Emerald Pools, Sapphire Lake, PSV Match. 25/01/15

A first ever match for me on the Emerald Pools complex today, notably on the Sapphire Pool.
I haven't fished that lake ever either, but gleaned a bit of info form here and there.

With the weather set fair for the day most of us were expecting a few fish, but Friday saw the lakes in the area begin the day with ice-lids on, but these didn't last and melted away causing an influx of bitterly cold water. This water would likely still be affecting the fish's moods for sure.

We had around 16 booked in a couple of weeks back, but ended up with 10 of us fishing, it was still tight pegging due to the overflow of reeds in certain areas of the lake. These are going to be removed in March we were told. That'll be good as these reeds hold plenty of fish, but they are so dense that they don't venture out too often.

Back to the match, after a bit of a pegging affair we managed to get down to actually drawing our pegs. The golden peg was pulled out, peg 8 (on the day was the 2nd decked swim from the gate on the far road bank).
I waited until 3 pegs were left and plucked the ball labelled p7. I wasn't sure if it was good or bad, obviously most expected pegs 8, 10 (on island opposite bungalows) and 9 (a couple pegs before the bridge to the island). 10 was overall favourite as the water was being coloured up aplenty when it was being pegged!!.

A bit of banter flew towards Lee Waller who'd drawn peg 10 and was under pressure as we all expected him to walk away with an easy win. Peg 9 had Chris Szakacs on it and Alan Healey was on peg 8 (which I fancied to be honest).
I made my way to my peg and found I had Ryan Radford on peg 7 and Steve O'Toole on peg 6, both on my right.

Emerald Sapphire Pool. p7 (I think perma peg 10??)

My swim didn't look too bad, I had some marginal weed, a point of an island at 11m and some deep reeds on the left hand side of the swim, but they were very deep and I was unsure if the carp would venture out too much.

3 rigs were assembled today:
The 1st was for banded pellet towards the point of the island, but could be deepened by 4" as there was a channel between the island and the reeds.
The 2nd rig was for maggot, meat and expander and would do for anywhere else in the swim from topkit all the way to 11m as the depth was the same all over. I chose a topkit line to my left margin and at around 8m to the reeds.  It was hard to see where exactly the reeds were due to reflections and light levels.
Lastly I made a lighter rig that was for the same lines as the 2nd rig but had a 0.10 hooklength and a 18 hook rather than 0.12>16.

I had on my tray some damp micros, 4mm expanders, live maggots, casters and 6mm meat. I also had some 4 and 6mm pellets for in the band or if the carp were feeding well.
The all in was called and I began by the reeds toss-potting some maggots and a couple pieces of meat, I was also feeding the odd pinch of micros down the edge and casters in front as I expected a few roach to show here (they didn't, so no more on that).
After 30 minutes I only had a 1oz roach in the net, Ryan and Steve were biteless. Up on golden peg 8, Alan already had a few decent roach in the net and a carp or two.......I had to endure him catching consistently all day of all species of fish, it was an aquarium up there so fair play to him.

I kept plugging away and was soon attached to my 1st carp, I say soon, but it was around 90 minutes into the contest. the carp done me in the reeds, maybe foul hooked?
My first carp I landed came to meat by the reeds at 12pm, a few rudd followed before my edge swim gave me a small carp of 1lb. Ryan had a roach at this time and Steve O'Toole had a couple roach too.
I began flicking a few pellets and some caster towards the end of the island and went across with the pellet rig only to land a rudd of 6oz.
Another look by the reeds gave me my 3rd and 4th carp in as many drops before they vanished.n Alan was still bagging, Lee Waller and Chris Szakacs had caught a few fish too, the 3 predicted swims were doing the business, everyone else was struggling, Steve Burgess over on peg 4 (our peg 2) was getting a good run of silvers from the end of his island.

By 1:30pm I decided to shallow up my lighter rig and try and catch a few rudd as they'd been occasionally swirling at the casters fed toward the point of the island. After thirty minutes catching these fish I managed to bag a 1lb carp by the reeds on the same shallowed up rig, a false dawn as I couldn't catch any more carp shallow.

With an hour to go I was on 5 carp and a few silvers, I guessed Alan to be around or over the 100lb mark. Ryan and Steve O'Toole only had a few roach each.
I carried on for a few more rudd from various spots in the swim, but they were hard to fix to a certain spot, but the odd 4oz fish was in amongst the 2oz-ers.
I had my last carp with half an hour left, from the reeds on meat, maggots gave me a few baby roach and rudd.

The all out was shouted at around 3:30pm and Ryan, Steve O, Mike Wilson and Matt Challenger all had began to pack up their kit.
I packed my kit away as quick as possible and loaded the trolley before making my way round to watch the weigh in, the results were pretty much predicted before we weighed anyone, Alan was likely to win followed by Lee Waller then Chris S. But the silvers, by all accounts would be won by either Chris S or Steve Burgess as the pay-out was top 2 plus 1x Silvers pot.

We began with Lee, he put 54lb on the scales from the island peg. Chris Szakacs amassed almost 39lb (inc 7-11 of silvers) from opposite the aerator. Mark Radford didn't do too well from his little bay before Steve Burgess put a 9lb 7oz silvers winning catch on the board, he added a couple carp to that to giving 13lb+.
Matt Challenger had 13lb 1oz and Mike Wilson 5lb+. Steve O, and Ryan both tipped back between 1 and 2lb each. Next was me, my 6 carp gave me 12lb or so and my 5lb+ of mostly rudd topped up my weight to a shade over 18lb.
Alan was last to weigh and had obviously won, but he had less than I guessed, but 11lb of silvers was accompanied by 89lb of carp for a comfortable win and a nice days fishing by anyone's standards.

Results:
1st, Alan Healey, 99lb 9oz
2nd, Lee Waller, 54lb 3oz
3rd, Chris Szakacs, 38lb 15oz
4th Lee Willams, 18lb 2oz

1st Silvers (default), Steve Burgess 9lb 7oz.

Weigh Sheet.

So for 7 of us it was a tough day with the majority of carp up towards the far end, bungalows end, of the lake and also well into the reeds where they wouldn't come out from.
I couldn't get any rhythm going either for the silvers or carp and only caught out of the blue rather than by design. In hindsight, maybe targeting the rudd should have been my only option seeing Lee and Alan would have the top 2 overall pay-outs.
But I enjoyed it and will look forward to the next match on there, hopefully the reeds will be managed to sensible levels by then.

Next up is Harescombe next Sunday, a nice little jaunt, but plenty of bites (famous last words).

Until then. Take Care.

Lee

Pawlett Match, Landsend Fishery, Match + Speci. 18/01/15

After very little sleep and a near error on my part with the draw time, I arrived at the venue not too long before the draw. I wasn't in the best of mind. But I had to press on.
With 29 of us fishing the turn out was ok, several new members were present which is good, so was the banter.
The 2 golden pegs were draw, peg 15 (very nice, good chance) and peg 39 (no chance barring a miracle). I fancied the ever consistent pegs 31 to 34 on the speci lake and any odd number + p24 on the match lake.
I managed to get my self to the rear end of the queue and with only a couple of pegs present I plucked out peg 39. Bugger. Not the best peg at the best of times.

I made my way to the peg, where I had Brian Gattis  on corner peg 40 and Eric Fouracre on peg 38. Opposite was Steve Fouracre (p26) and Lewis Hembery (p25). But with nearly every peg on my side in, peg 35 was empty I think, the writing on the wall was already written.

View of P39, Landsend Speci Lake.

I went about sorting the kit out and assembled 4 rigs, 1 for silvers anywhere from 4m out to 14.5m where the shelf up to the far bank began.
A shallow rig for banded pellet up against the end of the island and near the end of the island.
The heavier rig for over the silver's spots in open water should I need to swap(yeah right!!).
I would fish the silvers by utilising 2 lines at 2+2 in the 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock directions, plus a line just a touch onto the shelf at 14.5m. I would fish micros/expanders on one short line, groundbait and maggot on the other. While micros would be fed at 14.5 with mostly maggot on the hook.
Last rig for 16m and would do for topkit down my margins, was a slightly heavier rig with caster and prawn on the menu.

The match was pretty dire for most though, the light was not great and most of my bank struggled to see their floats for most of the match. Other than the usual 4 pegs, I think only 2 or 3 carp were netted by the rest of  the lake. Perch were the bonus fish, maybe skimmers if they were to show.

So how did the match go? I mostly spent the day rotating lines hoping to pick up a few fish rather than aim to catch carp,  which were obviously not present in numbers.
It seemed all I could get was roach, some nice ones to 8oz, odd palm sized skimmer. I even managed a chublet and a couple hybrids.
Eric on p38 managed a few nice perch mid-way through, but his line died when he tangled and lost a rig in the bush opposite him. But he had a late flurry of silvers to boost his weight to a silvers winning net of around 10lb.
Brian on p40 had 1 carp on corn while having a cuppa, that carp went on a merry dance through his and my peg, killing the fishing for a while, but he did catch plenty of nice roach to 12oz in his 6lb silvers net.
Young Lewis on p25 only had a couple fish, 1 rudd and a nice perch. Steve Fouracre had an accidental carp and a few silvers. That was it really on the lake, except 31-34.
At least the banter between the 5 of us was great, it had to be....we'd all of fell asleep through lack of action.

I did foul hook a decent fish on a topkit line I had started, but it was quiet. I did bump off a perch and a nice skimmer came adrift halfway through the match.

So the 3:30pm all out came not quick enough, in fact a few had packed up and gone home.
I loaded the car and had a bit of a natter with a few before I tipped my 4lb 1oz on the scales, which was, again, more than I was admitting to. Eric had weighed 10lb and Brian had the 1 carp and 6lb of silvers.

Results:
1st p31 Kev Lock, 53lb-ish
2nd p24 Keith Clapp, 45lb-ish
3rd was 35lb or so

Top silvers was 10lb-ish by Eric on peg 38 (a few decent perch and some roach/skimmers)

So not a day to remember and my eyes are a little frazzled from the light.
Next up is a PSV match at Emerald Sapphire pool, I haven't ever fished that lake!!

Take care
Lee

Sedges Tile Lake, PSV Match, 11-01-15

15 of us fished today at the ever consistent Tile lake on the Sedges complex.
The weather was due to be rather windy with a possible shower here and there. On arrival though the wind wasn't too bad, the pegs along the road bank were pretty well sheltered with the odd blustery spell affecting the presentation. It wasn't too cold though and a few fish were topping all over the lakes.

Before the draw I hoped for a corner peg (except peg 30) or perhaps peg 25. Otherwise I wasn't too bothered. In the end I picked the 3rd or 4th last ticket and again peg 27 was staring back at me, not too bothered by this and thought I would spend the day on the waggler with meat, obviously this wouldn't be my only option.

Arriving at my peg I set about sorting my kit out, to my right I had Lee Waller, whom no doubt would be targeting silvers I presumed, on my left I had Chris Gay.
Further along, on the golden peg, up in the corner on peg 30 was Will Dearlove, the other corners were taken by Adam Caswell in peg 31, Keith Ray was in flyer 21 and Chris Szakacs  was in the peg that won the week previous, Peg 40.

Again........Peg 27 on Tile Lake, Sedges Fishery

Once I had wetted my micros and added the 1st batch of water to my groundbait I began to assemble my kit.
I set up a waggler to fish around 30m in front, a comfortable range for feeding and casting. A methd feeder was put together to chuck in the vicinity of the island of which I had half.
For the pole I set up a silvers rig for around 11m in front, a heavier rig that would cover the same spot and would do for my 2+2 line at a slight angle to my left.

For bait I had micros for the feeder, plus the usual baits for the band. Some dead and live maggots for feeding on the 2+2 line and lastly I had a tin of meat cubed into 6mm pieces. This bait would be for the waggler and for on the hook at 2+2.

After sorting my kit out and having a cuppa the all in was called at 10:15am.
I potted 3 balls of groundbait on the long pole line with a few maggots. A cup of dead maggots and a few pieces of meat were deposited on the 2+2 line. Lastly I fired some meat around my waggler line before chucking out the feeder and having another cuppa.

The first couple of hours was quiet for myself and Chris and we both only had a carp and a small skimmer apiece. His fish came on the pellet feeder, mine on the method. Further along to my right was Matt Taynton, he was catching a few on the waggler with banded 6mm as bait. Otherwise not much activity was occurring across the lake.

Around 12 o'clock I took a look on the long pole line using the heavier rig as there was a few bubbles coming up, Lee on peg 26 was also catching a few small fish, so I had hoped the better fish had gathered on my fed spot. 1st drop in saw my float sail under and a small skimmer was swung in, another followed and then I switched to the light rig, this gave me a couple roach before I re-fed and went out onto the waggler. 1st chuck I had a bite and was connected to a small carp.
A quiet 15 minutes passed before a skimmer graced my net, a small carp soon followed before I hooked a fish that I couldn't stop. It was hooked somewhere other than the mouth as I reeled in a decent sized scale. Another 10 minutes of boredom on the feeder was had before I was back on the waggler.

It was soon 1:30 and Chris was getting a few on the tip, varying between the pellet feeder and lead/bread combo. The only others I could see catching were Matt and Rich Briton across from me on around peg 36. Will Dearlove on peg 30 had 4 nice carp in the net.
Back on the waggler and I struck into a foul hooked fish, pulling out of the carp quickly. I rebaited and cast my bait out again, this time I had another carp on, but I managed to lose the fish, my float and everything else......bugger.
I re-assembled the waggler, but it didn't feel the same. I persevered on and managed to catch a few more carp, as did Chris, and we were close enough on fish numbers, though I reckoned he was around 7lb ahead of me at this point.
Lee was happily plundering a few roach and small skimmers on his pole. Adam Caswell had been bank walking as he wasn't catching over on peg 31.

At 2:15 I put a few bits of meat and some maggots on my 2+2 line as I would try it at about 2:45pm in the hope of 2 good sized fish. 
Chris by now was getting quite a few fish on the lead/bread tactic, but I was still managing to nick the odd carp on the waggler. Not many others were catching from what we could see, though we figured that Matt Taynton had done well, we could not see how Chris Szakacs on p40 was doing, but we kept on picking up the odd carp. They seemed to be moving between me and Chris as I'd catch one or 2 then he would and vice versa.

At 2:45pm I was on around 9 or 10 small carp, probably 30 to 35lb, Chris maybe had 40lb or so.
I took a look on the short line on the pole at this point and had a bite right away, this was a skimmer of 6oz or so. Next drop saw me connect to my biggest carp of the match at that point when a 6lber was netted, with the all out at 3:15pm  I knew there was time for another. After 5 mins without any indication I went back on the waggler after I fed a few maggots on the short pole line. Another small carp on the waggler before another 5 minutes without a bite saw me back on the 2+2 line with 5 minutes left of the match.

My last drop of the day on the pole coincided with Chris netting his last carp before he went down his margin where there seemed to be a few fish present. I had a bite with a minute of the match left and I was connected to a lumpy fish which seemed to waddle off in the direction of peg 31 before wadlling back, the all out was called but I carried on playing this fish. 5 minutes passed before I got the fish, which seemed foul hooked, near the surface, it looked a very decent fish of at least 12 or 13lb.
A few more minutes passed and it was getting tired and had come to the surface a couple times, it looked like it was hooked in the pectoral fin, it waddled off again before the hook popped out........bugger. I knew that would cost me, but me being me, wasn't too bothered especially as it was hooked in the wrong place.

As I began to pack up most guys had already loaded their kit onto their trollies or even into their cars. I commented to Chris that he'd probably pipped me by a few pounds, but would be close. He suggested that I was ahead of him as his quiet spells lasted longer than mine.......only the scales would settle that. I finished packing up and rescued a catapult from in my margin by my nets as I'd managed to drop a couple in the water today, 1 went into the silvers keepnet, the other into the lake by my feet.

I wandered over to peg 21 where we'd start weighing in, I'd been nominated to do the honours and firstly we began with Keith Ray, he put 18lb on the scales. Matt Taynton's nets amassed a total of 57lb 4oz, most caught on waggler. But before him Steve Burgess troubled me with 2lb 14oz of quality roach and skimmers.
Alan Healey took a quid off Steve with 13lb+. Next up was Lee Waller's silvers, 4lb dead was the call.
Lee took the scales from me as I was next in line, my silvers went a whopping 2lb 6oz followed up by 46lb 14oz of carp. That lost carp had cost me, but then everyone loses fish, Chris had too lost fish during the day, so had I.
I continued with the scales and put Chris' weights on the scales, 3lb of silvers was complemented with 44lb 6oz. This meant I had just stayed ahead of him, but would that lost double cost me further still? 
Will never weighed in, Adam (p31) and Ryan (p32) didn't amass much, but Ryan's dad Mark Radford on peg 33 did have some lumpy carp and his nets gave him 38lb 14oz.
The guest we had fishing (Keith) on peg 35 put 9lb on the board before Rich Britton on peg 37 gave Matt's weigh a run for the money but fell shy with 51lb 1oz of carp. He moved ahead of me into 2nd spot. Lionel Legge on peg 38 put 12lb or so on the scale before we arrived at peg 40 only to find Chris Szakacs dnw'd..!!

Sedge's Tile, PSV, 11-01-15

So I had managed 3rd spot, which I am happy with, but that lost foul hooked fish at the end cost me the win, but the fish get lost throughout the match.
Matt fished tidily on the waggler to take the win, so well done him.
It didn't fish brilliant, but everyone had a few bites, which is good during the winter.
I enjoyed the day again, fishing the waggler is one of my favourite forms of fishing.

Next up for me is a match down at Landsend with Pawlett.

Until next time, Take Care.

Lee.

Sedges Open, Tile Lake, 04-01-15...........Nope Brick Lake Knock-Up

Todays blog will only be short-ish after the day got off to a not-so-good start.
I woke up not feeling great, but I had a match to fish over on Sedges Tile Lake.......!!

I loaded the car and made the short trip to the venue, just for Jamie to tell me that I wasn't down on the list, which was now full, but I could hang around in case anyone doesn't appear. If they all did arrive then I could fish a knock-up with himself, Steve Fouracre and a late arrival in John Dursley.
Otherwise it'd have been a quick jaunt to Summerhayes or try and get on the open down at Avalon, neither of which appealed.

I had a bit of a chat with Johnny Page, Simon Ryall and a few others. Matt Taynton and Lionel Legge whom fish with PSV appeared too. Denise made me a cuppa, which went down well. They do look after anglers at Sedges.

I stuck around and all 20 fishing Tile arrived so the 4 of us would all chuck a tenner in the pot and the winner would get the £40, so at least a little competition. The main draw was done for the open match and no peg stood out as it seemed plenty of fish were showing all over the lake. Brick lake too had plenty of showing fish, carp and skimmers topping all over.
The 4 of us would fish the same times as the main match, 10am - 3pm and we'd plop ourselves on pegs 3, 5, 7 and 9. I drew 9, Jamie on 7, Steve on 5 and John down on peg 3. The lower numbered pegs had been doing ok recently on the silvers.

At my peg I set up a waggler to fish at around 20m in front, plus I set up a rig for 13m with silvers in mind plus a 2+2 rig for down my left hand edge, but that never gave a bite so no more on that.
Baits were live and dead maggots, micros and 6mm meat. The micro and maggot would be for the longer pole line and meat would be fished on the waggler and down the edge. I'd also fire a few maggots over the waggler line and a few would go down the edge.

I began on the waggler, not feeding anything and only suffered a missed bite in the first 20 minutes before a look on the pole, prompted by Jamie catching a few small roach and skimmers, gave me a couple roach to 3 or 4oz, but it was slow.
After an hour I bumped a couple skimmers on the pole before a couple more roach were added to the net.
90 minutes in and both Jamie and Steve were catching a few, the carp hadn't showed yet. But at that point I noticed John on peg 3 had attached himself to a carp and was on the waggler.
I returned to my waggler and missed a bite 1st chuck but connected with a decent skimmer on the next cast, a few minutes later I was attached to a carp myself and after a flurry of lengthy waddles by the fish I netted a mirror of around 13lb, bonus.

The remainder of the match was mostly spent on the waggler, only trying the short pole lines to rest the swim. I managed to catch another 4 carp and I found the decent skimmers were present and gave me regular bites, though as expected I did pull out of a few when bringing them in.
An un-seasonal tench of 2lb along with a 12oz perch were also put in the net as they interrupted the skimmer activity.

The all-out was sounded and I had 5 carp and about 8 or 10 decent skimmers, a perch, a tench and a few assorted roach, rudd and small skimmers. Maybe low double figures of silvers and 25lb of carp.
I spoke with John and he reckoned on 20lb+ of silvers and a couple small carp. He'd lost a carp estimated at 18-20lb earlier in the match.

The open match weighed in before us, so it was a matter of packing up and loading the car. I did catch up with the weigh in on the match to see that an 18lb fish was netted by someone and the road bank gave weights of 80-odd pound and 92lb to Paul Homewood and Simon Ryall respectively. Plenty of 25-35lb nets were weighed too and the top silvers was around 10lb to John Page.
Pegs 31 to 40 gave a few decent nets to 60lb or so before Kev Crouch on corner peg 40 places 100lb and a few ounces on the scales to take the match win.

On our little knock-up John Dursley placed 26lb of skimmers, caught short and late, on the scales plus a couple carp to total his net to 33lb-ish.
Steve Fouracre put mid-double figures of silvers on the scales before Jamie put around 17 or 18lb of mostly small fish on the board.
Lastly I weighed in, my 5 carp went just under 30lb, my double figures of silvers actually weighed just over 25lb. I weighed 55lb dead and was a nice days fishing on the waggler. So I picked up the £40 'winnings', so not too bad a day really.

Results for the Tile Match
1st p40, Kev Crouch, 100lb 9oz
2nd p24 or 25?, Simon Ryall, 92lb+
3rd p21, Paul Homewood, 82lb+

Silvers went to John Page with just over 10lb from peg 26 I think.

Next up for me is a match, for definite, is a PSV Match on Sedges Tile lake.

Until next time, Take care.

Lee