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

Pawlett Silvers Final, Durleigh Reservoir. 6th August 2017

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

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

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

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

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

Peg 3 at Durleigh Reservoir

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

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

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

The wife's view of my peg...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Weights,,,,

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

Until then, have fun.
Lee

Pawlett All-Winners Final, Trinity Woodlands. 4-6-17

The clubs' annual All-Winners' match is usually held on Trinity's Woodland Lake with the 'others' on Ash Pool. No different this year.

Anyways a short blog as it wasn't a great day personally, but that's fishing.
Arrived early enough, but still one of the last there and I actually went to the draw 2nd in line....that was the 1st mistake. I drew peg 23, I have won off it during the winter but in the summer I feel that it is the wrong end on the wrong bank I thought. I had Derek Beards to my left and Jamie Cook to my right on peg 25, not the best peg for him but ideal for his method/lead approach as peg 19 is not used.

Plenty of wind, all different directions and strengths during the day, oh and plenty of rain....!!
A small pellet feeder was set up along with 5 pole rigs. (right edge meat, 14m pellet shallow, 14m deep pellet, 5m meat and a silvers rig for 14m off to my right).
A quick run down of the match, 1st hour gave me 2 roach and I lost 4 foul hooked carp on the long deep pellet rig. Derek had nothing.
2nd hour, I had a couple small skimmers and a 3lb tench. Derek had 1 skimmer and a roach.
3rd hour, gave up on the carp and hoped for silvers, had a couple 12oz skimmers long on single dead maggots over micros. Derek had put a lead rod out halfway through the hour as those opposite (mostly Jamie Parkhouse and Phil Clapp) had a few fish on theirs, I couldn't be arsed..... Derek had a carp right away which signalled a nice run of carp until the all out.
4th hour, landed a 7lb carp on the silvers rig, gave me a run around. A couple small silvers netted. Derek still getting odd carp and even odd one down the edge.
5th hour, another carp, only a 3lber, but I did manage a couple 12oz skimmers. It was dull.
Last hour, another carp, again on single maggot on my silvers rig, about 5 or 6lb. Another couple skimmers to 1lb. Derek was on around 8 carp now. He hadn't had anything for 2.5hrs at the start and ended with 46lb or so.

At the all out I chuck my 3 carp back, maybe 15 or 16lb they would have weighed.
I guessed at 6lb of silvers, maybe 7lb. I knew John Fuidge and Mark Leader had plenty more, at least 10lb each.
Out of the rest of the guys it would be close, a few peeps looked like having between 35 and 50lb maybe. But rumour was Paul Squire had plenty from down on peg 34, mostly on the lead.

I weighed 9lb 8oz of silvers, behind John and Mark's 13lb+ nets. I may have qualified, by double default, for the Silvers Final in 2018, but cannot be sure.
Overall it was Mr Squire that won with 95lb-ish. Then came Phil Clapp with 55lb and then Paul Lock with 51lb. They were on pegs 34, 12 and 15 respectively.

Results:
1st, Paul Squire, 95-15. p34
2nd, Phil Clapp, 55-15. p12
3rd, Paul Lock, 51-13. p15
4th, Mark Leader, 48-06. p10

Silvers:
1st, Mark Leader, 13-09. p10
2nd, John Fuidge, 13-06. p9
3rd, Lee Williams, 9-08. p23

So a non-productive day for me, I was actually packing up around 2pm, but the heavy rains arrived and put me off doing that.
The 'others' match was won by Dick Hurford with 43lb 8oz.

In hindsight I should have got my lead rod out, but to be fair I didn't expect to catch enough from that end or bank to compete unless they were shallow. I don't think anyone caught shallow properly, most had lead fish and a few down their edges later on.

Next up for me is the next round of the Acorn Saturday Series this Saturday, not sure on Sunday yet, may go Summerhayes, but again another not-so-calm day predicted, but warm.

Take Care,
Lee

Pawlett Club, All-Winners final, Trinity Woodlands. 12th June 2016

Each year we have a match for the 'winners' of matches for the previous year, match winners or defaulted places are given to an angler each match.

After last years 2nd spot at Landsend I was keen to try and go one better, that'd be nice.
Alas, it was not to be.

I got to the lakes early enough, but was one of the last to arrive, I paid my dues and chatted to a few people, a look at the lakes and I fancied any of the far side pegs especially 15, 17 and 6. Maybe the 2 corner pegs on the near bank could be good.
I waited to the end-ish to pluck my home for the day, 31, 34 and 24 were left, 34 would have been my choice as it was an end peg and had a couple free empty pegs to it's right. I had 24..!!

I arrived to my peg and flat calm water, loads of bubbles and the odd cruising fish, it looked ideal, but expected that 14, 15 and 17 may well dominate, especially when the expected wind picked up.
For company, but un-viewable, but within earshot, were Mike West fresh from his 65th birthday down on peg 26, on peg 23 was Kev Lock. Opposite on peg 15 was Mike Davis, a decent angler. Keith Clapp was on 17 and big Nick Selway on peg 14.

Trinity Woodlands peg 24.

I set up a method feeder (cast twice), a silvers rig for 2 directions using worm/caster to the right, micros and maggots left both at 11m.
A shallow/slapper rig for 14m in front and a depth pellet rig for the same line. Plus the usual meat rig and margin rigs.

I really don't want to bore you all with how the day went, but after a bright 1/2 hour where 2 shallow carp made the net, the wind got up and the fish vanished.....I plucked a few small skimmers from the 11m lines a 2.5lb perch down the edge and then late on I lost one on the meat short, before they decided to turn up with 10 minutes to go when I fouled 4 and all escaped!!
Mike West on my left had a perch in the 5.5hrs he fished, Kev on my right had 2 lumpy carp early and a few silvers. Phil Clapp down in the corner didn't really have much for the first few hours then had 8 or 9 late on fishing the lead.
Opposite me was different with Mike Davis looking to have had the match wrapped up early, but he was catching well all day fishing shallow maybe at 9m, plus a couple edge fish late on.
Those on the far bank fared better than the near bank and they all managed 30lb+.
Meanwhile Jamie Cook on the end peg of our side was catching a few on the method feeder cast to a empty peg to his left (peg 2 or 3?).

So that was my match, 3 carp and some silvers for 14lb or so. Not an enjoyable day.
Well done to Mike for winning and Jamie for 2nd spot.
Eric Fouracre won the silvers with 9lb or so, a weight I could have had if I had persevered with the small silvers I was getting on 8mm meat down the edge!! I had 5lb odd.

Results:
1st, peg 15, Mike Davis. 111lb 6oz
2nd, peg 34, Jamie Cook, 82lb
3rd, peg 5, Chris Higgs, 60lb 10oz

Silvers:
Eric Fouracre, peg 9. 9lb 12oz

Weights....

So that was my All-Winners final, totally dull. But I did have a family of wrens come and sit on my side tray, they even climbed onto my hand to take maggots, that was cute.
I still have the Silvers-Final in a few weeks, so another attempt at a final win!

This Wednesday afternoon I fished over at Combwich on the match lake, a pond I haven't fished for years, but after a quiet couple hours I had a cracking 90 minutes or so's fishing and ended up with a very nice bag of silvers. 4 tench to 6lb+, 26 skimmers over 1.5lb to 5lb (bream!!), 30-odd bootlace eels and around 6 or 7lb of assorted small silvers for a comfortable 60lb+.

This Saturday I may well get on a river, the Huntspill perhaps, depends on waking up time.
Sunday I am covering on the Viaduct Spring League. No silvers pools on the day I believe so a decent Campbell draw would be nice.

Until then, take care.
Lee

Pawlett All-Winners final, Landsend Lake 3 (Johns) 07-06-15

Today was the Pawlett Club's All-Winners' final, which is usually held on Trinity Woodlands lake, but this year it was down on the Somerset Levels at Landsend, more specifically Lake 3. A lake I haven't fished and only seen on a couple of occasions, so a new venture for most of us really.
Eric Fouracre had been down mid-week and sacked up, but that's pleasure angling!!
With 15 'winners' from last season, on the lake it could be tricky, but 15 is better than the 19 that fished the same lake yesterday. That match was won with around 90lb.

I arrived at the venue in plenty of time, and set about loading the trolley.
I had a natter with a few guys and some general piss taking occurred. But from the list of guys fishing it would be hard to do well, we had Vic Bush, Jamie Cook, Eric Fouracre, Jason King and Martin Heard to name a few.
The Speci lake also had a 'not-quite-winners' match from the club, and to be fair I would have fancied 33 or 32 if I was on that match.

The 9am draw was called and I found myself back to my usual habit of being at the back end of the queue. With 2 pegs left in the bucket it was Vic who had dibs before me and offered me his ticket before he opened it, I said ok, but he kept it. He had peg 51, a peg I fancied, although I haven't ever fished the lake, only seen it twice, but 51 was rumoured to be decent. He said I could say something bad about him, but really I cant, sadly (?).
I had peg 70, apparently a good peg if the fish are in there. It is the last peg on the far bank nearest the entrance. I got the usual comments about golden bollocks and me on a usual flyer, as if...!!

Landsend Peg 70, Lake 3 (John's)

It is a 'bay' sort of peg with a spit, a snaggy looking left hand end-bank and a weed/lily bed to my right at around 9m. I can imagine that if the fish are in the peg then you can have a good day.

However things were not looking too good, the weather was due to be warm and bright sunshine and with the fish obviously grouped up for spawning we knew that it'd be a tough day.
For company I had Mike Davis on peg 68 and could see Steve Fouracre over on p42.
Other than that I was pretty much on my own.

I decided not to set a silvers rig up so it was down to 4 rigs for the carp today.
A long line shallow rig for mugging and would cover a shallow line at 9m in front.
A deeper banded pellet rig for tight over to the spit.
A shallower, depth rig for along the end bank. (no bites on this today)
Lastly a meat rig for topkit and for by the weedbed, this would also have done for just off the spit should I have decided to start a new line.

Bait was 8mm meat, 6mm pellets, 8mm pellets and some hemp and groundbait....plus a few last resort maggots.

We were all ready in plenty of time for the 10:30 start, but at the all in I began trying to mug a few fish, but after 15 minutes I had had any joy, so I fed various spots and went over to the spit as I had seen 1 or 2 carp mooch along there.
This gave me a few foul hooked fish over the following half hour, so that line was all but abandoned for the rest of the day
The end bank was tried both off an don the bottom, but that never gave me a bite all day, similarly the short meat line never gave a fish, just a foul hooked carp that gave me a scale.

So the rest of the match was mostly spent mugging a few fish up to 8lb, the weedbed gave me 4 small carp, a crucian and a skimmer..
By 2pm I had landed all the fish I was to weigh in, I think I had 12 carp, lost 7 or 8 of which 6 were defo foul hooked, 1 snapped me in the weedbed and the other the hook pulled. The last 2.5hrs remained fishless for me and I had to watch Steve on p42 and Mike on p68 start to amass a few carp, I was sure they'd moved well ahead of me.
Elsewhere rumour had it that most were struggling but Eric Fouracre on around peg 66 had 9 or 10 carp and a nice amount of silvers and looked odds on to win.

By the end of the match the water in front of me had seen the colour drop out somewhat as I could see my whole keepnets in the water, a sure sign that fish were not in the area in numbers.
I could, should, have tried to mug a couple more fish late on, but they were tricky to spot and I wasn't sure if it'd have been worth it at this point.

The all out sounded at 4:30 and I packed my kit away. I went and chatted with a few other, with Eric and Mike admitting to a few carp, but most others had struggled.
I managed to catch up with the scales as they reached my bank, the sheet showed Steve Fouracre had 50lb and a few ounces was leading.
The scales carried on along the bank with some 20lb-30lb nets before Eric plopped 57lb of carp and 10lb of silvers on the scales to take the lead, then came Mike on peg 68, he had a really nice run of carp under the tree to his left, he weighed in 51lb+ I think.
Last to weigh was me, I had 1lb for the silvers board before my 2 weighs of carp gave me a total of 59lb 14oz, so my 'clicker' that showed 45lb had lied........I really am not great of carp sizes.

So we all headed back to the car park, most guys were in varying stages of sunburn or suntan as it really was warm and sunny today.
The other match was won, I think, by Phil Clapp with 60-something pound, James Withers was 2nd from peg 40 and Nick Selway was 3rd.
We had a nice bbq in the car park, thanks to the club and those who supplied the meat and veg, and to Giffy who was masterchef supreme!!

Results: (as best I can remember as I don't have pic of the sheet)
1st, Eric Fouracre, peg 66 (?) 67lb+
2nd, Lee Williams, peg 70 59lb 14oz
3rd, Mike Davis, peg 68, 51lb+

Silvers:
Jamie Cook, 13lb+ peg 65 (?)

Next up for me is a MMT qualifier next Sunday at Larford.
Lets hope these fish get the spawning over and done with!!

Until then, take care.
Lee

Pawlett All-Winners Final, Trinity Woodlands, 08/06/14

Today saw 16 of us fish the club's All Winners final on Trinity Woodlands, I say all winners, but that's a loose term for qualifying...

Anyways the fish looked top be spawning on both Ash and Woodlands, with the wind pushing down towards the pegs 4 around to 10 mostly. With the pegging slightly odd, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20, 23, 25, 26, 29, 30 and 32 were the numbers in the hat. So my preference would be 4 then 7 followed by 10 and 11. I really didn't fancy any pegs at the calmer end of the lake, so 16, 18, 20 and 23 would be best avoided.

So what did I draw? Poxy peg 20.....up in the corner, there were a few fish present but they do tend to follow the wind here, so a difficult day looked in order.

Woodlands, peg 20

I found myself in a Mosella sandwich, Vic Bush on my right (p18) and Vince Brown over on peg 23. So I was hemmed in from the start, no running lines for me today as 18m in front of me was 20m in front of Vince!!

We had loads of time to set up, a whole 90 minutes!!
I set up a shallow rig for banded 8mm pellet at 13m or so, a paste rig for 2+2 and over the shallow line. The paste rig wasn't used, so nothing to say on that.
A rig to cover my right margin was set up and also a margin rig for tight against the wooden frontage of peg 21.
Both margin rigs were set up to fish meat over meat/pellet.
I did set up a method rod for casting towards the outfall pipe between p21 and p22, but other than 1 cast was unused. I also set up a silvers rig for 14m in the 10 o'clock direction to fish soft pellet over gb, but other than a couple looks it remained unused.

Anyways the all in sounded and I fed the edge swim by p21 and a nice pot of wet 6's were deposited at 2+2.
By the time I had done this, Jamie Cook on peg 4 had landed a couple fish and Mark Hembury on p7 also had a fish from what I could see. I began shallow at 13m feeding 6's and 8's.
The first hour went by quickly and I never had a fish, nor had Vince or Vic. The far end pegs had landed a few though....

The second hour saw me land a single carp on the shallow rig, a 3lber was my opening effort. But the fish were not really down our end in feeding mood....I switched to the edge swim against p21 and I got ragged out on the meat, so I re fed and went back out in the shallow rig.
Up on peg 25 was Eric Fouracre, he seemed to be getting a good few silvers in the form of skimmers, while Vince had landed a few silvers too. But he wasn't feeling too great. Vic only had 1 small skimmer for his efforts.

Into hour 3 and I had a flurry of activity, a handful of baby skimmers from my r/h margin and another carp shallow at 13m. Vic had landed a carp or two, infact he had a couple lumpier fish. Eric was constantly adding skimmers and carp to his nets, while young Lewis Hembury over on peg 14 was catching well, much to the annoyance of Keith Clapp who was catapulting the poor drunken lad with pellets, Lewis was worse for wear as he didn't get in til 4am after a night on the lash....but he was doing well. We also had a rather fresh rain shower and a few rumbled of thunder, I had hoped it wouldn't stick around.

The forth hour saw me catch a carp from against the wood of peg 21 and another carp shallow at 13m, it was very slow for a lot of us. Vince had given in, feeling unwell, broke pole section and gone home. I could hear that Vic had landed a few carp too. So I was up to 5 carp for around 20lb.
Jamie on peg 4 seemed to have the match sewn up at this point, but Lewis and Eric seemed to be close with fish netted. Everyone else who I could see were not setting the world alight!!

The last couple of hours were a little more successful for me, another two carp on the shallow and 2 from against the wood of p21. We also endured another spell of heavy drizzle which was bloomin annoying, but the wind had changed direction and was pushing back upto my end of the lake, all be it more into Vic's peg than mine.
With 1/2 an hour to go I decided to try close in to my left hand margin and this bought me a run of 3 carp, adding maybe 10lb to my net. Maybe I should have tried this line earlier? but the fish were spawning down there for most of the day, so I avoided that spot as I am not keen on fishing where the are making mischief rather than eating!!

The all out sounded and I knew I hadn't made any inroads to the leaders, expecting Jamie to win with Mark Hembury, Lewis Hembury, Eric Fouracre and maybe Vic Bush (who'd landed a good few in the last couple hours).
I packed my kit up and loaded up the car. Made my way to the weigh in. I arrived when the scales were at peg 16, so far Jamie had 107lb and Lewis 70-odd pounds they were filling the top 2 spots at this point.
Vics net went 60lb+ and he defo had more than me,  my nets combined, 11oz silvers plus carp weighed a total of 49lb 3oz.
I loaded my nets into the roofbox, and re-caught up with the scales to see Eric just move into 2nd ahead of Lewis, pipping him by ounces. We then saw Giffy weight 37lb or so before Rich Coles put 26lb of silvers on the board to take that money pot.

So it was a difficult match for most, and not surprisingly Jamie on peg 4 won with ease with 107lb.
There wasn't much I couldn't have done, maybe I should have tried the paste, maybe I should have gone down my left margin. But it is always hindsight!! I think my weight was good enough for 5th or 6th on the day.

Results:
1st Jamie Cook. peg 4
2nd Eric Fouracre. peg 24
3rd Lewis Hembury. peg 14
Silvers - Rich Coles. peg 32 (I think).

Next up for me is a match on Viaduct Campbell with PSV, lets hope that the lake is back to fishing how it should be, it has been very up and down recently. This has made it very peggy with regards to winning weights.

Until next time, take care
Lee