PSV Match, Sedges Tile Lake, 27-04-14

Sunday saw me at Tile lake on the popular Sedges fishery for a PSV match, with 19 of us fishing and the lake having been well fished last week for the Avalon/Sedges festival, it was going to be a bit tough. Tile lake is also one of my bogey venues, I don't ever seem to get into any sort of rhythm and often end up faffing around.

I was up early after a semi-decent nights sleep and after loading the kit into the car I had a cuppa and went over to McDonalds for a double sausage muffin. Which was nice.
I arrived at the fishery at 8:15 as I couldn't remember what time the draw was, Denise made me a drink and after a quick natter a few other guys arrived and some banter flowed.

The 9am-ish draw was upon us and everyone wanted one of pegs 40, 21 and 31, all corner pegs that are worth a few fish. The road side, far end pegs (26-30) were the ones to avoid, they can be very patchy and with the wind blowing from the north towards pegs 40 and 21 these pegs are not the best.
Sadly I pulled out peg 27, a peg I have fished before and even in the summer I have struggled for double figures at times.

Peg 27 on Tile Lake

Steve Burgess managed another corner peg in the current lake flyer, peg 21. He had Alan Healey next to him on p22.  On peg 40 was Adam Caswell, he was gonna fish for silvers....
The other 'flyer' saw Lionel Legge sat on peg 31.

I set up a method rod, a bomb rod and 3 pole rigs, basically the same rigs as the day previous at Larford.
I had some choppie mix for skimmers along with some 6 and 8mm pellets, meat and hemp for the carp, plus the obligatory micros for the method.
After potting various baits in, some worm mix at 10 o'clock direction at 11m, some wet 6's at 11m but in the 1 o'clock direction. Lastly I cupped some meat/hemp combo at 2+2. I'd also try the margins later in the match.

I began on the method and was soon playing a 3lb carp, 20 minutes later I had another of similar size then a baby skimmer.
After 90 minutes I only had the 3 fish in the net, peg 26 had next to nothing, peg 25 had landed a few carp on the pellet feeder. Peg 28 also had landed, and lost, a couple fish on the pellet feeder.
Elsewhere pegs 31 and 32 had been catching from the start and peg 30 had a solitary carp 1st chuck.

A look on each of the pole lines didn't give me a bite, infact the pellet line never gave me more than 1 bite which I think was a liner, the worm line gave me a baby perch, a roach and a skimmer of 4oz. The margins gave me sweet f.a. as well.
Back on the feeder and another small carp and a skimmer were netted, by now it was 2pm and the pegs from 25 to 30 were properly struggling.
Another chuck on the method saw my rod wrap round straight away and I was into a decent fish, I played it for 5 minutes or so and ended up landing the 'lump' which was maybe 10lb, it had a great big fat belly and was a welcome addition to my scarcely worthwhile net.
On peg 28 the chap had landed a couple lumps from his margin to add to his few 'tip caught fish.
Peg 30 looked like he was packing up.
I could see that Steve and Alan on pegs 21 and 22 respectively had a few fish as had the few I could see on the opposite bank.

At 3pm I had a look on the short pole line and started to feed by hand heavily, this bought the only response of the day from here in that I managed to net an 8lb fish.
That was it for my match.
Next door on peg 28, a couple more lumps were landed, including one after the whistle, and he'd now had more weight than me.

The all out was called and everyone packed away.
I wandered down to Mr Burgess on peg 21, who had done well and looked to be in contention for the match, but Alan had done well too.
The weigh in started with Steve putting 58lb 5oz on the board then Alan put 40-odd pounds in the net, but his silvers weighed a lowly (for the lake) 10lb 8oz.
A few 20 and 30lb weights followed including my net of around 39lb.
Onto peg 31 and Lionel had amassed 51lb 15oz, then we carried on through to pegs 37, 38 and 39.
They amassed 54-08 (Matt Taynton), 79lb (Matt Challenger) and 51lb 7oz (Mark Radford), so the fish had followed the wind, as they do on Tile, and they'd all had a decent day's fishing.
The silver fish angler on Peg 40 dnw'd as he'd only come ready for skimmers and never had a running line with him, it was a carpy corner for sure!!

Results:
1. Matt Challenger (38) 79-0
2. Steve Burgess (21) 58-5
3. Matt Taynton (37) 54-8
4. Lionel Legge (31) 51-15
5. Mark Radford (39) 51-7
Silvers: Alan Healey (23) 10-8

So my Tile Lake hoodoo continues, one day I will get over it......perhaps.
But it was an enjoyable day for sure.

I don't know where I am fishing Sunday and I am half tempted to fish the Larford MMT qualifier on Saturday. I think I will decide later in the week....in the meantime the Sedges evening matches begin this Thursday, just turn up for the 5pm draw.

Oh and I must remember to give Steve Burgess his quid at some point....

Until next time, roll on summer....

Lee

Fishomania qualifier at Larford Lakes 26-04-14

The weekend just gone was a busy one for me with a couple of matches to fish.
Firstly I had the Fishomania qualifier at Maver Larford Lakes near Stourport, this would be the 1st time I saw the venue.
I left the house about 5:45 for the almost 2hr trip, I was shattered as a car alarm was going off regularly through the night, meaning less than 4hrs sleep was achieved.
An uneventful trip saw me rock up at the lakes at 7:30, I wasn't the 1st there so a cuppa was grabbed from the café before chopping some meat etc.

Shortly after 8am everyone started to arrive including a few locals in the form of Jacko (Steve Jackson), Andy Power and Steve Tucker. There was a buzz in the air as the 9am draw got closer.
I had a chat with a nice chap from Bath who gave me a few tips on the Speci lake. Plus I got chatting with Richard Wyatt who organises the MFS matches at Viaduct.
The draw arrived and myself and Rich were unsure of where to queue, fortunately a table was put in front of us and we ended up drawing about 4th and 5th in the line, behind Jacko and Andy Power.
We were told the Burr bank between Speci and Match lakes was boggy after loads of overnight rain, plus the Match lake pegs on the far side were under a few inches of water.

Into the tub goes my hand and pulls out peg 59 on Match, Rich had pulled possibly the best peg on the lake with Peg 42. I was told that it wasn't a great are by a couple anglers, but with the wind pushing down the lake you never know, Andy Kinder reckoned the 2 end pegs of the match lake should do ok.

I arrived, sweaty, at my peg, and there were plenty of skimmers and F1's topping, plus odd carp. I did hope for a few fish. Here a couple pics of my peg, note the pallet under water, there were others that had floated further out, including peg 58!!

I set about sorting my kit, I put my micros into soak, mixed some groundbait, put the box on the platform and assembled the bait brolly as the weather was due to be dire with heavy rain, thunder, hail and freshening winds predicted.
While setting up I was chatting to a nice guy on peg 58 and we had a great bit of banter through the day. The angler who had drawn peg 60 had also turned up, minus his kit, and proceeded to say that pegs 55 onwards were poor pegs and he wasn't going to fish...great!! But I did have an empty peg.

I set up a method rod for 30yrds out, a bomb rod and 3 pole rigs. Two pole rigs were for 7m out, one for meat and one for banded pellets. The 3rd rig was for a cut back in the margins almost into peg 60.
I shall not mention the pole rigs again despite trying all day, I only had a 3lb carp on the banded pellet line and that was hooked in the belly. The rig was pushing through with the tow at a rate of knots. The margins never gave a bite for me or peg 58.

The whistle sounded and the method feeder was lobbed out, 5 seconds in and I had a fish on, a 3lb carp was duly netted. A skimmer of 12oz followed soon after. Then it went quiet.
The next three hours saw me put a few F1's and small carp in the net and I had around 25lb.
A few guys opposite had packed up, but I was leading my section from what I could tell.
The angler on 58 had slightly less than me and lost a decent-ish carp. The angler on peg 61 only had a solitary F1 and a small carp. Over on peg 3 was Warren Martin who was catching reasonably consistently by now and doing well by the sounds of it.
Word came down that Rich was probably winning from flyer peg 42, fair play to him.

As we approached the last hour I had landed a couple more skimmers and another carp, but it was very slow for us at this end on my bank. Me and the guy on p58 seemed close on weight, peg 57 had struggled but had landed a couple decent fish, not much else. Peg 56 had given a few carp to the angler earlier on, but he wasn't in my section.
Peg 60 had landed 3 carp from his close in line, all decent carp, but was possibly a few pounds behind me. The rest of the pegs in my section had struggled, but the guy who was fishing the method on the second to last peg had began to catch.

The last hour was spent between the margins and the method, but I only had another 2lb F1.
It was a similar story for peg 58, peg 57 had a couple more carp. However peg 60 had a few lumps, the last 20 minutes saw him put 2 decent doubles in the net having lost a couple foul hookers. I shouted down to him that he'd won the section, he never believed me, but I reckoned on him having 50lb to my 30lb or so.

The hooter sounded and the all-out called. I began packing up, enjoying the banter with a few of the other guys. Jacko had landed 6 carp from his speci lake peg and Tucks, who was sort of behind me, had done well from his peg, he was defo top 10, maybe as high as 6th.
Rumour came down that Richard had lost out by 2lb or so, he did lose a fish at the net, but anglers always lose fish.
The scales arrived at my peg and I tipped 14kg 480g on the scales (32lb), peg 58 had 12kg (25lb-ish), then came peg 60, his 2 late fish put him to 20kg (44lb) before there were weights less than mine before the 2nd to last angler pipped my weight by 600g (2lb) thanks to a late carp of decent size.

I headed back to the car, loaded off and set off home after an enjoyable day.
I never stayed for the results, but it turned out Richard Wyatt had come 2nd, losing out to Andy Geldart by a couple pound. Unlucky mate.

Results:
1st Andy Geldart, Match peg 22, 50kg 620g
2nd Rich Wyatt, Match peg 42, 49kg 612g
3rd Warren Martin, Match peg 3, 36kg 720g
4th Ritchie Hull, Match peg 19, 35kg 160g
5th Craig O' Brien, Speci peg 14, 33kg.

So overall I enjoyed the day though I am a little gutted that I never had a margin fish or 2 which would have won me the section, especially given the empty peg next to me, but that's life, maybe I should have set up a line at topkit plus 1 section.......all hindsight...!!
I shall defo go back to Larford, maybe next Saturday for the Maver Match This qualifier. If not later in the year, it's not too far really and a nice drive.
I am a little gutted for Rich, but he did bloomin well to finish second and well done him for that.

That is it for my Fisho qualifiers this season, but will have another bash next year for sure.

Until next time, have fun.

Lee

Clevedon Club Match. Sedges Brick Lake, 20-04-14

Today saw me fishing the Clevedon match on Sedge's Brick lake, it is the 1st time the club has used the fishery for a match, but they will definitely be back there in 2015.
A lot of the guys hadn't seen the venue, some only fished it once or twice.

Anyways not much to write about for me today.
I drew peg 17, not my favourite, a couple pegs too high for decent silvers weights and a peg or 2 away from slightly better carp pegs, but the good thing about the lake is that it is generally fair overall, obviously the pegs 10 and 11 (far end corners) are usually in the mix come the results, as are pegs 15, 14, 6 and 7 for the silvers.

I set up a lead/feeder rod but never had a bite on that, I also set up a pellet waggler, but other than a lost foul hooked fish on my 2nd cast, I only had a couple indications on that.
My pole rigs were set up with the forecast stronger winds in mind:
A rig for 11.5m for meat over meat with carp the aim, but I wont mention this again as I never had a bite on that,
A rig for 11.5m slightly to my right for chopped worm and caster, this was ideally to target the decent head of skimmers, plus odd tench, eel and maybe bonus carp if I get them in on the lighter kit.
I set up a rig for banded 8mm pellets over wetted 6's, this would be fished at topkit plus 1 section.
Lastly I had a margin rig made up for along my right hand edge, to fish whole worm over groundbait with a few casters in. I hoped mostly for carp here, but the bonus decent skimmer can be expected.

The match began on the waggler, but lost a foul hooked fish. I then fed my pole lines before going back out on the feeder, but never had a knock in the next half hour.
Next to me on peg 18 was Kev Perry who had a few fish in  the first hour, and he kept catching throughout, and never looked on his pole lines.
On peg 15 was Chris Parr, he was bagging decent skimmers, and after 2hrs probably had 20lb in the net, next to him was Jonny Page, he too had landed some decent silvers.
I couldn't see much else, but gathered that Adie on peg 11 would be catching a few (it turned out he was), also Lance Tucker on peg 10 would bag a few.

After 2hrs I had 3 small skimmers and a bonus 3lb carp from my 11.5m worm line.
A look down the edge saw my only bite from there, and a 3lb carp was netted.
The 3rd hour was quiet, with only 1 skimmer from my 11.5m worm line.
A few guys had to weigh fish (15lb per individual fish being the net limit), but none on my bank went over, though Paul Purchase had 2 lumps of 14lb 2oz and 14lb 12oz.

For the last 2hrs I concentrated on the margins and topkit+1 lines, but the margin never gave a bite, I did however land a handful of both carp and decent skimmers (plus a baby tench) on banded 8's.
I also had to laugh when Kev Perry had a psycho carp come into my swim when I was playing a decent carp, unluckily for me I could feel the grating of line against line and I was broken as Kev's mainline had cut through my rig between bulk and dropper shot.....earlier on he managed to tangle a carp he was playing with my feeder line....but all was sorted on that occasion.

The whistle sounded and I knew I hadn't done great, none of my carp were in the usual brick lake stamp, well except one I had on at the whistle, which was maybe 8lb, the others were 3lbers, which is a little under the norm for the lake.
I figured the match would be contested between Adie on peg 11 and Kev Perry next to me on p18. However Ivan Currie, Lance Tucker and Simon Carvalho all looked to have around 100lb each, the silvers looked to be tied up by Gappy (Chris Parr) on peg 15, Pagey on 14 and Barrie Fowler on the far bank looked to be competing for 2nd silvers money.

The rain and hail arrived in earnest as we packed up, making the weighing in fun with wet sheets and sodden anglers....as I found out by doing the board on my bank!!
The far bank gave up 100lb plus weights to both Ivan Currie and Lance Tucker on pegs 9 and 10 respectively.  The other pegs from 1 to 8 gave odd decent weights but it was very much up and down.
Adie weighed in 120lb+ from the peg I expected to win (peg 11). The silvers went to Chris Parr, he recorded a very healthy 41lb 9oz.
My nets went 14lb 4oz worth of silvers and 40lb+ of carp. I didn't get exact ounces due to the rain etc.
Kev's fish went over 130lb, while Paul Purchase on peg 20 had those two 14lb+ fish and a few more and had 60lb+ I think.

Results:
Kev Perry, 130lb 3oz, peg 18, all on lead/8mm pellet]
Adie Baker, 121lb 3oz, peg 11, mostly pole along the end bank, plus a few on wag.
Lance Tucker, 111lb 14oz, peg 10, late run of fish towards the end bank boosted his weight.
Ivan Currie, 105lb 12oz, peg 9, pole long and lead caught fish I believe.

Silvers went to Chris Parr who caught long and short with chopped worm & caster, p15, 41lb 9oz of mostly skimmers with a few tench and eels chucked in.
2nd in silvers was Barry Fowler with 34lb, I am not sure what peg, maybe 3 or 4? again mostly skimmers.

I enjoyed the match and there are a few things I may have changed. I found it odd I couldn't get a bit on my lead set-up, despite my rig being the same as Kev's and probably only 20m apart. Fish are funny things.

Next week I am back at Sedges, Tile Lake I believe, with PSV.
But before that I have a Fishomania qualifier at Maver Larford Lakes, somewhere I have yet to see!!

Take care and tight lines.
Lee

Pawlett Club, Sedges Fishery, Silvers only match, 13-04-14

Sunday was the Pawlett Legion Angling Club's silvers match at the popular Sedges Fishery in Bridgwater.
There was 23 of us down to fish, 2 sections of 8 on Brick lake and another section of 7 on Tile lake's causeway bank, which most expected to do better with less pressure. The 6 corner (carpy) pegs were left out so we were all in a row.
The weather was rather pleasant, loads of carp were in the upper layers, but the light breeze that was forecast looked less than light, but not too bad.

The 9am draw was made, we were to fish 10am to 4pm. I drew towards the back end of the queue and pulled out a peg in my usual Brick lake area, peg 13, I seem to be up in pegs 11-13 pretty regularly, one day I may get 7 to 10....!! Not a bad draw though.
For company I had Big Nick Selway on peg 14, Giffy on peg 15 and on peg 12 I had Kev Lock.

Peg 13, Sedges Brick Lake

I got to my peg and set about tackling up, I got my box sorted, nets done, bait prepped and then had to make up a couple rigs as I didn't have any deep enough.
The 1st rig was for chopped worm and caster, an 0.8g NG Gimp on 0.14>0.10>B911f1 size 16.
The 2nd was for expanders over wet 6mm pellets and a few micros, the float was an NG Power Pencil in 0.5g, hooks and line were the same and both elastics were 6-8 middy solids.

The all in sounded and I cupped 3/4 of a pot of the worm mix at 14.5 in the 1 o'clock direction. I also potted half a cup of pellets at the same distance in the 10 o'clock direction, both lines using trees on the far bank as markers.
Giffy and Kev went out on the pole while Nick started on the feeder, I never set up a running line rig, which in hindsight may have been a mistake, especially when after 10 minutes Nick had a nice skimmer, a second following soon after.
Giffy hooked 3 or 4 carp on his first few drops on the pole.

It took me 20 minutes for my 1st bite, this gave me a small skimmer, then another followed.
Kev had not had a bite. On the far bank a few skimmers were being caught and the usual nuisance carp.
The end of the 1st hour had given me 4 blade skimmers and a rudd, Nick had 3 or 4 skimmers on the feeder and Giffy had also set up a feeder. Kev, I think, had a couple bits but had hooked and landed and lost some carp.

The 2nd hour saw me set up a new rig for topkit+1. I had began to loose feed caster here, with the odd nugget of groundbait. I stayed on the longer lines, with the worm line being most productive, I had a tench of a couple pounds or so along with a skimmer around 1lb.  I looked miles behind most from what I could see, except Kev who was enjoying hooking a carp nearly every drop on any of his lines...it was quite amusing,

I kept plugging away, picking up odd fish and by 1pm I had maybe 4lb of bits and bobs. I came over my short line and hooked a nice skimmer on the 1st drop, this was followed by a couple roach and a blade skimmer.
The next hour was amusing as I hooked no fewer than 9 carp from my two long lines, landing 6 with the largest being around 17lb, this was rather fun on the light kit, the 3 I lost were foul hooked, 1 foul hooked fish I did land had decided to do a tour of the 2 swims to my left..!! But I got that 7lb fish in.
I did land a bream around 3lb plus a small tench of 1lb.
Nick and Giffy were about level, both picking up decent skimmers on the feeder, plus the odd carp.
Kev was into another carp, probably his 15th.....

On the far bank Keith Clapp was said to have had a few skimmers as had Jay King. A few other guys were picking up odd skimmer here and there, the roach were not feeding due to the bright conditions.

The last 90 minutes or so were spent on the short line as it seemed every time I went out to the long lines I would connect with a carp, so I wrote these off, hoping that I could get the roach feeding, maybe catching a few skimmers too.
I got into a routine of feeding a small nugget of groundbait every other drop plus a dozen casters or maggots every minute or so. This seemed to do the trick as a few more skimmers came to my net, the largest being around 2lb, these boosted my weight somewhat.
I did hook a few carp, landing a couple, pulling out of a few more.

Nick and Giffy also had carp problems on the feeder, but still picked up the odd skimmer, so it would be close between them.
The all out sounded and I guessed I had maybe 12-15lb to their 20lbs or so. Kev on p12 had caught a handful of skimmers late, but didn't weigh in. He did have shed loads of carp though.
I wasn't sure of what the pegs further down had done, but Paul Purchase had landed a few skimmers from what I could gather. It looked a close weight affair all over.

The scales arrived at my peg with J.King (p5) leading the way with 32lb+,  Eric Fouracre had 29lb from Tile peg 36. Keith had put around 25lb on the board (peg 4). A couple 20lb weights had come from Brick and 2 weights of 24lb had come from the less pressured Tile lake.
My usual underestimated net went 23lb 4oz which was 3rd on the lake, 6th overall at this point.
Nicks net went 19-14, Chris 'Giffy' Ware put 15-10 on the board.
Paul Purchase had landed a good few fish and 22lb 6oz on the scales, Phil Clapp had a pound of so less than Paul.

I loaded the car and went to see the results:

1st was J. King with his 32lb 14oz from Peg 5
2nd was Eric Fouracre on peg 36, he had 29lb 8oz
3rd was Keith Clapp, peg 4, 25lb 10oz

Section winners were:
Rich Coles, peg 35, 24lb 14oz
Mike Davis, peg 7, 20lb 9oz
Lee Williams, peg 13, 23lb 4oz.

Weigh Sheets

I enjoyed the match, but the bright sunny conditions didn't help produce some of the weights the venue can give. Plus the bream seem to be ready to spawn, or maybe just spawned as they are covered in tubercles and look a bit scabby, but they'll soon be in tip-top condition.
The roach never showed like they can, but again the weather possibly played it's part.
Oh and the carp were very active, I am sure most of us landed a good few pounds of them during tha match.

Next up for me is another match on Sedges Brick lake with Clevedon FWAC.

Until then, take care.
Lee


P.S, on a side note, I took my two kids over Trinity on Saturday afternoon, they fished on Wildmarsh, around pegs 48/49. A little match took place, my son choosing the pole, my daughter fishing the waggler in close.
They fished for 4hrs, on and off, with Kaiti winning the silvers with a few pounds of roach, rudd and skimmers to 2lb.
Ciaran had slightly less silvers, but had a couple eels, a golden tench and a little carp which we counted as a silver fish. He also landed a couple carp from his margins on meat the largest around 8lb, but he lost 3 proper lumps (good doubles) to the snags in the edge, 2 of which were hooked on silvers kit.
I really must do some fishing on Wildmarsh as I really do like that lake.

  

Clevedon Match - Trinity Woodlands

Sunday saw half a dozen of us take up pegs 24 to 29, ideal as the weather was due to be a bit iffy come in mid afternoon
We fished from around 9:45 to 3:30.

The draw was done but really I don't think it would have made a difference to where we were.
I pulled out peg 25. Which was fine.

 

I had planned to fish chopped worm and caster but left my caster at home. Therefore I would simply fish, hopefully, with banded 8's over 6's at 13m (full depth) and again at 2+2 where it was more or less the same depth.
I also planned to try both margins in the last 30-40 minutes using meat.
A shallow rig was assembled but didn't give me a bite.
I set up a method feeder and a pellet wag, the wag never produced a fish so less of that.

 

The match began with half hour on the pellet wag while the pole lines settled, this was not great as it never produced.
A look over the waggler line on the method for half hour gave me a skimmer and a couple of 5lb carp.

 

Elsewhere Adie Baker had been into a few fish on the pole, John W. on peg 24 had a single carp fishing shallow as had Rich Heatley on my left,  he'd also had a carp fishing the lead. There were plenty of fish boshing and moving in the upper layers but I think they would not settle in our calmer water;  they may have if we had been on the other side.

 

A look on the long pole line gave me a carp first chuck followed up by an F1. A 3lb carp soon made its way to the keepnet.
A patchy next hour saw me try the shallow rig but it didn't seem right despite both guys next to me getting odd fish,  Rich getting a few decent roach on banded 8's to.
A look short only gave me a solitary skimmer, and banding 6's didn't change a thing.

 

At 3hrs in and I had around 30lb, which looked at being behind Adie and by the sounds of it Ivan Currie had caught a few. I was ahead of the guys each side of me.

A look on the method feeder produced a handful of carp and two skimmers which boosted my weight somewhat and I was happy enough with my catch rate.
Back on the pole and I found the fish had returned and four on the bounce was good,  but I could still see Adie's elastic being stretched regularly.

By now we were into the last hour and John was beginning to catch a few lumps and was pushing 80lb.

I had put my second net in for carp as I knew my net would be close to 65lb, and given my pants ability at weight guessing (I even used clickers again) I then decided to go down the edge to see if any lumpy carp were about.
First drop produced a missed bite but I connected on the next and an 8lb carp was landed. I quickly had a skimmer and a tench before another carp found its way to my net. A few fish were spooked out of the margin, the bow waves giving this away, but the colour was muddying up nice. I re-fed some more meat.

A quick look on the short pellet line gave me a 6lber. Then it was back down the margins, taking a fish from each side if possible, or at least giving each side a minute or 2 for a bite, I often find that it becomes that only 1 side really produces in decent quantities, never both.

 

The last half hour gave me five foul hooked fish, only landing a baby. I also put another 3 in the net.  John still had lumps and I heard that Ivan had done well.
I thought I had maybe 95lb plus five pounds of silvers. Which consisted of a tench, an F1, 2 roach and five skimmers. I had about 17 carp to 8lb or so.

 

The weigh in began with John Wolstencroft putting 78-04 on the board with carp to over 12lb.
I went next and my silvers weighed 7-12 plus carp gave me 117-05.
Rich H. had double his 25lb guess, putting 52-03 on the board.
Adie had 14-06 of silvers in his 90-05 bag.
Walshy had 14-03 of silvers and a 16lb+ carp (which apparently was 20lb thirty minutes previous..lol). He totalled 67lb and an ounce.
Last up was Ivan Currie. His total was 88-08.

 

Weigh Sheets from the day

 

 

This gave me the win and more pennies for the holiday fund.

It was a good match with the average weight being over 82lb per angler.
I am pleased by the fact I had most of my fish at depth on banded 8mm. Something I have to keep doing as I don't tend to use hard pellets at full depth.

 

Next up for me is a match at Sedges with Pawlett, it's a silver fish contest, so could be fun if the carp wake up..!!

 

Until next time Take Care

 

Lee

White Acres - Day 5, Pollawyn Match Lake

The final round saw me down to fish Pollawyn, the original match lake, it has loads of fish in it with carp being the main weight builders in the results, they run to over 20lb so sensible kit is needed. There are also plenty of skimmers, roach, perch and F1's, plus a few barbel to spice things up.

The half past nine draw saw me pull peg 45, a good peg if the wind wasn't awkward, it had won the section on Thursday with 90lb-ish.

Once I found my peg (the pegging is kind of random!!), I set about sorting my kit.

Peg 45, Pollawyn Lake

 



I didn't want to fish the method, or any tip fishing for this match, so I set up a small pellt waggler to fish over at 17m, 4 pole rigs were made too.
The 1st pole rig was to swing a bait across to the reeds, should the wind allow, this was for banded pellet (6 and 8mm). The second rig would do two lines at 11m, one for meat and the other for chopped worm and caster. The 3rd rig would be for tight against the bank in 2.5ft of water, but this only gave me a 1oz perch so no more on that. The 4th rig was for topkit length in the 10 o'clock direction for fishing worm and caster mush over bits of groundbait.

The whistle blew and I potted bits and bobs into their swims, I started in the topkit and put a pound of bits in the net. I  then shipped to 16m and swung my bait (as best I can) at the far bank, this resulted in a 4lb carp straight away, I followed this up with a F1 of 2lb and then roach of 6oz.
Half an hour into the match and I hooked a carp which tore through a reed bed to my left on the far bank, but despite it's attempts to get rid of me, I somehow managed to free it from a snag (tree roots full of pole floats...drifted off in the wind) and the carp managed to find it's way to my keepnet.

A few F1's and skimmers followed and by the 90 minute stage I was doing ok against the few pegs in my section that I could see.
Elsewhere, Keiron Rich and the other anglers with open water in front of them were catching well on the pellet wag and lead/method. Some lumpy fish were netted by them.
The angler to my left on peg 47 had landed a few carp by long lining to the island.

By the 3rd hour the wind had got up and the fish were well in the reeds and I was only picking up the odd one, the angler next door had been fishing for silvers and was putting a nice net together, I managed to put a few pound of these in the net but I wasn't getting the quality he was.
A look on the meat line gave me 2 nice skimmers of a pound each, but the 11m worm line never gave me a bite .

The last 2 hour were generally spent struggling with 16m of pole and a brisk side wind. I managed the odd F1, but didn't do great.
The all out was called and I began to pack up, soon the scales were at my peg and I had clicked 36lb, so probably had 40lb, but it grew into 46lb+.
The lad on peg 47 had put plenty of silvers in his net, I told him he'd got 42lb, he actually weighed 48lb+. There was a 55lb weight, but that was it  in my section pegs, so 3rd in section wasn't a bad end to the week.
Elsewhere on the lake there were plenty of 100lb weights and I was inpressed by the lake.

I headed back to the caravan and loaded the car before heading home.

I did learn loads from my week there and will definitely help my angling, the F1 fishing, the method feeder fishing and the fact that knowledge of the lakes/pegs is really important, but the draw is crucial.

I managed my top 100 target, I finished 99th and had over 185lb of fish over the week, I am looking forward to the next one for sure.

Until next time, take care.
Lee

P.S, today (saturday) saw me fish the Viaduct Fishomania qualifier, I drew peg one on Spring lake, not a bad draw, but I was hemmed in somewhat, and all I could muster was 2 carp around 8lb each and around 15lb of mostly skimmers (which look to be getting ready to spawn). I have another qualifier in  a few weeks at Larford Lakes (I haven't seen it, so could be fun).

White Acres, Day Four, Bolingey

Thursday was my trip to bagging venue Bolingey. Well I should say possible bagging venue.

Looking at the full results for the week shows plenty of weights of 25lb or less,  some blanks and several weights under 10lb.

At the draw I pulled peg 9. Not a great peg, and 24lb came off it on Wednesday for 5 points!

The day began well, I got in the car and left for the venue,  but remembered that I didn't have a clue where it was,  so after a bit of guesswork I arrived 30 minutes after I left....I did the same on the way back!!!!...Numpty.

Peg 9, Bolingey

 

 

At the peg I set up a method feeder,  pellet wag and three pole rigs.
The pole rigs were one for meat at top kit plus one, this will do for 10m where I planned to feed gently via a tosspot.
Lastly I set up a margin rig and a shallow rig for pellet in the band.

 

I won't go into too much detail as me and the angler to my left struggled for most of the day. I had a 3lb carp on my second cast of the method. Nothing for an hour before 2 F1's from the longer line.
I then lost a lump which broke 0.18 hooklength.
The third hour gave me a 5lber from the short meat line.
I had a blank forth hour before two late carp were landed from the short line,   but only after losing 3 foul hooked margin fish,  I did get some scales as parting gifts!!!.

 

Else where the first lake looked like it had fished well with them all netting fish regularly.  On my lake the chap to my left and the angler to his left both caught a few mugged fish on the pole but it was hard for them.
Otherwise people were doing okay in spurts.

 

The scales arrived at my peg.  A look at the board showed that the other lake gave everyone 100lb+.
My 30lb weight was the best off  the peg this week and would probably be the section last. But I am pleased despite this. At least I didn't blank.
Next door weighed 46lb thanks to 3 late lumps.

Actually my weight was worth 5 points...which was not too bad, so not second last in section!!

 

Next up.  Pollawyn on the last day.

White Acres Part 3...Porth Res.

Wednesday was the day I was looking forward to....as long as the weather stayed semi sensible.

The draw saw me pull peg 37, it was mid way in the section on Tuesday. 4lb or so was caught from it. But the peg lends itself to using a platform out in the water.

I made the pain of a walk and arrived at my swim a bit sweaty and knackered.

Peg 37, Porth Reservoir

After a five minute rest I set about sorting the tackle.

The platform assembled and box and trays etc sorted.  Groundbait was mixed so I set up 2 feeder rods and three pole rigs.

Bait was simple maggots, hemp, caster and worm. 
One feeder was for around 60 turns and another for 25 turns.
The two pole rigs were for use at 14.5m in 8ft of water and at 6m in 4ft. Neither were used other than a couple quick look now and then. Neither produced a bite.

 

I started on the long feeder line with half a dendra on the hook.  Fish first chuck,  bargain.  It was a skimmer around 2lb, sadly a pike took a liking to it and the fish was gone. Another Hook length attached and the rest of the first hour gave me a few ounce roach and a 4oz skimmer.

 

Meanwhile next to me on my left, the angler had been using the waggler and had plenty of bites from small roach.  I hadn't even set one up,  I had said all week that I was gonna fish the waggler. Numpty.

Another twenty mins saw the lad catch a few more fish. I was off the box and my waggler rod sorted.
First cast at 25 turns saw a little fish in the net,  several more followed.  After a few fish the bites slowed so I started firing wet balls of groundbait at the float to keep the fish in the swim.
This coupled with trying shallower and deeper kept odd fish coming,  but myself and the lad next to me were missing a good few bites.

 

I kept at this until the 3rd hour when I had a quick look on the feeder over the waggler line gave me a roach.  The long feeder and pole lines not a bite.

So I stayed on the wag, catching the odd 4oz fish, unlike my neighbour who had five decent 1lb+ skimmers in five casts,  putting him well clear.

 

The all out sounded and I thought I had 5lb which would be good. I guessed peg 36 had 13 to 14lb which may win the lake. The scales arrived and top weight on the far bank was around 11lb. The anglers to my right weighed between 2 and 4lb.
My 8lb 5oz was nice,  but the guy next to me had near 13lb. The next two had 2 to 3lb and then Keiron Rich had 4lb+.

 

I proceeded to pack up and make the long hike back,  which was bloomin hard work. It turned out there was a 10lb weight from the end peg on my bank (different section).
It turned out I came second in section and joint 4th on the lake and 8 points to my tally,  so my first festival envelope.

 

I had a great day fishing, doing something I enjoy and am capable at.

Thursday sees me at Bolingey...

White Acres part two - Twin Oaks/Trelawny

Day two saw me and James draw on Twin Oaks, so again no vehicle faffing.....

I drew peg 13 which had done 40lb for nowhere on Monday and with the car park end pegs doing best as the wind was pushing that way, it could be tricky.

Peg 13, Twin Oaks

 

 

I set up a method rod, a pellet wag rod (but didn't get a fish,  so no more on that) and 3 pole rigs.
A meat line at 2+2, a depth rig to be fished at 10m with banded 6 and 8mm pellets plus the standard margin rig.

 

The match started ok with a fish first chuck on the method,  but a flurry of fish hooked and pulled out of, with the odd one landed, meant that the first hour saw me have about 15lb in the net. I also landed a rock of a pound or so, this was thanks to a carp transferring the hook....the hook was weakend, but like a wally I didn't realise until I lost the next fish!!

The second hour was quieter with only a couple fish netted, F1's.
Around me saw the guy on p11 have around 30lb and the chap on 15 landed a couple lumps plus some silvers from his 5m/meat line.

The third hour was ok, I couldn't get a bite at 2+2, but the 10m line gave me a run of F1's on banded 8's. Plus I had a couple carp on the method.

Into the forth hour and I guessed I was 2nd last in section but hoped for a massive run of lumps.  This never occurred. But I did get some more F1's and some skimmers on the meat line.
I just could not get a sensible run of fish, more importantly,  carp,  from that line.
The guy on the right of me had a good few lumps along with some smaller ones and F1's.

Into the last hour and I could see peg one catching carp each drop so perhaps the lumps were mostly that end?

I had an ok last hour, probably landing 20lb of carp including a nice 8lb+ fish from 6 inch of water, plus 10lb of skimmers/F1's.  But I was well behind.

The all out was shouted and we all packed up.

What I do like at the lakes so far is the efficiency of the weigh in. But I also get odd looks at to why I don't mix carp with other species in our nets..... I guess it's to do with fishery rules and silvers pool.

 

Anyways the weigh in showed me hit just over 80lb,  but my section had a good few 100lb+ weights. There was a 50lb net and another 80lb+. So I had 3 points for the second day running.

James on the other lake had weighed enough to pick up five points.  But their weights were generally lower than ours.

 

The evening saw us head home as James was unwell.  So it was a matter of loading all the kit into the van,  he would drop me home and I would drive back to finish the festival. I also made a point of taking everything back to make sure I could fit in the car everything I needed.
I stayed home and left to arrive back here by 9am, the draw for Porth being at 9:30.

 

Until part three,  take care.
Lee

White Acres Dynamite Baits fest 2014, part one.

This week has seen me and my matey James Withers heading off in search of fish at the White Acres Dynamite Baits festival.
It would be our first festival of this type,  and the first time i had fished the lakes.

A top 100 finish would be a massive achievement really and would be my aim for the week.

The previous week had seen the Bait Tech festival,  won by Steve Ringer.  Local angler (to Somerset) Dan White had come third with some decent angling. 

Anyways,  Saturday arrived and after work we loaded Mr Withers' van and made the uneventful two hour trip.
We done our shopping and sorted the digs, went to the bar for a couple drinks and got an early night.

Sunday saw us have a day fishing on Jennys lake, it was a nice days angling.  I was in peg two,  the numpty in peg three.

Peg 2 , Jennys.

The day was decent.  I had easily 60lb of silvers and a couple late lumps down the  edge. James had less silvers but did well catching half a dozen doubles down his edge late on.  We would be happy to draw Jennys on the first day...

Our sections would run:
Jennys/Trewaters on Monday.
Twin Oaks/Trelawny on Tues
Porth on Weds
Bolingey on Thurs
Pollawyn on Friday.

Monday saw us at the draw in the club and we both duly picked Trewaters....saved having to faff with the van.  Both pegs were not the best.
I was on P21 on the top lake,  half way along the bank.

Withers had 41 which was another duff area but on the lower lake.

Peg 21 at Trewaters

 

Fish to target, from what we gathered, would be small carp,  F1's and maybe some skimmers.
With bait allowances in place I had with me.  1 unit of each caster and corn.  2 units of micro,  the same of 6mm pellets and 2 units of 8mm meat.  Plus some worm and groundbait.

Rigs were simple.  A shallow rig and deep rig for worm/caster. This was at 13m as the wind was iffy.
A meat rig for 2&2. Last of all a rig for the margins to fish over groundbait late on.
I also had a method rod and waggler set up.

The all in sounded and the various baits were potted into the swims.

The rain started as the whistle went and my peg had a left to right wind.  I started on the method and had to wait half an hour for a fish.  The guys along my bank had all caught skimmers and odd carp/F1. My first catch was a carp of maybe 2lb,  soon followed by another.
90 mins into the match I came over the worm, fishing 1/4 of a dendra I had a flurry of perch and small skimmers. Bites were regular but the double shipping and the fact that they were that small meant I switched back to the method.

By the end of the second hour I was on four carp,  I pulled out of a couple as they didn't seem ferocious in their feeding.
I switched to the wag with a banded 6mm on the hook and had a flurry of 5 or 6 carp,  but had to be close to the island. This was a bonus really as nobody else had set up a wag.

The guy on the end peg had been catching a few decent carp fishing along his end bank,  the chap on the next peg to my right was struggling and the nice man on flyer 19 had landed a few. But I reckon I was winning the lake after three hours.

At 3pm i looked over the meat line and had a fish right away.  This was a bit of a false dawn and was only one of two bites off that line all day.  The worm line was only giving very small fish.
The last two hours saw my swim die and everyone else started to catch,  p19 had half a dozen fish in the last 40 mins.  The end peg had kept plugging away.

Meanwhile I could just make out keiron rich bagging a few on the peg more or less opposite me.

Between 4 and 5pm I had whole two skimmers.  Nobody caught anything of note from the margins,  just odd fish.

The all out sounded and I guess I had 25lb. I had more than peg 23 but beaten by 19 and end peg 25 .
The scales tipped my weight to 30lb 6oz.
P19 had 46lb for section 2nd. K.Rich had 49lb for section win.  P25 had 39lb.

The lake James had produced a 120lb+ weight and a couple 40lb+ nets.

I got 3 points for my result, as did James,  it was a tricky day but the peeps who know the lake said we didn't have great pegs and the expected ones did well.

The evening was spent in the bar for a couple drinks then in the caravan eating....

Day two sees us on Twin Oaks or Trelawny.