Acorn/Clevedon FWAC Blind Pairs and Summerhayes Longs Open, 30/12/17 and 31/12/17

A quick round up of the couple of matches I fished on the weekend.

Saturday was Clevedon FWAC's 'Boxing Day' blind pairs, this was opened up to all and after my car had it's MOT I had to decide what to do on Saturday and this came up, but I could not initially get on but then a text from Adie said I could as someone had dropped out. Bargain.

Only 10 of us fished it and the winds were rather strong, but dropped from 40+mph to 20-something during the day. I hadn't fished it for a long while but I do keep eyes on the results and it has generally been tricky going and the fish have seemed to moved around a bit, except the island pegs (1 to 5) where I was sure the winner would come from and where I fancied (we had pegs 2 and 4 in the match).

Anyways a bit of a natter to those I know and those I didn't before the draw was done. I pulled peg 40, bridge peg by the car...short walk. They have also cleared the hedge and filled the ditch that ran parallel with the car park so it is more exposed but looks a lot neater.
I fancied it for a few fish but got told that area was pants mid-week and a few dnw's in that area were made. My partner for the day was Andy Devereaux on peg 31.

Acorn peg 40

Bait was maggots, expanders, micros and corn, plus some bread for dobbing.
3 rigs, 1 for anywhere from topkit to 9 or 10m where I would feed and fish maggots (DT 0.3g F1/Silvers float, 0.10>20f1 hook). The 2nd rig for dobbing bread along the bridge which went biteless (DT RBS Open water 0.2g, 0.12>16b911), lastly a shallower rig which was for the far side and my margins both sides where corn over micros would be used (0.1 DT Pinger 0.14>16b911).

Well to summarise the day, it was bloody hard for all. I began slowly, like everyone but I started to get the odd decent roach on my topkit and after an hour or so I had 4 or 5 for maybe 1lb.
The second hour gave me a 1.5lb carp and odd baby roach from maggots halfway along the bridge.
3rd hour gave nothing except 1 small skimmer on the topkit.
4th hour gave me another 2lb carp from next to the bridge on maggots and a skimmer from here.
Last hour produced a couple nice roach and in the final moments a decent f1 on corn over micros at 13m in front. I reckoned on 6lb plus a few roach/skimmers and 1 perch of 1oz.
Elsewhere the 2 island pegs produced a few carp and Mark Walsh and Mike Owens had 23lb+ nets. The rest of us struggled more so and Adie on peg 37 had 1 roach from his 4 bites all day.
Mark Bromsgrove had a tench of 1oz in his 4lb catch, which was nice.
I totalled 10-14 for 3rd on the day.
Top pairs were:
1st- total 27-12 were Mark Bromsgrove (4-00) and Mike Owen (23-12)
2nd - total 25-15 were Mark Walsh (23-07) and Matt Roden (2-08)

There are photos and weigh sheets on Ivan's Blog
It was nice to get back there and I will be sure to try and get there more often.
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Sunday saw me head to Summerhayes for their open on Longs, which turned out to be a rover.
I only decided to go as Gabe said he would see me there....a little more sleep would have been more sensible.
Anyways only 8 of us and I would wait until there was 2 balls left in the tub before my go....Gabe, who was running late, would have the last one. 1st pick and last pick were those left, yep I chose last choice. Pete phoned Mr Skarba and he put himself on peg 37 when he arrived. I fancied peg 11 or 12 as there seemed to be some fish there to say the least. But that area went, I chose peg 7, which in hindsight was not too sensible as during the day the sun came out and the winds increased leaving me not being able to see my floats in most areas and the areas I could were those ii struggled to hold the pole....twat, think next time...!!

Peg 7, Longs, Summerhayes.

Anyway I enjoyed my 4.5hrs fishing in the most part as you can get a few bites at this venue and so it proved, obviously not enough as I chucked back half and hour early. Peg 11 went off like a train and had 16 carp in the first 45 minutes to an hour. As had Martin Addicott around in the 30's somewhere.
My 1st carp came after 20 minutes on dobbed bread, after 90 minutes I had 5 or 6 on this, plus 2 little skimmers.
That was that on the bread. Then the wind and sun came and I never had anything for a couple hours, peg 11 kept catching but I was enjoying myself. I then picked up a couple carp on maggots where I had dobbed bread earlier when the wind dropped for a couple minutes.
I then tried down to my left edge by some reeds and netted 4 carp from here on maggots and a few chunky roach. I had nothing on maggots short but had a run of fish down my right edge by the empty platform on corn over micros, well I say run of fish, it was 4 and lost 2.

When I packed up I had 16 carp (40lb maybe) and 3lb or so of silvers.
I loaded my car and spoke to Gabe, he had around 30 carp and some silvers but also chucked back as 138lb and 101lb were top weights I found out later on from him. Rob Birch on peg 1 or 2 had 4 carp and a few bits, a couple others struggled too. But everyone had some bites and a few fish.

My 3 rigs were all on DT RBS Opens in 0.3g and to 0.12 hooklengths and size 16 hooks.
Bait was simple maggots, micros, corn and bread, I did mix some groundbait and had some casters but the wildlife were fed them.

It was nice to get back there and have a few elastic pullers, but I must remember that to face the sun and wind in the winter is rather schoolboy, I should have learned that I wouldn't have seen anything in those conditions.

Next weekend is the next round of the Landsend So-Simple Winter League. The weather looks cooler and I am on the Speci Lake.

Until then, Take Care.

Lee

Viaduct Christmas Match, 23-12-17. All Lakes.

Thankfully a day of light winds and little if any rain was forecast for the 97 or 98 of us booked into this match, a very good turn out indeed.
We all had our ideas of where to draw and where not to, 132 and 110 are the hot pegs currently and most expected one of them to win and the other to frame the further up the lake you went the less carpy it became. Match Lake could be ok if things were hard and Middle/Spring had seen a couple hundred new carp stocked between 4 and 7lb, so should they feed then that could be interesting. Cary....maybe but should be at least the most consistent lake for the silvers at least. Nobody really fancied many pegs on Lodge with the exception of perhaps 73 and maybe 64, and 59 for skimmers.

Anyway the car parks were full and a few of us were boxed in up the top car park, but no worries as there was a prize for all and I couldn't see anyone leaving early.
Into the draw after a few natters with people and I found myself with 114 in my hand, I didn't fancy it on either the carp or silvers front as the payouts were top 6 overall and 3 silvers plus 10 sections. But unless I got lucky with the carp moving up the lake I would hope for a day's fishing.
As I walked to my peg it was clear the carp in Campbell were still along the end bank as several fish boshed out of the water....hmmmm
For company I had Mark Bromsgrove on my left on peg 113 and to my right was Phil Cardwell on 115.

I looked at the water, the colour was ok and although a little clear it wasn't too bad really.
A lead was assembled, a rig for silvers at 13m (DT F1.Silvers in 0.4g), a dobbing rig for my left edge (0.1g DT Pinger) and a meat/corn rig to cover 6 and 14m lines (DT RBS Open Water 0.3g)
Bait was dead maggots, pinkies, some groundbait and some meat and corn. Plus a couple slices of bread.

Peg 114 Campbell, Viaduct.

I began on the short pole, just in case of some daft fish playing ball, but nothing happened. Mark began on the lead and within 10 minutes had a carp. I followed suit, more in hope really and to have a cuppa. Across from me Jacko has landed a carp (or tench) and was exclusively fishing the waggler as he tends to do.

My 1st fish came after an hour and it was a skimmer caught on a bunch of twigs, on a rig, attached to my hooklength on the lead. Only a small 4oz fish, but blank saved.
Another 10 mins on the tip never saw a sniff so that was chucked up the bank for the rest of the day.
I could bore you all with the intricacies but the next 4hrs were spent picking off small skimmers on the 13m line feeding odd helpings of groundbait, but I couldn't really get them lined up properly.
Mark on my left was generally getting only small roach on the pole and wag and to my right it was a similar story to me, odd small skimmer and odd roach. Most people were struggling apart from Andy Cranston on peg 132, plus 131 and 130 had a few carp, no doubt 110 also had.

Towards the end of the match Dan White on peg 127 had a couple carp and a couple nice skimmers after a quiet day. Jacko had been catching silvers most of the day on the waggler from peg 128 and looked set for a decent net (he ended with 19lb of silvers).
The all in was called and I was all packed up for the weigh in and when Matt arrived with the scales and put my 2.5lb (actually 8lb 6oz) on the sheet that was 2nd best silvers net on the lake behind Jacko. Turns out it was also 2nd in section behind Geoff Francis on p110 who had 28lb to win the section money.

Presentations and prizes dished out to all after the match and mince pies, sausage rolls and drinks provided by the fishery was a great thing to do and much appreciated by all.
I also managed to be caked in mud and tipped my trolley and box contents all over the floor for the 2nd time in a week!! Thanks to the couple of guys who helped pick stuff up. I should strap my kit to the trolley frame not my side tray, lol.

Results:
Andy Cranston, p132, 95lb
Bob Gullick, p73, 85lb 8oz
Dan Squire, p7, 69lb 2oz
Mark Poppleton, p4, 57lb 8oz
then a few 50lb nets followed

As for the Silvers, Paul Greenwood caught 22lb from the Match Lake peg 46 and won that with Nicky Ewers having 20-03 from p66 and Stu White 20-02 from peg 19.

A nice day though which I enjoyed and I am sure most did even if it fished rather hard for a lot. But it was good to see spring and middle be consistent. The full weigh sheets are on Mike Nicholls' blog (Silverfox).

No plans set for this week ahead of going back to work next Tuesday the 2nd.
So I hope you all had a great Xmas period and enjoyed yourselves.
Take care and thanks for reading my blog in 2017.

Lee