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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Take Care,
Lee

Tony's Short Pole Series, Trinity Woodlands, 14-5-17

Covering for Emma Drysdale for this one, so I hoped I would get her a decent start, but you can never be sure on that venue on how it will be as a few areas tend to struggle during matches.

So on to the draw, I wanted to get on either of the end banks or somewhere along the far side, preferably 6, 7 or 13, 15 and 17, these pegs are a good starting point for a few bites.
Anyways, pools paid and into the tub and out comes 24, towards the far end of the nearest bank, not usually the most productive of areas and I was not too confident at all. Still I had a task in hand.

Peg 24 Trinity Woodlands

Arriving at my peg, I did fancy it for silvers, but as I was covering I couldn't really go down that line as if I was struggling for silvers then I would never pick up good points, but should you get 15lb or so of non-carp species and 4 carp then that could be ok, I didn't fancy risking it. If it was for me, then maybe I would have.
I had Mike West on my left and Jamie Cook (not Sedges' one) on my right, he had Rich Heatly to his right.
The wind was pushing over to pegs 15 to 17 and with Joe McMahon on 17 I fancied him to do well.
Our area had a little ripple but looked less than fishy.

A margin rig for both sides at topkit+1 (max allowed is topkit +3) for mostly meat
A meat line in front at topkit+1, feeding wet micros.
A pellet line at max distance in front, both shallow and on the deck. (6mm and 8mm plus a few expanders)
I also had some groundbait and a few maggots, mostly with the margins in mind.

At the all in I cupped a pot of 6mms long and 1/2 a cup of meat and micro on the short line.
I started shallow, then tried deep, then tried short etc.....90 minutes in and 4 of us in a row were blanking.....yet Joe was probably on 50lb including an 18lb lump, he was fishing shallow.
It was 12pm that I had my 1st carp (I did manage a roach on meat short), that was around 4lb, not the size hoped for, my 2nd followed at 12:45 and it was around 13lb. Nice, lets hope these keep coming.
Nope. Never happened.

By 2pm it was still quiet up my end of the lake, Jamie and Rich both had 1 carp each and Mr West was on a perch and a skimmer. But by 3pm he was on 4 carp, proper 8lbers and bigger, he'd had a quick flurry on his beloved paste.
Jamie and Rich were both on 2 carp when we got to 3pm. It was very slow.
A look on my meat line gave me a bite right away and after a spirited scrap an 8lber was netted, a small skimmer followed, then nothing.
Back out long, just after an awful deluge of rain I had my 4th carp, on the long, deep rig. It was 4lb or so, another next drop gave me hope and my clicker showed 33lb.....

4pm came and went, Westy had a couple more, I had him on around 40lb, he also had a few accidental skimmers and a decent perch. He lost a couple carp, as had I, foul hooked.
The far bank, well it had fished ok very early in the match but there were little flurries for people.
Mike Nicholls on 19 had been having small silvers and coupled it with 3 or 4 decent carp.
Joe on 17 possibly had 100lb, 60% came in the first 2hrs, but had a few late.
Clayton Hudson on peg 15 maybe had 60lb, but I wasn't sure as they were not in my section.

The all out was called and we were unsure of how our section was pegged. It turned out it was from 23 to 29 I think. I knew I had beat Jamie and I was sure I had pipped Paul Faires who was on the left of Mike, but I was not sure how Tony and Bela had done. Tony had 8 carp and Bela a couple less I believe.
I packed up and loaded the car, waited for the scales, had a chat with a few guys....
When the scales got to me, the section boundaries were made and I weighed in a little over 35lb as my silvers were a whole 14oz. That put me, after the weigh-in, 4th in section, not a mega disaster, but that last hour and first 90 minutes killed it for me.

Sorry to Emma for not doing better, but that's fishing, could have done with the section moving one place anti-clockwise and I would have had a 3rd. But there was a blank, a few weights under 20lb and it was tough for most on the whole.

Results:
1st, Joe McMahon, p17.  119lb.
2nd, Chris Fox, p6. 89lb 3oz.
3rd, Dave Evans, p33. 88lb 7oz.
4th, Martin Rayet, p8. 78lb 11oz.

Silvers:
1st, Martin McMahon, p13. 17lb
2nd, Mike Nicholls, p19. 16lb

For the weigh sheet, Tony Rixon, Mike Nicholls and Chris Fox all have a photo on their blogs.

Not too sure where, or if I am fishing this weekend. Depends on how I am feeling.
If not, then it is the 2nd round of the Acorn Series next weekend (27th) so I will report back after that if not before.

Until then, stay safe.
Lee

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

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

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

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

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

Trinity Woodlands peg 24.

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

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

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

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

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

Weights....

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

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

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

Until then, take care.
Lee

Saturday Series. Round 2. Trinity Wildmarsh. 11-06-16

The 2nd round of my series on a venue that is not match fished much these days as it can be patchy and rarely does the high weights that people seem to crave these days.
That said, there is an abundance of species and in decent numbers too, they aren't easy to tempt though!!

With 18 fishing, including 3 sub anglers, most agreed the lake looked lovely and there was plenty of blowing and bubbles all over the lake. It was dull, warm and overcast, but no wind or sunshine for the day. We all expected it to be hard, though not as hard as it panned out!!

Wildmarsh p45 lhs

Trinity Wildmarsh peg 45

I took the money, I done the draw, leaving me on peg 45 and Vic had peg 55, both pegs I wouldn't have turned down for either carp or silver to be honest. Louis Jones had the near end peg 67, which I fancied for a few carp. Mark Bromsgrove was the other end peg on peg 44.

The rest of the day went smoothly, in fact most anglers had a quiet day with regards to being plagued by fish.
I decided to set up 3 lines on the pole, a long groundbait with worm and caster, hoping for skimmers/bream followed by some carp and eels.
The 2nd line was for carp down my left edge at 8m or so, this was fishless.
My last line was my usual topkit and caster line.
I also set up a method feeder, but this was only cast once.
Bait was groundbait, caster, worm, corn, 6mm pellets and a few maggots.

I wont go into much detail at all:
1st hour, 12 little rudd and roach on the topkit, Paul Nichols on peg 47 had 1 carp first drop.
2nd hour, 16 small rudd on the topkit, one 8oz eel on the long pole.
3rd hour, 10 little rudd on the topkit.
4th hour, 5 or 6 little roach and rudd, lost one big eel on the topkit, biting me off.
5th hour, bumped a decent fish on the long pole, then lost another big eel after it bit me off.
Last hour I had 1 rudd.

Not much happened for many people, Mark Bromsgrove was picking up better sized silvers and had a couple decent skimmers, Paul ended with a couple carp, one down the edge and the 2nd on the pellet waggler. Steve Nadin had a nice mixed bag from peg 50. Ziggy on 51 was getting a few silvers.
Vic Bush and Rich Lovering were having a silver fish battle opposite me.
Everyone else was struggling with the odd skimmer and odd carp.

The all out was called, the weigh-in complete and monies handed out. Most moaned how hard it was, it was very hard, sadly most never enjoyed it, but on to the next round at Sedges Brick Lake.

Results:
1st, Nick Harvey, 24lb, peg 61. (also perfect 12 points)
2nd, Steve Nadin, 19lb 7oz, peg 49.
3rd and top silvers net, Ziggy Slowinski, 18lb 9oz, peg 51
4th, Louis Jones, 18lb 4oz, peg 67

Weights, Highlighted = Envelope Snatchers

So the current standings at the top:
1st carp, Paul Nichols, 12pts
2nd carp, Louis Jones, 11pts
3rd carp, Brian Slipper, 10 pts

1st silvers, Vic Bush, 11pts (30lb total)
2nd silvers, Alex Nadin, 11 pts (20lb total)
3rd silvers, Nick Harvey, 11pts (15lb 11oz total)

1st overall, Brian Slipper, 3pts
2nd overall, Paul Nichols, 4pts (18 sub-points)
3rd overall, Vic Bush, 4pts (14 sub-points)
4th overall, Rich Lovering, 4pts (14 sub-points)

Scores on the doors....(silvers, carp & overall

Tomorrow I have the Pawlett Club's All-Winners final on Trinity Woodlands.

Until then, take care.
Lee

27/4/16 to 02/5/16, Various Wanderings......

A busy last few days for me, after my win over at Apex last weekend I was keen to get out and catch some more fish, I had the Makins Fishomania qualifier on the Wednesday, then I had right the way through to today (Bank Holiday Monday) off and fancied doing something different for my fishing on a few of these days.

So first up was the Makins match, I would love to say how I sacked up and qualified, or at least was in with a chance......it didn't happen.
A 2hr 15min drive took 4hrs thanks to M42 and M6 accidents......luckily I had the ultra keen wife with me, otherwise I would have turned around and fished elsewhere, but she insisted I carry on!! Around 20 peeps never bothered and a few reserves got on.
I got to the fishery 15 minutes after the draw had began and I waited in line to draw, there wasn't any sort of pegs I wanted, the weather was awful and we were predicted to get cold rain, snow, winds....nice!! Geoff Ringer was in front of me in the queue and was generally asked about various pegs by anglers as they passed.
I got to the draw, the missus had gotten herself a bacon and hashbrown sarnie and I plucked Thames peg 15........means nothing but got told 4lb-10lb fish is the norm and that it was not a good draw.
I toddled up the road to phase 3 and found my peg. I had Somerton and newly sponsored Dan Squire just behind me and along on Outer Avon.....he done worse than me and left before me, it was dire.

Thames peg 15, front and left (note Dan Squire in the bottom pic)

I set up half a dozen rigs, edges, middle and across and shallow.
All I caught, apart from a chill, was a handful of gudgeon, so had an early bath. The snow and rain was freezing....

The next day, Thursday, I had a late start for a pleasure session on a club water, a bit of long range feeder fishing and deep water pole fishing at Combwich.
After 2 hrs I had 2 roach on the feeder at 65 turns. Nothing on the pole in top 5 depth of water.

Combwich Pond

So I then made my way to another club lake, Dunwear, where I managed to get drenched in the heavy rain, and struggled at times to hold a pole.
I did manage around 15lb of rudd, roach and skimmers, plus I hooked a couple carp. I really enjoyed that couple or so hours on light gear.

Dunwear South Pond

Friday was a day spent with the wife, so Saturday I went back to Dunwear armed with just a feeder rod, some caster, maggot and corn plus groundbait.
I fished the Senior Lake, the largest on the complex, it holds plenty of bream and roach that don't get fished for much and can be patchy at times, though there has been some really big 100lb+ nets of bream over the last few years.
I fished for 4 hours at 48 turns and managed one solitary 6lb bream and around 15lb of roach, but I was totally roached out as my maggots came back ragged more than I care to mention. An enjoyable day though and I will have another bash soon.

Dunwear Senior Pit

So, onto Sunday, a PSV match at Viaduct on Campbell Lake, we had 19 fishing and I waited until peg 130 had been drawn before plucking peg 125 for myself.

Peg 125 Campbell, Viaduct

The match the day before showed peg 123 had 200lb to win and the pegs 124 to 129 were ok with 119, 118, 116 not brilliant.
To cut a short story shorter, I set up a meat short rig for carp and went trying to catch silvers, so had a 13m groundbait line and an edge caster rig. I also had a lead rod assembled for a carp or two.
The day went slowly for myself, Lee Waller on peg 123 who dnw'd and Brian Shanks on peg 126 who caught 3 of hos 4 lumpy carp in the last 45 mins or so, he also had 16lb of accidental silvers. Though Degsy Williams on peg 124 did well to catch 90lb or so.
I managed 6 carp (5 on the lead) and 10lb of silvers, mostly nice perch. And was again sat opposite the framers...!!

Results:
1. Steve Sewell (116) .... 139-1
2. Alan Healey (119) ..... 106-14
3. Ross Sewell (111) ..... 104-6...
4. Matt Williams (130) .... 99-2
5. Ron Hardiman (114) ... 94-14
6. Steve Burgess (128) .. 92-0
7. Degsy Williams (124) .. 91-9
8. Adam Caswell (118) ... 87-2
9. Mark Radford (136) .... 68-11
10. Will Dearlove (132) ... 68-8
11. Keith Ray (129) ....... 62-15
12. Mike Wilson (113) .... 58-1
13. Brian Shanks (126) ... 51-11
14. Lee Williams (125) .... 48-10
15. John Bradford (127) ... 33-9
16. Simon Belcham (112) .. 19-3
and 2 dnw's.

Silvers:
1. John Bradford .... 33-9
2. Simon Belcham .... 19-3
3. Brian Shanks ....... 16-9
4. Lee Williams ....... 10-8
5. Ross Sewell ..... 8-0
Ron Hardiman ... 8-0
Mike Wilson ...... 8-0

So last up is todays match on Trinity Woodlands, with 8 or 9 of us pegged along the far bank, the weather was due to get a bit pants later in the day with a good helping of rain to go with the already brisk wind.
Misha had 2 golden pegs, they were 17 and 6, with 17 the current in form peg and peg 6 always worth a good few fish. The Golden Peg was worth 100 quid and venue regular Mark Hanham drew it and would be the odds on favourite to win.
I picked peg 15, so again it looked like I could watch the winner all day....ho hum. For company on my right, well I could not see him, was Polish angler Ziggy Slowinski. He said Him, Me and Mark should fill the top 3 spaces, with Mark winning....!!

Trinity Woodlands p15 lhs

Trinity Woodlands p15

I set up a method feeder, only cast 3 times, so no more on that.
A rig for 11m down to my left, not too close to the margin as it was snaggy as hell....1 carp and a few skimmers from here along with a 2lb perch. This rig was also used by the bush to my right and here I had a small carp and 2 small silvers.
A silvers rig for 11m in front, 3 skimmers from here and a roach, plus 3 foul hooked carp lost.
A rig for shallow pellet, no fish on this, though if i could have fished it long then I reckon that I may well have caught on it.
Lastly a rig for 2+2 for meat over pellet, this gave me 1 tench and a couple skimmers (one I tried to swing in and it fell off....costly).
It wasn't an eventful match for me, in hindsight, once Mark started catching, after 1hr he was on around 8 carp, I should have just fished for the silvers.
It was a struggle for most as the wind was tricky.
I finished with 3 carp and 10lb 14oz of silvers, I was pipped to the silvers payout by Ziggy who weighed in 11lb 8oz, so that skimmer I should have netted cost me, ho hum
Mark won the match and the extra £100, he had 104lb, second was Phil on peg 6, he bagged up in the last hour or so once the wind had changed direction a little.

So a few nice days pleasure fishing away from the commercial type venues was really enjoyable.
The bream look to be spawning soon as everywhere I have caught them this week they have been all spotted up and rough skinned. But with the weather warming, swallows and swifts in the skies, things may well be picking up.....lets bloody hope so....oh and less wind would be awesome.

No idea where I am fishing next weekend, the following week I am at Shiplate with Pawlett.

Until then, take care.
Lee


P.S. I still have one or 2 spaces left on my Saturday series and I have started taking the £60 entry/pegs/payout fees, a good few have paid and I expect it to be a good series and laugh.

PSV Match, Trinity Woodlands, 06-09-15

I know this will be a short blog.......why?.......'Coz bugger all happened really.

All 14 of us arrived at the lake in nice, sunny and warm conditions, the first day like this in what seems like months, we were looking forward to the day and the prospect of a good few of the lumpy carp that inhabit the Woodland lake on the Trinity Waters complex.
I ended up pegging the lake, much to a couple of the guys' annoyance, as I put 3 pegs (on the 'best side'??) together, but I didn't fancy putting any of the end banks in the hat. But we had to get on with it.

Anyways, the draw was made and to be fair I would have been happy with any peg as I do like the venue, it was peg 33 that I found in my hand so I was chuffed enough, an end peg on the near bank.
For company on peg 31 I had Ryan Radford and across I could see everyone from Will Dearlove on hot peg 6, through to Ron Hardiman (p8), Chris Gay (p9), Mark Radford(p10) etc ending with John Bradford up on peg 14.

Trinity Woodlands peg 33

Simple bait and rigs for the match. I expected you'd need 80lb+ for a top 3 finish.
8mm meat and hemp for 2+2 and down my margins along with 8mm and 6mm pellets for 14m shallow and on the deck. So 4 rigs made, 1x shallow (carpless), 1x short meat (fishless), 1x margin and another for 8mm banded pellet on the deck(biteless).
I also had my usual method feeder set up for across to the empty peg (1 or 2?).

At the all in I potted my baits out and began to loose feed pellet at 14m, a mix of 6 and 8's as I find this better on deeper waters with a big variety of fish sizes, plus there are some roach/hydrids and f1's all of a decent size to be caught alongside the carp.
I lobbed the feeder across and after 5 mins I had a 3lb fish in the net, Will and Ron also had early fish.
Ten minutes later I had a 5lber in my net.

I would love to say this continued for the next 5hrs and 45 minutes...........it didn't!
All that happened was I watched the odd carp get caught across, not many.
It was over 2hrs before my next carp, again on the method, but I lost it at the net when the hook pulled, it looked easily 12lb+, the same fate occurred an hour later but with a 2lber.
So I was 4hrs in and I had 2 carp, Will had 3 or 4 as did Ron. Chris Gay and Mark Radford were on similar. Next to me Ryan had a roach and a skimmer.
It was about this time that I had my 3rd carp in the net, possibly a 4lb fish. Oh I had a handful of nice roach, on meat, down the edge and 1 shallow by this point too.

The last couple of hours were dire also, I did manage another feeder caught 4lber and a 3lb common from the left margin. Only Brian Shanks seemed to be catching consistently at this point, he was doing the best by a long distance. Everyone else was hoping for a run of 3 or 4 nice sized carp, as it looked like everyone was suffering with boredom!!

By the all out Lee Waller, Steve O'Toole and Ryan Radford had packed up and tipped back.
I reckoned I had around 18lb of carp and a couple pounds of silvers.
I packed up and began the weigh in with Will, he'd suffered with fishing by the next peg to him, the carp 'doing' him on the legs.  Chris Gay had a mare, his sections coming apart over the water and went into panic mode, getting the sections back but trashing one and losing some stuff in a comedy of mayhem.

Anways we did the weigh in and it was only really Brian Shanks on peg 13 who had a weight of note, 99lb 12oz was what he managed, most shallow and late on in the match. Mark Radford was next best at this point with 35lb-ish.
The silvers winner, John Bradford, weighed in 10lb 4oz from peg 14.
Onto the solid (near) bank and we saw Alan Healey had 35lb+ form p24, then came Adam Caswell, he had 6 carp, 3 of which went 30lb 8oz and the other 3 went 13lb or so. His total was 43lb 12oz.
Steve Burgess nabbed a quid off me with 27lb 10oz and that was that!
Oh I weighed in 18lb of carp and 3lb of silvers, for not last on the day, actually I was 7th, lol.

Results:
1st Brian Shanks, peg 13. 99lb 12oz
2nd Adam Caswell, peg 25. 43lb 12oz
3rd Mark Radford, peg 10. 35lb 13oz (section win)
4th Alan Healey, peg 24. 35lb 4oz (section win)

Silvers
1st John Bradford, peg 14. 10lb 4oz
2nd Lee Williams, peg 33. 3lb

weigh sheet

So it fished pants, it does on PSV matches there it seems, so it'll be interesting on how many put their names down for the next one in a few weeks!!
I put the dire day down to the weather.......If you were at home on the sunniest and warmest day for a month what would you do?....yep lounge around and do bugger all in the garden. I reckon the fish had decided to lounge around and not do much either.
I like the place so I will be back.

Next up for me is, I think, a match on Lake 3 down at Landsend next Sunday,

Until then, have fun.
Lee

My week, 8th July to 12th July 2015.

A half week round up of what I have done this week, I'll squeeze it into 1 post as there isn't shed loads to talk about.

Wednesday saw me fish the open at Sedges, it's only a tenner to enter and it was just a day out really, the match was on the canal lake, which can be a tough cookie at times but I like it.
With only 9 of us fishing we were pegged along the far bank and I happened to get peg 49, just past half way, a narrow peg and apparently not too bad, but the fish like the corners on here, so I wasn't optimistic.
I simply set up a rig for tight over using pellet (Phil and Jamie cleared the island the day previous), a rig for down my right hand edge (meat) and a rig for down the track using worm and caster over groundbait.

Sedges Canal, p49

The match was tough going and I spent ages with just the odd rudd and roach before a few skimmers and a couple of carp arrived down the middle.
I ended up 4th with just over 13lb.
Phil Clapp won with 52lb including 30lb of skimmers. Mike Levy was second from peg 52 with 30lb.
Rich Coles was 3rd I think with 25lb

Thursday was a day at home watching the cricket and chilling, I was gonna go Durleigh for the roach on the whip, or fish a match somewhere, but the Ashes 1st test won my attention.

Friday saw me spend a few hours over Trinity Woodlands, hoping to catch some of the 'pellet roach' at 13m, then some carp shallow/short.
It worked out ok with plenty of 6oz to 1.5lb roach, 3 or 4 F1s and 2 carp on the long pole fished 12" deep. I then came on my topkit shallow and went on to catch around 70lb+ of carp to low doubles (including a couple mugged in the margin).....I also had a nice perch of 2lb+.
So that was a good 4 or 5hrs fishing.

Saturday I decided to fish the Landsend open along with 8 other guys.
Now I have only ever drawn peg one on the near bank, and hey ho I drew it again.....I really don't like that peg (or it doesn't like me), despite Withers coming 3rd the previous Saturday I wasn't too comfy with it, there was a strong wind blowing into my peg, so my attack was based on 2+2 in front, down to my right by the tree and the same distance off the snaggy end bank.
I would also try and get a few at 13/14.5m when I got the chance.
My match wasn't great and after 4hrs I had 2 skimmers in the net, similar to the chap on peg 24 opposite. Elsewhere I could here Mike West, Rod Wootton and Mike Duckett were catching a few.
My last 90 mins or so gave me a run of carp, 1 mugged long, 4 or 5 down my right edge, 1 down the end bank and a handful on my 2+2 line (converted from pellets to meat). I also had another 3 nice skimmers. As usual I caught on meat....

Peg 1, Landsend match lake

Peg 1 right edge, Landsend match lake
 

So once I packed up the gear I was assisted by John Bradford in weighing in, I reckoned I had 40lb or so of carp and my 5 skimmers may go 6lb.

The scales produced 54lb 8oz of carp and 8lb 10oz of skimmers. 63lb 2oz.

Westy amassed 90lb exactly before Rod's net weighed 67lb 4oz.

We carried on around the lake weighing in a few before we got to Mike Duckett, he'd had 25 carp and some silvers, this net of fish gave him 110lb 12oz.

John 'gimp' Bradford's usual net of silvers gave him that pot of money with a tidy 31lb 5oz/

We continued the weighing and finished up with Ray White's 32lb 2oz

So Mike Duckett won with Mike West 2nd. John Bradford won the silvers.

 

Weigh Sheet.

Last up was today's match with the PSV guys at Viaduct on the Campbell lake, 14 of us fished and with the weather a bit wet looking, the wind was due to get up (it didn't...!!)

Before the match we were contemplating the pegging and swapping 111 for 121 and the 130 for 135 and shuffle a couple pegs. It ended up with 7 along each bank and none on the end banks.

I didn't want peg 130 having drawn it far too many times and only picked up off it once thanks to a late flurry of edge lumps.....I fancied 118 or 123  as they had a nice bit of room each.

 

I guess I talked myself into getting peg 130 and with 3 tickets left in the tin (112, 114 and 130) I did pick my dreaded peg. Will Dearlove and Lee Waller had the other 2 pegs!!

For company I had Keith Ray on peg 129 and Derek Lucas on peg 132 (he left early). I could see all of the far bank from my peg, whether that is good or bad I am not sure.

 

...and again....Peg 130 on Campbell.

I set up 3 rigs (margin, short meat, shallow pellet) and a lead rod, but the way the match worked out was just to fish 2+2 pretty much all match.

I began slowly, caught the odd skimmer in the 1st hour and Keith on 129 was getting odd tench by the spit, but the carp didn't seem like feeding.

So I kept plugging away and put a few skimmers (plus a 2lb tench) in the net. 1 carp was my total after 2.5hrs, so I made a specific silvers rig up as I was bumping the odd skimmer.

No sooner had I put my single caster over my 'new' short caster line a carp had taken the bait....this proved a one off as I struggled even on the lighter set-up.

So with nobody seemingly bagging up from my view, I hedged my bets and kept trying to attract the carp with a slightly heavier feed pattern, and then with an hour to go and only 4 or 5 carp in the keepnet  (clicker showed 32lb) plus my silvers, the carp arrived, infact they arrived in most people's pegs and the last hour was decent. I knew Paul Preston and Ryan Radford had done ok on pegs 115 and 118

 

At the all out my meat line had given me maybe 60lb of carp in the last hour or less. I reckoned on 22lb of silvers and my clickers showed 44lb and 22lb, but I didn't click my last fish in each net.

 

Steve arrived with the scales and my nets proved a productive last hour. My carp nets gave me a total of 81lb 6oz and my silvers weighed 28lb 4oz. 109lb 10oz my total.

Keith weighed a combined 42lb 5oz from 129 and then Chris Gay had 54lb 1oz from the other side of the spit.

As it turned out, Mark Radford had 34lb of silvers in his 123lb 14oz total. Pete Uzzell was on peg 123 and totalled 131lb 1oz.

The weigh in on 110-118 pegs was almost done by the time I caught up with the scales again and it showed Paul Preston had 138lb for the lead and Pete was in second with only Alan Healey (p110), Adam Caswell (p111) and Will Dearlove (p112) to weigh. I didn't think they had 120lb+, Will had lost plenty and Adam and Alan had some very quiet spells during the day.

They weighed in and we went for the results:

 

1st was Paul Preston with 138lb 9oz. peg 115.

2nd was Pete Uzzell with 131lb 1oz. peg 123.

 

Silvers was Mark Radford with 34lb 13oz. peg 125.

Myself and Lee Waller won our sections by default, so not an empty handed few days...phew!!

 

The lake generally fished slow by Campbell's standards, if it wasn't for the last hour 4-5pm, then weights would have been somewhat lower.

 

Weigh Sheet.

So a iffy week on the fishing front for me, but then a lot of venues have been that way. Plus perhaps I have talked myself into draws I don't want....!!

 

Next up is a Pawlett match at Sedges next Sunday.

Until then, take care.

Lee



Pawlett Club, Silvers' Winners Final. Trinity Woodlands. 05-07-15.

Today's match for the 16 guys (though only 15 fished) who had qualified for the final by having the best 'non-carp' net at each of the 16 matches the club hold each year, I qualified in the first match of the season at Landsend way back in early 2014.

This match was going to be held on Wildmarsh lake but had been switched to Woodlands a few days ago, I personally prefer Wildmarsh to Woodlands mostly as I struggle on Woodlands when it comes to the silvers and also you are massively more likely to encounter accidental carp which can be frustrating at times.

I arrived at the lake with plenty of time to spare and done the normal dip/dry of the nets before a bit of a chinwag with some of the others.
Most of us felt a peg on the near side of the lake would be preferred as it seems generally the better skimmers show in larger numbers on this side. I liked the looks of anywhere between 26 and 32.

The draw was made and I went in around half way down the rabble and plucked peg 14 on the far bank, a decent enough peg. It turned out that I had Phil Clapp to my right on the peg that won the silvers last week (peg 13) and Dick Hurford was further down to my left in peg 16.
Opposite me I could see pretty much everyone. I really expected Eric Fouracre on peg 26, Jamie Cook on p28 and Vic Bush on 32 all to do well, as would Keith Clapp up on 22 (if he could keep the carp at bay). But as I said, the other bank would be the better draw.

Trinity Wildmarsh peg 14

As we had to avoid the carp I never intended to go anywhere near the carpy margins. So I set up several rigs:
The 1st was a shallow pellet rig as the bigger roach and hybrids get caught shallow on pellet, but I didn't use this today.
The 2nd rig was a topkit rig to fish up in the water to hand using caster over caster and a bit of groundbait.
The 3rd rig was to fish on the deck using banded pellet and remained unused.
Lastly I set up an identical rig to the deep pellet rig but to fish with caster, maggot or worm on the hook. The deep rigs covered pretty much anywhere in the peg from topkit out to 13m, well except a channel that was a good few inches deeper and around 2m wide and went from 5m out to 13m.
Bait was 2pts of caster, 1pt maggots, groundbait (2kg), 4mm pellet, micros, worm and some corn.
Oh and I set up a small shallow waggler, but remained unused.

At the all in I cupped some groundbait at 13m in the 11 o'clock direction, some micros at the same distance in the 1 o'clock direction, sadly neither of these lines gave a fish of any note, just odd plippy roach or rudd.
I fed some chopped worm at caster at 6 sections slightly off centre as well, hoping to catch here primarily later in the match.
I began on the shallow topkit rig hoping to nab some roach, especially the better ones.

I soon had the fish swirling at the lightly fed casters and odd hard nugget of groundbait, but I couldn't get any stamp fish despite various attempts, even whole worms were getting the same 1oz fish problems. But I stuck at it for around 90 minutes before trying the longer lines without sensible success.
The 7m line was similar, so it was back to the topkit both up and down in the water and kept plundering the small fish.

After 3hrs I was struggling compared to the far bank where Jamie, Eric and Vic all were catching well and looked well ahead. But carp were becoming a problem for a lot of the guys.
It was at this point I also had my 1st carp and a decent 8oz skimmer was netted a few minutes later.
Phil had landed a good few 6-8oz skimmers and Dick had an F1 in the net.
The sky looked rather iffy and thunder could be heard in the distance, it soon arrived in a 20 minute storm of heavy rain, wind, thunder and hail....nice. I was now cold, bored and rather wet.
My bait was awful and my maggots were doing the off.....!!!

I persevered between the topkit line and the 7m line and had a little run of fish including a couple small tench of 2lb and 1lb, two skimmers of 2lb, one of which was caught on the shallow topkit rig and a nice 8oz rudd.
I had also decided to feed my left margin with a couple hours to go, with no intention of fishing there, but hoping to get the carp into the edge and away from my baited spots. This worked and by the all out I had maybe 20+ carp grubbing up that margin, slurping in the vegetation and looked to be proper scoffing!!
With 90 minutes to go I could see that Jamie had slowed down in his catching but Eric was still doing well.

I kept on the 2 lines until the all out and was rewarded with a few 4-6oz skimmers and a carp, there were loads of carp up in the water and a few times I pricked them as I lifted my rig, or they'd swirl at my feed, making me move spots.
But the rudd and roach kept coming, although generally still 1-2oz fish, it was weight going into the net.
Phil landed a couple nice skimmers but was up to around 8 carp, he also had an f1 of 3lb or so, probably to move in front of me.

The all out soon came and I reckoned on having 10-12lb perhaps, though Phil said I had 14 or 15lb.
I dried what I could and got my kit around to the car and followed the scales.
First up was Steve Fouracre on peg 7, he'd had small fish mostly and a couple tench and odd better skimmer. He weighed 20lb 8oz.
We then went along the other guys noting weights of 17lb and a couple of 8lb.
Then it was Phil's weigh, he plopped 21lb 8oz on the board to take the lead, he'd beaten me I was sure.
I lifted my net out and it looked close to Phil's net and so it proved with my weight being 6oz more than his at 21lb 14oz, the best net off that bank on the day.
Dick had 9lb+, then Keith had 18lb, Dave Nash 13lb 12oz. Brian Gattiss dnw'd and also lost a few sections of his pole as a carp took them on a swim before they sank!!
Eric was next to weigh and his 2 nets gave him a very good 32lb 8oz, Jamie then plonked 23lb 12oz the scales. Kev Crouch and Chris Higgs had 14lb and 7lb nets respectively.
Last to weigh was Vic Bush, he had to do a couple weighs and he looked close to Erics weight, but just fell short with 30lb 4oz.

The pegs on the lodge/solid bank had obviously given up a lot more better skimmers and F1's compared to the far bank pallet pegs.

Results:
1st, Eric Fouracre, 32lb 8oz. Peg 26. (he won the club's both finals)
2nd, Vic Bush, 30lb 8oz. Peg 32.
3rd, Jamie Cook, 23lb 12lb. Peg 28.
4th, Lee Williams, 21lb 14oz. Peg 14. (section)
5th, Phil Clapp, 21lb 8oz. Peg 13.
6th. Steve Fouracre, 20lb 8oz. Peg 7,
7th, Keith Clapp, 18lb. Peg 22. (section default)

Weigh Sheet.

So all in all it was a funny sort of match, trying to avoid the carp and hope to pick up a few better skimmers, tench and F1's.
Sadly I never had any F1's and I couldn't get any of the better roach going, which really let me down, but I was glad I only had 2 carp on long enough to get landed and  I only pricked a few others when lifting the rigs and therefore I didn't lose any hooklength etc.
To have the top net off my bank was nice, especially as I didn't expect us to compete with the near bank pegs 22 to 32. Maybe if I had stuck with the shallow topkit line for the duration I may have done a few pounds better, but that is a big maybe.

Next up is a few matches in the week, I know I am fishing Sedges on Wednesday on the Canal lake, but I am unsure on Thursday where to fish, Friday I may go to do the new costcutter match at Summerhayes.
Next Sunday I am fishing Viaduct Campbell I think. I may also go Acorn on Saturday, I shall see.

Until next time, Take Care.
Lee

PSV Match, Staunton Court, 24-05-15

First up, I actually had a pleasure fishing session today, call it match practice or whatever, but I went over to Trinity Wildmarsh to see if I could catch a few silvers. This lake can be frustrating at times when fishing for non-carp species.
It was apparently fishing tricky and the lake looked rather quiet when I arrived.
I popped myself onto peg 27, on the spit, and decided to fish from 10:45 to 16:45.
As it turned out, it was frustrating, bites were coming in spurts, mostly skimmers and roach, but the odd 'bream', eel, rudd and perch kept me interested. I also lost a handful of fish, probably foul hooked bream, but 1 was either a big eel or tench.
I finished up with 58lb in total (I had scales with me) for possibly my best net of fish from the lake.

Around half of my catch.

Anyways back to Sunday's match, which was a PSV run event, up at Staunton Court.
I had never seen the venue in the flesh and finding out anything other than 150lb+ nets in the summer are common-ish, but there is also a nice head of silvers from roach, to skimmers, tench and eels.
The weather was due to be warm in the afternoon but a little breezy and a chance of rain prior to lunch, and this is how it turned out.

I made the 80 minute drive up the M5 and through Gloucester and found the lake easily enough, I was greeted by the other 13 anglers fishing, all seemed to be in fine fettle, especially the piss taking of Chris 'feeder' Gay and Adam Caswell........as the day wore on it was star angler Alan Healey whom was the centre of much mickey taking.
When it comes to catching a carp it was said by many that you cant blank at Staunton (apparently), but Mr Healey did his best but came up short of not catching a carp by netting one with maybe an hour of the match left!!

The venue is set at the back of an industrial complex with units/warehouse things, flanking 1 side and the other 3 sides are rather nice and generally 'green'. I liked the look of the far end pegs where the wind was blowing.
Into the draw and I plucked my ball around half way through the rabble, peg 12 was my location for the next 7 or 8 hours. It was also the noted 'bin peg', some said it was good, others less appreciative of it. Either way the swim was the only one on the lake with spawning carp in it......so frisky non-feeding carp, loose vegetation and a venue I don't know didn't bode well for my hope in a change of recent fortunes.

My view in front.....Staunton Court's 'bin peg'.

Left hand margin, Staunton Court's 'bin peg'.......better than the front view.

As I didn't have a clue on the lake I had found out that the average carp is between 6lb and 10lb, depths go over 8ft and most peeps fish shallow long and on the deck short.
3 rigs for carp were assembled, a shallow/mugging rig, a margin rig for topkit down to my left and at various distance further along.
The last rig for catching carp was for 14.5 down into the slight bay at the bottom of a ledge - this rig would also do for 2+2 at the 10 o'clock angle, both spots never gave a bite!!
The final rig was a deep shallow rig for silvers at topkit length at the 2 o'clock angle.
Bait was simple caster, 8mm pellet, 6mm pellet and 8mm meat.

For company I had silvers specialist Si Belcham on my right (p11) and Chris Gay on peg 13, he had to his left Steve Burgess in a rather fishy looking peg. Mr Gay also wanted a quid side-bet, so perhaps I would have to give out 2 quid today instead of the now regular £1 to Steve.

At the all in I began feeding 6mm pellets at 13.5m in front, some meat and caster went on the deeper rigs and I began by fishing against the reeds down my left edge and toss-potting meat over the top.
20 minutes in and I'd already foul hooked several carp and removed a few snags.
Luckily by the end of the 1st hour I had landed a couple 6lb fish, both took the bait on the drop down the edge. Some of the others had also landed a couple, Steve Burgess and Will Dearlove being two.
The silvers were plentiful, but rather smaller than expected.
At this point I fed a good helping of bait down the edge and spent 20 minutes catching silvers on that rig, I had some skimmers and roach up to 4oz, but Simon on peg 11 was now targeting these, so I left him to it and went out shallow.
15 mins of shallow fishing gave me bum all so I continued along my left edge. A few more carp came over the next hour or so, meat being the best bait.

The halfway stage of the match came and went and it seemed I was doing ok with 5 carp. But generally it was not fishing great.
Soon after this point I 'mugged' two fish on meat, so I wasted 30 minutes trying to 'mug' a few more in white water where it was obvious I wouldn't see any fish......but still my few happened to be a grand total of Zero...Nil...None.

I began to feed my topkit line to my left and soon enough fish were venturing in, but never seemed to settle and only 1 fish was had from this spot in the remainder of the match.
It was also at this point that up on peg 7 that Keith Ray began getting a bite a chuck from his right hand margin as was flying. Steve Burgess began a run of fish shallow (based on Adam Caswell on peg 8 or 9 catching a few that way) and had gone ahead of me in the fish numbers game.

We were soon into the last 90 minutes and I decided to try and pick odd fish off the shallow line in front and maybe a few would make an appearance down my left margins.
This ploy seemed to work as I put a few more fish in the net, I foul hooked a couple from down the edge but everyone was convinced Keith had won and it was between me and Steve for the bridesmaid spot..
Chris Gay had the silvers wrapped up hour before and his nearest rival was Simon, but by now he'd started amassing a few carp on his topkit fished corn.

The last 5 minutes arrived and Steve was on 14 carp, Simon 6 or 8, Keith had won, everyone else ahd maybe between 5 and 7, except Kev Jefferies (3 carp) and Alan Healey (1 carp). I was up to 13 carp and my 20 minutes worth of silvers.
Suddenly I had a bite down my margin and I was attached to a fish, Will called the all-out and I continued to play this fish, which felt bigger than the others I had caught all day.
10 minutes after the finish I landed the fish, a big ghostie of around 12 or 14lb, though it was empty after spawning (would have been maybe 17lb prior to it's reproductive activities).

I packed my gear away a rather happy chappy but was still convinced Steve had pipped my total.
I caught up with the scales as Keith was just about to weigh in, not much had been recorded thus far with several DNW's. Little Adam offered to help Keith and lift his nets in, which he accepted, but in typical Adam style a few fish missed the weigh sling but thankfully (for keith and adam) none ended up back in the pond!!
His 3 weighs went 42lb, 36lb 10oz and 32lb, which Adam deducted to 110lb 10oz within 2 seconds much to the astonishment of everyone else.....now Ads isn't the brightest but that was a touch of genius. Brilliant.
A couple other nets followed before Si put 61lb or so on the board before it was my turn, my silvers went 6lb which was nice for 20 minutes catching, then the pleasant surprise of 94lb of carp. More than expected obviously. My total was 100lb 4oz.
Next up Chris put 28lb of silvers on the scales and 26lb of carp. Steve Burgess put his 14 carp on the scales, but it turned out his were smaller than mine and his final weight was 78lb.
Last to weigh in was Will, he had 40lb 6oz.

So 2nd spot went to me, 10lb behind Keith. This was a nice result given my recent inabilities in both drawing and fishing......if there was less spawning activity and the associated rubbish in my peg then i may have had a few more.

Results:
1. Keith Ray (8) 110-10
2. Lee Williams (12) 100-4
3. Steve Burgess (14) 78-0 (section)
4. Simon Belcham (11) 61-8
5. Darren North (4) 56-6 (section)
6. Chris Gay (13) 54-4
7. Lee Waller (6) 54-0
8. Adam Caswell (9) 50-0
9. Will Dearlove (3) 41-6
10. Pete Uzzell (10) 31-10

Silvers:
1. Chris Gay 28-0
2. Simon Belcham 15-0
 

Weigh sheet



Next up is next Sunday at Avalon with the PSV guys, then the week after is Pawlett's all-winners final on Landsend Speci and John's Lakes.

 

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

PSV Match, Trinity Wildmarsh, 09-11-14

A generally dry day was the forecast for today's match on the tricky Wildmarsh lake at the popular Trinity Waters complex in Bridgwater.
I made the very short trip and arrived in loads of time, so took a wander around the lake and dipped my nets while I waited for everyone to arrive.

Everyone soon arrived and the usual banter was made, but things seemed to stem around how difficult the lake can be.
11 of us were to fish and Misha had put, I think, pegs 6-12 and 23-30 to one side for us. However a couple carp anglers in 2 pegs between 7 and 9 put paid to that.
So after a walk along the main road bank (pegs 58-67) where there was loads of fish blowing and odd one topping, we decided to had 7 pegs along that bank and 4 on the spit pegs 26-30. All 12 pegs went into the tub, thus leaving one empty peg. I fancied a draw around pegs 60 to 62 or maybe peg 30 which is the point of the spit.

The draw was made and the golden peg was plucked, peg 26, a good peg, would be the winners bonus should they win from there. I picked my peg out towards the back end of the queue and pulled out peg 28 which is on the spit, not a bad area. For company I had John 'The Gimp' Bradford on peg 29 and Derrick Lucas on golden peg 26. Opposite me were Alan Healey and Ron Hardiman.



Trinity Wildmarsh Peg 28

I decided to set up 2 rigs for silvers and 2 for carp, plus a method feeder(initially a pellet feeder).
The silvers were both on 0.14>0.10>B611 size 18 and middy solid 8-10 set soft.
One of these rigs was a NG Caner in 0.6g  and was for topkit length as I found that this spot can do well, unfortunately it didn't today, only giving me a single bite from a 2oz roach. I fed maggot and caster over odd balls of groundbait on this spot.
The 2nd silvers rig was an NG Gimp in 0.8g and covered two spots. The 1st at 9m slightly left for maggot/caster over groundbait. The second line was for maggot/caster on the hook over micro pellet, this would be fished in the 11 o'clock direction at around 14m,
The 2 carp rigs assembled covered my right hand margin at 7m on the near shelf, the second rig was for 14m in the 1 o'clock direction, these would be fished over 4mm pellets and corn, with corn hookbait. I never had a bite of these 2 rigs so no more on them.
The method would be fished at around 20m in front.

The all in was called around 10:10 and we'd be fishing to 3:30pm.
I potted a couple small balls of groundbait at 9m and half a pot of micros with a few maggots at 14m.
Some pellets went in on the spots I hoped for the odd carp (or tench, bream or similar).
I began on the feeder, but after 40 minutes I was biteless. John on peg 29 had netted a couple skimmers by this point, but it was pretty quiet all round.
A switch to my topkit gave me a roach right away, but that was the end of that line for the day as far as bites was concerned.
Out to 9m and a bite was soon coming as a 3oz skimmer took my bait, a few roach of 2oz each soon followed before it tailed off. I potted in another small ball of groundbait and went out to 14m.
I stuck here for 15 minutes and never had a bite, so fed some more micros

We were soon well into the 2nd hour and some guys hadn't had a bite, John had landed a nice tench and Darren North on peg 30 was getting a few silvers, it was tough going.
A look on the method feeder, with some groundbait around the pellets was what I decided to do next, hoping for my bonus fish, and if by magic the tip shot round, it wasn't the carp I expected but a welcome 12oz skimmer, that was the last of the action on this!!

The remainder of the match was mostly spent switching between my 2 lines at 9m and 14m (I had fed some groundbait here by now as micros were not doing anything), I kept picking up the odd small 3oz skimmer in amongst the roach, topping up with odd balls of groundbait when bites tailed off. A pretty simple last couple of hours or so, with just the odd 5 minutes here or there looking on the 'big fish' lines without success.

As we approached the end of the match Ron Hardiman had his 1st fish, but soon after packed up, Alan Healey bumped a decent skimmer. Steve Burgess and Adam Caswell both picked up odd skimmers too. John's bites had slowed but I reckoned he had maybe 13 or 14lb. Also Brian Shanks on the far end peg of the road bank had landed a couple small carp and was getting some decent silvers too, but I couldn't see what exactly.

The all out was called and I began to pack away, Adam shouted that he thought that Brian Shanks would win, John Bradford 2nd and either me or Darren would be 3rd.
After I had put everything into the car I made my way back to my swim where I asked Darren what he had, he said maybe 5 or 6lb, about the same as me I guessed. John said he'd not got 10lb, but I reckoned on him having 14lb or so.
The scales soon arrived at us and the board showed Ron had 31lb+ then Adam Caswell had 5lb-odd and was in 2nd spot.
I was first to weigh as Derrick tipped his pound of fish back, which he caught on maggots I let him have, lol. My net of fish pushed the dial round to 11lb 11oz.
The Gimp's net pushed him into 2nd spot with 15lb+.
Lastly Darren tipped his fish, which had a bream of around 3lb in there, onto the scales. It was going to be close, the needle spun round a bit and was soon bouncing around the mid 11lb area.
His weight was called at 1 ounce more that me at 11lb 12oz.....bummer, the few bumped fish may have cost me, but then no doubt Darren and John lost a few.

Results:
1. Brian Shanks (58) ... 31lb 9oz (inc 7lb of carp...only ones caught today)
2. John Bradford (29) .... 15lb 10oz (inc a bonus tench)
3. Darren North (30) ... 11-12 (inc a bonus bream)
4. Lee Williams (28) ... 11-11
5. Adam Caswell (61) ... 5-8


Overall I was pleased with how the match went and picked up some money for my efforts, but maybe I could have done with a proper bonus fish like John's tench or Darren's Bream. Brian's weight was very good and unless a couple decent carp appeared for anyone else, it was unlikely to be bettered on the day.
I really enjoyed the day, I like it when it is challenging and makes a change from carp catches.  I may even head over there for a pleasure season soon.

Next up for me, hopefully, is a match on the River Parrett with Pawlett, I don't get to fish running water too often so I am looking forward to it.

Until then, take care.
Lee.

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

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

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

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

Woodlands, peg 20

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time, take care
Lee