MMT Qualifiers at Larford (14th June) and Viaduct (20th June)

A quick sum up of my last couple of matches, both of which were nr 120 peggers in an attempt to qualify for the final of  Maver Match This.

Last weekend was up near Stourport at Maver Larford Lakes, a venue I have only seen a couple of times.
I arrived in plenty of time, drew around 10th as it was done in order of ticket purchase. Match Lake peg 12 would be my home for that match, not the best draw as I would have preferred to be up near the island. But a better draw than the Specimen lake, which by all accounts would be hard unless you drew the far end corners.

Larford Match Lake peg 12

I set up a waggler, a method feeder as this gave me most fish last time I was here.
A margin rig for against the 2 beds of reeds, a rig for meat in front at 6m plus a couple pellet rigs for 13m in front.
Simply my match began ok with a few f1's and skimmers in the opening half hour on the meat line, then the next 4.5hrs saw me tempt 2 f1's and a carp on the feeder and a few skimmers on the meat.
I tipped back around 30lb.
Graham Dack won from peg 28 on the match lake with around 170lb, a peg by the island.
The Speci lake was poor, a good few went fishless and sections were won with 10lb.

Today saw the MMT carnival at Viaduct, a somewhat more local venue.
Again I arrived early and took a walk around the lakes, not much jumped out as a 'want' peg, though I did like the look of Match Lake peg 45, though 42 looked ok. On middle the narrows looked ok, Spring lake, well 17 and 18 or 4 would do. Around to Lodge and 64 or 66 perhaps 73 would be my wish.
I didn't fancy Cary really, perhaps 81 or 85. Campbell had fish spawning like mad and would no doubt be tough, but 110 to 115 would be nice, 121, 124 or the pegs by the spit would be my personal preference.
At the draw I drew ok, peg 121 on Campbell. A nice right margin and short in front would be my ideals for today.
I set up a lead (fishless), a rig for right hand edge, a rig for pellet long and short along with a shallow rig (all 3 fishless) and a rig for the left hand edge (unused).

P121 right hand edge

P121 in front

Again I will cut a short story, I managed 3 carp in the first half hour down to my right on meat over toss-potted hemp and meat.
I then had a few roach, which coincided with the spawning slowing down......
The next 3.5hrs or so gave me a bunch of small skimmers and tench along with some chunky roach.
All the while I could see pegs 111, 112 (especially) and 114 all catching a few.
My end of the lake pegs 116 up and around to about 126 was very slow with not many carp being caught.
The last 30 mins of the match was a little more productive in that I landed 6 carp, lost 3 foul hookers, all from the right edge.
I didn't weigh, perhaps I should have, but my clicker showed 52lb for carp and I had around 10lb of silvers (inc a baby 3oz common). This 60lb-ish total could have been close to a pick up, even by default as others also tipped back!!
Pete Upperton on peg 112 won I believe, and local 'star' Freddy Roberts came 3rd, I don't know any other results, but on Campbell the southern end fished better, but most guys commented how that the fishing went very slow once the spawning had stopped.

Next for me is a match tomorrow at Shiplate with Pawlett, we have the Main lake (my preference) and Hawthorn canal lake. Lets hope them carpies have all spawned out and are munching!!

Until then, take care.
Lee

The year that was 2014........Part 1.

Well I wish all my readers a Happy New Year and hope you all stay healthy and enjoy the coming 12 months.

So I am just about to give you all a quick overview of the last 12 months on the bank, how my match fishing went and ending with what I am hoping to look forward to in 2015.

January, February and March
The year started off by mostly fishing the Avalon Teams of 3 series, my Woolavy Wanderers had began the series well enough and were towards the top of the pile. Myself, James Withers and Paul Wharton had all picked up some money in several rounds, but as the series went on things got tougher and my side drifted down the table to somewhere more 'realistic'. It was an enjoyable though and the winning side were The Sedges (Jamie Cook, Phil & Keith Clapp). My best individual result was a 3rd overall.
In the meantime I fished a match, my 1st and only match in fact, at Summerhayes. I dnw'd on a tough day on Sellicks.

My Sellicks peg at Summerhayes

Other notable matches came in the form of a 3rd placed finish at Lands End, mostly perch and F1's caught on prawns, plus the odd bonus carp in my 47lb net. This qualified me for the Silvers Winners Final with Pawlett Legion AC..
A February match on Shiplate's Main Lake with Clevedon AC was enjoyable and went to plan, catching 13lb+ of skimmers on soft pellet and added 3 margin caught carp to this, securing 2nd spot in the match. Shiplate Main Lake is one of my favourite venues.
Pawlett club also had a match on the Bridgwater/Taunton canal, where I didn't weigh but it was won with over 66lb of mostly tench.
March ended with a PSV match on Plantation's Main lake, where an enjoyable, but sort of frustrating day saw me string a run of edge caught lumps boost my pellet waggler caught bag to 66lb 8oz to secure 2nd spot but take the 1st money prize by default.
Here's my post of the match Plantation PSV Match, March 2014.

April, May and June
The month of April started off with a week at White Acres for the Dynamite Baits Festival, my 1st ever experience of such an event. Myself and Withers were in the caravan next to Keiron Rich, and plenty of 'names' were fishing as well as a good influx of Somerset based anglers including Dan White, Jamie Parkhouse and Ben Hagg to name a few.
I could go into loads of details of the week, but simply I found it a massive learning curve and learned loads throughout the week, especially with F1 fishing and the need to catch silvers in quiet spells.
I did manage a pick-up during the week, at what I thought may be my strong card, Porth Reservoir.
You can read the daily updates from the drop downs on the right hand side of this page.
I do hope to get onto a festival in 2015.
On returning from the festival I had a few matches over the following weeks, starting with a Clevedon match on Trinity Waters' Woodland lake, only half a dozen of us fished but we averaged over 82lb per man with myself taking the honours with 117lb+ and my 1st Clevedon match win.
I then picked up section money during the Pawlett Silver's match at Sedges before a few blow outs at the same venue.
A trip to Larford Lakes for a Fishomania qualifier was a new experience for me and I did ok from a not-so-great area, just missing out on a pick-up due to an angler bagging a last gasp munter from his margin. A similar story at Viaduct for the MMT and Fisho qualifiers, drawing non-competitive pegs hindered further progress in the competitions.
May began with a Clevedon match at Avalon, I drew peg 1 and true to form I didn't trouble the opposite end of the lake where the warm wind was heading.
I redeemed myself on Shiplate's Westpool during a blind pairs match with the same club, 2nd on the day and 1st on the lake was how it ended with myself and partner Adie Baker securing 3 points, though we lost out on weight!! Here's how.....
An MFS 2-day event followed, with me winning my section from peg 86 on Cary on the 1st day with 142lb 3oz. The 1st day was won with nearly 300lb by Dan White from peg 110 on Campbell.
The 2nd day gave me a nice 90lb bag from Campbell, but that would never compete with the top 5 catching over 180lb each on the 2nd day
The last 2 matches of the month were PSV matches at Trinity Woodlands and Landsend Match + Speci lakes. The 2 matches gave me good draws and I somehow managed to convert them into successive wins.
June was a busy month with plenty of matches including a MMT match at Viaduct, but I didn't draw any good at that match, but did get suntanned feet!!

Sun Tanned Feet.......

The rest of the month saw me not pick up at Sedges, Viaduct and Trinity (Pawlett all winners final) as well as on Hawthorns lake at Shiplate.  My draws were not the best, maybe my luck had run out in the previous couple weeks?
My last match of the month gave me an envelope at Avalon, with PSV, where the defaulted 3rd place money helped top up my holiday funds.


So that was the first 6 months of the year briefly covered.

Lee

MMT Qualifier, Viaduct, 21/6/14.

Two reports today, not much to write about for either really, so here goes....

On Saturday I. along with 100+ other anglers, hoped for a decent draw and a decent weight from one of the lakes at Viaduct, personally I fancied a peg on Spring or Lodge as Cary and Campbell had been patchy recently, though good weights are always on the cards with those 2 lakes.

I arrived in plenty of time and had a chat to a few guys and looked at the pegs on Spring and Middle.
A lot of fish were on the surface pretty much anywhere on the lake, but really an island chuck on Spring could be good, so pegs 2,3,4,5, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 19, 25, 26 will have a chance, but it was pegs 8 and 22 that grabbed my attention with both being corners and loads of room.
Middle looked ok, but wasn't my preferred option. Lodge, well any corner will do but 64 and 73 would work for me.

Anyways a bit more chatter flowed before the draw which was 9am (ish), there were plenty of locals fishing today and it'd be good if one or 2 did well. Roy Worth has been on form recently, mostly on the lead, and Scott Russell too has been winkling a few out and doing well. Then we had the likes of Freddy Roberts, Dave Romain, Ben Hagg, Dan White, Andy Power, Alex Murray and may others who know the lakes well.
The draw was made and I was 3rd to grab a ticket, peg 9 on Spring, not the worst, but 1 peg short and 1 peg too far as 8 and 10 were better (corner/space for 8 and island for 10).

Spring peg 9, Viaduct.

I  made my way to the peg and began to sort my kit, fresh rigs made as plenty of set-up time.
For company I had Dave Romaine on 8, he does draw well, he was chuffed with his peg.
On peg 10 I had a nice chap who's name I never got, then Alex Murray was on peg 11.

I set up a waggler and lead to fish 2/3rds of the way across to the island (my peg boundary), a long shallow rig for stalking, a shorter rig for slapping/shallow at 14m, a rig for down to my left margin and one for banded pellet to fish at 6m and over the 14m shallow line.
Bait was simple 8mm and 6mm pellet, 8mm meat and some hemp.

At the all in  I potted a few bits of bait into the varying areas before beginning on the stalking rig, but the fish were wary and slightly out of range, so after 10 mins I switched to the waggler set around 12" deep with banded 8mm pellet on the hook. After 10 mins of this I hooked a fish which went a bit mad and was netted after a 5 minute battle, it looked rather large and if it was not spawned out then it'd have been 17lb or so, but was around 12 or 13lb.

A blank period followed, but Dave on p8 had landed a few as had the guy over on peg 25 or 26.
A look on the pole shallow at 14m saw me land a carp of similar size to my 1st fish.

So 2 hours in I had a couple carp which went 22lb. And that was my match done. I did land a handful of skimmers upto 4oz but that was it....
The lack of island chuck was the main factor, which is life, but pegs 3, 4 and 5 never really bothered with the island chuck and they struggled for fish too.
Alex Murray had double figures of silvers on paste, including a decent 3lb eel hooked in the wrong end... to go with a flurry of late carp caught on the wag/lead close to the island.
The chap on peg 12 landed a good few carp and the angler on p10 landed a couple of late carp to boost his weight to 34lb.
Dave Romaine on peg 8 managed 60-odd pounds to win his section.

It was a nice day though and rather warm, my feet bore the brunt of the sun's rays....

Sandals weather!!
 

The match ended up being won off Campbell peg 135 by Simon Keifer, Scotty Russell was 2nd from Lodge 73 and Roy Worth was third from 122, Dan White was 5th, so a good local showing. Ben Hagg, Dave Romaine, Fred Roberts all won their sections, maybe Alex Murray too.....well done all.

 

 

Next up for me was a match at Sedges Tile lake with Clevedon FWAC after PSV's match at Plantation Horseshoe lake was cancelled.

 

Take Care

Lee