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 Club's Silvers-Winners' Final, Durleigh Reservoir. 10-07-16

So after the quiet day at Sedges on the Saturday in my series, I was expecting bites a-plenty on Durleigh Reservoir for Pawlett's Silvers Winners' Final.
A strong 16 person line up and the 8 peg additional match wasn't too bad either.

I got up to the 80 acre Ressie in plenty of time, with my minimal kit and loaded the trolley.
I had fished the venue on the previous Wednesday in an area about 50 or so yards from the canal overflow inlet. I had between 50 and 60lb on the whip in 4 hours, but the 2hrs I spent on the feeder were a let down, but that area isn't the best for skimmers/bream, so decided that should I draw in that area again (around 7 or 8 peg stretch) the feeder would be the second option behind the whip.

So I spent the hour before the draw speaking to and discussing the day ahead with various guys from the Clapp brothers to John Fuidge and Rich Coles.
I expected, given the windy and overcast conditions, the bream and skimmers to provide the better weights. The deep pegs, pegs 1 to 4, a couple pegs either side of the inlet and the last peg or two in the shallows should provide the top 4 or 5 spots. But if for some reason the day was hard for the bream then the whip could dominate. But warmer, sunnier and calmer water I find a better scenario for that. I surmised that 50lb should win the match and would need 40lb-ish to be in the top 3 and 30-odd to take one of the 2 section payouts. Bream or whip fish was the question....I guessed deep water bream, but hoped whip.

None the less, although I wanted to win (who doesn't) I really wanted a day on the whip catching mostly silver bream (they weigh around 2oz per fish heavier than the roach as a rule).
I was 2nd last to draw and was on peg 16,the end peg in the Winners' match, but the small-side-match continued from peg 17, so no advantage there then... Oh there are no perma-pegs on the venue, but 16 was between the lawns and inlet (halfway down the lodge bank). I was ok with that to be honest, although the pegs 15 to 18 were in a slight bay that is only 2ft or so deep.

I made my way to the peg to find I had Dick Richards and Rob Dodd to my right, Jason King and Nigel Hopkins being on my left and they were the 1st two guys in the small match.

My peg for the match....Durleigh Res. Lodge Bank.

It took my 10 minutes to set up, 2 whips, a 3m one for up in the water and a 3.5m whip for at depth, well on the bottom in around 2ft of water. Bait was simple hemp and casters.
I sat around bored, before John Fuidge and Nige Hopkins came over for a natter, I believe neither had fished the venue before but told them what I expected.
As I was bored I did set up a feeder for 45 turns and mixed up some groundbait, opened my worms and corn and muddled up my side tray a bit more, something I said to myself I wouldn't do after Wednesday's visit.....oh well..!!

The match got underway at 10:30 and I fed my feeder line with a big feeder, around 20 feeders full went out in double quick time.
I started on the whip, but after 10 minutes I hadn't had a bite, then out of the blue I hooked a big rudd of 12oz+.....it fell off!!

So soon after I went on the feeder and that remained quiet, but I could watch Jason and Rob to see if they were getting whip fish. Jason had a couple but it wasn't quick bites and he had to wait. Rob was getting a few more, but it wasn't hectic enough to get the 50lb I thought should win.
I stayed on the feeder, which Vic Bush who was 3 pegs above me commented didn't look like a whip, for a short period and I suppose I put a pound or so in the net off that method in the first hour.
Rob had maybe 3lb and the 2 guys to my left had similar to me.
John Fuidge who was this side of the inlet had bagged a few big skimmers on the feeder, but he wasn't in my match.

The whip sport was picking up for Rob Dodd and he was getting a fish most put-ins, silver bream not roach, now when I have the fish in front of me on the whip I think I can do quite well once in a rhythm. But I wasn't getting fish as quick as I would have liked on the whip, and when I did most were small roach, so in effect Rob was doubling my weigh with each fish ad his were around the 3 or 4oz mark. Both of us, Jason and Nigel were getting better fish occasionally, but they were not really targeted as such more luck. I did find it interesting that the 2 on my left were on short poles and laccy, I was on a flick tip and Rob was fishing with elastic but set tighter than the other 2. I guess we were catching at similar rates most of the day.

The rest of the match was spent 80% fishing the whip and 20% on the feeder when the pike rattled my whip fish, I did hook a couple pike and had a few swirls from these.
But I knew that the whip was unlikely to finish in the top 3, especially from where I was pegged and the fact I heard that the lawn pegs had caught skimmers and if they had then surely the first 4 pegs would defo have had some.
My best fish on the feeder was a 12oz skimmer at around 1pm and I had a few 8oz roach and rudd on the whip, but also bumped a couple which can be expected fishing a flick tip and barbless hooks.

The all out was called and I supposed I had 12 to 15lb of fish, I had around 80 or 90 fish in total but felt as they were roach I needed about nearer 200 to at least be competitive. Rob had a few more, not masses more when I went and looked at his net but as I said, he had silver bream that were all at least 2oz per fish bigger than mine, I reckoned he had low 30lbs or maybe a bit more.
We had heard that the early pegs had done ok with 40lb estimates given by Jamie Cook, he isn't usually far out.
Ziggy and John Fuidge had a good dozen big skimmers each in the small match and looked nailed on to be the top 2 in that match.

On to the weigh in, as the scales got to me, I was sure that Jason and Nigel had more than me, though they were not in my match, but I knew I had more that Dick on my right, he struggled on the feeder and tipped back. Rob and everyone to my right all looked and admitted to 30lb nets.
A look at the sheet saw Ziggy (24lb) and John (30lb) the top 2 in that match. Nigel and Jason had 15lb and ounces with Nigel 4oz ahead of Jason.

I was the 1st to tip on to the scales in the winners match and I had 20lb 12oz. That was a touch more than I expected, maybe I could have had 25 to 27lb had I not wasted time on the feeder, that wouldn't be enough but felt a fluked handful of proper 4lb+ bream were needed to have a remote chance of pick up, especially as I was getting small roach.
Rob had 31lb then Vic had a touch less including a massive perch.
I didn't watch anything else, preferring to get the car loaded and wait to say well done to the winners.

As expected the first 4 pegs did produce and the far end peg and the one before the inlet.
Congrats to Keith on the win and well done to all.

Results, all mostly feeder caught skimmers/bream.
1st, Keith Clapp, 50lb. Peg 2.
2nd, Bruce Hunt, 41lb 10oz. Peg 3
3rd, Jamie Cook, 38lb 2oz. Peg 9.
4th, Phil Clapp, 37lb 15oz. Peg 1.

Weigh Sheet.....Nice average weights there and not a carp in sight!!

So not my best result, the whip fish obviously had switched with the pressure and weather change and took an hour to come into range for the whip, maybe a waggler could have worked, maybe not.
When they did arrive it was like they wouldn't settle properly and there was a few blank spells during the match. But it was a fair match and the average weight must have been close to 30lb across the winner's match, decent fishing by any standard, especially with no carp.

Not sure if I am fishing or indeed where I will fish next weekend, but I have some casters and worms to drown so a few hours on the KSD or somewhere may cross my path after work tomorrow or Saturday.

Until next time, tight lines.
Lee

That was the year 2014.......continued

Moving on to the second part of my round up,  what happened in the warmer months and through to the end of the year...??

July, August and September
The 1st weekend of June began with the Pawlett Club's Silvers' Winners final, this was held at a lake I have never seen before, Quantock Lakes at Nether Stowey. It was a busy match catching small fish and hoping for a bonus skimmer or tench, alas I never had any and the day was won by Dave Nash (who chose the venue himself). Some guys, especially Jamie Cook, had carp problems all day, thankfully I never hooked one.
Moving on, the following week's match was a PSV arranged one at Sedges, on the Brick lake. Chris Davis won on the day and had over 60lb of silvers in his net, me, well I had 40lb of them to take the Silvers money.....Brick Lake Silvers showed up!!.
Avalon gave me second spot with the Clevedon match, caught mostly on the pellet waggler, my 89lb was almost half of the winners' net and I'd doubled 3rd spot's weight. I lost a good few fish in the reeds on the day to.

Paul Nicholl's and part of his 175lb+ Avalon net

The month ended with yet another poor showing for me at Viaduct, Campbell lake, with a Tourettes induced Chris Davis sacking over 200lb despite getting through net handles and topkits during the 6hr contest.
As we moved into August the weather warmed up considerably and it began with another win for Chris Davis as PSV had a match on the Match Lake at Landsend, I managed a late run of fish to take 4th spot, first out of the money. But I really enjoyed the match but a length of very strong line caused me to lose a fish that cost me 3rd on the day.
I was really looking forward to the Pawlett match on the Huntspill River at Withy Grove, a venue I had spent a lot of my youth fishing but hadn't fished it must in the last decade or so. It was pretty well attended and 22 of us all caught fish. The highlight of my day was a 3.5lb hybrid, a stunning looking beast, sadly I never got a photo, but everyone commented on it at the weigh in.
My 7lb managed to pick up section money and 5th on the day. The match was won with over 20lb by Keith Clapp.
Before that match I fished a match that was a Clevedon vs Frys contest held on Durleigh Res, a venue I feel that doesn't get enough matches on it, I managed just over 20lb of mostly roach for nowhere on the day but the roach sport wasn't fully exploited by me as I tried to catch bream and carp on the feeder with no joy!!
Last match of July was at Sedges, Brick Lake, and I finished one out of the money again in 4th spot, but it was a good day fishing as is the usual scenario at one of the best fisheries around.
As the kids headed back to school, September looked to be a month of travelling with Pawlett's club day out being held at Ridgeway Fishery aka Walters Lake up on the Cotswold Water Park area, a snake style lake that has produced big nets in the past, but seems to have less hectic in the last 12-18 months. I did manage to scrape 4th or 5th and win my section money on the day. The top 2 were separated by an ounce, Jamie Cook taking the honours ahead of Eric Fouracre.
Another Campbell lake blow out for me was followed up with the annual PSV weekend away, this was held in gorgeous surrounds, but the fishing was very tricky over the 3 day/3 lake event.

Nice Views

Stunning Venue.....

Over the 3 days I got lucky enough to take a 2nd spot and 2 match wins to secure the overall event.
I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend, read how it went.........Holgan Farm Weekend.
Lastly in September was another match at Viaduct, a not so great draw for me again, peg 130!! was made worse when the 2nd ticket I picked out at the draw I gave to Steve Fouracre. He went on to win from peg 80 with just over 200lb.
I managed to secure some money with a late run of fish giving me a net of 108lb or so and 6th over the Cary and Campbell lakes.

October, November and December
As we moved into the rear end of the year, as temps were due to drop, fishing was being patchy everywhere with the lack of rain and it seemed that no venues were truly fishing to how they should.
My October began well when I drew peg 7 at Sedges, on Brick Lake. I managed to catch 32lb+ of silvers, which was the best on the day, but my carp boosted my net to 83lb, finishing 3rd on the day, which was won from a true flyer of a peg...peg 10..!!
The following week was my 1st trip up to Harescombe, a venue I heard had lots of F1's and skimmers with carp being bonus fish.
The venue is set in a gorgeous valley, but we had murky , cold and fog all day, but I enjoyed it despite coming nowhere on the day.
Shiplate Main Lake peg 15 was my home a week later, a brilliant draw usually and so it proved with me putting a good few fish in the net in my winning 156lb+ was 100lb clear of the next best on the lake and around 90lb clear of the best Westpool weight. If you want, take a look at this blog...!!
I dnw'd at the last match of the month, as temps dropped and fish moved, I drew peg 130 on Campbell lake. I got home in time to watch some footy though!!
November began over at Landsend, peg 1, with the PSV guys, I struggled to 46lb or so and I wasn't the only one. Chris Gay won fishing maggots and worms over groundbait in the margins from peg 16.
Trinity Wildmarsh provided a 3 peg battle for the silvers and framing places, except 1st spot as that was sewn up by Brian Shanks. I came out 3rd in the battle with John 'the gimp' Bradford and Darren North, they had both caught bonus fish where as I hadn't, but I took home some money so it wasn't all bad. I really enjoyed that match and made a nice change away from carp.
A match on the Bridgwater/Taunton canal was fished with Pawlett Club, it was due to be on the Parrett, but rain put paid to that, but I had a nice day and finished 5th.
I followed this up with a DNW at Shiplate and the month of December was soon upon us.
The month of Christmas began with PSV's Christmas match on Bitterwell Lake in Coalpit Heath near Bristol.

Bitterwell Lake

If you want to read how the day panned out and see that I came 5th, read PSV Xmas Match blog.
Pawlett held their annual Christmas match at Sedges a week later, I plucked a peg I didn't fancy in the form of peg 30. But I fished ok to take the section money with 45lb, the best weight off that bank.
Acorn Paddock Lake was the venue for Clevedon's xmas match, it was bloomin hard and I managed a couple late carp to go with my silvers money winning 2lb 12oz skimmer. I drew peg 1 in that match, only to be told that it is very rarely put in the draw,!!
I did manage to squeeze two open matches in either side of the Clevedon match, 1 on Brick where I had peg 11 and on the other match I plucked peg 27, both times I managed to finish 4th and a couple of envelopes to add to my holiday funds.  So I had picked up in 5 consecutive matches after that result.
My year ended how it began with a match at Summerhayes, this was on Longs lake. It wasn't the busiest of days when it came to actual fish catching, my 8lb 15oz was 6th or 7th out of 15, but I really enjoyed it.


So that was a (sort of) brief summary of my 2014 match fishing, some decent results along the way, but best of all I had enjoyed it. I learned loads and found that I was pretty consistent.
I managed to pick up in 26 or 27 of the 61 matches (except White Acres week) so a 45% ratio isn't too bad.
For 2015 I hope to improve on my pick-up ratio and hopefully bag a few decent draws at the MMT's and Fisho qualifiers. A good result at Viaduct and Sedges Tile lakes wouldn't go amiss either. Also trying to squeeze in another festival at White Acres may be on the cards.

Here's to 2015, Have a Happy, Prosperous and Enjoyable year.

Take Care and Tight Lines.

Lee

Clevedon v Frys, Durleigh Res, 10-08-14

Today was a match I booked into on Thursday afternoon as I wasn't sure if I wanted to fish this weekend, but I did but I wasn't too keen on it. But needs must etc.....

Durleigh Res, Looking across from the entrance.

I arrived today at around 8:15, plenty of time before the draw, which was delayed until 9am, fish 10:30 til 16:30. We had both banks booked, but were sadly low on numbers and ended up with 8 on the far bank and 7 on the lodge bank, so 120 quid for the venue meant payouts were lower than we'd hoped. It is a shame as the reservoir is a good fishery.
I dipped my nets and had a bit of a chin wag before the draw.
The draw came and I managed not to draw the expected hot pegs which were the 2 on the lawn straight after the dam wall, especially with the wind due to be pushing into that area.
I picked peg 20, the furthest walk on the day.....Mark Bromsgrove and Barry Fowler had the pegs by the dam.

After the long hike with too much kit.....why I took my pole I don't know!! I arrived at my peg, had a drink and started to set up.
I had 3 feeders set up, 1 with the method feeder using boilies or banded pellet, 1 with a pellet feeder with similar hook baits and lastly an open ended jobbie for worm, corn, caster or dead reds.
I also set up a 3m whip and a 3.5m whip for the roach.



View from my peg/

Bait was 6pts of hemp, 2 pints of caster, a large tin of corn, 3kg-ish of groundbait, wetted 4mm's for the method and a selection of hookbaits including worm and boilies.
I mixed up 2kg into balls to be fired out on the feeder line and the last kilo or so would be for fishing through the open ender and odd ball on the whip line. I mixed a pint of caster, some dead reds a large handful of corn and 1pt of pellet to the mix.

The all in sounded and I cattied the groundbait out and flicked some hemp/caster/corn on the whip line. I began on the open ender and had a couple roach on 5 dead reds before my 1st pike was hooked, it took the fish which looked like a nice skimmer....bugger.
I kept in the feeder line for a few hours, hooking at least 4 more pike, each one taking skimmers...not roach...typical. I did land a couple 12oz skimmers and a couple roach.
Down to my left a few bream and skimmers had been had, but the whip lines were quiet from what I could see.

After 3hrs or so I gave up on the feeder line, the pike were annoying, but the bream were noticeable in their absence!! I did lose a carp ( I think) that wrapped round the tip and broke the hooklength.

By this point, I had lost interest as the lad to my left was on his 5th or 6th bream and Andy Hembrow further down had a couple carp and some bream in his net. Word had it that the pegs by the dam, on the lawn area, had a good few fish with Barry Fowler sacking up.
The couple of guys, Merv Sivell being one, who were fishing the whip had caught a few, but looked like lots of  1/2oz blades were present.

So with around 2.5hrs left I decided to try the whip, and this is more or less how I spent the rest of the match.
I started off on single caster, but got plenty of baby 1/2oz skimmers, so I upped the feed and switched to corn or occasionally double caster on the hook, this bought me decent sized roach between 3 and 8oz, with odd rudd and perch chucked in too. I even hooked a carp, which didn't stay hooked for long!!

The all out was called and I guessed I had 15lb maybe which was 1.5lb of skimmers and bits on the tip and the rest whip fish.

After starting to pack up the scales made their way to me, my net went 20lb 14oz, slightly more than I thought, but a poor weight on the day, I only got to see the next weight which was 29lb of bream/skimmers caught on the method next to me. Andy Hembrow had a couple carp, one of which jumped out of his keepnet, reducing his weight by a decent margin!!

As I made the haul back to the lodge I found out that Barry had around 75lb and Mark B. 45lb or so.
The lodge bank gave a few weights between 35lb and 39lb, some roach, some bream weights.

I never stayed for the results, but I shall update them when I get them through. I wasn't last mind you, there were a couple less than mine....

In hindsight, I should have stuck to fishing the whip all day, I wouldn't have won but may have snuck into one of the other 3 paying spots. I am surprised I didn't get any amount of bream, I didn't fish badly or anything, I just think the fish had moved on the wind, especially late on, which was obvious given that the lad next to me, Andy Hembrow and Adie Baker had a dire last 2hrs when the wind was at it's strongest. The pike were a pain in the arse too....I think I hooked at least 6, maybe more, I lost track.

Next up for me is a match with Pawlett on the Huntspill at Withy Grove.

Until next time, take care.

Lee


EDIT:
Results:

1st...Barry Fowler 75lb 10oz
2nd...Mark Bromsgrove 47lb 2oz
3rd...Lance Tucker 39lb
4th...Paul Faires 38lb

Since my last post.....

Things have been busy-ish for me recently, with the school holidays and stuff taking up time, I have failed in keeping this blog thingy up.

So a quick (I hope) summary of my recent goings on.(and have just realised I never published my Avalon write-up).

I had a pleasure session up Durleigh last week, it was on the 20th, I fished up on the Lodge Bank, a swim along the Lawns area was ok, I mostly fished the 3m whip only for around 4.5 to 5hrs. It was a fish a chuck. But I did have a long pole line with balled groundbait in case any skimmer/bream/carp arrived as a few better fish were mooching on the surface.
I filled the best part of the bottom 3 rungs of my net with roach, rudd, perch and small skimmers, all to around 12oz. I had at least 70lb of fish, I struggled to lift the net, and had to tip over half away before a quick snap-shot of some of my catch.
I found the best bait for the better stamp of fish was corn, even the billy perch took a liking to it.
The long (13m) pole line bought better fish, but nothing substantial, and I was getting pestered by whip fish, even 3oz roach were taking double corn or big lumps of paste on a size 10 hook. That was hard work. So pretty much stayed on the whip. I was catching 12" deep in around 2.5ft of water, but I did shallow up to 6" deep and found a better stamp.
It really was hectic. I fed 6pts of hemp and 2 of caster and 2 tins of corn.

My swim...

A few of my catch

After that day I had an evening match on the canal lake on Sedges, the last of the summer. I landed just over 29lb and 4th in the match. It was hard work though. Jamie Cook won it I think with around 50lb.

 

The Saturday just passed had me fishing the last of Clevedon's Saturday Series. This time on Acorn's Top Lake. I had no chance of getting anywhere in the series, but it was an afternoons fishing,

This turned out pants for some, the fishery was struggling with oxygen levels and had pumps and aerators on to try and up the water quality.

Anyways I drew what was peg 10 for the match, right on the corner on the road bank (I would not have even pegged it), I had the aerator in front of me at around 8m and the irrigation pump on the main lake behind me making a hell of a noise and blowing diesel fumes at my pegs. Thankfully this was only on for around 2hrs, but long enough to make my head ache and eyes water.

Rod Wotton was opposite me, he was less than pleased too.

 

Anyways I struggled for bites in my 4 baited areas(paste line at 10m, micros line at 8m and caster line at 8m, plus to my left on the top kit), I did have maybe 4lb of bits and a single carp by the time I tipped back with over half an hour left. Rod had struggled, but managed 4 or 5 carp while I packed up. He caught to the end bank, and had a chance of 1st or 2nd in the series.

I couldn't fish my end bank properly due to it constantly being full of crap, I cleared it with a pole cup every so often, but it only stayed clear for a few minutes. There were odd carp taking bits off the scum, but no numbers of fish.

My open water swims only gave odd bits to soft pellet over micro. Maybe the fish didn't want to be near the aerator.

A bit further up the lake Brian Slipper and Kev Perry caught a few, I couldn't see the other 6 and don't know how they did.

The results saw Mark Bromsgrove win with 53lb, Bri Slipper was 2nd with 38lb, Kev Perry had  27lb for 3rd.

Mark won the series and £100, he had 6 points from his best 3 results. Good fishing.

Rod was second in the series with 7 points.

The noisy neighbour on the main lake

Duff swim for my match.

 

 

On Sunday I fished a match up Durleigh with (or should I say for) the PSV guys, for a match against Frys. I turned out to be the sole PSV representative.

I drew peg 16, which was about 5yrds from where I fished in the week.

To sum up my match, I wasted 2hrs on the tip for a 4lb bream and a small hybrid, after the pegs either side of me had bream. The other 4hrs was spent on the whip for 24lb of roach, the perch and rudd never showed, possibly due to the wind blowing into my bank and the cloudy weather (it was blowing towards the far bank in the week, in the sun).

I weighed 29lb 8oz and was leading for the first 6 or 7 pegs. But after that there were a couple 30lb+ weights and I think a 48lb catch won it. But it was decent fishing again. I should have stayed on the whip, I would have had maybe 35lb+ if I had stuck with it.





I had less fish on corn (as expected) and only fed 1/2pt caster and less than a pint of hemp, but they were not responding as well, probably due to the wind....

 

I had a 3hr pleasure session on Tuesday evening, on Walrow Snags pond, I took my daughter with me, I had wanted to catch bream on the pole, but alas they never showed, but I had a few silvers. My daughter had loads of roach, rudd and perch on the whip and caught more than me (as expected). But I enjoyed fishing in over 14ft of water, it made a change. I shall have another go next week maybe.

 

 

Next up is the 2 day match/festival on Sedges this weekend. Maybe I will do ok....let's hope so.

 

Take care and tight lines.

Lee



 

Durleigh Reservoir - Clevedon Club Match (vs Fys)

Well what a sunny 'summer' we seem to be having, good for the tan, not so good for the fishing.
Thursday's evening match at Sedges was dire for most, the fish just lounging on the surface not doing much.

However onto today's match, which was at Durleigh Reservoir, a venue I had not match fished (or in fact not carp fished) for years and years. Despite only living a mile or 2 from the venue, I have found it increasingly popular with the carp angling fraternity, there are loads of hard fighting carp to over 20lb in the reservoir. They regard the large head of bream as a pain, they do get caught on boilies etc with regular occurrence.
I had ordered an RCT rigger platform, which was due to me on the Friday past, but it didn't arrive, so after a bit of a search to try and get one for today, I managed to wangle one from Shawn Kitteridge, thanks mate. Mine will be with me on Tuesday.

Weather today was warm and sunny, a breeze blowing from the NE into the lodge bank and down the ressie. I arrived at the lodge around 20 mins before the draw and all the talk was about the carp being weighed as 3lb each, that and Rod Wootton's considerable size, he was becoming disillusioned with the fact you can drive to the pegs, and that pellet shallow wont usually win you much.......

The draw was called at 9am-ish, there would be 3 sections, C--section being the far bank section from the life buoy to the dam wall/lawns swim (p7-p1 left to right as you look across).
B--section would be p8 (just past the race hut) to p15 which was just past the point swim.
A--section was the long grassy swims toward the far end of the lodge bank, pegs 16-22.

Into the hat goes my hand, out comes peg 12, on the lodge bank. Not too bad I thought, but I did have to walk past the swim, down the slope at peg 16-ish and back along the stones to my peg.

View from my peg - at the end of the match

 

 

When I got to my peg I decided that I wouldn't fish the pole, so set up a 5m whip, a waggler (remained unused), a method feeder rod (8lb line to 0.22 and size 14 hook) and a standard groundbait feeder rod (4lb mainline >12" of 0.14 matchteam to a size 16 B520)

Bait would be mainly hemp, caster, maggot and some groundbait (50/50 noire and sensas lake for the whip and feeder, sensas method mix for the method rod). I also had a bunch of worms as change hookbait along with some 8mm pellet and 8mm boilies for the method rod.

 

Some of the guys had set up in a semi-specimen way, targeting the carp and bigger bream with scaled down carp tactics, ie method feeder, boilies and pellets.

Others had gone traditional with worm/caster/maggots through an open-end feeder.

 

The all in sounded at 10:30 and to my right came a barrage of balls of groundbait being fired to a marker, I think it was Andy Hembrow. Adie Baker on the end peg had also fired some balls out as well. Those first pegs are deeper and hold carp and bream all year round, but there are a few snags to boot.

 

I started on the open-end feeder with maggot on the hook, immediately I was getting taps and knocks, and soon had a little roach in the net, I had fed the whip line too with hemp/caster, as this line can do really good bags of roach. After 20 mins I had given up on the feeder, I was getting taps/knocks on the drop, whatever hookbait I tried resulted in small fish.

Onto the whip, I had put a small 2bb Drennan on the rig, and had 4.5ft of depth, line was 0.12>0.10>size 18 b520 hook. Immediately I had bites on the drop and a succession of roach were hooked, though a few were falling off.

I stayed on the whip for the next 5 hours, only trying the feeder rods when I needed to rest the swim or had to make a new whip rig (which I did twice thanks to the shot pinching the line too much and breaking it). The reason for this was the lack of activity of substance by the 2 Frys anglers each side of me, they were only having the odd skimmer and were getting 'bitted out'.

The few spells I did have on the tip rods resulted in a few more roach (one took a 8mm boilie on the method), a skimmer of a pound on the boilie and a lost skimmer of a couple pounds, which came when I wasn't watching the rod, it took 3 hair-rigged worms on the method rod!!

 

I was getting a fish a chuck all on the drop, usually in the top 6" of water, as was Paul Faiers on peg 15, Jonny Page on p14 was getting a fish a chuck and the angler on peg 16, all on the whip/short pole. Meanwhile Andy Hembrow had landed a carp and a few bream, Adie had 1 carp and a couple bream.

I found that the fish were taking really shallow, and could be seen swirling at the loose feed, I couldn't get my rig to the deck, but I was happy and continued catching.

If bites tailed off or the fish got too small I found a tennis ball sized lump of groundbait helped bring them back, continually feeding hemp and caster in smallish quantities. When I fed heavier it made no difference given the amount of roach present.

 

The all out sounded and the roach were still lined up.....

I packed away and waited for the scales, Andy Hembrow had weighed 34lb inc 1 carp and a few bream, I though I maybe had 20lb, I thought that Jonny Page had 20lb too and Paul Faiers a bit more.

Onto the scales goes my net.......30lb 8oz, nice. But as it turned out it was the first of a bulk of weights from my peg upwards.....Jonny Page weighed 28lb+ of mostly roach, Paul had 39lb of similar and then there were more good nets of fish. The bream had shown from the pegs just after the point.

 

As it turned out the venue had fished well.

 

Results:

1st - James Gunther - 58lb 4oz - p5 (mixed catch bream/roach)

2nd - Merv Sivell - 52lb 4oz - p1 (roach catch!!)

3rd - Warren Bates - 44lb 12oz - p18 (mostly roach and maybe a bream I think?)

4th - Derrick Coles - 42lb 7oz - p16 (roach catch I believe)

5th - Paul Faiers - 39lb - p15 (roach!!)

6th - Rob Fogg - 37lb 20z - p18 (roach? odd bream?)

 

Weigh Boards

 

 

So all in all I was pleased with how I fished, but a bit annoyed as I dropped/bumped maybe 5lb of fish when swinging them in, but both Jonny and Paul suffered this too. Maybe a soft elastic kit would have helped?

Also I wish I had/bought a 2 or 3 metre whip as I could see them swirling at the feed, even when I fed too short. This may have resulted in more fish landed. The roach were maybe averaging 2oz each, odd bonus one to 6oz, which seemed to come really shallow.

 

It is not too often you fish matches with the roach weights we saw today and it was obvious who had caught well for them as they ended up a mess.

 

Covered in roach slime - Nice!!

 

I have another match on Durleigh in a few weeks, but next up for me is a match on Saturday on Viaduct Campbell, then the same venue on Sunday on  either Cary or Campbell.

 

I may have a few hours somewhere on Monday or Tuesday evening if I am in the mood.  Plus I have Thursday on Sedges Tile lake.

 

Until next time, Take Care

 

Lee