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