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