Makins Fishery, Fishomania Qualifier. 29-04-15

My last attempt at fisho for 2015 was today, up at the multi-laked, multi-phased Makins fishery in Wolvey (nr Coventry/Nuneaton). It would be a 2.5hr drive so an early start again for me, but the journey wasn't too bad for the first 90 minutes, but once on the M42 it rained, and rained, and rained a bit more. Visibility was shocking, coupled with the 7:30 traffic around the area, it was a bit tricky in the conditions. But I got there in plenty of time for the 9am draw.
It was my 1st visit to the lakes and finding info wasn't easy, although they have opens several times a week, they tend to rotate the lakes used.

What I first noticed about the lakes in phase 1, was that they looked extremely well kept and pegging wasn't as tight as a lot of other place. With only Lake 5 in on the 1st phase and all the lakes on phases 2 and 3 in the draw we expected plenty of space and this proved true. I figured a weight near 100lb would be pushing a spot at Cudmore in July.

After a chat with a couple of guys, one from Yeovil, it was down to the draw. I managed to squeeze in around 40th in the line of 130, just pushing in front of Warren Martin I plucked peg 14 on Crater......I was told it was ok, I didn't have a clue.!!
A quick look at where it was and I headed off to phase 2, which is only a few hundred yards up the road.
I parked the car and had a quick look for my peg, I found it easy enough, it was literally 40yrds from the car park and there seemed to be a good few carp roaming up in the water in the vicinity of my peg. I didn't expect them to stay there as 40 or so guys were expected to pass the area on their way to the lakes further along, true to form, the fish vanished 10 minutes after I plonked myself on my peg.

Crater, Makins Phase 2 (my peg top right)

My left hand area

P14 Crater, in front.

We only had 6 on this 15 peg lake and coupled with Little Reptile my section was spread over the 2 lakes.

I set up a small method feeder, just incase of emergencies, plus 4 topkits:
A rig for 4m in front using meat over dead maggots.
A rig for banded pellet along to my left hand edge in several spots right along to the tree, this rig was suitable for tight over to the left hand island at 15m, but I never fished there as the wind would make presentation tricky,
A rig was made to fish meat tight to the right hand island at 15m, again this didn't produce a fish and I only tried it a couple times.
Lastly a rig for 13m in front, again for banded pellet. I never picked up this rig,

I had my 2 bags of green swimstim pellets, a bag of 6mm and a bag of 3mm, I didn't use any 3mm!!
Some 6mm meat and a pint of dead maggots finished my bait tray, except 1/2kg of groundbait for the feeder and maybe down the edge.

I began at 11am by potting a few small amounts of bait into various spots and began on the short maggot/meat line.  After a while I remained biteless, though the guy off at the other end of the pool had landed a couple small carp.
A look across to the islands and then down my edge gave me nothing in the 1st 90minutes. It didn't look great!!
After just under 2hrs the fish started to venture down to me and I managed to hook and lose a fish from near the tree down to my left, a scale returned from my culprit. I landed my next couple of carp, both 2lb or so. A fish soon broke my hooklength on the legs of the empty peg to my left, that peg lost me 2 or 3 other fish over the day.
I missed a couple of bites and I thought they were liners so I shallowed up to around 2ft deep, this worked as a couple more fish came before 2pm. I found that feeding 4 or 5 pellets randomly in the area worked best at keeping the fish away from the margin, I would struggle to get too close to the edge over at that distance in the wind and these little carp were mental fighters.

It was now 2:30 and I had landed 8 or 9 carp up to 3lb, the guy on peg 1 was ahead of me as he seemed to be getting fish regularly from the end bank and his side of the island.
Then I had a mishap, my number 5 section broke and I had no spare. I telescoped the section and chucked a method feeder down to the same area and this gave me 3 or 4 carp of 2lb max!!
I gingerly shipped out the pole to the same area and managed several more fish over the next hour, it wasn't fast and furious though.
The lad on 1 was doing well and the man to my right on 12 was getting a good stamp of fish compared to mine, he also had a 4lb barbel and some nice skimmers. The other 3 were struggling.

As we approached the last hour my clicker showed 43lb as I had 16 carp and 1 roach at this point.
A look down my margin never gave me a fish, just crap and snags, the fish were there but catching them was tricky,
I tried my short meat line as the chap on 12 was doing all his fish on meat short, but I only had 2 small carp from here in the last 60 mins.
20 minutes from the end came and the guy on peg 1 landed 3 lumpier carp for around 16lb+ in the last period, which I was sure pushed him ahead of me. I couldn't get any stamp fish from any of my lines.
A couple more fish shallow from my left hand side were netted before the all out. My clicker stoped at 53lb. 20 carp and 1 roach was my tally for the day, losing 4 or 5 for various reasons.

I packed my gear away happy enough, bar the broke section, and I knew that I'd probably done ok really. The scales took a while to arrive, but when they did the board showed the section was being won with 39lb. The chap on 12 landed 42lb or so before I plonked 65lb 12oz on the scales.
Peg 1 weighed next and those last 3 fish proved decisive as he weighed 70lb 4oz to take the section money, unless he finished in the top 6 I wouldn't win a penny.
It proved that way with him just falling short of the overall frame.

I think I finished 10th (or higher) on the day, a decent result overall, I could have done some things different and I made some mistakes, but I am happy enough with how I did.

Results:
1st, Simon Colclough, 93lb 8oz. Lizard peg 16.
2nd, Wayne Ibbotson, 93lb 40z. Lagoon peg 2.
3rd=, Rob Wootten, 91lb, Lagoon peg 3.
3rd=, Andrew David, 91lb, Lizard peg 10.
5th, Andy Geldart, 89lb 4oz, Lizard peg 32.

So a few things I learned a few things today and enjoyed the day, it pretty much stayed dry too, which was a bonus.

Next up for me is Cary on Sunday, whether I have a pole or not remains to be seen.

Until then, Take Care.

Lee

Pawlett Match, Avalon Fishery, 26-04-15

With the weather looking least favourable for fishing (or rather less than 'easier to fish in') I had for some reason decided I would fish for silvers today. That was my 1st mistake, I should not really pre-decide what I am going to fish for before the event, but I know I wont learn.

I arrived in plenty of time for the draw and with 30 or so of us due to fish, including a couple new-comers and a couple who don't fish with us 99% of the time, it was going to be a competitive match.
A good bit of banter flowed, a bit of it based around the 5 day event that Avalon and Sedges are having this week. It was all good fun though.

I waited until there were 3 numbers left in the bag and managed to pluck out end peg(for the match) number 42. A decent margin peg, carp peg and ok-ish for silvers.
I made my way to my peg and set about sorting my kit, 2 rigs for 14m in two spots, one fed with groundbait the other wetted 4mm pellets that a 6mm banded would be fished over (no bite here so nin more...!!).
A 3m whip to fish caster over caster in front and lastly a margin rig down to my left, just as a last resort, plus the odd tench and decent skimmer can get caught down the edges here.
I did set up a pellet waggler too, but the wind wasn't right for good presentation and would blow off course within seconds of it landing.

P42 Avalon.
 

For company I had  Keith Clapp on peg 40, opposite I had Martin Heard  on peg 7 and Eric Fouracre on peg 8. Both of those two were targeting the carp, Martin on the pellet wag  mostly, Keith on the feeder as the wind wasn't great for pellet wag fishing.

Bait was simply 8mm pellets incase I chose to fish for carp, some meat for the edge swim. I also had some caster, dead maggots, expanders and wetted 4mm pellets. Plus some groundbait.
At the all in I deposited 5 balls of groundbait on the 10 o'clock 14m line and some wetted 4's in the 2 o'clock direction at the same distance.
Some 8mm pellets fired to the island and a nice helping of meat down my left margin.

I began on the wag , but other than a lost fouler I gave up on this, mostly as my heart wasn't into fishing for carp today. So I came in on the whip and began catching a few rudd and odd small skimmer and perch.
Opposite Eric and Martin had landed a couple carp, as had Keith.

An hour into the match and it all seemed to be going a bit 'Pete Tong' for me, the silvers had drifted off and the decent skimmers had not appeared in numbers, I had a couple of around 12oz.
I tried the pellet wag and managed to snare a small carp and pulled out of a couple, but I had to get right tight to the island, this was not a problem, but the wind moved the float too far off within seconds of the float landing.

Back on the silvers and I caught a few more small fish on the whip then a baby 6oz carp on the groundbait line. It was tricky for me, but I did feel like I was going nowhere fast, Eric had started catching a few decent skimmers on the pole, plus he'd had a few carp and even a crucian.
Martin Heard was amassing a great weight and looked well clear of everyone I could see or hear.
But I figured most people were getting some carp, I also heard that James Withers on peg 4 had landed a few decent bream/skimmers. So my silvers fishing wasn't going to plan and I was seemingly too far behind in the carp  stakes.

At around 2pm I took a look along my margin and this gave me a couple squeeker carp and a handful of baby perch. I guess I had 15lb of fish in total (6lb silvers and 9lb of carp).
I decide to try the pole rig over the whip line and this gave me around 4 skimmers of 6oz each.

P42 Avalon, left hand margin.

A couple more carp from the left margin and another on the waggler probably boosted my carp net to around 18lb. But I stuck mostly on the topkit with either small bits of meat or 3 dead maggots as bait, this gave me a few small fish before the all out. I reckoned on 30lb max in total.

Elsewhere, Martin was over 150lb, Eric had lost a load of silvers (decent bream) but had landed a good few and looked to be topping the silvers nets. Keith and Nigel (next to him) had  a good few carp each, in fact 3 of us told Nige that he was over his net limit easily......it turned out he wasn't much to a  few of our amazements!!

I packed my gear up and walked around to watch the weigh in.
Bruce Hunt weighed 60lb+ from peg 1, James had 20lb 7oz in his 28lb net from peg 4. Martin Heard put 166lb+ of pellet waggler caught fish on the board and had probably won.
As we went through the field we saw plenty of 30-50lb nets and Eric's silvers weighed 30lb and ounces plus he had 46lb of carp.
Tom Mangnall and Jamie Cook on pegs 28 and 29 had put 77lb and 70lb on the scales respectively, Tom's net was 2nd on the day Jamie won the section.
Then we made our way along with Nige only putting 66lb (not the nr 100lb a couple of us guessed) on the board.
I was last to weigh and I had 26lb 8oz of carp and  17lb 12oz of silvers giving me 44lb 4oz and around 10th overall and 5th in silvers.

Results:
1st Martin Heard 166lb 5oz p7
2nd Tom Magnall 77lb 7oz p28
3rd  Eric Fouracres 76lb 3oz p9

Silvers
Eric 30lb 8oz p8
Pierce Furlong 20lb 11oz p19
James Withers 20lb 9oz p4

So all in all I didn't do myself any favour in terms of either the silvers or overall but I know I should have stuck to the whip as I am sure I could have caught 25lb or so....OR got a feeder out and made an effort for the carp, I am sure I could have had plenty more carp........but my pre-empted decision and impatience never paid off today.

Weigh Sheets, some consistent weights.

Next up for me is a jaunt upto Makins for a Fishomania qualifier, then on Sunday I think I am on Cary with the PSV crew.

Until then, take care.
Lee

Fishomania Qualifier, Gold Valley Lakes. 22-04-15

A brief-ish blog today as not much happened, in fact not much happened for the majority of anglers.

A 2.5hr drive up the A303/M3 after a 5:30am departure saw me arrive at the complex at just before 8am. A few people were present and my 1st task was for a cuppa and bacon sarnie, both were rather nice actually.
I spent the next hour chatting to a few guys and then took a brief walk around Middle and part of Gold Lakes, I must say for those who haven't been there, the pegging can be tight and all of them are fully concrete, with solid concrete paths and roads around the venue.
As I took a walk round there were plenty of carp cruising the surface of Middle lake, especially on the pegs at the far end (83 to 89 or so) and I remained hopeful that this would be a good sign, however with almost every peg in on 3 lakes (all bar 1 on Middle) and the wind due to increase, the fish could go and hide and decide that doing bugger all would be their best option.

Looking up Middle Lake, Gold Valley

Anyways on to the draw, I was around 30th to pick a peg and other than the end pegs and those with islands on Gold Lake.
My peg was 92, nothing special, halfway along the left hand bank of Middle, but you never know.
I left the other local guys to draw their pegs and none of them drew a flyer and most were on Syndicate Lake.

I moved my car to the correct car park and then got my kit to my peg.
Tackle wise I set up a pellet waggler, a method feeder and a bomb rod, all to be fished towards the central rope. The wind had now become rather brisk and was blowing down the lake from my left to right and slightly from behind me, it was a nippy wind too. I kept in tee shirt, the other bank were rather wrapped up!!
I also set up 4 pole rigs, 1 margin, 1 banded pellet at depth, a shallow pellet rig and 1 for meat at 6 sections. I had a nice 18" tight in to my edges but the rest of the peg was around 2ft 6in deep from topkit out to 16m!! Others had less, including Nathan Watson down on around peg 97 or 98, 10 inches all over was the depth he had he said!!
Bait was a few kilos of groundbait, a couple tins worth of 8mm meat, some 6mm and 8mm pellets/ Plus some (all unused) dead maggots, corn and hemp.

Middle peg 92, Gold Valley Lakes

On to the match, at the all in I didn't go over the top and fired a dozen pellets over the running line spots before some pellets were deposited at 14m, some meat at 6m plus a little gb/meat in each margin.
I started on the waggler and after 10 mins I hooked and lost a carp that was hooked not in the mouth as a small scale was attached. Another 20 minutes passed and then I had a small bite on the waggler, after a spirited scrap I netted a 2lb carp brilliantly hooked in the belly, so I shallowed up.
Nobody else from what I could see had caught a fish.
Another 10 minutes passed when next door on peg 93 hooked a fish on the method feeder, as he was playing that I had a bit on the waggler, it started off as what felt like a skimmer, but then soon felt it's lungs and fought like mad.
A ten minute scrap with this skimmer (obviously a carp),  saw a mirror of the size you'd expect at Viaduct. A scoop and shuffle with the net, at the 2nd attempt, and it was mine.....well nearly it wasn't as I managed to break my landing net at the connection, on doing this the fish flipped and almost came out of the net, which really wasn't large enough for that scenario. But I got it into my keepnet.
The guy on 93 lost his fish.
Peg 91 hadn't had a bite, neither had most of the guys on this lake.

We were now 90 minutes into the match and it was hard work, I had been flicking bits of meat don my right edge, which I could see better, and the was a tail waving up at me so I lowered that rig in and waited. Soon enough the inevitable happened and the fish did the off and that was my margins done for the day despite my trying.
A look on the meat line saw a skimmer and roach netted.

The last 3hrs of the match was dire, 1 briefly foul-hooked carp and 1 missed bite on the meat line.
The last hour had seen a few others on the lake pick up the odd carp, some had already packed up (a good few actually) and others were just seeing out the time as you cant move your vehicle from any car park except the 1st one by the lodge.

The all out was called and a mass of anglers were departing, some hadn't had a bite, others just 1 carp or a couple skimmers.
I weighed in though and my 2 carp and 2 silvers went 20lb 2oz, that bigger carp was around 16 or 17lb. I was 3rd or 4th in my 10 peg section with that!!

The winner on the day was Bait-Tech's Dave Roberts with 103lb from 114(?) on Syndicate Lake, and Perry Stone 2nd with 90lb or so from Gold Lake peg 43.

A nice, busier, drive home followed.
I do feel that looking back maybe a fish for all using maggots or soft pellets could have been the way to go, but then you ain't gonna win doing that and the main prize is why we fish!!

Next up is a Pawlett match at Avalon on Sunday, the weather is likely to be less good and we have wetter and cooler weather due, just to disrupt the fish!!

Until then, Take Care.
Lee

P.S. Don't forget guys and gals, on August the 8th there is a match at Summerhayes to raise money for The Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund. Check out the Facebook page for details and to contact myself, Mark Cox or Norm Sterry to book in. It's all for a good cause. We have around 45 booked in now and ideally 64 would be amazing and would raise over £1200 for the charity.

12/04/14, Sedges Fishery. Pawlett Club. Silvers only match.

After Saturday's long day at Summerhayes, I wasn't in the best of frames of mind to fish Sunday, but I had agreed and it is not 'me' to cancel unless an emergency.
So up around 3hrs earlier than I would have liked, I loaded my kit into the wagon and sat and mused over a cuppa on what to use as bait, I am not one for chopped worm and I am not the ideal person to ask for expander pellet fishing. So it was a simple meat and groundbait attack, plus a few maggots as a last resort bait. Luckily I had some meat all chopped into little pieces, and I have a few bags of groundbait to get through!!

I arrived at the breezy looking lakes (well breezy in 2 thirds, only the first couple on Brick and the road bank of Tile escaping the brunt of it). I didn't really fancy a peg on Tile, but I never do. But the venue is usually pretty fair on the silvers front, though 3 to 5 and 15 to 19 are slightly preferred and with the 4 corners of each lake not in (carpy pegs!!) pegs 2, 9, 12 and 19 on Brick would surely benefit, the only peg on Tile that I may have taken would be 39 as it is a decent peg. With 31 fishing there would be 3 sections spread over the 2 lake.

After a bit of chat and a cuppa from Denise, it was down to the draw. I kept an eye on the draw sheet and was pleased to see that Tile was almost full with only 1 peg on there left in the bucket and a few more left on Brick. I waited until 3 balls were left, they were all on Brick, I plucked peg 8. Not bad, but to be fair there aren't any really bad pegs at the lakes.

I wandered my kit along to the peg and saw I had a regular Sedges silvers angler on peg 9 in the form of George 'land a 20lb carp an hour' Fletcher. On peg 7 was another Sedges regular, Steve Fouracre.
Opposite I had owner Jamie Cook and Keith Clapp.

Sedges Brick Lake. peg 8.

First off was to mix up 1.5kg of green f1 groundbait and soak a few 4mm and micro pellets.
I then set about knocking my kit together for the match, this consisted of 3 top kits with slack no.8 laccy, one for topkit length just off the margin reeds, one for 13m for using maggot/meat/expander in front (needed the bump bar, should have used on Saturday!!) this would do for 2+2 distance in front, both rigs were on 0.14>0.10>b911f1 size 18 hook.
Last rig was based on catching a few carp on purpose if I was really struggling and wanted a day's fishing, lol.....I didn't pick this rig up!!
I also set up my obligatory waggler rod for around 25m in front, plus a small cage feeder for the same line.

While I was setting up there was a nice bit of banter flowing between Phil Clapp (behind me on peg 32) and George, I was told to batter George and how George would be pestered by carp all day being the closest to peg 10!! All a laugh though, I kept on a George for most of the match, but he's able to take it, either that or he's deaf in his 'elder status'.

Anyways with plenty of time to set up I found myself faffing but stopped short of making any more rigs up or something else pointless.
The all in was called at 10:30 and my 1st cast of the 6hr contest was on the waggler, I fired a few small balls of groundbait at the float and waited for that 1st bite......George had that, a decent skimmer 1st chuck.
It took me a while to get my 1st fish, a 8 or 9lb carp on the waggler, a 2nd soon followed. But I persevered and I soon had a small skimmer which promptly fell off as I was about to swing it in.
Behind me Phil was also getting carp. Nobody else had much really, well Rob Dodd on peg 5 had landed a couple skimmers, but that was it,

After an hour I took a look on the feeder over the waggler line, especially as the wind and tow wasn't the best for the float. As soon as the feeder hit the water a skimmer took the bait on the drop, all 12oz of it, but it was a start. A short while longer a carp was briefly hooked, but the hook pulled.
All the while George had been catching small roach and skimmers and was doing well.
Steve on peg 7 was yet to catch more than a couple small skimmers.
Another lob on the feeder saw a decent 1lb skimmer netted, it took it about 1 second after the feeder hit the water!! Then it went dead.....

2 hours in and I came on the long pole and managed to pick up another small skimmer. It was slow going for most.
Over the next couple of hours I managed a couple more carp and around 4 or 5 skimmers of 3 or 4oz each, plus the odd rudd.
A look on the topkit line gave me a few quick roach to 4oz and a couple 2oz rudd, then I landed a carp of around 4lb before it's 13lb mate found my hook, then another couple carp escaped, all hooked on single maggot.
Steve Fouracre was having the same carp problems and by the end of the match he'd maybe had 130lb of them and I wasn't far behind with fish to around 17lb.....it's amazing what you can get in and relatively quickly on light gear. I bet if carp counted we would have lost nearly all of them.!!

With an hour to go it was clear that the only people on the lake who were catching were Rob Dodd on peg 5 and over on peg 19 was Derek Beard. Carp were becoming more active for most people!!
I switched to my 2+2 line, which I had fed more regularly for an hour before fishing and this game me a nice skimmer followed by a carp then a couple more skimmers.
A look on the 13m line also gave me 2 skimmers and a nice roach before the all out.
The last 15 mins were spent on the 2+2 line and other than a carp I had a decent skimmer, which, by now, Steve had been enjoying himself catching carp on the top kit.
Poor old George had stopped catching regularly during the last 90 minutes, though I kept telling him he must have 20lb, or 13lb or 15lb.....by which time I had confused him and he thought he must have 15lb....or 10lb....even he wasn't sure!!
I thought I'd got 8 or 10lb perhaps.

The all out was called and all began to pack away. I managed to acquire the weigh board for Brick lake and we began with George's mate Bob Pascoe. He'd fished a 'hot peg' according to George and wasn't disappointed to have 15lb 8oz, I convinced George that it'd be close between the 2 of them for a quid!!
As we went up the bank the only weight of significance was Rob Dodd's net of 36lb 12oz, mostly caught long-ish on the pole. There was a couple 9 and 10lb nets until we got to me. My estimate, as usual, was shy of what I actually weighed which was 15lb 3oz.
George's weigh was 'only' 10lb 3oz and he had to hand a quid to his mate.
Around to peg 11 and Paul Squire had snuck 11b 12oz into his net, I hadn't seem him catch a lot on the feeder, so he'd done well. Jamie had 6lb+, Keith didn't weight before Pete Manning had a creditable 12lb+ net. Then Mike Levy, who really (thankfully) doesn't fish too often put 15lb 12oz on the scales to overtake my weight. Eric Fouracre had just under 9lb and then Mike Davis 3lb+.
Lastly was Derek Beard, as he lifted his net it was clear he had nearly 30lb and not enough to beat Rob, but at 29llb 3oz it was a nice weight.

I went and looked at the Tile weigh sheet and it showed that Vic Bush had caught over 30lb, on chopped worm, but other than that nobody had caught a lot. It was a tricky day.
I marked the sheets for Jamie, top 3 and 3 sections, though I did accidently write Vic as winning  (prob as he was the last person I chatted to) and Rob 2nd .....blond moment. I told Jamie the check and he pointed this out right away....what a numpty!

Results:
1st Rob Dodd, peg 5, 36lb 12oz
2nd Vic Bush, peg 39,  32lb 4oz
3rd Derek Beard, peg 19, 29lb 3oz

So a tricky day out for 28 of the 31 of us, I managed 6th but only 9oz separated 3 of us, I had dropped a skimmer back in the lake towards the end, but I don't think it was 10oz.
I did have a load of carp, in the end I had to stick with meat on the hook to avoid them!! Single or double maggot was the best carp bait.

After the match I spent a good while chatting to Barry Morgan about all things, but he said that he was pleased that in my KSD blog last month I went easy on him and didn't mention that he fished like a 'several 4 letter expletives', but's it isn't like me to rubbish how people fish, except myself and maybe Withers, and if anyone wants ideas or tips (ahem) then I am always honest, but in this case, just for him.....I agree that he did fish like a t**t....(tongue in cheek fella, see you soon).

Weigh Sheets, Sedges Silvers.

No match planned for Sunday yet, maybe the MMT at Larford or I may try Summerhayes again,
Perhaps a rest day........hmmm.

Until then, Take Care.
Lee

11-04-15. Gary Bull/England Disabled Fund Raising Event, Summerhayes Fishery, Bridgwater.

Today wasn't about the fishing (which for some was a bonus), but it was organised and arranged in large by Mark Cox and Norman Sterry. The ambition was to raise a bit of money to help the funding to send Gary Bull and the England Disabled angling team to Portugal for their World Champs.

There were plenty of donations to the raffle from many people and companies, so massive thanks to them (the list will be on the Gary Bull Fundraiser page of Facebook).
Summerhayes Fishery was the chosen venue and Pete (plus he amiable team) were a great help.

I arrived at the lakes around 7:15 and there were still a few people there but I managed to find myself indulged in the sorting of things, mostly helping with the 'admin' side of things, oh and the weigh in!!
There was plenty of banter flying around and we had a few very good anglers fishing as well as a couple of guys who'd never fished a match and a fair few venue regulars.
These guys included Des Shipp, Vince Brown, Alex Murray, Giles Cochrane and plenty of other very capable anglers.

The draw was meant to be 8:45 and fish 10:30 to 16:30, but in the moment of re-jigging the sections/payouts as we had a few no-shows. We began the draw, with raffle tickets being sold at the same time. This went smoothly enough, but by the time 47 of the lads had drawn and mine and Mark's pegs were left, we still had to sort the monies and envelopes etc.....I pulled peg 5 on Sellicks and left Mark with 10 on Longs (although someone else was on there....ooops, but sorted). It left us both with 45 minutes less than everyone else to get ready.

I unloaded my car and rapidly got to my peg, it was windy!! I didn't know if it was good or bad, but a few guys said its ok for both carp and silvers,
I set up a small feeder and 3 top kits for the pole, 1 for silvers at 11m, a deep rig for tight over with carp in mind but could be shallowed as was for banded pellet, a margin rig for top kit+1 to my right with meat and a rig for meat at 13m (no fish caught here).

Summerhayes , Sellicks peg 5.

I sorted my bait out, 6mm meat, dampened 6mm pellets, a few maggots and some damp micros. I also had some groundbait mixed as I planned on 2 silvers lines, one with micro and 2nd with the groundbait.

At the all in I fed the relevant areas and started on the feeder, 20 mins later I switched to the pole and quickly foul hooked a couple carp which came astray. It was hard going it the awkward breeze and the fish didn't seem intent on joining the fun.

The rest of my match was spent rotating all my lines, I managed to snare a 4lb bream on the feeder and a few smaller skimmers over the groundbait, my micros line only gave me 1 bite.
My best line was my right hand margin which gave me 6 of my 8 carp, but they were on the small side.
The silvers never really got going in my peg, but further to my right Ray Wickham was getting a few up to near 6lb, but he'd not entered the silvers pools. Down to my left someone was picking up a few decent skimmers and odd carp.  It was tricky for everyone I could see. The lad on peg 6 also packed up early as he was biteless.

As we headed to the end of the match, rumour came in that Des Shipp on Longs peg 37 was doing really well, he had plenty of room and you don't give 'possibly' the best angler in the room any advantage. Also Vince Brown and Scott Russell on my lake were doing ok. Lilly lake was consistent and Longs was seeing a few people catch some fish late on.

View down Sellicks and you can see Lilly lake in the background

Looking over Longs, note Des Shipp's 'spacious' peg!!

The all out sounded and as I had been nominated for weigh sheet duty, I packed up just my top kits and moved my kit to one side to sort out later on!!
I reckoned I had 20lb of carp and 5lb of silvers but nowhere on the lake or overall.

The weigh in started on Longs and we worked our way through the pegs with 26lb and 24lb (14lb+ silvers) the first couple of weights, then we move around a few more anglers to find Paul Homewood on peg 14 put 30lb on the scales, we soon got to Alex Murray on peg 17. He had 64lb+ from what looked a really wide peg, nice. Jamie Rich down on peg 19 amassed nearly 20lb of silvers that included 4 big bream, a very decent silvers net.
We headed up the road bank to see Giles Cochrane and Dom Sullivan put 49lb+ and 44lb+ on the board respectively. Then Glyn Wickham showed his silvers fishing skills and placed a top silvers net of 25lb 9oz. Last on Longs to weigh was Des Shipp, he had 1lb 1oz of silvers before his 2 weighs of carp went to a limited 80lb (knocked back from 87lb 15oz).

Next up we weighed one side of  Sellicks which saw me weigh 32lb+ and 34lb the only weight better on my side of the lake (section) but Ray Wickham did catch 17lb of silvers from peg 3 and the lad on peg 7 (Steve Rees) had 12lb+ of silvers too.
Lilly gave consistent fishing with a good few nets between 30lb and 42lb, Bob Gullick winning the lake(section). There was a silvers net of 12lb off this lake to Tony Welsby.

We moved back to Sellicks to weigh Paul Preston who was the last angler in my section, then we weighed the far side of the lake.
Vince Brown, a very tidy angler, put a healthy 10lb 3oz of silvers on the board, topping this up with carp moved him to 2nd spot with 69lb+.
Gary Bull himself weighed in 31lb and there wasn't much more until Julian Nurse plopped 29lb of topkit caught fish on the scales. Lastly was Scott Russell on the end peg. He did well to catch 10lb 13oz of silvers and another 40lb+ of carp.

All the weigh sheets!!

 



 



Results, top 15:

1st Des Shipp 81lb 1oz (revised from 89lb) (longs p37)

2nd Vince Brown 69lb 3oz (sellicks p14)

3rd Alex Murray 64lb 12oz (longs p17)

4th Scott Russell 52lb 7oz (sellicks p23)

5th Giles Cochrane 49lb 2oz (longs p29)

6th Dom Sullivan 44lb 9oz (longs p33)

7th Bob Gullick 42lb 7oz (lilly p2)

8th Paul Clayton 38lb 13oz (longs p27)

9th Glynn Wickham 37lb 2oz (longs p35)

10th Gavin Jones 36lb 7oz (lilly p3)

11th  Andy Gard 34lb 7oz (sellicks p8)

12th Simon Hales 32lb 15oz (lilly p8)

13th Lee Williams 32lb 5oz (sellicks p5)

14th Gary Bull 31lb 8oz (sellick p15)

15th Andy Hembrow 30lb 5oz (lilly p11)

Silvers, top 6:

1st Glyn Wickham 25lb 9oz (longs p35)

2nd Jamie Rich 19lb 13oz (longs p19)

3rd Ray Wickham 17lb 1oz (sellicks p3)

4th Geoff Boycott 14lb 13oz (longs p4)

5th= Steve Rees 12lb 11oz (sellick p7)

         Chris Boulton 12lb 11oz (longs p6)

 

So overall I did ok really, 2nd overall in my 10 peg section, 3rd silvers in section (6th lake) and 4th on the lake overall. I did lose a few foul hooked fish and maybe I could have done better if I had been able to fish across better.

 

After the weigh in I sorted the payments out and everyone had a burger given to them courtesy of Summerhayes.

We held a minutes silence in memory of Clive Cunnigham who sadly died this week, he was a part of the furniture at the lakes and will be missed by many.

The presentation was done and as the payment were well spread, there were no less than 17 different anglers picking up today.

After that we held the raffle which was popular as there were plenty of super prizes to win.

 

OVERALL WE RAISED OVER £530 TOWARDS THE COSTS NEEDED BY GARY BULL etc...

 

Des Shipp, today's match winner. (pic pinched off Norm Sterry..!!)

So again a massive well done and thank you to all involved.

 

Next up for me is tomorrow at Sedges in a silvers only match.

 

Until then take care.

Lee

PSV Match, Shiplate Hawthorn/Westpool. 05-04-15

Happy Easter boys and girls, I hope you all got lots of eggs and visited church today.....!!!

Today's gambit was taken up by 15 of us across the 2 canal style lakes down at Shiplate, not my fave style of fishing but I must learn. I didn't want to draw Hawthorn as I have only fished it a couple of times before and (I think) drawn peg 11 and not done too great, yet on Westpool I have done okay.

I arrived in plenty of time but the car parking area was building up as there was a match on the Main Lake. I unloaded the car and found myself chatting to a whole bunch of people and a good few hello/how's you? Titch Williams, Steve King and Shawn Larkham were fishing the match on the Main lake. After paying my fee's to Steve Burgess in his last match as Match Secretary I went and chatted to Kingy, it ended with me telling him to draw either peg 1 or 15!!

Back to the PSV match, we had 8 on Hawthorn and 7 on Westpool. I must say I fancied being on Westpool from around peg 11 up to 15. As usual I waited to the end of the draw, Adam Caswell drew H15 and that won a midweek knock up and I think it was todays golden peg. With the last 2 remaining tickets left being H11 and W11.....I picked H11 and left Mr Burgess W11, I would have 1000% preferred his peg to mine.

I made my way to my peg rather disgruntled, but at least the weather was good, I stayed in short sleeves all day which was rather nice.
At my peg there seemed to be a few fish present but most pegs did also. For company, not that I could see them, were Darren North on peg 9 and Mike Wilson on peg 13.
In the other match Steve King did draw peg 1....No pressure.

Shiplate Hawthorn peg 11.

I began by mixing up some groundbait and wetting some pellets of various sizes.
My bait tray was filled with groundbait, wet micros, maggots, meat, hemp and a few 6mm pellets of in the band. Oh and a few 4mm and 6mm expanders.
I made up a few rigs, a silvers rig for 2+2 in front where I would feed regular small balls of groundbait, a rig for my left hand margin with was within an inch the same depth as at 5m in front!!
A shallower rig was made to fish towards the bottom of the far shelf at 13m-ish at a couple spots at 10 o'clock and 11 o'clock directions.
Lastly a shallow pellet rig was made, ideally for tight over should the floating crap be blown away, plus I have noted from previous visits they will come shallow anywhere in the peg.

At the 10am all-in I cupped some groundbait and maggots on my 2+2 silvers line, and a nice helping of hemp and meat down to  my left.
I started across on 6mm expander (11 o'clock line) and went 15 mins biteless, toss potting micros.
A quick look on the other long line proved fruitless.
So it was 30 minutes in and I came onto the silvers line and plucked a few plippy roach on the drop using maggot, I kept feeding groundbait nuggets regularly.

At the hour point I had a quick drop of the shallow pellet rig down my left margin, this gave me my 1st carp but was a false dawn and I never had a bit down there all day despite my efforts,
At this point I was a good way behind the likes of Adam Caswell up on 15 and Darren North and Alan Healey on pegs 9 and 7 respectively. Mr Wilson on peg 13 had a few silvers but was struggling too.

The next hour was spent between the 2 longer lines and I began to suffer from foul hooked fish and had to change the way I was feeding. I did manage another carp.
The next few hours were dire for me, giving me a solitary carp. Darren was up to 8lb of silvers and looked likely to have that tied up, he also had a good few carp as had Alan and Adam.
I took a few minutes out to re-asses the situation. The silvers were not producing but I kept feeding nuggets of groundbait over that same line but instead of maggots I added a few pieces of meat to the mix. I also re-plumbed the far side and found a shallower area at the 2 o'clock direction against the reeds as opposed to grasses. I fed a decent helping of hemp and meat and carried on between the longer lines at 10+11 o'clock directions, losing a couple of fish to the keepnets

As we entered the last hour I was probably last over the whole match but I hoped/knew a few carp would appear on the converted silvers line. But I went across to my new far line in 2ft of water, drip feeding meat. A couple of carp in a row gave me hope before a 10 minute spell saw me re-feed and come short on that line which had a few bubbles blowing. A 4lb carp from here gave me a little more enthusiasm, a second carp from this spot was welcome before I went back over.
So this last hour was my best, giving me 11 carp to add to my 5hrs amount of 3!!

As I packed up I didn't think I had snuck ahead of Adam, Darren and Alan, but if we had another 30 mins to an hour I would maybe overtaken them as their lines had died and were struggling though Darren had a last gasp carp that trashed a section of his pole.

We were all soon packed up and waiting for the scales to arrive from Westpool so I went and chatted to a few peeps on the main lake which had fished ok but it was assumed that Kingy on peg 1 had won. He'd fished method to the island mostly and even landed a rod & reel.....Nice!
The scales arrived at Adam and a look at the sheet saw weights of 80lb, 74lb and 63lb. Adam's nets went around 61lb, Mike weighed 19lb-ish before I had to weigh, 1lb level of silvers and 55lb or so of carp was slightly more than expected, I suppose 40lb+ came in that last hour spell.

I didn't follow the scales from then on as I made my way back to the car, stopping to chat to Steve King on peg 1. I was soon loading the car before Steve called the results:

1. Matt Challenger (H3) 80-9
2. Steve Burgess (W11) 74-13
3. Matt Taynton (W13) 63-10 (section win)
4. Adam Caswell (H15) 61-9 (section win)
5. Alan Healey (H7) 59-7
6. Lee Williams (H11) 56-2
7. Lee Waller (W5) 55-9
8. Darren North (H9) 55-8
9. Ryan Radford (W15) 48-10
10. Julian Nurse (H1) 46-6
Silvers:
1. Darren North (H9) 11-8
2. Matt Taynton (W13) 10-10

So a pretty fruitless day for me, I just cant get my head around that lake, or maybe I am just pants or maybe the fish just take the mick......a bit of each I think!!
Matt caught on paste across, so well done him.

Weigh sheet, Shiplate Canals

Next up for me is the Gary Bull fundraiser next Saturday at Summerhayes (we have nearly 60 fishing) before a match on Sunday at Sedges, a silvers match with Pawlett.

Until next time, take care.
Lee