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