Larford Lakes, Fisho Qualifier, 05-06-16

Short and sweet today.

Larford Match Lake...

Me and the missus ventured up to Larford for my last feeble attempt at qualifying for the Fisho Semis this year (I doubt i'll take the Gold Valley ressie tiacket option), we arrived in good time and went to get a cuppa and some pellets from the café.
We bumped into Dom Sullivan who'd made the trip up and we discussed various things and surveyed the match lake, plenty of fish showing themselves, but they would wouldn't they?
We both fancied one of the 12 pegs that were put on Arena lake but Phil and his team had pegged the venue as he deemed fit..........but with 40 (yes forty) no shows, some people would get a bit more room.
I managed to get into the draw reasonably early and pulled speci 64, mid way along the far bank.
Dom drew 23 I think on the same lake and Jacko was up on peg 32.
I made my way round there and went about sorting my kit.

Tasty left edge, Larford Speci p64

Nice looking right edge, p64 Larford Speci Lake

Peg 64 Speci Lake at Larford

I had for company on peg 65, Simon Fry, but I also had 2 free pegs to my left, where myself and peg 61 couldn't reach....safe water zone methinks.
But there was loads of fish present all over the lake from around 20yrd out to the middle, the odd one ventured in closer. But these fish were shoaled up, some due to spawn, a few just have we were told.

A pellet waggler rod, a method feeder and 3 pole rigs (left and right edges on 1, a mugging rig and a short meat rig.) I had simple hemp, 8mm meat, 8mm pellets and some groundbait/dead maggots for the edges, plus an array of hookbaits from standard pellets through to 10mm boilies.

I was quietly confident of a few fish...........that didn't last as it was almost 2pm when I managed my 1st bite, a little 4 to 6oz carp on the short meat line.
I had my second fish, mugged on the pellet waggler, at around half past 2 and lost a foul hooker soon after.
I persisted with the pole lines and the waggler, but it was a struggle for most. Simon on peg 65 was on 3 proper carp but was getting some of the small stockies and a couple bream. The rest of my bank was struggling we were told, though Matt Marshall was getting more than most and rumour had it that Neil McKinnon was on about 40lb.
The opposite side of the lake, plus the end bank to my right, all looked to be struggling and quite a few were fishless.

My 3rd carp came at 3pm on the waggler, and my 4th and final proper carp came from my right margin with half an hour to go, my hopes of a late surge were unfounded!!
The all out was called, I packed up and went for a wander.
On my bank it looked like Simon's smaller stock carp and skimmers would be the difference between us, Matt Marshall, a nice lad, went through a few things he had done and he ended up with 10 carp for around 85lb
Neil Mckinnon had around 49lb and there may have been a 60lb from the end peg to my left.
To my right it was James Dent who may have done ok as he had some room.

Anyways, Phil Briscoe weighed me in, 34lb 2oz I think it went for 2nd or 3rd in section behind Matt and Simon (his small fish weighed 15lb!!) and he had 44lb 3oz.

We took the kit back to the car and made our way home

It turned out that Ian Giddins won from the same peg I had last year (I think), unfancied peg 54 on the Match Lake.
He had some late margin lumps and ended with around 120lb..........He also had 8 free pegs around him, so this proves the luck needed (plus be a decent angler usually). So well done him. Ritchie Hull was 3rd, but I am unaware of the rest, but a good few dnw's/blanks and low weights were recorded.
I was reasonably happy with my match, maybe I could have mugged a few on the pole, but really they weren't coming in to range properly until 3:40 or so, by then it was too late!!

Next up for me is the 2nd round of the Saturday Series, we have pegs 42 round to 67 at Trinity Wildmarsh, so at least we should all be able to see most of each other. It'll be tricky, but I hope it's a close match.
Then Sunday it's our club's (Pawlett) All-Winners final at Trinity Woodlands.

Until then, take care.
Lee

MMT Qualifiers at Larford (14th June) and Viaduct (20th June)

A quick sum up of my last couple of matches, both of which were nr 120 peggers in an attempt to qualify for the final of  Maver Match This.

Last weekend was up near Stourport at Maver Larford Lakes, a venue I have only seen a couple of times.
I arrived in plenty of time, drew around 10th as it was done in order of ticket purchase. Match Lake peg 12 would be my home for that match, not the best draw as I would have preferred to be up near the island. But a better draw than the Specimen lake, which by all accounts would be hard unless you drew the far end corners.

Larford Match Lake peg 12

I set up a waggler, a method feeder as this gave me most fish last time I was here.
A margin rig for against the 2 beds of reeds, a rig for meat in front at 6m plus a couple pellet rigs for 13m in front.
Simply my match began ok with a few f1's and skimmers in the opening half hour on the meat line, then the next 4.5hrs saw me tempt 2 f1's and a carp on the feeder and a few skimmers on the meat.
I tipped back around 30lb.
Graham Dack won from peg 28 on the match lake with around 170lb, a peg by the island.
The Speci lake was poor, a good few went fishless and sections were won with 10lb.

Today saw the MMT carnival at Viaduct, a somewhat more local venue.
Again I arrived early and took a walk around the lakes, not much jumped out as a 'want' peg, though I did like the look of Match Lake peg 45, though 42 looked ok. On middle the narrows looked ok, Spring lake, well 17 and 18 or 4 would do. Around to Lodge and 64 or 66 perhaps 73 would be my wish.
I didn't fancy Cary really, perhaps 81 or 85. Campbell had fish spawning like mad and would no doubt be tough, but 110 to 115 would be nice, 121, 124 or the pegs by the spit would be my personal preference.
At the draw I drew ok, peg 121 on Campbell. A nice right margin and short in front would be my ideals for today.
I set up a lead (fishless), a rig for right hand edge, a rig for pellet long and short along with a shallow rig (all 3 fishless) and a rig for the left hand edge (unused).

P121 right hand edge

P121 in front

Again I will cut a short story, I managed 3 carp in the first half hour down to my right on meat over toss-potted hemp and meat.
I then had a few roach, which coincided with the spawning slowing down......
The next 3.5hrs or so gave me a bunch of small skimmers and tench along with some chunky roach.
All the while I could see pegs 111, 112 (especially) and 114 all catching a few.
My end of the lake pegs 116 up and around to about 126 was very slow with not many carp being caught.
The last 30 mins of the match was a little more productive in that I landed 6 carp, lost 3 foul hookers, all from the right edge.
I didn't weigh, perhaps I should have, but my clicker showed 52lb for carp and I had around 10lb of silvers (inc a baby 3oz common). This 60lb-ish total could have been close to a pick up, even by default as others also tipped back!!
Pete Upperton on peg 112 won I believe, and local 'star' Freddy Roberts came 3rd, I don't know any other results, but on Campbell the southern end fished better, but most guys commented how that the fishing went very slow once the spawning had stopped.

Next for me is a match tomorrow at Shiplate with Pawlett, we have the Main lake (my preference) and Hawthorn canal lake. Lets hope them carpies have all spawned out and are munching!!

Until then, take care.
Lee

The year that was 2014........Part 1.

Well I wish all my readers a Happy New Year and hope you all stay healthy and enjoy the coming 12 months.

So I am just about to give you all a quick overview of the last 12 months on the bank, how my match fishing went and ending with what I am hoping to look forward to in 2015.

January, February and March
The year started off by mostly fishing the Avalon Teams of 3 series, my Woolavy Wanderers had began the series well enough and were towards the top of the pile. Myself, James Withers and Paul Wharton had all picked up some money in several rounds, but as the series went on things got tougher and my side drifted down the table to somewhere more 'realistic'. It was an enjoyable though and the winning side were The Sedges (Jamie Cook, Phil & Keith Clapp). My best individual result was a 3rd overall.
In the meantime I fished a match, my 1st and only match in fact, at Summerhayes. I dnw'd on a tough day on Sellicks.

My Sellicks peg at Summerhayes

Other notable matches came in the form of a 3rd placed finish at Lands End, mostly perch and F1's caught on prawns, plus the odd bonus carp in my 47lb net. This qualified me for the Silvers Winners Final with Pawlett Legion AC..
A February match on Shiplate's Main Lake with Clevedon AC was enjoyable and went to plan, catching 13lb+ of skimmers on soft pellet and added 3 margin caught carp to this, securing 2nd spot in the match. Shiplate Main Lake is one of my favourite venues.
Pawlett club also had a match on the Bridgwater/Taunton canal, where I didn't weigh but it was won with over 66lb of mostly tench.
March ended with a PSV match on Plantation's Main lake, where an enjoyable, but sort of frustrating day saw me string a run of edge caught lumps boost my pellet waggler caught bag to 66lb 8oz to secure 2nd spot but take the 1st money prize by default.
Here's my post of the match Plantation PSV Match, March 2014.

April, May and June
The month of April started off with a week at White Acres for the Dynamite Baits Festival, my 1st ever experience of such an event. Myself and Withers were in the caravan next to Keiron Rich, and plenty of 'names' were fishing as well as a good influx of Somerset based anglers including Dan White, Jamie Parkhouse and Ben Hagg to name a few.
I could go into loads of details of the week, but simply I found it a massive learning curve and learned loads throughout the week, especially with F1 fishing and the need to catch silvers in quiet spells.
I did manage a pick-up during the week, at what I thought may be my strong card, Porth Reservoir.
You can read the daily updates from the drop downs on the right hand side of this page.
I do hope to get onto a festival in 2015.
On returning from the festival I had a few matches over the following weeks, starting with a Clevedon match on Trinity Waters' Woodland lake, only half a dozen of us fished but we averaged over 82lb per man with myself taking the honours with 117lb+ and my 1st Clevedon match win.
I then picked up section money during the Pawlett Silver's match at Sedges before a few blow outs at the same venue.
A trip to Larford Lakes for a Fishomania qualifier was a new experience for me and I did ok from a not-so-great area, just missing out on a pick-up due to an angler bagging a last gasp munter from his margin. A similar story at Viaduct for the MMT and Fisho qualifiers, drawing non-competitive pegs hindered further progress in the competitions.
May began with a Clevedon match at Avalon, I drew peg 1 and true to form I didn't trouble the opposite end of the lake where the warm wind was heading.
I redeemed myself on Shiplate's Westpool during a blind pairs match with the same club, 2nd on the day and 1st on the lake was how it ended with myself and partner Adie Baker securing 3 points, though we lost out on weight!! Here's how.....
An MFS 2-day event followed, with me winning my section from peg 86 on Cary on the 1st day with 142lb 3oz. The 1st day was won with nearly 300lb by Dan White from peg 110 on Campbell.
The 2nd day gave me a nice 90lb bag from Campbell, but that would never compete with the top 5 catching over 180lb each on the 2nd day
The last 2 matches of the month were PSV matches at Trinity Woodlands and Landsend Match + Speci lakes. The 2 matches gave me good draws and I somehow managed to convert them into successive wins.
June was a busy month with plenty of matches including a MMT match at Viaduct, but I didn't draw any good at that match, but did get suntanned feet!!

Sun Tanned Feet.......

The rest of the month saw me not pick up at Sedges, Viaduct and Trinity (Pawlett all winners final) as well as on Hawthorns lake at Shiplate.  My draws were not the best, maybe my luck had run out in the previous couple weeks?
My last match of the month gave me an envelope at Avalon, with PSV, where the defaulted 3rd place money helped top up my holiday funds.


So that was the first 6 months of the year briefly covered.

Lee

Fishomania qualifier at Larford Lakes 26-04-14

The weekend just gone was a busy one for me with a couple of matches to fish.
Firstly I had the Fishomania qualifier at Maver Larford Lakes near Stourport, this would be the 1st time I saw the venue.
I left the house about 5:45 for the almost 2hr trip, I was shattered as a car alarm was going off regularly through the night, meaning less than 4hrs sleep was achieved.
An uneventful trip saw me rock up at the lakes at 7:30, I wasn't the 1st there so a cuppa was grabbed from the café before chopping some meat etc.

Shortly after 8am everyone started to arrive including a few locals in the form of Jacko (Steve Jackson), Andy Power and Steve Tucker. There was a buzz in the air as the 9am draw got closer.
I had a chat with a nice chap from Bath who gave me a few tips on the Speci lake. Plus I got chatting with Richard Wyatt who organises the MFS matches at Viaduct.
The draw arrived and myself and Rich were unsure of where to queue, fortunately a table was put in front of us and we ended up drawing about 4th and 5th in the line, behind Jacko and Andy Power.
We were told the Burr bank between Speci and Match lakes was boggy after loads of overnight rain, plus the Match lake pegs on the far side were under a few inches of water.

Into the tub goes my hand and pulls out peg 59 on Match, Rich had pulled possibly the best peg on the lake with Peg 42. I was told that it wasn't a great are by a couple anglers, but with the wind pushing down the lake you never know, Andy Kinder reckoned the 2 end pegs of the match lake should do ok.

I arrived, sweaty, at my peg, and there were plenty of skimmers and F1's topping, plus odd carp. I did hope for a few fish. Here a couple pics of my peg, note the pallet under water, there were others that had floated further out, including peg 58!!

I set about sorting my kit, I put my micros into soak, mixed some groundbait, put the box on the platform and assembled the bait brolly as the weather was due to be dire with heavy rain, thunder, hail and freshening winds predicted.
While setting up I was chatting to a nice guy on peg 58 and we had a great bit of banter through the day. The angler who had drawn peg 60 had also turned up, minus his kit, and proceeded to say that pegs 55 onwards were poor pegs and he wasn't going to fish...great!! But I did have an empty peg.

I set up a method rod for 30yrds out, a bomb rod and 3 pole rigs. Two pole rigs were for 7m out, one for meat and one for banded pellets. The 3rd rig was for a cut back in the margins almost into peg 60.
I shall not mention the pole rigs again despite trying all day, I only had a 3lb carp on the banded pellet line and that was hooked in the belly. The rig was pushing through with the tow at a rate of knots. The margins never gave a bite for me or peg 58.

The whistle sounded and the method feeder was lobbed out, 5 seconds in and I had a fish on, a 3lb carp was duly netted. A skimmer of 12oz followed soon after. Then it went quiet.
The next three hours saw me put a few F1's and small carp in the net and I had around 25lb.
A few guys opposite had packed up, but I was leading my section from what I could tell.
The angler on 58 had slightly less than me and lost a decent-ish carp. The angler on peg 61 only had a solitary F1 and a small carp. Over on peg 3 was Warren Martin who was catching reasonably consistently by now and doing well by the sounds of it.
Word came down that Rich was probably winning from flyer peg 42, fair play to him.

As we approached the last hour I had landed a couple more skimmers and another carp, but it was very slow for us at this end on my bank. Me and the guy on p58 seemed close on weight, peg 57 had struggled but had landed a couple decent fish, not much else. Peg 56 had given a few carp to the angler earlier on, but he wasn't in my section.
Peg 60 had landed 3 carp from his close in line, all decent carp, but was possibly a few pounds behind me. The rest of the pegs in my section had struggled, but the guy who was fishing the method on the second to last peg had began to catch.

The last hour was spent between the margins and the method, but I only had another 2lb F1.
It was a similar story for peg 58, peg 57 had a couple more carp. However peg 60 had a few lumps, the last 20 minutes saw him put 2 decent doubles in the net having lost a couple foul hookers. I shouted down to him that he'd won the section, he never believed me, but I reckoned on him having 50lb to my 30lb or so.

The hooter sounded and the all-out called. I began packing up, enjoying the banter with a few of the other guys. Jacko had landed 6 carp from his speci lake peg and Tucks, who was sort of behind me, had done well from his peg, he was defo top 10, maybe as high as 6th.
Rumour came down that Richard had lost out by 2lb or so, he did lose a fish at the net, but anglers always lose fish.
The scales arrived at my peg and I tipped 14kg 480g on the scales (32lb), peg 58 had 12kg (25lb-ish), then came peg 60, his 2 late fish put him to 20kg (44lb) before there were weights less than mine before the 2nd to last angler pipped my weight by 600g (2lb) thanks to a late carp of decent size.

I headed back to the car, loaded off and set off home after an enjoyable day.
I never stayed for the results, but it turned out Richard Wyatt had come 2nd, losing out to Andy Geldart by a couple pound. Unlucky mate.

Results:
1st Andy Geldart, Match peg 22, 50kg 620g
2nd Rich Wyatt, Match peg 42, 49kg 612g
3rd Warren Martin, Match peg 3, 36kg 720g
4th Ritchie Hull, Match peg 19, 35kg 160g
5th Craig O' Brien, Speci peg 14, 33kg.

So overall I enjoyed the day though I am a little gutted that I never had a margin fish or 2 which would have won me the section, especially given the empty peg next to me, but that's life, maybe I should have set up a line at topkit plus 1 section.......all hindsight...!!
I shall defo go back to Larford, maybe next Saturday for the Maver Match This qualifier. If not later in the year, it's not too far really and a nice drive.
I am a little gutted for Rich, but he did bloomin well to finish second and well done him for that.

That is it for my Fisho qualifiers this season, but will have another bash next year for sure.

Until next time, have fun.

Lee