Pawlett Match, Viaduct Fishery, Campbell & Cary. 28/9/14

Today saw me at a match at the often prolific Viaduct Fishery. With 27 other souls, I hoped for a good days fishing.

Now everywhere has seemingly been iffy on the catches front (barring winning weights it seems), we all hoped that today would be a decent day none the less.
So after a chat with some of the guys we made the draw. Now recently I have been waiting for the 2nd last ticket in matches I have fished, with some decent results.
I had a choice of 2, these were peg 80 and peg 130.....now 80 would be nice I thought. I gave 1 ticket to Steve Fouracre and kept the other. Mine was peg 130, a shallow peg on Campbell, not a favoured area to say the least.

Pegs I would have liked would have been 74, 77, 80, 85, 86, 119, 118, 123 and 128 by the spit. Peg 130 would have been on my don't want list, lol.
I made my way to my peg and began to sort out my kit. For company I had Chris Higgs on corner peg 132. I could see the pegs opposite me, with Keith Clapp directly opposite me on peg 111. To my left, on the other side of the spit was Vic Bush, I fancied that peg to do well, more so when I realised that 129 wasn't in!!

Peg 130, Campbell Lake at Viaduct

I set up a pellet waggler for the sake of it, though I would mostly use it towards the spit to my left past peg 129, this was unfruitful as it only gave me 1 small skimmer and I lost a foul hooked carp. No more on that.
I set up a shallow rig that remained unused plus a rig for banded pellet at 13m in front. A meat rig for 2+2 (plus at topkit length in the last hour).
Lastly a 'margin' rig was assembled to fish at 2+2 to my left but a metre from the bank in slightly deeper water.
My kit was my usual 0.20>0.18>B911x size 16. As it was shallow I used NG Margin floats in 0.2g. Number 14 middy elastic was in all the kits.

Bait was simple. 8 and 6mm pellets, 8mm meat and 6pts of dead maggots.
The pellet was for the 13m line while the 'margin' line would be fed with dead maggots and odd bit of meat. The 2+2 meat line was fed with just meat.

The all in was called and I cupped 20 pieces of meat on 2+2 line and thirty 6mm pellets on that line.
I started long and not much happened. After 10 minutes I foul hooked a carp, then another and a third, all in the space of 10 minutes. Thankfully they came off quickly, I say thankfully, but that was the end of any action for the next 4hrs, barring odd accidently caught skimmer, plus a bonus 2lb perch. I did land my 1st carp on the long pole at just after 1pm, but that seemed to be a loner.
Elsewhere it was slow, though most guys I could see had at least 4 carp each at the halfway stage. Campbell was having an off day it seemed.

Over on Cary, word had got round that Steve Fouracre on peg 80 was doing well.....and that was all it seemed. Though Derek Beards and Rich Coles would be fishing for the skimmers no doubt on that lake.

Back to my match. By now it was 2:30pm and I probably had 10lb of silvers and my single 3lb carp.
I decided now would be the time to bait my 'margin' swim, so 2 pints of dead maggots and a handful of meat was cupped out over a decent sized area. I had a look back out on the pellet line, but was still suffering with foul hooked fish and line bites, they'd not settled properly, so gave up on that line.
I also came in on the 2+2 meat line and started to get knocks and indications over my toss-potted meat and within 20 minutes I had a few more skimmers and another small carp.

With just over 70 minutes to go it looked like I was last on the lake, actually I probably was. But I could see that the maggots had done the job intended and I had swirls, boils and obvious signs of carp feeding on the bait.
I grabbed the rig, impaled 4 dead maggots and lowered it in, immediately I had a bite and I hit into a carp. A few minutes later I had a 7lb fish in the net.
Next drop saw a 10lber landed, shortly followed by a 4lb carp and a couple small skimmers.
I fed another cup of maggots and went out on my meat line, this gave me a carp of around 6lb. I wasn't convinced these fish would settle too well, but as it turned out they had.

The last hour saw me regularly put carp in the net, only losing a couple by me pulling out of them, but the lost fish were smaller than the size that had appeared over the maggot. The ones I landed probably averaged 7lb+.
By the time the all out was called I had about 12lb of silvers and about 12 carp in total, so maybe 90lb in total.

I started to pack up and soon enough Paul had arrived to weigh in. 1st up was Chris Higgs on peg 132, he amassed around 11lb of bits and only a few carp to give him a total of 24lb 6oz.
Then it was my turn to weigh. With my swim not even resembling an angler packing up, I managed to get my nets to the scales, my silvers total was 14lb 4oz while my 3 spread nets of carp added another 93lb 14oz to my total. 108lb 2oz was my finishing weight. At least 90lb of that coming in the last hour or so.

Next up was Vic Bush, I knew he'd done ok and so it proved with his silvers totalling 16lb-ish and his carp topping his total up to 131lb 1oz.
I left the scales then to go and pack up, making my way to the car park once I had.
I chatted with a few guys, most indicated that Steve Fouracre on p80 (Cary) had won as he'd been catching all day.
Elsewhere Eric Fourace and Jamie Cook were rumoured to have done ok from pegs 123 and 119(both corners) respectively. Giffy and Nick Selway on Cary had topped 100lb by all accounts.

We were all soon by the lodge waiting for the results and it seemed it had fished patchy, in which I agreed as I only caught in the last phase of the match.

The results were called:
1st Steve Fouracre, peg 80 (Cary), 205lb 12oz (bomb/pellet towards the end of the spit)
2nd Eric Fouracre, peg 123 (Campbell), 131lb 6oz
3rd Vic Bush, peg 128 (Campbell), 131lb 1oz

Silvers
1st Derek Beard, p96, 32lb 8oz
2nd Rich Coles, p105, 29lb

Sections went to myself and Nick Selway (120lb, p100)

Weigh Sheet.

So all in all a tough match, I was lucky enough that the fish turned up late and were of a decent size.
My choice of maggots as feed was made as I knew it'd be tricky and naturals could work. Indeed Eric(worm) and Vic (maggot) caught using them I believe.
I did feed 4 pints of dead maggots, 2 small tins of meat and around 2 pints of pellet.

Next up for me is a PSV match on Brick Lake at Sedges. That's next Sunday.
Jamie is holding an open next Saturday on the same lake, I think there may be a few spaces, so give him a call if you fancy it, but be quick.

Take Care,
Lee

PSV - Holgan Farm - 19th, 20th and 21st September 2014.

This weekend saw 10 of PSV's finest head of to Pembrokeshire for 3 days fishing at former world champion Ian Heaps' fishery, Holgan Farm.

I wont go too in depth with the blog as it'd take forever to write.....

So firstly I will run through Friday, I set off at 5:50am and made a steady 2hr 20 minute drive in to Wales and arrived around 10 minutes before everyone else.
I arrived to what was obviously a building site, Holgan Farm is being expanded to cater for holidaying people and day ticket anglers. But what was built looked nice, the scenery was outstanding too.

My nice lounge/bedroom.....Great views too....

 Day 1,



Our first match was on Friday and would be on the Carp Lake, Ian said 100lb+ would be the winning weight and that white pellets would work, as would various other baits and an array of tactics, though it seemed that paste would be the main form of attack for most (based in Mr Heaps' advice). I don't use paste too often so decided to work on maggot/caster/groundbait as my main line of attack. I also bought some micros and 6mm pellets(which were rather 4mm-ish) from the shop as Sensas brand pellets are the only ones to be used. Some corn was also on my tray, but corn is something I don't catch too much on, possibly due to me not using much since I was like 17.
Digs, drinks and food would be sorted post-match but by all accounts the rooms are nice enough, as for the food, we shall see.

Soon everyone was present and the draw was done, we'd fish 11 til 5pm, so had around 2hrs to set up.
I let everyone draw and 2 balls remained, one for me and one for Steve Burgess.
I picked my ball and peg 21 would be my 'home' for the following 8hrs. It was the only peg on the lake without an island chuck, but I did have a long margin to my right. Opposite me was Derek. I had Adam Caswell to my left and I could see Steve Burgess across from me as well.



My Carp Lake peg...Steve Burgess opposite.

To summarise the day, it was hard going for pretty much everyone with carp and silvers both at a premium. I baited a margin line, which gave me 1 carp and a crucian late on in the match on corn. But my main focus was at 11m on the base of a ledge of a sunken plateau, fed with maggot/caster over groundbait, this doubled as my shallow line. A method feeder was also made up, it never gave me a bit when cast to one of the end bank pegs!

Mike Wellings got off to a flyer, but it was very quiet. It took me ages to get a carp, only a few bits in the first few hours made it into my keepnets. I did mug a big double of around 17lb by dropping a couple maggots on it's nose, and my word did it fight!! But it was a welcome fish.
But all in all I kept plugging away hoping to pick up odd carp in amongst the crucians I had started to catch. With an hour to go I had about 8 crucians, some roach/rudd and 3 carp (if I remember rightly). The carp then decided to feed shallow in the last 10 minutes and I promptly hooked another decent fish of around 12lb which was a bonus, again mugged on maggots. Most of my fish came to corn or maggot over plenty of small balls of groundbait.
The all out was called at 5pm and after this the fish swirling at loose fed maggots, I managed to feed them into 4m out. Funny things are fish.
Soon the weigh in was progress, Alan Healey was leading the way with 70lb when they got to me, but other than that no much else was caught.
My nets gave me just over 45lb to put me into second, which is how it stayed with Adam, Darren North and Lee Waller struggling along my bank.
So I was on 9 points and £30 better off after the 1st day.

The evening was spent in the Bush Inn, a pub around 10 minutes drive away. We had a laugh and the food was ok.

Day 2,
 

The morning started off ok, a nice view of the scenery from my window, but a little achy as my bed wasn't very big!!
This coupled with 2 episodes of Nigella Lawson at her best (good cameraman..!!) perked me up.
Down for the semi-organised rabble that is breakfast (ok, nothing to write home about).

The 2nd day's match would be on the crystal clear, lily pad infested Tench/Crucian lake. Nobody expected big weights, maybe 25lb would win, but we couldn't predict who and where on the lake it'd be won from. Apparently the crucians average 1.5lb and there are 'plenty' of small skimmers, roach, the tench go to 5lb+ and some rogue carp are present....and eels.
Again Ian said paste would work, feeding nothing or very little. Worm/caster would be a good bait too.
I wanted to go down the groundbait and maggot route, but had some micros, worm and caster to use. But I also fed a line with hemp.
At the draw I drew 2nd last again and was rewarded with peg 24. I had lillies at 8m in front plus a left hand margin which looked totally un-inviting, dark and cold, covered in a crappy scum.



View from my Crucian/Tench Lake peg. Alan Healey opposite.

So I ended up baiting 3 spots along the lily line (1 of each worm/caster, hemp and groundbait), an open water spot fed via tosspot with maggot/groundbait/micro and a spot down the marginal shelf at 4m to my left with just maggots fed. I did have some corn and expanders as hookbaits only.
1st drop I hooked a decent fish in an open water spot, I got it near the net twice and the 2nd time th hook pulled, it looked like a big crucian  (or small common) of 4lb+ and would have been brilliant start. But most guys had early bites.
Steve Burgess was pegged to my right and he too lost a decent fish early on, his, he thinks, was a big bream.
So the match panned out with bites at a premium and very tentative. Lee Waller looked like he'd done enough for the win fishing worm to the pads in front mostly.  Alan on peg 29 catching a few. I reckoned I had around 13lb at the all out, it was a case of pick a fish off a line, try for a second, if that never came then try another spot or bait. I did feed quite a lot compared to others too.
I ended up with a handful of blade skimmers and 8 or 9 crucians from 8oz to 2lb. Mostly caught on maggots by the lilies, but a run of 3 crucians on my short line boosted my weight.
The worm gave me nothing, the hemp line gave me 1 fish and the open water gave me 2 crucians. My best spot until the last 15 minutes was the corner of the main pads where my groundbait had gone in.

The scales arrived at my peg 15 minutes after the all-out and Lee Waller had 15lb 2oz, other than that there was a few weights of under 5lb including 9oz and 14oz. I tipped my catch onto the scales and could see it'd be close, but my 15lb 8oz moved me into the lead with only Alan to weigh.
He had 9lb or so for 3rd place, securing me the win. Nice.

So at this point the scores on the doors overall had me on 19 points and Alan on 17 points. Mike had 13 points and was in 3rd I think.

The evening was spent on site drinking, chatting and generally having a decent social, so bedtime for some of us was well past 1:30am. A few guys worse for wear, but I was ok enough and fell asleep around 2:30am after watching a bit more Nigella.
Oh and we also took in some paste fishing lessons from PSV's resident 'expert' Adam Caswell.........no doubt the video will appear somewhere!!

Day 3,

The final day was to be fished on the Match Lake, with 100lb again predicted to win, especially as it'd fished well on Saturday to the pleasure anglers.
We did the draw on the Saturday night as we wanted to get started earlier, and finish earlier, so we could head home. I needed a good draw and to finish above Alan and higher than 6th to win overall for the weekend.
So after some food on the previous evening we picked our pegs, again I waited to second last, with pegs 3 and 22 left. I picked mine, peg 22 and Steve had peg 3.
Then in a brainwave of a moment someone suggested we go look at our pegs, Ryan Radford I think it was decided it'd be a good idea.......now how often do you see 8 guys wandering around a lake in pitch blackness looking for peg numbers that were on the side of each peg? Oh there was a hedgehog on peg 3's platform too, so we disturbed it's peace and quiet.

A draw for a pairs match was done, with everyone sticking a quid in to go with £20 we had left over from the deposits. So £30 would go to the winning pair. My partner was Steve Burgess, the odd call of 'fix' was called and even the odd comment that it would be Steve's only way of getting some dollar out of the weekend.

Anyways the morning came and we were soon fed and watered and made our ways to our pegs to finish setting up (some/most had at least sorted boxes and nets before brekkie).



Match Lake peg 22....again Steve opposite me!!



Now this lake had been fishing well the whole time we'd been on site......ho hum, heard this before!!
I set up a pellet waggler and method feeder to fish to the corner of the island, a rig for the margin by empty peg 19 to my left which remained un-used bar 1 look (the green algae in the water had drifted that way). A pole rig for 2+2 was made with corn over caster/micro and a rig for banded pellet over pellet at 13m was made, plus a shallow rig for the same spot.
I could keep an eye on Alan as he was to my left on the other bank, to my right I had a rather bleary eyed Lee Waller (he slept from 10:15 for about 90 minutes.)

The all-in was called and Mike Welling had an early carp on the waggler, but generally it looked like it'd be a long hard match, and so it proved!!
The 1st hour gave me 2 carp on the pellet wag, including a nice double foul hooked in the tail.
The 2nd hour was blank for me, though Alan had a carp as did Mike and Steve.
Hour 3 gave me a roach on shallow pellet, lost a carp shallow (foul hooked) and 2 carp on the method feeder.
Hour 4 gave me 1 carp on the long pole line and 1 on the waggler, though I did have to re-tackle as I lost one float up in the tree in a proper wonky cast!!
The penultimate 60 minutes had me probably still in around 3rd place from what I could see, though Steve Burgess had landed around 3 or 4 carp, Mike Wellings had 4 and had 1 jump from his net. Lee Waller was on 2 carp and Ryan Radford also had a couple. I wasn't sure on anyone else, though I thought Mark Radford had a handful of fish.
The last hour was a bit better, 2 fish on the method feeder in two casts, plus 2 on the pole (along with a few foul hooked fish lost) meant I ended up with 9 carp, eight of which were mostly around the 3lb mark and 1 double. Maybe 35lb I guessed.

The all out was called and mist of the gear was put tided, some had packed up and all were commenting how poor it'd been.

The scales arrived with Adam Caswell just ahead of Mark Radford with about 33lb. I knew I had to be close, but I knew I had beat Alan as he only had 1 carp despite all his efforts.
My nets ended up giving me 43lb and the lead. With only Mike left to weigh I was sure of at least 2nd, but Mike's nets weren't enough and he weighed less than Mark but he had a chance to pip Alan to overall second for the weekend. So I had another win. Bonus.

Back to the car park and the envelopes were dished out, with me 1st, Adam 2nd and Mark in third on the day.
The pairs was won by Mark Radford and Mike Wellings, beating me and Steve on weight by 2oz!!

Overall I won with 29 points from 30 and Alan beat Mike on weight to take 2nd, so that carp that jumped out of his net cost him at least 3rd on the day and 2nd overall (at least 60 quid then!!).

Overall it was a good weekend, the guys in the club are all nice guys and I enjoyed their company and am looking forward to 2015, when we may head elsewhere, who knows, we will wait and see on that!!

Here are some other pics of the lakes.


View across the Match Lake

View across the Carp Lake

So a really good weekend, the weather was good, the company decent and the location was stunning. But the fishing was not great each day for us. Maybe it's bad luck, maybe it is the fact we don't know the lakes well enough, maybe we should have all used white pellets and paste. Probably because of the standard of angler.
I'd recommend Holgan Farm, but personally I would wait a while for the works to finish. It is a totally safe place and as I said gorgeous surrounds.
There is no phone signal of note and it isn't a 'happening' area, but Narbeth (3 miles) and Tenby (10 miles) aren't too far. There are a few shops and take-aways in Narbeth. A few pubs are within 3 miles.

No doubt the PSV blog will soon have the full results up soon and Steve's version of events, probably a little more entertaining??

Next up for me is a match at Viaduct on Sunday on either Campbell or Cary.

Until then, take care.

Lee.


PSV Match, Viaduct Campbell, 07-09-14

Sunday saw myself along with 17 other guys tackling the popular bagging lake at Somerset's finest Viaduct Fishery in Somerton.
Now after Saturday's affair at Ridgeway, I was expecting to catch a good few more than that, in fact it wouldn't have surprised me if a few anglers on Campbell caught more individually than all 20 of us put together at Ridgeway!..........hmmm

Well, I arrived at the venue in plenty of time, so I unloaded the car and went and chatted with a few guys. The subject soon turned to how 'well' the lake fished on Saturday....it turned out something like 102lb won it.....that's over 100lb less than predicted/normal. So high hopes soon diminished, but it was another day and you never know.

The 9am draw was soon ready, we were paying top 3 and 2 silvers. So I fancied any peg except either of the end bank pegs (121 and 135), but 118/119 or 128 took my fancy really.
I again took the 3rd last ticket and was rewarded with peg 121, bang in the middle of the far end bank. Not ideal.
So I headed to the peg, following Chris Davis along the path, he was on end peg 119, a snaggy but fish holding peg for sure.
On peg 123 (best silvers peg on the complex) was Kev Jefferies.



Campbell Lake peg 121, Viaduct Fishery.

At my peg I surveyed the scene, an empty peg/pallet either side of me between which was some decent looking vegetation. There seemed to be a few cruising carp and some speeding along in 2's or 3's, like they would be prior to spawning....this high pressure seems to have done weird things to local fisheries with sport on the downturn.

Baits for the day was 8mm meat, 6mm pellets, a few pints of maggots left over form yesterday and some 8mm pellets. I also pumped some expanders for the skimmers along with a kilo of groundbait.
I set up a shallow rig (13m in front) which would double up for mugging fish, a rig for down my right margin to fish banded pellets over mixed 6's and 8's.
A meat for 8m in front of me was assembled as was a solitary silvers rig to fish maggot or expander over groundbait in the 10 o'clock direction at 7m.

I didn't set up a lead or waggler but was just about ready at the off.
The all in was called and I cupped a pot of groundbait out for the silvers, as I did this I noticed a big carp mooching around at 10m, so I quickly banded a pellet and dropped it on the fish's nose, bingo I was into a mad strong fighting fish, it took me ages to land the fish, 10 mins perhaps, but I got it in the net (just) and looked a good 17lb with a massive tail that was wider than it's belly, no wonder a powerful fight occurred.
Elsewhere a few fish had been hooked, some lost, some landed. With Rich Britton and Steve Burgess seemingly doing well in the early stages.

Well that was my action for another 90 minutes except odd silver fish, but even the decent skimmers were not feeding, just lots of blades and small roach causing fizzing of the swim.
By 12pm I was miles behind most people I could see, except Kev on p123 and Adam Caswell on p125, both were struggling.
I then decided to take a look down by the right hand pallet (peg 122) and 1st drop I was into another powerful fish, this one turned out to be a common of 13lb or so. The 2 carp I had landed must have gone 30lb between them, which was nice.

The next hour saw me add a couple small silvers to my net, but I'd given up on them really, so I rotated my swims. I did pull out of a couple hooked by empty peg 122, but I wanted to keep them away from the wooden legs of the pallet, so I wasn't too surprised to lose them.
Chris Davis and Keith Ray were suffering with losses due to snags, but they had plenty of fish in the nets too. Otherwise Mark Radford further down the lake on around peg 114 was doing ok, but it was hard to tell.

We were soon approaching 3pm and the last hour, I felt as though I was near last place, maybe with Kev and Adam with less, though Adam had a few decent skimmers and tench so looked to be winning the silvers from my view.
At this point I was on 3 carp (I bagged another one from the empty peg) and a palm full of silvers, but my meat line was blowing/fizzing, so I dropped in over that and was instantly rewarded with a carp.
I also began feeding a top-kit line with meat/pellet and after 5 mins I saw a few bubbles so I dropped the rig over the spot and had a 3lb carp soon the net.

The last 40 mins took my tally of carp to 8 and a couple skimmers were added to my nets as well.

At the all out I knew I had done not great, Chris Davis have over 100lb as had Mark Radford, I also believed Steve Burgess had a decent amount and Keith Ray had done ok, I couldn't see much else, though Alan Healey had struggled from his peg and was looking to give a quid to Adam and Steve B.

The scales soon arrived at my peg and I never looked at the board, so got on with passing the fish to Steve Long to weigh. I had 4lb exactly of silvers and my 8 carp added another 64lb 6oz to my total.
A quick glance at the weights saw that I had somehow had more than Mr Burgess, so at least I had a quid to come!!!
I finished packing up and went to load the car before seeing the results, but my 68lb didn't seem a bad weight from what I could gather.

Results:
1st. Peg 119. Chris Davis, 108lb 15oz
2nd. Peg 114. Mark Radford, 107lb 14oz
3rd. Peg 126. Rich Britton, 89lb 6oz

Silvers 1st: Adam Caswell, peg 125, 16lb 7oz
Silvers 2nd: Lee Waller, peg 128, 15lb 2oz



Weigh Sheet.

So another tricky day fishing, and I am surprised to finish in 6th as I was certain to be lower down, so I am thankful of those first 2 carp I landed. It'd have been nice if the larger skimmers had shown, but I guess it wasn't to be.
It does seem that a few fisheries have switched off, it must be this bout of higher pressure, little wind, big moons and an increase in temps.

Next week is Avalon with the PSV guys again.......skimmers or carp? lets see......

Until next time, tight lines.
Lee

Pawlett Club, Walters Lake (Ridgeway), 08-09-14

Saturday saw the annual Club day out to somewhere a bit further afield than we normally do, lake year was Orchard Lakes nr New Milton where the average catch was around the 100lb mark if I remember rightly.
Well this year Vic and Mark had arranged Walters Lake up on the Cotswold Water Park and 20 of us made the 75 minute journey with anticipation of 100lb bags of fit carp and silvers nets to 30lb......I took until the middle of the week to book in due to my lack of enthusiasm that we'd see the expected nets.

We met in the layby at around 6:30am and in convoy (except Nick Selway, Dick Hurford and Vince Brown) headed up the M5 and across to the venue.
We arrived safely and got brekkie organised, not the best but reasonable. Various little groups sat chatting about the place and we all took a look at the lanes we would be on, the Whites and Blues.
Most people fancied the bridge pegs, the far end pegs or the near end pegs, but it is a reasonably fair, if not moody venue.
Out of the 20 of us, I was the only one to have fished it, but my lake time was maybe 18 months ago. Generally it is a place that some effort for decent results, plus plenty of luck that the fish are in yoir lane, let alone your peg!!

We paid our money and done the draw (including a re-draw) and I waited until 3rd last for my peg, which turned out to be Blue Peg 13. A 'nothing' sort of peg with not much in the way of decent margins and maybe a little narrower than other pegs at 15m in front of me.



Walters Lake, Blue Peg 13



For company I had Vince Brown on the White peg 11?. Other than him all I could see was Jamie Cook behind me on the Whites but further down on maybe peg 13?

I set up a small method feeder for across, but other than a couple liners I never had a bite.
Pole rigs were a margin one for down to my left in 3ft of water, to fish banded pellet over pellet (mix of 6's and 4's). A long line shallow rig was made up for banded 6mm pellet, generally used for across and mugging the odd cruiser....but I never had a touch on this either!!
A mat rig for 2+2 line was made up for 8mm meat over a little groundbait. Lastly I made a rig for 14m in front at the bottom of the main far shelf, as right over was only 8 inches deep!!

Baits was 8mm meat, 6 and 4mm pellets, 3 pints of maggot which mostly remained unused. I also had some damp micros for the feeder.

Now for the good bit.......

The all in sounded and I started on the method to give my lines time to settle after depositing baits in the relevant areas.....

3 hours in and everyone was struggling with odd carp being caught, but the few who'd fished chopped worm had been busy with plenty of small silvers. I was getting small roach on 4 red maggots on a size 16....so I gave up on that!!
At this point in the match I had landed 2 roach and a skimmer of 10oz or so. Which was soon followed by a carp and a better skimmer from the bottom of the far shelf.....that was my action for another 2 hours!!

So at around half three, with an hour to go I landed my second carp, this one from the meat line...which was not bubbling. So I pretty much stayed on the meat line for the rest of the hour, landing 6 more skimmers and a roach....plus a smaller carp than my 1st two.

Elsewhere Jamie Cook had been catching all day, fish of all species and all sizes, Vince had a late burst of carp in the remaining 40 minutes, sadly for him he lost a 8lber from his net when he went to put his kit in the van....would it be costly? He had around 40lb he reckoned.
Eric Fouracre had done well too (considering how poor the day was), but some guys had less than 4lb!!
I suppose I had around 12lb.....I really shouldn't guess!!

The all out was called, a few guys tipped back their odd silvers, but the weigh in began.....not much was recorded until we got to Jamie, I am not sure on his weight but it was 40-odd pound I think, with at least half being silvers....
I weighed soon after and my 3 carp went around 14lb and my skimmers took my total to 21lb, so at this point I was winning the silvers by default and my section also.
Next to weigh was Vince, his total went 30-something pound to move into 2nd, Giffy's 3 carp and few silvers weighed 18lb....
We soon were at Eric, his 2 nets of fish gave him 2nd spot.....1 ounce off Jamie's total...!!
We then had a 13lb silvers net, which pushed my out of the silvers default win, but secured my section money.....
Karl Turner then weighed a quid losing 13lb, so Giffy did go home with something!!

So that was that, that was poor and most were not impressed!! Especially when another match on another line gave up a mid-200lb haul to their winner.

We soon waved bye to the fishery, most vowing never to return....I possibly will though at some point. The evening saw us randomise venue suggestions for 2015....!!!

Results:
1st Jamie Cook
2nd Eric Fouracre (by 1oz)
3rd Vince Brown (did that escapee fish cost him??)

I did win £25 for my efforts, so not a fruitless day, just frustrating......

Next up for me was Sunday's match on Viaduct Campbell lake with PSV

Until then, take care.

Lee