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
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.
Next up for me is the next round of the Avalon Teams of 3 match next sunday.
Until next time,
Take Care.
Lee
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