw arrived and I pulled peg 129, to the left of the spit as you look across the lake. It had only done 45lb to a good angler on Saturday and is not viewed as a great peg, there tends be a lot of fish moving in that area, but they don't tend to feed well and spook quickly in pegs 129-131.
None the less I trotted off to my peg knowing that the Clapp twins were on really good pegs as was Eric Fouracre on p115, who is a decent angler. Vic Bush had drawn well on Cary and when I saw that Jamie Cook was on 110 (he wanted to fish for silvers, but 110 can be carp city) with pegs 111, 112 and 113 empty, along with the end bank not being used, he had 1/4 of the lake to himself and was sure to do a weight!!

View from 129 - looking at 112 (Saturday's peg)

So rig-wise it was the same as Saturday with exception of a longer line between tip and float on the shallow rig and no pellet wag was set up but a lead rod was. The wind was strong and generally pushing down the lake and across slightly, giving 115 to 123 the best of the wind and ripple.

I will keep the rest brief as the match was similar to Saturday. I cupped 8mm baits in at 6m slightly right for banded 8mm. Some lumps of paste/6mm pellets went at the same distance to my left. Also 3 big handfuls of soggy meat went in at the right hand edge on the topkit distance.
I started on the shallow rig, with no success, the fish coming to the noise but not eating the offerings, loads of bubbles and fizzing, they were spooking off the pole/pole movement of which there was plenty in the wind!!
I did lose a fouler after 10 minutes, then landed my 1st after 45 minutes, another fouled fish.
As it turned out every time I struck at bites the whole swim would erupt into a mass of fish leaving the area, they were just sat in the area doing, well not doing, anything at all.

The 90 minute mark came and went, I had 2 carp and 2 skimmers in the net, meanwhile Jamie had maybe 20 carp or more fishing the lead to the aerator. He was a bite a chuck. I cast a lead to the same area on my side of the blue lump of plastic without a bite, John Dursley also tried to the right of the aerator again without any joy. I could see Eric on 115 and hear Phil Clapp on 116 bagging too.

I stuck at it, cutting my feed back and toss potting after each bite, dropping my bait regularly, I had found that if I fed too much then I would get liners and foul hook fish, so wanted to attract less carp but have more hittable bites and less fish hooked where they shouldn't be, resulting in more carp landed, less hooks/rigs/time lost.
I had dumped the shallow rig and lead, the paste line didn't give a bite, so it was my margin and the 6m/8mm pellet lines that were my focus for the last few hours.
John on 131 was losing lots of foul hooked fish, he was feeding heavy compared to me.

By the 4th hour my bites were becoming slightly more regular and had put 5 or 6 fish in the net plus around 10lb of silvers, but I couldn't even get the skimmers/tench feeding properly. Jamie was now on the top kit and landing a few carp among the skimmers and tench he was catching. He'd also found a 4th net from someone. Phil and Eric were still doing well, John on 131 was landing more too. Other than that I had no idea what else was occurring.

The 5th hour put 3 more carp in the net from my 6m line, but I was still losing a few foul hooked fish, so much so I made a new rig up and shortened my shallow rig to use down the edge with banded 8mm pellet (meat was getting ragged rotten by blip roach). I needed a successful last period.

I had been feeding the edge all match, be it irregularly, with handfuls of 6mm pellets and 8mm meat, and this was the line for the last 60 minutes. So 1st put with a 8mm pellet saw the float sail away and a 3lb bream was flying - literally - towards the waiting landing net, a 2lber followed next drop.
3 drop saw a bit more no.20 lacy stretch and a 4lb mental common was eventually landed.
A handful of feed after each fish saw me catch most drops for the last hour, including a lump of around 13lb+, but they fight like mad so landing them quickly is not always an option.

So the whistle sounded and the all-out signalled a frustrating match. I knew I had not done great, but a good 60 minutes saw me land around 50lb or so, John also did well in that period, but Jamie had slowed somewhat. Phil and Eric continued to catch and Phil looked good for the better weight.

I packed away thinking I had done 80lb, I also suggested Jamie had 160lb+, word had it Phil had close to 200lb and Eric a little less. Along my bank I though John had a little more than me, but those to my left had faired better including Mike Davis on peg 126.
At least it hadn't rained....yet.!!

The scales arrived at my swim and my evenly spread nets weighed 110lb 8oz, Steve Long commented on how well I had evened out my catch. Well it helps that I am a weakling and 40lb per net is ample given my lack of strength, plus I had 3 nets in, so why not use them?

Weigh Sheet...nice weights.!!

 

 

As it turned out there were some good weights, with Phil on 116 winning (went over in 1 net I believe) with his brother second from Cary (also went over in a net I think).

 

Vic had done 100lb+ from p97 on Cary, not sure on what tactic. But either nobody fished properly for the silvers or they just didn't show as the silvers was won off p128 with 30lb of accidental skimmers and tench.

 

Results:

1st - peg 116 - P. Clapp - 217lb 3oz

2nd - peg 90 - K. Clapp - 212lb 1oz

3rd - peg 126 - M. Davis - 179lb 3oz

 

Silvers winner from p128 was J. King with 30lb 13oz, all on meat.



I must mention that Jamie Cook on 110 only won his section with 167lb+.......impressive.

So it does seem that a lot of fish have stayed in the middle of Campbell, with the exception of 110/135 area, but again the weight back up the theory that Viaduct is a top notch fishery, with Lodge producing at least one 200lb+ weight on Sunday and even the Match Lake doing high weights on Saturday.

Next up for me is a memorial match on Trinity Wildmarsh next Sunday, I don't fancy another day 'carp fishing', and Wildmarsh has fish of many varieties so it'll be a chance to have a varied day.

Tight Lines
Lee

27/7/13 MFS match - Viaduct Campbell.

I had 2 matches this weekend, both on Viaduct fishery. Here is the write up of the 1st.

1st match was a MFS match on Saturday and with a few regulars to the venue, I had only fished it twice before, but have gleaned plenty of info and learned that the foul hooked fish go like rockets and are tackle busters and those hooked correctly don't give up easily!!

I arrived at the draw in plenty of time, the weather was ok but was due to turn in the early afternoon, bringing persistent rain later in the day. Luckily it was warm.
I said hello to Chris Fox and let Ken Rayner put my name to my face, and after some chit chat with a few guys the draw was made, 18 of us were down to fish.
I pulled peg 112, an ok draw, but perhaps a few pegs away from where I wanted to be ie 115/116 or the pegs opposite them 126/127. But the venue is rammed full of fish, but the change of weather may affect their feeding habits. There had been a lot of fish caught shallow recently, which doesn't come as a surprise given the weather.

Arriving at my peg I kept it simple-ish, bait was 8mm meat, 8mm pellet and some 6mm pellet in case I want to target the silvers. I also had some paste made up.
Rig wise, I had a shallow pole rig for banded pellet, a margin/meat rig and a rig for 6m and meat. All on 0.20 mainline to 0.20 hooklengths. Solid middy 20 for the margin/depth rigs and 14/16 for shallow fishing.

My peg for 27/7 -- Peg 112

 





I also set up a pellet wag, but other than a couple casts I never bothered with it.

The all in sounded, I cupped in various baits into the varying spots and then I went out on the shallow line at 13m, there were lots of fish about, but other than foul hookers I struggled to get positive bites. A few people were fouling fish, but the 1st hour saw me land a single carp, but Mark Poppleton had landed  a few shallow from p115 and Callum on p135 also was into a few. Rich on 110 was spear fishing (foul hooking every put!!) but did land a couple. Also the guy on p126 was into a few on the wag.

 

After 90 mins I ditched the shallow rig and went out to 6m and tried meat, again all I got was liners and a few lost foul hooked fish. So this meat line was changed to a pellet line and 2 big pots of 8mm baits went in over the top in the hope of forcing fish to the deck. A quick look down the edge on the top kit bought a couple carp before they did the off.

 

A look over the new pellet line with a banded 8mm bait just touching bottom bought me another couple fish, but each time I fed they'd come up in the water but not feeding, like they were attracted to the noise but not interested in consumption.

 

For the next couple hours I kept trying the edge and 6m lines and had the odd fish, but by now I knew I was miles behind Mark on p115, p126 was bagging, Alex Murray on p132 also had landed a few.

Rich on p110 and Callum on p135 were catching consistently. So it was trying something new.

With the guy on p111 having more positive bites and landing more by switching to paste, I put a bit on the hook at 6m and had 3 within 20 mins, then the rain came and turned my paste into soup, my luncheon meat was swimming and my pellets were dissolving!!

By now a few had left and the pegs opposite were struggling. Rich on 110 was getting loads as was p111. Mark on 115 had slowed, but still picking up more than most.

 

With an hour left I had around 50lb in the nets, which was not great, but I could see that my margin had fish visiting it regularly, in fact they were taking pellets off the folded grass. So the last hour was spent mostly on the top-kit in my right hand edge (but I was only fishing 2ft from my platform) coupled with a couple looks at 6m, my last hour was decent with a carp most drops on banded 8mm.

 

The end of the match sounded and all the sodden anglers packed up in readiness for the weigh in.

The last hour had been really good for me, rich on p110 and the chap on p111. The overcast and wet conditions had bought the fish onto the feed.

 

The scales arrived at my peg after Rich had put 170lb+ on the scales and p111 had topped 130lb.

Sadly these weights were plenty ahead of me, and my 3 weighs went 108lb exactly (inc 6lb of silvers), a bit more than my 80lb estimate. Luckily I suffered less foul hooked fish than most by feeding less, but maybe I did not bring too many into my swim?

 

The match was won with over 200lb from p126. The results are below. So 10 weights over 100lb from 17 anglers (1 chose not to fish after his draw). Good fishing? I came mid-table, I only trashed 6 hooklengths on fouled fish and killed a couple floats (which died when the rigs came back through the water)

 

Results MFS - 27/7/13

 



 

Next up was 28/7/13 again at Viaduct, would have been either Cary or Campbell, turned out to be Campbell.

I will do that blog soon enough.......

 

Cheers

Lee

 





 



Durleigh Reservoir - Clevedon Club Match (vs Fys)

Well what a sunny 'summer' we seem to be having, good for the tan, not so good for the fishing.
Thursday's evening match at Sedges was dire for most, the fish just lounging on the surface not doing much.

However onto today's match, which was at Durleigh Reservoir, a venue I had not match fished (or in fact not carp fished) for years and years. Despite only living a mile or 2 from the venue, I have found it increasingly popular with the carp angling fraternity, there are loads of hard fighting carp to over 20lb in the reservoir. They regard the large head of bream as a pain, they do get caught on boilies etc with regular occurrence.
I had ordered an RCT rigger platform, which was due to me on the Friday past, but it didn't arrive, so after a bit of a search to try and get one for today, I managed to wangle one from Shawn Kitteridge, thanks mate. Mine will be with me on Tuesday.

Weather today was warm and sunny, a breeze blowing from the NE into the lodge bank and down the ressie. I arrived at the lodge around 20 mins before the draw and all the talk was about the carp being weighed as 3lb each, that and Rod Wootton's considerable size, he was becoming disillusioned with the fact you can drive to the pegs, and that pellet shallow wont usually win you much.......

The draw was called at 9am-ish, there would be 3 sections, C--section being the far bank section from the life buoy to the dam wall/lawns swim (p7-p1 left to right as you look across).
B--section would be p8 (just past the race hut) to p15 which was just past the point swim.
A--section was the long grassy swims toward the far end of the lodge bank, pegs 16-22.

Into the hat goes my hand, out comes peg 12, on the lodge bank. Not too bad I thought, but I did have to walk past the swim, down the slope at peg 16-ish and back along the stones to my peg.

View from my peg - at the end of the match

 

 

When I got to my peg I decided that I wouldn't fish the pole, so set up a 5m whip, a waggler (remained unused), a method feeder rod (8lb line to 0.22 and size 14 hook) and a standard groundbait feeder rod (4lb mainline >12" of 0.14 matchteam to a size 16 B520)

Bait would be mainly hemp, caster, maggot and some groundbait (50/50 noire and sensas lake for the whip and feeder, sensas method mix for the method rod). I also had a bunch of worms as change hookbait along with some 8mm pellet and 8mm boilies for the method rod.

 

Some of the guys had set up in a semi-specimen way, targeting the carp and bigger bream with scaled down carp tactics, ie method feeder, boilies and pellets.

Others had gone traditional with worm/caster/maggots through an open-end feeder.

 

The all in sounded at 10:30 and to my right came a barrage of balls of groundbait being fired to a marker, I think it was Andy Hembrow. Adie Baker on the end peg had also fired some balls out as well. Those first pegs are deeper and hold carp and bream all year round, but there are a few snags to boot.

 

I started on the open-end feeder with maggot on the hook, immediately I was getting taps and knocks, and soon had a little roach in the net, I had fed the whip line too with hemp/caster, as this line can do really good bags of roach. After 20 mins I had given up on the feeder, I was getting taps/knocks on the drop, whatever hookbait I tried resulted in small fish.

Onto the whip, I had put a small 2bb Drennan on the rig, and had 4.5ft of depth, line was 0.12>0.10>size 18 b520 hook. Immediately I had bites on the drop and a succession of roach were hooked, though a few were falling off.

I stayed on the whip for the next 5 hours, only trying the feeder rods when I needed to rest the swim or had to make a new whip rig (which I did twice thanks to the shot pinching the line too much and breaking it). The reason for this was the lack of activity of substance by the 2 Frys anglers each side of me, they were only having the odd skimmer and were getting 'bitted out'.

The few spells I did have on the tip rods resulted in a few more roach (one took a 8mm boilie on the method), a skimmer of a pound on the boilie and a lost skimmer of a couple pounds, which came when I wasn't watching the rod, it took 3 hair-rigged worms on the method rod!!

 

I was getting a fish a chuck all on the drop, usually in the top 6" of water, as was Paul Faiers on peg 15, Jonny Page on p14 was getting a fish a chuck and the angler on peg 16, all on the whip/short pole. Meanwhile Andy Hembrow had landed a carp and a few bream, Adie had 1 carp and a couple bream.

I found that the fish were taking really shallow, and could be seen swirling at the loose feed, I couldn't get my rig to the deck, but I was happy and continued catching.

If bites tailed off or the fish got too small I found a tennis ball sized lump of groundbait helped bring them back, continually feeding hemp and caster in smallish quantities. When I fed heavier it made no difference given the amount of roach present.

 

The all out sounded and the roach were still lined up.....

I packed away and waited for the scales, Andy Hembrow had weighed 34lb inc 1 carp and a few bream, I though I maybe had 20lb, I thought that Jonny Page had 20lb too and Paul Faiers a bit more.

Onto the scales goes my net.......30lb 8oz, nice. But as it turned out it was the first of a bulk of weights from my peg upwards.....Jonny Page weighed 28lb+ of mostly roach, Paul had 39lb of similar and then there were more good nets of fish. The bream had shown from the pegs just after the point.

 

As it turned out the venue had fished well.

 

Results:

1st - James Gunther - 58lb 4oz - p5 (mixed catch bream/roach)

2nd - Merv Sivell - 52lb 4oz - p1 (roach catch!!)

3rd - Warren Bates - 44lb 12oz - p18 (mostly roach and maybe a bream I think?)

4th - Derrick Coles - 42lb 7oz - p16 (roach catch I believe)

5th - Paul Faiers - 39lb - p15 (roach!!)

6th - Rob Fogg - 37lb 20z - p18 (roach? odd bream?)

 

Weigh Boards

 

 

So all in all I was pleased with how I fished, but a bit annoyed as I dropped/bumped maybe 5lb of fish when swinging them in, but both Jonny and Paul suffered this too. Maybe a soft elastic kit would have helped?

Also I wish I had/bought a 2 or 3 metre whip as I could see them swirling at the feed, even when I fed too short. This may have resulted in more fish landed. The roach were maybe averaging 2oz each, odd bonus one to 6oz, which seemed to come really shallow.

 

It is not too often you fish matches with the roach weights we saw today and it was obvious who had caught well for them as they ended up a mess.

 

Covered in roach slime - Nice!!

 

I have another match on Durleigh in a few weeks, but next up for me is a match on Saturday on Viaduct Campbell, then the same venue on Sunday on  either Cary or Campbell.

 

I may have a few hours somewhere on Monday or Tuesday evening if I am in the mood.  Plus I have Thursday on Sedges Tile lake.

 

Until next time, Take Care

 

Lee



 

 



Clevedon Club Saturday Series - Plantation Match/Horseshoe lake - 13/7/13

A short blog today as there isn't much to write home about. The temps were high, by the time I got to the venue my car showed over 30 degrees....with no wind, great!!
I was fishing the 3rd of 4 matches for the Clevedon Saturday Series.

I arrived for the draw around 12pm, Paul Faiers was running it today as Adie was otherwise occupied, so a few of us took a walk round while the pegs were placed, we had 15 fishing, so 8 of the 16 pegs (1 peg was in just incase the no show arrived late - but he didn't), went on the island pegs and the rest around the outside.

There was loads of fish on the surface, not feeding fish, but carp that just wanted to play or sunbathe.
Pegs 1, 5, 6 10 and 12 were especially full, the fish were on the bar areas in most, but the depths can be only 2 inches deep on this, but average maybe a foot or so.

So into the hat goes my hand, out comes p10. Nice. I set the kit up well back from the swim as not to spook the fish, but the reality is that it made no difference.
I had Rod Wootton almost opposite, Nick Harvey to my right and Andy Hembrow to my left.

My peg. Halfway along the 1st bank.

3 rigs made, 1 margin, 1 shallow (mugging) and 1 for paste/meat at 6m. I was set up in 25 mins, so had plenty of time to watch the water...

I wont go into much detail about the match, but I only had 2 bites in 2.5hrs. Then landed 3 carp. I did lose 4 foulers as well. I couldn't buy a bite from the bar, only had 2 bites down to my left. My 3 carp came fishing shallow over the paste/meat line, there was loads of blowing each time I fed, which shows the fish were at least moving around/through the bait, but they were not really munching.

Throughout the match I tried allsorts of tactics, from dumping bait, to baby bits of paste, to fishing at various levels of the bar to meat shallow, but the lack of cover of any type possibly did not aid my fishing, I had the sun on me all day and struggled to see the float after 3pm.

So all in all difficult match, which it proved all over the lake, I guess my 3 fish may have gone 12lb as one was 6lb-ish, but I tipped back after the whistle. It was equally hard for Rod opposite me, but he had maybe 6 or 8 carp, a couple late fish boosting his net. But it was a difficult day.

Check out Chris Fox's - Chris Fox's blog for the results, but Mark Broomsgrove won and Andy Hembrow was second.

I think that my next match is up at Durleigh Reservoir next week. A place I ihave nit fished match style in a decade.

Cheers, take care.

Lee

A rather warm Sunday

This weekend was going to see me fish a match on the River Kenn in Clevedon, but only 4 names were taken, and 1 of these could not make it. So with this the case, Adie Baker gave me a call on Friday saying it was called off, which given the expected temperatures and sunshine (yes, it still is rather summer like so make the most of it!!). But then people don't fish many matches on canals, drains and rivers anymore unless it is a winter/summer league.

I had work on Saturday, which was dead, we saw maybe 6 customers.......!! And with no plans for Sunday I was at a loose end what to do. I could have maybe tried to find a match, and the PSV guys said I could have tagged on their match up at Walters Lakes, but the warm sunshine and distance, plus my kids wanted to do something meant that any fishing would be opportunistic.

So come Sunday morning we decided to take a trip upto Cadbury garden centre and then maybe grab some food to have a picnic by the River Kenn, then work things from there.
So after a bit of brekkie, I loaded my seatbox, some maggots and 1/2kg of frozen groundbait, a landing net and handle, along with my S7 silverfish rod into the car. The 4 of us set off to the garden centre.

I popped into the angling centre, it'd be rude not to, and bought some more maggots (they had no casters). I didn't spend another penny!! Which is odd for me.
None the less, we had a look at the pets and fish, a browse around the out-houses saw me wanting/needing a new garden lodge thingy, ideal for a  new fishing shed!!. But I got told £3000, or even £7k was not an option. Blast.

So we tooted over to Clevedon, where we stopped in the Kenn Road car-park and took a walk along  both sides of the road in the warm sun. There wasn't really any fish topping, in fact I doubted I would catch due to the weather, but it was nice to get the shorts on and have a walk with the family.
We then drove round to Strode Road where I had a quick look and decided that we'd have a fish for an hour while having lunch. We popped to Tesco's grabbed some fruit, sausage rolls and more drinks etc.

At the river I set the rod up, ideally I wanted to fish the waggler towards the far bank, but realised I forgot my catapults, so I restricted myself to about 10m out, where I had decent depth of maybe 8ft or more. This was as far as I could throw my maggots.
It looked fishy, loads of fry, and I mean loads, the water was full of baby fish. So I expected a few fish on my loaded 3BB waggler set-up. I was using 2.5lb maxima to 0.08 hooklength and a size 20 B511. An hour later, all my food was devoured, the kids had wandered around the hedges/trees and explored as much as they could, and we were nearly out of liquid refreshment.
I had not even had a touch or see a fish top, so we packed up and left. But I did enjoy it and will fish there again.

So we were stuck about what to do, the temp in the shade showed 32 degrees and felt it too despite a breeze, we settled on heading back to Apex Park in Burnham/Highbridge. Heading back down the M5 we listened to Andy Murray in the Wimbledon final and he was doing ok. The temperature did drop to 30.5 degrees by the time we had pulled into the car park at Apex.

A quick walk around saw plenty of small fish topping and a few anglers looked like they were catching the odd fish, there were a couple carp anglers whom looked like they had a few carp from the island swims (low 20's pegs?). I stood in the pegs by the bench and decide that'd do for me, but later in the day.
So we sent the kids to play in the park for fifteen minutes while I watched the water, there were odd carp out towards the island and the delkims from the carper's bit alarms shrieked occasionally.

We soon set off back to Bridgwater and arriving home we watched some of the tennis until Murray was 4-1 or something down in the 3rd set. So we loaded the car with kids and took the pole instead of the waggler rod and headed back to Apex, I also took some micros, 4mm pellet and 8mm meat. Along with the maggot, groundbait and a few 6mm expanders, bait was sorted.

Pointing at the few mooching carp by the island.

 

The kids were soon in the park playing, I was soon fishing. I had 1 line at 13m in front, for skimmers/bream and a margin swim to my right at 6m for mostly carp.
I fed the long line with some wet micros and loose groundbait, I fed the margin with 2 cups of mixed 4mm pellet and meat.
1st put in on the pole bought a silver bream, followed by a few more, all on the drop, but all welcome. For the next hour I had a few more smaller fish, maggots and expanders both bringing the same result.
A look down the edge didn't bring a bite, but temps were still high and to be honest I was not expecting anything of size.
Back out to the long line saw me bring a skimmer of maybe a pound to the next, but no more followed, just more smaller silvers. But I was enjoying it.

Me in my swim.

 

By now Andy Murray had won Wimbledon, a fantastic achievement. But the larger fish in my swim were absent, if not feeding. I did try the margin again and I had a bite, this saw a good bit of number 20 lacy come out, but it turned out to be an eel of a pound or 2.
I gave it 20 minutes more, in that time I had some more silvers out long.
I packed up at around 8:15 with a good few pounds of fish, and a pleasant evening in the sun with the wife and kids was had.

 

Just 1 of the plenty I caught.

 



So I had a nice weekend really, whether it would have been nice fishing a match in the sun and heat is debateable. The Kenn is a venue I will fish again for sure as it makes a change from carp, carp and odd flying skimmer.

 

Next up for me is the 3rd Clevedon Saturday Series Match at Plantation's Match/Horseshoe lake on this Saturday. I don't stand a chance unless I win the next 2 matches.....and a few guys not turning up...lol

 

 

Take Care and Tight Lines.
Lee