Plantation Main Lake, PSV Match, 15-02-15

Plantation's Main lake was the venue for this week's match with the PSV guys, with only 11 originally booked in, the 'better' weather that was predicted saw us end up with 17 fishing, a decent turn-out including Pete Sivell and newbie Steve Sewell amongst the clan.

With all the chit chat, predictions and talk about what pegs are favoured (5, 7, 27, 38 were my choices), the draw was soon under way.
As usual I waited back and when I came to drawing there were 2 pegs left in the bucket. I took both out and let Steve Burgess choose either left or right hand, he chose left. He was on peg 11, me, I was on peg 29. I have only been pegged in this small area (pegs 28 to 33), so at the time I would rather have had peg 11. Oh well.

I made my way around to the peg to find I had Darren North on peg 31, we thought that p32 would have been in not 31 as that peg faced my swim/island.

peg 29, Plantation Main Lake.

I had agreed to give Adam Caswell some groundbait, which I did along with a bait tub to put it in!!

Anyways I set about mixing my groundbait, wetting some micros and sorting my tackle. I had for bait some micros, groundbait, maggots and 8mm pellets. Also some various coloured pellets for a change bait.
Tackle wise I set up 3 pole rigs, the 1st was aimed at silvers at 14m (maver float, 0.3g, 0.14>0.10>b611 size 20), the 2nd was for carp at 8m (but the same depth at long if require) and lastly a margin rig for down to my left at around 8m (0.4g NG Margin, 0.18>0.14>16 B911x), but despite it looking nice there I never had a bite.

Left hand margin....

I also assembled a method feeder and a waggler, both of which would be fished towards the island.

At the all in I cupped in a couple balls of groundbait on the long line plus some pellets and maggots on both of the carp lines.
1st chuck on the method feeder saw my tip bouncing around with liners, I really didn't fancy a repeat of last week where liners were my highlights!!
After a couple more chucks I was into my 1st carp, a baby of 1.5lb was safely netted, this followed 15 minutes later with it's twin.
I stuck on the feeder for the first couple of hours and at 12pm I was on 2 skimmers for possibly 1.5lb and 3 small carp for around 7lb.
Elsewhere Darren had landed a few skimmers, Alan Healey on peg 1 had landed a carp or 2, plus some small silvers, Ryan Radford on around peg 6 or 7 had landed a couple of skimmers and carp. It was tricky going though.
A look on the pole was my next move, well I had snagged and lost a feeder on an unseen 'feature', and this gave me a skimmer of around 1.5lb. 10 more minutes passed before I had a go on the waggler, but I didn't get any bites, so I swapped the float from a standard loaded waggler to a pellet type set around 12" off bottom and chucked that over(ish) where my feeder had mostly been going, I had a carp of 5lb right away before another snag too that rig...!!! grrrr.....

I chucked my feeder back out and soon found myself attached to my lost float rig, which in turn was attached to a snag, I wound this snag in and it turned out to be half a tree!!
Sadly doing this killed the swim and the rest of the match was patchy for me.
The remaining 2.5hrs saw me amass 3 more okay sized skimmers off the pole lines and although I struggled on the feeder and pellet waggler, I pulled out of no less than 7 carp during this period, most seemed foul hooked, but not all.

With half an hour to go I was on 5 carp and my skimmers, a look down my left margin didn't give any response (though Darren did manage on down his edge), the short pole line gave me 12oz skimmer. Another carp on the wag and 2 more on the method saw me end up with 8 carp for around 20lb, plus about 6lb of skimmers.
From those I could see (and those who'd packed up) I had done ok, but I heard that Chris Szakacs, Julian Nurse and Ryan Radford had a few carp, they'd all been pegged close together so the fish were in that area of the lake.

I packed my kit up, took it back and loaded the car.
I followed the scales, beginning with Alan in peg 1. His few silvers and half a dozen carp gave him a total of 26lb 4oz. Pete Sivell on peg 3 weighed around 12lb. Julian Nurse popped 37lb on the scales before Chris Szakacs took the lead with 56lb+. There wasn't much after this until we got to John Bradford and his silvers net of 11lb 9oz took the silvers lead. A couple more guys weighed in before it was my turn, my 1st weigh (silvers) was just over 8lb and was soon topped up by my under-estimated carp net of 32lb+. My total was 40lb 11oz to put me into 2nd spot.
Darren was next, I reckoned on him having 15lb of silvers and perhaps 9lb of carp. Infact it turned out that his 2 carp gave him 12lb 12oz, his silvers went 15lb 12oz to give him the silvers lead at this point.
Next up was Lionel Legge and Steve Sewell on pegs 38 and 39 respectively. Lionel did well on the silvers front, 12lb 5oz was his total, moving him to 2nd spot in the silvers. Steve Sewell put around 10lb of silvers and a sole 5lb carp onto the weigh sheet, not a bad 1st outing with the club, I am sure he enjoyed the match.

Results:
1st, Chris Szakacs, p5 56lb 14oz
2nd, Lee Williams, p29, 40lb 11oz
3rd, Julian Nurse, p4, 37lb 5oz
4th, Ryan Radford, p6 34lb+ (not in the pools)
5th, Darren North, p31, 28lb 8oz
6th, Alan Healey, p1, 26lb 4oz

Silvers:
1st, Darren North, p31, 15lb 12oz
2nd, Lionel Legge, p38, 12lb 5oz
3rd, John Bradford, p27, 11lb 9oz

So all in all a productive match and most peeps managed a few silvers and odd carp, for me it was a matter of unseen snags, lost fish and a few lost pieces of tackle. If only I could have caught a carp or 2 on the pole as the pole caught carp at the venue tend to be somewhat larger than those that inhabit the islands' margins.
We were told that the owners have plans to tidy the pegs and clear what they can of the snags/branches that are in the margins and around the island. This will be good as the fishing is pretty good and I enjoy fishing there.

Next up is a match on Cary and Campbell at Viaduct with Pawlett, judging by recent results, it looks like a lotto at the draw bag.....PSV are on the Match lake on the same day, I expect most of the gusy should get some bites.

Until next time, 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

PSV match, Plantation Main Lake 23-03-14

Sunday's match saw me fishing a PSV match on the Main Lake at Plantation Fishery. 

I was looking forward to this as I like the lake, it can be challenging but the rewards are there.

18 of us fishing saw the pegs well spaced,  they can be awkward at times with people facing each other etc.

Anyways at the draw I stuck my hand in towards the end of the queue and out popped peg 32,  an okay peg with an island chuck if I can avoid the trees above and a bay to my left and set behind me.

Arriving at my swim the odd rudd were topping but it didn't look great as the wind was pushing from behind me across to the low number pegs.

 

In front of peg 32, Plantations Main Lake

The margin to the left p32, Plantation Main Lake

Baits were simply 6mm meat,  a few maggots and pinkies left over from last weekend,  some micros,  6mm and 8mm pellets and some expanders. I never had more than a half pint of each pellet and only 1/4pt of the maggots. Some groundbait was mixed for the method feeder.

 

I set up a method rod for close to the island and 3 pole rigs.
The first rig was for the silvers and was an NG Caner float,  0.4g> 0.10 hooklength> b611 size 18. Solid 6/8 elastic completed the set up.
Next I had a margin rig consisting of an NG Margin HD, 0.2g on 0.20> 0.16>b911x size 14. Solid 18/20 was my laccy choice.

Lastly i set a rig up to fish at 13m towards the island.  It was an NG Power Pencil in 0.5g. Line and elastic was the same as the margin rig, I never had a bit on this rig so no more on that!!

 

On the whistle I cupped in some micros and a few maggots at 13m at the 11th clock line.  Some meat went in at the same distance toward the island,  I never had a bite here other than some trailing line,  so no more on that.
Lastly I cupped some wet 6's and meat down the edge to my left.

I started on the method feeder to the island but an hour of boredom set in and the rod was laid to rest for 5hrs.
Around me I could see the angler next door in peg 31 landing a few roach and odd better skimmer.  Also peg 28 had caught one or two carp and Mark Radford on peg 19 at the top end of the lake had began ok. But that is about it from what I could see.

 

The next hour or so saw me trying the pole lines,  I even tried a short line for some roach,  but all I could muster was 4 rudd and a roach.
By 1pm I decided to get the waggler rod out as a few good people were getting odd fish on pellet shallow, this was set up with a loaded Preston dura wag and I attached a size 18 b911 to a 0.14 hooklength and a banded 6mm or 8mm pellet would be the hook bait. 
I had a problem in that I had plenty of ducks in the swim and they were mopping up the loose fed pellet and generally being a nuisance.
Anyways I could Brian Shanks down on p28 doing ok on the pellet wag so i gave it a go.  Casting was awkward with the trees above and side wind but I soon got the hang of it and caught a couple carp.

 

By now it was around 2:20 and I was happy the edge swim which I had been feeding would give a fish or two, in a previous match I had two mid doubles in the last 30 minutes by fishing the same edge but from p33.
I checked with Si on peg 31 as to what time we finish, 4pm was the reply.

I only wanted to give the edge 30-40 minutes so I kept on the wag for another hour. It was still difficult to get regular bites as there was a duck sitting where I could get bites, only when it left an I could get into the gap was I expecting an immediate response.
I had also switched to feeding and fishing with an 8mm pellet, all i had dampened to get them to sink quicker. This helped as i had another 3 or 4 carp to 4lb, though I had to cast into a little spot in some reeds to get bites. I was pulling out of a few as the combination of dodgy mouths, iffy bites and the fact I couldn't let them have line didn't help.

 

Meanwhile over on peg 1, Steve Burgess had landed a few carp in the tip from what I could see and the lad in about peg 4 was also picking up odd carp on the pellet wag. Peg 38 (Darren North) was also getting bites from his margin. Brian Shanks had slowed down on p28.

By now it was 3:30 and I decided to look down the edge as the wag had died.  At this point i had maybe 20lb in the net.

My first look down the edge with meat saw me miss a bite but the second saw me connect with a carp and the 6lb fish was soon netted.  Next drop saw a similar result.  Third drop gave me a slightly bigger fish of maybe 8lb. A forth fish soon followed before my last one was around 10lb. I only fed 2 cubes of meat with each drop, nothing else.

So five carp in the last half hour more than doubled my previous 5 and a half hour's efforts.

 

The all out was called but I was sure I had around 40 to 50lb, from those around me I suspected that peg 28 had done well but other than that I knew I had done ok.

I loaded the trolley and put the kit in the car.
Catching up with the scales saw Steve on peg one have 30lb+ then we saw Ryan Radford put 73lb on the board from peg 11 but he doesn't do the pools, he caught well down the margin using corn/meat combo. Following on there was a 57lb weight from Mark Radford(p19) and a 15lb silvers net from peg 24. We soon got to Brian on p28 and he weighed in 62lb+. He had plenty of carp but no real brutes.
Si on p31 saw his silvers weigh 13lb.

Next up was me. My few silvers weighed ounces before my two weighs took my total to just over 66lb. It looked like I had come second on the lake but won the pools as Ryan doesn't enter them. 

 

A chat with a few of the guys showed that meat was the best bait for the carp and I am surprised I never had any on it on the long pole line. But with the weather all over the place it's hard to find any rhythm.

Results.(PSV's blog page may have the full results)

1st- Ryan Radford, 73lb - p11

2nd- Lee Williams, 66lb 8oz - p32

3rd- Brian Shanks, 62lb 2oz - p28

 

Sections.

Steve Burgess (p1), Mark Radford (p19), Darren North (p38)

 

Silvers.

Chris Davis, 15lb 10oz - p24

 

Overall I enjoyed the match and the confidence I had for my late run of fish in the edge definitely helped me, I had at least 35 to 40lb from those half dozen carp. There was a couple things I do regarding my feeding down the edges, but I think I will keep it under my hat for the time being.

 

What I will mention is the amount of snags/debris in the water, some guys were pulling branches out even on the 5m pole line. Also I hooked at least 5 lots of line being trailed by fish, which I found frustrating at the least.

However I am definitely looking forward to fishing more matches with PSV.

 

Next up for me is a week at White Acres for the first time as myself and James Withers take on the Dynamite Baits Festival. Then the Saturday we head home, we have an early departure from White Acres as I have a Fishomania qualifier at Viaduct......

 

Until next time,  take care.
Lee

Clevedon FWAC Xmas Match, Plantation Lakes, 22-12-13

Sunday's match was Clevedon FWAC's Christmas match. Both Horseshoe and the Main lake were in use by the rabble of attendees.
The weather forecast was showing as strong winds couple with heavy showers, some of which had a chance of being hail.

I arrived for the 8:30 draw in plenty of time, but alas it was delayed due to Horseshoe lake needing to be pegged. So the numbers went into the tub for a 9am draw.
I fancied a peg on the Horseshoe lake as it'd make a change, plus most thought it'd be a better chance of catching. There were 11 pegs on Horseshoe and about 20 on the Main lake, and with the payouts identical, top 3 plus 2 silvers on each lake, the chance on an envelope was significantly better on Horseshoe..
Anyways, I pulled out peg 27 on the main lake, the flyers of pegs 7 and 8 went to Lance Tucker and John Woolsencroft respectively. My peg had an island around 25m in front, but with 26 and 28 both pegged I didn't have any margin lines.

View from Peg 27, Plantation Main Lake

 

I set up a whip for any silvers, a pole rig for 13m on two spots (8/10 laccy, 0.4g NG Decker 0.14>0.10>b911f1 size 18) and a method feeder for towards to island.

Bait wise I had 1/2pt of each caster, pinkie and maggot. I also had a pint of micros and mixed a mix for the method. Some corn and pellets for hook baits finished off my tray.





I plumbed up on the pole line to find that the swim had a slightly deeper (2 inches) spot around 6ftx4ft big on the 10o'clock direction, so that would be my main attack. This was for micros/expanders.
The 2nd pole line was in the 2o'clock direction, this would be for maggot/pinkie/caster.
The whip line was fed with pinkie/maggot and to fish maggot, pinkie or caster on the hook.

The all in was at 10:15 and would fish for 5hrs. I baited small amounts of baits onto each line and I started on the method and within 10 minutes I was getting indications, but no bites, just a few liners etc. I tried various baits, dropped short, cast across with no bait on the feeder, all with no joy.
After the first hour the only angler I could see who had caught fish was Jonny Page, over on  peg 18. Everyone was struggling, we had been treated to a couple showers and the wind was gusty rather than constant.
At 11:30, after trying the pole line with no joy, just a single missed bite, I tried the whip and within 10 seconds I had a bite, I struck into some resistance. I landed the fish, a carp of around 1lb. Bonus.
Well I stuck with the whip for 10 minutes without another touch.
By 12pm the 2 anglers to my right had not caught, the angler on my left had a carp of around 3lb and I had been told that peg 8 was bagging. Jonny on peg 18 had landed a couple carp and Mike Owens on peg 12 had landed a few nice perch. Don Sutherland, on p31, had landed a carp or 2 fishing towards his island.

I spent the next two hours trying the method, pole and whip, all without luck, I missed a bite on the soft pellet over micro line during a rain/wind shower. So at 2pm I decided to do what I should have done from the start and set up a waggler. The liners on the method early on made me think about it, but the weather made me stay on my box.
First cast on the waggler cast towards the island, single maggot on the hook (0.10>b611 size 18), float dotted to a dimple. Within 10 seconds it disappeared and a 3oz roach was in the net, 'cool' I thought. Maybe a run of roach will come?
The next half hour saw me miss a couple bites before we has a massive hail storm coupled with really strong winds, some brollies blew inside out and everyone was frozen. This coincided in me not being able to see my float and I promptly lost a fish to the island when I saw the mainline rise out of the water. Bugger.
I tried the pole for 10 minutes at around 2:40 without a bite. So I was back on the waggler for the last half hour.
During this 30 minutes I landed a skimmer of a pound and a similar sized perch, I also lost a foul hooked carp and bumped 3 fish, whether they were perch or carp I don't know, but they felt ok sized.
I was also getting indications, which was a bonus, although 4 hours too late.

Elsewhere Paul Faires on peg 38 had been lead a merry dance by a carp hooked at the wrong end on light tackle. Don on peg 31 had a run of 3 or 4 carp. The angler to my left hadn't had any more fish, even trying the pellet wag. The chap on peg 26 was fishless, as was Rod Wotton on p25.
A few guys had packed up ages before and by all accounts Horseshoe was dire as well.
Even the flyer peg 7, with Lance Tucker at the helm, had not given him a bite.

The all out sounded and everyone packed up, peg 8 had obviously won, I think he had 12 carp, and there were a couple 15-19lb catches. But it had been hard.
The scales arrived at me, my carp went 1lb 7oz and my 3 silvers went 2lb something.

We had the presentation and raffle in the café, which was great, I managed to wangle 3 winning tickets, which made up for the lack of fish. But the biggest cheers went to the anglers who blanked, including Lance Tucker and Rod Wotton among the 8 who never caught.

The results:

Main Lake:
1st - p8 - J Woolsencroft - 64lb 10oz
2nd - p31 - D Sutherland - 25lb 8oz
3rd - p1 - P Nicholls - 19lb 12oz

1st silvers - p12 - Mike Owens - 6lb 14oz
2nd silvers - p23 - B Slipper - 5lb 3oz

Horseshoe Lake
1st - R Lovering - 15lb 5oz
2nd - G Calvert - 11lb 8oz
3rd - P Deacon - 8lb 3oz

1st silvers - A Hembrow - 2lb 2oz
2nd silvers - S Carvelo - 1lb 8oz

So all in all it was a very tricky day with over a 1/4 of the field not catching, plus we had a few weights of under 1lb, including 2oz and 4oz weights. But I enjoyed it, although I should have tried the waggler earlier.
My silvers was enough for 3rd or 4th best silvers weight, which shows how poor it was....lol

A great thanks to Adie and Clevedon FWAC for their generosity and everything this year, lets look to 2014 being just as good.

Next up for me is a match on the 29th, where I am on Avalon for the teams of 3 series, where I hope we can do well.

Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year to all the readers of my blog.....Thanks.

Lee


P.S......Bridgwater AA's Xmas match on the Bridgwater/Taunton canal was won with a massive 81lb of tench to Simon Garbutt, well done him. 2nd was 50lb+ and 3rd 30lb+. Plenty of roach, rudd and perch were caught throughout, which shows how good a venue the Bridgwater/Taunton canal can be, yet so under fished these days,

Plantation Fishery - Match Lake - Clevedon Club - 10/11/13

A first for me today, a trip to Plantation's Match lake in Kingston Seymour. A venue I had only seen pics in blogs and  a quick glance across the lake from the bridge.
I had gathered that the hot/best/flyer pegs tended to be island ones, with pegs 7, 8 and a few in the 20's being most consistent.

Well after a late night/early morning, I had little sleep before the 6:30am alarm was due to wake me.
I also had to take Mrs W. to work in Weston on the way up (and get her on the way back), so I had planned to drop her in Weston at around 7:45 and get to Plantation at 8-ish. Alas this went wrong, little did I know that Weston is being dug up and put back in a better state, well the roads are it seems.
So I got the car loaded and had a cuppa before setting off, as we approached junction 21 we could see cones....the north bound slip road was closed, so my foot pressed a touch harder on the accelerator and it was up to the next junction, and back down the M5 to the south bound exit at Weston. An extra 20 miles thus far!!.....we got into Weston at 8am. I left the wife and made my way back towards the M5, the road was closed, so the diversion was taken....all out to Banwell and then onto the A38, then back into Congresbury.......gggrr....a few extra miles driven and more time taken, I expected to be late but luckily, I arrived at the car park at 25 past.  As it turns out, the slip road on the M5 northbound should have been open at 5am, but they hadn't opened it!!

I went into the café and the draw was made, Nick Harvey wasn't present, he was told or thought it was a 9am draw. So we drew his peg first.
I drew my ticket about halfway along he array of hands and pulled out peg 33, this meant bum all to me, I had not ever seen any blogs or results which had this peg written on it, but everyone told me it was a waste of a peg, the worst peg in the match if not on the lake....Pagey and co pointed me in the direction of the pegs, none of which were numbered. They said it shouldn't be in and I would possibly struggle...more joys.
The general census was that the lake may fish hard with the cooler nights and recent rains, but today it began warm enough, so much so I sat in tee-shirt until the all out when it had become rather nippy.

Anyways I found my peg and it looked ok, nothing more, it was a bay type peg off the main lake.
For company I had nobody...well I had Kev Perry behind me on peg 31 and Rich  over on whatever peg number it was - probably peg 37?, well it was the point of a spit opposite the end of the island.

Peg 33....Plantation Match Lake

 



My focus was always going to be fishing for silvers, well unless I drew peg 7 that is.....so I had with me a couple pints of caster, some 4 and 6 mm pellets for in the band, some micros and expanders and I mixed up some groundbait. Lastly I had some worm for chopping. Caster had been doing well on here from reports, so this was my banker bait.

 

Rig wise I set up my 3m whip set at 2.5ft deep, this is now my usual go-to silvers rig at the start of a match, more through enjoyment than anything, but it does me ok.

I also set up 2 identical 0.4g NG floats for 11m in front left (in line with blue keepnet) and in front slightly right (in line with silvers net). The left hand side was a couple or so inches shallower, and was baited with mostly micros, the right-hand side was for groundbait with caster on the hook. Both lines were for the skimmers, which apparently run to over 2.5lb and maybe a few roach.

I also used the un-banded rig for over my whip line as the depth was the same. A chopped worm/caster line down my right margin was assembled, this was tried a couple times without even a sniff.....

 

The all-in was shouted and I potted 3 walnut sized ball of groundbait over that 11m line, a decent cup of wetted micros over the other 11m line. A small helping of CW&C down to my right

I began on the whip and after 5 or so mins I had a roach of maybe 3oz, then nothing for a bit before a similar sized roach was plonked in the keepnet, by the end of the first hour I had 4 or 5 roach around 3-4oz each, most people were struggling from what I could see, except Rod Wootton over on peg 39? who after a quiet period on the long pole line had switched to the margin and started catching a few carp.

 

The next hour or so only bought me a few more roach, mostly on the whip, though 1 from the groundbait line gave me false hope as this was only 1 of 3 fish from open water all day for me. The roach were all same sized and if they had stuck around in numbers were good weight builders, but that is a big IF...

By the time 2pm had arrived, I maybe had 2lb of roach. So I quickly set up another rig for tight into 2 new margin swims, one to my left at 11m towards the empty peg and another to my right, closer in than the original cw&c line. Both lines were dealt big helpings of caster and worm, with the left margin given some loose groundbait.

Word had it that Paul Faires would easily win the silvers as he'd had some skimmers of a big size and Glen Calvert was doing ok. Also Rod had landed a good few carp, and the pegs in the 20's behind me had produced a few, along with plenty of foul-hookers from what I could hear. Peg 7... the hot peg...had Mark Bromsgrove on it, and he was doing very well, so 1st and 2nd seemed between him and Rod. Elsewhere a few carp were getting caught, but I really didn't know where people were at with the silvers, but I thought that maybe a couple decent ones or maybe a perch of a couple pound would help me.

 

So the last hour was spent fishing the two margins, with the odd look out in front.

I would love to say that the perch and skimmers had arrived, but I cant, I landed 3 more roach and two lumpy carp, both on double caster, one of which was landed on skimmer gear within 15 seconds....it was around 12lb came from the right hand edge swim, the smaller from the left towards the empty swim. Both were an unwelcome bonus, but beats waiting for nothing as the silvers were notable by their absence.

The all out sounded and I knew I hadn't done anything to worry the pay-outs, but felt I had done ok given the peg. The last hour saw Kev behind me boost his carp tally to around 6 and Rich over on the point swim had topped his carp tally to 4 or 5. Rod had a quiet last hour from what I gather. Lance Tucker on peg 5? had landed a few carp during the match and had done ok.

The temperature had dropped noticeably and the fish had slowed as well in the last hour. So much so that I had to put my coat on as soon as I got off my box.

 

I loaded the car and wandered back to get my catch weighed, everyone commenting how hard and disappointing the day was. There was 2 sets of scales, so weighing didn't take long.

First I plonked my couple of carp on the scales, they totalled 18lb 6oz.

My roach weighed in at 3lb, giving me 21lb 6oz.

 

Elsewhere Mark Bromsgrove won the match (peg 7 - 78lb 40z), Rod Wootton (p39 61lb 4oz) was 2nd, Lance Tucker 3rd (36lb 8oz p5) and 4th was Brian Slipper (p12 28lb 8oz).

Silvers was won by Paul Faires with a great catch of 15lb 8oz, 2nd silvers was Glen Calvert with 7lb 4oz.

 

Weigh Sheet....No peg numbers.

 





So all in all it was a hard day with most struggling at times, the weather was pleasant enough for November, but I enjoyed it and will be keen to go back at some point.

 

Next up for me is a match on the River Parrett, a venue I have not fished for around 18 years...cool...roach fishing....let the rains keep away a bit more this week.

 

Until then, stay safe and have fun.

Lee

 



Clevedon Club Saturday Series - Plantation Match/Horseshoe lake - 13/7/13

A short blog today as there isn't much to write home about. The temps were high, by the time I got to the venue my car showed over 30 degrees....with no wind, great!!
I was fishing the 3rd of 4 matches for the Clevedon Saturday Series.

I arrived for the draw around 12pm, Paul Faiers was running it today as Adie was otherwise occupied, so a few of us took a walk round while the pegs were placed, we had 15 fishing, so 8 of the 16 pegs (1 peg was in just incase the no show arrived late - but he didn't), went on the island pegs and the rest around the outside.

There was loads of fish on the surface, not feeding fish, but carp that just wanted to play or sunbathe.
Pegs 1, 5, 6 10 and 12 were especially full, the fish were on the bar areas in most, but the depths can be only 2 inches deep on this, but average maybe a foot or so.

So into the hat goes my hand, out comes p10. Nice. I set the kit up well back from the swim as not to spook the fish, but the reality is that it made no difference.
I had Rod Wootton almost opposite, Nick Harvey to my right and Andy Hembrow to my left.

My peg. Halfway along the 1st bank.

3 rigs made, 1 margin, 1 shallow (mugging) and 1 for paste/meat at 6m. I was set up in 25 mins, so had plenty of time to watch the water...

I wont go into much detail about the match, but I only had 2 bites in 2.5hrs. Then landed 3 carp. I did lose 4 foulers as well. I couldn't buy a bite from the bar, only had 2 bites down to my left. My 3 carp came fishing shallow over the paste/meat line, there was loads of blowing each time I fed, which shows the fish were at least moving around/through the bait, but they were not really munching.

Throughout the match I tried allsorts of tactics, from dumping bait, to baby bits of paste, to fishing at various levels of the bar to meat shallow, but the lack of cover of any type possibly did not aid my fishing, I had the sun on me all day and struggled to see the float after 3pm.

So all in all difficult match, which it proved all over the lake, I guess my 3 fish may have gone 12lb as one was 6lb-ish, but I tipped back after the whistle. It was equally hard for Rod opposite me, but he had maybe 6 or 8 carp, a couple late fish boosting his net. But it was a difficult day.

Check out Chris Fox's - Chris Fox's blog for the results, but Mark Broomsgrove won and Andy Hembrow was second.

I think that my next match is up at Durleigh Reservoir next week. A place I ihave nit fished match style in a decade.

Cheers, take care.

Lee

04-04-13, Clevedon Club Saturday Series, Plantation Horseshoe

Todays match was the 1st of a series of 4 matches run on a Saturday afternoon, fishing from approx. 2pm - 7pm.
The matches are well spread with 1 a month in may/june/july and august. The venues (as it stands) are to be Plantation's Horseshoe (aka match lake) and Acorn's Back pond. 2 matches on each, but could change to all on Horseshoe if we get double fisgure of entries for each match.
To win in the series you count 3 results from 4.

Firstly:
Until this week I had not seen the venue let alone fished it, so on Friday I had a 5 hr session on there, mostly to make a couple rigs and familiarise myself with the lake.
I fished halfway up the far bank, I tried for the silvers for 90 mins, maggot and caster over groundbait at 6m and a cw&c line at 11m to my left, I didn't have a bite, so figured that they will not be a viable option for the match.
I then managed to break the same section of my pole that was damaged last week (by being a wally trying to lift the pole from the wrong end), only this time it was snapped in half. Still I telescoped it for now as I wait for a replacement.
I then baited the swim for carp, which I was informed/read averaged a couple pounds. I had a shallow line over the sunken bar, a line at the bottom of said bar and a margin line in close to the next swim to my left. 
Over the next 3hrs or so bites came in fits and starts and I finally tipped back around 28 carp, the smallest was a couple pounds, but most were around 4 or 5lb, I also had a few around the 7 or 8 pound mark.
I couldn't get a bite at the bottom of the bar, and the shallow rig was iffy thanks to the wind blowing up the lake (R to L) and I was fishing banded 8mm, really 6mm would have been better as I bumped a few. Alas I did mug a few fish as they were cruising.
Most of my bites and fish came from the margin, mostly on 8mm meat over 6mm pellets.
So I took my 'knowledge' with me today hoping for something similar.

Today:
I arrived early for the draw as I was bored at home, I had re-elasticated the wife's pole in case my telescoped sections didn't like to play (but they were fine really) on mine. I duly arrived at the lake around 11:30, the draw was 12:30.
I took a walk around as I was the only soul present, and saw a lot of fish along the short bank near the entrance, where the wind had been blowing, also a lot of fish were present around the end of the sunken bar on the far corner of the lake and I would like a peg in those sort of areas (if pegged).
A stiff wind was blowing, stronger than yesterday, and it did seem that presentation could be difficult, we had also had a few showers this morning, which I figured may have pushed the fish lower in the water.

A short while later Kev Perry arrived, we said hello's and then he trotted upto the café for some grub.
A new lad arrived aswell, it was his 1st outing with the club I think, Tom Duckett is his name. Mike Lilly arrived (he fished here a lot it seemed) shortly, then everyone else arrived except Glen who was running late.
A bit of chit chat and piss taking, Mike went and done the pegging for Adie and insisted pegs 9-14 were on the island, well there were on 13 fishing and he wrote the numbers(1-13) on the flags himself...!!
Anyways we paid our dues and the draw was made, I went 1st, picking p5 for Adie and 1 for myself, which gave me the scales, which is the 1st time ever I have drawn the scales...... We were fishing 1:45 to 7pm.
For company I had Kev Perry to my left, I could see Rod Wotton on the 'hot peg' across and to my right on p9. Mike Lilly was on 11 across and to my left. Glen Calvert was the opposite side of the mini island in front of me.

Approx. Layout of Today's match

Looking at my swim, I had island rushes in front of me.

 



I set up 3 rigs, a shallow rig for either mugging or spraying 4mm pellet, this had a banded 6mm pellet on the hook. This never game me a bit despite several tries, so wont be mentioned.
My 2nd rig was for in the slightly deeper, but not deepest, parts of the swim, which was at topkit in front and 6ft off the island at 10 o'clock position. For this I would fish dead reds over micro.
Lastly I had a rig for against the reeds on the island, which would multiply up for fishing in front of the swim to my right and just off the point of the island where I had the same 2.5-3ft depth. Baits were meat over 4mm or 6mm pellet with few free bits of meat in all 3 spots.

The wind was rather strong, so after 9m it was hard to hold the pole, but I needed 11m to reach the reeds on the island and the swim to my right, so i'd have to cope.
The whistle went and I cupped my free offerings in the appropriate spots and catapulted some loose 4mm pellets into open water which is where I spent the first 15 minutes, without response. Glen, in this time, had landed 4 carp and Rod on p9 had also had a couple.

A switch to the deeper rig and 3 dead reds bought a small carp of 1lb or so, and that was that for that line for the day, despite trying varying depths and feeding, I never had a sniff again over micros in the deeper spots.

The 1st hour had passed and 1 carp was my tally, Mike had yet to catch, and I am sure Kev hadn't caught either. Glen and Rod had landed a few though. There were fish showing over the sunken bar in front of the swim to my left, but  at a distance which I couldn't fish with the pole.
The next hour did bring me a run of 4 carp, 2 from against the island weighing a couple pounds each and 2 from in front of the swim to my right which were of a slightly better stamp. I also lost 2 fouled fish from over the margin swim.

So by now we were just over 2 hours in and my swim had died, Kev had landed a couple lumps from his margin swims and Rod was still catching. Glen had stopped catching though. Also up the far end I couldn't see much action in Adie's swim.

The last 3 hours of the match was dire really, I lost 1 rig in a tree when a gust of wind took the rig into a branch/twig, another rig did the same but I got it back minus the hooklength. I did land a skimmer of 1lb 2oz (my only silver in 2 days). The wind was a pain for most. I also missed 3 bites down the edge to my left, a new swim I started with less feed as maybe they were backing off the freebies? The last hour's sunshine meant I couldn't see much in front of me with the glare etc hurting my eyes.

Kev was catching consistently now, fishing down the edge, mostly to his left, and his fish were a decent stamp. Rod was doing ok too, especially the last hour where I guess he had about 8 carp, but most were a couple pounds, but I think he was possibly winning, he was for sure on my side of the main island.

My island swim never gave me a bite once it was shaded, maybe it was the shade which prevented Mike Lilly from doing well as it looked like his swim, although had little in the was of wind, was shady thanks to the trees behind and to the side of him.. Also the wind had altered direction a touch and had swung slightly towards me, resulting in calm water in the right hand margin, which resulted in less bites, but more ducks and geese visiting that area.

The shout for the all out soon came and I guess I had around 16lb, Rod would be near the ton, Glen had double or so what I had and Kev had a good last 90 mins with some lumps, he would weigh around 60lb I did think to myself.

I packed up and assembled the scales etc, and Kev came and weighed my catch, my 1lb 2oz skimmer and the carp tallied up to 21lb 6oz. Not enough, but maybe be ok in the scheme of the series.
Next up we weighed Kev's catch, with both weighs totalling 70lb 4oz,  Mark B weighed 47lb+, then the far end swims never weighed anything of note with 15/16lb weights, Tom Duckett fished the peg next to where I fished on Friday, he had a handful of carp for 18lb-ish.

Onto the island, Rod weighed in, less fish than I thought, but a decent 81lb bag of carp, fishing mostly 6m to the bank/stems to his left, no doubt fishing hard pellet. Mike DNW'd while Glen and Brian Slipper had weights of 40lb 8oz and 49lb 13oz respectively.

Results:
1st -  Rod Wotton - 81lb 8oz on peg 9 (1st peg on left over footbridge)
2nd - Kev Perry - 70lb 4oz from peg 2 (halfway along 1st bank)
3rd - Brian Slipper - 49lb 13oz on peg 12 (point of island)

I finished 7th, which I am a little disappointed with, but the wind didn't help my cause making presentation difficult and given very few fish were actually caught from deep(er) water perhaps I did ok from my swim.

Weigh Sheets (not in peg order)

 

 

Overally I quite like this little venue, the carp certainly know how to pull back and is reasonably fair as everyone has a feature or 2 and should catch a few. Saying that, I would suggest that if a match is held on there then 18 would be the most I would want, also the lake could perhaps do with an influx of silvers, roach, skimmers or tench, but only around 5lb of bits were caught in total by 13 of us.

 

I look forward to the next outing on there.

 

The next weekend match up for me is a match on the 19th when I have a choice of Avalon or Trinity Woodlands. 50/50 which I will go for.

I may fish this bank holiday Monday, but will see if the family want to do stuff, especially as it looks like a nice warm and sunny day is due.

 

I will probably fish the next Sedges evening match on the Thursdays in between. This weeks was poor for me, a dnw while a few decent weights on pellet wag won the monies (96lb+ won) in 2.5hrs on Thursday just gone.

 

Until next time, take care and happy angling.

 

Lee