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

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

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

PSV Match, 18/05/14. Trinity Woodlands Lake.

After a couple of rather warm and tricky days over at Viaduct, I was down to fish the PSV match at Trinity Waters, more specifically, the Woodlands Lake.

Arriving at the venue around 8:15 saw several guys present and Misha making tea in the hut, a quick look at the pond confirmed what a rather excited Adam Caswell had stated, a few of the carp had decided to get frisky, mostly along the left hand banks and corners, where the wind was heading. The main affected pegs were the 30's and 1 to 7.

After unloading the gear and waiting for the later arrivals, Steve announced the payouts and the draw for the match was done, I fancied pegs 7 to 9, maybe 6 or 28 perhaps, I didn't want to be up at the calmer end from peg 15 to about 24.
I drew peg 6, a few comments from others indicating my drawbag ability....haha, its not that great!!

It was also the Blind Pairs match, which Misha did the draw, bringing the biggest cheer/laugh of the day when Adam was paired with Alan Healey. I was awarded Steve Wynne.
Coupled with this, was my knock-out against Lee Waller, who had drew along the end bank, peg 3.

At my peg I was greeted with ample splashing from the margins as some of the lake's residents had got into baby making mood.....Well they do say warm sunshine is good for the libido!!
I had Darren North to my left on peg 7 and he had Briank Shanks to his left on peg 9. Us three had the best of the fresh wind that had gotten up overnight and to be honest I was sure this area was the best to be in.

Peg 6, Trinity Woodlands, r/h margin

Peg 6, Trinity Woodland, in front

 

We had around 45 minutes to set up. I had planned to fish the method and pellet waggler to start, but with Lee Waller on peg 3, this restricted my distance in front, so that idea stayed in the holdall.
So I set up a method to fish tight-ish up against Peg 4, away from the spawning fish.

I also set up a few pole rigs, one for 7m in front for meat/hemp, but I never had a bite on that so no more on this. Another rig that was unproductive was a full depth banded pellet rig for 13m in from, all I had from this was a lost hooklength on a snag and a missed bite/liner.
I also set up a margin rig to fish 7m along the right margin, past the grasses the fish were spawning in, again this was rather unproductive, I had one foul hooked fish and 2 little roach. So no more on that....!!!
My last rig was a shallow pellet rig, which was to be fished over the 13m line and at top kit distance out as this is a spot I like to fish (lazy perhaps?...or clever?).
Baits were 8mm pellet, 8mm meat, 6mm pellet for feed, hemp and some wet micros for the method.

The all in was called at just before 10am, Steve couldn't have set up much!! I wasn't ready, so a minute or two later I lobbed the method rod across to peg 4, I repeated this a few times in the opening 30 minutes without a bite, but the angler across from me (Rich Jones) had landed one or 2 carp as had Darren and Brian had one I as well, I think.
My 1st fish came after around 35 minutes in the form of a 3lb common, a fish was then lost after I found a snag to my right, but it wasn't hectic, infact the 1st 90 minutes didn't see much in the way of action with odd fish getting caught from those I could see. The carp to my right were still having fun though!! I had lost one from the margin/pole line and landed a fouler from here, but I was getting bitted out, so I fed loads more and decided to leave it until the last hour or so.

By the time the 3rd hour had arrived, I had landed 4 or 5 small carp, while Darren and Shanksy had netted better stamp of fish, but their margins were proving a snaggy problem from what I could see.
All the while I had been feeding the pole lines pretty consistently, especially the topkit line, and there were now odd swirls and bubbles coming from the area. I had a couple looks on the lines in front at 7m and 13m, but these were fruitless and called them finished.

The 3rd to 4th hour was sort of productive, it gave me a couple more fish on the method and 3 fish on the shallow topkit line. I also had a few roach and skimmers here. I still never had any of the better sized carp with only 1 being a lump of 8lb, the rest 3-5lbers.
But by the looks of things I was doing ok. I was sure the 2 anglers to my left had plenty more than me and Rich Jones opposite had been catching on and off. The rest of the opposite bank seemed slow and I couldn't see past Brian on peg 9.
Into the 4th hour and I had to re-rig my shallow set-up as I had been trashed by a fish that seemed under control before belting up my left margin and back through my nets before escaping and mullering my rig.  This gave me a few more minutes in the 'tip, and I was rewarded with an 8lb fish.

Back onto the topkit and my swim was masses of bubbles, but I couldn't seem to find what depth the fish were at, and I am sure lots of the 'jacuzzi' was formed by smaller silver fish. but I was plugging along and was soon attached to the odd better fish, one around 10lb and another that maybe was 14lb+ and struggled in and out of my landing net. I reckoned I had 50lb at this point and was on net number 2.

Into the final 60 minutes and I tried the margin without success so remained on the topkit, this saw me land half a dozen fish between 3 and 6lb and my last fish was landed after the whistle and was a good 9lb+ mirror. In that same period Darren had landed a few and Brian was a little quieter but still had a few decent fish.

The all out was called and I packed up before helping out with the scales duties.
Lee Waller had not weighed in so I was through in the knock-out.
I was 2nd to weigh and my silvers went a pound or so, my carp took my total to 116lb 4oz, which surprised me as my estimate of 70-80lb was short...again!!...I must not forget to use my clickers. Ho Hum.

Next to weigh was Darren (p7) he weighed in less than I thought with his total being 84lb 5oz.
Brian Shanks on peg 9 had a decent net, his weight was 114lb 12oz, which had me worried.
The next weight of note was Adam's silvers net of around 7lb, which was enough to take the £45 silvers payout.
As we made our way around the lake, weights were not great with a few 15-25lb weights, with only Rich Jones on peg 32 seeming like a contender to frame, his weigh in was 83lb 5oz. This meant I had won on the day.

I fed a total of 2.5pts of 6mm pellets and 2pts of 8mm pellets throughout the day, maybe if I had fed less then I could have found the depth of the fish, but I am sure I was just distracting rather than attracting fish as they passed. I had 6 or 7 smaller carp on the method feeder, the rest, bar one, came on the topkit shallow, so relatively easy on that front.

The pairs was a close call, done on points rather than weight with 1pt for first and 2 points for second etc. It turned out that the pairing on Simon Belcham and Rich Jones had won with 9 points. 2nd spot, on weight, with 10 points were Brian Shanks and Mike Welling. They edged out Pete Uzzell/Darren North who also had 10 points. Myself and Steve Wynne just missed out on a tenner each, finishing 4th with 14 points......

Results:
1. Lee Williams (p6) 116-4
2. Brian Shanks (p8) 114-12
3. Darren North (p7) 84-5
4. Rich Jones (p32) 83-5
5. Simon Belcham (p12) 55-7
6. Ron Hardiman (p13) 42-7

Silvers: Adam Caswell from peg 15 I think with about 7lb of bits, well a few skimmers and bits

Pairs:...
1. Simon Belcham / Rich Jones
2. Brian Shanks / Mike Welling
3. Pete Uzzell / Darren North
4. Lee Williams / Steve Wynne

So it was a decent match for 4 or 5 of us, but with the carp in semi-spawn mode and iffy on the feed, those without much wind, which I think was the main factor, struggled in the most part. Also I cant think that many purposely targeted the silvers as it was a pairs match, but in hindsight I think a few more guys would have...

The PSV blog with, I expect, full and proper results etc, will be online soon.

Next up for me is my usual Thursday Sedges evening match, this week on my bogey lake, Tile.
Otherwise I am over at Landsend with the PSV crew next sunday, I just hope it aint mugging city.

Until then, take care.
Lee

Clevedon Match - Trinity Woodlands

Sunday saw half a dozen of us take up pegs 24 to 29, ideal as the weather was due to be a bit iffy come in mid afternoon
We fished from around 9:45 to 3:30.

The draw was done but really I don't think it would have made a difference to where we were.
I pulled out peg 25. Which was fine.

 

I had planned to fish chopped worm and caster but left my caster at home. Therefore I would simply fish, hopefully, with banded 8's over 6's at 13m (full depth) and again at 2+2 where it was more or less the same depth.
I also planned to try both margins in the last 30-40 minutes using meat.
A shallow rig was assembled but didn't give me a bite.
I set up a method feeder and a pellet wag, the wag never produced a fish so less of that.

 

The match began with half hour on the pellet wag while the pole lines settled, this was not great as it never produced.
A look over the waggler line on the method for half hour gave me a skimmer and a couple of 5lb carp.

 

Elsewhere Adie Baker had been into a few fish on the pole, John W. on peg 24 had a single carp fishing shallow as had Rich Heatley on my left,  he'd also had a carp fishing the lead. There were plenty of fish boshing and moving in the upper layers but I think they would not settle in our calmer water;  they may have if we had been on the other side.

 

A look on the long pole line gave me a carp first chuck followed up by an F1. A 3lb carp soon made its way to the keepnet.
A patchy next hour saw me try the shallow rig but it didn't seem right despite both guys next to me getting odd fish,  Rich getting a few decent roach on banded 8's to.
A look short only gave me a solitary skimmer, and banding 6's didn't change a thing.

 

At 3hrs in and I had around 30lb, which looked at being behind Adie and by the sounds of it Ivan Currie had caught a few. I was ahead of the guys each side of me.

A look on the method feeder produced a handful of carp and two skimmers which boosted my weight somewhat and I was happy enough with my catch rate.
Back on the pole and I found the fish had returned and four on the bounce was good,  but I could still see Adie's elastic being stretched regularly.

By now we were into the last hour and John was beginning to catch a few lumps and was pushing 80lb.

I had put my second net in for carp as I knew my net would be close to 65lb, and given my pants ability at weight guessing (I even used clickers again) I then decided to go down the edge to see if any lumpy carp were about.
First drop produced a missed bite but I connected on the next and an 8lb carp was landed. I quickly had a skimmer and a tench before another carp found its way to my net. A few fish were spooked out of the margin, the bow waves giving this away, but the colour was muddying up nice. I re-fed some more meat.

A quick look on the short pellet line gave me a 6lber. Then it was back down the margins, taking a fish from each side if possible, or at least giving each side a minute or 2 for a bite, I often find that it becomes that only 1 side really produces in decent quantities, never both.

 

The last half hour gave me five foul hooked fish, only landing a baby. I also put another 3 in the net.  John still had lumps and I heard that Ivan had done well.
I thought I had maybe 95lb plus five pounds of silvers. Which consisted of a tench, an F1, 2 roach and five skimmers. I had about 17 carp to 8lb or so.

 

The weigh in began with John Wolstencroft putting 78-04 on the board with carp to over 12lb.
I went next and my silvers weighed 7-12 plus carp gave me 117-05.
Rich H. had double his 25lb guess, putting 52-03 on the board.
Adie had 14-06 of silvers in his 90-05 bag.
Walshy had 14-03 of silvers and a 16lb+ carp (which apparently was 20lb thirty minutes previous..lol). He totalled 67lb and an ounce.
Last up was Ivan Currie. His total was 88-08.

 

Weigh Sheets from the day

 

 

This gave me the win and more pennies for the holiday fund.

It was a good match with the average weight being over 82lb per angler.
I am pleased by the fact I had most of my fish at depth on banded 8mm. Something I have to keep doing as I don't tend to use hard pellets at full depth.

 

Next up for me is a match at Sedges with Pawlett, it's a silver fish contest, so could be fun if the carp wake up..!!

 

Until next time Take Care

 

Lee

Clevedon Club Match, Trinity Woodlands, 02/03/14

Sunday's match at the popular Trinity Woodlands lake was one I was looking forward to fishing.
But as is the current trend, fish are tending to be feeding better in some areas than others and to do well a tidy match needs to be fish alongside a decent draw.

The weather for the day was forecast to be windy, though not at windy as it was predicted by the mid-week predictions. The wind, coupled with some light rain/drizzle was seen as the bulk of the conditions, but a weather front was due around 3pm, this was to bring heavy rain....

Anyways there were 16 of us on the sheet to fish and I guess most of us wanted a peg on the near side rather than the far side platforms which would have the weather pushing in and across them.
Into the hat went the pegs, I held out before my draw, but after around 8 or 9 guys had drawn I found peg 11 in my palm, a peg on the far bank (not great!) but not a bad peg really and I was confident of a few fish.

Peg 11, Trinity Woodlands

I made my way to my peg chatting with the odd guy as I went, I had to my left an older fellow whom I didn't get his name and another chap who I recognised but don't know his name (sorry!!). I passed Brian Slipper on about peg 7 and Phil Deacon in the peg to his left. Opposite me I had Rob Fogg and Titch Williams.....I could see pretty much most of the lake which would help me gauge how I was doing.
I set up the customary lead/feeder rod for banded pellet. I also set up a 3 rigs for the pole.
The 1st was for the hoped for skimmers, which can run to 'proper bream' size. This was a Nick Gilbert pattern, a 0.6g caner model on 0.14>0.10>size 20 B611x. This could be fished at 6m right the way out to 13m, but with the wind I was going to focus on the 6m line straight in front.
2 NG Decker XT's were also made up, one for a 6m line at the 10 o'clock direction, the second was for 6m to my left next to the empty pallet of peg 12.
Both were 0.6g models as depths were similar, 0.18>0.14>size 16 B911.

Bait for the day was 6mm meat, wetted micros and 4mm pellets and some pinkies and maggots, I also mixed up some groundbait. Some 8mm, 6mm and brightly coloured pellets were on the tray for the lead/feeder rod..

On the whistle I cupped in 4 Satsuma sized balls of groundbait on the 6m line and 2 on the 13m lines. Some wet micros, 4mm pellets and a few 6mm cubes of meat were deposited both near the empty pallet and also in the 10 o'clock direction.
I chucked a small feeder out with wetted micros in at just under halfway across the lake, I started on a banded 6mm pellet as hookbait.
After an hour of much changing I had noted that Adie Baker on the opposite bank had landed a few decent skimmers and the odd carp, Nick Harvey up on peg 16(?) had got off to a flying start. Rob Fogg, opposite me, had also landed a carp on what looked to be the method feeder.
Further down the lake, Phil Deacon had landed a couple fish, but I could not see if they were carp or skimmers. Brian Slipper was putting a nice bag together by fishing long.

At around 11pm I came onto the pole line at 6m for the skimmers over groundbait, but a biteless 20 minutes saw me try the 13m line, which was difficult as the wind was not helpful. This never gave me a bite, so I came back short and it was a good choice as I bumped a fish then landed a decent skimmer which hardly moved the float, but around 2.5lb it was a bonus. The angler to my right had a carp at this time to. Adie was bagging as was Brian Slipper. Everyone else was now scratching around with only the odd fish here and there.
At just before 12 I had a look down towards the empty pallet and the float immediately went under and I pulled into a carp, a 3lb fish was soon netted. This proved to be a false dawn as despite my trying and rotating my lines it wasn't until around 1pm that I had another bite, this saw a small roach netted from the 6m silvers line. A few minutes after that I hooked another carp from the pallet swim, another carp of maybe 2lb was put into the keepnet. This was followed by another bite and a better carp was hooked, and given the depth of the lake it took a while to surface. But after 10 minutes it came to the surface, I did wonder if I could get it in my net, it was easily a 15lb fish.

Now I had hoped that the 2 fish in quick succession would lead to a run of fish, it didn't.
The weather was not great either and the guy on peg 12 had lost his bait tubs in the wind several times and Mark Walsh on the opposite bank had his umbrella take off and mess up his peg....Everyone was rather wet to boot!!
Adie Baker and Brian Slipper had been catching for most of the match by this point, but Kev Perry (also with the wind off his back) had started to catch well, mostly skimmers with the odd carp thrown in.  Phil Deacon had been taking odd carp as had the angler on peg 4. Still I had more than those immediately around me and maybe more than Rob and Titch opposite me, but I couldn't be sure.

I had to wait until 2:30 for my next fish, my 4th carp was from the pallet swim and was around 4lb.
3:15 came and the rain began to get heavier, and by 4pm it was properly p*ssing down and the wind had got up. The all out sounded and I think everyone was pleased to be packing up.
The last 90 minutes was a struggle for most, I only had 1 bite which I missed, but Adie continued to catch and the angler on p12 had strung a few silvers together. Brian Slipper had kept catching and it looked between him and Adie for the win with Nick Harvey's flying start putting him in contention from what I could see throughout the day. Kev Perry's late surge of skimmers had given him chance in the silvers, but it was hard to tell really as with light elastics even skimmers can pull a bit.

I packed my gear away and took the rod bags back to the car. I was rather wet.
I caught up with the scales at Brian's peg and by now the sheet was properly trashed and we had to remember our weights, lol.
Brian's ample bag of fish went 61lb, of which the best part of 58lb was carp.
Phil Deacon weighed around 33lb and then it was my turn.
My 1 skimmer and baby roach went 3lb dead. My 4 carp were worth 26lb, over half of which was one fish!! So 29lb was my weight.
The next couple of guys weighed in, the angler on p12 had around 6lb of silvers, before we got to Nick Harvey, his catch was 40lb 10oz. Next up was Mark Bromsgrove (p19 or 20?), he had 7lb 12oz of silvers to take the silvers lead, he also had a couple carp.
The long bank was weighed and Mark Walsh DNW'd before we got to Adie, his mixed net of carp and skimmers went 85lb 4oz to take the lead.
At that point I decided to load my kit into the car and head home as the weather was atrocious.
My net was in amongst several catches between 23lb and 33lb. It was a tough day, but I did enjoy it up until the heavy rain arrived. But I don't think there was much more I could have done really, I bumped 3 fish, but they could have been roach or skimmers perhaps. I also missed 3 bites, but that happens.

Results:
1st Adie Baker, 85lb 4oz
2nd Brian Slipper, 61lb
3rd Nick Harvey, 40lb 10oz

Silvers:
1st Kev Perry, 22lb
2nd Mark Bromsgrove, 7lb 12oz.

Next up for me is a match on the Bridgwater/Taunton canal at Wide Waters, hoping for the tench to feed, although it would have been nice if it was clearer and we could fish the punch on the whip.....ah well.

Before that I will, hopefully, prepping my kit in the build up for my 1st White Acres festival at the end of the month.......... I will also be hoping for a run of sundays with decent weather conditions, my lounge resembles a tackle store at the minute with kit everywhere drying out!!

Until next time, take care
Lee

Clevedon Club, Trinity Woodlands, December 1st 2013

Todays match, with Clevedon FWAC, was at the popular Trinity Waters complex near Bridgwater. We were to fish the main match lake that is Woodlands.
The lake had loads of carp, skimmers, plenty of roach and a few tench and perch for good measure.

Anyways, todays draw was 8:30 and fishing was 10:00 to 15:50, there was 15 of us spread on the 2 long banks.
I woke at 7am, had a cuppa and some cereal, loaded the carp and set off at 8am....I had driven about half a mile and decided to grab a breakfast roll from Munchkins food van. So the 5 minute drive took 20 minutes, lol.

I arrived to a car park with plenty of vehicles in, but I wasn't last to arrive, Nick Harvey, Kev Perry and a couple others arrived after me.
I unloaded the car, loaded the barrow, paid my £20 and waited for the draw. After a couple of 'hellos' and chit chat, the pegs were in the bag. Top 3 and 2 silvers were the payouts.
I drew towards the end of the rabble, plucking peg 27. Not too bad, but I would rather have been further up the lake on either side, as the little wind we had seen recently was pushing that way.
For company I had Adie Baker on p26 and Kev Perry on 29. Opposite I had Simon Ryall and Nicky Harvey.

Peg 27, Trinity Woodlands.





 



I had fished peg 28 earlier in the week, making a couple rigs up and attempting to catch silvers, which was my ideal plan for today. Now I did have between 20 and 25lb on Wednesday in 4hrs fishing, but I never managed a skimmer over 4oz or so, but had a great big roach near to 2lb and a nice sized perch. I only hooked 2 carp on Wednesday which was a surprise given it's relative mildness.
So I had ideas, and rigs, that'd sort my fishing out, so I thought!!

For bait today I had a pint or so of caster, some maggots, a kilo of Sensas matchblend and magic mix, some micros, corn and 4mm pellets. I had some expanders in 4 and 6mm, plus bread for hookbaits.
I set up a waggler with 2 no.8's down the line, this was for various baits at around 20m.
A bomb rod for the waggler line, plus searching, this had a 18" tail, on which a size 16 hook with a band was tied for bread and pellet as bait.
4 pole rigs were assembled:
The first was 0.4g margin float for tight in to my left, 0.20>0.16>size 16 B911 with corn or 6mm expander. Solid 18/20 was my choice of elastic.
The 2nd was a 0.4g NG Silverfish Caner, set up on 0.12>0.08>22 B511, no.4-6 laccy for a topkit line.
3rd was a 0.6g NG Decker, bulked 18" and a no.10 dropper. 0.12>0.10>B911f1 size 18, no. 4-6 solid laccy. This was for 14m out, slightly right in deeper water (it sloped Left to right). Aiming for skimmers mostly.
Lastly was a 0.5g NG Power Pencil on 0.20>0.16>size 16 B911, to be fished at 9m at 10 o'clock sort of line and 14.5m at the 11 o'clock position as it was the same depth. Baits would be 6mm expander pellet or corn. Laccy was a 10/12 middy solid.

The all in was called at 10am and I spent a little while cupping in several balls of groundbait on the skimmer line. A cup of mixed 4mm pellet and corn was deposited on my 14.5m carp line, the same went in on the shorter line. A few casters were flicked to the topkit line, as this line was the one I expected to make the bulk of my catch, like I found it had earlier in the week.
I didn't bait the margin swim, leaving that until 90 minutes from the end.

I started on the wag with maggot and waited 5 minutes for my 1st fish, a little 1/2oz roach, followed a couple minutes later by a 3oz roach. Switching to corn never bought a bite, so I lobbed the lead and bread out for 20 minutes, this didn't bring much, just a single liner.
By the end of the 1st hour a few carp had been caught, but nobody I could see had landed more than 2. I had a few small roach in the net.

The following 90 minutes went ok though, well I say ok, but I would rather not have hooked carp on the lighter lines, but I did, and by half past 12 I had 3 carp in the net. 1 on the topkit line and 2 from over where I wanted skimmers. They were a while to land, but I succeeded.
Adie, next door on 26, had landed a good few silvers, and possibly had 5lb of them. The guys directly opposite were struggling as was Kev Perry on p29. Word had it that the end peg on my bank, Mark Walsh had landed a few carp as had the end peg opposite him.
I was stuck on whether to try and bag a bunch of slivers, which didn't seem like playing ball for me, I was even struggling to get bites on maggot....only soft 4mm bought me the old silver fish. Or fish for carp, which seemed most plausible for a pick up. Although even that would be a struggle as I would be playing catch up to at least 3 people. To be fair I was going nowhere, sort of in limbo so to speak, not close enough for a silvers pick up, but as the carp go to upper doubles, 3 fish could be 40lb...so carp it was then...........so I thought.

Between 12:30 and the all out was a struggle for me, I did land 2 carp in quick succession. 1 each from the 14.5m and 9m lines, but bites seemed to come when I cattied 4mm's over the float. The fish may have been up a bit in the water, but the shallow edge rig was dropped in with no response.
I even struggled for silvers.
Other anglers had started to catch, Jonny Page even bagged one on a pub chuck while he packed up the pole etc. Adie was getting good amounts of silvers and Rich Heatley on peg 30 was catching well, as he had been all day. Much to the amusement of Kev Perry, or should I say to the amusement of those watching from the other side.....good banter....lol.

The all out sounded and I had come nowhere, but I packed up and duly helped out with the weigh in.
First up was end peg 23, Mark Walsh, he weighed in a possible winning weight of 66lb 5oz.
Lewis on peg 24  targeted silvers all day, bagging himself a 12lb 14oz  mixed bag.
Adie Baker weighed in a total of 27lb 5oz, of which 14lb 2oz was his silvers.
I weighed a poxy 3lb 5oz of silvers and my 5 carp went 26lb 2oz. 29lb 7oz total.
Kev Perry (p29) weighed 14lb+
Then came Rich Heatley, his carp weighed 74lb 6oz, his silvers 3lb 4oz. He now looked the winner with 77lb 10oz total, a good weight.
Peg 32 had 7lb+ of silvers then there were a few 20lb-ish weights before Simon Ryall put 1oz less than me on the scales. Nicky Harvey DNW'd.
The last 2 to weigh were Jonny Page and Phil Nash. Jonny picked up the odd fish during the match, including his late lead caught carp. His total went 37lb 11oz from peg 14.
Phil, on end peg 15. He had been catching a few lumps, some looked doubles from what I could see. So in the almost dark conditions I called his weights, they totalled 48lb 11oz (2lb 3oz silvers in that). That was 3rd overall, so well done him.

So overall it was a fair, tricky match, which is how I like it. Maybe I could have had a few more of both silvers and carp, but despite trying various things, the fish never responded. I do think a pellet wag attack could have given a few fish. There were a few mooching in the upper layers. All if's and but's.

Weigh sheet...





Results:
1st- R. Heatley, 77lb 10z
2nd- M. Walsh, 66lb 5oz
3rd- P. Nash, 48lb 11oz
Silvers:
1st- A. Baker, 14lb 2oz
2nd- L. Walker, 12lb 14oz

So next up for me is the Pawlett Xmas match on Sedges next sunday, which should be enjoyable.

Until next time, take care and enjoy yourselves

Lee.