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.