PSV Match, Viaduct Cary 9-9-18

Before I get on to Sunday's match I will give a quick recap of the couple of matches I have fished but not blogged about since my last post.
I fished the penultimate match of the Float Only Series which was at Sedges, I drew p35. Umm so-so in a float only match. Well the match was hard all over but I started well with a handful of fish shallow on the pole, losing a couple which may have been foul hooked, but gradually the wind changed and I struggled for the remainder of the match to finish with 35lb which was last in the 5 peg section but not last on the day.
Then I fished a Thursday open at Viaduct across Campbell and Cary. I fancied fishing for silvers but drew peg 80 but I still set my stall out in the main for silvers.
I managed to land a few carp, of which one was fished for. But I had a decent 2.5 to 3hrs at the start of the match before things died for me. Thankfully I put 22lb on the scales which was top silvers weight off Cary but beaten by a couple of nets from Campbell for 3rd on the day.

Since those matches I had a lovely family holiday in Turkey, the sea was warmer than the hotel pools and the fish in the sea like to have a munch on your dry skin, scabs and any abrasions, so when I stayed sill in the water I would get nipped, they didn't hurt, more of a surprise. Myself and daughter mostly spent ages feeding the small fish bread which was cool. Also drank and ate too much but randomly had loads of early nights and plenty of sleep which is unlike me. But very nice to get away.

Right I digress, back to Sunday, I was going to go to Summerhayes as me and the missus had plans Saturday night and didn't know if I would be in decent shape to fish. But on Friday Steve Burgess asked if I wanted to guest with the PSV bunch on Cary. After a day thinking about it I agreed.
I got there in plenty of time for the 9am draw and had a chat with a few of the guys, I haven't seen a few of them for bloody ages so it was good to speak.
Into the draw and I wait for towards the end of the queue and I plucked 105, before Mr Burgess found himself on 102. Not the area I fancied as it has been patchy there and with the wind pushing up towards the top corner and pegs 88 to 90 would have been my preference. But none the less I would crack on and see what I could catch. Oh and John Bradford who only fished for silvers drew p80 and wasn't going to fish it but in the end he did.

Peg 105 Cary, Viaduct

I didn't have much in the way of bait for the silvers, only some micros and expanders plus perhaps 20 worms so I only set up one rig which remained untouched all day.
Other rigs for the day was the obligatory lead rod for 8mm pellet.
A shallow pellet rig and depth pellet rig to fish between 14 and 16m in front. I used a DT Pinger for the shallow set up and a DT RBS open in 0.4g for on the deck, hooks were B911 size 16 and 0.16 hooklength.
A rig to fish meat at 6m was put up along with a rig to fish to empty peg 106 using a DT Margin Diamond. this rig went untouched.
Baits were 6mm and 8mm pellets and 8mm meat, so nice and simple.

At the all in I fed some micros and expanders for the silvers, the only time I put bait out for them.
I fired some pellets out to about 25m for the lead and began on the short meat line hoping for an early mug fish, but other than losing 3 foul hookers (scales returned) I had 2 bites I missed that was my first 45 minutes done with. Matt Williams on p74 also lost a couple foul hooked carp early before switching to silvers bashing.
All the while I had been pinging 6mm pellets on the long pole line but oddly there had not been a sign of fish, usually there would be some fizzing and perhaps the odd swirl. But nothing.
So I chucked the lead out and gave that 10 minutes before I got bored.

Out with pellet on the deck and I missed a couple half hearted bites, maybe liners, but I thought I would try a little longer on the deck before trying shallow. I then managed two carp in as many drops on the deck and that was 18lb in the net after 90 minutes, I think only 1 carp had been had elsewhere at this point. But I began getting iffy indications again and tried the shallow rig at various depths before I caught another fish around 13lb fishing around 10 inches deep (shallow?).
Just before the 2hr mark arrived I chucked the lead out and managed one after 5 minutes to push me up to 40lb on the clicker...… and then it went dead so I wandered to see Steve on 102, he only had small silvers and Adam Caswell was just netting his 1st fish of the day in the form of a skimmer off peg 100. Steve said nobody had much.

Back to my peg and around 90 minutes passed before I landed anymore fish. I did lose one on the lead in that time but it had became entangled in another carp trailing line and inevitably my carp was lost. But 2 quick shallow fish helped me along and 3 skimmers on the meat line saw the 4th hour pass ok enough. My clicker said 55lb and I was onto my next net.
The 5th hour was ok with a couple more carp on the shallow rig, I had to feed heavy and leave a few minutes before swinging the rig in where the feed went to get any indications. The deep rig just sat still.
It looked like I was doing ok, only young Ross Sewell on peg 77 was getting the odd carp now, but I did expect the top bank to have had a few by now.

The last 60 minutes were upon us and I was starting to see a few fish up towards peg 109, out of sensible (or unreasonable?) casting range, I just hoped a few would venture up, which luckily one or two did and I mugged a couple as they swam by.
A look on the meat line gave me a couple indications but I only caught a decent set of branches which screwed all change of me catching here really.
Randomly I fired a pouch of 8mm pellets down by peg 106 and in the last 20 minutes I caught 3 fish on the lead just off the platform, the 3rd of which I netted on the whistle and went in the 3rd net.
My clickers showed 55lb, 60lb and that last one which was perhaps 7lb. Plus my 3 skimmers (3lb). I reckoned on 125lb.

I packed up most of my kit and waited for Steve Long to come and begin the weigh in.
When he arrived he said the water temps had dropped considerably in the last 5 days and the lakes had generally slowed, with just the odd 'big' weight.
Anyways my last fish was just over 8lb and my other 2 nets were actually well clicked boosting my carp catch to 125lb, coupled with my 3lb of silvers I had 128-07 in total. 12 carp and 3 skimmers.

Steve Burgess had 14lb of  'eyes' before the scales moved onwards. He said I could win with my weight as he hadn't seen anyone catch too much.
I loaded my kit in the car in 3 trips as it was a short-ish walk. Before catching up with the results, Alan Healey said Will Dearlove had done well and I believed him when he said he had 4 carp nets in. So I was likely to be second.
Actually Alan had wound me up and it turned out I had won on the day ahead of Will's 77-01 net.
John Bradford won the silvers from peg 80, the bigger skimmers/bream/tench hadn't really fed and he had 15lb 8.5oz, Steve Sewell had half an ounce less!!

Results:

1. Lee Williams (105) 128-7
2. Will Dearlove (90) 77-1
3. Ryan Radford (87) 60-5
4. Ross Sewell (77) 54-5
5. Alan Healey (98) 50-9
6. Lee Waller (81) 43-5
7. Adam Caswell (100) 35-5

Silvers:
1. John Bradford (80) 15-8½
2. Steve Sewell (96) 15-8
3. Matt Williams (74) 15-1
4. Steve Burgess (102) 14-0

So a pretty decent day results wise, but 12 carp and 3 skimmers landed, 3 lost foul hooked carp and 1 carp lost to a fishing trailing line, it wasn't hectic with plenty of quiet times. But happy none the less.

Next up for me is Avalon on the 23rd with Pawlett, no fishing this weekend as me and the wife are off for a '48hr Party' with a 90's theme at Pontins for a laugh.

Plus I need to get a little prep done for the Maver Festival at White Acres in 3 weeks of so...

Until then, take care and have fun.
Lee

Pops Charity Pairs Match, The Sedges. 12-8-18

I managed to get a partner in the shape of Mark Leader a few days before the match, luckily we bagged the last of the 20 places (40 anglers, 20 pairs).
In the few days leading up to the day we had seen a drop in temperatures and even some of the wet stuff had fallen, and with the wife due to come along on the day it was expected to be damp most of the day.

I arrived in plenty of time, well that's a lie, I would have arrived in plenty of time but the staff in McDonalds managed to take 15 minutes in getting a couple Sausage and Egg McMuffins together.
But I arrived, paid my dues and said hello to most of those fishing.
I got Mark to draw as he had won the midweek open on Brick Lake with 167lb. he came back towards the end of the queue with pegs 14 and 22, not the best draw but okay enough. Mark chose to go on Brick so I trotted back to my car and drove it 20 yards to my peg to unload the kit, bonus.

No silvers rigs were assembled even though there was a prize for top silvers on each lake.
My tackle assortment was as such:
A method feeder to fish towards the island and over my pole line.
A shallow slapping/mugging rig using a 0.2g DT Pinger.
A DT float's Big D for my 2 edges but I never really got to give that a proper try.
Lastly a couple DT RBS opens, one for meat at 6m and the other for banded pellets under the shallow line at 14.5/16m.
Bait was micros for the feeder, 6mm and 8mm pellets plus some meat and groundbait.

For company I had Ziggy Slowinski on peg 23 and probably the person most likely to win on peg 21, fishery owner Jamie Cook.
It was still raining at the all in and within a few seconds of Jamie chucking his feeder out he had fishes back out of the water in numbers where he was casting, hmmmm.
Me, I started shallow after feeding my peg and it was a good 20 minutes before I had my 1st carp which actually came on my 1st drop on the depth rig, at 8lb it was an ok start. I then had a skimmer before all indications stopped.
A quick look on the meat line gave nothing, a few more looks shallow gave me no response, the fish were there but seemed more interested in swimming around quickly.
So after 90 minutes I was still on one carp well behind Jamie and from what I could see Eric on 38 was getting a few.

I lobbed the method over the pole line and within minutes I had carp number 2 in the net, but it was a false dawn even the liners had stopped. So I reluctantly chucked the feeder to the island where I pretty much spent the rest of the match baring a few looks on each of the pole lines.
I would get a couple fish in quick succession before it went quiet, I actually went over an hour at one point without a carp. But I persevered and managed to catch 4 carp on the shallow rig, there was no consistency in that though,  I had no more on the depth pellet rig and only a skimmer on the meat with 10 minutes to go.
I had one fish I weighed that was 13lb and a few ounces but at the all out I had clicked 69lb on one clicker and 44lb on the second plus 3 skimmers.
I reckoned Jamie had around 200lb as I had told the wife, he had 3 nets in and he usually puts 60lb in each and is very rarely out on his estimates. Eric Fouracres on peg 38 had a good last couple hours and had more than me, maybe 150lb. But everyone else, except Ziggy who had struggled on peg 23, I could not see.

I packed up my kit and followed the weigh in on Tile, helping out with the sums should Nigel Hull need it. Starting with Jamie, who said he clicked 199lb,  after a few weighs and he had 200lb 1oz. Not likely to be beaten.
Me next and my estimates were not far out with 13lb 4oz weigher, 3lb 11oz for my 3 skimmers and then 110lb 15oz across my 2 carp nets totalled me up to 127lb 14oz. Not too shabby, and a day where my smallest fish was around the 6lb mark.
Ziggy had a hard day and weighed 26lb, then other than Keith Bilder who had 152lb 8oz, the rest weighed in the 40lb to 60lb region.(
The pegs down the causeway fared a bit better with 5 of the 10 anglers having 100lb+ (plus a 97lb net) culminating in Eric on peg 38 weighing 154lb 2oz.

Overall I finished up 5th in the match and on the lake as Brick was hard going with Mark struggling on peg 14 with 15lb and the lake was won with 73lb 14oz from peg 11 ahead of a level 73lb and then a 57lb.  Top silvers on each lake was 25/26lb. As a pair Mark and I were equal 6th.

Results:
Brick Lake, 
1st Jack Arpino 73lb 14oz peg 11
2nd Phil Wilkins 73lb peg 6
3rd John Fuidge 57lb 2oz peg 13

Tile Lake,

1st Jamie Cook 200lb 1oz peg 21

2nd Eric Fouracres 154lb 2oz peg 38

3rd Keith Bilder 152lb 8oz peg 25

Pairs Overall 

1st Jack Arpino and Keith Bilder 4 points 226lb 2oz

2nd Jamie Cook and Phil Clapp 6 points 244lb 1oz
3rd Phil Wilkins and Nick Baggot 6 points 215lb 7oz

£220 was raised for St. Margarets Hospice, which was great.

Next week it is the next round of Tony's Float Only series, back at Sedges, so not an early start.

Until then, take care.
Lee