Avalon Teams of 3, Round 2, 18-12-16

Been a while since I should have blogged this, but to be honest the match, as far as our team goes, was one to forget.

I arrived in due course and Eric went and done the draw, he drew us exactly the same pegs as in the previous round with Eric on peg 11, Steve on 48 and myself on peg 29.

I had Keith Clapp to my right on p27 and matey Paul Wharton to my left on peg 30.
Same rigs as the previous round. Same baits to go with them.

To cut a long story short I ended up catching a few silvers on shallow waggler fishing maggots across towards the island, a bit of a chuck, but with a few fish boshing along the island it had to be done.
Paul struggled throughout the day, finished last in his section,  Keith struggled until the last hour when he managed 3 carp on the pellet waggler to take 5th in section.
'B' section really is a tough one to call and do well in, Tom Thick fished really well to win on the day, including 21lb of silvers, well done him. But the section had the top 3 weights overall come from it. Then it was Lewis Jones who was 5th overall...I could see 3 of these guys catching all day, so it was a matter of hoping for a couple carp and picking up an extra point or 2.

Steve managed a section 3rd I think and Eric was 2nd last in his section, as a team we ended up 8th on the day and drop from 2nd to 6th in the overall standings. Still a way to go yet with 8th of January the next round.

Results:
1st -Tom Thick - Mosella Gold. 54.7 from peg 21
2nd -Martin Lenahan - Somerset Carpenters, 53.14 from peg 26
3rd -Tom Mangnall - Mosella UK, 37.15 from peg 24
4th -Pete Wild  -Mosella UK,  37.10 from peg 42
5th -Lewis Jones - Thyers, 37.3 from peg 16
6th -John Fuidge - Fu Fighters, 33.7 from peg 5

Silvers
1st, Tom Thick with 21.13

I have had a few nice days fishing since including Viaduct, Trinity, Sedges, the KSD and Brue, mostly fishing the waggler and picking up a few silvers and not many carp (well 1 I think) but it's been dry and mostly sunny so it's all been enjoyable. But that's winter fishing.

Not sure where I am next, maybe Sedges next week, if not then 8th of Jan is the next round of Avalon's Teams of 3.

Until then take care.
Lee

Pawlett Club Xmas Match, The Sedges, 11-12-16

This weekend was that of PSV and Pawlett's Xmas Matches, so as is generally the way it goes for me, it was Pawlett's at The Sedges for me (and 33 others). A mild week preceded the day, but Saturday night saw a drop in temps and when we arrived there was almost a frost and the temperature gauge was showing a balmy 2 degrees as I made my way to the fishery. I arrived to a very full car park for the 8am draw.

Trolley loaded, nets collected, tea served (with thanks) by Denise and the draw would soon be made, but 10 minutes or more of chit chat with a few guys and the usual ideas on where each of us wanted or didn't want to be drawn for the day. Me, well I wanted Brick Lake, firstly it is because I prefer it but expected Tile to be more consistent, secondly I won the corresponding match last year from the lake, and lastly I cannot ever seem to catch silvers from the Tile Lake. Pegs 8 around the top end and down to peg 13 was where I wanted to be, peg 12 being may favourite. Golden pegs were 32, 22 and 40.

Nearly last in the basket, after pegs 8 around to 13 had gone......I drew peg 15, not too bad but I was still inclined to think I was maybe 2 or 3 pegs away from the bulk of fish, especially as a warmer south/south-westerly wind was due to pick up as the day wore on. Getting at my peg I found I had Mark Leader on p14 and Paul Lock on peg 16. Rich Coles was up in the corner on peg 11, which was definitely showing signs of carp.....well to be fair the lake was showing a few all over as we assembled our arrays of tackle.

Peg 15, Sedges Brick Lake

So I sorted my bait and tackle for the day:
Wag and mag, feeding groundbait around two thirds of the way to the rope.
Lead and bread or meat, fished from the waggler line and beyond.
A short meat pole rig, fished over groundbait at 6m.
A silvers rig for maggot or expanders over 2 lines at 14, one with micros in line with Jason King on peg 5, the 2nd with groundbait in line with Jamie Parkhouse over on peg 7.

The 9:30am all-in was called and I fed the 3 pole lines before starting on the waggler, some 20 minutes passed before I had a couple small skimmers and a roach before it went quiet. Rich Coles already had a carp and a few skimmers had been snared too.
Out on the lead and bread, so I could have a cuppa, and a 6oz skimmer was bundled into the keepnet 15 minutes later.
On returning to the waggler I was getting a few bites but they were not resulting in fish, probably small roach as Paul on p16 was suffering the same on the pole. It was fishing tricky though all over.

12pm came and I chucked the waggler back out and had the rod pulled out from between my legs as I grabbed my catty, a spirited battle saw me win and a carp of around 9lb landed.
I hoped for more, well hope is all I managed.....
Meanwhile up on peg 11 it was Rich Coles landing a few lumpy beasts on whatever tactic he dare try and really it looked like he'd sail into the distance in regards to winning, at least, the lake. The rest of us were hoping for a run of skimmers and carp to compete.
Mark on peg 14, who was contemplating going home, was getting a few 2lb skimmers and a few palm sized specimens of the same species and was doing well. Everyone else was on 2 or less carp.

We were now at around 1:15pm and I managed to get a foul hooked carp on the feeder (I had switched to that from a lead hoping for skimmers), a prolonged battle saw me land a common of about 11lb which was a bonus. It was a bonus as the rest of the match saw both running lines not produce another fish between them.
So the last 2 hours and 15 minutes was mostly spent on the pole lines, hoping to get some proper skimmers and maybe a carp or 2.
I didn't manage any more carp but just the odd small roach succumbed to my maggot hookbait, I couldn't get a bite on expander yet Locky on my left and Mark to my right were getting a few skimmers and they'd both had a carp each, on 4mm expanders. But I was doing ok really with only Rich on peg 11 and Mark Sweeting on peg 12 doing better from what I could see, but then a couple of quick lumps would change things around.

3 o'clock soon came and I had managed a nice 2.5lb tench which gave a nice little battle on the skimmer kit. Mark had at least 10lb of silvers and 1 carp. He hooked and landed another lumpy carp on his skimmers kit around this time. I suppose he must have 20lb of carp, similar to me, but had 10-12lb of silvers or more at the all-out.
I spied a few bubbles over my short meat line and the last half hour was spent hoping to connect with a fish or 2 from this short line, especially as the long lines were not doing anything worthwhile.
I did get 3 bites in the last ten minutes, liners methinks, but I never did  hook any, but that's the way it goes. Oh Paul Lock on peg 16 hooked a carp a minute before the finish and landed it after the hooter. He probably had the same-ish as myself as he'd had some skimmers.

I packed my gear away, loaded the car and waited for the scales, they had to weigh Tile and we heard of a couple upper 40lb nets and John 'plug' Fuidge had again underestimated his silvers haul, admitting to mid-teens only to have 24lb of them.....Rich Coles looked to have won overall as I reckoned on him having 50-55lb.
Scales arrived and the sheet showed Rich winning on 53lb-ish and peg 12 had 26lb. Mark Leader then put his fish on the scales to have 33lb+ before I managed 27lb 6oz with my 2 carp combined totalling 21lb. This gave me 3rd on the lake and 7th on the day.
Locky was 2oz shy of my total, that last gasp carp almost overhauled me....haha.
We left them to continue the weigh in and I made my way home before Mr Paul Berry gave me a lift to the Legion where the presentation was done and sausage and chips consumed.

Thanks to the Club for the prizes we all got and the food.

Results:
1st - Rich Coles, peg 11, 53lb 10oz
2nd - Mark Hembury, peg 36, 48lb 7oz
3rd - Kev Lock, peg 37, 44lb 3oz

Silvers:
1st - John Fuidge, peg 24, 24lb 14oz
2nd - Jamie Cook, peg 26, 18lb 2oz

Brick. Weigh Sheet.

Tile. Weigh Sheet.

So I needed one more decent carp for 2nd on the lake, but that wouldn't have got me into the top 3 but maybe had won me the section ahead of Mr Leader. Actually the 3 of us in a row all had 2 carp and each of us weighed 21lb of them. A tidy average size is that.

Next weekend is the next round of the Avalon Teams of 3, a nice day catching 45lb of skimmers would be cool.

Until then.....have fun
Lee

Shiplate Teams of Three, final round, 04-12-16

I couldn't see the point of writing this, but as I insist on doing it properly I decided that I should, however it may well be less-than-interesting. So Shiplate Teams of 3, last round.....

A frosty night on Saturday didn't give me hope of a decent day fishing the last round of the Teams of 3 series at the popular venue just outside of Weston-Super-Mare. On the team front we had a really slim chance of a top 3 place, so it was really about myself, Tom and Titch doing our best to put some face on our showings.

I arrived in loads of time, looked at the lakes and there were areas that had ice covering the swims, but on the Main Lake (where I would be) the aerator was on, now this is a concern for me as I have found that it tends to be that fish get pushed away from the area as the ice-melt gets mixed up with the rest of the water. Sometimes it can have the opposite effect, but more so in the summer.
There are loads of silvers in the lake that should see some bites, plenty of carp too, but they seemed to have shut up shop there. The pegs I fancied were 12 and 14 (well 1 and 15 would be nice) as the far bank gets the sun all day and can be somewhat warmer in the winter.
I wasn't mad on 6, 7, or 11 as these are likely to have been most affected by the aerator and with 7 unlikely to get any sun to warm the top layers during the match, that would be my last choice of peg. It is a good peg though and has been good for top 2 in section for each round, that was before nearly 2 weeks of coldness and a match that finished 30 minutes earlier.

Tom done the draw, drew Titch peg 5 on Hawthorn, but that looked hard with the water level up maybe 10 inches. Tom had peg 6 on Westpool, again not a great peg especially as it was just out of the iced up area. Pegs 11 to 15 would have been better. He told me I was on peg 7, with Mark Wynne on peg 1, the chances of section winning was slimmer than normal.
But I wasn't too displeased and had a job to do.

Arriving at my peg, pretty much everyone told me where to fish and how, but it was all the same and pretty much as the plan formed in my head would be.

Shiplate, Main Lake peg 7.

I set up a waggler for maggots/casters to search the peg with, should the wind allow.....it didn't.
A lead for bread/pellet/meat, again to search the peg.
A method feeder for across towards the island.
Also 2 pole rigs, the 1st was for 14.5m down to my left using Bait-Tech Polony over some maggots. The second rig was my silvers rig for 2 spots at 11m fishing expanders over micros in line with the right edge of the island. The 2nd spot was at the same distance for fishing maggot/pinkie/caster over a little groundbait. This rig was fished on a 0.3g float, 0.12>0.08>6313 size 20 (then 22).  My swim though was out of the sun's rays and was somewhat cooler than those opposite and later in the day the pegs to my right.

I wont go into the details on how I fished, but to be fair to myself, I feel I fished a tidy enough match. Started on the method, switched to the lead, tried the waggler. Looked occasionally down the left edge - caught a friggin big branch thing. But mostly spent the day on the pole with pinkies as hook bait.
I went for a wander around 1:30pm and only Mark Wynne on peg 1 had caught, a decent skimmer and few sprat roach, but he'd had them very early in the match. The rest of us were blanking.
The far bank were getting odd small silver and Julian Pinkett was doing the best on that front. Mark Radford on peg 14b had 2 carp. Simon Ryall on peg 11, he'd not had a bite either at this point.
I wandered to see Titch and he'd only had a roach and a small carp, which I think is how he ended.

As we went into the last hour or so the pegs to my right started to see some of the sun's rays and they began to pick up the very occasional roach or skimmer. I stayed in the shade doing my hardest to pick up a bite or 2....they never came and at the all-out I was still biteless. My 1st ever match fishing blank.
As I packed up the sun had started to hit the water in front of me I saw a couple of roach plip on the surface. Ah well.

On the day it wasn't good for us, Tom only had 2 roach from his peg, Titch didn't get anywhere in his section and I blanked, so it would not have been a shock to see us last on the day.
So in the series we haven't generally had the best of times at the draw bag, but Tom and Paul Tidball (my cover in round 3) won the match days from flyer pegs 1 and 15 respectively. Myself and Titch plucked a silvers win each and Tom another section. But when we blew-out, we did it in style!!

However the league's leaders in both the team and overall individual stakes had put 2 section wins and a section 4th on the board  in the round (Dave Romain had 57lb+ to win overall on the day, Mark Wynne had 2lb 6oz to take my section and Dave White had 15oz to beat 2 in his section). This meant they won the day on weight comfortably.
Their Up The Farmers team had won the series, had top individual and amassed over £1500 over the 6 rounds. Massive well done those 3.
Local and venue Silvers expert Ron Stark had unsurprisingly won the series Silvers prize.
Wormheads came 2nd in the series followed by the PSV team of Matt Taynton, Lionel Legge and Alan Healey.

So that was that, not sure if I will get a team together for 2017, the limit is 10 teams with 5 booked in already.

I would like to take the chance to thank Steve and Carol for running the series and being their genial selves throughout. Plus those others who assisted in the smooth running of the series. Thank you and see you soon, hopefully more in 2017.

Thanks to Bait-Tech for their support to the team I was in, great products and efforts very much appreciated.

Next Sunday sees me at The Sedges for the Pawlett Legion Club's Christmas Match, I won it last year and also had the golden peg so would really appreciate a repeat result.

Until then. Have fun.
Lee

Avalon Silvers League. Final Round. 3-12-16

Covered for Dave Chidzoy today in the Avalon Silvers League that Vic Bush has run over the last couple of months or so. No chance of a league pick-up on behalf of Dave, well unless I caught 70lb of skimmers etc, not likely really!!

I got there in loads of time, plenty of chat happened, but it wasn't difficult to notice the cold north/north-easterly wind that was prevalent. So I was hoping for a draw on the right hand/road bank as the wind would be mostly off the anglers' backs and perhaps feeling a little warmer, plus it seems to be the most consistent area of late for the non-carp varieties that inhabit the lake.

Monies paid and draw done, I had the last peg in the bag and found myself up on peg 17, I don't think I have ever been on that peg, but it was in the area that Jason King had around 12lb last Sunday from. But the winning pegs can come from anywhere, just angler hunches that need proving good or bad, but I knew 12lb would likely be a top 4 weight given the weather we have encountered this last week or 2.....well unless the fish went on a monster feed-up anyway.
On arrival at my peg I found I had Paul Berry on peg 15 and the next angler was Pete Neate on peg 19, who didn't get to his peg way after the draw, I was thinking that I was going to get an end peg advantage....they are most welcome in the silvers matches on this venue.

My peg didn't look too appealing, other than the odd carp off a fallen tree at the end of an island, I only saw the odd plip roach and a couple skimmers, but they were all over the other side in and around peg 28-30 (not pegged).

Peg 17, Avalon.

I went about sorting my equipment for the day, pretty simple really in terms of bait and rigs.
Bait was 4mm expanders, micros, maggots and some casters. I also mixed up a little groundbait and had a few pinkies for the hook.
3 rigs were put together, an 0.6g NG decker with bulk and 2 droppers (0.10>18 b911f1) and two 0.3g of the same floats, one was for down each edge (Left = maggots. Right = casters on 0.10>16 b911f1) and one for fishing through the water on my lines in front (0.08>20 b511).
I fed 4 lines in front of me, two at 13m and two at 6m. The left hand directional lines would be for fishing mostly expanders over micros, the 13m right hand line was fed with groundbait and maggot.
The right hand 6m line was just loose fed casters and maggots.

At the all in I fed 2 smallish balls of groundbait and half a cup of micros on the appropriate 13m lines. The edges would be fed by hand, as would the 6m line for maggots/casters. The shorter micros line would be toss-pot fed only.
I wont mention the 4 shorter lines as I never had a bite from any of them, well never had any bite that resulted in fish.
So to cut the rest of the day short, I hooked and lost a carp 3rd drop in over the groundbaite but it was a matter of hoping a handful of 2lb+ skimmers (or crucians/tench/perch) would make an appearance to build a weight. It actually wasn't a bad day, I found by toss-potting feed over each line and fishing the opposite I could get a couple roach, or odd 3oz skimmer before swapping lines. Nothing hectic but occasional fish being put in the net was all that was needed. I did manage 3 skimmers of about 1lb-1.5lb, they came at 11am, 12pm and my final one was at 2:20pm, all 3 came over the micros line and fell to expander tipped with pinkie.

Elsewhere I spent most of the day watching Pete on peg 19 put a fish in the net pretty much every drop, he had big skimmers, a crucian of 2lb and a big perch in his net and by the end of the match I thought he had around 13lb, I did wind a few up by reckoning on him having 20lb+.
Paul Berry was struggling, as was a lot of people, only the odd skimmer, perch and a few roach were getting caught, but I heard that Rich Coles on peg 34 was looking though he would win the match, John Fuidge on peg 39 had a pike (also he reminded me that he had 17lb+ on Sunday, not the 16lb+ I blogged!!) but he was getting a few fish, as was Vic Bush who was getting fish regularly on the waggler.

At the all-out I thought I probably had 5 to 6lb and had done just about ok.
I packed up my gear, quickly, and followed the weigh-in. First to weigh was Tony Rixon, end peg 5, he had a couple decent skimmers in his 10lb 1oz total, then we saw several anglers put between 2 and 6lb until we got to me. My 3 skimmers and other assortments pulled the needle on the scales to 8lb 3oz which was 2nd at that point. Pete on peg 19 had 13lb 11oz.
The road bank weighed, Rich Coles weighed first with 16lb 5oz of nice skimmers, then we saw a few weights up to 5lb, but Vic had 9lb 1oz and then the other notable was end peg, John Fuidge whom had 8lb 15oz. So I had come 6th and by default collected my section monies.

Results:
1st Rich Coles - 16-05, peg 34
2nd Pete Neate - 13-11, peg 19...
3rd Tony Rixon - 10-01, peg 5
4th Vic Bush - 9-01, peg 37
5th John Fuidge - 8-15, peg 39
6th Lee Williams - 8-03, peg 17

In the series overall Vic won ahead of John Fuidge, Chris Fox and Ken Rayner.

So a tricky, but fair day and I quite enjoyed it and glad to put some money back in my wallet for a change. I figured a few things out and it was nice to fish again with light laccy and light lines
Tomorrow is the last round of the Shiplate Teams of 3, realistically we don't have an overall placing to fish for, but section, lake and silvers monies are on the agenda for myself, Tom and Titch. Main Lake for me. Fingers crossed.

Until then, have fun.
Lee

Avalon Teams of 3, Round 1. 27-11-16

Called to duty to fish this series again by teamies, Steve and Eric Fouracre. After our closely fought 2nd spot last year when the usual winners The Sedges (Jamie Cook, Phil & Keith Clapp) just about pipped us to the top spot. I think we are going by the Over 50's name, I must look old....!!
Only 5 rounds, well spread this year, with the last round in April. There is also 10 teams taking part with some very good anglers in the mix. Mosella have 2 teams, Pete Wild, Vic Bush, Tom Mangnall and Vince Brown to name 4 of the anglers. Nigel Garrett, Tom Thick and his dad are another team. Plenty of other very good guys taking part as well.

Anyways, a bunch of chatter before the draw was undertaken. Our team was one of the last to go and we ended up with a less-than-good draw. Steve Fouracre was on end peg 48, but it isn't the greatest end peg. I was on 29, a less than favourable peg as peg 30 (in the next section) is better. But it isn't the worst draw and I had peg 28 empty. In my section there were at least 4 pegs I would have chosen ahead of mine, 19 (end of island) and 21 (snaggy gap, better side) and the two corners 23 and 24.
For company I had Tom Thick on peg 30 and Glynn Wickham on peg 27, Phil Clapp was on peg 26.
Eric had peg 15-ish, not too bad to be honest, but he was in a tricky section with the lower numbered pegs more fancied.

Peg 29 at Avalon

Looks fishy.....it wasn't!!

A lead/feeder rod was assembled, for casting towards the back of the snaggy gap, I would be using pellets and bread there, I could feed over the top due to the wind that was pushing from right to left.
3 pole rigs were put together, one for the nice looking edge to my right towards the empty peg. Here I would feed maggots and fish bunches over the top.
The 1st silvers rig,  (0.3g NG gimp, 0.14>0.10>16 B911f1.  A 8 solid laccy.) which incidentally went biteless was for fishing at topkit distance to my right around the bale of hay, I would fish casters over casters through the water. This line is usually my banker for some roach and maybe the odd surprise in the form of tench, crucians and bigger perch.
The second rig incorporated the same float and lines etc but was in 0.5g to allow for the wind which was due to increase in strength and a 6 elastic to suit.
This 2nd rig would cover 3 spots in the peg, 2 at 13m in two directions and 1 at 6m or so.
The longer lines consisted of groundbait on one spot, micros on the other with expanders, maggots and caster to fish over the top.
The short line was purely a line for expanders and micros.

At the all-in I began on the feeder, not much happened for me in the first hour, but Phil on peg 26 had a long fight with a carp on his number 4 elastic and Tom had bagged a carp and some skimmers on the pole. Glynn hadn't caught more than a couple roach.
My 1st fish was at 11 o'clock and was a small roach over the groundbait, but then it never gave me a bite. So back on feeder and I had my 1st carp, maybe 5lb, well hooked in the pec.
Another 20 minutes, fishless, on the feeder (switched to a lead) saw me spend the next 3hrs on the pole where I hoped for some of the venue's larger skimmers/bream.

My 1st skimmer came over the groundbait to pinkie and maggot combo and was around 6oz, a couple of roach followed before it died.
Over the micros at 13m and a 4mm expander gave me a couple 6oz skimmers, again it died.
This period of time saw me swap between the two long lines and picked off the odd skimmer and roach to 8oz, actually I had a perch of around 12oz over the groundbait. I also picked up 3 or 4 skimmers of the same sort of stamp from the 6m line, on expander.

At around 2pm I had a look on the lead and I immediately had my 2nd carp, similar sized to the first at 5lb or so. But that was my action there for the day.
Glynn at this point had his 1st carp, a 3lber on the feeder. Phil was still on his 1 carp but had some silvers.
Tom was doing well and looked to have at least 11lb of silvers and had 3 or 4 carp, but one of which was about 12 or 13lb. Thankfully he wasn't in my section.
Elsewhere in my section I could see Pete Wild up in p24 catching a few as were Lewis Jones on peg 19 and the guy in 21 had 3 or 4 carp. Jason King also had some big skimmers and a couple lumpy carp that tried to 'do him' under his platform. So my 5th in section looked about right, I also expected peg 23 to have had some carp, but couldn't see him well enough.

As we entered the last hour the wind got a lot stronger and noticeably colder, this killed sport for us up at this end and the 60 minutes saw me only put a couple 4oz skimmers and a roach in the net, no indications on the lead either saw me hoping the 2 guys to my right don't catch, thankfully they didn't and the all-out was called.
I reckoned on 8lb or so of silvers and 10lb-ish for my couple of carp. Anything higher than a section 5th would be a bonus to be honest.

I packed up, loaded the car and followed the weigh in, but didn't pay too much attention to the weights. When we got to me, Eric had 2nd in section from his peg. My section had 3 weights I wouldn't beat, so tipping my fish onto the scales saw 2 identical weights, 11lb 5oz to each my carp and silvers. 22lb 10oz my total. 4th in section, so a result of sorts.
I followed a bit further and saw Tom Thick have 13lb of silvers and 30lb+ of carp.
John Fuidge's usual under estimation of his silvers saw him have 16lb of skimmers and bream.
Steve Fouracre did well and I think he was 3rd in section, maybe 2nd.

The results were soon sorted and envelopes dished out. Turns out that Steve and Eric had both got default section money and we had finished 2nd behind The Sedges on the day. Jamie and Keith took 1st and 3rd spot on the day, both winning their sections.

Individual winner was Jamie Cook with mid-40lb's
Individual silvers winner was John Fuidge with 16lb+
Top 3 Teams were, The Sedges, Over 50's and then Thyers.

Next round is on the 18th of December I think, but next weekend I have the last round of the Teams of 3 at Shiplate on Sunday. But on Saturday I am covering for Dave Chidzoy in the final round of the Avalon Silvers Series.

Until then, stay warm and take care.
Lee