PSV Match, Harescombe, 28-08-16

Back up the M5 yesterday to one on my favourite match fisheries, Harescombe, a venue where you should get a few bites all year round given the head of F1s and other species.
Only 10 of us were present, there was a contingent of the club down at Stafford Moor for a 3 day event that Lee Waller had arranged.
Today I bought along the wife as she hadn't seen the venue and it got her out of the house.

We arrived in loads of time, the trip is only minutes over an hour, so not that bad really. We went up to the café and everyone was present and some were munching on brekkie, the wife ordered a hashbrown and bacon sarnie for her, I just had a cuppa.
Alan Healey was running the show today, the owner sorted the pegs and it was to pay top 4 overall.
In to the draw with only 3 pegs left, I drew 19 which is decent enough, Rich Jones plucked 16 which the owner said would be facing down the lake once you have crossed the far bridge. Alan had the last peg and it was 29, the peg generally seen as an out and out flyer and is the near end of the lake and has the infall to your right and where the landslide has occurred in front. Always worth a good few fish.

My Peg, Peg 19 at Harescombe

For company I had Chris Gay on peg 21, he'd mostly be fishing the method feeder, and to be fair it is often hard to beat there if you have fish in the peg, but fishing it at 13/14m just isn't for me in a club match, I enjoy fishing the method, but where fish are not 1lb-ish fish and where you actually need to cast properly, but each to their own. To my left I had Rich Jones, I could see everyone except Alan Healey, so could keep an eye on all.

4 topkits assembled for the match: All on 6/8 laccy, 0.2 NG Jordans using 0.14>0.12>size 16's.
1st was a rig to fish using the topkit down each edge, meat over 4mm pellets both sides
2nd was a rig to fish maggots through the water, occasionally meat, topkit+1 distance
3rd was a pellet rig for 13.5m across to the left of a bush/tree/grass spot
lastly a shallow pellet rig for fishing across as the fish will come up and slurp against the board.
For bait I had 6mm pellets for across, 3pts of maggots for that line, some 4mm pellets and 6mm meat for the margins mostly.

At the all in I began in front at topkit+1 with maggot and was soon getting a few silvers, also the small roach were swirling at the feed, there didn't look to be any carp or f1s in amongst them so I stayed on the deck hoping they would follow the feed down rather than up.
Half an hour in and Chris Gay was on around 8 or 9 F1s/carp on his method feeder, Rich Jones was getting a few carp by fishing along to the out fall on his left.
I stuck to this line until an hour had gone and only managed 1 small carp plus the silvers, but nobody was catching much. I began to feed my left edge at the 45 minute stage with a view to try down there next.

Into the 2nd hour and I switched to my left edge with meat and did pick up a couple f1s and a barbel, but my meat was getting ragged out by small roach and gudgeon mostly. But I stuck with it hoping that the better fish would come along. Chris was getting a fish a chuck on his feeder at this point and was miles ahead, actually he was on 17 f1s/carp that I had seen and I was on 4 by the end of 90 minutes. Rich Jones was getting a few also.
I switched back to the topkit+1 line but tried meat on the hook, this gave me a run of carp and f1s before fading again, so I started flicking a few pellets across in prep for when I tried there.

The 3rd hour saw me pick up a few fish on both pellet rigs fished across, so I was starting to put some f1s/carp in the net more regularly, plus I was picking up some chub and barbel, perch and skimmers which always help.
The 4th and 5th hours were my most productive, by swapping both edges and the short line in front, feeding heavier, I was getting short bursts of fish from each, but was still suffering with baby roach whittling the meat down off the hook, but the f1s and carp were coming at a sensible rate along with some silver including add 6oz skimmer. The odd foray across also produced a few fish, but was suffering with a duck and foul hookers that trashed a couple rigs. Chris Gay had been catching all the while, even picking up a few fish from his margins when he came of the method feeder and looked to have the match sewn up. Rich Jones was still getting a few and we heard Alan had been doing steady on the method feeder from peg 29. Everyone else were only catching in small bursts and the fight for 4th and last in the money was between the rest of us, more or less.

The last hour was productive for Mark Radford over on peg 14, until this point he hadn't had too many and was suffering with small silvers, but he picked up a run of f1s and carp in this period, while for everyone else it had gone quiet, even Chris only had a handful of fish, I managed 4 f1s from in front as the margins didn't produce as expected.
The all out was called and the rain began!!
I packed up, thinking I had maybe 50lb of carp/f1s plus my few silvers, I guessed Mr Gay had 110lb and Rich Jones must have 70lb.

I loaded the car so me and Adam began the weigh in. Starting on peg 29 with Alan, he had 61lb, which I thought was, by the murmurs, less than he'd been assumed to have.
Adam weighed next, 25lb+. Then we went along the car park bank with only Ryan Radford topping the 40lb barrier. Around to peg 16 and Rich Jones, he popped his 3 weighs on the scales and came out with 75lb 3oz to take the lead.
I was next to weigh, my few silvers actually weighed 11lb and 4oz. Coupled with my f1s and carp I totalled 77lb 10oz, slightly more than my guess.
Chris Gay the took the lead as expected, nearly having my estimated 110lb, he totalled 104lb 10oz, so that 1st 90 minute spell gave him the cushion over me and Rich Jones.
Last to weigh was Matt Powell, he had 26lb+.

Results:
1st, Chris Gay, p21, 104-10
2nd, Lee Williams, p19, 77-10
3rd, Rich Jones, p16, 75-03
4th, Alan Healey, p29, 61-01

Scrawled weigh sheet.

So not a bad result for me, I feel like my results are taking an about turn after a pretty slow run of mediocrity, I had a 3rd and top silvers in Wednesday's Sedges open, though I was 1 carp away from winning and yesterday's 2nd at Harescombe was hard earned but appreciated. Granted it was not the biggest match, but it defo helps with confidence and makes me look forward to the next match.
My last 2 visits there have given me a 1st and a 2nd, so I am getting to grips with the place, but busy fishing suits me.
In hindsight, I should have fished corn not meat as I am sure I could have put a few more f1s and carp in the net, maybe I would have missed out on the silvers, which were the countable fish that boosted my weight, I had roach, rudd, perch, skimmers, gudgeon, barbel, chub, f1s and carp in my catch.
I fed 2pts of maggots, 2pts of 4mm pellets and a handful of 6mm's. Plus maybe a tin of meat.

Next weekend I think I have Acorn on Sunday, but no doubt I will get a little fishing in during the week.............I hope.

Until another day. have fun.
Lee

Pawlett Match, Landsend Lakes 2 + 3, 21/08/16

A short and sweet blog is this one. 24 or 25 fished.

Arrived early, it was raining.....wanted to draw on the match lake, and due to the 5 short walk pegs, if I drew on there then realistically I would have been on the far side. I drew a golden peg, on lake 3, peg 46 (the other was peg 51). Nice enough peg...well if the poxy wind wasn't as strong as we had it, blustery too, just to make it worse.....Keith Clapp on 45 caught the island more than he caught fish throughout the day.

Peg 46 Landsend, Lake 3.

I wont go into detail of what rigs I made etc, suffice to say I only caught on 2, a pellet rig across to the island in the 10 o'clock direction, where I had 2 carp in the first ten minutes, then I foul hooked a proper mid-double lump, played it for a bit then the hook pulled....bummer. I then pricked a couple.
All that action in the first 20 minutes or so, then I went 4 hours without a fish, not even a single caster could tempt a silver.
Meanwhile not many people were catching, Jamie Parkhouse, who you can see in the picture was getting the odd silver plus even rarer carp. Keith on peg 45 was getting the odd perch/small skimmer/roach on worms tight across, he managed 3 carp during the day I think.
Further down the lake on pegs 50 and 51 fish were getting caught more consistently, not bagging up though. Mike Davis had 5 on the lead in the first half hour of the match.

As we went in to the last hour I was on 2 carp, but then I managed a 3lber off the end of the island. The fish were present, but throughout the day they sat up in front of pegs 48 and 49, I could see them waving at me!!
My margins were getting the odd visit, but I never hooked a fish down either side.
Into the last half hour and I had some fizzing on my 2+2 meat line, so I dropped in on this and had 3 carp to 10lb or so in three drops....and that was that. So I ended up with 6 carp for maybe 30/33lb.
I chucked back as I knew I didn't have what pegs 50 and 51 had caught, I could hear and see regular activity from up there. Jamie Parkhouse had a few silvers including  a crucian or 2, which he was pleased about.
Colin Haggett had a day to forget on peg 60-ish, losing enough fish to win the match, landing only 5 or 6. Actually only 6 peeps weighed in on our lake, with 50 and 51 having 100lb between them split 48 and 52lb respectively. Jamie had 26lb as had Eric Fouracre on the end peg 40.

As I walked my kit back to the car I shouted up to those weighing in on the match lake to see what had been caught, I had a reply that there was a couple 60lb nets and a 70 and a 90.

Results:
1st, Derek Beard on peg 15 with 90-08
2nd, Chris Higgs, peg 3, 77-08
3rd, Brian Gatis, peg 11, 66-05
4th, Jamie Cook, peg 17, 65-15
Silvers:
1st, Jamie Cook, peg 17, 18-07
2nd, Brian Gatis, peg 11, 16-03

Match Lake results (no point on Lake 3's)

So a frustrating day for everyone on the Lake 3, maybe we all had too much room and the fish didn't want to move down to any of us. There were plenty of fish moving, and at times we could see tails waving aplenty off my island and off the area Jamie Parkhouse was targeting on his island. I tried to mug a couple throughout the day with no joy, they just weren't playing ball.
I guess what I chucked back would have been 3rd on the lake, not worth a penny.

Next Sunday I am up at Harescombe with some of the PSV crew, the rest are down at Stafford Moor for three days, so a few bites should be had by all.

Until then, Take Care.
Lee

Saturday Combi Series, Round 5. Viaduct Cary, 20/08/16

The final round of my Combi Series took place at Viaduct on the Cary Lake, home of some large carp than can be cagey at times. The silvers sport is less prolific than previous years but still bags to over 20lb are not uncommon.
I would like to say thank you to those who have fished the series and helped with the sorting cover and entrants (Paul NIchols springs to mind) and I would say it has been a success, with very little whinging (though we all like a moan), a tight affair with lots of the anglers deliberating their route to possible success right through the series.

I arrived early, took everyone's money and sorted the pegs out (thanks Steve). The weather was due to be windy, then windier and a few rain showers to boot!!
Looking across the lake, the wind was blowing up towards peg 88/90/96, so I fancied anywhere from 85 around to 99 as I was certain the wind would have the fish on the move, especially as it wasn't too cold. But to be fair the fish can get caught from most pegs on the lake with plenty of features in the lake in the form or spits, trees and end banks etc.

Heading into the last round Vic Bush was top of the overall standings by 2 points, plus top of the Silvers table, but he had to arrange a stand-in, which he did in the form of Vince Brown, a very tidy angler himself, so no pressure there then!!
There was probably 8 or so guys in with a chance of a top 4 finish in the overall stakes (Lewis Jones, Mark Saunders, Dave Chidzoy, Brian Slipper, Alex Nadin, Steve Nadin and Rich Lovering with Ryan Shipp covering, all close behind).
5 or 6 guys also in with a shot at the top 2 in either the Silvers or Carp rankings, with Lewis Jones leading the carp standings with a 3 point gap, Paul Nichols was 2nd but had Emma Drysdale covering his spot while he was sunning himself on the continent. Dave Chidzoy was close behind, Nich Harvey and Brian Slipper could finish top 2 if things went wonky for the top 3.
The Silvers standings had Vic clear by 2 points from Mark Bromsgrove, he was 1 point clear of Mark Saunders and then 3 guys another point behind!!

Anyway, the draw was done, I had the last peg, peg 88, a good draw really, one I fancied for a few fish to be honest.

Peg 88 Viaduct Cary

I had Lewis Jones on peg 86, which won Thursday's match with 300lb+, that lad can draw well.... I had Mark Saunders on peg 90, he wasn't pleased, but I expected him to do well, he is primarily a silvers angler but needed to score well on carp to try and sneak a top 2 finish.
My section was however, a Section-of-Death with all 4 of the overall leaders in the same section (Lewis, Mark Saunders, Vic/Vince, Steve Nadin) plus there was Paul Berry who would be targeting silvers as he had nothing to fish for except section money, similarly to me really, but I hoped for carp.
Points would be dropped, places possibly re-arranged by the draw falling as such.
Dave Chidzoy may or may not have realised that, but it'd defo help his cause though he had Emma Drysdale in his section who had to catch carp to help Paul Nichols retain his 2nd spot in the carp stakes.
Mark Bromsgrove drew 74 and would only be silvers fishing to try and win an envelope or 2 in that area, he had to win his section of silvers and hope Vince would drop a few places for an outright silvers series win.

I made my way to my peg, set up a lead rod and 3 rigs for carp, an edge rig (fishless), a slapping/shallow rig (2 lost foulers) and a depth rig to fish meat short and banded pellet at 14m as it was the same depth. Lastly a silvers rig for topkit fishing.
Bait was 8mm meat, 8mm and 6mm pellets, some caster and some paste for the conker, oh and I wasted some groundbait down both edges.

The match began and I fed the pole lines and began on the lead.....2 hrs later I was still fishless on the carp front, losing a couple foul-hookers on the long pellet line, though a few small silvers came to the topkit with caster and I managed to miss the keepnet a couple times in the very windy conditions. I also had 2 eels fall off and back into the lake, I wasn't too fussed as I could see both Paul and Vince catching a good few skimmers, plus Mark and Steve were doing well on the roach/hybrids....oh and I managed to lose 2 catties into the lake due to the wind.
At the halfway stage I managed a couple of carp, one on the lead, one off the long pole and pellet line. But the carp front up my end of the lake was quiet despite a few being in the area. Vince was getting plenty though on his silvers rig.

I plundered along and had given up on the silvers and meat as I wasn't getting any action, so for the last 2 and a bit hours I persevered with pellets up and down long and the lead chucked over the same line due to the wind.
Out of the blue I managed a couple more carp on the lead including a double figured fish, I also pulled out of a couple at the net as the hooks were only lightly hooked in the mouths, which were rather small..!!
Mark on peg 90 was now fishing for carp and had a couple, Lewis had some arrive after starting in the same vein as me, he also had some proper skimmers. I was last in the carp in the section as Paul had no intentions of catching any...I was also last in the silvers, oh well.
The last hour was quiet for putting fish in the net, the carp were fizzing on the pole line, but the wind prevented me fishing shallow for them properly and the lead wasn't efficient enough, but I did put 1 more in the net to finish with 6 carp and maybe 40lb. An hour more and I think I would have had a great spell as the wind typically dropped!!
The all out was called. I packed up.

The weigh in was shared by owner Steve and his son Lewis, so we were done in quick time. I had 41lb of carp and 6lb of silvers and was last in section in sivers and 2nd last in the carp. Ho hum.
Lewis had landed 70-odd pound of carp and 9lb silvers, Mark had 44lb carp, 16lb 4oz silvers. Steve had a 52lb/16lb 9oz split, Vince (Vic's cover) had a 92lb/16lb 9oz split before Mr Berry had 20lb of silvers. The silvers weights between Mark, Steve and Vince were tight with Steve and Vince splitting a point in the section. Vince did his job and won the section carp, Lewis was 2nd which meant he won the Carp series overall.

On the day Dave Chidzoy  on peg 105 won overall with 215lb and Ryan Shipp was 2nd with 203lb from peg 109..!! Paul Berry's 20lb 11oz was top silvers weight, from peg 97.

I made my way to the car. Grabbed the weigh sheets before sitting down and working out the standing at the top of the tables....Phew!!

Results:
On The Day:
1st, Dave Chidzoy, p105, 215-14
2nd, Ryan Shipp, p109, 203-08
3rd, Dom Sullivan, p77, 119-08
Silvers
1st, Paul Berry, p97, 20-11
2nd, Mark Bromsgrove, p74, 18-05
3rd= Vince Brown, p96 and Steve Nadin, p94 both 16-09.

On the day results. (circled = section winners)

Overall Combi Standings
1st - Vic Bush, 9pts (£300)
2nd - Dave Chidzoy. 12 pts (£175)
3rd - Steve Nadin, 13pts (37.5pts totals) (£80)
4th - Lewis Jones, 13pts (36pts total) (£50)
5th to 8th all had 15pts..!!...Close..close..close!!

Final Results: Carp Standings
1st - Lewis Jones, 26pts (£90)
2nd - Dave Chidzoy, 23pts (£50)
3rd - Paul Nichols, 21pts

Final Results: Silvers Standings
1st - Vic Bush, 26.5pts (£90)
2nd - Mark Bromsgrove, 26pts (£50)
3rd - Steve Nadin, 22.5pts

As you can see the points were close, that half point shared between Vince(Vic) and Steve, which was only 6oz ahead of Mark Saunders, was critical, if Mark had pipped them both and Steve pipped Vince then Mark B would have won the silvers, Steve Nadin may have been 2nd and Mark Saunders 4th......but the whole series has been based on closeness and there are always plenty of 'What if' or 'I should have' moments, Dave Chidzoy and Mark Saunders failure to catch Silvers and Carp respectively at The Sedges spring to mind.

But on the day everyone did what they had to do and for some things went their way, others less so, but it could have all been different......!!

Silvers Standings, finishing position in red on the right

Carp Standings, Final position in red on the right.

Final OVERALL Combi Standings, final position in red on the right.

So for me personally, I am a little disappointed in how I fished, looking back I know I could and should have done a little better at a couple venues.

The standings also prove that there are various ways to skin a cat, but in Vic (and Vince), to consistently get good 'bonus' points gave him the big prize, he done as I thought would be the best way to attack, catch anything that swims, target one section win of the 2 sub-categories but score well in the other, averaging 8 or 9 points per match would be an achievable target and would have been good to win.

Vic picked up 4 section monies during the series to show the consistency of him in the series, but Dave and Lewis were consistent on the Carp side of things and went close with their semi-blinkered approach.

Will I run a similar thing in 2017? maybe, maybe before, I may alter a few things, but these are to be decided......I need a day or 2 to think!!! So if anyone wants to take part then feel free to let me know, maybe it'll be a 30 to 40 pegger.?

Until next time, take care.

Lee

PSV Match, Todber Manor, Homeground Lake. 14-08-16

A club 1st today, a visit down to Dorset and a match on recently opened Homeground Lake (we had Hillview but got switched due to numbers).
A nice easy enough journey of around an hour or so down some little lanes and as the weather was clear, warm and sunny it was rather enjoyable.

Anyways back to the venue and the fishing, I arrived in plenty of time and Matt Williams and Mike Wilson were both present, I had a look around the tackle shop, which I must say is very well stocked and prices competitive. They have kit for carp fishing, coarse fishing, match fishing and catfish fishing.
The lake we were to fish was only recently opened and was rather bare and barren, but very nice platforms that were not too close together, there is 15 pegs in total on the lake that is just over an acre in size. Two islands are present in the lake. There isn't any marginal growth as such and it is rather barren. There was plenty of fish moving and jumping, we got told there was loads of silvers, tench, skimmers, roach and perch.

Todber Manor, Homeground Lake.(peg 81)

Once all 11 of us were present we did the draw, nobody was massively bothered about where they drew as we'd all have an island chuck plus there wasn't anything else that stood out, a bit of wind on the water would be nice, but the predictions were for a light breeze, on and off, but from varying directions throughout the day, as we looked across the lake from the nearside, the wind was generally right to left.
The draw was done, peg 81, the end peg on the near bank, and with peg 80 not in, I had the corner of the island to fish to with the method feeder. To my left on the end bank was Matt Williams, I fancied him to do well from there. Opposite me was Chris Szakacs, to my right on 79 and 78 were Will Dearlove and Ron Hardiman respectively.

I had read that the method feeder and shallow pellets are the 2 ways to go, so both of these were set up, a meat rig for topkit distance in front of me and a sort of margin rig for 2+2 down to my left where I could find 2ft depth, which was 6ft off the bank, though I knew the fish would come into the shallower water close in, I felt they'd spook easily.
Lastly a full depth pellet rig for 13m which is also where I planned on the shallow fishing.
Bait was groundbait for down to my left, 6mm pellets for up and down at 13m, 8mm meat for the short lines, I also had a few 4mm pellets for feed, plus wetted micros for the feeder.

On the whistle I fed a few pellets long, meat short and groundbait to my left. I started on the feeder and nothing occurred for about 20 minutes, so that was abandoned for a while. During that opening period Ron Hardiman and Brian Shanks were getting plenty of fish, small tench, small skimmers and one or 2 carp. Will had 1 carp on the feeder, but he wasn't getting any joy. In fact a few of us were struggling.
So a quick 5 minutes on the topkit with meat saw a couple missed bites, this gave me a 1oz perch the missed bites were from small silver methinks, so out to 13m with a 6mm in a band, a few 1 to 3oz tench came my way then a carp of around 1lb.
The next 2 hours went along similar vein, odd carp among the small tench and odd skimmer. Will, Brian, Mike Wilson and Will were catching the most consistently from where I was perched.

It was a few hours into the match when we saw Adam Caswell had a diabetic fit and ambulances were called and after some treatment he was carted off to Yeovil. Brian Shanks spotted his condition and between him, Ryan and a few others helped out. We all wish him well.

Back to the fishing and I managed a carp of 3lb or so on the method and mugged one of similar size on a piece of meat. But although I was getting fish regular down to my left and on the topkits, the time between fish was lengthy and I could see Chris on the peg opposite from me getting plenty of fish down his right edge, as was his neighbour Brian Shanks. Also the 3 to my right were getting fish more regularly on various tactics. Will even managed a good fish of perhaps 8lb+.

With 2hrs to go I fed a bit more aggressively to my left and on the topkit lines, abandoning the other lines. This proved to work a bit better as I then managed to increase the regularity of fish getting put into the keepnets, the fish were right in the edges too, maybe 8 inches of water, but some surface scum prevented me getting my rig into them and a 0.5g rig and 8mm pellet wouldn't get through the crap, so it was the slightly further out/deeper spot that I had to concentrate on, coupled with the topkit line.
I was soon enough picking up carp averaging 1lb or so, plus one or two nice skimmers. I suppose my biggest fish was 4lb. So the remaining period of the match was fished this way.
At the all out I was certain to be struggling at the back end of the field as it seemed all except Matt, Ryan and Mark Radford had struggled as much as me during the day.
I packed up my kit, loaded the car and began the weigh-in with Mike and Chris.
I was 1st up to weigh, putting nearly 9lb of skimmers on the scales, then my 2 well split carp nets made the total up to 81lb 2oz....miles more than expected and more than most thought I had. Surprised really.

We weighed in the rest, seeing Chris Szakacs putting 87lb on the scales thanks to the 2nd half of the match, Brian Shanks topped 100lb as he caught well all day, then a few more weighed in before Mike Wilson put less than what I thought on the scales, Ron Hardiman pipped my weight by 9oz, I was sure he'd done 100lb, but he had lots of baby tench. Will had 51lb...well short of my guess!!

Results:
1st, Brian Shanks, Peg 85, 101-09
2nd, Chris Szakacs, Peg 83, 87-04
3rd, Ron Hardiman, Peg 78, 81-11 (section)
4th, Lee Williams, Peg 81, 81-02
5th, Alan Healey, Peg 88, 61-02 (section)

So for the 2nd week in a row I was pipped for the section money, but for a change I wasn't next to or opposite the winner!! Interestingly the top 3 caught on corn I believe, soft pellet also accounted for a few fish.
But it was a nice venue and definitely one I will return to as it's not too far really and the place is clean and tidy and will no doubt give lots of bites to all.

Weights

Next up is Viaduct's Costcutter match on Thursday, then the final round of my series on Saturday at Viaduct Cary, then Landsend on Sunday, lakes 2 and 3 with the Pawlett rabble.

Until then, take care.
Lee

PSV Match, Viaduct Campbell, 7/08/16

18 fished this latest PSV match on the ever productive Campbell lake on the brilliant Viaduct Complex.
Another nice day, weather wise, was on the horizon, so no doubt my slightly burnt knees and feet would be a bit more delicate by 5pm!!

I arrived in loads of time and sorted my kit, I was hoping for a day fishing for some skimmers or the tench, which are now a decent size, depending on the peg. So I chucked some worms, caster and a little groundbait in the carryall along with the normal meat, 6mm and 8mm pellets, oh plus some paste..!!

As usual there was a bit of banter flying around, there was a bunch of Welshies and Ade Crawley, fishing the re-opened Cary lake for the fishery match, so the car park was busy with Legacy Tackle polo shirts aplenty!

Back to my match, I fancied one of the top two corners (119 and 123), plus any of the pegs 110 to 115. Not much else floated my boat.....especially 130.
I drew 3 from the end of the rabble, there was 129, 130 and 123 left in the bucket....so a good possibility that I could be stuck with the peg I didn't want. Alas I had 129, the nearside of the spit, Will Dearlove had 130 so he was sat on my right, he had Lee Waller on his right. Opposite I could see most, but Big Pete Uzzell, Human Thermometer Adam Caswell and The 2nd Best Radford (Mark) from pegs 112 to 110 respectively were our entertainment for the day.

Re-used pic of Peg 130 on Campbell......just to break up the writing.

At my peg I set up a lead rod, a silvers rig (unused), a paste rig (2 foulers lost), a rig for banded pellet off the spit and meat rig. There was plenty of carp boshing off the end of the spit.

I wont go into detail as I had 2 carp early on the lead, then a run of 3 fish off the spit in the 2nd hour before the rest of my fish came to the lead in little spurts of.......1 fish!!
I had 1 carp on the meat rig, lost a few foul hookers on the paste rig and a few accidental silvers on all set-ups.

During the day it looked like it was fishing difficult with only my neighbour on 130 catching in a semi-consistent fashion on the lead, feeding heavy in an area of the lake that was literally black with fish turning over the lake bed, he had fish swirling at the pellets he fed, but he did pull out of a good few during the 6hrs and up until 2pm I am sure he was miles ahead.....until I spied his father-in-law (Keith Ray) on peg 115 getting a fish a chuck and was by my guesswork, going to run Will close. though I couldn't see anyone else rumour had it that nobody was doing much, someone mentioned Mr Szakacs on peg 124 caught well early then faded. Oh and John Bradford had some tench, so he'd likely to be close to winning the silvers (but Uzz opposite was skimmer bashing well).

By the all out had called my clickers showed 57lb (7 carp) and 26lb (4 carp) plus a couple silvers, I did miss the net with a near 2lb skimmer that slipped from my hand, hit a pallet post and bounced over my keepnet!! Not that I worried on that as my meagre 80-something pound weight wouldn't earn me any keep. I had 5 carp on the pole and the rest on the lead.
There were some fish in my right edge, so I altered my meat rig, only for the pesky ducks to find where I had fed...... killed that then!!!. In hindsight I reckon I may have had more by fishing longer on the pole rather than the 2+3 distance I was fishing, though it was 13m to the end of the spit where I had fished. But hindsight is not foresight!!

At the all out I was certain it was between Will and Keith, oddly Adam on peg 111 had tipped back his 13 or so carp and Lee Waller tipped his fish (some on the lead...oddly) back at 3pm.

I was 3rd to weigh after Steve Sewell had 60lb from peg 132, Lee Waller dnw, Will had 140lb then I put 83lb of carp (good clickers....happy clickers) and a couple pound of silvers for 86lb 12oz.
I didn't follow the scales as John Bradford took over on the score-sheet.

I loaded the car and made my way round to where the weigh in was going on, just in time to see Keith fall short of Will's total. A glance at the board showed Will leading , Keith 2nd and Chris Szakacs 3rd. Degsy Williams had pipped me to that section money and it looked like that bloody skimmer had cost me. Ah well.
The rest of the weigh in was done, with Pete Uzzell falling just short of John Bradford in the silvers, so again the Gimp took that pot.
Last to weigh was Mark Radford, he had the exact same weight as me, though he must have snuck them in as I didn't see him catch too much.

Weigh Sheet.

Results:
1st, Will Dearlove, peg 130, 140lb
2nd, Keith Ray, peg 115, 132lb
3rd Chris Szakacs, peg 124, 108lb

Sections, Ryan Radford on peg 119 and Degsy on peg 125

Silvers:
1st, John Bradford, peg 126, 28lb
2nd, Pete Uzzell, peg 112, 24lb

So 2 days in a row I was again next to the winner, again always drawing near fish not on them!! Good luck to my neighbours next weekend!! I still wouldn't have wanted peg 130!!

Anyways next weekend I may fish a match Saturday, or maybe a pleasure bash on the Huntspill or KSD perhaps. But a 1st trip to Todber on Sunday with PSV, now fishing Homeland lake....new venue for most of us I believe.

Until one day,
Take care.
Lee

Saturday Combi Series, Round 4, Avalon Fisheries. 06-08-16

A quickish update on this round of my Combi Series, this round was held on the Avalon Fisheries complex. This fishery is great for the type of Series I am running, every peg has a few carp in, every peg has a decent head of silvers to catch, from rudd to perch, crucians, tench and the mainstay that are skimmers. Any bait will catch them so being a predictable venue isn't what it is.

Anyways on to the match, we ended up with 16 fishing, 2 couldn't make it but their pools were paid so as not to make a difference to the monies. So 3 sections of 6 as normal, but Section A would have 6 full pegs while the other 2 would have 5 present anglers.

The lake looked fishy, the weather was set to hot/roasting and an array of tan-lines would be present come 5pm!!

I drew peg 7, a decent peg that is on the end of the 1st island, but the trees meant that the sun wouldn't be shining on the water, which is what I fancied for the carp, though maybe the silvers wouldn't care for the bright conditions and we all expected lower than normal weights, especially on the silvers front.
For company I had, on peg 9 (good silvers peg) Paul Berry, an angler whom would be trying to catch some silvers, and to be fair he usually does ok for them at the fishery.  On my right I had all round good angler and the fishery owner, Vic Bush, he was on peg 5 and it resembled an aquarium with all the carp sat off the gap in the island. Vic was/is leading the league's silvers tally and going into the round he was close to being top overall. Lance Tucker was on peg 3. Father and Son duo Alex and Steve Nadin completed my section.

Peg 7, Avalon Fisheries.

I assembled a small feeder for towards the island for banded pellet, a pellet waggler rod.
3 pole rigs were also ready for action, one for silvers, but never had a bite on that, one for paste at 6m and lastly one for meat/corn down to my left and empty peg 10.
Bait, 6 and 8mm pellets, 8mm meat, past and some corn.

The all-in was called at 11am and after depositing various baits in various spots I began on the feeder.
25 fishless minutes passed before I tried the waggler, netting a couple of 3lb fish in the following 30 minutes. That was the 1st hour gone, 2 carp.
The second hour was hard, the sun was baking, the fish tricky, I could see loads in front of  Vic, but he was more interested in keeping his silvers points tally rolling and would only target carp every now and then.....which during the day he did with relative ease!! I do tend to draw near match winners....on going tale that doesn't go away!!
I squeaked a couple small skimmers and a couple roach during the 2nd hour, and going into hour 3 I could hear that Lance, Paul and the Nadin duo were not hauling so it was tight (except Vic).
I did manage 2 or 3 carp on the waggler and a couple silvers from the margin during the 3rd hour. I was suffering with a few foul hooked fish on all my lines and during the match I had around 14 foul hooked fish lost and 6 or so where I had the hook pull...never good.

Moving into the 2nd half of the match and I was on 4 or 5 carp and a handful of silvers.
The 4th hour was busy for me, mostly foul hooked fish, I got one in but lost a few. I also managed a couple 12oz chub on the feeder, nice little bonus fish.
The 5th hour saw me look down to the pallet and again a skimmer or 2 came my way and I also hooked and lost a nice common, defo foul hooked as I had a scale on the hook. I could see some fish under the platform but couldn't or rather, wouldn't, come out and feed.
I mugged a slurper from the edge between me and the pallet, lowering the bait into it's mouth in the edge. I also mugged a 3lber on the waggler, my millionth attempt during the match to mug a carp on the waggler, when I did it was the smallest I had seen all day....typical.

By now Vic was plenty ahead of everyone around me, I reckoned on him having 50lb+ of carp and 20lb+ of silvers, but my 7 carp was clicked to 30lb wouldn't be too bad in the section for points scoring. But Paul and Steve only had 1 carp each while Alex had maybe 4 or 5, but with this lake they can be 2 to 4lb smaller fish or if they were caught on the pole, 8lbers, the pole fish are often bigger here. So he may have 30lb+ of carp. Steve and Paul did have relatively nice nets of big skimmers.
My last hour didn't give me a carp, only a single small skimmer came my way along with a few foul hooked fish on paste, they didn't want to get their heads down and feed. I also pulled out of a couple fish on the waggler.

The all out was called and the gear packed up. No scales duty for me either, the Fishery helpers did this, nice touch.
Buy the time the scales had got to me I had seen Mike West (covering for Ziggy) had moaned around 70lb on to his hook, he wasn't even going to go to his peg, me and Vic commented we would have been happy with peg 32, end peg and room!!
There was a couple 50 to 60lb nets and Mark Bromsgrove put 18lb+ of silvers on the scales.
Alex and Steve had weighed in and I was confident that I had slightly more than Alex on the carp weight, but was hoping Vic had top section silvers and carp weights, and that Lance had less than me.
So a default section carp pick-up would be handy.

I weighed my Silvers,  and that was 12lb+, slightly unexpected, I thought I had 5lb or so. My carp weighed 33lb so my clicker was accurate. I ended with 45lb and a few ounces.
Vic comfortably had the most of both silvers and carp in the section and had 90 something pound to win the match overall, and take the second perfect 12 point score of the series, but as I only pay top carp and top silvers in section on the day I waited to see Lance weigh. I manged to just pip his 20-something pound of carp, so I did get a default payment.

Results:
1st, Vic Bush. 97-05, from peg 5
2nd, Lewis Jones, 74-00 from peg 26
3rd, Mike West (covering Ziggy), from peg 32

1st Silvers, Vic Bush, 25-03
2nd Silvers, Steve Nadin, 19-05 (p12)
3rd Silvers, Mark Bromsgrove, 18-12 (p16)

Section envelopes/payouts:
A) Carp, Lee Williams, 32lb 8oz (default)
A) Silvers, Vic Bush, 25lb 3oz
B) Carp, Dave Chidzoy, 34lb 10oz (p19)
B) Silvers, Mark Bromsgrove, 18lb 12oz
C) Carp, Lewis Jones, 74lb
C) Silvers, Rich Lovering, 11lb 8oz (p27)

So I collected my 1st envelope of the series and my first in a while.....
I had enough carp on the hook in some form or another to have 50 or 60lb at least, but that is fishing.
Conditions were tricky and we may have done better with some cloud cover, but it was fair as is the norm for the lake.

In the standings, all 3 categories are close and as many as 9 guys have a chance of a top 3 or 4 finish in the Combi Points Overall and half a dozen are in with a chance of a top-2 finish in the Carp and Silvers categories!! Some guys dropped upto 6 places, one angler jumped 7 spots overall, so plenty to go for in a couple weeks at Viaduct Cary, how will people play their cards?
Interestingly Vic, the silvers and overall leader has a stand-in for that round....Oh the pressure Mr G...!!
Paul Nichols, who has a chance of a top 2 finish in the carp payouts also has a stand-in.....Good luck Emma. x

The above all show current standings after round 4....Close!!!

With 6 points on offer in the sub-categories and 1 point for the combined section win, it is close!

Next up for me was Viaduct Campbell with the PSV crew.

Until next time,
Take Care.
Lee