Avalon, PSV Match, 29/06/14

Sunday saw me, along with 10 others, facing up to fish on Avalon's match lake, a lake with plenty of hard fighting carp to well into double figures. Plus there are plenty enough in the silvers department to occupy you if that is your bag.

I arrived at the lake well before anyone else and the weather wasn't great, a few rumbles of thunder and some heavy rain was falling on my way over, this seemed to follow me and the waterproofs were donned  on arrival. The weather was due to warm up and become brighter as the day progressed. Winds were generally light and variable in direction.

As everyone else arrived we had a bit of banter, again at Adam Caswell's expense, bless him. The talk soon turned to fishing, and the hot pegs were labelled, these were pegs 5 and 20, decent pegs that are worth a few all year, and as it turned out they were the end pegs, bonus for those on them!!
I fancied fishing for silvers if I didn't draw either of these 2 as it would make a nice change for a while.

Anyway, back to the draw and I waited for most guys to take theirs, I drew peg 7, an ok peg that was at the end of the 1st island. Top carp bagger Brian Shanks had peg 5 (fish to the boards perhaps?), Lionel Legge was up on peg 20 (fish to the gap/cut through perhaps?). For company I had Alan Healey on peg 9 and Steve Burgess on peg 6.

Avalon peg 7

So I had decided to try and fish for the silvers and my initial thoughts were to fish 6mm soft pellet over some groundbait, plus set up a 3m whip for the rudd/roach/perch shallow on maggot (I didn't bring worm/caster...numpty). So groundbait was mixed and pellets pumped.
I went into my rod bag to grab a whip and saw they were not there...ooopps. So a topkit with 14 elastic was the substitute, at least I may have a chance with a bonus carp which may happen along.
I only set up one rig for the pole to target silvers, this was a NG Power pencil in 0.4g, 0.14 line to a 0.10 hooklength and a 16 B911 F1 hook.
The 'whip' rig was a NG dibber type float in 0.2g size tied to 0.16 to 0.12 to B911 F1 size 18.

For the carp I set a pellet wag with 0.20 hooklength, size 16 B911x hook and a band on the hair to take 8mm pellet, this would be fished off the end of the island where there seemed to be a few fish mulling around, but I couldn't get too close as the reeds had grown up and out off the island, plus they pull hard on that lake.
A shallow pellet rig for over my silvers line at 13m and a margin rig for just off the empty peg of rarely fished peg 8, sadly both of these rigs only gave me 2 small silvers so no more on them.
A paste rig was assembled, but other than 1 look, remained unused. But paste fishing is something I don't do much, if any. I do need to practice.

The 10:08am all-in was called and I cupped in several small balls of groundbait at 13m in front. Some 8mm pellets fired out on the wag line and a few maggots out for the 'whip' line.
I started on the waggler and despite a few fish being present they were not really having it properly. They were easily visible in decent numbers in Steve's peg next door and further along in Brian's peg they were present.
I stayed on the pellet wag for about 40 minutes or more while the groundbait line settled, this period gave me 1 single 3lb carp and a couple small chub of 4-6oz each. I think Brian had a couple and Steve one too. I couldn't  see much else.

I went over the groundbait line as we approach hour number 2 and despite plenty of bubbles and fizzing I couldn't get a bite other than from rudd taking the bait on the drop. But I stuck at it and managed to put a 3oz skimmer in the net. So I left that line again, switching to the shallow 'whip' rig, this gave me a couple pounds of silvers to 5 or 6oz, a mixture of rudd, perch and roach. Most of which were small 2 to the ounce fish, but I was happy enough and busy.
Elsewhere I couldn't see much being caught, so I was soon back out on the pellet waggler, but this remained a struggle, I did lose a fish which went straight into the reeds, but I had not lost as many as Steve or Brian, they'd lost a few each and some floats too.

The 3rd hour was soon in progress and Adam Caswell came down to tell anyone or everyone rather, that he had 11 carp and was flying (p19), now most peeps leave their pegs for a wander when it is quiet, not Adam, he goes for a walk when doing well....checking out the opposition methinks, lol. News also drifted down that a few guys were properly struggling and one or 2 only had a couple little silvers each. But Will Dearlove and Lionel Legge had been catching well on pegs 17 and 20 respectively.
This hour gave me a few more silvers in the form of skimmers of 3 to 4ozs and some roach and another chub. I had by now ditched the soft pellet as I was getting bitted out, so a small banded hooklength was attached for 6mm pellets. This was better for me as I got past the baby fish.
I had one more carp on the pellet wag, a fish of 4lb perhaps.
Steve Burgess had landed a crucian on the pellet wag, but was fishing the lead as he'd lost a few more fish/hooklengths/floats....Brian Shanks has set up the pole as he too was on tackle loss restrictions!!

The 4th hour saw me land a couple carp, but I went through a spell of losing 4 fish to the reeds and one to the platform breaking the hooklengths. Something which I don't normally suffer, but the reeds were fresher green ones, which is when they tend to be at the most destructive. The fish too seemed rather hyper, maybe the recent rains had increased the dissolved oxygen, which definitely helps the fights of fish.
At this point myself, Steve and Brian were neck and neck with perhaps 4 carp each. I had maybe 5lb of silvers in my net I thought. I had also noted that Brian had a carp shallow on the pole, so I upped the feed on my long pole line, which as it turned out didn't make a difference as I never had a shallow carp on the pole.

Into the 5th hour and I had been told that Lionel and Will were battling for 1st and second as far as we could tell, but not much else had been caught. Adam was probably comfortably in third as he'd had 14 or so carp on his usual paste. Brian had switched to fishing on the bottom and landed a carp and a couple skimmer, he'd lost a couple foul hooked fish too.
I spent this hour picking up occasional carp on the pellet wag along with the odd silver fish. I had also foul hooked a carp on the long silvers rig, so I knew they were about, but as soon as tried for them with a specific rig I never had a bite, typical. I also managed to chuck my scissors into the grass/brambles that overhung the margin, they fell into the lake.

The last hour soon came and went without much action, I did manage to foul hook and lose another carp off the silvers line. Steve landed and couple more carp in quick succession and Brian landed at least one on the pole. Me, well I put another couple small 2lb carp in the net.
The all out was called just after I put a 3lb fish into the net, leaving me on about 10 carp, Steve had a similar amount and Brian was on maybe 7 but looked a bit larger than mine.
Alan on peg 9 landed 4 or 5, but one jumped out of his net, much to my amusement. Mr Burgess's fish tried their best to do an escape act, but they obviously were not as fit as Mr Healey's so were content with scaring Steve with their attempts.

I was slow in packing up and it wasn't long before the scales were a couple pegs away, Will had landed 86lb or so and was around 10lb short of Lionel's weight. Adams 17 carp went around 45lb and he had 10lb of accidental silvers.
I reckoned I had 35lb of carp and maybe 6lb of silvers, this was a little out and my silvers weighed 7lb dead and the carp went 46lb 8oz for a combined total of  53lb 8oz.
Steve weighed next and had 40lb or so and then Brian I think had a little less. So I had a quid off Steve, which he paid me via Alan Healey who had 22lb from peg 9.

As it turned out my weight was good for 4th on the day, giving me 3rd in the money by default as Adam's 10lb 8oz of silvers gave him that money, which was a pleasant surprise.

Results:
1. Lionel Legge (20) 95-5
2. Will Dearlove (17) 87-0
3. Adam Caswell (19) 56-4
4. Lee Williams (7) 53-8

Silvers: Adam Caswell 10-8

So all in all an ok match, but a tricky day for most, the silvers really didn't want to get their heads down, maybe it was too warm and sunny. The carp, although loads were about and swirling at the feed (especially in Steve's peg), they knew what they were doing, maybe in hindsight a more traditional waggler with corn, meat or caster could have worked, I did try 6mm pellets but this never made a different, maggots gave me bits. So needed to be selective.

Next up for me is the Pawlett Club's Silvers Winners Final at Nether Stowey Lakes.
Now I have never seen these, let alone fished them, so if anyone has any info then it'd be much appreciated.

Until next time, take care.
Lee

Acorn Paddock, CFWAC Saturday Knock-Up, 28/6/14

At 8am on Saturday I had to make a choice, shopping with the family or fish a match somewhere.
Now I wasn't super keen on either to be honest, but the fishing won. I decided to pick Clevedon's Saturday open on Acorn Fishery's Paddock lake.

I arrived for the 8:45 draw with 15 mins to spare and paid Rob my money, we had 9 fishing, which does seem around the norm for these matches, maybe they'll pick up with the weights going un the right direction. But Saturdays are a work day for most, so we shall have to see.
We had a couple guys who hadn't fished here before fishing along with Gabrial Skarba, fellow blogger Dom Sullivan, Lee Waller and a couple others.

Well the draw was made and I picked 26, wrong end of the lake, I had Dom on peg 24 and Lee Waller over on p28. No silvers payout, so it'd be carp required, which would be a tall test against the bridge pegs and the higher numbers. Now I have fished this lake 4 times now, drawn 26 three times and 27 once....perhaps one day I will land on fish!!

Acorn Paddock peg 26

I set up 4 rigs, one for my left hand margin, one for 7m in front where I had 4 or 5ft of water, a rig for tight up against the far bank in the 1pm direction. Lastly I had a shallow rig set around 12" deep for anywhere I fancied.
The all in sounded and I cupped some went 4's at 7m with the intention of fishing 6mm expander over the top, some corn and pellet went in at a couple spots along my left hand margin, then some 6's and 4's went tight over.

I began over and it took me 20 minutes to get a small carp of 1lb, I spent the next hour trying to pick up the odd fish, which I did, but it was slow. After 90 mins I had 4 small carp in the net.
Dom on p24 had a few fish and Brian Hadley on bridge peg 22 had done well up to this point.

The next hour for me was spent picking the odd small carp up from tight over, but by now my 7m line had a decent level of fizz. I was way behind Dom, Brian and the guy I could see on p32. He'd been bagging all match at this point.
A look over the 7m line with 6mm expander on the hook, the float went under right away and a skimmer was netted, another soon followed before a carp turned up. It then died, so a look down the edge at 7m gave me a 4lb carp immediately. Annoyingly the ducks figured out where my bait was and they kept turning up to trash that peg, but despite me trying a few times my edge never gave me another fish.

It was soon the last hour and I reckoned on 20lb being in my nets plus a couple pounds of silvers. Dom must have been approaching the 100lb mark and Brian looked like he'd passed it comfortably.
I spent the last hour fishing at 7m, picking up the odd skimmer and carp, plus I managed 2 mugged fish of 3lb each.

The all out sounded and I began to pack away. Lee Waller had left an hour previous having not had much, except a bad day, worse than mine!!
I reckoned that the guy over on p32 and Brian by the bridge p22 would win, but I couldn't see the upper 30's pegs. Dom was going to be close too.

I followed the scales that saw venue regular, Gabrial Skarba, put a net restricted 110lb 14oz on the scales, a 30lb net followed and then we came to one of the 'newbies' on peg 36, Chris Cameron, put 130lb 6oz on the board to take the lead. We then had a 50lb weight followed by a 131lb 12oz weight from Lee Pesticcio.
The scales then made their way to me, obviously missing out Lee Waller's now empty peg 28.
I was next to weigh, my silvers went 10lb (poss best on the day?) and carp 33lb or so, my total was just over 43lb.

Dominic's nets went 96lb 6oz, a good weight from that peg for sure. Last up was Brian Hadley who pushed himself into 3rd, one off the money, with a decent weight of 128lb 8oz. He was cock on with his clickers(if he used them) as his 1st net was 68lb and his 2nd was bang on the 70lb limit. Plus he had 8oz of silvers.

Results
1st, Lee Pesticciom, p32, 131lb 12oz
2nd, Chris Cameron, p36, 130lb 6oz
3rd, Brian Hadley, p22, 128lb 8oz

So it was an ok match, but if I go again, I do plan on not drawing anything between 24 and 30.....
But it is a venue that I reckon I could do ok on if I get the chance to fish it more.

Until next time, Take Care.

Lee

Clevedon FWAC match, Sedges Tile Lake, 22-06-14

Today was a late change of venue for me as PSV's match at Horsehorse lake at Plantation was cancelled last night. A late booking in with Adie saw me added to 13 other for the match.

Arriving early enough at the venue saw me having a cuppa thanks to the lovely Denise. The lakes looked sock on, but a lot of fish were mooching on the surface with the little wind we had pushing down to the car park end, slightly into peg 40. So pegs 40, 39 and 37 were fancied along with the usual fliers of 21 and 31.

Once everyone was present I wrote out the peg tickets and the draw was made, we were paying top 3 plus a silvers pot.
I was last to draw and with 2 tickets left in the hat, I let Jonny Page take his choice of left or right hand, his choice gave him peg 32 (not 34 as sheet shows) and me on 36.

A lot of the guys hadn't fished the venue before, so I pointed them in the direction of the pegs and offered what little I know about the pegs when asked. Before making my way to my peg.

Sedges Tile Peg 36



I had Andy Hembrow to my left on p37 and Simon Ryall on p35 to my right, Adie Baker was opposite me on p24.
The 2 main fliers were taken by Kev Perry(p21) and Lewis Walker(p40).

I set up loads today, sort of, 2 pellet wags set at 12" and 3ft depths(unused), a method feeder(unused), a rig for silvers at 6m(unused bar 2 quick looks), a margin rig (one baby skimmer only on 1 look), a depth pellet rig for 14m(unused) and 2 shallow rigs for 14m.
I had 8mm and 6mm pellets, some meat and corn for the edges/silvers and some micros for the method.

Plenty of time to set up though and the temperature was heating up nicely, my feet were gonna hurt as I wore my sandals again.....oooppps.!!

On the all-in I started on the pellet wag and had 3 small carp in the net in the first 5 minutes while peeps were still potting in bait. All 3 fish were only 1-2lb in size, but a start none the less.
Simon soon had a couple on the method before that died for him, Andy too had a couple fish on the wag.

An hour in to the match and I had around 30lb in the net and was doing well, but all my fish at this point were all in the 2lb class....which was frustrating as Andy had a couple better fish.
Into the 2nd hour and it quietened down somewhat and I came onto the shallow pole line where I had been feeding pellets and had seen the odd fish swirl or slurp on the surface.
The next couple of hours was spent on this method, netting the odd fish including a couple 5lbers, which turned out to be my largest 2 of the day.....gggrrr

By the time we got to 3pm I reckoned on having 45lb in the net, miles behind Andy who was putting plenty in his nets on 6mm pellets shallow. Word came along that Lewis and Kev had bagged up too, plus I could see Chris Fox and Paul Nichols landing a few decent fish on pegs 29 and 28 respectively.,

The last hour or so saw me land a few more fish on the pellet wag and shallow pole, but again they all were of the 2lb stamp, a few better fish would have been nice. I thought I had perhaps 65lbs.
The all out sounded and I knew I hadn't done enough, I guessed Andy had done 100lb+ while Lewis said he had 2 carp nets in. But everyone was convinced Kev had won with 180lb+.

I ended up with 23 carp to weigh in and 3 baby skimmers which I chucked back.
I packed my kit away and made my way round to start the weighing in...On my way round, Lewis commented how he didn't feed initially and caught a good few fish just by mugging and slapping, as I had told him, but once he started to feed bites came more frequent.

Anyways, first to weigh was Kev Perry, who'd fished the pellet wag to the end bank (again...I shouldn't have told him to try that.......lol). He underestimated his nets but still put 157lb 12oz.
John W. put a good 77lb+ on the board from p22. Adie then put 17lb 10oz of silvers on the board.
As we made our way round the lake, we saw mark Bromsgrove have 15lb of skimmers. Chris Fox and Paul Nichols put 77lb+ and 68lb+  respectively on the scales.
Corner peg 31 gave Darren 'Nuddy' Vowles 45lb 12oz after a late flurry of fish.
We were soon at my peg and my nets totalled 69lb 2oz (I chucked my silvers back...so prob had 70lb or so).

Andy Hembrow weighed next, he actually went over the 100lb limit, so this time we restricted that net to 100lb, but he also weighed a 12.5lb carp earlier, which I told him not to put in his keepnet, but he did (naughty), which would have meant his net would have been under the limit. He amassed 12lb of silvers, which boosted him to 118lb 8oz.
Nick Harvey didn't weigh in from p39, he had 7 carp but watched Lewis on peg 40 bag up for most of the day, Lewis's nets gave him a total of 82lb 13oz.

Results were:
1st Kev Perry, 157lb 12oz from p21
2nd Andy Hembrow, 118lb 8oz, p37
3rd Lewis Walker, 82lb 13oz, p40

Silvers, Adie Baker, 17lb 10oz, p24

So overall a nice match, really disappointing that I didn't connect with a few more 5lb+ fish, Kev Perry didn't have many 5lb+ fish either, but everyone else had a good few 5-10lber. Half a dozen of these may have scraped me 3rd, but none the less I enjoyed it.

Weigh Sheets...



Next up for me is a match down at Avalon with the PSV crew.

Until next time, take care.
Lee

MMT Qualifier, Viaduct, 21/6/14.

Two reports today, not much to write about for either really, so here goes....

On Saturday I. along with 100+ other anglers, hoped for a decent draw and a decent weight from one of the lakes at Viaduct, personally I fancied a peg on Spring or Lodge as Cary and Campbell had been patchy recently, though good weights are always on the cards with those 2 lakes.

I arrived in plenty of time and had a chat to a few guys and looked at the pegs on Spring and Middle.
A lot of fish were on the surface pretty much anywhere on the lake, but really an island chuck on Spring could be good, so pegs 2,3,4,5, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 19, 25, 26 will have a chance, but it was pegs 8 and 22 that grabbed my attention with both being corners and loads of room.
Middle looked ok, but wasn't my preferred option. Lodge, well any corner will do but 64 and 73 would work for me.

Anyways a bit more chatter flowed before the draw which was 9am (ish), there were plenty of locals fishing today and it'd be good if one or 2 did well. Roy Worth has been on form recently, mostly on the lead, and Scott Russell too has been winkling a few out and doing well. Then we had the likes of Freddy Roberts, Dave Romain, Ben Hagg, Dan White, Andy Power, Alex Murray and may others who know the lakes well.
The draw was made and I was 3rd to grab a ticket, peg 9 on Spring, not the worst, but 1 peg short and 1 peg too far as 8 and 10 were better (corner/space for 8 and island for 10).

Spring peg 9, Viaduct.

I  made my way to the peg and began to sort my kit, fresh rigs made as plenty of set-up time.
For company I had Dave Romaine on 8, he does draw well, he was chuffed with his peg.
On peg 10 I had a nice chap who's name I never got, then Alex Murray was on peg 11.

I set up a waggler and lead to fish 2/3rds of the way across to the island (my peg boundary), a long shallow rig for stalking, a shorter rig for slapping/shallow at 14m, a rig for down to my left margin and one for banded pellet to fish at 6m and over the 14m shallow line.
Bait was simple 8mm and 6mm pellet, 8mm meat and some hemp.

At the all in  I potted a few bits of bait into the varying areas before beginning on the stalking rig, but the fish were wary and slightly out of range, so after 10 mins I switched to the waggler set around 12" deep with banded 8mm pellet on the hook. After 10 mins of this I hooked a fish which went a bit mad and was netted after a 5 minute battle, it looked rather large and if it was not spawned out then it'd have been 17lb or so, but was around 12 or 13lb.

A blank period followed, but Dave on p8 had landed a few as had the guy over on peg 25 or 26.
A look on the pole shallow at 14m saw me land a carp of similar size to my 1st fish.

So 2 hours in I had a couple carp which went 22lb. And that was my match done. I did land a handful of skimmers upto 4oz but that was it....
The lack of island chuck was the main factor, which is life, but pegs 3, 4 and 5 never really bothered with the island chuck and they struggled for fish too.
Alex Murray had double figures of silvers on paste, including a decent 3lb eel hooked in the wrong end... to go with a flurry of late carp caught on the wag/lead close to the island.
The chap on peg 12 landed a good few carp and the angler on p10 landed a couple of late carp to boost his weight to 34lb.
Dave Romaine on peg 8 managed 60-odd pounds to win his section.

It was a nice day though and rather warm, my feet bore the brunt of the sun's rays....

Sandals weather!!
 

The match ended up being won off Campbell peg 135 by Simon Keifer, Scotty Russell was 2nd from Lodge 73 and Roy Worth was third from 122, Dan White was 5th, so a good local showing. Ben Hagg, Dave Romaine, Fred Roberts all won their sections, maybe Alex Murray too.....well done all.

 

 

Next up for me was a match at Sedges Tile lake with Clevedon FWAC after PSV's match at Plantation Horseshoe lake was cancelled.

 

Take Care

Lee

PSV Match, Viaduct Campbell, 15/06/14

Sunday saw 15 of us fishing the usually prolific Campbell lake at Viaduct fishery, with plenty of fish to go at, plus a decent amount of space some good weights were expected!!
These were put to the sword as the fish were well into spawning mode, and had been for a few days, well for around a month really, as they'd tried a few weeks ago with no success.

Anyways, the payouts on the day would be 2 sections with 2 in each getting envelopes, no silvers pot.....which is what I had planned on doing!! The sections were simply ends of lake pegs and middle of lake pegs as the ends had been a lot better recently than the middle pegs.

I arrived 10 mins before the draw and gave Will the money as Steve Burgess was staying at home trying to encourage more fathers day gifts from the unsuspecting....I doubt it worked. He was abducted by aliens though over the weekend, but these visitors from far away had to test him but all the responses they got were words like Sausage, Chorizo and Alcohol......a welcoming planet we are no doubt!!

Back to the match, I had decided on pegs 123 or 125 for some silvers, but as we had pots only for carp, 110, 111, 118 and 119 were preferred. I managed 112, a peg I had fished before.
I had Keith Ray on 111 to my left, Mark Radford opposite on 129. To my right I had Brian Shanks on peg 115 and 114 was Ron Hardiman. Young Ryan Radford was on peg 110.

Peg 112, Viaduct Campbell.

For bait I had 8mm meat, paste, 8mm and 6mm pellets and some hemp.
Rigs were a shallow pellet rig for 14m in front, a rig for down to my left and a rig for paste/meat to be fished at 6m and 14m.

At the all in I started shallow and it took me 20 minutes for a bite, a fish of around 14lb was foul hooked in the belly and fell off before netting....a few more hooked and lost foul hooked fish followed over the first 2 hours, netting zero. It was tough for a lot of us, but Mark Radford was doing quite well on the paste and looked miles ahead. But that was all I could see except the odd fish being netted. Plus we had the amusing Adam Caswell (p128) getting himself in his usual ways of playing fish for an age before losing them.....at one point during the day he called Mark along to hold his pole so he could venture onto the end of the spit to un-connect his rig, which was dumped unceremoniously by a carp....he really does brighten everyone's day.

Back to the fishing, well there isn't much to write about, I had my 1st fish after 2 hours on the shallow rig, then over the next 4 hours I managed to land another 7 carp (3 shallow, 1 mugged, 2 from the edge and 1 at 6m on meat). I did catch a bream and a tench both between 3 and 4lb each and a couple other silvers. I really couldn't get much happening. So it seemed could most of the others.
Ray on peg 111 was getting a run of hooked fish, he was losing a few foulers too on meat or corn, but he was doing ok. Mark had continued catching ok through the match. Adam had slowed somewhat from his margin and had resorted to fishing short in front.
Brian and  Ron  were also bagging the odd fish, but it wasn't great. Ryan was also getting through rigs and hooklengths on peg 110, but by the end of the match he had around 11 carp, mostly the smaller commons that tend to hug the bramble pegs on the lake.

By the time the all out sounded it was clear that I wasn't going to pick up any money and I guessed my weigh of carp to be around 35lb plus my silvers.
I thought Ray had 80lb+ and Ryan the same, but he insisted he had maybe 50lb.

I packed my kit away and waited for the scales, which weren't too long arriving, Steve and the fishery really are efficient.
By the time they got to me I could see from a quick glance at the sheet that Mark Radford had about 85lb, Chris Szakacs had a few fish shallow(I think) for 61lb. There was a 128lb net, which later was adjudged not to count as it was mostly had on a running method feeder with 12" hooklength (method is banned). A 106lb weight and Shanksy had 77lb.
My nets combined weighed 51lb 9oz . But wasn't last, it was ok in the scheme of things.
Keith weighed 82lb and Ryan's weight was similar to mine.

FULL RESULT (thanks Chris)

A SECTION

1ST   RON HARDIMAN       106LB 0OZ     PEG 114
2ND  MARK RADFORD        84LB  2OZ             129
3RD  KEITH RAY                   82LB  5OZ             111
4TH  COLIN BUTLER           73LB   2OZ             132
5TH  ADAM CASWELL        64LB  11OZ            128
6TH  RYAN RADFORD         52LB  3OZ             110
7TH  LEE WILLIAMS            51LB  9OZ             112
8TH  PETE UZZEL                 39LB  3OZ             130

B SECTION

1ST ANDY GAY                   128LB 0OZ              118 DQ
2ND BRIAN SHANKS           77LB 8OZ              115
3RD CHRIS SZAKACS          61LB 6OZ              125
4TH ALAN HEALY               50LB 3OZ               123
5TH WILL DEARLOVE        41LB 9OZ               126
6TH  MIKE WELLING          33LB 5OZ               119

AND ONE DNW

So a difficult day, I am getting peeved with the fish not feeding right due to failed spawing methinks, but plenty of other guys feel the same. Lets hope that the last week had seen them clear the systems and the fishing settle down and the fish spread better.

Next up for me is the Maver Match This qualifier at Viaduct on Saturday, this looks like a sell out 120 pegger.
Sunday sees me up at Plantation's Horseshoe lake, I haven't fished that since last summer's Clevedon FWAC's summer series. It can be tricky on there. But I am looking forward to it.

Until next time, tight lines.
Lee

Pawlett All-Winners Final, Trinity Woodlands, 08/06/14

Today saw 16 of us fish the club's All Winners final on Trinity Woodlands, I say all winners, but that's a loose term for qualifying...

Anyways the fish looked top be spawning on both Ash and Woodlands, with the wind pushing down towards the pegs 4 around to 10 mostly. With the pegging slightly odd, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20, 23, 25, 26, 29, 30 and 32 were the numbers in the hat. So my preference would be 4 then 7 followed by 10 and 11. I really didn't fancy any pegs at the calmer end of the lake, so 16, 18, 20 and 23 would be best avoided.

So what did I draw? Poxy peg 20.....up in the corner, there were a few fish present but they do tend to follow the wind here, so a difficult day looked in order.

Woodlands, peg 20

I found myself in a Mosella sandwich, Vic Bush on my right (p18) and Vince Brown over on peg 23. So I was hemmed in from the start, no running lines for me today as 18m in front of me was 20m in front of Vince!!

We had loads of time to set up, a whole 90 minutes!!
I set up a shallow rig for banded 8mm pellet at 13m or so, a paste rig for 2+2 and over the shallow line. The paste rig wasn't used, so nothing to say on that.
A rig to cover my right margin was set up and also a margin rig for tight against the wooden frontage of peg 21.
Both margin rigs were set up to fish meat over meat/pellet.
I did set up a method rod for casting towards the outfall pipe between p21 and p22, but other than 1 cast was unused. I also set up a silvers rig for 14m in the 10 o'clock direction to fish soft pellet over gb, but other than a couple looks it remained unused.

Anyways the all in sounded and I fed the edge swim by p21 and a nice pot of wet 6's were deposited at 2+2.
By the time I had done this, Jamie Cook on peg 4 had landed a couple fish and Mark Hembury on p7 also had a fish from what I could see. I began shallow at 13m feeding 6's and 8's.
The first hour went by quickly and I never had a fish, nor had Vince or Vic. The far end pegs had landed a few though....

The second hour saw me land a single carp on the shallow rig, a 3lber was my opening effort. But the fish were not really down our end in feeding mood....I switched to the edge swim against p21 and I got ragged out on the meat, so I re fed and went back out in the shallow rig.
Up on peg 25 was Eric Fouracre, he seemed to be getting a good few silvers in the form of skimmers, while Vince had landed a few silvers too. But he wasn't feeling too great. Vic only had 1 small skimmer for his efforts.

Into hour 3 and I had a flurry of activity, a handful of baby skimmers from my r/h margin and another carp shallow at 13m. Vic had landed a carp or two, infact he had a couple lumpier fish. Eric was constantly adding skimmers and carp to his nets, while young Lewis Hembury over on peg 14 was catching well, much to the annoyance of Keith Clapp who was catapulting the poor drunken lad with pellets, Lewis was worse for wear as he didn't get in til 4am after a night on the lash....but he was doing well. We also had a rather fresh rain shower and a few rumbled of thunder, I had hoped it wouldn't stick around.

The forth hour saw me catch a carp from against the wood of peg 21 and another carp shallow at 13m, it was very slow for a lot of us. Vince had given in, feeling unwell, broke pole section and gone home. I could hear that Vic had landed a few carp too. So I was up to 5 carp for around 20lb.
Jamie on peg 4 seemed to have the match sewn up at this point, but Lewis and Eric seemed to be close with fish netted. Everyone else who I could see were not setting the world alight!!

The last couple of hours were a little more successful for me, another two carp on the shallow and 2 from against the wood of p21. We also endured another spell of heavy drizzle which was bloomin annoying, but the wind had changed direction and was pushing back upto my end of the lake, all be it more into Vic's peg than mine.
With 1/2 an hour to go I decided to try close in to my left hand margin and this bought me a run of 3 carp, adding maybe 10lb to my net. Maybe I should have tried this line earlier? but the fish were spawning down there for most of the day, so I avoided that spot as I am not keen on fishing where the are making mischief rather than eating!!

The all out sounded and I knew I hadn't made any inroads to the leaders, expecting Jamie to win with Mark Hembury, Lewis Hembury, Eric Fouracre and maybe Vic Bush (who'd landed a good few in the last couple hours).
I packed my kit up and loaded up the car. Made my way to the weigh in. I arrived when the scales were at peg 16, so far Jamie had 107lb and Lewis 70-odd pounds they were filling the top 2 spots at this point.
Vics net went 60lb+ and he defo had more than me,  my nets combined, 11oz silvers plus carp weighed a total of 49lb 3oz.
I loaded my nets into the roofbox, and re-caught up with the scales to see Eric just move into 2nd ahead of Lewis, pipping him by ounces. We then saw Giffy weight 37lb or so before Rich Coles put 26lb of silvers on the board to take that money pot.

So it was a difficult match for most, and not surprisingly Jamie on peg 4 won with ease with 107lb.
There wasn't much I couldn't have done, maybe I should have tried the paste, maybe I should have gone down my left margin. But it is always hindsight!! I think my weight was good enough for 5th or 6th on the day.

Results:
1st Jamie Cook. peg 4
2nd Eric Fouracre. peg 24
3rd Lewis Hembury. peg 14
Silvers - Rich Coles. peg 32 (I think).

Next up for me is a match on Viaduct Campbell with PSV, lets hope that the lake is back to fishing how it should be, it has been very up and down recently. This has made it very peggy with regards to winning weights.

Until next time, take care
Lee

PSV Match, Shiplate Hawthorn Lake, 01/06/14

Today was going to be a decent day, nice weather and some fish caught.
Well that's what I had hoped. Alas it never turned out that way.

I arrived in due course for the draw and paid my monies along with 10 others.
I drew peg 11, meant nothing to me as I have never fished Hawthorn lake on the complex. Pegs 1, 15, 9 and 10 were the 'wanted' hotspots.

I arrived at my peg, set up 5 rigs. A couple for 2/3rds of the way across (one banded, one not), 1 for down to my left margin sort of area to fish hemp/meat, a rig fro up the far shelf amongst the grass and lastly a shallow rig for up in the water with banded 6's.

To cut a boring story short I had 1 carp and a perch in the 1st half hour fishing maggot against the grasses at 13m. Then I missed a bite and lost a foul hooked fish, all within the first 45 minutes.
That was my action for the next 5 hours, I never had a bite of note, even after switching to fishing for silvers on a size 20 to 0.10. They even didn't want to know.
At 1pm I was tempted to go home/elsewhere, but I stuck at it and was rewarded by 4 carp in the last hour, 2 on the shallow rig fished at 6m and 2 from my edge swim on meat. My total of 21lb 2oz wasn't last by virtue of 2 anglers who didn't weigh in.

The clear winner was Brian Shanks with 100lb or so from peg one, 2nd was Mark Radford with around 70lb (I think) on peg 9, the silvers was won by Ryan Radford from peg 15 with 5lb of mostly chub.
There were a few weights between 30 and 50lb. But it was tricky for most.

Next up for me is Pawlett's All Winners Final at Trinity Woodlands next Sunday.

Until then Take Care.

Lee