PSV match, Avalon Fisheries. 28-06-15,

Over halfway through 2015 already, time certainly is flying by this year!!

A wet and dull start to the day was how it looked when I got out of bed at 7am, so my (not so waterproof) waterproofs were donned before I loaded the car and headed down onto the moors.
10 of us fishing the match after a few guys had decided to switch to fishing an open over at Shiplate, so a little but of room for most.
The 'cover' match secretary for the day was a mix of Adam Caswell (collected money) and Steve Burgess (sorted the pay-outs), though Mr Bush sorts the pegging.  We'd pay top 2 overall and 1 silvers pot, which was likely to be a contest between Matt Challenger and John Bradford.
We had Brian Shanks and Matty Taynton fishing today which meant that a few pellet wagglers would be flung to the island, in fact I would suggest 8 out of 10 of us would fish that, or at least try.

The windy wasn't consistent and was doing the usual blow up the lake, so any of the higher pegs would be better for silvers and carp alike, 23 back to around 16 would be good, avoiding 3 or 5 was to be my preference. Peg 11 was the golden peg and typically Adam Caswell drew it.
I held back a bit and was 'rewarded' with peg 3.... bugger. It had very little in the way of wind/ripple and I had the point of the island to fish to, but there didn't seem like many carp were around, though the reeds to my left and right were knocking around. I didn't really fancy it at all.

Avalon peg 3

I had for company, not that I could see him, was Matt Taynton on peg 5 and then he had Brian Shanks a couple of pegs along again.

I set up a pellet waggler and 4 pole rigs:
A shallow topkit rig for silvers, a depth rig for silvers at 2+2 and 13m, a margin rig for carp (unused) and a depth rig with carp in mind (unused).
For bait I had 8mm pellets and meat, some corn. Plus some caster, dead-ish maggots and some groundbait. I did have some worm which I didn't plan on using as I expected to catch over groundbait.

At the all in I fed my 13m line, margins and short line.
1st chuck on the waggler and I had a chub of 6oz, then spooked a carp......the next 45 mins was dull, I had a solitary 4lb carp and missed a couple bites. I never picked this up again during the match.
The short and long lines were properly fizzing by now, building my confidence, but this was a false dawn as it seemed like all I had was small silvers in the peg and every bait was taken by these fish, even double dendra wasn't safe.
A switch to a 2g+ rig didn't alter anything so back to the 0.6g which felt better. I soon had a crucian of a couple pound on my short line, but things were slow.

After a couple hours I suppose I had put 4lb of bits in my silvers net but it was tough with no wind on the water in front of me, my 13m was poor, it only produced 3 little skimmers all match.
Corn was the best bait thus far and my 2+2 line.

Not much happened over the next 3 or 4 hours, I plugged away getting the odd skimmer, but it seemed like they wouldn't settle down and feed and I had a few occasions where I 'pricked' the odd skimmer, come off bottom and I don't get any indications just picked up rudd.
Come the last hour I spied some carp down my left edge and although it wasn't worth trying to catch them as I was miles behind Matt and Brian, I would see how they responded to feed. After 15 minutes of tricking bait at them I had them within topkit distance down the edge and taking bait as soon as it hit the water!! The sun had obviously stirred the carp up and my peg looked somewhat better than it had 5hrs previous.

The all out sounded and I knew I had bombed out for carp and most probably silvers, I estimated around 10lb or so of silvers, the lack of ripple had put them off feeding confidently in my peg.
I packed my kit away and waited for the scales to come back along as Vic started in peg 23.

By the time they'd got to me it looked like, from a quick glance, that Lionel Legge had won with Chris Szakacs second. The silvers was going to be won by Matt Challenger with an amazing 61 or 63lb from what I could see.
My 10lb guess went an embarrassing 26lb+.....oops.

Result:
1. Lionel Legge (19) 122-7
2. Chris Szakacs (23) 111-1
3. Brian Shanks (7) 102-1...
4. Matt Taynton (5) 79-13
5. Matt Challenger (16) 61-3
6. Steve Burgess (9) 46-10
7. Adam Caswell (11) 41-15
8. Ron Hardiman (13) 33-7
9. Lee Williams (3) 26-4
10. John Bradford (21) 19-12

Silvers:
1. Matt Challenger 61-3
2. Lee Williams 26-4
3. John Bradford 19-12

So really the lack of wind deterred the silvers and the carp arrived down my edge around 4 or 5 hours too late!!
Matt Challenger fished worm and caster at 11m-ish and fed 3pts of caster and 1/2kg of worm, good angling.

Next up for me is Pawlett's Silvers Winners final on Trinity Wildmarsh, I am kinda looking forward to that.
I am off next Weds 8th, Thurs 9th and Friday 10th, so I will prob book into Sedges on the Wednesday and look for a match on the Thursday. Friday will possibly be spent roach fishing up Durleigh, where the fishing at this time of the year is usually bang-on.

Until then, Take Care.
Lee

Pawlett Match, Shiplate Hawthorn and Main lakes, 21-06-15

We originally had 22 lined up for this match but the attendance swelled up with the likes of Tom Mangnall and Mike West coming along for the ride so to speak, so another decent turn out, Pawlett do get good attendances. We had 27 fishing on the day.

I made the 20 minute trip to one of my favourite venues (I don't get to fish it enough though) and was hoping to draw anywhere on the Main lake as I had planned, accidently, to fish for the silvers and the main lake would be certain to take that prize. I say accidently as I had several pints of maggots and casters that I hadn't used at Viaduct on Saturday. The silvers fishing can be great on the lake at times and I have had several 30lb+ weights in the last few years.
On the carp side of things the obvious peg 15 would be the 'draw', despite some saying that it doesn't win all the matches there, it is seen as the plum draw and generally gives great hope for whoever draws it. But I would be happy with pretty much any peg as the lake has plenty of fish in there.
I didn't really want Hawthorn lake as I have only ever caught in the 1st and last hours in the matches I have fished there, with the middle stages being poor for me. But pegs 1 and 15 (end pegs) are decent draws as are the pegs with the boards on the far bank (I can remember the numbers).

After chatting to a good few of the guys I had a quick look at the lakes, plenty of spawning activity on all lakes was obvious and the wind was generally blowing from the house end down to peg 15 on Hawthorn and 8, 9 and 10 on the main lake. Maybe the fish would follow the wind and food to those pegs?
Back to the draw and I plucked my peg around halfway through, peg 3 on Hawthorns, I didn't think too much of it in either a positive or negative way. Eric Fouracre drew p15 on the main lake, I told him that short pole for silvers would work, or perhaps if he won it'd only count if he had 200lb.....in the end I did tell him that last years match on there was won on the method to the mud patch on the lawn bank!! Good angler, good peg.
I made my way to my peg and set about sorting my kit, I had for company on peg 1, Keith Clapp. He asked for a few pointers, I basically told him to fish long to the corner and have fun as the fish hold on a bit!!! But he's not bad at this fishing lark so he'd be ok.
On peg 4 I had Phil 'fester' Hembury, he would fish JPZ's in red colour so it turned out. Not another bait I need to learn? lol. So between us we'd have a giggle.

Looking at my swim it was clear that the fish were spawning up and down the far bank, but there were a few patches of bubbles scattered all over the peg. The far bank looked tough to get right over with plenty of vegetation overhanging, coupled with the brisk gusting wind, presentation would suffer at times along with the chances of catching up on the greenery.......plus the constant wildfowl problems!!



Hawthorn P3 l.h.m.

 

Hawthorn p3 front view

 

I knew that right across would be hard work but I also figured that it would be my main priority. I even decided to make all new rigs for the day too!!
I set up a very shallow rig for tight over, 10 inches deep, for use with banded 6 and 8mm pellet. This would double up for shallow over my short line and edges.
Another rig for 2+2 for fishing corn over 4mm pellet.
Another rig was made up for the deep nearside edges using maggots on my left and meat on the right, This rig was also suitable for a line at 11 o'clock direction at 11m, but I never tried here.
Lastly a rig for half depth in the edges as this can work well on this lake, but never for me!
I did consider a method feeder.....but I resisted temptation.

Bait was maggots, 4mm feed pellets, 6mm feed pellets, 8mm meat, corn and a few 8mm pellets for hookbait. I mixed up some green pellet groundbait for right over as a last resort.
I was ready in plenty of time and went and to have a look at the main lake from Rob Dodd's peg 3, it looked sock on for some fish.

The 10:30 all in sounded and I began by cupping some maggots down to my left and some corn and 4mm pellets on the 2+2 line. I went over with a 6mm in the band and 6mm feed in the tosspot. 5 minutes passed with a few liners from the 'busy' fish before I hooked a fish, it was a 4oz chub, this was followed by another before the ducks arrived and started to find my pellets, or at least figured where I was fishing.
I stuck with it, lifting and dropping the bait and had a few more baby chub before I had a carp of 3lb, soon followed by a couple more.

At the end of the 1st hour I had 6 chub, a roach and 4 carp. Keith had plenty of action in that he landed around 6 carp but lost plenty to the snaggy corner and his nearside reeds. Fester had some skimmers down the middle on maggot.
At this point my short line was showing plenty of fizzing so I dropped in over that and missed a bite, next drop the same so I went to the half depth rig which gave me nothing.
Back on the deck and 3 skimmers and a carp of 5lb were landed.

I went over to the far side and tried, like a numpty, to feed with the catty as the fish were coming to the noise of the pellets from the tosspot, all this seemed to do was attract more wildfowl who would climb onto the far bank to much my miss-fired pellets and also to up-end and feed on the bait in the water. It didn't seem to annoy the fish as much as me and I managed a few more chub to 1lb. But the carp were hard to tempt.
Keith carried on netting a few carp and losing a few too.....Fester was getting the odd carp now.
We were now 3hrs in and my tally hadn't changed much, though I did catch a carp shallow down my right edge.

Into the 4th hour and I lost 4 carp on the bounce, 2 to my keepnets which rarely happens to me, 1 to the reeds and 1 to a duck that hit the line when I was playing the fish......I wasn't having fun, I had 20-odd assorted ducks in my peg, 4 stayed between my keepnets for a while.
I decided to cup in a few pots of groundbait across in the attempt to draw fish in, this had the desired effect as soon enough tails were waving......and the ducks saw this and bottomed up over the spots.
The fish didn't care and I managed several carp (and chub) over this area, a couple on corn and the others on lifted and dropped pellet.

I then came short over the 2+2 line as I couldn't get anything on the bottom despite the fishing, and this gave me a couple carp late on, both 8lb fish, plus I had a couple 4lbers down my edges.
The all out was called moments after I netted my 12th carp and my clicker should 60lb (yes I am getting there with the clicker). Plus I had around 5 or 6lb of chub and skimmers.

I reckoned on Mr Clapp having near on 90lb as I had heard him netting a good few, he insisted they were mostly 2lb squeakers. I also reckoned Fester had caught me up. I went and had a quick check with Colin Haggett on main lake peg 1 to see how he got on and he said a couple carp but Eric on p15 had 'emptied it'.

I packed up and took most of my kit to the car while we waited for the scales and it sounded like the main lake had been slow and the silvers hadn't fed or they hadn't been fished for. On my lake most reckoned on 40-50lb.
First to weigh was Keith, and to my surprise his 70lb estimate and squeakers call was true and he weighed 71lb 3oz which was loads of little carpletts.
I weighed next and my 60lb clicker was spot on and 60lb 14oz of them was joined by 7lb 12oz of silvers. 68lb 10oz being my total.
Fester popped 34lb 13oz on the scales. As the scales made our way all the way along we saw plenty of decent weights between 40 and 57lb, infact it was a good close competitive match on Hawthorn lake.

I went and waited with a few of the guys for the weighing in on the Main lake to arrive, and rumour had it that it was tricky, though Eric had 175lb or so, the next best looked to be around 50lb and that me and Keith had made the top 3 which I didn't deem likely before the match.
That's how it turned out. So a little pick-up brightened my day.

Results:
1st Eric Fouracre, 175lb 2oz (new lake record). Main p15, method feeder to the lawn.
2nd Keith Clapp, 71lb 3oz. Hawthorn p1.
3rd Lee Williams, 68lb 10oz. Hawthorn p3.
4th Mike West, 59lb 13oz. Main p14b (section win).
5th Derek Beard, 57lb. Hawthorn p10 (section win).

Silvers
1st Steve Fouracre, 19lb 8oz. Main p6 (feeder, maggot).
2nd Dave Sawyer, 10lb 12oz. Main p10.

Weigh Sheet....

So it was an ok, despite it turning out as expected with Main lake winning and my usual beginning/end type match occurring yet again, and them pesky ducks possibly cost me a few fish, but then Keith lost a decent amount too.....oh and I caught on corn.....I am slowly getting there!!

Next up for me is a match on Sunday with the PSV guys over at Avalon.....the silvers look appealing!

Until then, have fun.
Lee

p.s. Vic is holding a bunch of Silvers matches on Saturdays in September with the best 8 from 10 matches counting......though I am sure you can fish them as single matches (cant be sure though...will check) details:

SATURDAY SILVERS LEAGUE
10 MATCH SERIES BEST 8 WEIGHTS TO COUNT
Entry £20.00 100% payout
Pools on the day £21.00 including (£1) GOLDEN PEG
MAX 30pegs...
DATES:
26th Sept
3rd Oct
10th Oct
17th Oct
24th Oct
31st Oct
7th Nov
14th Nov
21st Nov
28th Nov

Club match today produced 7 Silver weights over 30lb with 48.10 winning and 44lb 2nd made up of good Roach,Hybirds,Skimmers,Bream and Tench on caster, worm , pellet or corn.
To book in call Vic on 07977 210078.

MMT Qualifiers at Larford (14th June) and Viaduct (20th June)

A quick sum up of my last couple of matches, both of which were nr 120 peggers in an attempt to qualify for the final of  Maver Match This.

Last weekend was up near Stourport at Maver Larford Lakes, a venue I have only seen a couple of times.
I arrived in plenty of time, drew around 10th as it was done in order of ticket purchase. Match Lake peg 12 would be my home for that match, not the best draw as I would have preferred to be up near the island. But a better draw than the Specimen lake, which by all accounts would be hard unless you drew the far end corners.

Larford Match Lake peg 12

I set up a waggler, a method feeder as this gave me most fish last time I was here.
A margin rig for against the 2 beds of reeds, a rig for meat in front at 6m plus a couple pellet rigs for 13m in front.
Simply my match began ok with a few f1's and skimmers in the opening half hour on the meat line, then the next 4.5hrs saw me tempt 2 f1's and a carp on the feeder and a few skimmers on the meat.
I tipped back around 30lb.
Graham Dack won from peg 28 on the match lake with around 170lb, a peg by the island.
The Speci lake was poor, a good few went fishless and sections were won with 10lb.

Today saw the MMT carnival at Viaduct, a somewhat more local venue.
Again I arrived early and took a walk around the lakes, not much jumped out as a 'want' peg, though I did like the look of Match Lake peg 45, though 42 looked ok. On middle the narrows looked ok, Spring lake, well 17 and 18 or 4 would do. Around to Lodge and 64 or 66 perhaps 73 would be my wish.
I didn't fancy Cary really, perhaps 81 or 85. Campbell had fish spawning like mad and would no doubt be tough, but 110 to 115 would be nice, 121, 124 or the pegs by the spit would be my personal preference.
At the draw I drew ok, peg 121 on Campbell. A nice right margin and short in front would be my ideals for today.
I set up a lead (fishless), a rig for right hand edge, a rig for pellet long and short along with a shallow rig (all 3 fishless) and a rig for the left hand edge (unused).

P121 right hand edge

P121 in front

Again I will cut a short story, I managed 3 carp in the first half hour down to my right on meat over toss-potted hemp and meat.
I then had a few roach, which coincided with the spawning slowing down......
The next 3.5hrs or so gave me a bunch of small skimmers and tench along with some chunky roach.
All the while I could see pegs 111, 112 (especially) and 114 all catching a few.
My end of the lake pegs 116 up and around to about 126 was very slow with not many carp being caught.
The last 30 mins of the match was a little more productive in that I landed 6 carp, lost 3 foul hookers, all from the right edge.
I didn't weigh, perhaps I should have, but my clicker showed 52lb for carp and I had around 10lb of silvers (inc a baby 3oz common). This 60lb-ish total could have been close to a pick up, even by default as others also tipped back!!
Pete Upperton on peg 112 won I believe, and local 'star' Freddy Roberts came 3rd, I don't know any other results, but on Campbell the southern end fished better, but most guys commented how that the fishing went very slow once the spawning had stopped.

Next for me is a match tomorrow at Shiplate with Pawlett, we have the Main lake (my preference) and Hawthorn canal lake. Lets hope them carpies have all spawned out and are munching!!

Until then, take care.
Lee

Pawlett All-Winners final, Landsend Lake 3 (Johns) 07-06-15

Today was the Pawlett Club's All-Winners' final, which is usually held on Trinity Woodlands lake, but this year it was down on the Somerset Levels at Landsend, more specifically Lake 3. A lake I haven't fished and only seen on a couple of occasions, so a new venture for most of us really.
Eric Fouracre had been down mid-week and sacked up, but that's pleasure angling!!
With 15 'winners' from last season, on the lake it could be tricky, but 15 is better than the 19 that fished the same lake yesterday. That match was won with around 90lb.

I arrived at the venue in plenty of time, and set about loading the trolley.
I had a natter with a few guys and some general piss taking occurred. But from the list of guys fishing it would be hard to do well, we had Vic Bush, Jamie Cook, Eric Fouracre, Jason King and Martin Heard to name a few.
The Speci lake also had a 'not-quite-winners' match from the club, and to be fair I would have fancied 33 or 32 if I was on that match.

The 9am draw was called and I found myself back to my usual habit of being at the back end of the queue. With 2 pegs left in the bucket it was Vic who had dibs before me and offered me his ticket before he opened it, I said ok, but he kept it. He had peg 51, a peg I fancied, although I haven't ever fished the lake, only seen it twice, but 51 was rumoured to be decent. He said I could say something bad about him, but really I cant, sadly (?).
I had peg 70, apparently a good peg if the fish are in there. It is the last peg on the far bank nearest the entrance. I got the usual comments about golden bollocks and me on a usual flyer, as if...!!

Landsend Peg 70, Lake 3 (John's)

It is a 'bay' sort of peg with a spit, a snaggy looking left hand end-bank and a weed/lily bed to my right at around 9m. I can imagine that if the fish are in the peg then you can have a good day.

However things were not looking too good, the weather was due to be warm and bright sunshine and with the fish obviously grouped up for spawning we knew that it'd be a tough day.
For company I had Mike Davis on peg 68 and could see Steve Fouracre over on p42.
Other than that I was pretty much on my own.

I decided not to set a silvers rig up so it was down to 4 rigs for the carp today.
A long line shallow rig for mugging and would cover a shallow line at 9m in front.
A deeper banded pellet rig for tight over to the spit.
A shallower, depth rig for along the end bank. (no bites on this today)
Lastly a meat rig for topkit and for by the weedbed, this would also have done for just off the spit should I have decided to start a new line.

Bait was 8mm meat, 6mm pellets, 8mm pellets and some hemp and groundbait....plus a few last resort maggots.

We were all ready in plenty of time for the 10:30 start, but at the all in I began trying to mug a few fish, but after 15 minutes I had had any joy, so I fed various spots and went over to the spit as I had seen 1 or 2 carp mooch along there.
This gave me a few foul hooked fish over the following half hour, so that line was all but abandoned for the rest of the day
The end bank was tried both off an don the bottom, but that never gave me a bite all day, similarly the short meat line never gave a fish, just a foul hooked carp that gave me a scale.

So the rest of the match was mostly spent mugging a few fish up to 8lb, the weedbed gave me 4 small carp, a crucian and a skimmer..
By 2pm I had landed all the fish I was to weigh in, I think I had 12 carp, lost 7 or 8 of which 6 were defo foul hooked, 1 snapped me in the weedbed and the other the hook pulled. The last 2.5hrs remained fishless for me and I had to watch Steve on p42 and Mike on p68 start to amass a few carp, I was sure they'd moved well ahead of me.
Elsewhere rumour had it that most were struggling but Eric Fouracre on around peg 66 had 9 or 10 carp and a nice amount of silvers and looked odds on to win.

By the end of the match the water in front of me had seen the colour drop out somewhat as I could see my whole keepnets in the water, a sure sign that fish were not in the area in numbers.
I could, should, have tried to mug a couple more fish late on, but they were tricky to spot and I wasn't sure if it'd have been worth it at this point.

The all out sounded at 4:30 and I packed my kit away. I went and chatted with a few other, with Eric and Mike admitting to a few carp, but most others had struggled.
I managed to catch up with the scales as they reached my bank, the sheet showed Steve Fouracre had 50lb and a few ounces was leading.
The scales carried on along the bank with some 20lb-30lb nets before Eric plopped 57lb of carp and 10lb of silvers on the scales to take the lead, then came Mike on peg 68, he had a really nice run of carp under the tree to his left, he weighed in 51lb+ I think.
Last to weigh was me, I had 1lb for the silvers board before my 2 weighs of carp gave me a total of 59lb 14oz, so my 'clicker' that showed 45lb had lied........I really am not great of carp sizes.

So we all headed back to the car park, most guys were in varying stages of sunburn or suntan as it really was warm and sunny today.
The other match was won, I think, by Phil Clapp with 60-something pound, James Withers was 2nd from peg 40 and Nick Selway was 3rd.
We had a nice bbq in the car park, thanks to the club and those who supplied the meat and veg, and to Giffy who was masterchef supreme!!

Results: (as best I can remember as I don't have pic of the sheet)
1st, Eric Fouracre, peg 66 (?) 67lb+
2nd, Lee Williams, peg 70 59lb 14oz
3rd, Mike Davis, peg 68, 51lb+

Silvers:
Jamie Cook, 13lb+ peg 65 (?)

Next up for me is a MMT qualifier next Sunday at Larford.
Lets hope these fish get the spawning over and done with!!

Until then, take care.
Lee

PSV Match, Avalon Fisheries, 31-05-15

Sunday's wandering was a PSV match on the match lake down at Avalon Fisheries, it is a venue I mostly enjoy, it isn't way by a long shot but the rewards are definitely there for those who persevere and work hard. With the recent-ish boost of some stockie carp and a load more roach and skimmers/bream, the fishing had been very good and a whole more consistent.

I arrived in loads of time and set about getting my kit on the trolley after the mandatory net dipping.
I went had and had a chat with Vic and part of the conversation was about the silvers in the lake and how 100lb of them will surely happen as 60lb+ has been done a few times, plus that he may well be running a silvers series on consecutive Saturdays possibly in September/October, so keep your eyes peeled for this.
Oh he also mentioned the 4lb+ eel he had on someone else's tackle the other day....it was foul hooked of course, but as eels are my fave fish I was pleased with that, the potential is defo there and most local commercial type fisheries have done 4lb or 5lb+ eels.

Back to the match, once all 18 of were present along with Vic, the draw would be made. We had pegs 1 to 30 and with the relatively strong gusty wind blowing up towards pegs 24 to 30 I fancied a few pegs, namely 1, 5, 9, 16, 17, 20, 23 or 24 (top end corners). All of these pegs except 24 would have the wind coming from behind moving around slightly as the day went on. The weather was to dry out as the day went on, with the wind getting stronger.

Thursday's match was won from peg 16 with peg 1 second, mostly on the paste.
As we went in for the draw I went against my usual way of drawing 2nd or 3rd last, I went into the bag third and pulled peg 13, it's a peg that had 35lb of silvers on Thursday and I have found it to be an either/or peg in that you get good silvers nets or a decent net of carp. Pegs 5 to 12 are wider and more consistent in my opinion. But it wasn't too bad really.

I made my way to my peg and saw that I had Steve Wynne and Lee Waller to my right on pegs 12 and 11 respectively. Alan Healey and Steve Burgess were up to my left on pegs 16 and 17.
Now peg 13 used to have a big snaggy over hanging tree off the point of the island, it was a tackle graveyard as I had found out before. But it has been trimmed back, but not totally removed and there are a few snaggy spots from the middle of the point around to the right as you look. Stumps and branches mostly. Plus the over hanging trees on the island would make fishing back into the bay tricky/impossible.

Avalon peg 13

I had considered fishing to the silver birch on the island but with wind blowing right to left and the fact I thought it'd be too close to Steve's area on p12 I didn't bother.

I set about sorting my kit out for the day, 2 pellet wagglers were assembled to fish either side of the point of the island.
2 rigs for carp on the pole were assembled, the 1st for down to empty pallet of peg 14, the 2nd was for off in the 10 o'clock direction in line with the peg you can just see in the photo. Both would be for meat over caster (and a few 4mm's for smell). The long line was only given a biteless 10 minutes.
Lastly 2 silvers rigs were made, the first was for just off centrally in front of me at 14m, this would be for maggot/meat/caster over groundbait. The other rig, was for banded 6mm pellet over 4's by the tree in my right hand margin. Both silvers rigs were given a total of 10 minutes throughout the contest and gave me 3 baby rudd.

Once I was ready and 10 mins before the all in I went to put my nets in and promptly dropped my silvers net into the lake.....numpty!! But I don't get flustered so I promptly didn't rush to try and grab it (1st mistake) instead I spent 10 min trying to find it with the landing net handle, long banksticks etc but I had a very deep margin so I knew I would have to go in to get it.
But the all in was called so I started on the waggler and 1st chuck a carp snapped my hooklength on the snags by the island, 2nd chuck I lost a float, 3rd chuck I found another snag by the island.
I wasn't best pleased so decided to get into the water and get my net back......10 minutes over my chest in the lake wasn't a great thing to be doing and ruined my potential topkit line. But a couple pole rigs and a landing net head were found before I nearly gave up. Luckily one last look in the edge to my right my net was located, it hadn't drifted down the slope, I must have moved it back up and across in my search. Randomly I had mentioned on Facebook that I may need to invest in new nets soon, maybe some like the day-glow Frenzee ones Steve Burgess is now in possession of (fish scaring orange topped ones?)

So I was now back fishing in wet boxer shorts and tee shirt, but I was fishing.
Back on the waggler and I soon had carp number 1 from open water off the island, number 2 followed 10 minutes later. Then a lull in activity, but I kept feeding and casting and over the next 2 hours I put a few more carp in my net, but I had lost around 8 or 10 hooks to the snags and another float!! I had also fed the spot down to peg 14 a couple of times.
At the halfway stage I was on around 6 or 7 carp landed, this was apparently doing well with only 2 or 3 others having similar to me, but it can at times be tricky to gauge weights with plenty of fish in the 2lb to 3lb range plus there are lots of 7lb+ fish in the lake.

As we moved past 2pm I was still landing and losing carp on maybe a 2:3 ratio in my favour. It as a matter of getting the fish swirling at the feed and casting at them. If I cast closer to the snags I would get bites quicker but I'd lose more than I land as the hooklength would rub on the snag and it'd be bye bye fish.
The casts to the left hand corner of the island gave me a couple fish but there was more of a ripple here and it wasn't as productive as the fish were right in the reeds.

As the last 90 minutes arrived I was up to around 10 carp in the 1st net and 4 in the second. Maybe 70lb perhaps. Leigh had walked round and said Matt Taynton over on peg 27 was doing well as was Vic on peg 24, everyone else hadn't done much, though he' d not been past pegs 1 to 12 yet.
I stuck with the waggler and hoped to go down the edge with 45 minutes left,
I asked Steve Wynne what the time was and he said 1hr left, so I fed the edge again before netting a few more on the waggler. Steve himself had netted a couple carp on the paste and Lee had a couple down his edge, but he was mostly hoping for silvers.
The guys to my left hadn't caught too much.
What I thought was 20 minutes later I asked Steve the time (I really should sort out not having a working watch) and he said 5 or 5 minutes to go.

At this point I was on 17 or 18 carp from 2lb to around 13lb (which came over the long pole line...fluke!!) and I suppose 90 or 85lb. I took a look down the edge as again another broken hooklength forced the issue....
1st drop I lost a fish, 2nd look saw a missed but 3rd put saw me net a pastie of 1lb 8oz. The all ot was called and I promptly missed another knock.....I'd maybe left that line (inadvertently) too late!!

I began packing my kit away and others asked how many I had landed, 19 I think my total was, losing 1 off the hook and being busted up by maybe 14 or more on the waggler (even 0.22 was no good as the snaggy bit was obviously the left over of the old tree).
But none the less I was happy enough,
Once sorted I wandered down to the scales where Vic and match secretary Will Dearlove were weighing in.
Chris Szakacs on peg 1 had long gone and then we had weights of 25lb, 36lb and 19lb before Will had just under 49lb.
Lee Waller had 16lb 6oz of silvers before I had to weigh. I chucked my 3 rudd away before my 3 weighs amassed to 106lb 13oz. Slightly surprising.
I knew Matty Taynton would be close as he had over 20 carp and Vic was quiet which means he'd done ok.

Further along my bank and we saw 13lb,27lb 32lb nets plus Keith Ray had 55lb+ before Vic weighed in. 66lb+ was his total, but that bank was windy and 7m was maximum for the pole at times, plus feeding the waggler spots would be tricky.
Next to weigh was Matt and I thought he would pip me as he admitted to 95lb.
He tipped half of his 1st net onto the scales and the weight noted, the 2nd half nearly took him to the net limit. The 3rd weigh, which was his whole second net looked just enough to beat me, but I got lucky and his whole amount went 102lb 14oz to give him 2nd spot. He shook my had and said well done. Most people have plenty of time for Matthew, he is a great guy and I enjoy chatting to him. Good angler too.
Last to weigh and with the silvers prize his aim, Steve 'cockshine' Sewell had to get 16lb 7oz to pip Mr Waller....agonisingly short he weighed 16lb 2oz to have the silvers bridesmaid monies.

So all in all a frustrating day for most with breakages of tackle (...Mr Waller especially), losses of fish (me and little Adam 'lose fish repetitively ' Caswell), swimming (me) and lack of silvers feeding (everyone). But I enjoyed it and was chuffed with the win.
Getting bites was easy by the snags but for the most part it was pointless getting too close, in fact most of my fish came 2 or 3 metres away from the reeds/snags. Plus I should have gone down the edge earlier than the 5 mins I gave it!!

Results:

1. Lee Williams (13) 106-13
2. Matt Taynton (27) 102-14
3. Vic Bush (24) 66-3 (section)
4. Keith Ray (19) 55-10
5. Will Dearlove (9) 48-14 (section)
6. Lionel Legge (6) 36-9
7. Mark Radford (23) 32-4
8. Ryan Radford (7) 29-11
9. Matt Williams (21) 27-0 (golden peg)
10. Adam Caswell (3) 24-15

Silvers:
1. Lee Waller (11) 16-6
2. Steve Sewell (28) 16-2

Weigh Sheet.

Oh yeah, I also managed to leave my wet boxer shorts and Daiwa polo shirt behind, tw*t.....the missus wanted me to drive back and get them.....I didn't, they may turn up at some point.

Next up for me is Pawlett's All-Winners' final on Landsend Lake 3, next Sunday. But with the warm weather due I am inclined to think that carp-sex is likely to be on the cards for the inhabitants of the venue.....Plus I haven't even fished that lake, only seen it once!!

Until then, take care.
Lee