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