PSV Match, Sedges Brick Lake, 24-08-14

Today saw myself along with 19 (ahem 13...!!) other guys pegged on the popular Sedges Brick Lake.
Now originally we had a full quota of 20 due to fish but we soon had a few drop outs during the week, this meant that 14 of us would be spread 7 on each bank.

I arrived in enough time, a rather full car park was my greeting due to a match on the Tile Lake.
I loaded the barrow and went for a chat with a few guys. Also I was instructed by Vic Bush to nab his tenner from Adam Caswell, an outstanding world cup bet I believe, but young Ads never had the dough, so that's one for another day.

The fancied pegs were as usual the 4 corners, p1, p10, p11 and p20, peg 3 was also a decent draw with a mixed bag of silvers and carp on that peg likely.
Me, I wanted to fish for silvers and therefore any pegs half way along either bank would be my preference. Now I always draw down the right hand bank when on Brick lake, so I would have liked pegs 3 to 8, but reality was 14 to 18 would do me.
I was 3rd last to draw and plucked the number 12, a peg I have fished before, but an iffy peg for both carp and silvers. It is probably 1 peg short of the skimmers and 11 is obviously a better carp peg, though 12 can do well of the carp are up that end in good numbers.
I wandered up to my peg to find I had Chris Gay on peg 11 and opposite I had Alan Healey and young Ryan Radford on pegs 9 and 10 respectively.

Brick Lake peg 12

I set up a few top kits, 2 for silvers, 1 shallow for carp, 1 for 6m out for carp, these 4 went fishless all day, along with the pellet waggler, so despite my efforts,  no more on these.
My last 2 rigs were a margin rig down to my left using worm over groundbait, and a depth pellet rig to fish at 13m in the 11 o'clock direction with 8mm bait in the band.
Baits were maggot, worm, caster, 8mm meat, 6mm pellet, 8mm pellet, expanded 6mm pellets and a couple of kilos of groundbait.

The all in sounded at 10am and I deposited various baits in various areas before starting on the waggler, this gave me an indication right away but it was a fouler and a scale soon came back.
I stuck at this for 40 minutes as nobody had much, but I remained fishless.
A look on the silvers line didn't give me a fish in the next hour......

It was soon 12pm and I had my 1st carp on the banded pellet, a nice 6lb fish was netted, soon followed by a 2lb skimmer and a smaller 3lb carp.
That was my action for another hour or so, it was 1:15 before my next fish, a 2lb skimmer on the banded pellet. The silvers were not playing ball for nearly everyone it seemed.
The carp were not in feeding mode either, though Chris on peg 11 had a few and lost a few due to a blunt hook!!

2pm soon came around and I had landed a good double figured common and a small skimmer. But foul hooked fish were a problem, the carp seemed to be hanging off bottom and reluctant to take a bait even when lifting/dropping or shallowing up. Over the course of the last 2.5hrs I must have hooked/pricked 20 carp, thankfully/unluckily I didn't land any and they didn't cause my swim much hassle.

Elsewhere I could see that Chris Szakacs on peg 1 landing a few, plus the guys further down to my left seemed to be having a few carp and skimmers. Oh and Chris on peg 12 was getting plenty on whatever he tried. Will Dearlove over on peg 6 had a few carp, Alan on peg 9 didn't seem like he had many (or rather I never saw him have many!!) neither did Ryan.

As we went into the last hour I had maybe 30lb of fish in the nets which seemed well behind the pace, but a 8lb fish was soon netted. As the all out sounded I was playing a 5lb fish caught on the worm down the edge, the fish were present too late as there was now swirls and tails waving in the edge. Oh well.

I began to pack up, rather annoyed that the skimmers never played ball despite my efforts, plus I struggled to get the carp to feed properly, but it did turn out to be a day like that for most except the two Chris's in corner pegs 1 and 12...!!
I soon had my kit on the barrow and waited for Jamie to arrive on our bank, I thought Chris had around 90lb and me, I thought that 45lb would be about my total.
The scales arrived and a look at the board saw Chris S. on peg 1 had 85lb+ and Alan on p9 had snuck 68lb+ into his nets. There were a couple 45-55lb nets but that's it. Mike Wilson was leading the silvers with around 12lb at this point.

Anyways, Chris Gays nets went over 98lb to push him into the lead.
My nets weighed a total of 59lb 9oz, this included 6lb 8oz of silvers, which although at this point would have gave me 2nd in silvers by default, but that was unlikely to last as I was told that Colin on peg 17 would have a good amount.
Peg 14 never weighed before young Adam Caswell plonked 57lb 12oz on the scales, Colin had 17lb 5oz of skimmers in his 28lb 6oz net (peg 17) and Rich Jones had 51lb 5oz off peg 18. Peg 20 dnw'd.

So my net was enough for 4th on the day, which was frustrating as I am sure a couple more fish would have been possible from my peg, though 87lb was unlikely for me I think.

Results:
1st - Chris Gay (p12) 98lb 8oz
2nd - Chris Szakacs (p1) 87lb 2oz
3rd - Alan Healey (p9) 68lb 14oz
4th - Lee Williams (p12) 59lb 9oz
5th - Mike Wilson (p3) 58lb

1st silvers - Colin Elaway  Butler (p17) 17lb 5oz
2nd silvers - Mike Wilson (p3) 12lb 9oz

So a tricky day all round with lower than expected weights, especially the silvers. But I enjoyed it and am glad the rains stayed away.

I am unsure what is next up for me, maybe I will venture to Summerhayes next sunday as I don't have a scheduled match as Plantations have stopped summer matches.
The following week I have Pawlett's day out at Walter Lake/Ridgeway in South Cerney, a canal/lanes type venue I fished last year for an Maggotdrowning match, that's on Saturday. The following Sunday sees me at either Viaduct Campbell or even the Huntspill at Wooolavington....decisions!!

Until then, Take Care.
Lee

River Huntspill, Withygrove, Pawlett Club. 17-08-14

Today was the club's match on the famous River Huntspill, with the Withygrove section being the area used, with 22 of us fishing we had 11 on each side of the bridge.
I grew up fishing the 'Spill and part of the reason I stopped match fishing previously was the decline in numbers fishing matches on this river (plus the KSD and Bridgwater/Taunton Canal).
Also the fact the banks had been totally changed since yesteryear with plenty of reeds and weed in the venue, plus it is clearer and fishing is tough at times.........predation too hasn't helped.

I arrived in plenty of time despite not getting to sleep until gone 4am..!! A short while was spent chatting before everyone was ready to do the draw. I fancied a pug upstream towards the motorway, so permanent pegs 155 and 154 would be good, otherwise maybe pegs 147, 148 or 149. All these pegs are a touch wider than others and often hold a few more skimmers and bream.
We paid our dues and the golden pegs were picked. I waited 'til 3rd from last before plucking my peg, that turned out to be number 151. Not too happy, not too dis-pleased.

River Huntspill, Withygrove, p151

After getting my kit over the gates and back onto my trolley, I made the long-ish walk to my peg...........we have it so much easier on commies, especially given we carry tonnes of kit!!

At my peg I surveyed the scene, the wind was rather strong so I didn't bother with the pole (that's twice in 2 weeks!!). I had some weed that was patchy right up to about 11m out, which could be a pain when playing fish.
So I set about mixing my groundbait with bream in mind, 21/2kgs of Sensas Red Lake, 1/2kg Sensas Bream and 1/4kg of Sensas squid/octopus just to add some fishmeal type scent to the mix, plus it does help binding.
I had on the side tray some hemp, caster, worms and maggots.
I then set up my tackle, this was a 3.5m whip and 2 feeder rods and 2 waggler rods, but I wont mention the wagglers again as surprisingly I never had a fish on it all day, I though they'd be bankers.
My feeder set-ups were one on braid with a 2oz open end cage feeder, the 2nd was on 4lb mono and a standard 25g open end drennan jobbie. Both rods had 0.10 hooklengths of 2ft and size 18 B611 hooks. I also had some method feeders with me as I know peeps have been catching on that once the skimmers arrive, mostly using a couple maggots as hookbait.

The all in sounded at 10:30 and I fired around 10 tennis ball sized balls of groundbait over my feeder line, some maggots were chucked on the whip line and some hemp/caster went out to around 18m for my waggler. I had hoped to fish the wag further out but wind decided that I shouldn't.
I began on the larger feeder for half hour before swapping to the smaller one.
Not much happened for a while with myself, Vic Bush(p152) and Eric Fourace (p153). My 1st fish came in the form of a 6oz skimmers, the time was 12:15,
The angler to my right on p150 had been catching a few bits on the waggler. That's all I could see, though word filtered down that Giffy and Keith Clapp on 148 and 146 respectively, had caught a few fish each.

My next fish arrived thanks to the whip, a single 3oz perch. Back on the tip I waited a while before another skimmer was netted at around 2pm. This was soon followed by a little roach on the feeder and another roach on the whip.
Not a lot was happening, but Vic had landed a couple fish on the feeder, but he wasn't catching the world on fire either.
At around 2:30pm a solid pull round on the tip saw me connect with something substantial, I gingerly played it in and was pleased to see a bream of about 6lb surface out in front, only a couple turns from netting...........then bam!! A big swirl on the surface saw a pike (not a big one either) attack my bonus, sadly the poxy pike was pulled off my hook......bollocks!!
Next cast saw a smaller bream of about 2lb engulfed by said pike, then a decent perch was made lunch by my new resident fish........poxy friggin pike!! Nearly 10lb of fish stolen off the hook in a mad 15 minutes.

Soon after I had a stroke of luck, I landed a perch of 5oz and a 4oz eel. I also managed to snare a big bream/roach hybrid of around 3lb, it took my maggot hookbait on the retrieve......I actually thought I was attached to a pike so I bullied it a bit before realising it was a 'countable' fish.
So with and hour to go until the 4:30 finish I had around 5lb I thought.
Vic had landed a decent proper bream and a few other fish.

The last hour flew by without a fish, but I had switched to worm and maggot cocktail hoping for a proper bream or a couple skimmers.

I was soon packed away and took two trips to the car before catching up with the weigh-in.
A glance at the board saw 2 weights of 8lb+ on the pegs below the bridge. No other weights of note.
I managed to get to see Keith Clapp on peg 146 put just over 20lb of fish on the scales before Giffy on peg 148 amass 16lb exactly.
Peg 150 weighed in 6lb 8oz, I honestly thought he'd had close to 10lb as he'd been catching small fish most of the match, plus a couple skimmers. But his last hour was poor.
Next to weigh was me, and when I pulled my net out I could see I had around 7lb, but everyone was keen to see my hybrid, I reckoned on 2nd look, that it was pushing 3.5lb, It was a gorgeous fish, in hindsight I should have taken a photo.
My weight was infact 7lb.

Next to weigh was Vic Bush, I thought he'd be on around 10lb or more, but the scales gave him 8lb 14oz,
I didn't follow the scales any further but made my way back to the car park.
I chucked my nets in the car and waited for the board to arrive back, which wasn't too long. The last few weights had been less than mine and no proper bream were caught from the end couple of pegs.

Mark soon called the results and dished out the winnings, surprisingly I had picked up the section money by default x3, with the top 3 overall coming from my section.

Results:
1st Keith Clapp, 20lb 1oz from p146
2nd Giffy (Chris Ware), 16lb, p148
3rd Vic Bush, 8lb 14oz, p 152

Sections went to myself and Vince Brown.

Weigh sheet

So all in all it was a tough match and that poxy pike cost me at least 3rd, probably 2nd. But cant be sure as fishing isn't that simple.
I do enjoy non-commie type venues where silvers are the target, sadly we don't see many matches on these venues.

Next up for me is a match on Brick Lake at Sedges, with the PSV mafia.

Until next time, tight lines.

Lee

Clevedon v Frys, Durleigh Res, 10-08-14

Today was a match I booked into on Thursday afternoon as I wasn't sure if I wanted to fish this weekend, but I did but I wasn't too keen on it. But needs must etc.....

Durleigh Res, Looking across from the entrance.

I arrived today at around 8:15, plenty of time before the draw, which was delayed until 9am, fish 10:30 til 16:30. We had both banks booked, but were sadly low on numbers and ended up with 8 on the far bank and 7 on the lodge bank, so 120 quid for the venue meant payouts were lower than we'd hoped. It is a shame as the reservoir is a good fishery.
I dipped my nets and had a bit of a chin wag before the draw.
The draw came and I managed not to draw the expected hot pegs which were the 2 on the lawn straight after the dam wall, especially with the wind due to be pushing into that area.
I picked peg 20, the furthest walk on the day.....Mark Bromsgrove and Barry Fowler had the pegs by the dam.

After the long hike with too much kit.....why I took my pole I don't know!! I arrived at my peg, had a drink and started to set up.
I had 3 feeders set up, 1 with the method feeder using boilies or banded pellet, 1 with a pellet feeder with similar hook baits and lastly an open ended jobbie for worm, corn, caster or dead reds.
I also set up a 3m whip and a 3.5m whip for the roach.



View from my peg/

Bait was 6pts of hemp, 2 pints of caster, a large tin of corn, 3kg-ish of groundbait, wetted 4mm's for the method and a selection of hookbaits including worm and boilies.
I mixed up 2kg into balls to be fired out on the feeder line and the last kilo or so would be for fishing through the open ender and odd ball on the whip line. I mixed a pint of caster, some dead reds a large handful of corn and 1pt of pellet to the mix.

The all in sounded and I cattied the groundbait out and flicked some hemp/caster/corn on the whip line. I began on the open ender and had a couple roach on 5 dead reds before my 1st pike was hooked, it took the fish which looked like a nice skimmer....bugger.
I kept in the feeder line for a few hours, hooking at least 4 more pike, each one taking skimmers...not roach...typical. I did land a couple 12oz skimmers and a couple roach.
Down to my left a few bream and skimmers had been had, but the whip lines were quiet from what I could see.

After 3hrs or so I gave up on the feeder line, the pike were annoying, but the bream were noticeable in their absence!! I did lose a carp ( I think) that wrapped round the tip and broke the hooklength.

By this point, I had lost interest as the lad to my left was on his 5th or 6th bream and Andy Hembrow further down had a couple carp and some bream in his net. Word had it that the pegs by the dam, on the lawn area, had a good few fish with Barry Fowler sacking up.
The couple of guys, Merv Sivell being one, who were fishing the whip had caught a few, but looked like lots of  1/2oz blades were present.

So with around 2.5hrs left I decided to try the whip, and this is more or less how I spent the rest of the match.
I started off on single caster, but got plenty of baby 1/2oz skimmers, so I upped the feed and switched to corn or occasionally double caster on the hook, this bought me decent sized roach between 3 and 8oz, with odd rudd and perch chucked in too. I even hooked a carp, which didn't stay hooked for long!!

The all out was called and I guessed I had 15lb maybe which was 1.5lb of skimmers and bits on the tip and the rest whip fish.

After starting to pack up the scales made their way to me, my net went 20lb 14oz, slightly more than I thought, but a poor weight on the day, I only got to see the next weight which was 29lb of bream/skimmers caught on the method next to me. Andy Hembrow had a couple carp, one of which jumped out of his keepnet, reducing his weight by a decent margin!!

As I made the haul back to the lodge I found out that Barry had around 75lb and Mark B. 45lb or so.
The lodge bank gave a few weights between 35lb and 39lb, some roach, some bream weights.

I never stayed for the results, but I shall update them when I get them through. I wasn't last mind you, there were a couple less than mine....

In hindsight, I should have stuck to fishing the whip all day, I wouldn't have won but may have snuck into one of the other 3 paying spots. I am surprised I didn't get any amount of bream, I didn't fish badly or anything, I just think the fish had moved on the wind, especially late on, which was obvious given that the lad next to me, Andy Hembrow and Adie Baker had a dire last 2hrs when the wind was at it's strongest. The pike were a pain in the arse too....I think I hooked at least 6, maybe more, I lost track.

Next up for me is a match with Pawlett on the Huntspill at Withy Grove.

Until next time, take care.

Lee


EDIT:
Results:

1st...Barry Fowler 75lb 10oz
2nd...Mark Bromsgrove 47lb 2oz
3rd...Lance Tucker 39lb
4th...Paul Faires 38lb

PSV Match, Landsend Fishery, Match Lake, 03/08/14

The Sunday just passed saw myself along with 13 other guys fish a match on the popular Landsend Fishery's Match Lake. With conditions a touch on the bright side, winds gradually increasing but not too bad and plenty of fish in the upper layers, some decent weights were predicted. But as seems the norm, weights with the PSV crew often fall lower than recent catches.

I arrived early enough to see a few of the others unloading their kit and a bit of a chit-chat began.
A quick look at the lake saw the levels lower than expected, which suited me as I hadn't got round to making any deeper rigs.........phew!!

The 9am draw was soon upon us at 9:15 and we all wanted to get our hands on Steve Burgess' new balls, he had his family writing numbers on table tennis balls the evening before.
The golden peg was picked before peeps got their mitts in, I musty say I fancied pegs 17, 19 and 15 in that order, maybe 21 too, I didn't want a corner as I don't like corners!!
I got my hand in the bucket about halfway down the rabble and plucked peg 19, nice enough.

I made my way round to that peg and surveyed the water, there was a decent amount of fish mooching in the upper layers all the way along from peg 24 upto 13, so I was happy enough, even if they didn't look like feeding fish.
To my left on peg 16 I had Derek Lucas and to my right was my opponent in the knock-out, Steve O'Toole down on P21. But I couldn't see either of these due to vegetation. Opposite I could actually see Chris Gay (p7) and Reg (p6). Further down to my left were Chris Davis and Steve Burgess on pegs 17 and 15 respectively.

Landsend Match Lake peg 19

For bait I had 8mm pellets, 6mm pellets, hemp and 8mm meat along with some soft pellets and casters for silvers, but these two remained unused.
Rig wise I set up:
Shallow Rig: 0.2g NG inline Ghandi on 0.20>0.18>B911 size 16 with a band
2+2 Rig: NG Margin 0.4g on 0.20>0.18>14 B911

I plumbed up the short 2+2 line and had a feel around across and at topkit down to my right, but decided against my margins, the bottom across was very up and down with 8" in some spots up to 4" in others and down to 2ft in others, nothing consistent.
The all in was called at 10:15 and I deposited 2 cups of meat and hemp on that line, I pinged some 8mm pellets and 6mm pellets across towards (but just short) of the island. There was odd swirls here, but the fish generally didn't look too interested.
I started across at just over 14.5m and waited, and waited, and waited. There was fish in the swim, but I was only getting line bites from the tails that were waving away at me.
It took me 40 minutes to get my 1st fish, a 3lber from across. In this time I could hear Chris Davis and Steve B. had landed some carp as had Chris Gay over on p7.

We were soon into the 2nd hour and the short line was fizzing, so I decided to leave it longer, only flicking the odd bit of meat and hemp over it every now an then. I am not one who likes fizzing, preferring less bubbles and I find I get more positive results with less fizz.
I stayed long for a couple more hours, in this time I picked up 3 or 4 more carp, it was slow for myself. Derek on p16 hadn't had a fish, he'd lost a couple, but it was hard, he ended up tipping back at the end after only a few silvers and a solitary carp were in his nets.
Steve O'Toole on p21 had a few carp I think, I couldn't be sure but there was some commotion every now and then. Chris Davis, Steve Burgess and Chris Gay were picking up plenty of fish too, with Chris getting the odd one on a pellet feeder across to his bare bank.

As we went into the 4th hour I had around half a dozen carp for 20lb-ish. I decided to look on my short line, 1st drop I hooked a fish, which was soon netted, a nice 5lb carp. This was followed by something more substantial and a mirror approaching 10lb was landed.
A further 15 minutes passed with only a couple small silvers taking the meat, so I re-fed and went long again. I immediately hooked a nice fish which I got to within netting range, a ghostie looking creature of at least 15/16lb....it decided to head towards the tree to my left, but all was fine, or so I thought.  As I lifted my topkit I saw the fish had come off....I was now hooked to 6ft of line that was at least 15lb, a braided hooklength and a size 6 hook. This line had obviously become a disgorger and had pulled my hook from the carp....bugger!! Could this cost me?

Back onto the short line saw me net 3 or 4 small carp as we headed into the 5th hour, my weight was maybe 40lb. But I could tell I was plenty behind Steve B. and the two Chris's.
By this point my long line had become iffy, I was finding it best to feed 3 lots of 10 pellets and watch the fish come in then drop my rig in 20 seconds after, I was also fishing 6" deep. So I spent the next couple hours picking a fish from long before swapping to the short line for a fish/bite, then going back out and picking up another fish. My feeding had to be spot on to get this right. So it was a matter of being efficient and hooking a fish from each line, each drop in. Which I did well enough.

By the end of the match I had put a few more small carp in the net and I suppose I had around 50lb or so.
I was soon packed away and ready to watch the weigh in, I was sure Chris Davis had won, he'd chucked his silvers back, which was around 15lb by all accounts.
Chris Gay may push him close and maybe Steve Burgess had done well. Most others were admitting to 40-60lb, so pretty consistent.

I followed the scales, which began with Chris Szakacs on peg 1 weighing 67lb 11oz. We then had a few weights between 41 and 56lb before Chris Gay plopped 106lb 11oz on the board. A nice weight. Si Belcham (p9) took the top silvers weight at this point with a little over 10lb
Ryan Radford and Rich Jones weighed in around 37lb and 77lb respectively before Mr Burgess went into 2nd with 82lb 7oz off peg 15.
Next up was Chris Davis, his 4 weighs gave him the lead with 140lb 12oz, he'd lost a few too.
Derek on p16 didn't weigh so it was me next. My few silvers weighed a pound or so before my 2 weighs of carp boosted my total to a rather surprising 94lb 2oz, that last 90 mins boosted my weight without me thinking I had caught much.
Next was Steve O'Toole on peg 21, I knew he'd done me as the last hour or so had given him a good few fish and it wasn't a shock to see 106lb 1oz on the sheet, pushing me one out of the money. Lastly Mark Radford on peg 23 weighed in with 56lb 10oz.

Back in the car park Steve B. gave me my quid, which made up for my mishap last weekend where I gave him a quid.....but I did sort of feel bad as I thought my actual weight was around the 50lb mark.
It had fished hard but fair as a whole and I think most peeps enjoyed it.

Result:
1. Chris Davis (17) ... 140-12
2. Chris Gay (7) ... 106-11
3. Steve O Toole (21) ... 106-1
4. Lee Williams (19) ... 94-2
5. Steve Burgess (15) ... 82-7
6. Rich Jones (13) ... 77-6
7. Chris Szakacs (1) ... 67-11
8. Alan Healey (3) ... 56-14...
9. Mark Radford (23) ... 56-10
10. Rampant Reg (6) ... 48-5
11. Steve Wynne (5) ... 41-10
12. Simon Belcham (9) ... 40-9
13. Ryan Radford (11) ... 37-14

Silvers:
1. Simon Belcham ... 10-14
2. Alan Healey ... 3-7

So to surmise, that fish that got away thanks to the trailing carp anglers line had cost me, no I don't mind losing fish due to natural snags or even platforms, but trailing line of an excessive strength does annoy me. Other than that, I lost just 2 foul hooked fish and 1 I pulled out of.
I was also glad I got my feeding ok for the shallow fishing to work, this  proved pivotal in boosting my weight, but maybe I should have stayed on the short line or perhaps gone on it earlier?
All if's and maybe's though.
I did get through 6pts of pellets and 2 tins of meat and 2 tins of hemp.

I am not sure where I am fishing on Sunday.
So until next time, take care.

Lee