Shawn Kittridge followed me down from Bridgwater and we arrived in plenty of time for the 9:30 draw. A few familiar face and a couple of ones I have not met before, but a bit of a chat and the draw was underway.
Defo a few pegs I didn't fancy, 50, 51 and 52 plus 34 round to 37 didn't tickle my fancy, those I liked the look of given conditions were 53, 43 and 44 as they had the wind pushing into them and no doubt these small carp would have followed that and the 'grub' it pushes along too. 52 looked nice and the corners of the spit, 48 and 49 are pretty good and consistent pegs.
Anyways, I drew peg 51, yes it had a little ripple but being down a leg I didn't really fancy it, I had Tony Rixon on my left and another chap on my right (sorry, forgot the name). I didn't fancy any of us to get in the top 3 of the 9 peg section. Drawbag Bobby Gullick drew peg 53 and I expected him to do well from a peg which blows cold more than it does hot after the winter. But there were plenty of signs and sound of fish in his peg and he can catch fish.
A short walk from the car and kit sorted, bait prepped.
I had a few pints of casters for the silvers, some groundbait for these too and the edges.
Some 6mm and 8mm pellets, some corn and some 8mm meat.
As we only fish topkit plus 3 sections for this match I decided on a pellet line at the max distance in front both up and down in the water (DT Pinger and DT RBS floats respectively).
A silvers rig for topkit plus 1 section downwind where I would feed small helpings of groundbait and caster initially, float was a DT F1/Silvers in 0.3g. A meat line for the same distance to my left slightly upwind using an RBS Margin float.
Lastly I set up an edge rig, but other than one look, I didn't really try it as no signs of fish came and the edges on this bank are pretty short.
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| Peg 51 Todber Manor Hillview Lake |
I began on the meat and in the initial half hour or so I had an F1 and a little carp, but behind me and Bob down on 53 had began a whole lot better. The 3 of us in a row, well were not doing much.
A switch to the silvers rig for a while saw the odd roach and perch plus the occasional 4oz skimmer and micro tench netted but even that was not busy enough so I began to throw casters over that line coupled with the odd ball of groundbait.
Moving on and I knew that unless the big fish rocked up, which they never have for me here, it was going to be an up hill struggle, given I was trying to get points for the series for Emma I knew I needed to get a few carp caught so found my time split at least 60/40 in favour of the carp, which I felt may cost me in the silvers pool.
I had a look out on the pellet line where I had been pinging 6mm pellets and I missed a couple bites both on the deck and shallow, only losing a foul hooker.
Back on the meat and a few small tench and 1 small carp indicated that there were not enough fish in front of me.
The chap to my rightt was struggling and only had a couple of carp, Tony was fairing a but better but was also struggling along in comparison to everyone else we could see. Tony was fishing 8mm pellets over 6mm feed but was suffering with liners and foulers, he even switched to a toss pot to feed, which seemed to help.
As we approached the last 2 hours I had spent more time fishing for the carp than silvers, but when I had fished for the silver I would have a few roach and small skimmers but they would drift off quickly and need resting for 20 minutes or so before repeating but there wasn't much in the form of quality. I think I had 10lb of these fish before I had a 3lb skimmer from the meat line, but I figured that at least one or two guys would have caught the proper skimmers and bream well somewhere on the lake, so pretty much the last 120 minutes was spent fishing for carp, which really wasn't eventful. I had stopped fishing with pellet on the long line and had switched to toss pot feeding a mix of 6mm pellets and meat, this worked to some extent as I did catch 3 or 4 fish, better fish of maybe 2.5lb each rather than the 1lbers I was catching previous.
The short meat line was giving me more small tench than carp.
The chap to my right had landed a few carp doing a similar thing while Tony had started to catch reasonably well during this spell. Further along each side, Bob on 53 was doing great and I reckoned he would be close to 100lb if he carried on while Jason Radford on hot peg 49 was getting some fish including a big double figured carp, a decent bream and a nice tench. So really in our section I was expecting Tony, me and the chap on 52 to fill the last 3 spots in the section which thankfully didn't include Bob as it ran from peg 44 to 52, but behind me those pegs had done a lot better than us it seemed.
At the all out I guessed Tony had 50lb, Jason on 49 maybe 60lb, my carp had clicked 22lb and I thought I had 17lb or so of silvers and the chap to my right possibly 25lb. Tony did say he thought he had less than me, no chance of that really.
I packed up and got my kit in the car before mingling during the later stages of the weigh in. Most had found it hard going (for the fishery and it's usual standards).
When the scales got to me there was a 99-15 net and Bob had 100lb+. Peg 52 had 22lb+.
My carp went slightly over my 22lb at 23-01, which Mr Rixon believed I had more than... My silvers weighed 22-10 which was more than my guesstimate. My total was 45-11.
Tony had 52lb 9oz before Jason had 56lb+ before the weights from those pegs behind us had 70lb, 80lb, 88lb weights in them, as expected. I ended up beating 2 in the section, sorry Emma.
Further around the lake Mike Nicholls took top silvers with 24lb 10oz, so I missed out on taking those spoils by trying to catch carp for too long, or was it I spent too long fishing for silvers?
I did pick up the 2nd in silvers envelope so something in my back pocket is always welcome.
The results and weigh sheets can be found here...Silverfox or here...Mr Rixon's Blog.
I really like the fishery, as I have said on other occasions, just wish it was 40 minutes closer.
Next weekend I have the next round of the Acorn Saturday Series but I am not fishing Shiplate with Pawlett on the 2 canal lakes as when all 15 pegs on each are taken it generally doesn't fish as well, so I may have a day off or try and get on somewhere else.
Until then, have fun and enjoy the sun.
Lee
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