21/12/11 - Avalon

Weight – 20lb 3oz (9lb 3oz – silvers)
Catch – 14 Roach, 11 Skimmers, 1 Carp, 1 Rudd
Weather – Mild, cloudy, windy.
Water Temp – 6.5c – 6.8c
Match – Avon Angling Silvers Open – 6th out of 16 (3rd overall)

Finished work yesterday and I won’t be back until the New Year. Fortunately work has been really good this year and I have managed to turn things around financially, which is a huge relief.

With some free time I decided to book in with Tony’s silvers match. This is only the 2nd time I’ve fished Avalon, the 1st time was 10 years ago and there has been a few changes since. When I drew peg 12 it meant very little and feedback suggested it had some form for skimmers, although it was helpfully pointed out that the match could be won from anywhere.

Although this was a silvers match, there was still a payout for carp, because someone was bound to have a few, but to be honest I just wanted a day’s fishing and was looking forward to trying a new venue (and one I expect to be fishing more in the future).

The information gleaned for today was fish long for the skimmers and you won’t catch much short. Despite for the strong wind, it was blowing directly from behind so at least fishing the pole would be comfortable.

I set up 3 rigs, Jean François 0.6g, 0.10 – 18 silverfish maggot (changed to a 20 after 30mins), HB Frostie 0.4g – 0.10 – 18 silverfish pellet and a jolly 4x16 - 0.08 – 22 silverfish maggot to fish short.

For company I had Nigel Bartlett on p12, so at least I could gauge how I was doing. On the all-in I cupped 2x balls of Black Lake/Mussel & Squid, with a pinch of caster and pinkie. With a spare peg to my right I also potted some micro pellet and caster 14.5m to my right, despite regular top-ups I only had 1 small skimmer from here, so no more about that.

Whilst I let the groundbait settle, I started by the reeds to my right and had a 4oz roach straight away, then nothing which, considering the depth and colour of water didn’t make much sense. In fact that was the only fish I caught here all match, so no more about that either!

I would have preferred to let the 14.5m line settle for longer, however since the short line didn’t produce I switched to my long line after 30mins. After trying different bait combinations, double pinkie seemed to be best producing a run of small roach & skimmers for an hour, but I was concerned about the lack of sensible sized skimmers, when I had a proper skimmer of 2½/3lb and with 2 hours gone the grapevine suggested that Tony and Alan were both catching and the 3-4lb I had was doing ok.

I had been toss potting a pinch of caster and micros every put, but after 3 hours I couldn’t get a bite from anywhere. Another ball of groundbait hadn’t worked and I even resorted to casting out a light lead rig beyond the pole line without success.

I decided to leave my original swim alone and potted 2 balls to my left, which again didn’t produce all match, although seeing the float was nightmare due to the reflection of the tress opposite. Eventually by continuing to toss pot caster & micros I had my best run of skimmers from my original swim, including an 11lb carp on double pinkie.

With 30mins to go, it was very close between Nigel & I, but a bumped skimmer which spooked the fish and I could get another bite. I decided to pot a small soft ball of groundbait, which in hindsight I think was a mistake, I should have been more patient. Nigel in the meantime landed 4 skimmers to take 3rd – bugger.

By 11lb carp nearly stole the money for the carp, but Mike West had 3 for 14lb. Overall quite pleased and I had an enjoyable day, just a shame about the last 30mins.

1st 24- 1 Alan Oram – p17 (also had 7 carp – total weight 59-3)
2nd 18- 4 Tony Rixon – p9
3rd 13- 6 Nigel Bartlett – p13
4th 10-11 Chris Davis – p30
5th 9- 7 Stu Foale – p26
6th 9- 3 Ken Rayner – p12