Avalon Teams of 3, Avalon Match Lake, 23-02-14

A quick one this week as not much happened for a lot of us, me especially.....

I had notice from James that his daughter wasn't well and that they were on route to the B.R.I. to get her checked over, so he couldn't fish, as it was too late to find a replacement to come last in section, I thought we'd just go with me and Paul, 23 points was the best we could hope for, but that never happened!!

I got to the fishery at around 8:15 and paid our entry fee's, luckily Ian Graham was there and able to fish for us, so a massive thanks to him for that. I drew him a decent peg too...peg 24 up in the windward corner. I was on peg 10 and Paul on peg 40, so the same draw as we had in an earlier round. As for teams getting the same draws, Sedges drew well, Keith Clapp drew his favoured peg 20, so the match was won before it started, and Jamie was on the consistant peg 5.

For company I had Jonny Page on peg 11 and Keith Builder on peg 9. 
I never took any pics today, so apologies on that, but the water looked good for a few fish and with it warm-ish, but rather breezy, I expected a decent day.
I set up 2 rods for fishing to the island, one with lead and one with a small cage feeder.
2 pole rigs, one for carp, one for silvers, each rig covered two spots. I had a 9m line at 11 o'clock baited with 4mm soaked pellets and 6mm meat for carp, the 2 o'clock line was baited with groundbait for silvers. The margins each side were used, on the right for maggot over maggot, the left side was meat/4mm's.

The first hour of the match gave me 3 small roach....the last 4 hours were spent doing and trying various things to catch another fish, that fish never arrived......I fished mostly on the 'tip, but I had 2 liners and that's it!! The pole never gave a bite.
The guys either side of me had a carp or 2 each and Keith B. had a few skimmers (lost  a few too late on). Further down on peg 7 saw Eric Fouracre amass 12lb+ of skimmers while pegs 5 and 6 saw Jamie Cook and Pete Wild catch a good amount of carp between them.
Up on peg 20, Keith Clapp was bagging as usual, with Jamie Parkhouse moaning about the fact it was the 3rd time Keith's had that peg this series....lol

I have never been so bored in a match so when the weigh in came I was all ready to go home, my 3 little fish weighed officially 2oz....for last in section and probably last overall.....so we found James' replacement for last in section.....Me!!!

I had a quick chat with a few guys, and to be fair everyone had struggled, Tom Mangnall had 12oz (3 fish), Vince Brown also had 3 fish for not much more and a few other guys struggled for less than a couple pounds or so. Nobody believed how little I weighed, pretty much agreeing my peg was devoid of fish (well there was a pike sat in the reeds to my left most of the day..).
Team wise, Paul had a last gasp carp to add to his 3 small silvers and Ian on peg 24 had a late carp, lost one also, and totalled around 2lb 15oz.

The match was won by Keith Clapp with over 60lb from p20, Jamie Cook and Pete Wild were 2nd and 3rd respectively from pegs 5 and 6.

I didn't get the full results, but below are the figures from the Avalon Facebook page.

AVALON WINTER LEAGUE ROUND 5

1st Sedges 30
2nd Weston 23
3rd Thyers 22.5...
4th Over 50`s 21
5th Fish & Field 19
6th Somerset Carpenters 17
7th Mosella UK 16
8th Thatchers Youth 14
9th Enterprise Angling 13
10th Woolavy Wanderers 11.5
11th Frome Victorians 11

OVERALL

1st Sedges 343.15 13
2nd Fish & Field 185.12 19
3rd Mosella UK 266.12 21
4th Enterprise Angling 176.13 29
5th Somerset Carpenters 151.14 29
6th Over 50`s 142.09 31
7th Woolavy Wanderers 144.15 33
8th Thatchers Youth 138.00 34
9th Thyers 127.12 37
10th Weston 101.05 38
11th Frome Victorians 141.00 46
 

ON THE DAY
1st Keith Clapp Sedges 60.07
2nd Jamie Cook Sedges 36.08
3rd Pete Wild Mosella UK 33.11

KNOCKOUT FINAL

Keith Clapp v Martin Weston

 

 

So my team came tenth overall again and sit 7th overall, we really hope to get a few fish in 3 weeks time in the final round of matches, lets hope it's fishing better. Maybe be shall move up a spot or two, given the first 3 rounds we are a little disappointed on being 7th, but at the same token we may have taken that before the series began!!

 

Next up for me is a match on Trinity Woodlands this Sunday with Clevedon Club. It's been fishing ok I believe, so fingers crossed!!

 

Until next time, stay safe.

Lee.

Shiplate Main Lake, Clevedon Club, 16/02/14

Today's outing saw me at the Clevedon FWAC arranged match on the Shiplate Fishery complex, in particular the Main Lake.
The weather was due to be fine with a little breeze and staying dry (really...??) and bright (really...?) after an overnight frost.

I arrived at the car park around 8:15 and unloaded the kit, a brief flurry of hello's and hi's, we waited for the last few, this included Paul Purchase on his 1st Clevedon match in an age...the other Thyers guys did take the mick a little.....
There were 13 fishing today, but the car park was busy as there was another match on the 2 canal type lakes on the site.

The pegs people wanted were 1, 3, 7, 11, 13 and 15, with 1 and 15 being the most consistent throughout recent times, but 7 has been good and the far end island pegs always have some carp mooching around.
I had come with the intention of  fishing for the silvers population and 3 and 7 would be nice for these. I have done well in the previous visits here and been placed each time with good amounts of silvers. However the big slab bream haven't been showing by all accounts so far in 2014.

The draw was done at 8:35 and payouts were top 3 plus a silvers pot. Fishing was 10-3:30pm.

I drew half way down the rabble and was pleased when peg 15 was in my hand, I hadn't even seen the peg but knew it was a good one, infact I have never been past peg 6.
I got on my way to my peg, but my total lack of fitness coupled with a layer too much in the form of clothing meant I was a heavy breathing, sweaty mess when I arrived at the peg.
I sat and had a cuppa before setting the kit up.

View from P15, Shiplate Main Lake

 

I set up a waggler rig for searching the peg with double or treble red maggot. I set up a lead to fish with a banded pellet or punched meat cast to the end bank to my left.
My 3 pole rigs were:
NG Caner, 0.2g on 0.14>0.10>B611 size 18, this was on soft no.6 middy solid elastic. This was to be fished at topkit+2 in front and 13m at an angle (1 o'clock line) towards the tree on the far bank. Silvers being the target, skimmers mostly.
NG Margin, 0.2g on 0.18>0.16>B911 size 14, this was for meat and laccy was solid 18/20. Topkit+2 to my left against a tree that sits in the water. Hoping for a carp or 2.
NG Decker, 0.3g on 0.18>0.14>B911 size 16 with a soft no.12 solid elastic at 13m at the 11 o'clock direction with bonus carp or maybe a big bream being the target species.

Bait was simple, 3pts of groundbait, 1pt of micros, 1pt of caster, some 6mm meat and half a pint of maggots and some 4mm expanders for the hook. I also had a handful of 6 and 8mm pellets for the band.

For company I had Andy Hembrow across on peg 1 and a couple pegs to my right was Steve Bonwick. I could make out Rod Wootton, Paul Purchase and Ivan Currie on the far bank. But other than the guys on the lake behind me I was rather secluded, lol.

The all in sounded at 10am and cupped 4 balls of groundbait along with some caster/maggot/micros at 13m towards the tree. I cupped 1/2 a pot of caster on the short silvers line, some meat and 4mm pellets went in at 13m toward the corner of the platform/deck in the 11 o'clock direction.
Lastly a half cup of meat and caster was deposited by the tree to my left.

 I started on the waggler but 20 minutes gave me one bite, so that went up the bank and was not used the rest of the match. A switch to the bomb and pellet saw 20 biteless minutes pass, this too was chucked up the bank not to be used again.
In that time Andy over on peg 1 had landed a couple carp, one on the feeder and one on the pole fished alongside the 'no-fishing' rope.
A quick 5 minutes down by the tree bought no bites as expected, so it was out over the groundbait with double red maggot. This bought an immediate response, small roach and skimmers taking the bait every minute, I even had a couple 3oz chublets.
I stuck with this line for a couple hours, all the while feeding the short silvers line was kept topped up and the margin line primed with caster and meat.

At around 1pm I had a quick look over the 13m 'bonus fish' line, but this didn't even give a knock, so was topped up and the short silvers line tried, again without success. I could see Rod over on peg 4 netting a few fish, which looked like skimmers, but not much else was happening from what I could see.
A few more skimmers from the 13m line were put in the net, by now I had switched to expanders on the hook as maggot was struggling and caster never gave me a bite all day.

At around 1:30 I had another look down by the tree for carp, after a minute I missed a bite. I lowered the meat back in and a few moments later the float dipped and I struck into a fish which pulled a couple of feet of blue elastic out and was duly netted, a 6lber was put into the keepnet all within 20 seconds. Nice.
I gave the line a few more minutes but I didn't have a response, so it was back out on the long silvers line. I stuck at this line for the next half hour and this proved fruitful as I had a bite a chuck from skimmers up to 4 or 5oz. I maybe had 8lb in the net by now plus the solitary carp.
Andy, on the other hand, was catching plenty of carp by the rope and had probably secured the win, his corn was being regularly taken by carp, he even found time to rescue half his pole after the sections came apart on around the 7th section, the others I could see were not catching a lot so I was doing ok. I had spied Rod land a bigger fish or 2 so my silvers was possibly just behind his in weight.

At 2:30 I had another look down the edge by the tree, again I had a bite and this time it wasn't missed, another carp was netted in double quick time, another 6lb fish placed in the net. My next drop in also gave another bite, this was a slightly smaller carp netted in double quick time.

It was now 3pm and I guess I had around 16 or 17lb of carp and around 10lb of silvers. A look over the 'bonus fish' line gave me an immediate response when the float shot under, but a 4oz hybrid was soon swung in as opposed to the hoped for carp/bream.
The last half hour was spent catching a few fish from the 13m line and boosted my weight by maybe 2 to 3lb before the all-out was called.

I packed away rather quickly and didn't have a clue what else everyone had caught except Andy Hembrow who maybe had 50lb or more. Rod had caught plenty enough throughout the match and Paul Purchase had caught a good amount late on after a quiet 5hrs.....!

I went and fetched the scales from behind Rich Lovering and suggested to Steve Bonwick we should start weighing in.
I was first to weigh and I tipped my silvers onto the scales, 13lb 4oz was called by Steve, my 3 carp added 17lb 2oz to give me 30lb 6oz. Not too bad, but miles behind what Andy caught, but it was my silvers that is what I was fishing for and 13lb+ was a good weight really.
Next to weigh was Steve, I called 8lb 3oz for his silvers, he never had any carp.
Me and Steve continued the weigh in, weights of note were Lance Tucker on p11, he put 21lb 8oz on the sheet (8oz of which were a chub, 2 ruff and a roach), Mark Bromsgrove put a total of 29lb 6oz on the scales, his silvers amassed 4lb 7oz of that.
Paul Purcase's late run of silvers gave him 10lb 10oz from peg 6. On peg 5 was Ivan Currie, he had a couple of carp and a few silvers giving him 16lb 6oz, then we came to Rod Wootton on his favourite peg 4.....the carp hauler himself didn't catch any carp but his 18lb 8oz of silvers included a decent bream caught on a banded hard pellet. A very good silvers weight from him.
Last to weigh was the match winner on peg 1, Andy Hembrow, he did catch 1lb 6oz of silvers, but his carp net totalled 62lb, only 1 caught on the 'tip, the rest came from against the 'no-fishing' rope that runs to the right of peg 1.

So all in all it was a decent match, with plenty of bites for most of us and the weather was definitely kind to us.

Results:
1st, peg 1, Andy Hembrow, 63lb 6oz
2nd, peg 15, Lee Williams, 30lb 6oz
3rd, peg 9, Mark Bromsgrove, 29lb 6oz

Silvers weights:
1st, Rod Wootton, peg 4, 18lb 8oz
2nd, Lee Williams, peg 30, 13lb 4oz

Weigh Sheet.



 



 

After the few matches I have fished on this lake, I have done ok, I have enjoyed the silvers fishing again and am looking forward to the couple of matches I have there later in the year.

Next up for me is the next round of the Avalon Teams of 3 match next sunday.

Until next time,
Take Care.

Lee

Avalon Winter Series, Teams of 3 - Avalon Fisheries match lake 2nd Feb 2014

So the 4th round of this series was upon us, my team Woolavy Wanderers, were occupying a decent position in the series, being consistant was key for this team.
If we could keep tabs going into the last 2 rounds we'd all be happy, we didn't expect to be doing as well as we had thus far.

Anyways, the match was to be fished in breezy-ish conditions, not too uncomfortable, but a bit gusty at times. It was set to stay dry and relatively bright too, which makes a change.

I arrived at the venue at around 8:15 with a few teams having drawn pegs, so after a little chat with James and Paul, I went and got our pegs for the day. Well that was the 1st mistake...picking our draw!!
I was in B section, on the right hand side of the lake, permanent peg 26, this was one of the most difficult areas of the lake for this series.
James was in A section, in a tricky area, on permanent peg 11, low weights had come from this peg recently.
Lastly Paul was on an ok peg, permanent peg 42 in C section, this area (p38-44) had been very up and down, sometimes you can catch a decent weight, but you are not certain.
The pegs people wanted are any of the 4 corner pegs, p17 and maybe pegs 5 and 40, 40 has been ok since I fished it!!

We wished each other luck and wandered to our pegs. While unloading my kit and sorting myself out I found myself chatting to the guys around me, we were not sure how it would fish as the level was up maybe 4 or 5 inches and there was some more colour obviously from the heavy rains (browny rather than the grey/green colour)
I had for company to my left,on peg 27, Sedges angler, and winner of 2 rounds, Keith Clapp. Peg 24 in the corner to my right was silvers ace Ron Stark, his Weston side had been poor thus far. I also had Steve King and Keith Builder further down to my left on 28 and 29 respectively. Steve commented how the midweek match had been pants with a few pounds a good weight.

Peg 26 at Avalon

Anyways I sorted my kit out, a wag for 2/3rd across at 45 degree angle, on this I was to fish maggot, caster or corn. A small feeder rig for across to the island to use banded 6's or 8's.
I also assembled 3 pole rigs, two were all-round rigs for 7 and 13m lines, this was a 0.4g NG Decker on 0.16>0.12>B911f1 size 18 to Middy solid 8-10. Baits would be maggot, caster and 4mm expanders.
The 2nd rig was a 0.3g NG Pencil float on the same tackle and was only set up as a back up if the lake calmed a touch.
The last rig was a 0.4g NG Margin float for next to the tree on my right, lines for this was 0.18>0.14>B911 size 16 to use with a variety of baits.

I had for bait some caster, maggots (whites mostly), 4mm expanders along with a few grains of corn and a couple bread slices.
I mixed up 3pts of groundbait and dampened some micros and the main feed on the pole, 7m was for the micros and groundbait for 13m. A bit of each would go by the tree along with a few bits of corn.

I was set up in plenty of time so whiled away the minutes chatting to Kingy and Mr Clapp. The general feeling was that Mosella had the best draw on the day, but peg 48 was the peg that should do ok. We also knew we were in a pants area and it'd be tricky.
The all in sounded at 10am and I duly fired a few casters to the waggler area, I cupped 2 balls of groundbait at 13m, I chose groundbait as my main feed/line as I don't think I have caught any/many fish over it in the last month or so, 1/4 of a cup of micros at 7m and half a cup of 'mixture' by the tree.

I started on the waggler and missed 2 or 3 knocks in the 1st 10 minutes, during this spell Keith on p27 had landed a carp on the 'tip. Also Ron and Eric on pegs 24 and 23 had put a couple small silvers in the net. I did put my only wag caught fish in the net though, a 2oz roach. So that line was binned early.
I was soon on the feeder, but after ten minutes I was bored and came on the pole, a pattern I tried every hour without success. I gave the 7m line 10 minutes, but I never had a touch, in fact I never had a bite on that line or down by the tree, so I wont mention them again.
The 1st 90 minutes passed quite quickly and Keith had landed a couple carp on the 'tip, and a 2oz roach on the waggler. I could just see Ron through the tree, he'd put a few silvers in the net, as had Eric. Kingy was struggling as was Keith Builder next to him. Tom Mangnall on p19 was doing ok and word came about that Pete Wild was doing ok.
I had put maybe 6oz of silvers in the net at this point, but bumped a couple 3-5oz skimmers due to double shipping (I soon changed this and the pole rollers were made taller and the hedge was used as a roller too).

Not a lot happened for the rest of the match in the pegs around me, Keith Clapp had 3 carp and that 2oz roach after 5 hrs, Steve King had a pound or so of silvers(so he said) and Mr Builder managed a big perch and a carp, both late on, fishing the 'yip while packing up.
My match was spend mostly at 13m picking up the odd roach, rudd, baby perch and 3-4oz skimmer, the bites were not really positive but I was reading the float well and this helped, I reckoned at the all out I had similar to Steve, maybe about 1.5lbs. The fish did respond to loose feed and soon vanished if I tried micros....but it was tricky and a pattern couldn't be made, just a matter of patience.

As I packed up, myself, the two Keiths and Steve had decided that the section's last and 2nd last places belong to Me and Steve, but were unsure in what order.
Tom on p19 had done well, Eric Fouracre on corner p23 had 3 late carp, Ron on p24 had a couple or so carp and a handful of silvers, Keith Clapp had his 3 carp, the other Keith had his carp and decent perch. The other section pegs were hard to know as we couldn't see or hear them...

The scales soon arrived and my 1.5lb actually went 3lb 7oz....I was ribbed my Kingy for that. His 'slightly less' as he put it weighed 2lb 3oz, half of which was a last gasp perch that had me sweating.....lol.
In between we saw Clappy weigh his 3 carp and 2oz roach for a total of 12lb 3oz, thus looking like a section pick-up from Eric by 2oz, that 2oz roach he was going to tip back...haha.

I didn't follow the scales, but asked Paul how he'd done for our team, he reckoned he'd done ok, maybe 5lb for mid-section, James on the other hand had done less well and weighed 1lb 1oz for joint last in section......Jonny Page was chuffed, he hadn't come last in section, lol.

At the hut Vic done envelope duty and announced the team results, my side had come 10th from 11, Mosella had won the day from Sedges by a single point. My team now lay 5th but with little chance of a top 2 finish in the series. But we shall give it a good shot in the last 2 rounds.

 

Weigh Sheets from Round 4, Avalon Winter Series, Teams of 3

 



 

AVALON WINTER LEAGUE ROUND 4

Teams on the day:
1st- Mosella UK 29pts
2nd- Sedges 28
3rd- Fish & Field 23
4th- Weston 18.5
5th- Somerset Carpenters 18
6th- Enterprise Angling 17.5
7th- Thatchers Youth 15.5...
8th- Over 50`s 14.5
9th- Frome Victorians 13.5
10th- Woolavy Wanderers 11.5
11th- Thyers 9

Overall:
1st -Sedges 241.09 12pts
2nd -Mosella UK 228.04 14
3rd -Fish & Field 166.04 14
4th -Enterprise Angling 164.13 20
5th -Woolavy Wanderers 137.01 23
6th -Somerset Carpenters 133.11 23
7th -Thatchers Youth 118.15 26
8th -Over 50`s 117.07 27
9th -Thyers 84.04 34
10th -Frome Victorians 132.03 35
11th -Weston 89.00 36

1st= Pete Wild Mosella UK 34.02
2nd= Chris Derrick Fish & Field 29.13
3rd= Tom Mangnall Mosella UK 27.02

The silvers winners, I think by default, were 1st: John Dursley and 2nd: Phil Clapp.
Sections went to A) Jamie Cook, B) Keith Clapp and C) Simon Ryall.

So with my team not doing as well and any realistic/mathematical chance of a top 2 finish in the series we shall be hoping for good draws and maybe a pick-up or two.

The fishing has been tricky, you only need look at the Viaduct series' weight to see it isn't just Avalon that is patchy. But I did enjoy the day, I get more enjoyment from the close/struggle days on the bank than the monotony of catching rather than fishing..!!

If I could sit on the 'tip all day for 3 or 4 bites, maybe I could have done better, maybe I would have blanked, that is something I don't like to do on commercial fisheries, natural venues are fine...odd!!

I don't know where or if I am fishing this Sunday, I don't have anything lined up, if I cant find anything or go to Summerhayes, then a day fishing the whip at Emerald Pools may be in order after reading Dom Sullivan's blog.

Until next time, Take Care
Lee