27/4/16 to 02/5/16, Various Wanderings......

A busy last few days for me, after my win over at Apex last weekend I was keen to get out and catch some more fish, I had the Makins Fishomania qualifier on the Wednesday, then I had right the way through to today (Bank Holiday Monday) off and fancied doing something different for my fishing on a few of these days.

So first up was the Makins match, I would love to say how I sacked up and qualified, or at least was in with a chance......it didn't happen.
A 2hr 15min drive took 4hrs thanks to M42 and M6 accidents......luckily I had the ultra keen wife with me, otherwise I would have turned around and fished elsewhere, but she insisted I carry on!! Around 20 peeps never bothered and a few reserves got on.
I got to the fishery 15 minutes after the draw had began and I waited in line to draw, there wasn't any sort of pegs I wanted, the weather was awful and we were predicted to get cold rain, snow, winds....nice!! Geoff Ringer was in front of me in the queue and was generally asked about various pegs by anglers as they passed.
I got to the draw, the missus had gotten herself a bacon and hashbrown sarnie and I plucked Thames peg 15........means nothing but got told 4lb-10lb fish is the norm and that it was not a good draw.
I toddled up the road to phase 3 and found my peg. I had Somerton and newly sponsored Dan Squire just behind me and along on Outer Avon.....he done worse than me and left before me, it was dire.

Thames peg 15, front and left (note Dan Squire in the bottom pic)

I set up half a dozen rigs, edges, middle and across and shallow.
All I caught, apart from a chill, was a handful of gudgeon, so had an early bath. The snow and rain was freezing....

The next day, Thursday, I had a late start for a pleasure session on a club water, a bit of long range feeder fishing and deep water pole fishing at Combwich.
After 2 hrs I had 2 roach on the feeder at 65 turns. Nothing on the pole in top 5 depth of water.

Combwich Pond

So I then made my way to another club lake, Dunwear, where I managed to get drenched in the heavy rain, and struggled at times to hold a pole.
I did manage around 15lb of rudd, roach and skimmers, plus I hooked a couple carp. I really enjoyed that couple or so hours on light gear.

Dunwear South Pond

Friday was a day spent with the wife, so Saturday I went back to Dunwear armed with just a feeder rod, some caster, maggot and corn plus groundbait.
I fished the Senior Lake, the largest on the complex, it holds plenty of bream and roach that don't get fished for much and can be patchy at times, though there has been some really big 100lb+ nets of bream over the last few years.
I fished for 4 hours at 48 turns and managed one solitary 6lb bream and around 15lb of roach, but I was totally roached out as my maggots came back ragged more than I care to mention. An enjoyable day though and I will have another bash soon.

Dunwear Senior Pit

So, onto Sunday, a PSV match at Viaduct on Campbell Lake, we had 19 fishing and I waited until peg 130 had been drawn before plucking peg 125 for myself.

Peg 125 Campbell, Viaduct

The match the day before showed peg 123 had 200lb to win and the pegs 124 to 129 were ok with 119, 118, 116 not brilliant.
To cut a short story shorter, I set up a meat short rig for carp and went trying to catch silvers, so had a 13m groundbait line and an edge caster rig. I also had a lead rod assembled for a carp or two.
The day went slowly for myself, Lee Waller on peg 123 who dnw'd and Brian Shanks on peg 126 who caught 3 of hos 4 lumpy carp in the last 45 mins or so, he also had 16lb of accidental silvers. Though Degsy Williams on peg 124 did well to catch 90lb or so.
I managed 6 carp (5 on the lead) and 10lb of silvers, mostly nice perch. And was again sat opposite the framers...!!

Results:
1. Steve Sewell (116) .... 139-1
2. Alan Healey (119) ..... 106-14
3. Ross Sewell (111) ..... 104-6...
4. Matt Williams (130) .... 99-2
5. Ron Hardiman (114) ... 94-14
6. Steve Burgess (128) .. 92-0
7. Degsy Williams (124) .. 91-9
8. Adam Caswell (118) ... 87-2
9. Mark Radford (136) .... 68-11
10. Will Dearlove (132) ... 68-8
11. Keith Ray (129) ....... 62-15
12. Mike Wilson (113) .... 58-1
13. Brian Shanks (126) ... 51-11
14. Lee Williams (125) .... 48-10
15. John Bradford (127) ... 33-9
16. Simon Belcham (112) .. 19-3
and 2 dnw's.

Silvers:
1. John Bradford .... 33-9
2. Simon Belcham .... 19-3
3. Brian Shanks ....... 16-9
4. Lee Williams ....... 10-8
5. Ross Sewell ..... 8-0
Ron Hardiman ... 8-0
Mike Wilson ...... 8-0

So last up is todays match on Trinity Woodlands, with 8 or 9 of us pegged along the far bank, the weather was due to get a bit pants later in the day with a good helping of rain to go with the already brisk wind.
Misha had 2 golden pegs, they were 17 and 6, with 17 the current in form peg and peg 6 always worth a good few fish. The Golden Peg was worth 100 quid and venue regular Mark Hanham drew it and would be the odds on favourite to win.
I picked peg 15, so again it looked like I could watch the winner all day....ho hum. For company on my right, well I could not see him, was Polish angler Ziggy Slowinski. He said Him, Me and Mark should fill the top 3 spaces, with Mark winning....!!

Trinity Woodlands p15 lhs

Trinity Woodlands p15

I set up a method feeder, only cast 3 times, so no more on that.
A rig for 11m down to my left, not too close to the margin as it was snaggy as hell....1 carp and a few skimmers from here along with a 2lb perch. This rig was also used by the bush to my right and here I had a small carp and 2 small silvers.
A silvers rig for 11m in front, 3 skimmers from here and a roach, plus 3 foul hooked carp lost.
A rig for shallow pellet, no fish on this, though if i could have fished it long then I reckon that I may well have caught on it.
Lastly a rig for 2+2 for meat over pellet, this gave me 1 tench and a couple skimmers (one I tried to swing in and it fell off....costly).
It wasn't an eventful match for me, in hindsight, once Mark started catching, after 1hr he was on around 8 carp, I should have just fished for the silvers.
It was a struggle for most as the wind was tricky.
I finished with 3 carp and 10lb 14oz of silvers, I was pipped to the silvers payout by Ziggy who weighed in 11lb 8oz, so that skimmer I should have netted cost me, ho hum
Mark won the match and the extra £100, he had 104lb, second was Phil on peg 6, he bagged up in the last hour or so once the wind had changed direction a little.

So a few nice days pleasure fishing away from the commercial type venues was really enjoyable.
The bream look to be spawning soon as everywhere I have caught them this week they have been all spotted up and rough skinned. But with the weather warming, swallows and swifts in the skies, things may well be picking up.....lets bloody hope so....oh and less wind would be awesome.

No idea where I am fishing next weekend, the following week I am at Shiplate with Pawlett.

Until then, take care.
Lee


P.S. I still have one or 2 spaces left on my Saturday series and I have started taking the £60 entry/pegs/payout fees, a good few have paid and I expect it to be a good series and laugh.