Catch-Up....Mid August til End of Sept

Following on from my last blog, Tony's Float match at Sedges. I have not had the time, or inclination to get back to writing a blog each week, life issues and a much needed rest from it has suited me.
But a quick round up of the last 6 weeks or more is a pointer, I hope, for me, to get back into the swing of things.

Anyways. We had a weeks family holiday down at White Acres on Bank Holiday week, I fished the 3 matches there during the week. The Monday gold match on Twin Oaks saw me pick a less-than-good peg, peg 1. I managed a few late on and just missed out on a pick-up.
The rover saw me sit on Acorn and it never really got going, I couldn't find any carp at all. I ended up 21st. But I think that only 3 or 4 half decent carp from a top 4 finish, around 15lb.
Friday's Bolingey match put me on peg 16, an ok peg, but although I had a few carp, 14 or 15 of the smallest carp the lake holds and chucked back around 60lb.

Into Sept and I fished Todber for Pawlett's Day-Out, the whole complex switched off and I drew ok in 44, no island chuck, but had a reasonably enjoyable day and 40-something pounds. Lots of bites there, nice fishing even on the less-than-good days.
The following day I guested on PSV's match at Viaduct on Campbell, I drew 132. Didn't want to fish for carp, but it is not a great silvers peg. Had 4 carp in 4 drops on 4 different rig/lines. But tried to get some decent skimmers and tench. Didn't have any tench and strung a few skimmers and roach together for 4th in the silvers. 19lb 6oz I weighed and lost a few late 'jumpers' in the last 15 minutes. Mark Radford won overall and Matt Williams won the silvers with 25lb.

A Thursday Viaduct Cost-Cutter, after a week not fishing,  saw me fish peg 99 on Cary, I went for silvers but found no quality skimmers or tench. 15lb or so of palm sized skimmers and roach was nowhere overall, but was 3rd on the lake in the silvers and missed a pick-up by 1 place.
The following day I went to Summerhayes, the wife tagged along to keep me company, but she slept...It was a silvers match, but I managed about 40 carp on the light kit. I did scrape 9lb something for again 1 out of the money (a few roach that fell off cost me).

Saturday the 23rd saw me (and Mrs) head to Todber, a slow start for carp, for most people really, saw me spend too long fishing for them throughout the day from my peg, peg 61 on Hillview. Fished for the silvers on and off, more so later on in the match. I put 16lb+ in the net and yet again 1 place off an envelope. 2nd on Hillview in the silvers. I did manage 35lb of carp as well, my 61lb was not too bad in the scheme of things.

The 24th, last Sunday, I had a Pawlett match at Viaduct. Cary and Campbell.....wanted the latter, got the former. Didn't fancy my peg, peg 85 for either a silvers or carp placing. So a day of faffing around saw me land 2 carp in the last hour, 18lb. But I put some silvers in the net on and off, between the times I tried for a carp as only 2 guys I could see were getting them. I had 23lb of roach and skimmers short and 3rd in the silvers with Cary giving the top-3 in the silvers (paid one only). Shawn Kittridge won the silvers with 31lb mostly on 6mm pellet over 4's from peg 78. The top-2 overall came from Campbell, which never gave much in the way of silvers.

So that leaves me to this point in time. After a frustrating few weeks where I haven't had my mind in the game properly, I do hope to get back into a clearer head situation and get back to my simple basics.

This Sunday sees me fishing the 1st round of Viaduct's Silvers League. I have never fished this series and it has 54 of the area's best anglers taking part and me.........My aim is to finish 54th or better!!

Until next time, take care.
Lee

White Acres Winners' Week. 13-10-16. Day Three of 3 --- Twin Oaks

A day to look forward to was my dream leading into the final match of this mini festival, a couple poor/average draws in the last 2 matches had seen me languishing nearer the bottom of the pile as opposed to the top, but with a good few venue regulars fishing the event I know I mustn't be downbeat.

Today saw my rotation falling to fish Twin Oaks, but the weights have been patchy in the previous matches, but peg 35 won the open there yesterday and the wind has been blowing in to that end of both lakes for a couple of days, so a draw in the first couple pegs on either lake would be ok as would the usual 15 and 17 on the lower lake and 21 or 23 on the top lake. The middle areas of both have been patchy but the peg to avoid looked to be peg 27, it had finished plum last in the previous matches.

In to the bag, after peg 27 had gone, I plucked peg 31, neither here nor there were my thoughts, but when I mentioned to Tony Oatley on Facebook I wanted peg 5, he showed me that's what he had. I mention also that I would catch a carp, to which he replied just one?...........
Anyways by the time our section had drawn we had around an hour to get to the lakes and set up before the all-in.

Once at my peg I could see fish in the pegs 35 and 33, F1s mostly but the odd carp were putting on a display. My peg and peg 29 didn't look at all inviting but we continued.

Peg 31, Twin Oaks.

I set up a waggler, which went unused in anger due to the wind.
A small method feeder was rigged up for fishing tight across.
A few rigs remained fishless on the pole, namely the deep and shallow pellet rigs (except losing 1 fouler on the depth rig). A meat rig for 8m went biteless also.
I set up 2 rigs, one for each edge, the right side feeding groundbait and the left just loose fed meat.

Now is the interesting bit.........It was 3.5hrs before my 1st fish, a 2lb F1 from my left edge, shortly followed by a bite and a number 4 section broken....got the fish in though, a similar sized F1 to the 1st.
A barren spell, missing the odd quick bite down the left edge, lost a foul hooked carp before a small F1 fell to the method feeder.

Elsewhere peg 29 was getting the odd F1 but had taken nearly 2hrs before his 1st fish, he said the couple of guys to his right weren't catching either. Pegs 33 and 35 had been getting plenty of action since the start and looked well set.

With maybe an hour to go I began to put a few more small F1s in the net, none of the 3lb fish that are quite common, but most between 1 and 2lb.
I fed the right edge, which was shallower than my left, with a few cups of groundbait and hoped that some of the lumpier carp move in for the remainder of the match.....
I stayed left and picked up a few F1s and with 20 minutes to go I was doing okay, too late, but I was busy. Noticing the odd swirl and colouring up of the right edge saw me drop my rig in and connect with a few more F1s.....no carp!!! Could I go the 3 matches without a proper carp? All I have had this week in the matches is 4 scales from carp....none in the net.

Into the last 5 minutes and I was on around a dozen F1s, maybe 13lb I thought. I was getting loads of indications and all so late....I did have one last fish.......a carp....yay!! I was pleased with that, sadly it was one of the smallest in the lake and probably wasn't even 2lb.
The all-out was called. Peg 27 had chucked 3 small fish back and left and one of his neighbours had struggled.
The scales had soon done the lower lake and by the time they had got to peg 29 it was Chris Kitchen winning our section with 114lb or so I think. The was a dnw (p27) and a 12lb weight, a 50lb net and then peg 29 popped 34lb 8oz on the scales.
My turn, well as I lifted my net and I had more than I thought as my guess of 15lb or so was well short of the 33lb 8oz that I actually had.
Peg 33 had mid-50lb mostly caught on a method across I believe and then peg 35 had 85lb+ of shallow caster fish, lots of nice sized F1s. I ended up 6th in section, never mind, it was the 2 end pegs at each end of the lake that took the top 4 spots in the section, the middle 4 pegs were less productive.

So I enjoyed the last 2hrs or so of the match, and I suppose in hindsight I may have had more by fishing casters or worms perhaps, I was missing loads of bites and maybe natural baits would have been better for connecting with bites, but as we don't get much in the way of F1 fishing in Somerset I have learnt a few things.
God knows where I finished, probably 40th or lower, but everyone gets a place, haha.
Not sure who won either, but will try and update that tomorrow or Saturday if I get the chance, will put the results in my next blog.

Tomorrow I venture to Bolingey, that venue can be peggy and I haven't fished more than twice (drew shite again) but I hope to get amongst some carp.....pretty please!! Oh and no meat or groundbait.....Help!!

Until then, have fun.
Lee

White Acres. August 2016.

A busy week passed this week, myself and the family had a 6 night stay down at White Acres, sadly the weather was awful pretty much for the first 4 days with only a few hours free each day, Saturday to Tuesday, to grab a few hours fishing. I fished Eery and had a good few carp, I had plenty of 4oz f1s and some barbel from Trelawny but struggled for more than a couple 'proper' carp.
An evening on Sycamore was met with another struggle on the carp side of things, I had 4 or 5 but it was the mental fighting barbel that I was pleased with, I had around a dozen to 7lb, they are the hardest fighting fish I have had on the pole, oh and I had loads of 8oz-1.5lb roach/bream hybrids on the pellet wag, it was a nice session.
On the Tuesday afternoon/evening I had a spell on Pollawyn where I had a 14lber hooked in the wrong end 1st cast, then some skimmers and more barbel, again I struggled for the carp despite others catching a good few. I think I had 4 carp, some f1s and a barbel on the method and around 50lb of mostly skimmers and barbel down the edge.

The Wednesday match was on Twin Oaks, where I got lucky in the draw bag and pulled peg 16, and with no 15 or 17 in the bag, signs were good.

Twin Oaks peg 16

I did fancy peg 5, but everyone commented how I should do well etc, but when I got to the peg I had fish right over and down the edge, tails waving (not always great).
To sum up my match, I had a few on the method, f1s and carp, a couple lumps down the edge along with some f1s and skimmers and the rest of my 124lb 8oz was caught in the pellet wag (until I snagged up and didn't re-tackle).
This was enough for the win and an invite to the Preston Festival in October and a free week at the All-Winners week, which I will be taking in 2016. So not a bad day there.

Thursday's rover wasn't great, I plucked 20 out of the bag and saw the hot pegs on Twin-Oaks taken and then Chris Davis chose Eery peg 13, which would have been my choice, I looked at the map and settled on peg 13 on Trelawny, more in hope than anything, at least a few bites would be had.
I arrived at my peg to find 2 guys after me chose pegs 14 and 12.....so I had no room, not good as that's what is needed for better weights.

Trelawny peg 13

The match started ok with a carp of 4lb right away on the method, but then it went dead, so I tried my lines with only a couple skimmers and a baby crucian.
In the end I went out to 14.5m (double-shipping due to the path) and caught plenty of 4oz f1s, only 1 decent one of 2lb. That's pretty much how I spent the last 2hrs of the match, I did lose a carp to a snag of carp-anglers line and I did bump a few off the hook, but I weighed a touch over 43lb for 20th.
Twin-Oaks won the match with 179lb from p17, Chris Davis was 4th, I think, with 120lb-ish from Eery p13.

Friday was home day, but I decided to spend the day, in the end, on Acorn.
It was a very productive day as I put myself on peg 13, 1st chuck on the method feeder saw the feeder snagged, I re-tackled and chucked it out again and it didn't even have time to settle before I had an f1, then a carp and another f1. I chucked the rod up the bank and decided to try an bag a few f1's at 13m shallow (I made an effort with these fish as I don't get to fish for them locally).
I clicked 150lb of mostly f1s to 3lb and a few small-ish carp. All the while I had carp under my feet and down my right margin, I didn't target these initially but after I got bored of slapping.
I went down the edge and under my feet to had another 350lb+ of mostly carp, including no less than 11 doubles to 18lb-ish, it was ridiculous, I even caught on a bare method feeder dangled under the rod tip by my feet. A hectic day. A rough vid that shows what it was like for around 3hrs, one after the other to 18lb.... (my facebook page has better quality video)

So a decent week down in Cornwall and although the weather was, in the main, appalling, I managed a few fish, a match win and learnt some stuff for future reference.

Next up is my write up on today's match down at Shiplate Hawthorn with the PSV guys.

Until then, take care.
Lee

White Acres part two - Twin Oaks/Trelawny

Day two saw me and James draw on Twin Oaks, so again no vehicle faffing.....

I drew peg 13 which had done 40lb for nowhere on Monday and with the car park end pegs doing best as the wind was pushing that way, it could be tricky.

Peg 13, Twin Oaks

 

 

I set up a method rod, a pellet wag rod (but didn't get a fish,  so no more on that) and 3 pole rigs.
A meat line at 2+2, a depth rig to be fished at 10m with banded 6 and 8mm pellets plus the standard margin rig.

 

The match started ok with a fish first chuck on the method,  but a flurry of fish hooked and pulled out of, with the odd one landed, meant that the first hour saw me have about 15lb in the net. I also landed a rock of a pound or so, this was thanks to a carp transferring the hook....the hook was weakend, but like a wally I didn't realise until I lost the next fish!!

The second hour was quieter with only a couple fish netted, F1's.
Around me saw the guy on p11 have around 30lb and the chap on 15 landed a couple lumps plus some silvers from his 5m/meat line.

The third hour was ok, I couldn't get a bite at 2+2, but the 10m line gave me a run of F1's on banded 8's. Plus I had a couple carp on the method.

Into the forth hour and I guessed I was 2nd last in section but hoped for a massive run of lumps.  This never occurred. But I did get some more F1's and some skimmers on the meat line.
I just could not get a sensible run of fish, more importantly,  carp,  from that line.
The guy on the right of me had a good few lumps along with some smaller ones and F1's.

Into the last hour and I could see peg one catching carp each drop so perhaps the lumps were mostly that end?

I had an ok last hour, probably landing 20lb of carp including a nice 8lb+ fish from 6 inch of water, plus 10lb of skimmers/F1's.  But I was well behind.

The all out was shouted and we all packed up.

What I do like at the lakes so far is the efficiency of the weigh in. But I also get odd looks at to why I don't mix carp with other species in our nets..... I guess it's to do with fishery rules and silvers pool.

 

Anyways the weigh in showed me hit just over 80lb,  but my section had a good few 100lb+ weights. There was a 50lb net and another 80lb+. So I had 3 points for the second day running.

James on the other lake had weighed enough to pick up five points.  But their weights were generally lower than ours.

 

The evening saw us head home as James was unwell.  So it was a matter of loading all the kit into the van,  he would drop me home and I would drive back to finish the festival. I also made a point of taking everything back to make sure I could fit in the car everything I needed.
I stayed home and left to arrive back here by 9am, the draw for Porth being at 9:30.

 

Until part three,  take care.
Lee