Landsend Match/Speci lakes, PSV match. 25/05/14

Today saw 24 of us embark on 6 hours of what, hopefully, would be catching lots of fish from this pretty prolific venue.
Now Landsend is not a venue I have much experience of since I came back to match fishing. But I was looking forward to it.

Saturdays match on there had been won with 'only' 70-odd pounds and it was tricky, Thursday's evening match was won with 50lb, so maybe the fish had been gorging on spawn? Maybe the recent wet days had given the water a cooler influx?

Anyways back to today, with 24 of us fishing, we had 3 sections. Two on the match lake, one on the far side of Speci (p25 to p32). I wanted a draw around pegs 17 to 21 on the match lake or an island peg on Speci.

Payouts would be top 2 overall, 1st and 2nd in sections and 2 silvers.
After a little chat and paying our monies, the draw was made and I grabbed one, peg 32 on the Speci Lake, the bottom end corner peg that can be a flyer, though I prefer the looks of 33, and again I'd rather of had 31 or 30.
Still I was happy enough, especially when several 'draw bag' and 'golden arm' comments flew my way, haha. Still gotta catch them.

I made my way to my peg and upon setting up I noticed a few fish mooching around the tree at 16m or so, now I wasn't going to fish that far, my 16m section was staying in the bag. These fish though were likely to move over to the other side with any pressure and commotion.
Next to me I had John Bradford who would be fishing for the silvers (he doesn't put a carp net in) and next to him was Mark Radford on peg 30, who I thought should have a good match from there.

Peg 32, Landsend Speci Lake.

Bait for the day would be 6mm pellets, hemp, corn and some 8mm meat. Oh and some 8mm pellets for in the band.
I did set up a few rigs for the day:
A margin rig for 2+2 along the end bank using meat over pellet, a rig for 13m along the end bank using banded pellet over pellet, a rig for 2+2 in the 10 o'clock direction for hemp/corn and lastly a shallow/stalking rig for between 13 and 14.5m in front of me in open water.

At the 10am-ish start time I wasn't quite ready but I was soon enough after potting various delights into the murky depths.
I started on the shallow rig and it was 25 minutes before my 1st fish, a 3lb common. Mark on peg 30 also had landed a carp or 2.
After about 90 minutes I was on 3 carp, including a 8lb+ fish, but it was slow going. I tried the short hemp/corn line without a bite, so I tried the long depth pellet line, again not an indication. I wont mention these 2 again as I never had a bite from either all day.
Lastly I gave the 2+2 margin line, this bought an instant response in the form of a 6oz chub. Sadly that was my action from there for ages, but I did have a slightly larger chub and a 4oz roach from that swim in the last hour, so that seemed another free feed for any fish that find the bait after the match.

At around 1:30pm Chris Szakacs came wandering around and I told him that I was on 10 carp, which apparently 5 more than anyone on the match lake.....

So I was spent the most of the match fishing shallow, feeding in spurts, to amass a total of  16 or 18 carp, I also lost/pulled out of 3 fish, which I think were not hooked correctly.
The last couple or so hours of the match were poor with only 5 fish being netted, and in the last 20 minutes the fish had began to respond to my increased feeding pattern and I landed a couple fish in that spell.

Elsewhere on the lake I could see that Mark Radford had done ok, lost a few lumps and had a topkit explode on him when he had a true munter of a fish in close during the first couple of hours. He'd picked up fish pretty regular until that quiet last 2hrs. I thought he'd probably caught more than me from his swim tight against the island.
John Bradford had around 15lb of his silvers, but he'd struggled really, especially in the last few hours.
I could also see that the angler on peg 25....which turned out to be match secretary, Steve Burgess, was having his laccy stretched on a regular basis. Also Adam Caswell also had a late run of lumps fishing paste.

The all out sounded and I thought I had around 95/100lb of carp in my 2 nets.
I packed up what I could before the scales arrived at my peg. My silvers went a couple of pounds and my 3 weighs of carp tallied my total to 107lb 8oz.
Most commented that I had won the lake with that, but I was certain Mark had more than that. Plus the match lake was sure to have done a couple 100lb+ weights.

Next up was John's silvers, these went 17lb 9oz, then Mark's total went less than what I thought, with just over 91lb. Will Dearlove had 55lb+ and Steve also 55lb+, with Will just pipping Steve to the section win.

I made my way to the car and Steve gave me a quid, bonus. But no doubt he will get it back.
We waited for the results from the match lake, but by the sounds of it Brian Shanks was top weight on the match lake with just under 83lb. Chris Scakacs was top silvers on there with about 16lb, which was the 2nd best silvers weight on the day.

Results:
1. Lee Williams (32) 107-8
2. Mark Radford (30) 91-11
3. Brian Shanks (1) 82-10
4. Steve O Toole (5) 73-9
5. Ryan Radford (3) 72-14

Silvers: John Bradford (31) 17-9

So a second win on the bounce, which is a bonus and a few more quid to the holiday fund.

It was a hard match and after talking to John and Mark, they could see the fish moving in and out of my swim, but seemed to hang around under the tree, occasionally coming out for me to hook one. The carp didn't respond great to heavy feed until late knockings and I found by fishing 8" deep I got a better response, probably from the surface suckers and cruisers.
I am surprised that the margins and end bank never fished for me, in fact the margins were not great for most it seem. I didn't expect to catch all my fish from 14m or so in open water. But you learn as you go.

Next up for me is another PSV match, another 1st for me, Shiplate Hawthorns lake, I have yet to fish that lake. But I do like that fishery.

Until next time, Take Care.
Lee

PSV Match, 18/05/14. Trinity Woodlands Lake.

After a couple of rather warm and tricky days over at Viaduct, I was down to fish the PSV match at Trinity Waters, more specifically, the Woodlands Lake.

Arriving at the venue around 8:15 saw several guys present and Misha making tea in the hut, a quick look at the pond confirmed what a rather excited Adam Caswell had stated, a few of the carp had decided to get frisky, mostly along the left hand banks and corners, where the wind was heading. The main affected pegs were the 30's and 1 to 7.

After unloading the gear and waiting for the later arrivals, Steve announced the payouts and the draw for the match was done, I fancied pegs 7 to 9, maybe 6 or 28 perhaps, I didn't want to be up at the calmer end from peg 15 to about 24.
I drew peg 6, a few comments from others indicating my drawbag ability....haha, its not that great!!

It was also the Blind Pairs match, which Misha did the draw, bringing the biggest cheer/laugh of the day when Adam was paired with Alan Healey. I was awarded Steve Wynne.
Coupled with this, was my knock-out against Lee Waller, who had drew along the end bank, peg 3.

At my peg I was greeted with ample splashing from the margins as some of the lake's residents had got into baby making mood.....Well they do say warm sunshine is good for the libido!!
I had Darren North to my left on peg 7 and he had Briank Shanks to his left on peg 9. Us three had the best of the fresh wind that had gotten up overnight and to be honest I was sure this area was the best to be in.

Peg 6, Trinity Woodlands, r/h margin

Peg 6, Trinity Woodland, in front

 

We had around 45 minutes to set up. I had planned to fish the method and pellet waggler to start, but with Lee Waller on peg 3, this restricted my distance in front, so that idea stayed in the holdall.
So I set up a method to fish tight-ish up against Peg 4, away from the spawning fish.

I also set up a few pole rigs, one for 7m in front for meat/hemp, but I never had a bite on that so no more on this. Another rig that was unproductive was a full depth banded pellet rig for 13m in from, all I had from this was a lost hooklength on a snag and a missed bite/liner.
I also set up a margin rig to fish 7m along the right margin, past the grasses the fish were spawning in, again this was rather unproductive, I had one foul hooked fish and 2 little roach. So no more on that....!!!
My last rig was a shallow pellet rig, which was to be fished over the 13m line and at top kit distance out as this is a spot I like to fish (lazy perhaps?...or clever?).
Baits were 8mm pellet, 8mm meat, 6mm pellet for feed, hemp and some wet micros for the method.

The all in was called at just before 10am, Steve couldn't have set up much!! I wasn't ready, so a minute or two later I lobbed the method rod across to peg 4, I repeated this a few times in the opening 30 minutes without a bite, but the angler across from me (Rich Jones) had landed one or 2 carp as had Darren and Brian had one I as well, I think.
My 1st fish came after around 35 minutes in the form of a 3lb common, a fish was then lost after I found a snag to my right, but it wasn't hectic, infact the 1st 90 minutes didn't see much in the way of action with odd fish getting caught from those I could see. The carp to my right were still having fun though!! I had lost one from the margin/pole line and landed a fouler from here, but I was getting bitted out, so I fed loads more and decided to leave it until the last hour or so.

By the time the 3rd hour had arrived, I had landed 4 or 5 small carp, while Darren and Shanksy had netted better stamp of fish, but their margins were proving a snaggy problem from what I could see.
All the while I had been feeding the pole lines pretty consistently, especially the topkit line, and there were now odd swirls and bubbles coming from the area. I had a couple looks on the lines in front at 7m and 13m, but these were fruitless and called them finished.

The 3rd to 4th hour was sort of productive, it gave me a couple more fish on the method and 3 fish on the shallow topkit line. I also had a few roach and skimmers here. I still never had any of the better sized carp with only 1 being a lump of 8lb, the rest 3-5lbers.
But by the looks of things I was doing ok. I was sure the 2 anglers to my left had plenty more than me and Rich Jones opposite had been catching on and off. The rest of the opposite bank seemed slow and I couldn't see past Brian on peg 9.
Into the 4th hour and I had to re-rig my shallow set-up as I had been trashed by a fish that seemed under control before belting up my left margin and back through my nets before escaping and mullering my rig.  This gave me a few more minutes in the 'tip, and I was rewarded with an 8lb fish.

Back onto the topkit and my swim was masses of bubbles, but I couldn't seem to find what depth the fish were at, and I am sure lots of the 'jacuzzi' was formed by smaller silver fish. but I was plugging along and was soon attached to the odd better fish, one around 10lb and another that maybe was 14lb+ and struggled in and out of my landing net. I reckoned I had 50lb at this point and was on net number 2.

Into the final 60 minutes and I tried the margin without success so remained on the topkit, this saw me land half a dozen fish between 3 and 6lb and my last fish was landed after the whistle and was a good 9lb+ mirror. In that same period Darren had landed a few and Brian was a little quieter but still had a few decent fish.

The all out was called and I packed up before helping out with the scales duties.
Lee Waller had not weighed in so I was through in the knock-out.
I was 2nd to weigh and my silvers went a pound or so, my carp took my total to 116lb 4oz, which surprised me as my estimate of 70-80lb was short...again!!...I must not forget to use my clickers. Ho Hum.

Next to weigh was Darren (p7) he weighed in less than I thought with his total being 84lb 5oz.
Brian Shanks on peg 9 had a decent net, his weight was 114lb 12oz, which had me worried.
The next weight of note was Adam's silvers net of around 7lb, which was enough to take the £45 silvers payout.
As we made our way around the lake, weights were not great with a few 15-25lb weights, with only Rich Jones on peg 32 seeming like a contender to frame, his weigh in was 83lb 5oz. This meant I had won on the day.

I fed a total of 2.5pts of 6mm pellets and 2pts of 8mm pellets throughout the day, maybe if I had fed less then I could have found the depth of the fish, but I am sure I was just distracting rather than attracting fish as they passed. I had 6 or 7 smaller carp on the method feeder, the rest, bar one, came on the topkit shallow, so relatively easy on that front.

The pairs was a close call, done on points rather than weight with 1pt for first and 2 points for second etc. It turned out that the pairing on Simon Belcham and Rich Jones had won with 9 points. 2nd spot, on weight, with 10 points were Brian Shanks and Mike Welling. They edged out Pete Uzzell/Darren North who also had 10 points. Myself and Steve Wynne just missed out on a tenner each, finishing 4th with 14 points......

Results:
1. Lee Williams (p6) 116-4
2. Brian Shanks (p8) 114-12
3. Darren North (p7) 84-5
4. Rich Jones (p32) 83-5
5. Simon Belcham (p12) 55-7
6. Ron Hardiman (p13) 42-7

Silvers: Adam Caswell from peg 15 I think with about 7lb of bits, well a few skimmers and bits

Pairs:...
1. Simon Belcham / Rich Jones
2. Brian Shanks / Mike Welling
3. Pete Uzzell / Darren North
4. Lee Williams / Steve Wynne

So it was a decent match for 4 or 5 of us, but with the carp in semi-spawn mode and iffy on the feed, those without much wind, which I think was the main factor, struggled in the most part. Also I cant think that many purposely targeted the silvers as it was a pairs match, but in hindsight I think a few more guys would have...

The PSV blog with, I expect, full and proper results etc, will be online soon.

Next up for me is my usual Thursday Sedges evening match, this week on my bogey lake, Tile.
Otherwise I am over at Landsend with the PSV crew next sunday, I just hope it aint mugging city.

Until then, take care.
Lee

MFS Two Dayer, Day 2, Campbell Lake, 17.05.14

Saturday saw me fishing Campbell lake, I was hoping for anywhere between 123 and 127 as I didn't feel the fish would be along the car park end of the lake in the same numbers as on Friday when the 2 end pegs put over 450lb on the scales between them.

At the draw I pulled out peg 116, not the best peg, 115 being a better option as it's a good few metres further out in the lake. Anyways I had to try and catch some fish.

Campbell peg 116.

Opposite me on peg 125 I had venue regular and good all round chap, Fred Roberts.

I set up a pellet wag and a lead rod for around 25m out in front.
I also set up a few pole rigs, one for 6m and meat, one for banded 8mm pellets at 14m.
I also had a shallow rig and a margin rig, but other than 2 tench on the margin rig I wont mention these.
Bait was simple 8mm and 6mm pellets, hemp and 8mm meat.

I started on the waggler, then switched to the lead, while the pole lines settled
I had to wait an hour or so for my 1st fish, in that time Fred had mugged a good few fish and the welsh angler on 118 had began to land most fish he hooked by fishing back to the empty peg of 117, the fish could be seen and heard down that edge. Peg 119 had done ok too.

Peg 115 had to wait 20 minutes more than me for his 1st fish.

I wont go into much detail now about how it went, but I struggled, pulled out of a few fish and got broke a couple times, lost a rig from the elastic connector and generally seemed to be going round in circles and not adding much to my nets, p115 seemed to be struggling more so, and it was a matter of picking fish up on the lead, wag and shorter line. It wasn't until the last hour that the fish arrived when I maybe added 8 carp to my net.

At the weigh in I guessed I had 70lb, peg 115 had tipped back and 118 (Neil Morgan) had bagged up and I said he'd done 200lb+ (I was a little out, he weighed 180lb...plenty of smaller fish).
Fred had weighed 190lb and the angler (Martin Fisher) on 123 had 73lb of silvers,

My silvers and carp combined weighed a 'lowly' 90-odd pounds. I am not sure where I finished, it wasn't last on the lake and Cary had produced a few lower weights too.
The lake was won by Fred and the overall match was won from my peg on Friday, peg 86, with Pete Bailey weighing in 283lb 11oz.

Results:
1: Pete Bailey 283.11 peg 86
2: Roy Worth 199.04 peg 81
3: Fred Roberts 192.00 peg 125
4: Ken Rayner 191.03 peg 94
5: Neil Morgan 181.00 peg 118
6: Mark Poppleton 167.05 peg 112

Silvers

1: Martin Fisher 73.01
2: Dan White 40.00 peg 97

Overall it wasn't the best draw on Campbell, but I enjoyed myself.
It was a great 2 day gathering and the banter was great and I met some really nice guys, but it did show my lack of venue knowledge and my reluctance to mug fish, I should really get myself over there more often.

My next blog will be the PSV match on Trinity Woodlands, which was today (18/05/14).
My next match is next Sunday at Landsend with PSV.

Cheers.
Lee

MFS Two Dayer, Viaduct Fishery, 16th and 17th May 2014 - Day One.

Friday and Saturday of this week so myself, and 30 other Match Fishing Scene members embark on a couple days fishing at the prolific Viaduct Fishery. Half  would fish the 1st day  on Cary the 2nd  on Campbell and vice versa.
With lots of venue regulars fishing it was going to be hard to do well in the most part, as although reasonably local to me, I rarely fish the venue.

The Friday saw me on Cary, I had hoped for some nice skimmer fishing but when I pulled peg 86, flyer on the far River Cary bank. I knew I had to fish for carp. 86 has been in pretty good form recently with it winning matches with weights to nearly 300lb including lumps to over 20lb.
With the sun shining and temps in the low 20 degrees the fish probably had spawning on their mind, if not for the next couple days then defo in the coming week.
The surface of the lake was black with fish, especially around pegs 88 around to 94 area, it looked good for mugging fish, not something I do myself.

Cary Peg 86

Bait wise I had 8mm meat, hemp, 6mm pellet and some 8mm pellets.

I set up a lead rod for banded 8mm pellets, a pellet waggler for pellets.
I also set up the pole to fish 2 meat lines, one at 6m in front and one at 5m down to my left in the edge, but other than one skimmer I never had a bite, so no more on them.

The match started at 11:30 and I chucked out the lead and waited, waited a bit longer and before I knew it I had spent nearly 2 hours watching the chap on peg 88 catching a few fish on his lead set up. plus Roly opposite him land a few mugged fish. Other than that it was only the odd fish caught, but I could just about hear that Chris Fox and Fred Roberts on pegs 74 and 77 were hooking a few fish.

At around 1:30 I had my 1st fish, this came on the lead and was around 13lb, this was followed up by a couple 3lb fish.
Another blank half hour saw me try the waggler, this bought a run of fish to 18lb, I was feeding 6mm pellets to try and get a response from the skimmers and roach, hoping they'd attract the carp.

By now it was about 3pm and I had possibly 50lb in the net, slightly less than Ron on peg 88 and a similar weight to the guy on peg 85.
A look on the lead saw me have a couple more fish before a switch back to the float saw me add odd carp to my nets. This is how I spent the remainder of the match.

I ended up with around 18 carp, but the majority were not the usual Viaduct stamp, with the majority being of 3-5lbers, I guessed I had maybe 125lb, well that's what my clickers showed, plus a few silvers. I had pulled out of maybe 7 fish, some were definitely foul hooked as I bought back a few scales.
It looked like the fish had moved further down the lake with the pegs from 81 down to 74 doing well.
I was sure I had more than pegs 85 (just as he had a decent stamp of carp) and 81, but unsure what Ron on 88 had caught as he had better sized fish. So I was doing ok in my section.

I packed up and waited for Steve and Sarah to come along with the scales and a brief look say that the diagonal lodge lake bank had been tricky with a few 60-80lb nets and one of 110lb. Though Steve M. on p99 had 50lb of silvers (mostly skimmers).
I went and saw peg 88 weigh and saw Ron put just over 98lb on the board, I began to think I had over estimated my catch.
Anyway, my silvers were 4lb and ounces, before my three well spread nets weighed a combined total of 137lb and a few ounces, giving me a total of 142lb 3oz which won me the section.

Further around the lake, peg 81 had 143lb 13lb, Fred on p77 had 199lb 4oz and Chris Fox had 175lb 12oz from his peg 74. So I was 4th on the lake overall. This turned out to be 7th on the day, I think, with Dan White bagging nearly 300lb from peg 110 on Campbell to take the win ahead of Fred and Foxy. Ben Hagg had 169lb from p132 opposite the winner.

Results:
1: Dan White 291.11. Peg 110
2: Fred Roberts 199.04 peg 77
3: Chris Fox 175.12 peg 74
4: Ben Hagg 169.06 peg 132
5: S. White 143.13 peg 80
6: Nick Merry 143.12 peg 116

Silvers

1: Steve M 50.07 peg 99
2: Alex Murray 45.12 peg 123



So it was a decent day and although I struggled for around half of the match, I was pleased with my weight and the section win. Maybe I should  have tried mugging at 16m with a long line.....nah. Maybe I should have fished for silvers in the 1st hour or so? All hindsight.







So day 2 would see me on Campbell, I was hoping for anywhere between peg 123 and 127.

Clevedon Club's Blind Pairs match, Shiplate Farm, Hawthorn & Westpools, 11-05-14

Today saw 16 of us fishing a blind pairs match at the popular Shiplate Farm fishery near Weston-Super-Mare. We had the 2 canal style ponds at out disposal, 8 anglers on each.

I arrived in plenty of time, but the weather was awful with heavy rains and strong winds from a sort of westerly direction, but the layout of the complex means the wind does swirl and rarely are anglers unaffected by the conditions. The weather was due to improve after lunch, which thankfully it did.

A bit of chit chat was had and the draw was done (for the 2nd time as Adie thought we had 15....and had pegged for such). I drew Westpool peg 11, a long walk around to the far side of the lakes. I also ended up with Adie Baker as my pairs partner.
I made my way over to the lake, luckily the rain had eased and I arrived at the peg. I had James Gunther on peg 9 to my right and Lance Tuncker on peg 13, Jon Page was up on end peg 15.
Now I have never fished these canal lakes at Shiplate, but I have framed on all my Main Lake outings, so I was hoping the complex would be kind again.

As it turned out, peg 11 on Westpool is the widest of the pegs, I had a full 16m to the far side and less in the way of vegetation than those either side of me. I have never noticed that my peg has produced any catches of note by the looks of the Fishery's Facebook page.
There were a few small fish topping and the odd carp too.

Shiplate, Westpool peg 11.



I set up 4 rigs for the match:
The 1st was a dibber style NG float on 0.16>0.14>B911 with a size 16 and a band, this was for up towards the opposite bank. 6mm pellet in the band over loose fed 4's and 6's.
The 2nd was an NG Power Pencil in 0.3g on 0.16>0.12>B911 with a band on a size 16, this would be fished at 9m in the 10 o'clock direction. Bait would be banded 6mm pellet over wet 4's.
The 3rd was to be fished at 9m in the 1 o'clock direction and was an NG Decker in 0.6g. Line was 0.16>0.14 and a B911f1 hook in a size 16. Bait would be 6mm meat over some hemp.
Lastly I assembled a rig for fishing to my left amongst the surface crap of twigs, blossom and loose grass. the was on the obligatory carp set-up I use. An 0.4g NG Margin float coupled with 0.20>0.18>B911 size 14 for meat over hemp.
The only other baits I had, but remained unused were 1/4pt of dead reds and some worms.

The all in was called at 10:15 and we would fish to 4pm.
I deposited 1/2 a big cup of meat and hemp on the 9m line, 1/4 of a cup of wet 4's went in at 9m on that particular line. A few pieces of meat were scattered over where my topkit line could come into play.
I started across on a banded 6mm pellet and toss-potted some 4's over the top, it was bloody hard work holding the pole in the blustery conditions, and half an hour passed before my 1st fish, a 2lb carp was landed from the long line. James had landed some silvers and a decent carp from his long line, Lance had landed a gudgeon.......

Another half an hour passed before my 2nd fish, though I did foul hook a couple which soon came off, Lance, Jonny and James were suffering from foulers too. I landed my 2nd fish in the form of a carp around 1.5lb.
A handful of chublets and a roach followed in the 2nd hour and it was definitely hard fishing, with only James catching a few silvers.

The 3rd hour came and I looked over the 9m pellet swim, this gave me another lost foul hooked fish, and a missed bite/liner. That was my total amount of activity on that line.
A look over the 9m meat/hemp line gave me a carp right away, this one went around 2.5lb, a roach followed before a run of lost fish, mostly foul hooked I believe saw me step up the hook and hooklength to 0.14>B911 size 16. I was getting indications but it was still hard going.
However, from what I could tell I was ahead of  Lance and Pagey, but probably just behind James.
Another look across on the 16m line saw me net a 3lb carp, they were over there, but the ducklings were a pain as each time I fed they'd dive on the pellet. So I pretty much gave that line up as I approached 2pm, it was too much hard work in the wind and I made the decision to stick to the 9m meat line and begin to bait the topkit line, initially I potted half a cup of hemp and meat mix, just to get some grub down. I would feed by hand after that, I do believe that throwing bait in on short lines is more successful than potting or toss-potting.

Another look on the 9m meat line, at 2pm, saw me net a 1lb skimmer and another 3lb carp.
At this point I had maybe 15 to 17lb in the net with Lance now on similar as was Jonny down on P15. James was maybe a carp or 2 behind, but had more silvers than anyone else, so was difficult to say how he was doing.

At 2:20 I decided to take a look on my topkit line, getting the bait through the surface crap wasn't easy as it was moving left to right, then right to left, the back to me and never stayed still.
However I had a bite right away and a 2lber was netted, a missed bite followed  before a 3lb carp was landed. A quiet 10 minutes saw me try the 9m lines and across again, but I only had a chub of 3oz.

With an hour and 15 minutes to go I had upped the feed rate on the topkit line, this worked as I was getting bites most drops and I fished the match out on this line, landing maybe another 10 carp in this time, most fish being 2.5lb or so.
Lance had also landed a couple from his short line and James had switched to a line halfway across and was picking up a few fish.

As the all out sounded I guessed I had around 45lb of fish and was sure I had more than those I could see, maybe Mark Walsh on peg 5 who had landed a few fish, probably on paste..!!!
Lance too had a late run of fish, but not as regularly as me. So it seemed I had kept my end of the pairs up, I just needed to see what Adie had over on Hawthorn.
I began packing away and James came down to see what I had, I told him about 19 carp, he replied that he'd only seen me land 3 from close in, lol.

The scales arrived at me after Pagey on peg 15 put 26lb 10oz on the board and Lance went and put 32lb 4oz on the scales.
My silvers went a measly 2lb 14oz and my carp amassed 56lb 6oz for 59lb 4oz total, which I was surprised with really.
James' weighed 33lb 14oz which included 8lb+ of silvers.
My weight was the best on the lake by over 15lb. 2nd was James Gunther on peg 9.

I finished packing up and made the long walk back to the car park to see how Adie done.
It turned out that he'd come 2nd in section, cool I though, but it turned out that James Gunther had Andy Hembrow as his partner and he'd won that lake with 80lb, so both Me & Adie along with the James/Andy duo had 3 points, but they beat us by around 8lb on weight. If only Lance or Walshy had landed one of the fish they lost.......haha.
Either way up I pocked some more holiday fund money and had a great days fishing

Weigh Sheets



So all in all it was a nice days fishing and my decent run a Shiplate continues.
It was a slow start for most but the back end of the match was by far the most productive.

Overall Results:
1st Andy Hembrow - Hawthorns peg 7 with 80lb exactly
2nd Lee Williams - Westpool peg 11 with 59lb 4oz
3rd Adie Baker - Hawthorns peg 9, 45lb 14oz
4th Paul Faires - Hawthorns peg 15, 43lb 12oz

Top Silvers was James Gunther with 8lb 6oz

PAIRS RESULT:
1st, 3 points, Andy Hembrow and James Gunther, 113lb 14oz.
2nd, 3 points, Lee Williams and Adie Baker, 105lb 2oz.


Next up for me is the usual evening match at Sedges, maybe I'll get my own back from coming 2md last week by a single ounce.
Then I am on Viaduct for Friday and Saturday, a day on each Campbell and Cary, which could be tricky as the UK Champs is on Thursday.
Next Sunday sees me on Trinity Woodlands with PSV and a knock-out against Lee Waller.

Until next time, have fun.

Lee

Clevedon Match, Avalon Fisheries, 04-05-14

Today saw me at Avalon fisheries for a Clevedon FWAC match on the match lake, it was the 1st time in ages that the club had booked a match there.

A warm and bright day was forecast with southerly/south easterly wind predicted, thus meaning that the ripple and wind would be pushing up the lake towards pegs 18-23.

I arrived in good time and managed a bit of a chat with a good few of the guys, we also had a new joiner in the shape of Mike West, no doubt fishing with the lake likely to give him a chance to hone his paste skills....
I must say I wanted a peg up the far end (we had the left bank pegs 1 to 23), so 18 to 23 would be great, with the latter being the one I said would win with 115lb....I was a little wrong on that.
But also the usual peg 5 would be a good draw and maybe the now tidied peg 7.

With 16 of us fishing the pegging was left to Vic Bush to sort. So after a bit more banter it was on with the draw, somehow I got to pick the first number......peg one!! A good peg unless the wind is pushing up the lake, especially a new wind like we had today. But I was optimistic of a few fish.

Next to me on peg 3 was Dave Stephenson and then John Wolstencroft was on the flyer that is peg 5.
Further along was Darren Vowles on p6, p7 was Simon Ryall. Ivan Currie had p9.
The far end pegs 19 to 23 consisted of  Chris Parr, Adie Baker, Scott Smallwood, Mike West and lastly Andy Hembrow on peg 23.

Peg 1, Avalon Match Lake

I had come armed with worm and caster for the skimmers and a decent amount of 8mm pellets in the likelihood that I would be using the pellet waggler.
Alas having a calm peg which didn't look inspiring, though there were a few carp jumping beyond casting range. My bait tray consisted of a few 6mm pellets to feed with the meat and a few 8mm pellets (for the band). A couple of tins of 6mm meat and a handful of worms as a change hookbait. Silvers were not even on my agenda now. Though a little groundbait was mixed for the left hand margin.

I set up a lead rod for banded 8mm pellet to be fished next to a straw bale at around 22m along the end bank.
2 rigs for meat were made up, the 1st was for 14m just off the end bank, this was a NG Margin float in 0.2g this was rigged on 0.22>0.20>14 B911 hook. The fish do fight well here.
The 2nd rig was for topkit plus 3 sections fished slightly left in front of me, a 0.4g NG Diamond was used with 0.20>0.18> 14 B911. This rig would also be used at 14m down in front of peg 2's platform.
I did set up a shallow pellet rig, but other than 10 minutes use, it never got used.

I was ready to fish well before the 10am start, so I went and had a chat with Dave on the next peg.
The all out was called and 1/2 a cup of meat/6mm mix was potted in on the edge line and the same went on the topkit+3 area.
I started on the bomb, but after 45 minutes of no fish and boredom I came in on the short line and had a carp immediately, a 6lb fish was a nice start. Sadly no more followed, just a palm sized skimmer.

Elsewhere Dave had landed a couple and lost 2. John W. had lost one and landed a couple and Darren had landed 4 or 5. I would guess that the far end pegs would have been productive.
Going into the 2nd hour and I was still struggling for bites from carp, there was plenty of small silvers kicking around, which in hindsight I should have fished for. But I carried on regardless.
By the 3rd hour I was up to 3 palm sized skimmers, a carp of 1lb and the 6lber.
The 3rd hour was just as bad as the second, though I did snare another 6lber, this came on the bomb rod while I ate a packet of crisps. A 2lb skimmer was also netted during this hour.

By now word had come down that Andy, Mike and Adie were catching well, especially Andy on peg 23. John and Darren had been doing ok as had Chris Parr on peg 19.
Into the 4th hour and I had seen John catch a fish shallow on the pole, so I began to feed a few pellets at 14m in front, but this was given up as a bad job, all I could see was the odd cruiser, none seemed interested in feeding.
As I approached the 5th hour I gave the swim by peg 2 a go, this bought me a result in the form of a 4lb carp, caught on double dendra. A small skimmer from this line soon after made me re-feed that spot.
A look on the short line gave me 3 small skimmers so a look along the end bank was in order. A bite 1st put was great, this turned out to be a hyper active 1lb stockie, a 2nd, 3rd and 4th soon followed before they disappeared.
Dave on peg 3 had lost a couple and landed a couple more and we looked like we had similar weights.
The last hour was soon upon us and I found it rather quiet, landing a single 4lb carp from the area in front of peg 2, I also lost one which snapped my hooklength on the staging of the peg. I also had a couple baby skimmers to finish the match off.
I think I ended with 4 decent sized carp and a handful of little 1lb stockies.

As I began to pack up Vic came past as he was going to start the weigh from peg 23, which I had been informed looked like had won, with Mike West and Adie Baker pushing him close.
A quick chat with the guys on the pegs just up from me confirmed that nobody had much in the way of silvers as they'd not been fished for down this end.
John said he had around 50lb, as had Ivan and Darren. Me and Dave guessed at 25lb each.

The scales were soon at me, though I had put everything in the car except my nets.
The weigh sheet told me the story that the far end pegs had produced best with Andy Henmbrow winning, followed by Mike West and Adie Baker. John Wolstencroft on peg 5 had taken 4th.
The silvers weights were 19lb and 16lb from Dave Wride and Paul Purchase on pegs 11 and 17 respectively.

My silvers weighed 5lb or so and my carp amassed 36lb. So I ended up with 41lb and a few ounces for mid-way. Though not too bad considering the seeming lack of feeding fish at the car-park end of the lake (my swim).

Results:
1st Andy Hembrow on peg 23, 134lb 4oz
2nd Mike West on peg 22, 102lb
3rd Adie Baker on peg 20, 84lb 13oz
4th John Wolstencroft on peg 5, 65lb 11oz

Silvers:
Dave Wride had 19lb 3oz from peg 11.

Weigh Sheet

 



So it was a decent match, even if I was at the wrong end of the lake, and I guess, in hindsight, I could have fished for the skimmers.

Tomorrow I am taking my kids (plus others') fishing, probably over Sedges on the Canal lake.
Next weekend I have Clevedon's blind pairs match on the 2 canal lakes at Shiplate, I have never fished these lakes so it could be interesting.

Until next time, Take Care.

Lee