PSV Match, Landsend Match Lake, 26/7/15

The day began rather wet, with everyone donned in waterproofs and less than positive about the coming day, though reports said it may dry up after lunch, but the wind will get a bit stronger.

We had 12 fishing, down from the 14 booked in, but the 'Radford Clan' including Adam Caswell were holidaying in the lovely seaside resort of Sandy Bay, flashy lights and slot machines....hahaha.
I'd arrived in plenty of time for the draw and we all had a good chat and stuff while waiting for the 'late' arrivals of Steve Burgess and Chris Davis (guesting?).

Saturday's match was won from peg 13, both the silvers and carp were favouring that peg and peg 11 by all accounts, the other 'better' areas seemed to be the pegs at the ends of each island.
I fancied 19 or 21 personally, not sure why, but maybe down to the fact it's the area I tend to draw if it's not peg 1.
As the draw was made I plucked my ticket half way down the queue and found the golden peg for the day in my hand. Peg 15. A decent peg with a little form, no peg 16 or 14 in either so the fish had some room to hide from me..........that is what I think they achieved as the day went on!!

Looking down towards 16, 18 etc Landsend Match Lake

Peg 15, Landsend Match Lake.



For company, not that I could see them, were Steve Burgess on peg 17 and Alan Healey in peg 13.
I went about setting my kit up in the rain, I even put a brolly up for the 1st time in years.....don't think I will do that again, poxy thing was always in the way.
Anyways I set up a shallow rig on a longish line to fish tight over and for maybe trying to mug the odd cruiser. There were plenty of fish moving along the islands and the open water had patches of bubbles everywhere!!
A rig for meat was put together, to be fished at the 2 o'clock direction at 2+2 distance.
A rig for the margins both sides was also assembled, to use corn or meat over mostly caster and maybe a bit of groundbait. I did set up a rig for silvers at 11m, but this remained unused.
Bait was caster, hemp, 6mm pellets, 8mm meat and some maggots and a little groundbait.

Before the match began Steve came along and asked if I had any 6mm pellets, which being the nice guy I am gave him some, obviously I hoped he didn't catch too many on them!!

The all in was called and I deposited a small helping of corn and pellets at 14m off in the 11 o'clock direction, but I only tried this spot twice without a bite, so no more on that.
Some meat and hemp went in on that line before I went across to the island, by the time I had done this Rich Jones was on his 3rd fish from peg 19..!! Hmmm.
I plugged away and lost a foul hooker after 20 minutes, the fish were there, blatantly winding me up by sucking at the surface and waving their tails in the shallow water.
My 1st fish came after 40 minutes, by which time I think everyone had caught a few, but for me and Mr Burgess it wasn't hectic.

Into hour 2 and Alan Healey had landed a good few but by the sounds of it Chris Davis on peg 11 was doing rather well. I managed another carp from across, an 8lber so not too bad. But I was getting bored to be honest and was contemplating going home. Steve Burgess had landed a couple fish from he line at around 12m in front of him, further down Rich Jones and Chris Gay both were still getting a few fish in spells.

At the halfway stage I had 3 carp in the net for perhaps 12lbs plus a clonking ide of around 3lb, that fish was intent on escaping and several times it come flapping up out of the water in the net!
I came in onto the meat line and had a spell of 3 or 4 carp, not biggies but the 3lb stamp, I did foul hook a few as they seemed to be hanging around off bottom.
I had tried across again but other than 1 or 2 foul hooked fish it was hard work, so I gave that up bar  the odd look every now and then.
I decided to put some bait into my left edge and keep an eye on it, but my enthusiasm was waning and when Alan came along I said I was considering going home, but the rain returned so I stayed under my shelter. I was also miles behind everyone else it seemed as even my right hand neighbour was netting the odd fish including 1 or 2 lumpy carp.
Alan was doing well, but Rich Jones on p19 had slowed considerably.

By now, we were into the last 90 minutes and my edge to my left had seen a few fish show, including a friggin' big ghostie of maybe 12lb+. So I went and dropped a rig in, the float sailed away and promptly took my rig and disposed of it in a snag......bollocks!! The next fish was duly netted and I had another couple squeakers and lost 2 more during the following hour.
With around 45 minutes left I fed some bait to my right edge and went on the meat line, this gave me a run of fish to 8lb and a couple lost foul hookers, I think most guys were suffering with the foul hooked fish as the carp were certainly active. The silvers were not as I saw hardly any all day.
Into the last 30 minutes and I bagged a fish, my only fish, from the right margin. I put that into my 2nd carp net and that was followed by 4 more from the meat line before the all out.
My clickers showed 40lb in my 1st net and I had 5 carp in my second net, plus 2 roach, 1 ide and a perch in my silvers net.
I guessed I would be last on the day, so I packed my kit away in the rain, always a pain in the arse is that....I do hate having wet gear stored away.

I took my trolley and stuff to load the car and catch up with the scales, nearly everyone reckoned on 60-70lb, except Alan who said he had 50-60lb.......I knew that was absolute trash and I thought he had around 100lb, but I heard Chris Davis had over that.
I found myself with the rabble following the scales, John Bradford had 30lb of silvers and had that pot tied up, all his fish came very late in the day. Chris Szacaks had put 80lb on the board and was winning. It stayed that way for a few minutes before Chris Davis' nets gave him 122lb 8oz.
Around to Alan and his '50lb' went 90lb 6oz, including 10lb of silvers.
My turn next and my second net had 24lb or so in it, my 1st net had 43lb-ish. My silvers were a little over 4lb. My total was 70lb 13oz, so slightly over my 60lb guess (but I only guess my carp).
Steve Burgess was closer with his 60lb estimate, 59lb 12oz was his weight, so at least a quid was going my way, in fact it was only a quid as obviously I wasn't gonna finish in the top 3.
Rich Jones (p19) and Chris Gay (p21) had 75lb 10oz and 74lb 10oz respectively, peg 24 dnw'd.

So I was proved right that I was at the wrong end of the board, but it was a really close contest, which is brilliant, something most commented on being good. Chris Gay reckoned a pellet feeder approach would have 'emptied it'........haha.

Results:
1. Chris Davis (guest) (11) .... 122-8
2. Alan Healey* (13) ......... 90-6
3. Chris Szakacs (9) ........ 80-14...
4. Lee Waller (7) .............. 77-2
5. Rich Jones (19) ........... 75-10
6. Chris Gay (21) ............ 74-10
7. Pete Uzzell (1) ........... 72-12
8. Lee Williams (15) ....... 70-13
9. Steve Burgess (17) .... 59-12
10. Lionel Legge (3) ...... 59-8
11. John Bradford (5) ..... 30-4
and 1 dnw

Silvers:
1. John Bradford ..... 30-4
2. Alan Healey ........ 10-8
3. Chris Szakacs .... 8-8

Not my most enjoyable of weekends, but I did learn 1 or 2 things, I am slowly coming to terms with venues and pegs and I will no doubt be better for times ahead. It's always good to learn.

Next up for me is a memorial match over at Apex. Will make a nice change as I haven't fished it for a couple or so years.

Until then, take care.
Lee

Acorn Open, 25/7/15.

Well the weather was certainly different this last weekend, with Friday being absolutely awful with rain for pretty much 24hrs, or so it seemed. At least the lakes would get a welcome bit of freshness, how that'd affect the fishing I don't know.
Saturday was nice and warm and sunny, not great for fishing, before Sunday was mostly wet early on and getting more showery and windy as the day wore on.

So on Saturday I decided to fish a match on either Landsend or Acorn, plumping for Acorn as I hadn't fished it for months and months, plus I had the PSV match at Landsend on Sunday.
I arrived (with the wife in tow) in plenty of time for the draw, there was only 8 fishing though so a little disappointed by that, but onwards and upwards.
Mark Walsh was running the match in the absence of both Rob Fogg and Adie Baker, but he likes and does ok at the venue, plus he is a sound, kinda funny guy.
We had a couple regulars there including top guy and exceptional angler Giles Cochrane and Kev Jefferies, who also fishes with the PSV bunch every so often.

Mark pegged pegs 6, 8, 10, 13, 15, 21, 24 and 28. Now I have only ever drawn up around peg 24 other than in the Clevedon Xmas match where I won the silvers with a solitary skimmer, I was on peg 1 that day. I really didn't want peg 24, or 28 really.
Lucky the draw was done and 24 had come out, I let the missus pick my peg and out came 13, not too bothered really and hoped for a nice day fishing.
For company I had Kev Jefferies on peg 15 to my left, Walshy around to my right on p10 and he had Giles further along on peg 8.

Acorn Paddock peg 13.

I had heard that caster was doing well and that weights could be from 50lb to 170lb winning, so pretty varied really. But with loads of space to hide I was sure that it'd be a trickier day.
I did bring some caster, maggots, a few micros, corn (meat is banned), 6mm pellets, expanders and some groundbait.

3 rigs were assembled. The first was a shallow pellet (then changed to maggot) rig for over between clumps of grass in around 2ft of water. The next rig was used tight in against my bank either side in around 12" of water and lastly I had a rig that would do for anywhere else in the swim, so I fed at topkit line, 11m and just off each empty peg either side, all were the same depth within an inch. I would feed each spot differently. All were on 0.18>0.14 hooklength and size 16 hooks.

Before the whistle Giles told me that he had been fishing, and doing ok, using caster and toss-potting the feed, re-feeding the same way every few minutes. He also said he rarely bothers going across these days.
Walshy would most likely be using paste!!

At the all-in I fed a small amount of corn and caster down to my left. Some micros and odd 6mm went in at 11m. I began feeding 4 or 5 casters and maggots on the topkit line and started down by empty peg 12.
After a while, probably 20 minutes I had a bite and lost a small foul hooked carp, but I soon had number 1 in the net, only a baby of 2lb but it saved me from a blank.
After the hour had passed myself and Kev hadn't had much more than 2 carp each, while Giles and Mark had done around 7 or so each, Giles even resorted to fishing across, lol.
The second and 3rd hour saw me put another 3 carp in the net, plus I had lost 3 or 4 foul hooked fish, maybe I had fed too much, maybe they were mooching around too much. But there was a lot of fish moving through, in fact further along past Kev we could see plenty of carp in and about pegs 17 to 19. The space was obviously attractive to our fish.

Into the last couple of hours of the match, myself and Kev were struggling and we couldn't even get many silvers. I started to feed tight to my own bank, on my right at topkit distance, plus I had fed 3/4 of the way to peg 14 tight in along the bank also. These are the areas I focused on for the remainder of the match and I had a run of F1's from the right and 3 or 4 carp from the left, plus a few foul hookers.
The match ended and I knew me and Kev hadn't done great with peg 6, the Giles (winner?), Walshy and peg 21 by the bridge doing better.

I packed my kit away and looked at my fish, probably 20lb of carp and 12/15lb of F1's. I looked at Kev's fish and he had maybe 30lb of carp and a 3 or 4lb of silvers, so similar to me.
We both tipped back once a glance at the weigh sheet showed 40lb, 135lb and Walshy's nr 70lb net, plus the guy on 28 reckoned on at least 80lb.
I didn't stay for the results, but I think Giles won.

It is a venue I should try and make more visits to and I do plan on doing so when I get a Saturday off every now and then, but only 8 fishing is a touch sad, but the previous few weigh sheets show more like 15 fishing at least so, hopefully it stays that way.

Until next time.
Lee.

Pawlett Match, Sedges Fishery. 19-07-15

31 fished today, so another decent turn out. We would have had a few more if it wasn't for other commitments. But The Sedges is a great fishery and usually provides decent sport for those who work at their fishing.
It was also Blind-Pairs day, with no money for the top pair, just a trophy they'll get at club presentation. 1 peg on Brick would be paired with 1 peg from Tile.

I arrived, after my bacon butty, with half an hour until the draw. A fair bit of banter and chat occurred and Denise made plenty of cuppas (thanks again from us all). When it got to the fishing, we all knew that Tile would be almost certain to win the match overall but if silvers were the target Brick lake would be preferred as a 40-60lb net of skimmers (mostly) would surely be caught.
I wanted Brick, based purely on the fact that I don't seem to get on that well with Tile.
I wouldn't mind any peg from 6 up and around to 15 on Brick. 38, 39, 40, 21, 22 and 26 on Tile would be very nice draws I thought to myself.

The 9am draw was done and I picked my ball around halfway along the rabble and wasn't best impressed with peg 23 (I haven't ever been lower than 25), especially as Withers had suggested I draw for him and vice versa, we didn't and he plucked peg 39 (jammy wan#er..). With Paul 'squidgy' Squires getting yet another corner peg (p10) and Eric Fouracre getting peg 9 for the second time in a few days, that lake looked good for a result up on those pegs, but Phil Clapp had drawn cock on for the silvers with peg 15, that would surely sort out that 'pot'.
On Tile, pre-match favourite, fishery-owner Jamie Cook had drawn well with peg 38, Mark Sweeting had drawn 40 and Steve Fouracre looked well set on peg 26.
For company I had big Nick Selway on peg 22, he had Rob Dodd on flyer 21 to his left.
From my vantage point I could see pegs 32, 35, 38 and 39 on the bank I expected to be better than our due to the wind likely to be switching and blowing over and down the lake just off centrally (left to right as I looked).

Sedges Tile peg 23

 

I set my kit up, a method feeder, a pellet waggler, a margin rig for the pole, a shallow pellet rig, a rig for 2+1 in front with the same rig ok anywhere in front. Lastly a rig for off bottom using meat.
Bait was 8mm meat, 6 and 8mm meat, hemp and some groundbait and pellets for on the method feeder.
My silvers baits stayed in the bag as Brick would provide better silvers nets.

At the all in I cupped a big pot of meat and hemp short and down my left edge, a big pot of 6mm pellets went in at 13m and I fired some 8mm pellets out for the waggler.
I began on the method feeder and waited......in fact it was nearly 2 hours before my 1st carp (I had a baby skimmer on the feeder after 20 mins), this carp looked rather close to the 15lb net limit so I went along and weighed it, it went 13lb 12oz but looked larger if a little empty. I had already decided against the waggler as the wind was all wrong and presentation was dire.

So after a couple hours I knew Jamie (p38), Kev Crouch (p35) and Kev Lock (p32) all had plenty of fish. Nick on peg 22 hadn't had anything, Rob on peg 21 was struggling too. It was only Steve Fouracre on peg 26 that was catching along my bank.
A short spell fishing meat at 3ft deep and at 13m in front gave me only roach, so that too was a non goer, the wind wasn't great for this either.

Into the 3rd and 4th hours and I had a few skimmers on the 2+1 line but there didn't seem like many carp were feeding. They were for Jamie though and he was thoroughly bagging up and was probably over 100lb already. Crouchy too was, it looked, not miles off the pace. James Withers wasn't doing great on peg 39 but did have a few carp from various methods.
Nick was struggling still, but Doddy was starting to amass a few carp from along the end bank.
I did manage a couple lumps between 8 and 10lb on the feeder, but the pole was only giving indications from small silvers, the long lines were forgot about and I would only try on the left edge and 2+1 in front for the last 2 hours, plus the method feeder.

Between 3 and 4pm I had a nice spell, catching a nice fish of around 7lb from my margin, but this was the only carp caught there. I had another decent fish on the method, a ghostie about 6lb, plus a couple 2lbers. James  (p39) had a run of fish down to his left on the topkit, 4 carp I think......Jamie was boring me as he didn't seem to stop catching...!!
The last 30 mins saw me try to pack up my pole and rigs and stay on the feeder, which I did manage with 3 interruptions by small carp including a 4lber hooked just before the whistle.

The all out was called and my clickers showed 63lb including the 13lber I had put back after weighing. I knew that'd be not great.
A few guys from further down passed and said they had struggled with only Steve Fouracre doing well and admitting to 100lb.

I put my kit by the car, ate a banana and followed the scales for the first 3 pegs.
Peg 21, Rob Dodd put a net of 52lb 5oz on the board, mostly on corn in the last 2.5hrs.
Nick on 22 only had 13lb 2oz before my turn to weigh showed 4lb 9oz of silvers, plus my carp total of 74lb 4oz gave me 78lb 13oz, so my clicker was only 10lb out!!

I then went and loaded the car and wandered down to Denise who made me a cup of tea. I drank this before looking at the sheet of weights for Brick lake, it'd fished hard with 79lb top weight from peg 7 which was Chris Higgs. Other than that it was Phil Clapp's net of silvers, 51lb+ that stood out, he had 19lb of carp to go with them to give him a second on lake net of 70lb 6oz.

I did catch up again with the scales in time to see James weigh in 59lb and a few ounces and the Mark Sweeting on peg 40 confirm his 2nd place (by 3oz) with 115lb 6oz. Elsewhere Jamie had 187lb+, Kev Crouch had 99lb and Steve Fouracre had 115lb 3oz from peg 126.

Tile Weigh Sheet.



Brick Weigh Sheet.

 

Results:

1st: 187lb 10oz, Jamie Cook. Peg 38

2nd: 115lb 6oz, Mark Sweeting. Peg 40

3rd: 115lb 3oz. Steve Fouracre. Peg 26

 

Silvers:

51lb 6oz, Phil Clapp. Peg 15.

 

The blind pairs (co-pegs written by drawn pegs on sheet) was won by Jamie and Phil Hembury with an aggregate of 200lb 3oz.

 

I managed to pick up my section money so I didn't leave empty handed, I finished 6th on the day I think, but it was a tough day for the most part with the method feeder proving the most consistent catcher in the windy conditions.

 

Next up is a PSV match at Landsend next Sunday, though I may get out and fish a match on Saturday depending on weather and how much sleep I get on Friday as it looks like date-night with Mrs W.

 

Until then, tight lines.

Lee



My week, 8th July to 12th July 2015.

A half week round up of what I have done this week, I'll squeeze it into 1 post as there isn't shed loads to talk about.

Wednesday saw me fish the open at Sedges, it's only a tenner to enter and it was just a day out really, the match was on the canal lake, which can be a tough cookie at times but I like it.
With only 9 of us fishing we were pegged along the far bank and I happened to get peg 49, just past half way, a narrow peg and apparently not too bad, but the fish like the corners on here, so I wasn't optimistic.
I simply set up a rig for tight over using pellet (Phil and Jamie cleared the island the day previous), a rig for down my right hand edge (meat) and a rig for down the track using worm and caster over groundbait.

Sedges Canal, p49

The match was tough going and I spent ages with just the odd rudd and roach before a few skimmers and a couple of carp arrived down the middle.
I ended up 4th with just over 13lb.
Phil Clapp won with 52lb including 30lb of skimmers. Mike Levy was second from peg 52 with 30lb.
Rich Coles was 3rd I think with 25lb

Thursday was a day at home watching the cricket and chilling, I was gonna go Durleigh for the roach on the whip, or fish a match somewhere, but the Ashes 1st test won my attention.

Friday saw me spend a few hours over Trinity Woodlands, hoping to catch some of the 'pellet roach' at 13m, then some carp shallow/short.
It worked out ok with plenty of 6oz to 1.5lb roach, 3 or 4 F1s and 2 carp on the long pole fished 12" deep. I then came on my topkit shallow and went on to catch around 70lb+ of carp to low doubles (including a couple mugged in the margin).....I also had a nice perch of 2lb+.
So that was a good 4 or 5hrs fishing.

Saturday I decided to fish the Landsend open along with 8 other guys.
Now I have only ever drawn peg one on the near bank, and hey ho I drew it again.....I really don't like that peg (or it doesn't like me), despite Withers coming 3rd the previous Saturday I wasn't too comfy with it, there was a strong wind blowing into my peg, so my attack was based on 2+2 in front, down to my right by the tree and the same distance off the snaggy end bank.
I would also try and get a few at 13/14.5m when I got the chance.
My match wasn't great and after 4hrs I had 2 skimmers in the net, similar to the chap on peg 24 opposite. Elsewhere I could here Mike West, Rod Wootton and Mike Duckett were catching a few.
My last 90 mins or so gave me a run of carp, 1 mugged long, 4 or 5 down my right edge, 1 down the end bank and a handful on my 2+2 line (converted from pellets to meat). I also had another 3 nice skimmers. As usual I caught on meat....

Peg 1, Landsend match lake

Peg 1 right edge, Landsend match lake
 

So once I packed up the gear I was assisted by John Bradford in weighing in, I reckoned I had 40lb or so of carp and my 5 skimmers may go 6lb.

The scales produced 54lb 8oz of carp and 8lb 10oz of skimmers. 63lb 2oz.

Westy amassed 90lb exactly before Rod's net weighed 67lb 4oz.

We carried on around the lake weighing in a few before we got to Mike Duckett, he'd had 25 carp and some silvers, this net of fish gave him 110lb 12oz.

John 'gimp' Bradford's usual net of silvers gave him that pot of money with a tidy 31lb 5oz/

We continued the weighing and finished up with Ray White's 32lb 2oz

So Mike Duckett won with Mike West 2nd. John Bradford won the silvers.

 

Weigh Sheet.

Last up was today's match with the PSV guys at Viaduct on the Campbell lake, 14 of us fished and with the weather a bit wet looking, the wind was due to get up (it didn't...!!)

Before the match we were contemplating the pegging and swapping 111 for 121 and the 130 for 135 and shuffle a couple pegs. It ended up with 7 along each bank and none on the end banks.

I didn't want peg 130 having drawn it far too many times and only picked up off it once thanks to a late flurry of edge lumps.....I fancied 118 or 123  as they had a nice bit of room each.

 

I guess I talked myself into getting peg 130 and with 3 tickets left in the tin (112, 114 and 130) I did pick my dreaded peg. Will Dearlove and Lee Waller had the other 2 pegs!!

For company I had Keith Ray on peg 129 and Derek Lucas on peg 132 (he left early). I could see all of the far bank from my peg, whether that is good or bad I am not sure.

 

...and again....Peg 130 on Campbell.

I set up 3 rigs (margin, short meat, shallow pellet) and a lead rod, but the way the match worked out was just to fish 2+2 pretty much all match.

I began slowly, caught the odd skimmer in the 1st hour and Keith on 129 was getting odd tench by the spit, but the carp didn't seem like feeding.

So I kept plugging away and put a few skimmers (plus a 2lb tench) in the net. 1 carp was my total after 2.5hrs, so I made a specific silvers rig up as I was bumping the odd skimmer.

No sooner had I put my single caster over my 'new' short caster line a carp had taken the bait....this proved a one off as I struggled even on the lighter set-up.

So with nobody seemingly bagging up from my view, I hedged my bets and kept trying to attract the carp with a slightly heavier feed pattern, and then with an hour to go and only 4 or 5 carp in the keepnet  (clicker showed 32lb) plus my silvers, the carp arrived, infact they arrived in most people's pegs and the last hour was decent. I knew Paul Preston and Ryan Radford had done ok on pegs 115 and 118

 

At the all out my meat line had given me maybe 60lb of carp in the last hour or less. I reckoned on 22lb of silvers and my clickers showed 44lb and 22lb, but I didn't click my last fish in each net.

 

Steve arrived with the scales and my nets proved a productive last hour. My carp nets gave me a total of 81lb 6oz and my silvers weighed 28lb 4oz. 109lb 10oz my total.

Keith weighed a combined 42lb 5oz from 129 and then Chris Gay had 54lb 1oz from the other side of the spit.

As it turned out, Mark Radford had 34lb of silvers in his 123lb 14oz total. Pete Uzzell was on peg 123 and totalled 131lb 1oz.

The weigh in on 110-118 pegs was almost done by the time I caught up with the scales again and it showed Paul Preston had 138lb for the lead and Pete was in second with only Alan Healey (p110), Adam Caswell (p111) and Will Dearlove (p112) to weigh. I didn't think they had 120lb+, Will had lost plenty and Adam and Alan had some very quiet spells during the day.

They weighed in and we went for the results:

 

1st was Paul Preston with 138lb 9oz. peg 115.

2nd was Pete Uzzell with 131lb 1oz. peg 123.

 

Silvers was Mark Radford with 34lb 13oz. peg 125.

Myself and Lee Waller won our sections by default, so not an empty handed few days...phew!!

 

The lake generally fished slow by Campbell's standards, if it wasn't for the last hour 4-5pm, then weights would have been somewhat lower.

 

Weigh Sheet.

So a iffy week on the fishing front for me, but then a lot of venues have been that way. Plus perhaps I have talked myself into draws I don't want....!!

 

Next up is a Pawlett match at Sedges next Sunday.

Until then, take care.

Lee



Pawlett Club, Silvers' Winners Final. Trinity Woodlands. 05-07-15.

Today's match for the 16 guys (though only 15 fished) who had qualified for the final by having the best 'non-carp' net at each of the 16 matches the club hold each year, I qualified in the first match of the season at Landsend way back in early 2014.

This match was going to be held on Wildmarsh lake but had been switched to Woodlands a few days ago, I personally prefer Wildmarsh to Woodlands mostly as I struggle on Woodlands when it comes to the silvers and also you are massively more likely to encounter accidental carp which can be frustrating at times.

I arrived at the lake with plenty of time to spare and done the normal dip/dry of the nets before a bit of a chinwag with some of the others.
Most of us felt a peg on the near side of the lake would be preferred as it seems generally the better skimmers show in larger numbers on this side. I liked the looks of anywhere between 26 and 32.

The draw was made and I went in around half way down the rabble and plucked peg 14 on the far bank, a decent enough peg. It turned out that I had Phil Clapp to my right on the peg that won the silvers last week (peg 13) and Dick Hurford was further down to my left in peg 16.
Opposite me I could see pretty much everyone. I really expected Eric Fouracre on peg 26, Jamie Cook on p28 and Vic Bush on 32 all to do well, as would Keith Clapp up on 22 (if he could keep the carp at bay). But as I said, the other bank would be the better draw.

Trinity Wildmarsh peg 14

As we had to avoid the carp I never intended to go anywhere near the carpy margins. So I set up several rigs:
The 1st was a shallow pellet rig as the bigger roach and hybrids get caught shallow on pellet, but I didn't use this today.
The 2nd rig was a topkit rig to fish up in the water to hand using caster over caster and a bit of groundbait.
The 3rd rig was to fish on the deck using banded pellet and remained unused.
Lastly I set up an identical rig to the deep pellet rig but to fish with caster, maggot or worm on the hook. The deep rigs covered pretty much anywhere in the peg from topkit out to 13m, well except a channel that was a good few inches deeper and around 2m wide and went from 5m out to 13m.
Bait was 2pts of caster, 1pt maggots, groundbait (2kg), 4mm pellet, micros, worm and some corn.
Oh and I set up a small shallow waggler, but remained unused.

At the all in I cupped some groundbait at 13m in the 11 o'clock direction, some micros at the same distance in the 1 o'clock direction, sadly neither of these lines gave a fish of any note, just odd plippy roach or rudd.
I fed some chopped worm at caster at 6 sections slightly off centre as well, hoping to catch here primarily later in the match.
I began on the shallow topkit rig hoping to nab some roach, especially the better ones.

I soon had the fish swirling at the lightly fed casters and odd hard nugget of groundbait, but I couldn't get any stamp fish despite various attempts, even whole worms were getting the same 1oz fish problems. But I stuck at it for around 90 minutes before trying the longer lines without sensible success.
The 7m line was similar, so it was back to the topkit both up and down in the water and kept plundering the small fish.

After 3hrs I was struggling compared to the far bank where Jamie, Eric and Vic all were catching well and looked well ahead. But carp were becoming a problem for a lot of the guys.
It was at this point I also had my 1st carp and a decent 8oz skimmer was netted a few minutes later.
Phil had landed a good few 6-8oz skimmers and Dick had an F1 in the net.
The sky looked rather iffy and thunder could be heard in the distance, it soon arrived in a 20 minute storm of heavy rain, wind, thunder and hail....nice. I was now cold, bored and rather wet.
My bait was awful and my maggots were doing the off.....!!!

I persevered between the topkit line and the 7m line and had a little run of fish including a couple small tench of 2lb and 1lb, two skimmers of 2lb, one of which was caught on the shallow topkit rig and a nice 8oz rudd.
I had also decided to feed my left margin with a couple hours to go, with no intention of fishing there, but hoping to get the carp into the edge and away from my baited spots. This worked and by the all out I had maybe 20+ carp grubbing up that margin, slurping in the vegetation and looked to be proper scoffing!!
With 90 minutes to go I could see that Jamie had slowed down in his catching but Eric was still doing well.

I kept on the 2 lines until the all out and was rewarded with a few 4-6oz skimmers and a carp, there were loads of carp up in the water and a few times I pricked them as I lifted my rig, or they'd swirl at my feed, making me move spots.
But the rudd and roach kept coming, although generally still 1-2oz fish, it was weight going into the net.
Phil landed a couple nice skimmers but was up to around 8 carp, he also had an f1 of 3lb or so, probably to move in front of me.

The all out soon came and I reckoned on having 10-12lb perhaps, though Phil said I had 14 or 15lb.
I dried what I could and got my kit around to the car and followed the scales.
First up was Steve Fouracre on peg 7, he'd had small fish mostly and a couple tench and odd better skimmer. He weighed 20lb 8oz.
We then went along the other guys noting weights of 17lb and a couple of 8lb.
Then it was Phil's weigh, he plopped 21lb 8oz on the board to take the lead, he'd beaten me I was sure.
I lifted my net out and it looked close to Phil's net and so it proved with my weight being 6oz more than his at 21lb 14oz, the best net off that bank on the day.
Dick had 9lb+, then Keith had 18lb, Dave Nash 13lb 12oz. Brian Gattiss dnw'd and also lost a few sections of his pole as a carp took them on a swim before they sank!!
Eric was next to weigh and his 2 nets gave him a very good 32lb 8oz, Jamie then plonked 23lb 12oz the scales. Kev Crouch and Chris Higgs had 14lb and 7lb nets respectively.
Last to weigh was Vic Bush, he had to do a couple weighs and he looked close to Erics weight, but just fell short with 30lb 4oz.

The pegs on the lodge/solid bank had obviously given up a lot more better skimmers and F1's compared to the far bank pallet pegs.

Results:
1st, Eric Fouracre, 32lb 8oz. Peg 26. (he won the club's both finals)
2nd, Vic Bush, 30lb 8oz. Peg 32.
3rd, Jamie Cook, 23lb 12lb. Peg 28.
4th, Lee Williams, 21lb 14oz. Peg 14. (section)
5th, Phil Clapp, 21lb 8oz. Peg 13.
6th. Steve Fouracre, 20lb 8oz. Peg 7,
7th, Keith Clapp, 18lb. Peg 22. (section default)

Weigh Sheet.

So all in all it was a funny sort of match, trying to avoid the carp and hope to pick up a few better skimmers, tench and F1's.
Sadly I never had any F1's and I couldn't get any of the better roach going, which really let me down, but I was glad I only had 2 carp on long enough to get landed and  I only pricked a few others when lifting the rigs and therefore I didn't lose any hooklength etc.
To have the top net off my bank was nice, especially as I didn't expect us to compete with the near bank pegs 22 to 32. Maybe if I had stuck with the shallow topkit line for the duration I may have done a few pounds better, but that is a big maybe.

Next up is a few matches in the week, I know I am fishing Sedges on Wednesday on the Canal lake, but I am unsure on Thursday where to fish, Friday I may go to do the new costcutter match at Summerhayes.
Next Sunday I am fishing Viaduct Campbell I think. I may also go Acorn on Saturday, I shall see.

Until next time, Take Care.
Lee