Catch Up -- White Acres Maver Fest and Summerhaye's Winners Match

Not blogged recently for various reasons, but thought I would give a quick round up of the last few weeks.

From the 1st to the 5th of October myself and Jamie Parkhouse fished the Maver Festival down at White Acres, I was well up for this and although not expecting to do well, I hoped I could learn a few things to take into 2019 and hopefully a couple more festivals down in Cornwall. This would be only my 2nd main 5 day festival there but you never know how things can turn out.
It all started badly when I got to Exeter and remembered I had left my roller bag at home but after a bit of Facebook help and a bit of kindness from my lovely Mother-in-Law I managed to get my rollers before the festival. Thanks to my sponsor, Dean Townshend and Jonny Kirkton for their help in this.
It was also a chance to meet a few of the DT Floats lads, nice to meet you guys.

Day One, Porth. Peg 34.

P34 Porth

My favourite day of the week, I love Porth (except the walks...)
I set up a long range method rod (mistake), a short chuck feeder and a couple pole rigs where it was top 3 plus a short 4 deep from 5m out to 14.5m.
I fed a couple balls of groundbait at 6m and half a dozen at 14m at the start before beginning short where I put a couple pounds in the net in the first half hour, it then went a bit quiet before the odd spurt of fish here and there on the pole and short feeder kept me ticking over in the first 2hrs of the match.
A dead 2hrs didn't help before I finished quite well catching a few skimmers on the long line.
I gave the method 3 spells of 20mins or so during the day for nothing, which I knew would happen but Jamie called me and said to try it as he had a couple bream on his.
My 11lb 10oz was 3rd in section, 4oz behind second and Andy Power won the section with 15lb, so I would like to think that 2nd was definitely in grasp and I could have go closer to Andy.
The lake fished well with several 30lb+ nets and a few mid 20s from the far side.

Day Two, Bolingey. Peg 8.

P8 Bolingey

I don't seem to draw on the smaller lake or the right hand arm here but tend to get in the deeper area of the back lake. So I wasn't shocked to see that same area in my mitt at the draw as it hadn't been a good area (6 to 10) for a while pre-festival and the other pegs in my section seemed better. But fish have fins.
I set up a method to the island, an edge rig for both margins (no signs of fish all day...) a deep pellet and shallow pellet rig for 14m in front and lastly a meat rig for 2+2 in two spots feeding differently.
I had Adrian Clark next to me on peg 7 so a bit of decent company.
I began on the topkit hoping for a quick carp or 2, but other than a couple missed bites (roach/carassio?) nothing was forth coming. So I tried the method to the island and soon and lost my 1st fish to a snag around 6ft off the island. A couple did follow and were netted ok.
The match was hard over our side and a lot of fish seemed foul hooked and fish losses were not uncommon.
Well I managed no fish shallow, no fish on the deep pellet but a few on meat and a few on the method to give me 81lb to Adrian's 73lb. This was worth 4th section, decent enough, but not as good as those along the back bank which had been decent.

Day Three, Pollawyn. Peg 21.

P21 Pollawyn

A good peg at times (as proved on the last couple of days and in the following Preston Fest) but it struggled on the first 2 days of the Maver with 6th in section the best it did.
I tried over to the island for 1 roach and 1 small ghost f1, but ended up catching skimmers, barbel, rudd, perch, crucians and odd small f1 mostly at 11m on worm over groundbait, I probably fed too much in hindsight.
No carp hooked in the mouth down my right edge, just one lost and one lost on the silvers rig, both foul hooked.
A few roach short and a couple barbel and skimmers on meat late gave me all of 18lb for section 6th, 23lb was worth a couple or 3 more points which was within grasp should I have stuck with the skimmers etc....but 90 mins spent carp chasing was a bad choice.

Day Four, Trewaters. Peg 37.

P37 Trewaters

This peg won the lake the first couple days, but I am not in the class of Callum Dicks etc, but the Wednesday it only gave 17lb and peg 39 won and the pegs further up did better.
Anyways I began short on pellet for a 1st drop carassio. That was it for the opening hour, but a couple carp from there at the start of the 2nd hour was good in comparison to others on my lake.
It then died and during the day I picked up only 1 carp on the long pole just off the island, 1 on the meat line, nothing down my edges (again spent too long chasing fish not there towards the end), but managed to get a few on the feeder and I was winning the lake with 15 mins to go, then Jon Arthur and the guy opposite me had 4 and 5 carp respectively on their pellet feeders to push me down to 3rd. I had 36lb, Jon 39lb and the lad across 49lb, so a 3rd, not a disaster. But a few things learned for sure.

Day Five, Trelawny. Peg 8.

P8 Trelawny

I wanted to be on Twin Oaks which is in with Trelawny, although I like Trelawny I seem to struggle as F1 fishing is something I just don't do.
Anyways I had fished this peg on the Sunday after I arrived (and several times over the years in hols),
I struggled then but caught some silvers and odd F1 while Jamie did a bit better using worms as opposed to my pellet and casters attack.
I set up a feeder, nowt on this. A shallow pellet rig (DT Pinger) for 14m, a shallow caster rig (DT Skittle) for 2+2, a deck rig for worm/caster and one for pellets on the deck to fish under the relevant shallow lines. A margin rig for both sides.....again used far too much for only a couple skimmers and one lost foul hooked carp.
The first hour was slow then I had a good couple hours catching F1s on the pellet long, I couldn't get anything but odd roach short on casters. It then died a dead so I faffed around trying to winkle out a few extra fish and hope for a proper carp. It didn't happen and I ended the match catching small F1s.
My 30lb was 5lb or so short of section 4th, instead I was ounced down to 7th. Andy Power won the section and lake with 157lb I think, brilliant to watch.
Again a few mistakes made, I should have taken meat as there were some carp caught on this bait all over the lake. Also I spent too long chasing lumps down my edges instead of keeping on doing what I was doing, but I figured I needed a couple of lumps to get top 3 in section.

I finished the week in 79th, not so bad but a couple better results would have pushed me further up the charts. I hope to rectify this next time I am there.
On the plus side I beat Jamie on both weight and position, I ended up 10lb or so and 23 places better off than my caravan buddy.

Last Sunday was the Summerhayes Winners match, with some decent money to go at I was hoping for a good day.
Anyway I will cut it ultra short, I had a mare of a day, drew 34, which was not near my favoured area and with Chris Boulton on 36 where he had won the week previous it looked like a neck ache day. Indeed it was as Chris won with 120lb, there were a couple 60lb+ nets filling the last two money places. So well done Chris and the others.
My match wasn't fun, I wanted to go home after an hour. I managed to snag my top 4 in the reeds, but got it back thanks to my cupping kit and jiggery pokery.
I lost a few fish off the hook by rushing and managed to lose a whole feeder set up when reeling in, the connector had come undone!!
But I did put 30lb on the scales as I stayed to weigh in. To my right Gareth Lennox tipped back a similar amount and Jack Billet went home with over an hour left, it had fished hard probably due to the amount of rain the day before.

Next up is Summerhaye's Silvers Winners Match this Sunday, I hope that goes better but there are some tidy silvers anglers fishing it so I will have to try my hardest....lol

Until then, take care.
Lee

PSV Match, Viaduct Cary 9-9-18

Before I get on to Sunday's match I will give a quick recap of the couple of matches I have fished but not blogged about since my last post.
I fished the penultimate match of the Float Only Series which was at Sedges, I drew p35. Umm so-so in a float only match. Well the match was hard all over but I started well with a handful of fish shallow on the pole, losing a couple which may have been foul hooked, but gradually the wind changed and I struggled for the remainder of the match to finish with 35lb which was last in the 5 peg section but not last on the day.
Then I fished a Thursday open at Viaduct across Campbell and Cary. I fancied fishing for silvers but drew peg 80 but I still set my stall out in the main for silvers.
I managed to land a few carp, of which one was fished for. But I had a decent 2.5 to 3hrs at the start of the match before things died for me. Thankfully I put 22lb on the scales which was top silvers weight off Cary but beaten by a couple of nets from Campbell for 3rd on the day.

Since those matches I had a lovely family holiday in Turkey, the sea was warmer than the hotel pools and the fish in the sea like to have a munch on your dry skin, scabs and any abrasions, so when I stayed sill in the water I would get nipped, they didn't hurt, more of a surprise. Myself and daughter mostly spent ages feeding the small fish bread which was cool. Also drank and ate too much but randomly had loads of early nights and plenty of sleep which is unlike me. But very nice to get away.

Right I digress, back to Sunday, I was going to go to Summerhayes as me and the missus had plans Saturday night and didn't know if I would be in decent shape to fish. But on Friday Steve Burgess asked if I wanted to guest with the PSV bunch on Cary. After a day thinking about it I agreed.
I got there in plenty of time for the 9am draw and had a chat with a few of the guys, I haven't seen a few of them for bloody ages so it was good to speak.
Into the draw and I wait for towards the end of the queue and I plucked 105, before Mr Burgess found himself on 102. Not the area I fancied as it has been patchy there and with the wind pushing up towards the top corner and pegs 88 to 90 would have been my preference. But none the less I would crack on and see what I could catch. Oh and John Bradford who only fished for silvers drew p80 and wasn't going to fish it but in the end he did.

Peg 105 Cary, Viaduct

I didn't have much in the way of bait for the silvers, only some micros and expanders plus perhaps 20 worms so I only set up one rig which remained untouched all day.
Other rigs for the day was the obligatory lead rod for 8mm pellet.
A shallow pellet rig and depth pellet rig to fish between 14 and 16m in front. I used a DT Pinger for the shallow set up and a DT RBS open in 0.4g for on the deck, hooks were B911 size 16 and 0.16 hooklength.
A rig to fish meat at 6m was put up along with a rig to fish to empty peg 106 using a DT Margin Diamond. this rig went untouched.
Baits were 6mm and 8mm pellets and 8mm meat, so nice and simple.

At the all in I fed some micros and expanders for the silvers, the only time I put bait out for them.
I fired some pellets out to about 25m for the lead and began on the short meat line hoping for an early mug fish, but other than losing 3 foul hookers (scales returned) I had 2 bites I missed that was my first 45 minutes done with. Matt Williams on p74 also lost a couple foul hooked carp early before switching to silvers bashing.
All the while I had been pinging 6mm pellets on the long pole line but oddly there had not been a sign of fish, usually there would be some fizzing and perhaps the odd swirl. But nothing.
So I chucked the lead out and gave that 10 minutes before I got bored.

Out with pellet on the deck and I missed a couple half hearted bites, maybe liners, but I thought I would try a little longer on the deck before trying shallow. I then managed two carp in as many drops on the deck and that was 18lb in the net after 90 minutes, I think only 1 carp had been had elsewhere at this point. But I began getting iffy indications again and tried the shallow rig at various depths before I caught another fish around 13lb fishing around 10 inches deep (shallow?).
Just before the 2hr mark arrived I chucked the lead out and managed one after 5 minutes to push me up to 40lb on the clicker...… and then it went dead so I wandered to see Steve on 102, he only had small silvers and Adam Caswell was just netting his 1st fish of the day in the form of a skimmer off peg 100. Steve said nobody had much.

Back to my peg and around 90 minutes passed before I landed anymore fish. I did lose one on the lead in that time but it had became entangled in another carp trailing line and inevitably my carp was lost. But 2 quick shallow fish helped me along and 3 skimmers on the meat line saw the 4th hour pass ok enough. My clicker said 55lb and I was onto my next net.
The 5th hour was ok with a couple more carp on the shallow rig, I had to feed heavy and leave a few minutes before swinging the rig in where the feed went to get any indications. The deep rig just sat still.
It looked like I was doing ok, only young Ross Sewell on peg 77 was getting the odd carp now, but I did expect the top bank to have had a few by now.

The last 60 minutes were upon us and I was starting to see a few fish up towards peg 109, out of sensible (or unreasonable?) casting range, I just hoped a few would venture up, which luckily one or two did and I mugged a couple as they swam by.
A look on the meat line gave me a couple indications but I only caught a decent set of branches which screwed all change of me catching here really.
Randomly I fired a pouch of 8mm pellets down by peg 106 and in the last 20 minutes I caught 3 fish on the lead just off the platform, the 3rd of which I netted on the whistle and went in the 3rd net.
My clickers showed 55lb, 60lb and that last one which was perhaps 7lb. Plus my 3 skimmers (3lb). I reckoned on 125lb.

I packed up most of my kit and waited for Steve Long to come and begin the weigh in.
When he arrived he said the water temps had dropped considerably in the last 5 days and the lakes had generally slowed, with just the odd 'big' weight.
Anyways my last fish was just over 8lb and my other 2 nets were actually well clicked boosting my carp catch to 125lb, coupled with my 3lb of silvers I had 128-07 in total. 12 carp and 3 skimmers.

Steve Burgess had 14lb of  'eyes' before the scales moved onwards. He said I could win with my weight as he hadn't seen anyone catch too much.
I loaded my kit in the car in 3 trips as it was a short-ish walk. Before catching up with the results, Alan Healey said Will Dearlove had done well and I believed him when he said he had 4 carp nets in. So I was likely to be second.
Actually Alan had wound me up and it turned out I had won on the day ahead of Will's 77-01 net.
John Bradford won the silvers from peg 80, the bigger skimmers/bream/tench hadn't really fed and he had 15lb 8.5oz, Steve Sewell had half an ounce less!!

Results:

1. Lee Williams (105) 128-7
2. Will Dearlove (90) 77-1
3. Ryan Radford (87) 60-5
4. Ross Sewell (77) 54-5
5. Alan Healey (98) 50-9
6. Lee Waller (81) 43-5
7. Adam Caswell (100) 35-5

Silvers:
1. John Bradford (80) 15-8½
2. Steve Sewell (96) 15-8
3. Matt Williams (74) 15-1
4. Steve Burgess (102) 14-0

So a pretty decent day results wise, but 12 carp and 3 skimmers landed, 3 lost foul hooked carp and 1 carp lost to a fishing trailing line, it wasn't hectic with plenty of quiet times. But happy none the less.

Next up for me is Avalon on the 23rd with Pawlett, no fishing this weekend as me and the wife are off for a '48hr Party' with a 90's theme at Pontins for a laugh.

Plus I need to get a little prep done for the Maver Festival at White Acres in 3 weeks of so...

Until then, take care and have fun.
Lee

Pops Charity Pairs Match, The Sedges. 12-8-18

I managed to get a partner in the shape of Mark Leader a few days before the match, luckily we bagged the last of the 20 places (40 anglers, 20 pairs).
In the few days leading up to the day we had seen a drop in temperatures and even some of the wet stuff had fallen, and with the wife due to come along on the day it was expected to be damp most of the day.

I arrived in plenty of time, well that's a lie, I would have arrived in plenty of time but the staff in McDonalds managed to take 15 minutes in getting a couple Sausage and Egg McMuffins together.
But I arrived, paid my dues and said hello to most of those fishing.
I got Mark to draw as he had won the midweek open on Brick Lake with 167lb. he came back towards the end of the queue with pegs 14 and 22, not the best draw but okay enough. Mark chose to go on Brick so I trotted back to my car and drove it 20 yards to my peg to unload the kit, bonus.

No silvers rigs were assembled even though there was a prize for top silvers on each lake.
My tackle assortment was as such:
A method feeder to fish towards the island and over my pole line.
A shallow slapping/mugging rig using a 0.2g DT Pinger.
A DT float's Big D for my 2 edges but I never really got to give that a proper try.
Lastly a couple DT RBS opens, one for meat at 6m and the other for banded pellets under the shallow line at 14.5/16m.
Bait was micros for the feeder, 6mm and 8mm pellets plus some meat and groundbait.

For company I had Ziggy Slowinski on peg 23 and probably the person most likely to win on peg 21, fishery owner Jamie Cook.
It was still raining at the all in and within a few seconds of Jamie chucking his feeder out he had fishes back out of the water in numbers where he was casting, hmmmm.
Me, I started shallow after feeding my peg and it was a good 20 minutes before I had my 1st carp which actually came on my 1st drop on the depth rig, at 8lb it was an ok start. I then had a skimmer before all indications stopped.
A quick look on the meat line gave nothing, a few more looks shallow gave me no response, the fish were there but seemed more interested in swimming around quickly.
So after 90 minutes I was still on one carp well behind Jamie and from what I could see Eric on 38 was getting a few.

I lobbed the method over the pole line and within minutes I had carp number 2 in the net, but it was a false dawn even the liners had stopped. So I reluctantly chucked the feeder to the island where I pretty much spent the rest of the match baring a few looks on each of the pole lines.
I would get a couple fish in quick succession before it went quiet, I actually went over an hour at one point without a carp. But I persevered and managed to catch 4 carp on the shallow rig, there was no consistency in that though,  I had no more on the depth pellet rig and only a skimmer on the meat with 10 minutes to go.
I had one fish I weighed that was 13lb and a few ounces but at the all out I had clicked 69lb on one clicker and 44lb on the second plus 3 skimmers.
I reckoned Jamie had around 200lb as I had told the wife, he had 3 nets in and he usually puts 60lb in each and is very rarely out on his estimates. Eric Fouracres on peg 38 had a good last couple hours and had more than me, maybe 150lb. But everyone else, except Ziggy who had struggled on peg 23, I could not see.

I packed up my kit and followed the weigh in on Tile, helping out with the sums should Nigel Hull need it. Starting with Jamie, who said he clicked 199lb,  after a few weighs and he had 200lb 1oz. Not likely to be beaten.
Me next and my estimates were not far out with 13lb 4oz weigher, 3lb 11oz for my 3 skimmers and then 110lb 15oz across my 2 carp nets totalled me up to 127lb 14oz. Not too shabby, and a day where my smallest fish was around the 6lb mark.
Ziggy had a hard day and weighed 26lb, then other than Keith Bilder who had 152lb 8oz, the rest weighed in the 40lb to 60lb region.(
The pegs down the causeway fared a bit better with 5 of the 10 anglers having 100lb+ (plus a 97lb net) culminating in Eric on peg 38 weighing 154lb 2oz.

Overall I finished up 5th in the match and on the lake as Brick was hard going with Mark struggling on peg 14 with 15lb and the lake was won with 73lb 14oz from peg 11 ahead of a level 73lb and then a 57lb.  Top silvers on each lake was 25/26lb. As a pair Mark and I were equal 6th.

Results:
Brick Lake, 
1st Jack Arpino 73lb 14oz peg 11
2nd Phil Wilkins 73lb peg 6
3rd John Fuidge 57lb 2oz peg 13

Tile Lake,

1st Jamie Cook 200lb 1oz peg 21

2nd Eric Fouracres 154lb 2oz peg 38

3rd Keith Bilder 152lb 8oz peg 25

Pairs Overall 

1st Jack Arpino and Keith Bilder 4 points 226lb 2oz

2nd Jamie Cook and Phil Clapp 6 points 244lb 1oz
3rd Phil Wilkins and Nick Baggot 6 points 215lb 7oz

£220 was raised for St. Margarets Hospice, which was great.

Next week it is the next round of Tony's Float Only series, back at Sedges, so not an early start.

Until then, take care.
Lee

Pawlett Match, Viaduct Campbell and Cary. 5-8-18

A quick write up for this as struggling to find time to keep up with blogs this school hols.
Well a dry and sunny day was in store, possibly the warmest of the year thus far, 27 of us spread across the 2 lakes, so a bit of room for most. I was feeling the worst for wear due to a 'cold' and lack of sleep....etc
I would like to be on Campbell I thought to myself, or at worst the car park end of Cary where the better weights had been coming out from. Well into the draw and out pops peg 81, left hand side of the spit on Cary, it had been one of the quieter pegs in the previous couple of weeks, but 80 had been rather decent, they obviously didn't want to venture into the shadier side. I did hope this had changed.

The golden peg was 110 and would be a good bet to get taken, more so when Jamie Cook pulled it out, he knows how to catch a carp or 2. For company I had Derek Beards on peg 80 but couldn't see him, I had Tom Mangnall over on peg 85 and behind me I had Mark Hembery and Mark Bellringer both on Campbell.

I set up a lead rod for chucking around the peg.
A short meat rig for in front at 2+2.
A shallow mugging/slapping rig.
A rig for against the spit at 16m using banded pellets.
Lastly a depth pellet rig would be ok for 16m in front and down to the monk to my left.

The 1st hour gave me a grand total of 5 small palm sized skimmers on the meat.
There were loads of fish showing between me and Tom, but he also had not caught.
The next 2 hours gave me 3 carp, 2 on the meat and one shallow. But it did seem as this end of the lake was tricky, Tom was on 3 carp, Mike West over on 94 was on 3 also but rumour had it the other end was doing good and Derek on p80 too was doing well.
Not much happened in the 5th hour but a couple lost fish when trying the lead and pole down towards peg 82 were my reward along with a healthy helping of lost fish and snags possibly why they seemed happy down there, and in the sun....My clicker was on 30lb.
Into the last hour and I began to get action in my meat line, skimmers and carp and I managed to put about 15lb of silvers in the net and approx. 60lb of carp, they had come in a touch too late, well 4hrs too late.

The all out was called and I knew I had come nowhere, Mr West looked he had done well but me and Tom had struggled. My clickers showed 52lb and 37lb plus I guess I had maybe 15lb of skimmers, so I decided I was too tired to wait to be weighed in and tipped them back.
I had heard Jamie on 110 reckoned he had 300lb and a few guys reckoned on around 180lb.

I got my car loaded and chatted to a few guys before heading on home.

Results:
1st Jamie Cook, peg 110. 311lb
2nd Keith Clapp, peg 125. 205lb 14oz
3rd Phil Clapp, peg 105. 177lb 8oz
Then 4 weights circa 160lb

Silvers:
1st Phil Dodd, peg 78. 43lb 14oz (little feeder, micros and dead reds)
2nd Kev Locke, peg 123, 29lb 14oz

Next up for me was the Charity Pairs match at The Sedges with my partner Mark Leader.

Until then, take care.
Lee

Float Only Round 4, Shiplate (all lakes), 22/07/18

A cracking day weather wise was set for this round of Tony's Float Only League. It was going to be hot for some, especially those on Westpool and maybe those on the early pegs on the Main Lake.
Shiplate is a cracking fishery and definitely worth a visit if you have not ventured there.

40 people fishing, so 8 sections of 5, 2 each on Hawthorns and Westpool, 1 on Squircle and 3 on the Main Lake.
I loaded the trolley once I had arrived, which I did with 45 mins to draw time but with only the Main Lake requiring running line as a viable option I chose not to load those until after I had drawn.
Nothing in the league for me to fish for so it was a day just to try and have some fishing and perhaps pick up some coin.
As for where I fancied, I kind of wanted Squircle as there are loads of small carp and ornamental fish to catch with the odd 4lb bonus, so loads of bites and comes across as a lake for a bit of a fun day, not likely to frame unless the other fished rock hard, and never going to get the silvers from this little lake.
Other than that, Westpool around peg 7, Hawthorns somewhere from 10 to 13. The match record on the Main Lake was upped in Saturday by Tom Thick who had 320lb but a good few of his fish came to the method feeder and the rest down his edges, he was on 12a I believe. I would be happy on pretty much any peg on the Main Lake, but 1 and 15 are seen as flyers but 2 to 7 haven't been shabby either.

Into the draw and I was midway down the rabble, pegs 1 and 15 on Hawthorns were draw and Ron Hardiman drew peg 1 on Westpool before I plucked Main Lake peg 15, good peg that, and possibly the 6th time I have been sat on there, varying results for me from it over the time though from wins to silvers wins to real struggles when the wind has blown down the lake. But should be worth some fish.
Jack Billet drew peg 1 on his 1st visit to the venue, another flyer into his sticky paws.
Behind me I had Tony Rixon on Westpool p15, a good peg and would be hard to beat on that lake at least. I couldn't see anyone else enough to converse.

A long walk round to my peg, which is always made better by knowing the walk leads to decent peg.
A lot of foliage has grown since my last visit, it really does look nice there.
I set about sorting my kit and bait for the day, half of which were pretty irrelevant on the day.
A pellet wag, ideally to cast towards the end bank but trees sort of limited that, so 2 casts all day were made.
I had a line at 13 in front for pellets up and down in the water, the shallow had my trusty DT Pinger and the deck rig used a DT RBS Open, I never had a bit on the deck rig so no more on that.
Next line was 13m down to my left which can be good, a little shallower there so another rig made for there on the deck, no bites on that all day so no more on that. None shallow here either, so no more on that area.
A 'girly' meat line at 7m in front as I fancied some tench and skimmers to show here especially feeding small feed baits in hemp (groundbait or micros may have worked), so a light elastic and hooklength used. Lastly an edge rig for 2+1 to my left  where it was too deep for groundbait I think so it was a corn/meat combo there.

I had worms, maggots both live and dead and some casters in the bag, they stayed there. So it was a tin of corn, a couple large tins of hemp, some 8mm meat and 6 & 8mm pellets.
I was ready in plenty of time so I watched the water and to be fair there seemed a few fish in the area and well spread between me and Jack over on peg 1. But there did seem to be more down to my left around peg 13 and 12 I think.

Shiplate Main Lake peg 15

At the all in I began shallow in front before feeding any other lines and work from there.
I had a small 3lber after 10 mins but that was it so I cupped a big pot of meat and hemp on that line and a big pot of 6mm pellets on both 13m pellet lines before it was back out shallow.
It was slow going despite seeing fish all over my peg, some looked muggable but were not having it but I did pick a few up doing this, mostly close in for a change, I also had a few 'proper shallow' at 13m in front and found that feeding heavy was best.
Elsewhere I could see Glen Bailey over on p5 and Westy on 7 catching a few, on paste no doubt. And Tony behind me was getting regular action. Jack had started slow and then had a little spurt of fish to get back close to my weight.

At the 3.5hr stage my clickers said 54lb in my 1st net and my 2nd net was on 18lb, all shallow and mugged fish. I did have a handful of 10oz skimmers on the meat line when I gave it 15 minutes, but at the time it didn't seem right so had refed another pot of hemp and meat.
The fish on the surface and in the upper layers in general had gone and I could see more fish getting caught down the lake on the far side, nobody looked like they were shallow fishing, paste fishing I would guess.
So with about 2.5hrs left I came in on the meat line and pretty much stayed on that for the remainder of the match. I was getting plenty of skimmers around 8-10oz mark, I think I ended up with 50 plus 3 small tench and 4 roach, so 25lb or so I guestimated.
Thankfully I was getting regular carp action too on the meat, most around the 6 to 7lb mark, they don't half fight well there. With 30 mins left I put a 3rd carp net in as my 2nd clicker was on 56lb plus bites had slowed so I tried down my left edge but it never really happened, I lost a couple foul hookers, one well over 20lb and was only lightly hooked in the pec and the hook pulled. I did get a nice 4oz carp followed by a 4lber and a last gasp 10lber which I landed after the whistle.

I packed most of my kit up before owner Steve and accomplices arrived to do out weigh in, my clickers showed 54lb, 56lb and 14lb plus I had my 'accidently on purpose' silvers which was around 25lb by pure guesswork.
Well my silvers actually weighed 32-14 which was a good start, then 6 weighs later my carp upped that to a level 177lb total. I was well pleased....oh and my 1st two nets weighed 65lb each, so I was bit out but nor loads.
I didn't follow the scales initially as I went on the walk back to the car and loaded that up before a chat with a few guys, Jason Radford packed up after a couple hours having broke a number 6 section, should have fish on matey....a few guys were admitting to 130lb including Dave Romain on peg 3 and Glen Bailey on 7 said he had a bit more than that. Gabe on peg 2 had cracking day and admitted to 150lb but had lost at least that, but I wasn't having any of it, he had 4 carp nets in and he likes to put 60lb in each so even on the basis of the 4th net having not much in I reckoned he had at least 180lb as he said he had 15lb of silvers.
By the time I got to the scales to watch there was a couple 150lb+ weights including Glenn on p7.
Dave Romain was spot on with his weight as he had 130lb plus silvers to give him 134-01.
Gabe was next and it was obvious he had won and several weighs confirmed that with 216lb so well done him, he had lost just as many by all accounts too.
Jack on peg 1 had 100lb.
The fishery had fished it's tits off with plenty of 100lb+ weights including 4 over 150lb and 13+ over 100lb.
Result of the day could be pointed at Ryan Shipp who had over 100lb from Squircle, that is plenty of bites and a new lake match record.

So I had come second and topped the silvers to boot which I was most pleased with, a really enjoyable day all round. I only came 2nd in section though, lol.

Results:
1st, Gabe Skarba, 216-08. peg 2 main
2nd, Lee Williams, 177-00, p15 main
3rd, Shaun Townsend, 156-12, p13 hawthorn
4th, Glen Bailey, 155-04, p7 main
Silvers:
1st, Lee Williams, 32-14, p15m
2nd, Dave Lewis, 21-04, p13m
3rd, Paul Faires, 16-00, westpool peg?

For most of the weigh sheets and a run down from Tony Rixon take a peek at his blog

No matches planned for next weekend as it stands.
Until then stay safe and enjoy the sun.
Lee

SWS/Haines Angling, Sedges 8th July 2018

It was due to be Durleigh on Sunday for the match that runs alongside the Silvers' Final at the venue, but I thought it was full as space was limited so managed to book into the SWS/Haines league match at Sedges as a stand-in.

I got to a rather full car park in plenty of time for the draw and said a few hi's and hello's to some before loading the trolley and waiting to crack on with the draw.
I wanted to be on Tile rather than my favoured Brick, just, if anything, to see if I can amend my 'clicking' after the numptiness of my last visit.

I paid my pools and waited in the queue for my turn to nab a ball from the basket, I got in after Mark Leader and pulled my favourite peg on the complex, peg 8, I was happy enough as it is a consistent area. For company I had Chris Haines on peg 7. Peg 10 wasn't drawn so I fancied whoever was on 9 to do well for sure.
There were loads of fish all over the lakes before the match began, they sort of vanished as expected with the commotion but a few remained as all of us were expecting a good day's sport.

I set up method feeder (not used), a pellet wag, a shallow pellet rig using my standard DT 0.1g Pinger. A silvers rig for 11m, a meat rig for 2+2 and a paste rig for over my shallow line around 16m out. Also an edge rig which remained unused.
Bait sorted, mostly 6 and 8mm pellets and meat but I had casters, dead reds and some paste. Mixed up some groundbait too.

Brick peg 8

It was bloody hot and expected to be over 30 degrees, lovely.
At the all in I started by feeding the various areas of my peg and started in the wag for 10 mins, nothing forthcoming. So on to the silvers line, 2 bites, 2 foul hooked carp, enough of that, I did not expect the skimmers to play ball in the sun and heat so I threw my silvers bait away just to save myself from picking it up again.
Out on the shallow pellet rig, a few slaps and nothing so I tried paste (I don't do paste and I seriously need to practice it to be fair). A couple missed 'bites' before I managed my 1 and only fish on this rig, a 5lber to finish off the opening hour.

The next 4.5hrs was pretty much hard going with just the odd fish getting caught all round. Actually I was doing ok up to a couple hours from the all out when I began to lose interest and my efforts all but vanished, maybe it was the heat and sun along with Chris on peg 7 doing well for most of the day fishing a simple pellet wag match, he had defo had the most on Brick Lake. I just couldn't get anything to work consistently, it would be a single fish here and a single fish there either on the wag or shallow on the pole.
My final 2hrs gave me the square root of nothing. My clickers were on 60lb and 6lb which was 9 fish and 1 fish respectively.
I reckoned Chris had around 125lb, so a decent tally for him,

At the all out I packed up then had a chat with a few guys, Brick had been hard and Tile had not fished as expected and a few struggled.
I loaded the car and managed to catch up with the scales that were working their way along the causeway pegs.
It was soon my turn and I managed to keep my clicking close with a total of 68lb.
I saw Chris weigh and he had 124lb 8oz and probably won the lake.
Tile fished hard-ish and Mark Leader had 106lb which included the top silvers on the day of only 12lb (7lb was 2nd best), maybe I should have fished for silvers, lol.
Someone had 108lb in a net and therefore fell fate to losing that net and his weight ended up as 2lb or so, unlucky.
On Brick we got down to Dave White on peg one, he said he had 13 carp, I guessed around 80lb for that. Well he totalled 73lb, so 1 fish ahead of me. There was a 19lb and 17lb carp weighed in the match too which boosted a couple guy's weights on the day.
The pegs 21 to 30 had been hard and Steve Martin was best with 91lb from that bank.

I waited around for the giving of monies and was happy enough to get my money back with a default 2nd in section behind Chris and Dave. I was 6th-ish overall on the day. Not so bad.
I really should have chucked the feeder out a couple of times for sure, but that's hindsight, maybe I should have set a depth pellet rig up, but I didn't and to be fair I never saw many guys catch in the deck during the day. I should have, however, put more effort in during that last 2hrs, I would have picked up at least another place, but unlikely to have caught 125lb.

RESULTS:

1st, Chris Haines. 124lb Brick peg 7
2nd, Mark Leader. 106lb (top silvers also at 12lb) Tile peg 35 or 36 (I think)

Section 1 Brick pegs 1-10
David White. 73lb
Lee Williams. 68lb

Section 2 Tile pegs 31-40
Nigel Reeves. 77lb
Jamie Smith. 67lb

Section 3 Tile pegs 21-30
Steve Martin. 91lb
Steve Musitano.  68lb

No idea where I am this weekend.
So until next time take care
Lee

Todber Manor, Float Only League, 3rd round, 01-07-18

Down to this lovely venue in Dorset for Tony's Float Only league, the 3rd round and plenty of bites expected.
The weather was, apparently, expected to provide some storms, but as it turned out the temps never got to the levels expected, the breeze kept us cool and we only had a few minutes of heavy drizzle rather than rain.
A full 40 fishing, 15 on Homeground, which would be my preferred lake and Hillview for 25 anglers.  I arrived early with Shawn Kittridge in tow as he followed me on the drives to and from the fishery, but we made it in record time so plenty of time to browse the shop and have a natter before the draw was to be made.

On to the draw, I would be drawn against the Trig (aka Craig Edmunds) for the knockout, so that would be me out baring a miracle or some glaring misfortune by the in-form man himself....#clutchingstraws Anyways into the bucket and peg 79 on Homeground was my peg, a good feeder peg by reputation... but as is the case on this fishery bites should be had.
For company I had Adrian Jeffery on peg 80 (last peg in section) and he had Trig next to him on corner peg 81, he had Dan White in front/left of him on 82, so some fish would likely get caught from that end bank.
To my right I had Neil Mercer for the second match running, then Tony Rixon on peg 77, then up in the corner on peg 76 was Beaver (Paul Elmes), so a tough section, well actually there wont be an 'easy' section on this league such is the quality of angler fishing. But I am happy to always try and beat one in section each round.

At my peg I mixed some groundbait for the silvers, covered the meat and casters in water and cracked open a tin of hemp. Other than that I had a few maggots which went unused and the obligatory 8 and 6mm pellets.
On to rigs, well I guess most of you will have figured what floats I used for 99 percent of my fishing, all DT Floats patterns. A 0.1g Pinger float for shallow fishing at 14m for 6 and 8mm pellets.
A F1/Silvers for silvers at 2+1, which only got wet once.
A couple of RBS Open Waters for pellet on the deck and for my 2+2 meat line.
Lastly my edge float was a Margin Diamond, which I find spot on for shallow edges under 2ft deep and using smallish baits.
I set up a waggler, but the wind was wrong and I only had a couple casts on it for no reason really.

Peg 79, Todber Homeground

On to the match, well I would love to go into depth on things really but the venue is such that I cant see how you can fail to get bites on pretty much any bait and any tactic.
Simply it started slow for me and Adrian next door and after an hour it was obvious we would be battling to see who comes last in section.
I began by feeding my silvers line with a couple decent helpings of caster laced groundbait, I fed a pot of meat and hemp on that line and starting to ping a few pellets out at 14m.
Starting on the meat I had a couple skimmers and a tench then a small carp of 2lb. Then it went patchy, so a look on the silvers line and it was small perch and a roach, but just as slow there so I abandoned any idea of fishing for the silvers properly.
Out on the deck at 14m with a 6mm in the band and I foul hooked a couple which came off, so shallow it was, a nice ripple....yep that'll do....nope, it won't, I picked up a handful of small fish over an hour or so, but the guys to my right were catching more quickly than me.

So now it was maybe 3.5hrs in and a lowly 25lb plus a few silvers was what I had, which was a little more than Adrian. Not much more though.
I could see a few shapes in my left edge where I had been chucking a few bits of meat, some casters and pellets. With the exception of a massive common pushing on comfortably mid doubles, the shapes were breamy. So I lowered my rig in and missed a bite, next swing in an I could see the meat had landed in around 2 inches of water but then I saw a bream come in an take it, awesome. That was one scabby bream, one eye and covered in sores, not pretty. But at 5lb or so a welcome bonus, actually the odd bream would take the mis-fed offerings off the mudline, rather carpy!!
A small carp followed before it went quiet, so back into swim rotation mode and the odd carp would get caught. Alongside a couple of 3lb+ tench and a few skimmers etc I kept putting something in the nets. Just nowhere as quickly as everyone else it seemed.

Into the last 90 minutes and sport picked up for me and Adrian, we started to get a few bites on our short lines, I had actually converted my silvers line to a pellet line and this was giving a few fish, missing plenty of bites, but I was reluctant to go shallow, but I should have upped the feed, but I didn't and kept getting missed bites.
The edges started to see odd bonus fish visit and I did manage 3 decent carp, 2 of which were doubles and 1 maybe 6lb.
Then I managed to get my top 4 pulled off and shoot up to my left, but the fish came off and Adrian pulled it in close enough for me to grab it. Cheers mate.
Next drop I hooked a carp that went up to my left, and myself and Adrian became tangled, the fish came off and we both got our rigs back...lucky!!
A few fish in the last 15 mins, mostly little tench, were added to the net. Adrian had a good spurt of fish and I felt that maybe he would have just pipped my as 6oz tench don't cut it against 2 to 3lb carp at the same catch rate.

So the all out was called, I thought, well my magic clickers showed 25lb in one net and 35lb in the other. Plus my silvers of perhaps 15lb or so. I banked on 75lb.
I didn't wear my 're-sizing specs' for this match so I would be happy to see how close I was.
With the car loaded and the weigh-in under way I saw the 1st three in my section put 137-14 to Paul on 76, Tony had 136-13, Neil weighed 109-02. Then my turn, my 2 nets were 19lb and 40lb so not so bad on the clickers, my silvers weighed 20lb 10oz. So 80lb 4oz.
Adrian next, he lifted his silvers which were 15lb 3oz, then he lifted his carp out and it looked like he would be close but luckily, for me anyway, he added 55lb and a few ounces giving him a total of  70-07.
Trig went on to beat me, no shock, but from the peg he moaned about, he managed to put 179lb 11oz  on the board, Dan was next and to be fair we all expected him to beat Trig, but fell short, but a healthy 162lb 7oz caught mostly on paste (he was practicing using that). Around the opposite side there were 50-14, 80-00 (inc 24lb of silvers) and 78lb finishing that section. Then the final 5 weighed in 98-11, 52-02, Shawn had 121-02, then there was 48-12 to Pete Ashton before Steve Nadin on peg 90 (top peg) put the top silvers net on the day of 41-12 on the scales, couple with his carp gave him a total of 172lb 4oz and 2nd on the day.

I never followed the last few weights on the other lake but 3 weights over 150lb were had and the silvers never really fed with 18lb and ounces was top weight off there. Must say that Jack Billet did have the largest 'silver' of the day in the form of an 11lb catfish.

1st, Trig, peg 81, 179-11 (Homeground)
2nd, Steve Nadin, peg 90, 172-04 (HG)
3rd, Ryan Shipp, peg 53, 162-14 (Hillview)
4th, Dan White, peg 82, 162-07 (HG)
5th, Gary O'Shea, peg 54, 156-09 (HV)
6th, Mike Nicholls, peg 42, 150-12 (HV)

Silvers,
1st, Steve Nadin, p90, 41-12 (HG)
2nd, Nick Brown, p84, 24-08 (HG)
3rd, Lee Williams, p79, 20-10 (HG)

For full weigh sheets, take a browse of Tony Rixon's blog or that one of Mike Nicholls (Silverfox) as they have them on theirs.

So a 4th in section, series defo over, but I managed to pick up a few quid for (default) 2nd in the silvers pool which was welcome.
As for the fishing, again I learned some stuff, and have got a better understanding of maybe where I went wrong and what I did that worked but fishing can be odd at times. The top 4 guys all fished in the main, different tactics to each other. Trig fished mostly pellet with some on corn, Steve fished meat over meat/groundbait, Ryan fished caster down his edges and Dan fished paste....so I guess it is a matter of takes your choice and do your best to make it work....perhaps!!

Not sure where I will be this weekend, so until then, have fun and enjoy the sun.
Lee.

Pawlett Match, Sedges Brick and Tile, 24-06-18

An early write up this week as I have stuff on during the week.
So there were 34 of us for this match, which is our blind pairs match, so another decent turnout, which is what we get. 17 on each lake.
Had my daughter with me today, she wanted to catch a few rays and do some revision. I am not sure how much she did as she slept on and off for a good proportion of the day.
After a natter with a few guys it was down to the draw, my preference was to draw on Brick, which has been patchy in comparison to Tile. But to be fair I wasn't massively fussed where I would end up.
I managed to get in to the basket about halfway down the rabble after Jamie Parkhouse and Paul Homewood had plucked their pegs. I pulled out peg 40 on Tile, I did double check as I don't often get flyers, but it is usually a good peg, but when it is not so good it tends to be utter pants. But no doubt it will be my last 'flyer' for the next year or so....

A few choice words from more than 1 (read 20) of the guys about my drawing ability, well they must of all had sunstroke and poor memories, but I was happy.
My 2 fave pegs on the complex, pegs 8 and 12 were taken by Mark Watts and Shawn Kittridge respectively, I would have still swapped my peg for theirs.

I got to my home for the day and it looked nice, but a fair bit of scum which was sort of drifting around the peg and could be a pain as it was quite thick, there were some fish in the upper layers and some fizzing in places so I figured I may get a few bites. A couple guys told me where to fish, which is basically a method feeder to a couple spots in the peg. I didn't want to do that thank you very much, I find the island in this peg a touch snaggy.

Peg $0, Tile Lake, Sedges.

I went about setting up my kit, a pellet wag (unused). A method feeder for off to the island (one cast there, one lost hooklength).
A DT Pinger for shallow fishing on the pole at 16m initially in front.
A DT Big D for 16m off towards the end bank in a shallower area, meat would be used here.
A couple DT RBS floats were set up for the deeper water, 1st one off in the 10 o'clock direction just up a shelf at 16 but a good 7 or 8m away from the end bank, banded 8mm was the plan but I never baited this rig all day. The 2nd RBS was for meat off the near shelf to my left at 5m, but this rig never got used either.

For bait I had 8mm and 6mm pellets, some micros for the method. Some 8mm meat and some groundbait mixed (not fed, now frozen).
My company for the day, except Miss Williams, was Mike West on peg 1 and Kev Lock on peg 39.

The all horn sounded and I decided not to feed anywhere in the peg to start, just start at 16m pinging a few pellets. I managed to hook 8 fish, landing 3, in the first half hour. But they were, well I thought they were, small 3lb fish, the 5 lost were due to hook pulls, these small fish on the lake have small mouths and can come off easily.
Then the ripple went and it went quieter and bites harder to come by, but I would get the odd one and after the 1st hour I was on 20lb, a nice start. I decided to feed the meat line towards the end bank with a near full pot of meat. I carried on shallow, catching better when the ripple appeared. The peg was fizzing like mad, which I don't mind on this lake. So I did my usual of lobbing the method over the pole line, this is something I have done here for a few years now, it started off with only me doing it in the evening matches, but now more try it as a viable option rather than a 'what if' tactic.
Anyways a few quick fish on that before I went back on the pole shallow.

It was over 2.5hrs in and I had started to fire a few 6mm and 8mm pellets off in the 10 o'clock direction just to try and draw some extra fish in to the area and as an option should my main line in front slow.
By now I had a few quiet spells and had suffered over an hour without a fish, so a look on the long meat line bought me a small carp and my hopes rose, until the next few fish were small hybrids and skimmers, I decided to give up that line and just stick to my two 16m lines shallow fishing plus the odd look on the method. My clicker was on 60lb (100lb net limt) so I thought I would get a new net at 75lb should I miss calculate my weights.
A few more fish shallow and I sent the daughter get the 2nd carp net, maybe a couple hours of the match left, but then I had another quiet spell when I had no ripple. But when it did return I was getting a fish most chucks shallow, off both lines and the odd couple here or there on the method when in needed a drink.
The final 30 minutes was great as was at times lowering my rig in and the elastic was getting pulled out before the float settled, I bumped my clicker up to 59lb before 2 more fish, perhaps 5lb apiece were added, not clicked. So 70lb in that net, 150lb I thought I could have at a push.
The all out sounded and I packed up and loaded the car before we caught up with the scales up on peg 31 where Nick Selway had been. The best weight so far from the lake at this point was 92lb and there was a 90lb. As the scales carried on their duties I was watching the size of the fish and thought I may be struggling with the net limits as a couple of 2 fish weighs were 8 or 9lb, I would have clicked 6lb....!!
Keith had 107lb, Paul Squire had 101lb and the best silvers was 33lb to Pete Manning, plus a few others weighed before my turn. 2lb+ of accidental meat silvers. My smaller net weighed first, as I lifted it I did think I had gone over 100lb, 3 weighs later and I was 2oz shy of losing the net...phew.
My 2nd net, I knew it was going to be disqualified even before I lifted it as I had clicked 75lb which was 25 fish. Those 3lbers, going by the weights, were likely to have been 4lbs+ and so it proved as the 1st weigh was 50lb 5oz and it was obvious that the 2nd would be over that and when the went on the scales the needle hovered around 58 or 59lb before Jamie chucked them back and the net was lost, bugger. So I weighed in 102lb 2oz rather than the 211lb+ I actually had. Again I had a few choice words thrown at me, I didn't feel bad about not getting the weight more for the fact I know it pisses Jamie off somewhat and that's not me to intentionally to do that. I felt guilty on that side of things.

On with the weigh in and I caught back up with it after a chat with Mike West and saw Jamie take the lead from peg 9 with 140-something, pegs 10 and 11 struggled/dnw's before Shawn Kittridge moved into 2nd place with around 130lb from lovely peg 12. I then left them to it and made my way to the hut to wait for the results.
As it turned out I won my section and Mark Hembery and I won the blind pairs with 192lb+ so a little bit of a silver lining.
Those misjudgements prevented me taking the win, the money and a place in the All Winners Final next year, but such is life, thankfully I am a laid back guy who takes it (reasonably) well enough. It would have also been my 1st net of 200lb+ from Sedges in a match and my best match weight for a long long time. I actually think my new glasses make the fish look smaller than they weigh as a few weeks back at Summerhayes I clicked 66lb and had 112lb, again mostly '3lb fish'......hmmmm something to work on methinks.

I did enjoy it though and gave the new pole a tidy work out and I actually didn't mind fishing at 16m, it was nice to catch a few 1st time out on it.

Weigh Sheets...

Results:
1st, peg 9, Jamie Cook. 143lb 5oz
2nd, peg 12, Shawn Kittridge, 130lb 2oz
3rd, peg 37, Keith Clapp, 107lb
4th, peg 40, Lee Williams, 102lb 2oz (knocked back from circa 211lb)
5th, peg 36, Paul Squire, 101lb 9oz
Silvers:
1st, peg 33, Pete Manning, 33lb
2nd, peg 39, Kev Lock, 23lb 12oz

Next week it is the next round of the Float Only Series, at Todber for that next Sunday.
Enjoy the weather this week guys and girls, it is looking hot.

Until next time...
Lee

Viaduct 13m Pole Match and Float Only rnd 2 at Landsend. 9th and 10th June

Not too much to write about today regarding the weekend just gone. Saturday saw Mike Nicholls running a 13m pole only match at Viaduct on Campbell lake, so I had booked into that.
So I arrived in loads of time, sorted the kit and it was soon the draw, 121 or 135 on the 2 end banks were my 'hope fors' but I managed to get 126, not so good, actually one of the pegs I would very rarely, if ever. pick out of choice. It can be ok for silvers at times though.

At my peg I set up a short meat line rig for under an overhanging tree to my right, a pellt rig for down my right edge. Plus shallow and deep pellet rigs for 13m in front. Lastly a token silvers rig which I didn't fancy using, but had John Fuidge over on 118 fishing for them as a guide to if the skimmers were having a munch.

peg 126 Campbell

Well I could waffle on about what I tried etc but where I was, and really for most on the lake, it was hard going and other than a few foul hooked fish which inevitably came off I only managed 4 carp during the day, 1 on the deck on the long pellet rig, 1 on meat and 2 shallow. I also had a few silvers, maybe 5lb or so. I didn't trouble the scales. 2 pegs to my left Fred Roberts only had 1 skimmer in just over 2 hours fishing so went home then. Martin McMahon on my right had 1 carp, 2 roach and a skimmer and the chap to my left got 3 foul hooked lumps in and managed another 4. There were quite a few catches of around 3 or 4 carp and I never saw John catching much silvers, similarly Mike Nicholls said he never had too many and lost some tench in the edge. Peg 123 had a few skimmers, but that can be a great silvers (and carp) peg.
Not sure on the results as I would have been half way home by then but Martin Rayet caught well in the 2nd half of the match on peg 116 after an almost fishless 2.5hrs at the start. Joe McMahon on 135 had a few I gathered after a slow start.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday saw me at Landsend for the 2nd round of Tony Rixon's Float Only Series.
I fancied being on the match lake and would have preferred to be along the far bank pegs 13 to 24. Or 68 on Lake 3 as I like that peg., as I never draw flyers pegs 32 and 33 on Speci were unlikely to end in my hand.
I did get the area I wanted though in peg 19 and was quite pleased with the draw to be fair. I did fancy fishing for silvers, but that went out of the window due to my stubbornness I guess.
A shallow rig for stalking and against the island where it was only around 10 inches deep at the most.
A meat rig for 6m in front and a little to the left.
A pellet rig for my topkit to my left by a fallen tree/snag.
An edge rig for along my right edge if needed.

peg 19 Lansend

Again not a lot to mention on the day, I landed one early then started to suffer a few lost foul hooked fish, one was decent but done me under my platform just as I thought I had it beaten. The next drop I foul hooked one that came to the top to be netted and turned an belted across to the far bank reeds and broke me.
I managed a skimmer of 2.5lbs on my silvers line and a couple margin roach and rudd on maggots. I also had a couple flying skimmers shed the hook, both looked a good 3lb each.
I did manage to see some fish caught during the day from the opposite bank in Shawn Townsend and Martin Rayet. Plus Neil Mercer on peg 18 to my left had a few on and off during the day including landing a couple decent sized foul hookers. He had Gary O'Shea on his left who also had a decent enough day on peg 16.

Well for me I had 2 carp in the first hour by fishing across, only small carp though, 4lbers.
Then a quiet spell of a couple hours before a couple more from across and a couple mugged fish.
One carp from my right edge another 4lber was the only carp from there, in hindsight I should have fished further along that margin.
The last 90 mins gave me 2 small carp on the meat line, which they were visiting all day but not feeding and defo not on the bottom. I think I ended with 7 carp and my clicker had 33lb on it.
I expected to be last in section, no shock in that.

At the weigh in I somehow didn't manage last in section as Neil had 80lb-ish and Bela had 70lb-ish from peg 21 then my 44lb was 3rd much to the amusement of Tony.
The last couple of pegs in the section were not so good as Gordon Canning and Vince Shipp struggled. Prior to our bank weighing it was Shaun Townsend on peg 6 who won the lake and second on the day with 187ln fishing long to some reedy type plants, the cover and shade would have helped and Neil on peg 18 caught well in the last hour when the shade had covered his part of the island.

I had tried all sorts to try and get a few extra fish, even big potting maggots across, and hoping that would help. It didn't make a difference. Maybe I could have fed heavier but I didn't fancy foul hooking too many more than what I had done. Maybe I should have fished for silvers as top silvers was 9lb on the lake, and Mike West won the silvers with 11lb from Speci lake. Would I have had that? I am not sure either way.

Winner on the day was that man Craig 'Trig' Edmunds with nearly 250lb caught mostly shallow I believe from peg 32 on Speci, a good peg and good angler combo was going to be hard to beat. So well done that man.

I would imagine Mike Nicholls will have the full results of both matches when he does his blogs later in the week as he is on his yearly week long fishing 'holiday' and has a bunch of matches this week.

So for me, not a great weekend, Campbell fished hard and there was lots of anglers not catching a lot.
Landsend I drew ok but fished like a tit, I guess that is a combination of low confidence thanks to my recent drawing and me losing interest early on in the day, even before the match begins and the lack of actually catching fish in the last few weeks has left me a little rusty perhaps. But I shall persevere as I am hopeful I will get among some fish at some point.

No idea where or what I have planned for the weekend, maybe a pleasure session somewhere one day. The rivers are open from Saturday.....so maybe I will get a ticket and try one? Maybe.

Until next time, have fun.
Lee

Acorn Series, 5th Round, 2nd June 2018

Another attempt to get something out of this series came and went on Saturday, I had the wife in tow for this, well she could try and catch the sun, but like my fishing at the moment she catches a little but not enough to feel satisfied with the attempt.

Arriving early, nets dipped and a bit of a chat, more so a few were asking me what dross I was going to pull out today? I mentioned I have never been on a peg from 12 to 21. The replies were along the lines of 'well 19 is the worst peg on the venue', '17 isn't great but 19....well' or 'just go home'. Indeed once the draw got under way Matt Williams drew peg 40, which has been pants for a while now, paid his pools and set off homewards.
I drew and there were sighs of relief as peg 19 sat in my mitt. Lovely....Not.!! Anyways I stayed and made my way round to the peg, I had Rich Lovering on peg 17 and Lance Tucker on bridge peg 21 as my neighbours.
The water looked ok really, a few fish kicking around but there was some surface scum which was slowly drifting towards the bridge to my left. Pegs 24 round to 28 had plenty of the crap and the carp seemed to be plentiful down there.

3 rigs only as I couldn't be arsed to set up more. A shallow rig for banded pellet, this would do also for a foot off the far bank and for tight in to my near bank in around 12 inches of water at the most.
A rig for topkit left and right in the 10 and 1 o'clock directions (maggot, micro/expander areas) and lastly a rig for at the bottom of the near shelf just off the empty pallet of peg 20 where corn would be fed with a few pellets.
Bait was 6mm, 4mm and a few micros, a couple pints of live maggots and some corn. I also had a handful of expanders and some groundbait.

Peg 19 at Acorn

The all in was called and I had a 6oz carp right away on banded 6mm across, then a couple foul hookers lost then a 2.5lb fish was netted. A nice first 30 minutes. Nobody except Brian Slipper on peg 22 was getting much in my section.
The next hour only gave me a couple little f1s and roach. But we were all struggling, so I started to feed a few 4mm pellets at 2+2 in front in the remote hope that the carp may come there and shallow.
A couple more fish from across in 4 inches of water where I had seen plenty moving but were really uncatchable as most of them tended to be more out of the water than in. Not helped by the fact I went against my plan to feed via toss pot only and fed with a catty spreading bait and having too many fish all over the area. Numpty.

It was now the half way stage and to be fair I was doing well in my section, possibly only behind Brian on peg 22. Rich had a couple little carp, Gabe on the consistent peg 15 was struggling and it seemed the same down to my left.
I had started to get some fizzing shallow and some fish had started to come down my edges, so things were looking up. I dropped in the left edge and had a 3lber right away, then another from the right. I then went out in front shallow and missed a couple bites but picked up half a dozen fish to 8lb+ over the next hour and it was going well and I was happy. I even mugged 2 or 3 as they cruised out of the left margin.

Suddenly the wind changed and the scum on my side of the bridge (in peg 21, Lance's peg) started to drift to my right. My fizzing stopped and I never saw a fish down my edges, this all happened in 10 minutes, it was bizarre. Meanwhile Rich had one or 2 shallow but then got them taking paste and were a decent stamp. Gabe was flying along and was pushing on to 80lb. Lance also was getting one a bung on worms about a meter off the near bank.

The last 2hrs was pure boredom, while the guys around me were regularly getting fish, Gabe pushed on to my estimate of 100lb, Rich and Lance clawing my lead back and even those down on 24 and 26 were getting some fish. So from 1st or 2nd in section at the 4hr stage I was getting wound in and overtaken. I spent most of the last couple hours chasing shallow fish and fish in the super shallow water across, I managed 1 carp in this period and lost a couple foul hookers.
At the all out I felt like I had cocked thing up by not setting up a rig for banded pellet on the deck (I never had any paste) over the shallow line.
I said to Rich he was around 4lb ahead of me thanks to his last 90 minute spell of lumpier fish. Gabe would have 100lb and Lance not far off 70lb (he only had 10lb or so with 90 mins to go).
Further down I was sure they had all beaten me. Ho Hum.

I packed up and waited for the weigh in, had a chat with a few guys before the scales got to Gabe. He had 100lb 6oz, Rich had 61lb+, I had 57lb and Lance 67lb. Brian 80lb, Ken Rayner had loads of small carp for 40lb before Mark Thorne put 61lb+ on the scales (*weights may be slightly wrong as going by memory). This gave me 2nd last in section in a very tight section. But a few said my weight was good from the peg, so not a bad day I suppose.
The match was won with 150lb+ from peg 3, Barry Richards I think.

I know my lack of effort maybe cost me a few fish, would I have had 100lb to win the section if I had changed or tried something else? I don't think I would have, but perhaps 75/80lb may have been possibly. But that is hindsight, maybe I got lucky with that spell of edge/shallow fish?
Only 1 round to go, in July, can I draw a cracker? peg 1 hasn't been great....!!

Next up I am Viaduct for Mike Nicholl's 13m pole match on Campbell and then Sunday Landsend for round 2 of the Float only series.

Until then, take care and stay safe.
Lee

Float Only Series, Round 1, Viaduct. 27th May 2018

I managed to get on to this series as a late replacement, though I will miss the last round of the series due to a holiday, so Steve Tucker will be fishing that one for me (as it was his place I took, lol).

I arrived through a barrage of rain that had passed over the region, thankfully after this early morning spell it stayed dry throughout the day and quite warm
A bit of a chat and trolley loaded and into the tin, we have 40 on this series son would be on Cary and Campbell, I wanted Campbell, ideally around 112 to 115 or anywhere on the far side. I cant even remember the last match I fished on the lake other than their Xmas match,
My plans were to fish for silvers each round as I don't feel I can compete overall in the league given the quality of anglers fishing it.
I drew peg 119, I didn't really fancy it to be honest, it can be brilliant but it blows more cold than hot.
For company I had Clayton Hudson on peg 118, which is a better peg with a good edge (after some tree tidying) and is set slightly further out into the lake than those either side of him.
Behind me I had the most consistent angler, probably most successful too, Craig 'Trig' Edmunds, he was on Cary 81 and his peg was awash with fish, the two words 'writing' and 'wall' sprung to mind.
I also had Ryan Shipp in front of me on peg 121, I fancied that peg to do well and another good angler on it.

Peg 199, Viaduct Campbell.

I assembled a waggler, this would be fished to the end bank, never gave a bite.
I assembled a token silvers rig as when I got to my peg I didn't expect them to play ball generally speaking, again no fish on this.(DT F1/Silvers in 0.3g)
A shallow rig for mugging and fishing properly shallow. (DT Pinger in 0.1)
An edge rig for along the end bank and down to my left. (DT RBS Margin 0.3g), 2 lost foulers and 1 hook pull.
A deck pellet rig for 14m in front slightly right in the reflection of a tree. (DT RBS in 0.4g). No fish, just a few liners/foulers lost.
Lastly a meat rig for 6m in front. (DT RBS in 0.3g)

Bait was groundbait, 8mm pellets, 6mm pellets and some hemp and 8mm meat. Some casters and dead maggots too.

I won't bore you with the details, simply because there is not much to tell, as generally it fished slow on Campbell with the odd exception.
I started short on meat and had a 12lber after 10 minutes or so, then I promptly lost 4, a mixture of foul hookers and dodgy hooklength I should have changed.
I managed another before the hour mark, a fish of 8lb or so on the meat. My third carp came after 90 minutes. Around 9lb I guessed.

A couple looks on the silvers line I had fed at 13, no bites despite fizzing. A couple looks along the end bank gave nothing and the pellet rig on the deck gave me a couple indications and a couple lost foul hookers. Looking around nobody on my lake was catching much, Ryan had maybe 5 or so nice skimmers and 1 carp, the 3 guys on the far bank all had maybe 2 or 3 fish each and Clayton on 118 only had 1.
Behind me on Cary it looked like Trig was doing well as was Chris Davis on peg 85.

Fast forward 2hrs and I managed a couple more carp, these came shallow over heavy feeding, but I think they were ones just passing by as I wasn't getting any fizzing or liners etc, the elastic would just tear out.
Meanwhile Clayton had a run of 3 fish down his edge and 4 shallow long, sort of fishing blind as he wasn't getting mush in the way of indications, it would be nothing then bingo, a couple fish, then repeat.

One more fish for the rest of the match, that was a skimmer on the meat line with 90 minutes left in the match. So I went the last 2.5hrs without landing a carp, I did lose a few foul hookers and I think a couple were hook pulls when hooked properly, but cannot be sure.

The all out was called and I was sure I would be last in section, 5 carp and a small skimmer. Clayton's 2 little spells he had mid match looked to be the difference there, perhaps 80lb for him and Ryan on 121 had been consistent all day, I had him down for 100lb. The 3 others in my section were Tony Rixon, he was admitting to 160lb from 116 (possibly best peg in the section), but had started slow-ish before finding fish down his edge.
The angler opposite me looked to have had more for sure, could not be to sure on weights, 60lb+ I was convinced.

I packed up and waited for the scales. Trig was admitting to 300lb and Chris Davis 170lb on Cary, not much else was being admitted to on there.
When the scales got to me it was Mark Wynne who had 197lb and was winning, Ryan had just topped the 100lb mark with 107lb including 18lb of silvers. Peg 123 had 46lb to my surprise.
My 5 carp and 6oz skimmer was good enough for 53lb 11oz.
Clayton had perhaps 12 carp for his total of 81lb 15oz so those 2 spells defo helped.
Next up was Tony, he amassed 171lb and ounces to win the 5 peg section and perhaps 4th on the day.
So I wasn't last in the section, yay. But those few lost fish may have cost me a point, but then Clayton had lost a couple so I am not even sure if I would have.
Trig won the match with 316lb and top silvers was 'only' 27lb to Paul Faires on Campbell. But generally the fishing was patchy, as it has been in most places recently, spawning, high temps, thundery weather and a bit more pressure from anglers wont have helped, so lets hope they settle down.

For full results sheets read Tony's Blog.....Here you go.

So as predicted a tough start to the series, but such is life, hopefully my dropper.

Next up for me is a the next round up at Acorn, again it hasn't been a good series for me, poor draws costing me at the moment for sure, but I shall go and try for sure.

Until then take care.
Lee

Acorn and Summerhayes, 19th and 20th May 2018

I will start with Saturday's blog, well, little write up. Started like normal with an early arrival and a walk around the lakes plus a natter with a few guys before the draw. Well I picked peg 22, the left hand side of the back bank bridge. Reasonably happy I guess. But it hasn't been great in this series.

Got to my peg and plenty of scum on the water and a few fish present so things looked optimistic.
3 rigs, 2 for shallow (band and no band) using DT pingers and one for on the deck in a couple areas of my peg in the deeper water.
It didn't take long to set up as my shallow rigs were already on the topkits. I had micros, expanders and 6mm pellets on the side tray plus some corn, casters and groundbait.
I had Mark Bromsgrove down to my left and Lewis Walker to my right on the other side of the bridge.

Peg 22 Acorn

Before the all in the wind picked up and my scum started to drift away to my left and the fish that were present seemed to follow, bugger. I hardly saw a fish in my peg for the most of the day and despite my efforts I never had a fish shallow and not a fish landed (did foul hook a couple) from the far side.
It was actually almost 4hrs into the match that I had my 1st carp over 6oz, that came down the edge to my left where the carp had only just started to come in but were spooky.
I had 2 from the deep water on expander and a couple more from the edge in the last half hour.
It was a dull day and it would have been a DNW could I have got my car out sensibly without causing hassle. During the match, Lewis had struggled to his last 2hrs and his neighbour, Bob Gullick similarly. Mark on peg 24 had caught most of the day from his peg with just the odd quiet spell.

Really it was only Paul Nichols on peg 5 who caught all day and won with 160lb+.
My weight was last in section but not last in weight on the day, 21lb something was my total, there was also 4 dnw's including Gabe on peg 40 where I never bothered to weigh in the last round.

2 more rounds to go, so again fingers crossed that I have a few fish to catch in at least one of those matches.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday saw me head to Summerhayes, Pawlett did have a match on the 2 canals at Shiplate but expected almost every peg to be in and a struggle for most given the pressure and the warm conditions so I never booked in. Alas peg 1 on Westpool won the match, Mike Davis with 135lb, Nick Selway was 2nd with 85lb from peg 6 on the same, then it dropped off I believe.

Anyways back to Summerhayes, 13 or so fishing so after a cuppa and a chat the draw was made, only 2 balls left in the basket, one for me and one for Jamie Rich who was fresh from his 3 weeks in Thailand....but he wasn't tanned....hmmmm!! I told him to give a ball to me, I had peg 20, he had peg 17 so both reasonably happy. For company I had Roy Hughes on the flyer of an end peg (p23) with the wind pushing in there and on my left I had a guy called Steve on peg 18. Chris Boulton had turned up to fish and drew peg 2, I really fancied that peg to win and told him so, it looked full of fish and is a pretty decent peg at any time.

Peg 20 Sellicks, Summerhayes

No rigs for silvers in this match, so my casters stayed in the bag and I didn't even bring any groundbait, I needed to catch a few carp just to convince myself I can occasionally do that.
My rigs were a couple shallow rigs, well the same 2 shallow rigs as Saturday, the banded one would do for tight over to the island at 13m and the un-banded one for down my left margin.
Lastly I had a meat rig for 2+2 off to my left, this rig was also used at the same distance feeding and using 6mm expander pellets, sort of a half hearted attempt incase the skimmers arrived.
My usual floats of DT Pingers for the shallow rigs and an RBS Margin for the meat rig.
My baits were meat, expander and 6mm pellets and some hemp. I also had some dead maggots to get rid of.

At the all in I started short for 15 minutes after depositing a full cup of hemp and meat off to my left and half a pot of expanders in front.
I only a liner to show over the meat line so I went across and was pleased to have a spurt of 8 or 9 carp in the next hour, but the problem was they were only little 1lb fish, or that is what I clicked. Roy was getting better fish on his paste rig and Jamie Rich was targeting silvers as usual and was getting one or 2 small fish.
Steve had started slowly and had a skimmer and 1 or 2 carp.
Things then began to get funny as the day got warmer the fish began to be a pain and whatever I tried to do I couldn't get them to settle and was suffering foul hookers and line bites. I did mug a couple, but even that was hard work.
I gave the far side a rest and tried the expander and never had a bite, I tried the meat line, I never had a bite, then the edge to my left, no bites....hmmm. I spent the next 90 minutes to 2 hrs trying to get a few fish in the net, but failed.
Steve was now down his left edge and was getting reasonable action from the carp and had also had a 2lb+ eel. Roy was still catching a few but missing lots of bites. He also been broken on a fish and last the elastic and rig.

With 2.5hrs to go I had just about double figures showing on my clicker and was beginning to think about spending a couple hours fishing caster, but I couldn't be arsed to get off my box.
Luckily I managed a run of fish shallow across, I had 8 or 9 more between 1 and 3lb which moved me up to around 30lb. Then I had a fish down my left edge which went under the empty pallet and out between the from legs of it, half expected the rig to snap I held my pole still and the fish waddled back and I duly netted it, lucky there.
I then tried back across but things were quiet so I gambled on my meat line, upping the feed a bit. This seemed to work as another spurt of fish, which were a little bigger on average made their way to the keepnets. I had been clicking then as 2 and 3lb but was unsure as it seemed a few felt heavier than their size, spawn methinks. So when my 1st net reached 40lb I started to use my 2nd net which coincided with the last hour or so.
Staying on the meat I began to foul hook a few in amongst the ones landed so I picked the margin rig and tried it over that line and the elastic was ripped out, ah shallow fish, but then I had ripple which obviously had helped as when it went flat calm I could only catch on the deck, once the ripple returned I caught shallow.
I also managed a couple fish from the edge but that was only as a rest from the 'catching' line..
I had also tried the expander line, one carp from there only. But I also tried expander shallow when I was missing bites on meat, this proved ok.

So the last hour was spent over the meat line up and down in the water and swapping between meat and expander on the hook and feeding a little every few seconds. I managed, I think, 10 carp in this time and my clicker showed 26lb, I had been clicking mostly 2lb for these fish. I was actually enjoying myself as the all out was called. My clickers showed 66lb though I did expect it to be a touch more.
Roy and Steve had beaten me I though and Adie said Chris on peg 2 had done really well.

I packed up and waited for the scales to arrive. I caught up with them at Jim Jenner who had been catching well down his edges and he put 91lb on the board which was the 3rd best weight to this point. Chris Boulton had 141lb from peg 2 and Mark Lehay 95lb from peg 4.
Wayne Michael had 26lb from peg 15 before Jamie Rich had 11lb 2oz of silvers, he guessed he had 7lb. You can read his blog here....
Steve was next on peg 18 and he totalled out at 89lb 14oz, I was sure I never had that. Certain. Well my 1st net (the 5hr 40lb one) weighed 66lb and ounces, while my last hour net (26lb clicked) topped 52lb. My total gave me 111lb 4oz. I was slightly embarrassed and felt like a tit to be fair. Those fish must have weighed 1lb or so heavier each than I thought.
Next up was Roy, now I was sure he had more than me as at times he was getting 3 to my 1. But he totalled 103lb 5oz which surprised me. That put me 2nd on the day and a bit of money for my efforts.
Next time I visit I may well fish for the carp....just for a change methinks.

Results:
1st - peg 2, Chris Boulton. 141lb 14oz
2nd - peg 20, Lee Williams. 111lb 4oz
3rd - peg 23, Roy Hughes. 103lb 5oz

1st Silvers - peg 17, Jamie Rich. 11lb 2oz
2nd Silvers - peg 7, Rob Birch. 6lb 11oz

Weights....

So it was nice to get a few on the meat and I learnt a couple things going forward, which is what I try to take each time I go.
Next up is Sunday at Viaduct I believe for the 1st round of Tony's Float Only Series which I got on thanks to Steve Tucker.

Until then, take care.
Lee