Landsend Match and Speci Lakes, HLS match, 27-09-15

Sunday was a blinding day in terms of weather, a typical 'Indian Summer's' day, overnight temps were a cool 4 or 5 degrees with the usual mist patches and plenty of dew on the grass when I awoke.
Temperature rose to around 20 degrees during the day, with sunshine throughout..........ideal for topping up the tan, less conductive to good catches of fish.

However, I had booked onto this match with the club thanks to work colleague, Paul Berry, on Thursday evening. At that point I was the 16th and last person fishing, but some late booking-ins boosted the attendance by 5 or 6.
We'd been due to fish the match lake (lake 2), but secured the north bank of the speci lake (lake 1).
I arrived in loads of time and said the usual hellos to plenty of the guys I know.
I dipped the nets and loaded my trolley before waiting for the draw.
I fancied peg 13, a really good and inform peg. Other than that 11 or any along the south bank of the match lake will suffice (I had only fished peg 1 on the north bank on previous visits). I fancied the speci lake to produce better skimmers as there was less pressure on the water on Saturday.

Bob had put 24 pegs in the bucket, 8 on each of the 3 banks we were using on the day.
I waited until nearer the end of the queue and saw that Phil Beards had plucked peg 13, Mike Davis was in a nice peg (peg 24) and that Shaun Larkham and Ross Baker were in less favourable pegs (37 and 38).
I plucked peg 6, not sure if it was decent, but I had the point of the island in front of me at 14.5m and a couple of nice edges.
Company wise, I had Mike Bendell on peg 5 and nobody until peg 10 (Kev Hayes), so 3 empty spaces for the fish to hide in..!! Opposite me was Northern George, on peg 18. Both him and Mike would be targeting the silvers, generally speaking.

Landsend peg 6.

I surveyed the scene in front of me and decided on a few lines of attack.
The 1st would be at 2+1 slightly off to my right for meat over hemp.
The second would be for banded pellet towards the point of the island, using 6 and 8mm pellets.
A rig for down to my left under the branches would be my 3rd line, but this remained fishless, so no more on that (I was gonna use corn over pellets here).
Oh and a depth pellet rig for 14m in front between the islands, this remained fishless....!!
I couldn't fish down to peg 7 as the foliage to my right hindered my view and blocked my off a touch.
I never set a silvers rig up at this point as I thought I may well catch a few carp, although there were not many in the area that inspired confidence to back up my theory.

At the all in I went gently and put a small helping of pellets across and started on the meat....I waited....and waited....and waited.
It was a good 90 minutes before my 1st carp arrived, that was hooked by the island and was definitely welcome, only a 4lb pup, but at least I hadn't blanked!!
Elsewhere at this point, peg 19 had landed, and lost, a couple of carp, so had George. The silvers weren't feeding either as Mike Bendell plucked away at small roach.
It was soon halfway through the match and I was debating if I should bog off home, but the fact I knew a run of 5 or 6 carp would be brilliant in the scheme of how things were doing, with only Beardsy on peg 13 catching, though peg 19 was on 4 or 5 carp at this point.
I then decided to mix some groundbait and get out the maggots in an attempt to blag a few skimmers, so a silvers rig was made for 2+1 off to my left.
I fished this for around an hour, while my carp lines were re-fed and rested, in this period I had a rudd, a roach, a 6oz skimmer, a perch and a hybrid before bites stopped. Thinking there was a carp present, I went over this spot with my meat and pellet rigs.....No bites!!

Across by the island I could see a few tails and the odd ghost carp moving, so I went over with the shallowed edge rig with meat on the hook....2 minutes later I had a fish on, a nice ide over over 2lb was netted, much to Mike's 'tongue-in-cheek' disgust. He also knocked a number 3 section in at this point...he never got that back!
Back out to the island and I soon had carp number 2, a 4lber. Then things went dead again.

With an hour to go it seemed that peg 13, 19 and maybe peg 2 had a few carp, oh and George was on 4 or 5 accidentals....though he had 1 carp go under his pallet, around the leg and out the other side....he landed it after a tussle....so obviously he was fishing heavy silvers gear....haha.
My meat line was giving a few bubbles, so I went back over this and had 2 carp in 2 drops. One was about 6lb and the other was a ghostie pushing 10lb.
I netted a 2lb carp soon after, foul hooked, but welcome. Another 3lber came from across before I lost a couple, possible foul hooked, from my meat line.
I wanted a couple more carp in the last 15 minutes, but they never came. Peg 19 managed 3 or 4 in the last hour to stay clear of me and I heard peg 2 was on 8 carp....Phil Beards on flyer peg 13 had around 10 or 12, so I heard through the grapevine.
I commented at this point that he'd got more silvers than anyone else on the lake, only just. But probably not enough to beat the speci lake, providing it had fished as expected.

The all out sounded and I had 6 carp in total, losing 2. Plus maybe 3lb of silvers. So maybe 35lb or just over.

I packed my kit away and went and loaded the car, most peeps had commented it had fished poor and my 6 carp was pretty good, with only Phil and John Barker on pegs 13 and 19 respectively catching upwards of 10 carp. Peg 2, Stan, had 8 carp.
I caught up with the scales and had some banter with a few guys, especially George Fletcher, he reckoned on 3 carp and 3lb of silvers....ball-cocks I said...telling him that 5 or 6 carp and 6lb+ of silvers was what he had!!
Anyways the Shaun and Ross proved that my prediction that their pegs weren't great was proved with a dnw and 7lb between them. Though Bob Pascoe had 19lb of silvers from peg 39, Rob Eagles had 16lb+ from peg 40 and Paul Berry's 12lb+ came from peg 34...those 3 weights would surely take the top 3 silvers coin.
Peg 1 dnw'd and peg 2's eight carp totted up to 30lb plus a couple pounds of silvers.
Peg 3 had 7lb 1oz of silvers, Mike Bendell had 8lb 4oz of silvers before my 6 carp weighed in at 40lb 6oz and my 4lb of silvers took me into the temporary lead.
Peg 10 dnw'd and peg 11 had 17lb (most of which was 1 carp). Next to weigh was Phil Beards on peg 13, he weighed in at 56lb 10oz.
George was next to weigh and I ribbed him on his 'Lies' (other's words, not mine)...he had a very strange 3 carp, strange in the fact most peeps don't have 3 fingers....those 5 carp weighed over 24lb.
His 3lb of silvers had surpassed his admittance and weighed 8lb 3oz....not the best silvers net on the lake.
Peg 19, John Barker, lifted his nets out, 6lb 6oz of silvers first, before he pulled his carp net up....I said it looked a few pounds different to Phil's catch but he'd had 4lb more of silvers, and it did, he tipped in 48lb 14oz, giving his a total of 55lb 4oz, putting him in 2nd spot.
He was the last to weigh, confirming my 3rd place.

Weights Sheet

So a very slow and frustrating day with the well-stocked venue switching off. But I got my money back and was again thankful of my late meat-caught carp. Here is Ross Baker's account of things:
HLS Blog...........

Results:
1st - Peg 13 : Phil Beards, 56lb 10oz
2nd - Peg 19 : John Barker, 55lb 4oz
3rd - Peg 6 : Lee Williams, 44lb 6oz

Silvers:
1st - Peg 39 : Bob Pascoe, 19lb
2nd - Peg 40 : Rob Eagles, 16lb 1oz
3rd - Peg 34 : Paul Berry, 12lb 1oz

Next up for me is likely to be Sunday, with the PSV gang, on Sedges Tile Lake.
This weather, should it stay nice and warm and settled could lead to some very decent weights (lets hope I draw well....please).

Until then, take care.
Lee

A catch up blog.....

So although it has been a couple weeks since my last blog, well simply because I haven't had too much to write about.

Last Sunday (13th July) I fished with the PSV crew over at Landsend Fishery, we were on lake 3 and I managed to pluck peg 42 from the bag, not a bag peg with a nice margin, a weed/lily bed and the point of the island.
I set up a shallow rig for both up in the water and 'mugging' as a few fish were cruising but not looking right to mug. A short meat rig, a margin rig for down to my left and under my feet. Plus a depth pellet rig for against the island.

For company I had Steve Burgess on peg 44, Mark Radford on 41, Ryan Radford and Lionel Legge were on the far bank on pegs 70 and 68 respectively.



peg 42 Landsend Lake 3

The match produced only a handful of bites for me (and others), I mugged my 4 carp tight to the island, lost a carp by my feet and had 2 perch and missed a bite.....that's my 6hrs summed up.
Lionel had 4 fish in the first 40 minutes or so, then never had another all day.
Steve Burgess had 4 bites, I think, landing 2 carp.
Mark and Ryan did ok, with Ryan being more consistent in that he was getting bites, losing a few and landing a few. His old man did well in the last hour fishing down his right margin.

The winner on the day was Chris Szacaks with 55lb 8oz from p66. Steve O'Toole had 49lb+ from p58. Will Dearlove had 46lb+ from peg 50. Steve Sewell won the silvers with 12lb or so.

Weigh Sheets..

On the match lake on the same day, Tony Rixon's match was won by Craig 'Trigger' Edmunds with over 300lb....!!
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This weekend has seen me fish Viaduct for the Celtic Baits match, with 55 or so fishing we were spread over Lodge, Cary and Campbell.
I fancied a day fishing for the silvers so a peg on Campbell or Lodge would be best, actually with only 2 silvers places on offer via a 'super-pool' option fishing for them on Cary wouldn't be worth it.
There were plenty of venue regulars fishing, the likes of Dan White, Roland Lucas and Roy Worth just to name three, things would be hard to pick up an envelope. A decent draw was required.

I had decided to wait until my dreaded peg 130 had come out of the tin, and thankfully it wasn't the last peg left as Ian Graham picked it with 4 tickets left..!! Phew....
I did manage a decent peg in 81, the left side of the spit on Cary, one I thought would be worth a few fish. Dan White was on 80, the other side of the spit. We both commented on the fact there seemed to be a few carp mooching around the end of the spit and we may catch a few.....yeah we shall see.!!
I also had for company Steve Tucker, behind me, on peg 119....nice peg!!

I set up a lead rod for just off the spit, a meat rig for down to the monk to my right and a (biteless) pellet rig for against the spit at 13m. I did set up a silvers rig and mixed up some groundbait for absolutely no reason!!

Cary p81 Right Side

Cary p81 Left Side (and the Monk)

At the beginning, when then sun was on the water I had plenty of fish moving around the peg, not feeding, but I was happy enough to see some present.
On the whistle I fired a few 6 and 8mm pellets towards where I would fish the lead, I cupped in some meat and hemp down to the monk and some pellets tight in by the spit.
I began on the lead but after 15 minutes I had no indications, but I noted some colouring up down by the monk, and my 1st drop in with 8mm meat saw me connect to a carp, which was around 6lb and successfully landed. That was my only carp from that spot all day, the only fish I had from there were a couple of 4oz roach and a 3oz skimmer.

So other that the odd fruitless look against the spit on the pole, I stuck to the lead.
The first hour  or so did give me a few fish, only small ones by Cary sizes, averaging 7lb each. My clicker showed 52lb after the 1st hour, that was 7 carp.
The 3rd hour gave me a skimmer on the lead, nothing else.
The 4th hour gave me 2 small carp, both around 3lb each...proper Cary babies!!
Elsewhere I could see peg 66 on lodge was doing well (he was standing up to net each fish!), Mark Wynne on peg 99 was catching a few as was Steve Ayres over on peg 96(?). Campbell was quiet by it's usual standard and Tucks said he had around 50lb at this point but nobody, even Trig on peg 124, was catching regularly.

Into the 5th hour and it had really died for me, a couple roach and a lost skimmer was my tally here...oh I did land a 7lber towards the back end of that hour, and it was at this point that I could see Norm Sterry on peg 86 beginning to hook a few lumps and I counted 8 landed by the all out.
Roy Worth was now up and running and looked to be doing well from peg 100. Over on Campbell I could see Trig starting to catch a few on his short line, and Tucks was picking up a few with better regularity.
The last hour arrived and I had clicked 60lb on my 1st net and I had 1 fish in the second net at this point. By this last period was better for me as I got another 5 carp in the net (one was 3lb) but again I didn't have any of the Cary lumps, I don't think I had a double all day, which is odd for Cary (standard for me). I only lost one fish all day, that was last chuck, when the carp found a floating branch from the willows, the fish transferred the hook.
I ended on 15 carp (three 3lbers included) and a handful of accidental silvers.

I packed my kit up and waited for the scale. My section was being led by Nick Chedzoy with 125lb, he only had a handful of fish but they came late on and were generally mid-doubles!!
Dan's fish from peg 81 weighed a touch over 93lb before my fish (inc 5lb of silvers) weighed a total of 103lb 2oz for 2nd in section.
I let the scales carry on their way before loading my car and catching up with the scales at peg 97. A look at the board showed Norm's 8 fish weighed 94lb..!! Steve Ayres had 103lb 7oz, again big fish.
Roy Worth had 97lb or so before Mark Wynne had 128lb 14oz.

Back at the hut and the weights showed that Lodge had dominated with 3 of the top 5 nets and the 2 best silvers weights. It had fished ok generally with plenty of weights upwards of 90lb.

Results:
1st, Lodge peg 66, Paul Clayton. 184lb
2nd, Lodge peg 62, Paul Elmes. 163lb 12oz
3rd, Campbell peg 124, Craig 'Trigger' Edmunds. 147lb 5oz
4th, Cary peg 99, Mark Wynne. 128lb 14oz
5th, Lodge peg 57, Rob Wiltshire. 126lb 10oz

Silvers
1st, Lodge peg 69, Nick Ewers. 47lb 10oz
2nd, Lodge peg 70, Nigel Bartlett. 46lb 6oz.

So I had a day where the fish moved out with the sun and after the first hour it was a struggle, but I was happy with my efforts!!

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Today I had a Pawlett match on the River Huntspill, a bit different to Saturday.
We had 27 or 28 fishing, so a really good turnout.
A bit of chatter and piss taking ensued before the draw, a peg towards the far end heading to Woolavington (pegs 128 to 132 please!!). I picked the 4th last ticket and found peg 146 in my hand, not the best but you never know.
So after we 'team-worked' people's kit over the gate we made our way to our pegs.
I arrived to a nice looking peg, but then most look decent on the 'Spill.

Huntspill, With Grove, peg 146

I had some marginal weed plus plenty of floating weed and duckweed in my peg pretty much all day.
For company I had Sandra on peg 147 and a newcomer on peg 145 in the form of Nigel(?)Venning.
I set about mixing up a good deal of groundbait before I began on my tackle.
I set up 2 pole rigs, the 1st for just past the weed at 11m, a 4x12 Carpa Chimp on 0.12>0.08>B511 size 20. The second was on the same line/hooks but for 14.5m in slightly deeper water using a 4x16 float.
A feeder rod was put up for 3/4 of the way over and a waggler rod were also put together.
Bait was 2 pints of each hemp, maggot and caster, plus I had 1/2kg of worm and nearly 5kg of groundbait.

The day started off sunny with no wind, but it was soon to cloud over and a small awkward breeze picked up and it looked rather 'breamy'.
At the all-in I cupped 6 balls of groundbait containing chopped worm and caster on my long line, while a small helping of maggot and hemp went in just past the weed.
I began on the feeder and soon had a 1oz roach followed by it's twin.
That was it for a while before a look on the waggler only gave me another roach, but it didn't seem right so I chucked that rod back up the bank for a while.
Back on the feeder and things were slow, I did manage a couple baby perch over the rest of the first hour before a tangle to the feeder saw me try the waggler again, but I suffered a tangle on this !!! Gggrr I was annoyed, so I fixed the feeder and lobbed it out while I sorted the float out.
It was after 10 minutes that I had a proper wrap round on double worm, bonus I thought immediately......it wasn't, it was infact a perch that probably weighed the same as the bait it was caught on!!

I spent the next  hour mostly fishing the feeder and at 11:30 I bagged a 6oz perch followed by a 12oz skimmer, which was handy.
It was soon 12 o'clock and I took a walk down to peg 145 to find he'd only had 6 or 7 small fish, heading back up to Sandra, Phil 'fester' Hembury and Eric Fouracre it seemed very slow, Sandra only had half a dozen small fish, Fester had a bream and a couple perch. Eric had a couple small perch or roach.
Bag to my swim and I gave the pole line a go, a look on the shorter line by the weed never gave a bite, it never gave me a bite all day. Out to 14.5m and I happened upon 3 perch of 3oz each before 5 or 6 roach of a similar size were soon in my keepnet.
It was now 1:00 and I guess I had about 2lb. Back onto the feeder and a couple roach of 1oz each were succumbed by my half worm hookbait.
Onto the pole again and another flurry of roach and a 4oz skimmer were a welcome addition.
Then it died on all lines, the last couple of hours were spent faffing on different methods and hookbaits. I only managed a solitary rudd on the waggler and a roach on the pole in the last minute were had in the last 120 minutes.

The all-out was called and I began to pack up, several peeps had not weighed in, but noises had filtered down that the pegs towards Woolavington had given nice weights of skimmers and bream, but the closer to the bridge you were the less you caught.
On my side of the bridge I was told that Phil Clapp and Rob Dodd had around 7lb each (their words), Eric had snared a bream with 15 minutes left. Other than that the first couple of pegs by the bridge both reckoned on 3.5lb each.

I loaded the car and  waited for the scales, when they arrived I saw a couple 20lb+ nets, a couple of 14lb+ and a couple between 7 and 10lb, all before a few dnw's!!
The first couple pegs on my side of the bridge had ounces over 4lb each, then a couple dnw's before my silvers I guessed at 2 to 3lb actually weighed 5lb 1oz, which was pretty good considering,
Sandra never weighed before Fester, Eric Fouracre and Dave Nash had 3lb 2oz, 4lb 7oz and 4lb 1oz respectively.
Mark Hembury dnw'd then came Phil Clapp and he put 9lb 4oz on the sheet, Rob Dodd never had that much and he had to settle for 2nd in section with 8lb 3oz, relegating me to 3rd in section.
Oh and Nigel Hull wanted to put his 2 perch on the scales and in doing so had 3oz.

So a day of effort, but I enjoyed it better than some recent days, but my decent skimmer or bream never arrived. But it was good to be back on a natural venue.

Results:
1st, Derek Beard on peg 128 with 24lb 4oz
2nd, Brian Gatis on peg 133 with 20lb 10oz
3rd, Keith Clapp on peg 129 with 14lb 6oz

Sections went to John Dursley on p131 with 14lb 1oz and Phil Clapp's 9lb 4oz from peg 152.

Weigh Sheet.
 



So that was my last week or so, varied, some enjoyable bits, some less so.
Not sure where I am next weekend yet as my diary is empty.

Until then, take care.
Lee

PSV Match, Trinity Woodlands, 06-09-15

I know this will be a short blog.......why?.......'Coz bugger all happened really.

All 14 of us arrived at the lake in nice, sunny and warm conditions, the first day like this in what seems like months, we were looking forward to the day and the prospect of a good few of the lumpy carp that inhabit the Woodland lake on the Trinity Waters complex.
I ended up pegging the lake, much to a couple of the guys' annoyance, as I put 3 pegs (on the 'best side'??) together, but I didn't fancy putting any of the end banks in the hat. But we had to get on with it.

Anyways, the draw was made and to be fair I would have been happy with any peg as I do like the venue, it was peg 33 that I found in my hand so I was chuffed enough, an end peg on the near bank.
For company on peg 31 I had Ryan Radford and across I could see everyone from Will Dearlove on hot peg 6, through to Ron Hardiman (p8), Chris Gay (p9), Mark Radford(p10) etc ending with John Bradford up on peg 14.

Trinity Woodlands peg 33

Simple bait and rigs for the match. I expected you'd need 80lb+ for a top 3 finish.
8mm meat and hemp for 2+2 and down my margins along with 8mm and 6mm pellets for 14m shallow and on the deck. So 4 rigs made, 1x shallow (carpless), 1x short meat (fishless), 1x margin and another for 8mm banded pellet on the deck(biteless).
I also had my usual method feeder set up for across to the empty peg (1 or 2?).

At the all in I potted my baits out and began to loose feed pellet at 14m, a mix of 6 and 8's as I find this better on deeper waters with a big variety of fish sizes, plus there are some roach/hydrids and f1's all of a decent size to be caught alongside the carp.
I lobbed the feeder across and after 5 mins I had a 3lb fish in the net, Will and Ron also had early fish.
Ten minutes later I had a 5lber in my net.

I would love to say this continued for the next 5hrs and 45 minutes...........it didn't!
All that happened was I watched the odd carp get caught across, not many.
It was over 2hrs before my next carp, again on the method, but I lost it at the net when the hook pulled, it looked easily 12lb+, the same fate occurred an hour later but with a 2lber.
So I was 4hrs in and I had 2 carp, Will had 3 or 4 as did Ron. Chris Gay and Mark Radford were on similar. Next to me Ryan had a roach and a skimmer.
It was about this time that I had my 3rd carp in the net, possibly a 4lb fish. Oh I had a handful of nice roach, on meat, down the edge and 1 shallow by this point too.

The last couple of hours were dire also, I did manage another feeder caught 4lber and a 3lb common from the left margin. Only Brian Shanks seemed to be catching consistently at this point, he was doing the best by a long distance. Everyone else was hoping for a run of 3 or 4 nice sized carp, as it looked like everyone was suffering with boredom!!

By the all out Lee Waller, Steve O'Toole and Ryan Radford had packed up and tipped back.
I reckoned I had around 18lb of carp and a couple pounds of silvers.
I packed up and began the weigh in with Will, he'd suffered with fishing by the next peg to him, the carp 'doing' him on the legs.  Chris Gay had a mare, his sections coming apart over the water and went into panic mode, getting the sections back but trashing one and losing some stuff in a comedy of mayhem.

Anways we did the weigh in and it was only really Brian Shanks on peg 13 who had a weight of note, 99lb 12oz was what he managed, most shallow and late on in the match. Mark Radford was next best at this point with 35lb-ish.
The silvers winner, John Bradford, weighed in 10lb 4oz from peg 14.
Onto the solid (near) bank and we saw Alan Healey had 35lb+ form p24, then came Adam Caswell, he had 6 carp, 3 of which went 30lb 8oz and the other 3 went 13lb or so. His total was 43lb 12oz.
Steve Burgess nabbed a quid off me with 27lb 10oz and that was that!
Oh I weighed in 18lb of carp and 3lb of silvers, for not last on the day, actually I was 7th, lol.

Results:
1st Brian Shanks, peg 13. 99lb 12oz
2nd Adam Caswell, peg 25. 43lb 12oz
3rd Mark Radford, peg 10. 35lb 13oz (section win)
4th Alan Healey, peg 24. 35lb 4oz (section win)

Silvers
1st John Bradford, peg 14. 10lb 4oz
2nd Lee Williams, peg 33. 3lb

weigh sheet

So it fished pants, it does on PSV matches there it seems, so it'll be interesting on how many put their names down for the next one in a few weeks!!
I put the dire day down to the weather.......If you were at home on the sunniest and warmest day for a month what would you do?....yep lounge around and do bugger all in the garden. I reckon the fish had decided to lounge around and not do much either.
I like the place so I will be back.

Next up for me is, I think, a match on Lake 3 down at Landsend next Sunday,

Until then, have fun.
Lee

Pawlett Club, Harescombe Fisheries, 05-09-15

Pawlett's annual 'day-out' is intended to take us to venues that we don't, or rather, haven't fished before. The venue is picked by Vic Bush and this year he seduced Harescombe Fisheries nr Gloucester into allowing us to go there and try and catch some fish.

I was the only member of the club to have fished the venue, and to be fair I have nothing but praise for the fishery, only wishing it was maybe 50 miles or more closer to home.
I did get the usual questions on the place as well as being labelled 'venue-expert' by a couple of guys but it was all in good jest.
Half of us met in a lay-by and I lead the convoy of us up the M5, while the ones who made their own way there would, hopefully, be at the venue in time for the brekkie; they all did except for Keith Clapp who'd waited in the wrong lay-by before journeying on up himself and then had to be directed in by phone when in arrived in the village of Harescome!!

When we arrived it was rather cool and the weather was a bit dour, cloudy and a cool breeze, thankfully no fog or rain as the weather can set-in here!
We had our breakfasts, very nice they were, even swapping my beans for extra sausage.
First impressions and comments from the guys was that it looked great, along with the scenery and lay-out. Great start. This was made better by the numbers of fish topping in the pegs by the car park (pegs 8 to 13).
The initial pay out was to include a silvers pot, this was abandoned thanks to the nature of the fish and fishing, nobody grumbled and we went with top 4 and two sections.

The draw was made and I plucked my number around 5th in line of the 18 participants and found number 5 in my hand, not the 'flyers' of 29, 30 and 24 or where the fish had been topping. Myself and Mark Sweeting on peg 6 never saw as much fish activity in our pegs all day, unlike Pete Manning on peg 29!!

Left hand view (peg 29 is the furthest peg)

Looking right from peg 5

Front view of peg 5 (samey as most pegs here)

For company I had Mark Sweeting on peg 6 and on peg 3 was Kev Crouch. I could see all those to my left and over to Derek Beards and Vic Bush on pegs 24 and 23 respectively.

Bait and tackle was simple for the day, 6mm meat for the edge, corn and maggots for 2+2 in front lightly left) and some 6mm pellets for across to the far side, I had hoped on fishing shallow down the middle as f1's do like to come up in the water, but the weather curtailed my effort on this front.
Tackle was a shallow 0.1g slapping rig, a 0.2g rig for down both sides at topkit distance. A full depth rig for down the middle in about 5ft of water plus a 0.2g rig for across using banded 6mm as bait.
All rigs were on 0.14>0.10>size 18 b911 (f1 = no band, standard = banded) and light solid 6/8 elastic.

At the all-in I potted some maggots and a few grains of corn at 2+2 plus a few 6mm's went alongside some grass by the far side wood. I also started to feed both edges, the left with maggots, the right with a few bits of meat.
I started on the 2+2 line and had a couple of indications, but it was Mark on peg 6 who had a f1 first drop. I waited a few minutes longer before a small skimmer was netted (every fish to be netted here), a second followed before a 6oz f1 and a gudgeon all found their way to my keepnets.

The first hour passed and other than the start of that period, I was struggling, unlike Vic and Derek plus Pete Manning on peg 29. But I stuck with it and come the start of the 2nd hour I had a few swirls at my maggots, so I dropped the slapping rig in and had a 1lb f1 and a nice 6oz skimmer in as many chucks before that died.
The good/bad thing about the lake is the fact every fish is being netted so it can be tricky keeping tabs on most peeps, well unless you draw peg 29 and start catching plenty of fish including a few carp around the 3-6lb mark as Pete did during the day. Also Jamie Cook, further along my bank, was catching well, as he did all day.
By the end of the second hour I had around 10lb of fish, which shows how tricky it was, it was a matter of fishing for a couple fish before swapping lines, but I found my edges and my far swims were less than active so I ended up at 2+2 for the most part of the match.
Mark had less than me at this point while Kev was doing ok fishing worms down his margin or pellet shallow across. Keith Clapp, next down from Kev, was on a similar weight, but the venue is as fair as can be, which as match anglers, is one very good attribute in a fishery.
My 3rd hour was blank, well other than a rudd and a couple of thumb sized gudgeon, this coincided with Mark having a nice run of fish down his edges.

So into the 4th and 5th hours and I noted that by feeding bigger helpings, less often, of maggots and corn were keeping fish coming in spurts, mostly skimmers and not the f1s or small carp you need to be catching, but I was putting odd fish in the net.
I was also suffering from hook-pulls, but I wasn't alone with this, perhaps the finicky f1's were being even more picky than usual??!!
I thought at this point I was perhaps 17 or 18lb, miles behind the likes of Pete and Jamie, Derek and Vic, actually me and Mark did agree that it seemed that we'd be last and second last at this point!!

The last hour was reasonable for me, a nice 1.5lb carp from my left edge was netted, but was my only landed fish from here, I did lose a couple off the hook, and I also lost a couple when my hooklengths broke on the landing net head. But I had a little spurt of fish on corn down the middle and then managed 3 or 4 fish landed by lifting and dropping against the far side, again I also lost a couple off the hook, but my limited f1 fishing has taught me that this isn't abnormal (for me).
As the end of the match was called most peeps had commented on the result being between Pete Manning and Jamie Cook, though I reckoned Vic and Kev Lock had done well, Kev having a brilliant last 90 minutes especially.

We all packed up before me and Jamie began the weigh in, and during this process I heard nothing but compliments on the fishery and that everybody had plenty of bites all day.
We began with Pete's net and he tallied up to 72lb exactly, very nice indeed. Mark Watts on peg 30 only had 16lb-ish before Keith, Kev, me and Mark weighed in with 35lb+, 30lb+, 37lb+ and 28lb+ respectively. My weight was somewhat surprising, I guess I did my usual thing of not taking much notice of my skimmers and roach!!
Next to weigh was Kev Lock, he managed to just pip me to the section with 38lb and a few ounces, then Jamie took the lead with over 75lb. Big Nick had 28lb then Mike Davis had a tidy 53lb 10oz moving to 3rd.
A good few consistent nets followed, most nets between 25 and 38lb then we weighed in Vic, he had 52lb 3oz to take 4th place. Derek had 35lb 2oz to finish of the weigh-in.

Results:
1st, Jamie Cook, p9. 75lb 5oz
2nd, Pete Manning, p29. 72lb
3rd, Mike Davis, p12. 53lb 10z
4th, Vic Bush, p23. 52lb 3oz

Sections went to Steve Fouracre and Kev Lock.

Weigh Sheet

So weights were very consistent and everyone was pleased with the day, although we never saw the 100lb+ winning weights that are not uncommon at the venue, everyone agreed that they'd come back.
Well I will be at some point with the PSV lads I expect.
Oh we saw an abundance of species caught, f1's, chub, roach, rudd, skimmers, eels, common carp, mirror carp, barbel, brown goldfish, dace (possibly) and perch to name a few.

Until next time, thanks for reading.
Lee