Viaduct Christmas Match, 23-12-17. All Lakes.

Thankfully a day of light winds and little if any rain was forecast for the 97 or 98 of us booked into this match, a very good turn out indeed.
We all had our ideas of where to draw and where not to, 132 and 110 are the hot pegs currently and most expected one of them to win and the other to frame the further up the lake you went the less carpy it became. Match Lake could be ok if things were hard and Middle/Spring had seen a couple hundred new carp stocked between 4 and 7lb, so should they feed then that could be interesting. Cary....maybe but should be at least the most consistent lake for the silvers at least. Nobody really fancied many pegs on Lodge with the exception of perhaps 73 and maybe 64, and 59 for skimmers.

Anyway the car parks were full and a few of us were boxed in up the top car park, but no worries as there was a prize for all and I couldn't see anyone leaving early.
Into the draw after a few natters with people and I found myself with 114 in my hand, I didn't fancy it on either the carp or silvers front as the payouts were top 6 overall and 3 silvers plus 10 sections. But unless I got lucky with the carp moving up the lake I would hope for a day's fishing.
As I walked to my peg it was clear the carp in Campbell were still along the end bank as several fish boshed out of the water....hmmmm
For company I had Mark Bromsgrove on my left on peg 113 and to my right was Phil Cardwell on 115.

I looked at the water, the colour was ok and although a little clear it wasn't too bad really.
A lead was assembled, a rig for silvers at 13m (DT F1.Silvers in 0.4g), a dobbing rig for my left edge (0.1g DT Pinger) and a meat/corn rig to cover 6 and 14m lines (DT RBS Open Water 0.3g)
Bait was dead maggots, pinkies, some groundbait and some meat and corn. Plus a couple slices of bread.

Peg 114 Campbell, Viaduct.

I began on the short pole, just in case of some daft fish playing ball, but nothing happened. Mark began on the lead and within 10 minutes had a carp. I followed suit, more in hope really and to have a cuppa. Across from me Jacko has landed a carp (or tench) and was exclusively fishing the waggler as he tends to do.

My 1st fish came after an hour and it was a skimmer caught on a bunch of twigs, on a rig, attached to my hooklength on the lead. Only a small 4oz fish, but blank saved.
Another 10 mins on the tip never saw a sniff so that was chucked up the bank for the rest of the day.
I could bore you all with the intricacies but the next 4hrs were spent picking off small skimmers on the 13m line feeding odd helpings of groundbait, but I couldn't really get them lined up properly.
Mark on my left was generally getting only small roach on the pole and wag and to my right it was a similar story to me, odd small skimmer and odd roach. Most people were struggling apart from Andy Cranston on peg 132, plus 131 and 130 had a few carp, no doubt 110 also had.

Towards the end of the match Dan White on peg 127 had a couple carp and a couple nice skimmers after a quiet day. Jacko had been catching silvers most of the day on the waggler from peg 128 and looked set for a decent net (he ended with 19lb of silvers).
The all in was called and I was all packed up for the weigh in and when Matt arrived with the scales and put my 2.5lb (actually 8lb 6oz) on the sheet that was 2nd best silvers net on the lake behind Jacko. Turns out it was also 2nd in section behind Geoff Francis on p110 who had 28lb to win the section money.

Presentations and prizes dished out to all after the match and mince pies, sausage rolls and drinks provided by the fishery was a great thing to do and much appreciated by all.
I also managed to be caked in mud and tipped my trolley and box contents all over the floor for the 2nd time in a week!! Thanks to the couple of guys who helped pick stuff up. I should strap my kit to the trolley frame not my side tray, lol.

Results:
Andy Cranston, p132, 95lb
Bob Gullick, p73, 85lb 8oz
Dan Squire, p7, 69lb 2oz
Mark Poppleton, p4, 57lb 8oz
then a few 50lb nets followed

As for the Silvers, Paul Greenwood caught 22lb from the Match Lake peg 46 and won that with Nicky Ewers having 20-03 from p66 and Stu White 20-02 from peg 19.

A nice day though which I enjoyed and I am sure most did even if it fished rather hard for a lot. But it was good to see spring and middle be consistent. The full weigh sheets are on Mike Nicholls' blog (Silverfox).

No plans set for this week ahead of going back to work next Tuesday the 2nd.
So I hope you all had a great Xmas period and enjoyed yourselves.
Take care and thanks for reading my blog in 2017.

Lee

Viaduct Silvers League, Final Round. 10-12-17

The 6th and last round of this series was on this Sunday past and the weather had stored all it's energy for the first couple hours of the contest. Bloody cold temps and winds that anyone with a bit of sense would keep them at home....plus some rather heavy rain.

Well I arrived in sensible time, avoiding branches and flooded parts of roads on my trip over to Somerton to find that there were less than the expected amount of vehicles, a few guys hadn't bothered fishing (the pools for the last round paid before rnd 1) plus there were a few of us that would not want to go to our pegs in the conditions we faced. I left my kit in the car and headed for the draw after a natter to a couple guys.
Midway down the line I was for the draw and in my mitt stuck peg 87, along the Cary bank of Cary Lake with the wind coming into my from the 2 o'clock direction, carrying various sized bits of wood and trees.....oh and Trig's EVA bag went sailing up from one corner of the lake to the opposite pre-match.
My pre-match was not great, I decided to set up a little feeder plus a couple topkits with just 3 sections, which in itself was tricky to hold in the wind. But the forecast was for the wind to almost stop. I don't trust weather forecasts enough to believe that.
I took the bungees off the trolley and stood the rod bags up, turned around to grab my side tray and noticed it had blown over the otter fence...so I had to climb over and get that.
The next things to blow away for me was a bait tub of casters and my tub of prawns. Then my topkits went for a wander, then the 3 sections tried to make the same trip along the bank.

Viaduct Cary peg 87

Anyways I was soon settled and everything was bolted down so-to-speak.
I had Dave Chidzoy to my right and nobody around to my left until peg 94 which was off in the 11 o'clock direction from me. So a 3-peg section. I had my double or quits pound with Dave after he beat me in an earlier round. I could see Tony Rixon on peg 97 opposite me with loads of room.
My rigs were a DT F1/Silver for topkit, it was a 0.3g float and had 0.10 hooklength to a size 20 F1 hook. My 2nd rig was the same but in 0.4g.

The all-on sounded and I cupped 4 balls of groundbait to my right, 1 to the left and threw a few casters close. Starting on the feeder it took 20 minutes before I caught a roach of 1oz. No blank. Thankfully. A few more little roach followed and a 3oz skimmer, but it wasn't hectic. The only person catching seemed to be Tony over on 97.
After 45 minutes I went on the pole, started on the topkit, no bites, no surprise, so that was generally knocked on the head for the day. Switching between to two 'longer' lines I managed to pick up the odd roach to 3oz and after a couple hours I had about 25 roach and one 3oz skimmer.
It was about then that the winds dropped, but the rain was still cold and I could barely feel my hands, which is unlike me.

Dave had decided to get the rest of his pole out and set up a line around 13m out, so I decided to see how he fared as I didn't think the wind would stay light.
Well I continued to pick up roach on the 2 pole lines (and odd look on feeder), but over the space of 30 minutes or so Dave had 6 skimmers for around 2lb. So it was off my box and the sections to 13m came out. I used the topkit rig to plumb around in front and once happy I potted in 2 decent balls of groundbait with a few dead maggots and pinkies in.
I came back on the shorter 'long' lines and had a couple roach before trying the 13m line and I had indications immediately and I began to put the odd skimmer in the net, nothing bigger than 4oz, plus a few roach. But it was a positive sign,

The last couple of hours was pretty much spent long, but I wasn't getting as many fish as Dave I didn't think, but by topping up regularly, resting it for 5 minutes, then dropping back in I kept a few fish coming, but I just needed a decent fish of 2lb+ to help. I did bump a better fish and came back with a scale and slime, and the odd one fell off as they do, but it was a pleasant couple of hours catching a few small skimmers.
But at the all-out I figured Dave had double what I had. Tony had caught for most of the day, but wasn't in our section, peg 94 hadn't caught as much as us I didn't think.
I estimated Mr Chidzoy to have 11-12lb and me around 4.5-5lb perhaps.
It didn't take long to pack up and soon enough Matt was doing the weigh in. Gary O'Shea had 10lb of roach from peg 85. Trig had the same weight from p74 while Nicky Ewers (24lb) and Joe McMahon (15lb) were on pegs 77 and 78 respectively.
Dave weight 10lb something,  while my guesstimate was well out when I put 9lb 9oz on the scales, so that 30 minutes I watched Dave fishing long before I got my sections out of the bag probably cost me a bit of weight perhaps, but you never know.

Back to the car-park, after giving Dave his £2, it seemed it hadn't fished too bad with Nicky Ewers and Vince Brown (lodge p59) both having the top weight on the day with Tony's 18lb 3rd best.
Vince fed a couple pints of caster to catch his, as Trig did in earlier rounds, and again the fish came on later in the day for him.

Results:
1st = Vince Brown, p59. 28-08
1st = Nicky Ewers, p77 28-08
3rd Tony Rixon, p97, 18-00
4th Joe McMahon, p78, 15-07

League Standings
1st, Craig 'Trig' Edmunds, 7pts (drop a 3)
2nd, John Fuidge, 8pts (drop a 7, better weight)
3rd, Steve Jackson, 8pts (drop a 7, less weight)
4th, Gary O'Shea, 9pts (one of five on 9pts, better dropper/weight combo)

Me well I finished down in 34th, which given at least a couple of my draws and it being my 1st attempt I am not too dissatisfied with to be honest and I shall most likely give it another bash in 2018.
A couple of pick-ups along the way did soften the blows from earlier rounds
Well done to the framers, especially the man-of-the-moment, Mr Edmunds. He cannot do much wrong and he has proven what a quality angler he is.

Next up I have a knock-up Xmas match on Trinity Wildmarsh on Saturday, it will be hard, very hard I would expect, but it is Christmas and should be a giggle.

Until then, take care and have fun.
Lee

Landsend So-Simple Winter League, Round 1. 3-12-17

First up I would like to than Dean at DT Floats for taking me on as a sponsored angler, I appreciate the opportunity. He does a great range of floats, float silicone plus elastics and bait bands. Take a look at the link at the bottom of my page.

The 1st round of my 1st ever attempt at this series. 27 booked on, 9 on each of the 3 lakes, probably a couple short on each but Ken Rayner does his best and there seems to be an abundance of leagues/series' at this time of the year.

I got there in plenty of time, loaded the trolley and had a natter with a few guys. Paid my dues and chatted a little more.
Saturday's match was hard on the Match Lake (lake 2) and the other 2 lakes (Speci/lake 1 and Johns/lake 3) are not overly fished in comparison to lake 2 so were expected to be tricky.
Personally I didn't mind what lake I was on as you fish all 3 twice over the series.
There were a few favoured pegs on each lake, and a few more less-favoured ones, but Ken had done his best to leave out the pegs deemed 'less good'. But whatever match organisers do they never please all of the people any of the time. A generally thank-less task.

Anyways on to the draw and I went in the queue mid-way and plucked peg 51 on Lake 3. Mr Rixon said it was ok but pegs 41, 42, 68 and 70, plus 58 were deemed as the best 5 pegs in the draw.
I made my way to the lake with Matt Williams, he had drawn 66 which is average I thought.
I didn't really have any company, with only the un-flappable Ade Crawley opposite me within talking range Martin Pettifer on peg 46 and Rod Wootton almost pleasure fishing on peg 58 were my 'neighbours'.

Peg 51, Landsend Lake 3.

4 rigs assembled. The swim was pretty much the same depth give or take a couple inches, it was around 2.5ft deep.
The first was my general silvers rig using a DT F1/Silvers in 0.3g, 0.10 hooklength and a 20 hook. 2 spots were plumbed for this rig, topkit and at 11m slightly to my right between the gap in the islands.
Then I had a DT pellet pinger in 0.1g for across towards the island in 2 areas, maggots over maggots off the point of the island and at 14m in the 10 o'clock direction feeding micros there. This rig would couple up down to my left, but I would be using maggots over maggot here late on in the day.
Then I had a standard meat rig for 2+2 in front and to my right at the bottom of the nearside shelf. The float was an RBS open water in 0.4g.
Lastly an identical rig as the meat was set up and fished off a tree/bush in the water at 13m in front for fishing any bait over casters and dead maggots (perch were my ideal target).
The so-called carp rigs had 0.14 hooklengths and size 16 hooks. If I hook one I don't want to lose it, lol.

A quick walk before the match and I had to think Rod on 58 would win the lake, the water looked a better colour and I had seen a few fish up there on arrival at my peg. The 'better' pegs at the near end looked a little less fishy.
Back at my peg, a quick cuppa before the all in. I potted a little groundbait on both silvers lines and started off to the left over toss potted micros, 5 minutes no bites.
Off to the point of the island, toss-potted maggots, bite 1st drop, I think it was a little roach as it fell off on the strike. Next drop I had a roach of 1oz. Blank avoided. 15 minutes or so later I was back over the micros fed via the toss-pot and I spied a stray rig mooching around the area and typically as I looked across at Ade I felt the pole pull, a carp was attached, it didn't feel right and it was either foul hooked or the rig on my pole had caught the 'roaming' rig. Either way the fish charged up the lake to my left and soon enough the hook pulled. Still positive signs.
Sadly that was the total action for the first hour.

Into the second sixty minutes and I caught my only fish on the topkit line, a 1/4oz perch.
Back out to the point of the island and I was soon attached to a carp, this one was netted and was about 4lb so a relatively small one for the lake. Some roach, micro roach mostly, followed so I started to switch lines to find a better stamp of fish of any species.
Elsewhere Rod up on 58 had a couple carp and some skimmers. Ade had a nice perch and some little roach. It sounded like no-one was getting anything of note further down the lake. One or 2 were still bite less.

Hour 3 began ok as I had started to dump-feed maggots off the point of the island and I was getting a better stamp of roach, to around 6oz and was enjoying it, but I knew I needed a few carp.
I tried the meat line, no bites, actually I didn't have any bites on the meat all day.
Over the silvers groundbait at 11m gave me a few roach and a single 2oz skimmer but it didn't feel like it would give up much so that line was binned.
Over to the micros line and I had a roach on expander and then I managed a nice skimmer of 12oz from that spot. No more followed.
A look by the bush for an expected perch only saw me land my 2nd carp, a 3lb fish. Also a roach and a rudd followed.
A dead spell followed, other than a couple little roach and we were soon into the last 45 minutes.
It  looked like Rod would win the lake and I reckoned on him having near 40lb at this point. Elsewhere it was only 1 carp, foul hooked and landed by Martin Rayet on p68 that had been caught, but that 1 could be bigger than my 2 very easily on this lake and if anyone was going to start catching then now would be that point.

I had been feeding a few maggots down to my left and decided to drop in here and had a bite right away, micro roach and a couple 2oz roach were swung in, but I was getting a few liners so I came away and kept feeding while I tried over the micros. Thankfully a skimmer of 1lb or so was put into the keepnet. So I thought I had maybe 4.5lb of silvers and my 2 carp.
One or 2 roach from the point of the island followed but no more signs of carp.
10 minutes left and a look down the edge and the float shot under, 3oz of roach into the net. The next drop saw the float sail away and I was attached to a carp, another small one netted, 3lb, but they scraped well. The all out followed minutes later. 15lb was my guess on weight, I did not expect much from that but I knew I had more than Ade and Martin. I couldn't be sure on the rest.

I packed up rather quickly and went for a wander around the lake and it seemed my 15lb would be 2nd on the lake by all accounts, but lets see. I followed Steve Seager and Tom Mangnall do the 3 pegs up to me and weights were 2lb 6oz (inc 1 carp), 1-12, 1-05 before I had 5-07 of silvers then 10-08 was my 3 carp weight for a 15lb 15oz total.
I finished packing up and the scales kept on their way.
I caught up with scales at peg 68, Martin Rayet's carp was 7-00 and he had 2lb of silvers. A look at the sheet saw Rod had 50lb, Ade weighed in 1-08,  Matt 2-12. Last to weigh was Mr Consistent Gary O'Shea on decent peg 70. He also struggled. But he just pipped my 5-07 of silvers with 5-12 worth which was 4th on the lake itself.
So only 11 carp (6 to Rod, 3 to me, 1 to Steve Seager and Martin's single one) were caught. It was hard. I picked up the money for 2nd on the lake (section) and a decent start to the series.

Results: (pinched from Ken's Facebook post)

1. Speci Lake
   1st, 69-12 - Russ Peck - p32
   2nd, 31- 9 - Steve Sewell - p36
   3rd, 22- 3 - Adrian Jeffery - p40
   Silvers
   1st, 21- 0 - Tony Rixon - p28
2. Match Lake
   1st, 34-15 - Stuart Barnett - p22
   2nd, 25- 4 - Nick Duckett - p14
   3rd, 22- 6 - Pete Nurse - p24
   Silvers
   1st, 6- 8 - Ken Rayner - p1
3. Johns Lake
   1st, 53- 0 - Rod Wootten - p58
   2nd, 15-15 - Lee Williams - p51
   3rd, 9- 0 - Martin Rayet - p68
   Silvers
   1st, 5-12 - Gary O'Shea - p70

I actually quite enjoyed the day, it stayed dry and warm enough. A few more fish wouldn't have gone amiss, but it is winter after all.

Next weekend is the last round of Viaduct's Silvers League, lets hope that fishes okay.

Until then, take care.
Lee

Viaduct Silvers League, 5th Round, 26-11-17

The penultimate round of this popular series has now been and gone, the last round is in a couple of weeks.

Anyways I didn't arrive too early, got a couple miles from home and the wife called to let me know I had left my waterproofs at home.....Numpty!!
Once at the venue I had a quick chat with a few guys, Matt Williams and Myself convinced we would again draw less than favourable and with the poxy wind blowing rather cool a draw with the wind off my back would be nice. The weather was due to be dry pretty much all day, but Mr Long said we would be fishing 10:30 til 15:45 due to the light fading and the rain was due at 4pm........

Into the draw and out comes peg 97 on the diagonal bank of Cary, reasonably happy with that area, at least I was on Cary as it does seem the most consistent of the 3 lakes, but individually Lodge seems to produce the winner at the moment, but that is the trickiest lake I think. I still haven't been on Campbell. Maybe next time?
For company I had Paddy Curry behind me on Lodge peg 66 (ouch!), Steve Kedge on peg 96 but not in my section, luckily as that peg seems to be in the top 2 in section each round.On peg 98 was Clive Barrow then Martin Rayet on p99.

Peg 97, Cary Lake. 

Bait for the day was pinkies and maggots both live and dead. Some casters and some corn. I mixed up 1kg of BMG groundbait as I didn't want the temptation to be too positive given the colder few days we have had coupled with the rains we had overnight.
I actually set up a feeder, which I chucked out maybe for 20 minutes in total and went fishless.
A waggler for around 25m out, I would feed corn for that line as the wind was pushing in to me so casters were ruled out.
Lastly 2 pole rigs, a DT F1/silvers in 0.3g to fish at 2+2 in front using small amound of groundbait and loose fed casters. The 2nd rig was using a 0.4g DT Floats Jabba pattern, this would cover 2 lines, the 1st at 14m in front where groundbait and dead pinkies would form the bulk of the feed initially.
The same rig was also used at 11m off slightly right where I fed dead maggots and caster quite heavily via a cup as eels and perch could show.

The match began and 3 balls of groundbait went out long, a full pot of caster/dead maggot went on the 11m line and a gold ball sized helping of neat groundbait went in on the short line. I didn't feed the waggler line but chose to spend 20 minutes on the feeder where I planned to fish the waggler.
No bites for this 20 minute spell though Martin and Kedgey started to get a few small roach and odd small skimmer in this spell.
A quick look on the waggler, but the wind got up, so on the pole, starting short, no bites in 10 minutes so looking over the long groundbait line. A couple little roach and a 6oz skimmer were soon in the net and blank avoided. It then went quiet for a while but Martin on peg 99 was catching consistently, nothing big (he did hook a couple carp and land 1) but regular spells of catching well. Kedgey was also getting a few fish on his pole lines. Elsewhere everyone was struggling.

So fast forward a couple of hours and I had been picking the odd fish from both the long 14m line and the caster line, I had also started to feed a few pieces of corn out for the waggler as I expected that to be the area to produce a better stamp of skimmer. I suppose I had 2.5lb in the net at this point, Martin maybe 6 or 7lb and Kedge about 5lb. Clive, to my left was really struggling and only had a couple roach to show.
It was 1pm when I had my 1st skimmer, around 1.5lb from the long groundbait line, double caster the bait fished off bottom, as like I had last week I was getting indications and liners, so I stick on a better bait and it went under right away. Sadly no more followed. A few more small balls of groundbait went in on that spot again and I switched to the waggler as Kedgey was getting a few fish, 6oz skimmers mostly but had a couple 1lb fish from what I could make out.

15 minutes of thrashing the water with the wag and missing a few bites I connected with a nice fish and soon a 3lb skimmer was netted, Steve lost one of a couple pounds at the same time.
Again no decent fish followed so I stuck with the pole for the last hour or so. I knew I was a long way behind Martin on peg 99, I couldn't see anyone in the section past him so didn't have a clue how I was doing in the scheme of things, but Gabe had gone home and there was a fair amount of grumblings about how hard it was fishing.
20 minutes to go and the rain had already set in, it was not very nice, quite heavy and bloody cold, but I could see the odd bubble over the long line and I suspected an eel to be honest but a couple 8oz skimmers were netted and a couple roach before I bumped a couple better fish, possibly big skimmers as a nice amount of laccy came out. Luckily I had another opportunity in the last minutes as a 1.5lb skimmer was netted. I reckoned to myself I had around 10lb and Martin must have 17lb maybe. But I had more than Clive who tipped back, so at least I was not last in section. From what I could tell Mr Kedge had 15lb and looked to have won that section as it was only Nicky Ewers over on 87 had really caught any amount of fish, similarly Jacko on peg 78 had netted some nice skimmers.

I packed up, well started to, in the rain, when the scales arrived. Martin had weighed 16lb but the rest of my section had struggled to catch with Roly's 10lb next best. Thankfully my weigh tipped the scales to 12lb 3oz and put me 2nd in the section. Steve Kedge did win his section but I was a little surprised to see him total 12lb 15oz, I was sure he had more than that. Nicky Ewers had 12lb 3oz to come 2nd in that section. Jacko won the 3rd section on Cary with 13lb 8oz.

Results:
1. Gary O’Shea - 20lb - peg 70
2. Craig Edmunds - 18lb 12oz - peg 59
3. Gary Webber - 17lb 14oz - peg 129
4. Martin Rayet - 16lb - peg 99
5. Mike Nicholls - 15lb 2oz - peg 132
6. John Fuidge - 13lb 10oz - peg 110

So although a tough day, I enjoyed it and am looking forward to the last round in 2 weeks. Well done to Mr Consistent Gary O'Shea on the win. He caught mostly on waggler and caster I believe.

Trig (Craig Edmunds) is leading the series with a maximum 4 points (dropper is a 3!!) after a section win and 2nd in the match. But a couple of others have an outside chance of overtaking him, although in-realistic at this stage.......but you never know.
For full sheets and standings etc take a look at the Viaduct Facebook page.

Next week I have the first round of the Landsend Winter League, another 1st attempt at the series for me and it can get really hard there at times, so maybe I will draw a bit better than my draw hand has been, generally, in 2017.

Until then, have fun.

Lee

Sedges Brick Lake, Matt Culpin's Series. 19-11-17

Another opportunity to cover in the series, the last round of which was on Sunday at Sedges, on Brick Lake. I could have been fishing the Parrett with Pawlett, but I had done zero prep so didn't commit.

An early 8:30am draw was on the cards, thankfully it is 5 mins from my house so a nice lay-in way past 7am. No wind and not too cold, but we had seen an awful lot of cold rain overnight and Saturday was cool with a nippy northerly breeze. I wasn't expecting most of us to do great, maybe 8 round to 13 would be the best area to draw, but that was one section, the other 2 were the rest of the pegs on either bank (1-7 and 14-20) if I am correct. I would be happy with any peg from 5 up and around to 15 to be fair. So after a natter and a cuppa from Denise we drew our pegs.

No surprise to see drawbags Mark Thorne and Steve 'Peanut' Howell draw the favoured pegs 11 and 10 respectively. But my favourite peg on the lake, peg 12, went to Russ Peck. Me, well my rather dire attempt at drawing a 'flyer' failed again when peg 17 was my pluck from the basket. I pushed my barrow round and proceeded to set my kit up...........on peg 18. Only pointed out by John Dursley who was meant to be on there. So I shuffled along, as did Wayne on peg 17 (moved to 16).

Brick Lake peg 17 at dusk....

I set up a few bits and bobs in the 60 minutes we had to get ready, fishing 9:30-15:30.
A waggler for maggot at 25m, a small cage feeder for the same area.
A topkit aimed for roach down my right edge didn't give a bite, just a snag that ate hooks!!
A line at 14m for banded 4mm over wet 4's and micros. DT RBS Open Water in 0.8g.
A line at 11m for maggots over my So Simple Bait's BMG/Bog combo using a light 0.3g DT F1/Silvers float. Lastly a meat rig for just past the shelf at around 6m off at a slight angle to the right. I used a DT RBS Margin for this rig.

I had, by the obvious fish activity, decided that it was only the section money to fish for, maybe the silvers if I got lucky as silvers ace Ron Stark was on peg 8 and I fancied that to produce. The overall silvers winner and match winners get the same prize and 3 section winners are paid.
At the all-in I was not ready, but I was not the only one. But I got a smallish helping of feed onto the various lines before trying the waggler, hoping for an early carp or 2 should they be in the vicinity.

Within half an hour I had bumped a decent fish, probably a liner, and I had a smallish skimmer fall off just out of netting range. But it was slow. Simon Ryall on peg 20 had lost a carp and landed one. While I could see pegs 10, 11 and 12 all had caught a few carp as expected.
I carried on fishing the waggler as was John on peg 18, he had a couple small skimmers but it wasn't fast and furious. Then he had a moment....He went to sink his line and the top half of the top section of his waggler rod snapped, putting paid to his running line float fishing for the day.

It was about an hour into the match when I had my first few fish, all 2-3oz roach on the waggler, I had 4 of these. A few other peeps I could see had yet to catch, or even have a bite.
In on the pole line and I tried the long pellet line and expected a fish or 2 from here, but it never happened, actually I never caught a fish off that area all day, similarly my banker meat line never saw the float move in all the times I tried it throughout the day.

A couple of hours passed and only the odd roach was entering the keepnet, while the 3 up the far end never seemed to stop catching, Russ Peck and Mark Thorne were even catching on the pellet wag.
For the rest of it, well it was tricky going. Just the odd carp here of there coming out to Emma Drysdale and Matt Culpin on the pegs opposite. Simon on peg 20 was on 2 carp but not seen a fish for a while. Jon Page on p1 was blanking, waiting for his 1st bite, he was not the only one either.

At the halfway stage I managed to catch an eel over the groundbait and then a 12oz skimmer on the feeder, my only bite on that even though I only chucked it out while having a cuppa. Bites on the waggler had stopped.
John had a couple decent skimmers on the pole but was getting missed bites but went on to catch an eel and lose a foul hooked one.
Paul Berry came around and chatted for a while and he said Saturday was tricky going and only had a couple decent skimmers.
A few rig adjustments thanks to missed bites and liners saw another skimmer find it's way to my keepnet with 2hrs to go, this was followed by 3 more, the largest around 3lb. Then it died again.
Though Jonny on peg 1 did hook a carp, probably foul hooked, his 1st bite of the day.....and he lost it after playing it a while!!

A couple roach on the waggler and another over the groundbait pushed me into the last hour probably just ahead of John on peg 18, but then he had another skimmer of 2lb or so and lost a foul hooked one. Then I managed another 2 skimmers around 1lb each. But with 30 minutes to go John again had an eel and a small skimmer. I never had another bite.
Elsewhere it looked close for the outright win between pegs 11 and 12, Mark Thorne and Russ Peck going fish for fish all day. Adrian Jeffery had 3 and lost 1 carp I think, all in the last 45 minutes from peg 15, Wayne Staples added 2 or 3 skimmers in the remaining 20 minutes to add to his few roach.

The all-out was called, my kit was packed away and put in the car. I reckoned on 8lb of silvers, John said I had a couple pounds more than him, he said he had 8lb.....
I caught up with the scales at peg 11 and 6lb 5oz was top silvers and 70lb was top overall to Peanut on p10. Mark Thorne had 115lb and just edged Russ into 2nd, Russ had 113lb so well done those 2. Adrian had 12lb for his carp.
Not much followed as Wayne went into the silvers lead with 6lb 6oz.
I then chucked my 8lb of fish in the sling and onto the scales and they had grown to 16lb.....oooppss!!
Slightly out there then. John's 8lb was 12lb, so he was slightly out also.
Simon on peg 20 ended with 3 carp and they amassed 24lb and he won the section with that.

Results-rounded to the nearest lb:
1st, Mark Thorne, p11, 115lb
2nd, Russ Peck, p12, 113lb
3rd, Steve Howell, p10, 70lb

Silvers:
1st, Lee Williams, p17, 16lb
2nd, John Dursley, p18, 12lb

So sixty-odd quid in the pocket on a tricky day was a decent result, but as expected it fished hard for the majority, and I made the right choice targeting the silvers, though I didn't expect to top the pegs I did. I learned a few things during the day which will defo come in handy.
I fed nearly 2kg of groundbait, 1/2pt of caster and 1pt of maggots through this.

Next up for me is Viaduct Silvers League round 5......though I may go somewhere Saturday.

Until then, enjoy yourselves.
Lee

Viaduct Silvers League, 4th Round. 12-11-17

Another round of this series came and went on Sunday, between my pants drawing hand, my obvious lack of capability to catch a few decent skimmers at the venue in comparison to those who fish there regularly and the fact the quality of the angler is pretty high means I am languishing near the bottom of the league.

Anyways back to Sunday, after the usual chatter and putting the world to rights I was discussing where I fancied, well Cary will do for me, preferably on the Campbell bank as the wind would be off my back over there. Otherwise Campbell's pegs 123-127.
Lodge, well if you are on the decent skimmers which usually inhabit the rope pegs and back towards the car park. There also doesn't seem to be the numbers of 3-6oz skimmers that Cary is producing this season, but maybe the roach could show?
Well I did get on Lodge....surprise. Peg 68, the next peg along from where I drew in round 1. Not the best area going by weights over the last few rounds. But you never know.
For company I had Dave Chidzoy on 69, he used to avoid silvers, now he loves them and is a dab hand at catching them too. Another decent angler was down on corner 66, not a great peg, that was Sam Powell. Opposite me was another decent silvers angler and one who I could gauge myself against, Steve Kedge. I could also see Trig, who had won 2 of the previous rounds, he was down on peg 59 and that's not a bad peg for a formidable angler.

No pics of the peg, forgot to take some.
So to keep things short and sweet I will give a basic run down of the day.
I fed 2 13m lines, one with a couple balls of groundbait, one with a mix of caster and dead reds (no bites here all day).
A short 2+2 line was fed with a ball of groundbait holding dead reds and lastly I fed a margin line for roach...........that line never gave a bite all day.
A waggler was set up for corn or caster at around 18/20m.

It took 20 mins to get my 1st fish, a 2oz roach from the long groundbait line and then a 4oz skimmer followed soon after. But that first 20 minutes before I caught my first fish saw me lose 3 foul hooked decent skimmers, that probably didn't help my peg for the day.
Dave had a couple skimmers on a small feed cast along the rope, something he managed on and off during the day along with some on the pole caught fish to 2lb-ish.

The following 5hrs was very slow, I managed 5 or 6 small skimmers off the longer groundbait line, 1 on the waggler and a 8oz hybrid on the waggler also.  I also had a few roach off the long pole line, mostly on the drop. And I did bump a couple better fish during the afternoon. But I never felt for one minute I was going anywhere.
Sam on peg 66 did manage a couple decent skimmers but had a fair few small skimmers and totalled 10lb 8oz come the all out.
Kedgey was struggling too and his bit of luck came when he had a decent skimmer foul hooked and never came off near the end of the match. He ended with 6lb, the 2 to his left had 6lb 11oz and 6lb 12oz respectively.
Talking of being a pain in the butt to land, Trig hooked a huge common or around 22lb and couldn't land it in his silvers net.....it didn't stop him winning the match after a slow-ish 3.5hrs. He ended up with 28lb on the long pole using caster over groundbait.

My bit of luck came with 30 minutes to go when I had a decent eel on my short line, probably 1.5lb, it was an arse to land though. My total at the weigh in was a not too weighty 5lb. Second last in section. I don't think I would have managed the 23lb needed to win the section. 22lb was second and 13lb (to Dave) was 3rd in the section and scooped the section money by double default.

Results:
1. Craig Edmunds - 28lb - peg 59
2. Stu White - 23lb 2oz - peg 70
3. Gary O’Shea - 22lb 6oz - peg 73
4. Matt Parsons - 18lb 11oz - peg 98
5. Nigel Easton - 18lb 3oz - peg 100
6. Paul Greenwood - 18lb 2oz - peg 129
7. Alvin Jones - 18lb 1oz - peg 123

So Lodge gave the top 3 overall but it was a struggle for most, the cold northerly/north-westerly didn't help matters and by 3pm it went noticeably colder. But I am learning each round which isn't always a bad thing.
Trig fed quite a decent amount towards the 2nd half of the match and maybe I was a little too negative, who knows, and again I never set a small feeder up, maybe I should?

Next round in a couple weeks, I must be due a go on Campbell (not pegs 130, 131, 132 please)...

This Sunday I am at Sedges, covering in Matt Culpin's series. On Brick, looking forward to that....I think. Some new rigs needed to be made.

Until then, have fun.
Lee

Landsend Lakes 1 + 2, Matt Culpin's Series, 5-11-17

A chance to cover came up for this round of Matt Culipin's series, he has ran over the last couple of months and as seems to be the case there have been no-shows and anglers unable to fish the rounds for various reasons.
So I duly accepted my invitation, purely because I haven't fished for carp for what seems like months and fancied a change.

Down to the fishery in plenty of time, chatted to a few people I hadn't seen for a while.
I didn't mind where I drew, but to be honest if I had to be pushed then 31 round to 33 on Lake 1 may have been my choice as I could have tried to catch some perch....failing that pegs 11, 13, and 15 up at the far end of Lake 2 would be a better pick on that lake, but I wasn't too fussed to be fair.
We had seen loads of overnight hail showers and there was likely to have been a fair amount of cold water going into the lakes, so I was not expecting a baggin session on anyone's part, certainly it would be harder than usual no doubt.

Into the draw about 5th in line and I plucked peg 19 on Lake 2, a decent enough peg, but the cold north/north-westerly wind would be cutting through the gap in the islands and right in my chops. But I was pleased enough with the peg.
Steve Howell was on peg 11, Mark Thorne on peg 13 and Adrian Jeffery on peg 15 would be on the favoured pegs, peg 11 had won the Saturday open.

Peg 19, Landsend

Bait for the day was live maggots, some girly 6mm meat, a few wetted micros and some expander pellets. I had mixed a little So Simple BMG groundbait just incase the skimmers/roach were my option of a few bites.
Rigs for the day were a silvers rig, a small DT F1/Silvers float to fish in front at 2+2. A meat rig to fish slightly to the right at the same distance using a 0.3g DT RBS open water float, this rig was also suitable down to my left beside the tree that is in the water.
Lastly I set up a DT Pellet Pinger float in 0.1g for fishing at 14m to the left edge of some reeds where I found slightly deeper water. This rig also covered an area off to the right at the same distance but involved moving the float shallower by 6 inches. Mike Duckett said there was a nice area to fish there using 8mm pellets, maybe 6''s.
The carp rigs were on 0.14 hooklengths as the water still looked like it was not too clear, KND white laccy was used. The silvers was my usual 0.10 hooklength and middy solid 5-8 elastic.

At the all-in I popped a small ball of groundbait at 2+2 and maybe 20 pieces of meat went in over that area. I would feed to my left by the tree with maggots in small amounts during the day.
I began over to the left of the reeds using a 4mm expander on the hook and a small amount of loose fed micros.
It took maybe 5 minutes for my 1st indication which I missed, but duly dropped back in and was into a carp, foul hooked and soon came off. A few minutes later I repeated the process as another foul hooked fish was lost, I shallowed up a few inches and indications stopped.
Then I did manage to foul hook a couple more before landing one hooked fairly, a nice ghostie looking carp of around 6lb. I hadn't seen anyone else have a fish yet, some had not even had a bite after an hour.

We were soon an hour into the match and my indications had stopped across so I came and looked on the silvers line, a couple roach and a couple micro perch were put in the net but bites dried up rapidly. Another small ball of groundbait went in there and it was back across.
2 more carp were landed in short time, one of 8lb on maggots and the other perhaps 5lb on expander. But I was not getting the signs of fish in the area I was in the previous hour.
Things went dead then.....no signs from anything, people were struggling, though I could occasionally see Adrian's elastic being worked.
Jon Page down on peg 21 had landed his first carp down his right edge, I had not bothered with my right side as there was one or 2 overhanging branches that hindered my view.

It was soon the halfway stage of the match and I was on 3 carp, a couple roach and a couple perch.
I decided to put 3/4 of a cup of micros on the 14m area off to the right and leave it, hoping something would settle over the top. I gave this a 20 minute rest before trying it and would you believe it when in had a bite 1st put, a smallish F1 was landed then a foul hooked carp was lost, then one of about 10lb landed. Nice.
Back to the left hand side of the reeds and a couple roach were landed, this told me that the carp were not here.

Another couple hours passed and it was maybe 45 minutes until the end of the match. The tree swim had yet to give me a bite, it never actually did. A couple looks over the meat line saw the float stationary. And the silvers line gave me 1 more roach before the all-out.
JP on peg 21 was up to 3 carp and peg 24 had 1 on the lead earlier in the day and had since got a few from his left margin. He was on 4 or 5 carp but they can be smaller in that corner at times.
I went back over the 14m line to the right and managed a 2lb skimmer that fought like mad, lost another foul hooked carp and netted a nice 8oz skimmer.
Around 20 minutes to go and I saw a couple bubbles over the meat and I dropped in there and was soon attached to a carp, which was netted and probably 7lb. Back in and I missed a bite, but hooked and landed another, 10lber perhaps. With perhaps 5 minutes to go I hooked my 3rd meat fish, landed it after a nice scrap and it too was possibly 10lb. I hoped to get one more before the all-out and promptly missed a bite a few seconds before the whistle.

So the match ended with peg 24 having 6 carp, Jon had 3, I had 6 and from what I could hear 11, 13 and 15 all had a few fish, not loads though.
My clicker showed 36lb but I hadn't clicked the last carp. I also had 4lb of silvers (1x F1, 2x skimmers, 2x micro perch and 8 roach).
I packed up as the rain began, typically it was the heaviest rain of the day.
I caught up with the weigh-in at peg 11 and Steve Howell. He had 11lb of silvers and some carp to give him 50lb and ounces. Mark Thorne had around 48lb and Adrian had 39lb. Peg 17 don't weigh too much, I didn't catch his weight.
My turn to weigh saw a smidge over 4lb of silvers and my 2 weighs of carp added another 48lb to put me to 52lb and winning the lake and section (paying 1st, 3 sections and 1st in silvers on the day). Jonny Page had 20lb before the 6 carp landed from peg 24 weighed 30-something I believe.

Back to the car, car loaded and I found out that Lake 1 had been tricky and that 57lb to Lee Phillips won that, and the match. There was a couple 30lb+ nets I think and Ron Stark had 11lb 14oz of silvers to pip Steve Howell by a solitary ounce to win that pot. I had top weight off Lake 2 and picked up 2nd overall, winning the section money.

Results:
1st, Lee Phillips, 57lb 1oz
2nd, Lee Williams, 52lb 8oz (I think)
3rd, Steve Howell, 50lb 4oz

Silvers:
1st, Ron Stark, 11lb 14oz
2nd, Steve Howell, 11lb 13oz

So a nice day, if not hard going, but I enjoyed it and it was a nice change to catch a few carp.
1 fish would have given me the win, which I should really have done, maybe if a foul hooked fish had not come off etc. Hindsight eh!!

Next up for me, as it stands is Sunday at Viaduct for the 4th round of the silvers league, only sections to fish for now for me.

Until then, take care.
Lee

Viaduct Silvers League, 3rd Round, 29-10-17

3rd round of this series was last Sunday. A dry and bright day forecast with westerly/north-westerly winds, no doubt making float spotting tricky at time.
I was hoping to get on Cary, maybe Campbell, but thankfully I got my wish. Peg 85 on Cary fell into my hand, nice enough peg, tricky section. Plenty of cover guys today across the board.
My section consisted of me on peg 85, Robin Guy on peg 81, peg 80 had Martin Rayet, 78 was Trig, 77 was occupied by Vince Brown. Lastly on peg 74 was Mr Gabe Skarba. No such thing as a weak section in this series.

peg 85, Viaduct Cary

For company I had a good young angler in Geraint Powell on 86, he had Mike Nicholls on peg 87 to his left.
Waggler was set up first to chuck corn to around 20m. 4 pole rigs, a topkit rig for down by the tree to my left using caster over caster. A rig for 13m slightly off to the right where I could actually see the float most of the time, not all of it, I would use maggots or caster over groundbait in that spot.
Lastly I made up a pellet rig (last pellet match before the 'ban' comes into play), this would be for 11m in front, but couldn't see the float at any point in the awkward light so knocked that on the head. So I used it for 2+2 slightly left just off the tree using 4mm hard pellet over micros and odd 4mm as feed. Lastly a rig for 2+2 down the edge to my right.

The match began with me feeding 4 balls of So Simple BMG at 13m, with a few dead reds and casters in. 1/2 a pot of micros at 2+2 and a half pot of caster under the tree, I also wanted to loose feed caster to my right at 2+2 down the edge so a few were lobbed in that direction.
I started on the wag, no bites in 10 mins, but Geraint was getting small skimmers right away.
Over the groundbait and after 5 minutes I had a couple 3-4oz skimmers and kept them coming for 15 minutes before they stopped. Another helping of groundbait went in before trying the other lines, only 1 small roach and a small skimmer fell to the caster under the tree, a 2oz skimmer on the short pellet line.

After an hour I had maybe a dozen fish for 1lb or so.
The following 4hrs went slowly for me, I could hear Geraint catching well but I was struggling as was 81 and most of the diagonal bank from what I could see.
I would get spurts of small skimmers, no quality, the largest maybe 10oz at a push. So going in to the last 60 minutes I hoped for a few lumpy skimmers, but this never happened either, though I did lose a foul hooked skimmer of about 2lb. I initially thought it was a carp and pulled too hard.
The right edge never gave me a bite and all I could hook at this point under the tree was carp, similarly the last 4 fish I hooked on the long pole were carp and another at 2+2 where I had swapped to fishing maggot on the hook.
At the all-out I reckoned I had 9lb or so and was miles behind peg 86, but he wasn't in my section. I would guess that 74 to 80 had done miles better and 81 probably had over taken me with a few late skimmers. So last in section was on the cards.
As we packed up I thought that I pretty much fished like a tit for 4hrs of the 6, over fed the peg and should have really opened a new line at around 8m, but I am too stubborn at times......one day I will get it right, but I am enjoying this learning curve. Roll on the next round in a couple weeks.

Matt came and weighed me in, 11lb 8oz was my dire tally.
Geraint had 29lb something, I thought he must have 30lb!! He confirmed my thoughts I had fed too much when he told me how he had not fed much and figured the fish would drift off but come back a few minutes later, so well done that man.
The rest of my section weighed, from 74-80, 21lb, 31lb, 32lb, 23lb, 14lb and then me. Trig and Vince were 1st and 2nd in the match from their pegs each side of the fallen tree.

Results:

1. Craig Edmonds 32-14-0 peg 78
2. Vince Brown 31-0-0 peg 77
3. Stu White 30-09-0 peg 96
4. Paul Faiers 30-06-0 peg 123
5. Geraint Powell 29-02-0 peg 86
6. Gary O’Shea 28-02-0 peg 56

Of all the 51 anglers, the majority had double figures, so it fished pretty well. (full weigh sheets on Mike Nicholls' blog and Viaduct's Facebook pages).

Next up for me is this Sunday, covering in Matt Culpin's series at Landsend on either lake 1 or 2. Not fished there for a long while so will see how it goes, but it is unlikely I will over-feed this match!!

Until then, take care.
Lee

Viaduct Silvers League, Round 2. 15-10-17

Second round of this popular series. I arrived early enough but somehow, after a chat with John Fuidge and then Matt Williams the draw was underway. I didn't want Lodge, simples. I wouldn't mind Campbell but would like Cary....please, pretty please!!

Into the tin, halfway along the queue and I pulled out Cary, yay....peg 80....not so yay. Matt drew a nice peg in 115 on Campbell. My peg, well it was in with 74 (good peg), 77 (in-form good peg), 78 (decent), 81 (better than 80) and 85 (worth a nice weight).
Well I had a job to do. Peg 80 is a shallow peg, probably a foot or 18" shallower than 78 to my right. It isn't the best silvers peg on the lake, maybe the worst, but fish have fins and it has produced occasional decent nets of skimmers and odd perch. Steve Long told me that it was deeper in a couple areas along the spit and could produce on the waggler (as Jason King had an upper 20lb net on a recent Pawlett match there).  For company I had Jess Jordan on p78, he had Gabe on 77 to his right. Behind me, ish, was Chris Davis on 116 and Dan Squire on 118. But really it was only Jess I could speak to.

Cary Peg 80, Viaduct

I set up a waggler, but never used it, simply because I had the wind, irregularly, blowing into my peg, so feeding would not work. Plus the light conditions were poor when the ripple was on the water.
4 pole rigs made up, all on 0.10 hooklengths and 18 hooks.
2 DT Floats pencils in 0.4g, the 1st for 2+2 for 6mm meat in front, the second was for expander or dead maggots over micro at 14m, off in the 2 o'clock direction. Also for over groundbait at the same distance directly in front.
2 DT Slims in 0.3g were also assembled, one for along the spit at 14m, where it was a few inches deeper than anywhere else in the peg, the second was for down to my left on the topkit, but this went out of the window after 15 minutes once the wind picked up and filled my left edges with leaves!! Both of these lines would be loose fed with caster and dead maggot.

At the all-in a full cup of micros went in on that line, 4 balls of groundbait and dead maggots went in on the long line in front. Some meat and loose groundbait went in short.
I started on the topkit, but after 10 minutes I had no bites. Meanwhile Jess already had a decent skimmer of a few pounds in the net.
So up along the spit and toss potting casters, this gave me a couple small roach and a 3oz skimmer, but leaves were a real problem, dragging the rig out and missed bites pretty much guaranteed me some float foliage. But I stuck with it for a while and put the odd fish in the net, only small roach and odd 3oz skimmer. Nothing of quality.

An hour in and I had maybe 1lb. A look over the micros never gave me a bite, in fact it never gave me a silver fish all match, just hooking 3 carp over the spot.
Over the short groundbait line and a few roach and small skimmers were put into the keepnet, but it wasn't quick enough and I was not getting any quality 6oz+ fish.
So out long and I was getting more skimmers than roach, but they were only 3oz versions of the 2lb ones I wanted. So I upped the feed but this made little difference. I did hook a carp out on this line, I hooked 3 from this spot during the match.
Back along the spit and it was still only small roach, odd 3oz skimmer and a solitary 4oz perch.

It was soon the halfway stage and I reckoned on 4lb in the net, it wasn't going great, but Jess wasn't getting much, he had landed a decent perch and odd decent roach, but he was mostly getting plippy roach and 3oz skimmers. Oh and he too had started hooking the odd carp.
It wasn't long after this point in the match where I hooked 6 carp, all on single dead maggot, along the spit, thankfully the hook would pull out easily enough. So I pretty much decided to abandon this spot, but cupped in a pot of caster and maggot just in case I chose to try there late on in match.
The following couple hours was mostly spent swapping between the groundbait line at 14m in front and the short meat/groundbait line. I managed mostly roach and 3oz skimmers but a couple 6-8oz skimmers over the meat line helped, but I was certain to be last in section, as expected really. The light caused by the sun and ripple was not great and seeing the float was tricky most of the time, unless it went calm

Into the last hour and with perhaps 7lb in the net, the light was awful and the leaves too were both a pain in the butt up until this point, but the last hour was relatively calm and the leaves less problematic. I had a couple looks along the spit but the roach were still there, but put any more feed in and the carp returned. I wish these roach wanted to come short as I would have been happy to catch them, but they wouldn't really move closer in numbers.
About 5 seconds before the all out I hooked a nice skimmer which was netted after the whistle and was my best fish of the day at around 1.5lb-2lb. I guessed I had around 8-9lb.
I had hooked 16 carp during the day, none on meat randomly, all of them hooked on single or double dead maggots.

The scales came and went, peg 85, Joe McMahon, had 21lb I think, peg 81, venue silvers ace Stu White had 15lb (not 9lb), I managed a level 14lb which I was pleased enough with. Jess had 11lb before Gabe had 25lb and Martin Rayet on peg 74 had around 30lb. So 5 points for me and series over realistically. But I shall try and do my best in the next 4 rounds.....especially at the draw.

Results:
1. John Fuidge - 34lb 8oz - peg 96
2. Ricky Mills - 31lb 13oz - peg 97
3. Martin Rayet - 30lb 3oz - peg 74
4. Bob Gullick - 28lb 1oz - peg 100
5. Gabe Skarba - 25lb 7oz - peg 77

The full results can be found here or on Tony Rixon's blog.
There were 17 weights over 20lb today, but a lot of carp problems, especially on Campbell where some hooked over 25 during the day.

Not sure where I am next weekend, maybe viaduct, maybe todber, maybe a pleasure day with a good mate.
Otherwise it is back to Viaduct for round 3 in a fortnight.

Until then, take care,
Lee

Viaduct Silvers League, Round 1. 01-10-17

My first attempt at this popular series at the very popular Viaduct complex, with around 50 quality anglers taking part I know it will be hard enough to come 2nd last let alone get in the top 30. So my aim is to beat one......haha

51 fish this year, spread over Campbell, Cary and Lodge lakes. With sections of 6 or 7 you need at least 3 or 4 section wins to get in the top ten I would say.
On to today, I was in the queue with fellow debutant Matt Williams chatting away and I commented I would like to be on Cary as it seems the most consistent at the moment and 10-15lb is capable from every peg I feel. I didn't want lodge I said, especially not peg 66 or 53, not the best 2 pegs at all.
So hand in tub, out comes peg 66 for me, Matt next, he pulled 53. So much for beginners luck!!

I got to my peg and the water was black with carp from 3lb up to 20lb, not just my peg but most of them, but it was worst up the end I was. Anyways I had Tom Thick across on 63 and he had Glen Calvert and Gary O'Shea to his left, but Tom was the 1st person in my 7 peg section, so really we had the rough draw. I had Dan Squire behind me and shipping back and landing net useage was a touch awkward, but we coped.
I decided against worms today after seeing all the carp, so my bait tray was casters, a few maggots and some 6mm meat along with a couple kilos of groundbait. I also had some micros with me and I was undecided on whether to use them.

P66 on Lodge Lake, Viaduct

3 rigs made, a topkit for left and right, a 0.2g DT Floats pencils. A rig, 0.3g F1/Silvers pattern for 6mm meat over groundbait at 6m in front. Lastly a 12xno11 float for 13m in front for caster/maggot over groundbait and this rig was also used off the tree to my left using maggot over micros.
All lines and laccy were 0.14>0.10 or 0.08 and middy solids in 4-6 for the edges with roach in mind and the other 2 were middy solid 5-8.

I could go into how excellent the day was for me, but it really was a hard slog for most on Lodge.
I caught the odd roach and very small skimmer on both groundbait lines, there was lots of 1/2oz roach up in the water with odd better fish but these were too small to target and the better fish swirled irregularly , but I was apprehensive on setting up a shallow rig simply die to the amount of carp in front of me.
I tried the micros line a couple of times, each time resulted in carp being hooked, so I soon knocked that on the head.
The margins never gave me a fish all day, something that I would have put down as a banker, but these days happen. So it was a matter of hoping for a decent 1lb-4lb skimmer every now and then from either of the 2 groundbait lines. This never occurred and it was mostly the odd 1-3oz roach with the very occasional 4oz skimmer.

Tom Thick opposite me was also struggling and until he managed a few decent skimmers in a 20 minute spell late on I was probably just ahead of him. The others on his bank looked like they were doing ok, but I couldn't see or hear much from my side of the lake.
I did get 3 net skimmers, maybe 8oz each in the last hour but it was not very good really and I expected me and Tom to be last 2 in our 7 peg section.

Anyways after 6hrs the all out was called and I reckoned on 4lb-ish or bits and bobs. I reckoned Tom had 9lb and the rest of that bank were into double figures to perhaps 17lb, but was hard to tell,
I packed up and waited for the scales. A quick check on a couple other guys in my section and the most anyone would admit to was 11lb, Matt Williams even packed up and didn't weigh in off 53.

Behind me on Cary, Dan and Sam Powell to his left had a great peg to peg battle and bith would hav close to 30lb each. Most people had a few bites on the lake and the weights at the end showed everyone had over 11lb, good fishing.
The scales arrived at me and Tom had weighed 9lb 2oz. My 4lb or so actually weighed 8lb 8oz so I was only a couple of my 'bumped' fish off his weight, but to be fair he bumped a couple and we both had baby roach fall off shipping back throughout the day.
I followed the scales a couple pegs and Rob Eagle had 6lb 4oz, then Nigel Easton 11lb. So I wasn't last in section, result!!

I loaded my car and had a quick update from other guys and rumour was Trig (Craig Edmunds) had won from peg 123 and Campbell with 39-something but it was close as Gary Webber (p115) also had 39lb+. Some of the guys were happy with their day and others less so, even with 17lb coming last in the 1st section on Campbell...

Results:
1. Craig Edmunds - 39lb 12oz - peg 123
2. Gary Webber - 39lb 2oz - peg 115
3. Ziggy Slowinski - 37lb 6oz - peg 126
4. Tony Rixon - 36lb 3oz - peg 94
5. Sam Powell - 35lb 8oz - peg 98
6. Chris Davis - 35lb 2oz - peg 77

In all there was 10 weights from Cary and 10 from Campbell over 20lb, good fishing. Top weight on Lodge was 17lb.

All scores and sheets can be seen on Here or probably on Mr Rixon's or Mr Nicholl's blogs at some point.
Me, well I was 4th in section, which from my draw I was pleased enough with. Maybe I could have got another point, but always 'maybe'.
Next round in a couple of weeks.

Until then, Take Care.
Lee

Catch-Up....Mid August til End of Sept

Following on from my last blog, Tony's Float match at Sedges. I have not had the time, or inclination to get back to writing a blog each week, life issues and a much needed rest from it has suited me.
But a quick round up of the last 6 weeks or more is a pointer, I hope, for me, to get back into the swing of things.

Anyways. We had a weeks family holiday down at White Acres on Bank Holiday week, I fished the 3 matches there during the week. The Monday gold match on Twin Oaks saw me pick a less-than-good peg, peg 1. I managed a few late on and just missed out on a pick-up.
The rover saw me sit on Acorn and it never really got going, I couldn't find any carp at all. I ended up 21st. But I think that only 3 or 4 half decent carp from a top 4 finish, around 15lb.
Friday's Bolingey match put me on peg 16, an ok peg, but although I had a few carp, 14 or 15 of the smallest carp the lake holds and chucked back around 60lb.

Into Sept and I fished Todber for Pawlett's Day-Out, the whole complex switched off and I drew ok in 44, no island chuck, but had a reasonably enjoyable day and 40-something pounds. Lots of bites there, nice fishing even on the less-than-good days.
The following day I guested on PSV's match at Viaduct on Campbell, I drew 132. Didn't want to fish for carp, but it is not a great silvers peg. Had 4 carp in 4 drops on 4 different rig/lines. But tried to get some decent skimmers and tench. Didn't have any tench and strung a few skimmers and roach together for 4th in the silvers. 19lb 6oz I weighed and lost a few late 'jumpers' in the last 15 minutes. Mark Radford won overall and Matt Williams won the silvers with 25lb.

A Thursday Viaduct Cost-Cutter, after a week not fishing,  saw me fish peg 99 on Cary, I went for silvers but found no quality skimmers or tench. 15lb or so of palm sized skimmers and roach was nowhere overall, but was 3rd on the lake in the silvers and missed a pick-up by 1 place.
The following day I went to Summerhayes, the wife tagged along to keep me company, but she slept...It was a silvers match, but I managed about 40 carp on the light kit. I did scrape 9lb something for again 1 out of the money (a few roach that fell off cost me).

Saturday the 23rd saw me (and Mrs) head to Todber, a slow start for carp, for most people really, saw me spend too long fishing for them throughout the day from my peg, peg 61 on Hillview. Fished for the silvers on and off, more so later on in the match. I put 16lb+ in the net and yet again 1 place off an envelope. 2nd on Hillview in the silvers. I did manage 35lb of carp as well, my 61lb was not too bad in the scheme of things.

The 24th, last Sunday, I had a Pawlett match at Viaduct. Cary and Campbell.....wanted the latter, got the former. Didn't fancy my peg, peg 85 for either a silvers or carp placing. So a day of faffing around saw me land 2 carp in the last hour, 18lb. But I put some silvers in the net on and off, between the times I tried for a carp as only 2 guys I could see were getting them. I had 23lb of roach and skimmers short and 3rd in the silvers with Cary giving the top-3 in the silvers (paid one only). Shawn Kittridge won the silvers with 31lb mostly on 6mm pellet over 4's from peg 78. The top-2 overall came from Campbell, which never gave much in the way of silvers.

So that leaves me to this point in time. After a frustrating few weeks where I haven't had my mind in the game properly, I do hope to get back into a clearer head situation and get back to my simple basics.

This Sunday sees me fishing the 1st round of Viaduct's Silvers League. I have never fished this series and it has 54 of the area's best anglers taking part and me.........My aim is to finish 54th or better!!

Until next time, take care.
Lee

Tony Rixon's Sedges Brick Lake Open, 13-8-17

A last minute decision to go fishing on Sunday as we, as a family, couldn't decide what to do, so I messaged Mr Rixon to get a spot on the match.
I enjoy Brick Lake, usually doing okay on there, not brilliant, but it is one of my favoured lakes in the region.

A natter with a few peeps, I stated I fancied 8 or 9, 12 or 13, well they are my favourite pegs on there.  Pools paid and draw commenced, John Fuidge drew 8 and I expected him to go close on the silvers pot, but it can be a good area for the carp also. Tony had peg 13 and defo expected him to go close overall. But as can be the way it goes, the corners 10, 11 and 1 would have a more than decent chance of winning.
Me I drew peg 4, it won the previous day (with 60lb) and peg 3 was 2nd and had the consistent Gary O'Shea on there. Ray Bass on peg 5.
But rarely does this lake provide the winner from the same peg 2 days in a row. I must say that I didn't fancy it, although when setting up there were fish in the area but were slowly moving up the lake with the breeze.

Peg 4 Sedges Brick Lake

I intended on basing my attack on a 2+2 line slightly to my left using groundbait and meat. Float was a DT RBS in 0.4g, awesome short meat/corn floats.
I also had a long 14, line using banded pellets shallow (DT Pellet Pinger) and on the deck (DT Tear in 0.6g), but only suffered a host of lost foul hooked fish on the deck rig, not a bite shallow.
An unused margin rig was put up. A couple specific silvers rigs, 1 for topkit, 1 for around 11m using worm over caster. I had a few roach on the topkit, not a bite on the longer line. A pellet wag and method rod were set up, remained fishless.

The match started and I lost a foul hooker on the long line but that was it, actually not a lot was happening from peg 3 up to peg 6, though Joe McMahon on 7 started well on the long pole, shallow I think. Opposite, things were just as hard as they never seemed to be getting much from peg 14 down to 19, only Matt Tomes on peg 15 catching some silvers.
Peg one and 2 had a few fish, especially peg 1 who was getting regular action up the end bank.

The day passed, for me, not just me, without too much action, just a whole bunch of lost foul hooked fish in the first 5 hours and the odd baby skimmer and roach to the meat.
Gary had a few skimmers and a handful of carp and Ray had a couple carp on paste, but was also getting foulers.
It was only the last hour when the skimmers turned up and I had 6 in 20 minutes before the carp arrived and I was getting plenty of action, mostly foul hooked but I was trying to avoid them at this point and was hoping to pull out of them should I hook them, purely as I wanted some more skimmers, but I never had any more and it was all carp in the peg I believe.

The all out sounded and I reckoned that peg 1 (Leon Hubbard), 11 (Martin Rayet) and Tony on 13 would be close to winning with the latter having a good late run on the pole and it looked close.
I packed away and went and spoke to Mr Fuidge, he had tipped back 15lb or so of silvers as his neighbour on peg 9, Jason Radford, had 20-odd pounds of silvers on small pieces of paste. I decided to weigh my silvers, which I guessed at 12-13lb. Matt Tomes had well over 20lb by all accounts from peg 15.
Anyways Leon on peg 1 had 116lb, some early and a good few late when he fed heavy, with a quieter spell in the middle. Tom Mangnall had 63-something on peg 2.  I didn't catch Gary's net, but I had 16lb something. There was quite a few dnw's and I headed home to catch the last minutes of Man Utd's 4-0 victory over West Ham.

Results:
1st - Martin Rayet from peg 11 with 135lb
2nd - Leon Hubbard, p1, 116lb
3rd - Tony Rixon, p13, 112lb
4th - Clint Wojtyla, p10, 83lb
Silvers went to Matt Tomes on peg 15 with 28lb of skimmers

I just wish the fish had turned up, well generally to be honest, only foul hooked occupying me for most of the day, but never mind, always next time out, which I don't know when or where it will be. It should have been Avalon on Sunday with Pawlett, but I haven't booked in as family plans are not set in stone.

Until then, take care and have fun.
Lee

Pawlett Silvers Final, Durleigh Reservoir. 6th August 2017

The yearly match where the 16 qualifiers, those who had topped the silvers weights in each match (even by default), have their match to become the club's Silvers Champion.
As in last year's match it was held on the local reservoir, Durleigh. A cracking piece of water of 80 acres, plenty of bream and roach, silver bream, perch and rudd, oh and a decent head of carp (don't count in this match).

As usually it was a strong line up fishing, some tidy silvers anglers. Vic Bush, John Fuidge and Eric Fouracre to name but 3, but every one of us had a chance.
Recent matches on the venue had shown that in a few weeks the bream weights had fallen somewhat since Mark Bartlett did 110lb a few weeks back. They had also been a bit patchy, but the end pegs and the point were still the better spots.
The whip weights had been a bit patchy but a few upper 20lb nets had been had. The inconsistency, in my opinion, has been due to the fact that the water level has been kept high and was several feet, a few metres in distance, higher than normal levels at this time of year.

Anyways back to the day, I had the wife with me and the weather looked somewhat better than the last time she came along (Acorn Series last match). I chatted to a couple people and paid my pools.
As for the draw, I wanted, ideally to be down in the shallows, further up the ressie, as I am more a whip angler than a feeder chucker. I fancied that end to produce more whip fish and the near end more feeder fish. I drew around 5th in the queue and peg 3 stuck to my hand, not my choice but a reasonably decent peg......for someone who likes feeder fishing, ho-hum.
Actually years ago I enjoyed it, fishing up the res, on the Huntspill and some of the local club waters. I did ok, but commies came along, I drifted away from matches and my feeder fishing became, well, obsolete almost.

I got to my peg and watched the water, hoping to see plenty of small fish topping. They weren't but the odd dimple and I saw 1 or 2 pike meant there may be some whip fish about.
I mixed up my groundbait, 2kg of Fishmeal Lake and 1kg of Sweet Fishmeal F1, plus some Sensas Roach to add weight. I wetted 2pts of micros with plenty of liquid additives for the method feeder.
I had a few pints of caster, 1/2pt maggots, a tub of worms for the hook and an array of wafters/pellets/boilies for the method hookbait. I also had 3 pints of hemp.

3 feeder rods assembled, 1 with a standard open end feeder at around 40 turns, a method feeder to fish at 70 turns and an open-ender for the same distance.
2 whips made up, a 3.5m and a 4m version. The 3.5m rig was a DT Pencil, 0.2g to fish off bottom in around 4.5ft of water (the shallows would have 2.5ft), the 4m rig was a 0.4g DT Chimp style float, this would be for on the deck. Both rigs were set on 0.14 mainline and 0.10 hooklength to a size 18 in a b611 pattern (4m rig) and b911 with a band for caster (3.5m rig).

Peg 3 at Durleigh Reservoir

For company I had Mr Bush on peg 2, Steve Fouracre on peg 1, and Mike Davis, who I couldn't see further along on peg 4.
The all in was called and a couple balls of groundbait on the whip line and a dozen or so feeders of bait on both lines, groundbait on the shorter feeder line, micros on the long line.
I began on the whip and had fish right away, but only 1oz roach and rudd. After half an hour or so I switched to the feeder as the little fish on the whip were relentless.
Vic had landed a couple skimmers on the long range method line and Steve I thing had one shorter.
20 minutes of the feeder saw only a liner for me, so back on the whip, again only 1oz fish with the odd 2 or 3oz 'bonus'. You need 3-4oz+ fish to compete on the reservoir most of the time.

I kept plugging away, spending 20 mins or so on the feeder every now and then, sometimes chucking the feeders out every minute to keep the feed going in. The whip line was still mostly little fish.
I had my 1st skimmer after 2hrs, a 2lber on the method, but it was a loner. But I felt I was maybe spending too long on the feeder without response, but the guys to my right were getting a few.
My 2nd came around an hour later, another 2lb fish on the method, but I wasn't getting indications.

So at the halfway stage I had 2 skimmers on the method and perhaps 3lb on the whip, I had hooked a couple lumpy perch on the whip but the hook pulled each time, annoying and maybe costly. But that's what you risk when fishing flick-tips, but for me the flick-tip outweighs laccy if catching well with fish to 4oz.
Vic and Steve had around 10 skimmers and bream each, so maybe 20-25lb each. I couldn't see anyone else to be accurate on what was being caught, but a couple walkers said most were struggling, so I pretty much decided to stay on the whip, only stopping to put some bait out with a few feeder full and have the odd 10 minute 'look'.

The wife's view of my peg...

I altered my feeding on the whip as it seemed the more caster I fed, the smaller the fish got, so I upped the groundbait levels and fed hemp more, only feeding caster when bites slowed.
I was swapping regularly with the shallow rig and deep rig, often coinciding with pike activity, when I had a pike in the area I would drop to the deck and I began to get better fish, mostly 4oz silver bream but the odd similar sized roach and perch too. I was even getting fish really shallow at 8 inches, but found 15" more productive with hittable bites, just the fish were strangely smaller, usually the better fish come shallowest. Vic and Steve had stopped catching and could see me catching and a few comments were forth coming, but I knew I was well behind their nets. Mike Davis though was catching netters on the whip, I could see the splashes regularly under the trees. He'd been doing well all day I believe.

90 minutes left and I needed a call of nature, so I lobbed the method out and got off the box...Back on my box it wasn't long before the tip twitched, and again, so I struck and a solid thump on the end.....
A nice bream of 4-5lb was plodding in and it was around 15m out when the poxy hook pulled....bollocks. But this happens and I don't let it get to me, but I was a touch gutted. I gave the feeder another, fishless 15 minutes. So going into the last hour of the six allotted, I had probably spent 2.5hours or more on the feeder for 2 skimmers, 1 liner and 1 lost bream.
I decided to stick with the whip for the last hour, in a bid to increase the size of fish I tried mixing my groundbait into a slop to cloud the water, last chance really.
The final 60 minutes flew by, but I saw Steve land a couple lumpy bream and a couple skimmers, so maybe 10lb. Vic had a couple and added maybe 6lb or more in that spell. There seemed no routine to how they caught during the day, it was odd to see as both are capable guys, even they said they couldn't figure it properly.
I managed to get among some silver bream and would get a fish a chuck, but the average size was a little better than the previous 5hrs. The slop worked well.  The all-out was called.

A quick glance in my net and it looked like 12-13lb maybe....well I am pants at guessing my silvers nets!!

I packed up and waited for the scales, by the time they got to me we had lots of 11lb nets and Ziggy with 28lb. Mike Davis has 32lb and then I tipped my fish on to the scales and it went 24lb 7oz.....12lb my arse (or similar) was mentioned at least once....
I knew Vic and Steve had more than me, I was expecting them to put 90lb between them on the sheet, actually Vic had 30lb and Steve 42lb. So that put me 5th on the day, and a quick glance saw me have the default section win as Steve, Mike and Vic were 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively. So that lost bream and 2 lumpy perch (plus the few bumped fish...which I can live with) possibly cost me 2nd as that would have been 8-9lb or so. But that's fishing.
Would I have caught 35lb on the whip if I hadn't bothered with the feeder? I really don't know, I would think so, but only if those better fish turned up earlier, but all ifs and buts..!!

We congratulated the winners and monies given out. I had a few chats with how their matches went and it was generally seen that the feeder was patchy and that the whip had lots of 1oz fish.
The 'also-rans' match held in tandem with the final saw a 30lb net of whip fish by Rob Dodd. But it was hard all through it seemed.

Results:
1st, Steve Fouracre, peg 1 - 42lb 10oz
2nd, Mike Davis, peg 4 - 32lb 8oz
3rd, Vic Bush, peg 2 - 30lb 4oz
4th, Ziggy Slowinski, peg 9 - 28lb 1oz (sect win)
5th, Lee Williams, peg 3 - 24lb 7oz (sect win)

Weights,,,,

Not too sure where I am next weekend, but I will no doubt find somewhere to go.

Until then, have fun.
Lee

Pawlett Match, Landsend Fishery, Lakes 2 and 3. 23rd July 2017

Well a short blog about Sunday's match, I think. But 1st I went to Summerhayes to practice paste fishing on Saturday and had a boat-load of fish, which was a bit of fun.

Anyway to Sunday. The day started fine, arrived early enough and chattered to a few people and paid my dues.
Trolley loaded and draw underway, 4 golden pegs fell with 2 on each of the lakes. I wanted to be on the Match Lake (lake 2), but there was a few 'short walks' which took up a good few of the pegs on the lake I wanted, ho hum.

So into the bucket and peg 65 was set to be my location for the day, I hate that peg with a passion,  and really contemplated putting the kit back in the car. But I made the walk up to the peg, and the rain started....I arrived and just sat and stared at the water, there was a few fish mulling around, there always is in this peg. But the reeds on the right hand side of the peg are a nightmare. 15 minutes later and I was still sat debating if to bother, but I did bother. The rain was set in and mood wasn't bright.

Peg 65, Lake 3, Landsend......effing reeds!!

4 rigs set up, a shallow pellet rig for across to the island (and anywhere I could try and mug fish), a deep pellet rig for tight to the island, where I had 2.5ft, pretty much the same as all over the peg.
A meat rig for next to the reeds and a paste rig for down the middle.

The match began and after 30 mins I had bumped a couple fish and lost a couple foul hooked carp.
My 1st fish came after an hour, a 1lb F1, soon followed by it's twin.
The next 5 hours were less than great, I landed a small 2lb carp from against the island but every carp I hooked across would take me around the reed bed and it would be game over. I tried heavy gear, light gear, shipping back quick and even trying to play them in open water, but they were not having it and would inevitably find their reed-bed-sanctuary. Even those I hooked on the furthest part of my peg to my left away from them.

Nobody, well except Neil Venning and Eric Fouracre were catching much in the scheme of things, just odd carp really.
I was getting annoyed as hell, trashing rigs and cursing the fish, the shallow water definitely put the turbo-boost into the fish. I even managed to destroy a number 4 section, ah well....
In the end I resorted to fishing topkit to my right with no.20 laccy wrapped around my hand in the hope no elastic would come out on the strike, well there were not really any strikes just thte float was there, then the elastic was in the reeds, nothing in-between.
I ended up on 0.24>0.22>14 b911x in the hope to get some fish out, well I lost maybe 25 during the day but landed 5 or 6, plus my 2 F1s for 23lb.
Luckily my DT Floats pretty much stood up to the challenge and although I had to bin them after the match, they stood up to the abuse very well indeed with each fish getting in to the reeds.
Coupled with the all day rain we had, it wasn't an enjoyable day.

I wasn't last on the lake, there were a few dnw's and a few lower nets weighed in off Lake 3, but it was Neil (p62), Eric (p61 I think) and Jamie Cook on peg 70 that caught well enough. Lake 2, the Match Lake had apparently fished better with a few 100lb nets I believe, but cannot be sure as I had gone home by the time they had started to weigh that lake. Not sure of the results.

Not sure where I am fishing next, I have Pawlett's Silvers Winners Final on Durleigh in a couple weeks, but this weekend? No idea....

Until next time, take care.
Lee

A catch-up from my last post until last weekend.

The 25th of June saw the penultimate round of the Acorn Saturday Series, again I fancied a draw up towards the near end, that of the building work and entrance, but alas I picked peg 26. Paul Nichols won the section from this peg in the last round, but this match returned to the norm.
Pegs 28 and 31 were not in and I am convinced that this played a part in my match.
5 fish in the first 30-45 minutes had a nice beginning, there were plenty of fish in the area at the start and during this spell I could see them back off to the ample space, where they remained for the rest of the day.
Brian on peg 24 picked off a few more than me, well plenty more, especially later on in the match.
I ended up with 38lb something and 5th in section.

The following week I took a last minute decision to fish Norm Sterry's open at Landsend. I only decided to as I didn't fancy being bored at home, but despite an ok draw in peg 16 I wasn't feeling enthusiastic, I had decent company on a better peg in Ken Rayner on peg 15.

Landsend peg 16

I started off ok catching a few across early on, but the day proved frustrating for most, myself included. Ken caught naff all for around 4hrs and then he caught well late on to finish 4th I think.
I caught a couple skimmers and a couple late carp on my short meat line, but the middle 5hrs wasn't great and I think I ended up better than a few, but not as good as a few with about 40-something pounds if I remember rightly. My 6lb of silvers was just out of the silvers money.
The lack of effort in not getting the 16m section of the pole out definitely cost me some fish.
Norm won the match with around 97lb from peg 7.

On the 8th of July I had an afternoon over Apex, trying to catch some silvers, mostly skimmers and odd bream. I started ok with a couple, then it went quiet before I started to catch some quality roach shallow on pellet at 13m. The sun made seeing the float tricky so I came short and caught a good few bream to 7lb (which went off jumping like a dolphin), but good sport on 4-6 elastics. I think I ended up with perhaps 14 3lb+ bream, a comfortable 15lb+ of roach/rudd and lost a few carp. Enjoyable.

The following day I was on the Canal Lake at Sedges, 23 fishing, so it was going to be hard fishing. So it proved. I pulled peg 61, not the worst but away from where I fancied, 64 and 41-46.
I had 2 carp hooked in the first minute, mugged, one came off after a couple moments, the 2nd fell off at the net.
I ended the day with a few silvers (2lb-ish) and only 4 small carp for a total of just under 15lb, which was ok on the day with lots of DNW's and low weights.
Peg 64, Rob Dodd, won, as expected, with 58lb. He caught to the point of the island and down to the end bank. The pegs in the 40's did well, relatively speaking. Kev Crouch and Nick Selway coming 2nd and 3rd with 32lb and 25lb respectively. 6lb was top silvers net. So not brilliant, but it is a challenging water at times. Plenty of fish in the lake.

Peg 61, Sedges Canal

Weights....

Now that brings me up to last weekend, 15th and 16th of July.
Saturday saw the final round of the Acorn series and I had nothing to play for overall, so it was the £80 section winning prize I had to fish for. Again I hoped for a draw at the entrance end of the lake. I went in to the bucket 2nd last, well Steve Sewell and I had the last 2 balls, the pegs left were peg 5(yes please...) and 31 (ok peg but in with the 6 bridge pegs and hasn't been great for section points).
Well I didn't get what I hoped and big Steve sat on peg 5.

I had the wife with me for company, but the weather was dire, constant heavy drizzle all day, we never bought a brolly for her (ah well....) but she had my water proofs and a little brolly. I just sat in my shorts and sandals, haha. My maggots did Houdini acts all day and my the end of the day my pellets were mush.
Still, before the match started Gabe decided he didn't want to fish his peg 26 and left, but in the process scratched his new van on some metal while reversing to let me through.

A few rigs set up, tight over pellet which would couple up as a shallow rig for down the middle, a banded pellet rig for full depth around 1m off the far bank (unused), a rig for maggot/caster at 2+2 in the 10 o'clock direction. This rig would do for corn over micros at the same distance in the 1 o'clock direction. A shallow maggot/caster rig and lastly a rig for maggots or corn down the edges both left and right.

Peg 31 Acorn Paddock

There was plenty of fish mooching around all over the lake, including between me and Ricky Mills on peg 28. But as expected it was a tricky day. I caught a couple f1's early, lost 3 foul hooked fish when fishing across, so abandoned that. Nobody, except Barry Richards on peg 24, seemed to be catching much including Nick Harvey and Glen Calvert on the bridge pegs to my left.
As the day went on I struggled a little more, caught a few small, well baby, carp and some silvers down the middle on maggot.

4pm came and I had my 1st 'proper' carp and signalled the start of a few bites, well that's what I hoped. At this point I was last in the section. There were fish in the peg, even shallow on the caster and maggot line, but I never bought enough caster to make it work properly. I managed one shallow, but didn't persevere with it as I would have ran out of bait. I then had one on the corn over the micros, but that was the only fish from there all day. So I was left with the edges, I had a topkit line each side and another line at 8m each side, luckily I managed to figure something out that avoided the foul hookers a little more and caught steadily for the last 90 minutes, but at the all out was sure I would be near last in section. My clicker said 48lb (which I thought was 35lb) plus I had maybe 5lb in my other net (silvers, baby carp and f1s) but I try to over click at Acorn due to the 70lb limit which if you go over you lose the lot, no leeway.
I guessed Barry had won as he'd caught all day, I thought Nick and Glen must have 60lb each and even Ade Crawley on peg 22 had caught some fish.

I packed up with the help of the chicken-whisperer behind me, and followed the scales.
There were some 30-50lb nets and a couple 70's and a couple 80lb nets from the straight bank before Barry put 150lb on the sheet to confirm his series win in style, 4 section wins (including 3 match wins I think) and a section 2nd, which was his dropper.
Ricky didn't weigh before I plopped 58lb on the scales, plenty more than I thought, but presumed Nick and Glen had more, but they both weighed around the 50lb mark which, if Keith Ray on peg 40 had what he said was 35lb then I would win the section. Which was confirmed a few minutes later.
So at least I picked up another £80.

So a decent 1st round, an ok second round, 3 crap rounds and draws, last round was decent. I think I ended up with 19.5 points and probably in the top half of the field.
Barry won the series, I believe Paul Nichols was 2nd in the series. But I have not seen the results in full yet. They'll appear somewhere asap.
It was a well run series, thanks to Paul and Brian.

This Sunday sees me at Landsend on lakes 2 and 3, with the Pawlett group, I think I want Lake 2 as Lake 3 fished hard in Tony Rixon's Float only match on Sunday last.
I may go somewhere Saturday, Landsend or Todber? I defo want to get down to the Dorset fishery soon. Cracking venue.

Until next time, take care and have fun.
Lee