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.

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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