Since my last post.....

Things have been busy-ish for me recently, with the school holidays and stuff taking up time, I have failed in keeping this blog thingy up.

So a quick (I hope) summary of my recent goings on.(and have just realised I never published my Avalon write-up).

I had a pleasure session up Durleigh last week, it was on the 20th, I fished up on the Lodge Bank, a swim along the Lawns area was ok, I mostly fished the 3m whip only for around 4.5 to 5hrs. It was a fish a chuck. But I did have a long pole line with balled groundbait in case any skimmer/bream/carp arrived as a few better fish were mooching on the surface.
I filled the best part of the bottom 3 rungs of my net with roach, rudd, perch and small skimmers, all to around 12oz. I had at least 70lb of fish, I struggled to lift the net, and had to tip over half away before a quick snap-shot of some of my catch.
I found the best bait for the better stamp of fish was corn, even the billy perch took a liking to it.
The long (13m) pole line bought better fish, but nothing substantial, and I was getting pestered by whip fish, even 3oz roach were taking double corn or big lumps of paste on a size 10 hook. That was hard work. So pretty much stayed on the whip. I was catching 12" deep in around 2.5ft of water, but I did shallow up to 6" deep and found a better stamp.
It really was hectic. I fed 6pts of hemp and 2 of caster and 2 tins of corn.

My swim...

A few of my catch

After that day I had an evening match on the canal lake on Sedges, the last of the summer. I landed just over 29lb and 4th in the match. It was hard work though. Jamie Cook won it I think with around 50lb.

 

The Saturday just passed had me fishing the last of Clevedon's Saturday Series. This time on Acorn's Top Lake. I had no chance of getting anywhere in the series, but it was an afternoons fishing,

This turned out pants for some, the fishery was struggling with oxygen levels and had pumps and aerators on to try and up the water quality.

Anyways I drew what was peg 10 for the match, right on the corner on the road bank (I would not have even pegged it), I had the aerator in front of me at around 8m and the irrigation pump on the main lake behind me making a hell of a noise and blowing diesel fumes at my pegs. Thankfully this was only on for around 2hrs, but long enough to make my head ache and eyes water.

Rod Wotton was opposite me, he was less than pleased too.

 

Anyways I struggled for bites in my 4 baited areas(paste line at 10m, micros line at 8m and caster line at 8m, plus to my left on the top kit), I did have maybe 4lb of bits and a single carp by the time I tipped back with over half an hour left. Rod had struggled, but managed 4 or 5 carp while I packed up. He caught to the end bank, and had a chance of 1st or 2nd in the series.

I couldn't fish my end bank properly due to it constantly being full of crap, I cleared it with a pole cup every so often, but it only stayed clear for a few minutes. There were odd carp taking bits off the scum, but no numbers of fish.

My open water swims only gave odd bits to soft pellet over micro. Maybe the fish didn't want to be near the aerator.

A bit further up the lake Brian Slipper and Kev Perry caught a few, I couldn't see the other 6 and don't know how they did.

The results saw Mark Bromsgrove win with 53lb, Bri Slipper was 2nd with 38lb, Kev Perry had  27lb for 3rd.

Mark won the series and £100, he had 6 points from his best 3 results. Good fishing.

Rod was second in the series with 7 points.

The noisy neighbour on the main lake

Duff swim for my match.

 

 

On Sunday I fished a match up Durleigh with (or should I say for) the PSV guys, for a match against Frys. I turned out to be the sole PSV representative.

I drew peg 16, which was about 5yrds from where I fished in the week.

To sum up my match, I wasted 2hrs on the tip for a 4lb bream and a small hybrid, after the pegs either side of me had bream. The other 4hrs was spent on the whip for 24lb of roach, the perch and rudd never showed, possibly due to the wind blowing into my bank and the cloudy weather (it was blowing towards the far bank in the week, in the sun).

I weighed 29lb 8oz and was leading for the first 6 or 7 pegs. But after that there were a couple 30lb+ weights and I think a 48lb catch won it. But it was decent fishing again. I should have stayed on the whip, I would have had maybe 35lb+ if I had stuck with it.





I had less fish on corn (as expected) and only fed 1/2pt caster and less than a pint of hemp, but they were not responding as well, probably due to the wind....

 

I had a 3hr pleasure session on Tuesday evening, on Walrow Snags pond, I took my daughter with me, I had wanted to catch bream on the pole, but alas they never showed, but I had a few silvers. My daughter had loads of roach, rudd and perch on the whip and caught more than me (as expected). But I enjoyed fishing in over 14ft of water, it made a change. I shall have another go next week maybe.

 

 

Next up is the 2 day match/festival on Sedges this weekend. Maybe I will do ok....let's hope so.

 

Take care and tight lines.

Lee



 

26th & 27th May 2013, Walrow + Woodlands

This weekend's schedule saw me without a match, so I was undecided as to what to do.
Saturday was a work day so that was taken, infact I cleared a lot of the garden, with help from my kids, a couple trips to the dump made the garden seem a bit bigger and tidier.

Sunday 26th.
Sunday was predicted to be a rather summery affair and looked good for some fishing, although I did think to myself the fishies will be spawning. So the decision to do a car-boot sale took priority.

The amount of  'stuff ' we had accrued since our last one 5 yrs ago or more, stored in boxes and taking up most of the landing at home, was getting silly. Infact, we only took just over half the boxes. So with 2 kids (9 and 11yrs) put in the car amongst the cardboard and pasting tables we set off to earn some pennies. Well the sale wasn't too bad with over £200 made, more for the holiday funds. I did sell a handful of fishing kit(and should have sold more, I have been told several times since!!) and some of my beloved cd's.

None the less, we got home at half 2, unloaded the car and had a cuppa and chilled for 90 mins. I then decided I was going to get the rods out for a few hours as the weather was dry and we were at the loose end.
I had planned on popping over to Trinity and specifically Woodlands lake, as my pellet waggler fishing needs some work, and despite me not liking the tactic, I know what I need to practice(despite my reluctance). So me, wifey and 2 kids loaded my kit into the car (bait bag, nets and pellet wag) and made the 5 minute drive to the lakes, on which there was a match, so we turned around without stopping.
I was just going to drive home and chill as I didn't fancy Sedges as I fish the evening matches, and I am not keen on fishing the same lakes several times a week if I can help it. But the kids wanted me to catch some fish, so I settled on popping down to Walrow lakes in Highbridge.
A quick pit-stop at home to swap my pellet wag rod for my competition feeder rod, and grab some worms, caster and frozen groundbait (defrosted in microwave for 1 min) for now I had bream in mind.

Fifteen minutes later and we were in my choice of swim on Walrow snags lake. My daughter riddled and re-mixed my groundbait while I got my box and rod sorted, my son sorted my landing net, feeder arm and keepnet.
I was fishing by 5:15. There were plenty of bream on the surface, some taking off the surface, so I guess they had other things on their minds, and it showed as I only had a single bite in the first 90 mins, I was fishing a standard open end feeder at 27 or so turns, caster or worm on the hook.
I was only fishing a 14" hooklength (0.12 > 16 B611), so retied the same on a 3ft tail.

The change bought immediate response with a nice 3lber making it's way to the net, then a few minutes later a 5lb+ fish arrived, then it went quiet for a bit before a flurry of activity saw me land another 6 fish (5 to me, 1 to my lad) before I packed up. I did lose a couple, the fish were either ultra lightly hooked or they had swallowed it down properly, nothing in between.
Also there were lots of roach and rudd around, if I had set up the pole I could have had a nice bag of these I think, but I wanted to avoid fishing the pole.

All in all, a nice catch of bream was had. There are loads in there and people should get down and enjoy the sport, there are a few tench and even a rogue carp to be caught.

Some Bream

Monday 27th
Today was to be a few hours (before any predicted rain came) over Woodlands fishing the pellet wag mainly, as planned yesterday.
The boy also wanted to fish and wifey and daughter wanted to get some air. So the car/roofbox was loaded with 2 seatboxes, net bag, bait bags, 4 pole rollers, 2 pole holdalls car-porter and a pellet wag rod. 2 carp chairs for the females to sit on were squeezed into the car.

We arrived at around 9:20 and settled into pegs 22 and 23, with me in 23. The wind was sort of from behind me, allowing for half decent presentation on the p/w. There were a few fish on the surface, but there were also spawning carp along the end and far banks, nothing too much, but I knew it'd be patchy.
I helped sort my son out, he'd be fishing meat at 6m to each margin and banded pellet on the deck at the same distance. So once he was done and ready, I set up my rod, a 6ssg maver float with a Steve Mayo adaptor (all overkill), to be fishing just shy of halfway across. A size 14 B911 on 0.18 was the terminal end, 8mm or 6mm pellet in the band.
After an hour my boy had a few silvers including a decent skimmer in his nets, I had missed a couple bites on the wag, but soon landed my 1st carp. The wind was awkward though and had turned slightly right to left. I had also changed to a smaller loader float and come shallower. However small roach and rudd were a pain with 6mm hookbaits so stuck with 8mm in the band. The silvers were popped back as I didn't want to get another net wet.....

A random occurance happened too. Three (yes 3) environment agency baliffs turned up to check my licence. That's only 4 times in nearly 20 years and 3 of these were on a May bank holiday!!!

Anyways, my son had landed a small-ish carp on the banded pellet and he went for a rest, as he does every hour or so, letting my daughter fish.
Me, well I had a couple more carp, but it was slow going, with the wind being a pain, I had bumped a few but I was also reluctant to get the pole out, but by 1pm it was set up, 2 rigs made.  A shallow one for 8m out, where I had been chucking 6mm baits on and off, and seen the odd swirl, and a margin/meat rig (which remained unused) for my left hand margin. Both were on 0.18 line to 16 B911 hooks.

The next hour or so saw me net half a dozen carp on the shallow rig, I lost a couple too and went and set the boy up on a shallow rig, showing/telling him what to do, he landed a couple before he packed up. I finished with around 12 or 13 carp and a handful of roach when we packed up around 3:30.

Tipping back.....

Ciaran's Catch.

One thing I have decided on doing is to fit a pulla bung on 1 or 2 top kits, as it seemed like ages in me getting a couple fish in, now this doesn't usually bother me, but, I guess, as I have a few carpy type matches coming up, my Middy 14/16 laccy seemed rather 'stretchy' at times. Now I wont go heavier and defo am going to stick with solids as these have stood me well over the years. But the art of getting fish in quicker, without being too soft or heavy handed, seems more efficient.
Now anyone who knows me, knows I hate hollow elastics and pullas (I have 2 set up on 6-8 elastic, but don't like it), but I am going to give them another go, more to see if it helps with landing the fish quicker. I have never had this problem in the past, maybe I am playing them softer than I used to, or maybe people are getting the fish in quicker, but it has rattled a nerve with me. But then, whether they'll still be more of a back-up than an always use situation. Only time will tell.

No match for me next week as yet, so maybe a chance to try these pullas again.

Take Care

Lee