Weight - 48lb 8oz
Catch - 23 Carp, 3 Tench, 1 F1, 1 Perch
Weather - Warm & sunny!
Match - Pole Only Series - rd6 - 19th out of 32, 4th out of 8 section.
Well regular readers noticed I hadn't blogged about round 5 of this series and I promptly received some stick at the draw, about you cant blog only about the good days, etc, etc. Fair enough and normally I do, but on this occasion, the wind buggered up the fishing and I was left a little fed-up. Peg 3 on the small lake, I decided to target the silvers, but presentation was difficult, combined with lost/bumped fish meant I only weighed 14lb 8oz of skimmers with a few carp. Very frustrating.
Back to today and I wasn't really looking forward it. I just wanted this series to end, because it has been really poor for me.
Peg 22 was OK, which offered a chance of a section pick up, but unlikely to frame. For company I had Eddie Wynn on the other side of the bridge and Lewis Jones to my left on p23 who was in the next section.
Well it made a nice change to be fishing in the sun. No thermals, no wind, no ice, something had to go wrong. With John Bradford (p13) and Kev Perry (p15) likely to target silvers, I didn't think there was any point targeting them from this peg, so only a couple carp rigs were set up.
- HB Billybob 0.1g > .14 > 16 B911 - expander/meat - across to the island
- HB Redneck 0.3g > .17 > 12 carp feeder - paste
- HB rat catcher 2 > .16 > 16 B911 - hair rig pellet
With the warm weather I didn't expect too much to be caught down the track, however from the start I fed 6mm pellet at 5m in the hope of catch a few carp late on paste.
On the all-in I started by the bridge toss potting 4s with either 4 or 6mm expander on the hook. By the end of the first hour I had a small tench and 6 carp, which was a good start, but the issue with these bridge pegs is the size of the carp, which tend to be on the small side. With that in mind I kept feeding the 5m line and had been catapulting 6s slightly to my left by the island where it was much shallower, however I struggled to get a proper bite on pellet.
Having rested the bridge swim, I kept catching on the expander, before it slowed down again. In an effort to refresh the swim I started to feed meat and I had a another run of fish, including a decent tench.
Despite catapulting feed to the left hand swim I was really struggling to get a proper bite, whilst Lewis was catching most put ins. Speaking to him afterwards he said there was quite a few fish between him and Jason Radford who was 2 pegs down.
I decided to set up a paste rig to fish against the island and soon had 3 carp, which were a bigger stamp than those from the bridge.
With 1hr 15mins to go I was up to 20 carp and decided to put in my 3rd net, not because I was near the 70lb limit, but knew I would be close to 40-50lb and if I kept going at the rate was I catching 60-70lb was likely. The 3rd net syndrome kicked in big time, were I didn't catch for an hour. From those I could see I thought I was doing OK, it looked like Tom Thick on p18 had the section sewed up, but 2nd place was up for grabs. I had seen Bob Gullick on p16 catching & walking around, Glen Bailey was catching a few and I was fairly sure I was ahead of Eddie.
However that hour blank spell cost me 2nd place in section. Initially I couldn't get a bite on paste, then I lost a fish, I couldn't get the paste rig to settle properly and I even managed to get my hook wrapped around the elastic on the catapult and started shipping that out. All the time Eddie & Glen in particular were catching, whilst I disengaged my brain and fished like a muppet. With my head up my arse, I forgot to do the things I had been doing, but after calming myself down, I caught 3 carp in the last 15mins. I only needed 2, maybe 3 carp during that blank hour spell to have claimed 2nd in section from Bob Gullick who weighed 52-4.
Congratulations to those who picked up in the league, I will fish next year and hope the weather gods are kinder.
1st 112-15 - Brian Slipper - p33
2nd 112- 3 - Pete Bartlett - p9
3rd 108-14 - Lewis Jones - p23
4th 99-15 - Tony Rixon - p1
5th 87-12 - Tim Ford - p8
6th 87-12 - Tom Thick - p18
Silvers
1st 34- 4 - Paul Faires - p3 - top lake
2nd 21- 4 - Glenn Calvert - p30
2nd 21- 4 - Russ Peck - p8 - top lake
Showing posts with label Acorns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Acorns. Show all posts
Monday, May 27, 2013
Monday, April 29, 2013
28/04/13 - Acorns - Paddock
Weight - 20lb 14oz
Catch - 11 Carp, 3 Skimmers, 1 Crucian, 1 Rudd, 1 Perch
Weather - Sunny start, cool & windy later
Match - Pole Only series - 4th round
The 4th round of this well run league meant I was on D section, pegs 23-38, with 36 & 38 being the favoured pegs since they came 2nd & 3rd in yesterdays match. The question for our section would Bob “bridge troll” Gullick draw another bridge peg? Well I drew 33 and Pete Bartlett had 34, so Bob had to do with 23.
I was quite happy with my draw, there was a few a fish moving around and the signs were for a good day, although the forecast for increasing winds proved to be correct and it was quite chilly - back on with the extra fleece.
To be honest my match was quite forgettable. Initially targeted the far side fishing shallow with 6 or 8mm pellet, catapulting 6s, the problem was the fish were quite small and I wasn’t catching them quickly enough. I think had the sun stayed out the fish would have been happier in the shallow water, but with the wind & increasing cloud cover the fish backed off. Fishing meat by the bridge, only produced silly bites from small fish, so I going nowhere fast.
By the half way mark Pete, Bob & Brian Slipper (p30) had caught a few better fish and I expected Chris Fox (p38) & Gordon Canning (p36) to have caught as well. So I decided to target some silvers, since I hadn't seen many being caught. I had been feeding caster to the p32 pallet which has done me well in recent matches but nothing, not even on maggot. I had also been feeding a small amount of groundbait and pellet down the track, which didn’t produce either.
Eventually I managed a few skimmers down the track on 4mm expander and a couple of carp turned up over my caster. Targeting the silvers was the right idea, because Chris won the sections silvers with only 4-8, mostly thanks to a big tench, but I just couldn’t get a run of bites together. By concentrating on the silvers, meant I slipped down the section.
In hindsight, I was trying to do too much in the first half the match and ended up confusing myself, when I should have just focused on doing one thing or the other. To be honest I will be glad to see the back of this league, because it just hasn’t gone my way at all. Lets hope for a decent last 2 matches.
1st 104- 8 - Joe Mcmahon - p40
2nd 102-10 - Mike Nicholls - p9
3rd 68- 8 - Tom Thick - p12
4th 60- 6 - Matt Tomes - p4 top lake
5th 57-14 - Lance Tucker - p4
6th 54-13 - Andy France - p13
Silvers
1st 34- 6 - Mark Broomsgrove - p3 top lake
2nd 24- 6 - Paul Casson - p5 top lake
3rd 22- 2 - Glenn Calvert - p8 top lake
4th 21- 7 - Dave Wride - p2 top lake
5th 16- 4 - John Bradford - p6
6th 14- 7 - Tony Rixon - p1 top lake
Catch - 11 Carp, 3 Skimmers, 1 Crucian, 1 Rudd, 1 Perch
Weather - Sunny start, cool & windy later
Match - Pole Only series - 4th round
The 4th round of this well run league meant I was on D section, pegs 23-38, with 36 & 38 being the favoured pegs since they came 2nd & 3rd in yesterdays match. The question for our section would Bob “bridge troll” Gullick draw another bridge peg? Well I drew 33 and Pete Bartlett had 34, so Bob had to do with 23.
I was quite happy with my draw, there was a few a fish moving around and the signs were for a good day, although the forecast for increasing winds proved to be correct and it was quite chilly - back on with the extra fleece.
To be honest my match was quite forgettable. Initially targeted the far side fishing shallow with 6 or 8mm pellet, catapulting 6s, the problem was the fish were quite small and I wasn’t catching them quickly enough. I think had the sun stayed out the fish would have been happier in the shallow water, but with the wind & increasing cloud cover the fish backed off. Fishing meat by the bridge, only produced silly bites from small fish, so I going nowhere fast.
By the half way mark Pete, Bob & Brian Slipper (p30) had caught a few better fish and I expected Chris Fox (p38) & Gordon Canning (p36) to have caught as well. So I decided to target some silvers, since I hadn't seen many being caught. I had been feeding caster to the p32 pallet which has done me well in recent matches but nothing, not even on maggot. I had also been feeding a small amount of groundbait and pellet down the track, which didn’t produce either.
Eventually I managed a few skimmers down the track on 4mm expander and a couple of carp turned up over my caster. Targeting the silvers was the right idea, because Chris won the sections silvers with only 4-8, mostly thanks to a big tench, but I just couldn’t get a run of bites together. By concentrating on the silvers, meant I slipped down the section.
In hindsight, I was trying to do too much in the first half the match and ended up confusing myself, when I should have just focused on doing one thing or the other. To be honest I will be glad to see the back of this league, because it just hasn’t gone my way at all. Lets hope for a decent last 2 matches.
1st 104- 8 - Joe Mcmahon - p40
2nd 102-10 - Mike Nicholls - p9
3rd 68- 8 - Tom Thick - p12
4th 60- 6 - Matt Tomes - p4 top lake
5th 57-14 - Lance Tucker - p4
6th 54-13 - Andy France - p13
Silvers
1st 34- 6 - Mark Broomsgrove - p3 top lake
2nd 24- 6 - Paul Casson - p5 top lake
3rd 22- 2 - Glenn Calvert - p8 top lake
4th 21- 7 - Dave Wride - p2 top lake
5th 16- 4 - John Bradford - p6
6th 14- 7 - Tony Rixon - p1 top lake
Monday, April 15, 2013
14/04/13 - Acorn - Paddock
Weight - 27lb 11oz (9lb 3oz - silvers)
Catch - 6 Carp, 5 Skimmers, 3 Tench, 1 Rudd, 1 Roach, 1 Perch
Weather - Strong winds to start, quieten down later.
Match - Pole Only - rd 3 - 16th out of 32 (5th out of 8 - sections, 3rd - silvers)
Catch - 6 Carp, 5 Skimmers, 3 Tench, 1 Rudd, 1 Roach, 1 Perch
Weather - Strong winds to start, quieten down later.
Match - Pole Only - rd 3 - 16th out of 32 (5th out of 8 - sections, 3rd - silvers)
I’m thinking of re-naming this Pole Only series the “poor weather series”. Following the bitterly easterlies in the first round and ice in the second round, we were back to the wind, but at least this time it was blowing from the south.
It was my turn for C Section (pegs 12-22) and being on the long straight meant no shelter for anyone, with the wind blowing the full length of the section. Despite the wind p12 looked to be the favourite draw (as it was in the previous 2 rounds) and we shouldn’t have been surprised when league leader Pete Bartlett drew it. So that was gone, which meant the next best draw would be 21 & 22 around the bridge. Again we shouldn’t have been surprised when Bob “bridge troll” Gullick drew 22, I think that’s 7 or 8 matches on the bounce when he has drawn a bridge! Russ Peck was on 22.
As for me p19 was my home, which I wasn’t particularly happy about since it’s the narrowest peg at 11m wide in the section. However I could at least reach the far bank in the gale force winds and with the increase in temperatures I was hopeful of catching a few carp shallow. Having said I considered my best chance of a pick up would be to target the silvers, although the pegs to my right is the better area.
Due to the wind I set up a 1g rig to fish down the track, over groundbait and micros and a 0.4g chump to fish by the p20 pallet which was fed with caster and maggot. Bob also fed the pallet, but only with a small amount of corn, so no damage done.
Starting at 8m I caught a small 8oz tench after 15mins on maggot, which was eventually followed by a 12oz skimmer. Looking around no one was really catching much, so I struck with the 8m line. In the meantime I had been catapulting 6s to the far bank, although quite a lot actually landed on the island. After 30mins of catapulting I saw a swirl and went straight over with hair rigged 6mm and promptly hooked a carp which was foul hooked and came off. At the time I thought at least the fish appear to want some feed and kept catapulting the 6s into the far bank. Unfortunately the carp just didn’t settle and I had to cut back on the feed.
The next few hours was a case of rotating between the pallet and the 8m line. The pallet produced a rudd, then a 2.5lb tench, whilst I had a couple more decent skimmers and a carp from the 8m line. With 2.5hrs left, I guessed I was near top in the section and well ahead in the silvers. At the time because I was “so far ahead” in the silvers I unsuccessfully tried for some more carp on pellet.
At this point the wind was easing to the point it dropped completely. My 1g rig no longer looked right and set up a 0.3g frostie to fish down the track. With the wind dropping it also meant I could more comfortably fish the 2nd shelf down and soon had another skimmer and another tench, plus more carp – happy days, but I couldn't catch down the track.
Chris Fox to my right in the meantime could now fish his far line, catching a big 2lb perch and a tench. Oh dear, the silvers prize was no longer certain. During the gale, Chris had managed to catch small skimmers and a few roach, which meant it was now very close between the 2 of us, so time to concentrate on the silvers, because almost everyone was now catching carp from the far bank and I couldn't catch enough from my narrower swim.
I did manage a few more carp and skimmers, but in hindsight I was beginning to regret being too aggressive with my feed. I had kept pinging caster to the pallet with the intention of giving another go towards the end of the match. Unfortunately Bob beat me to it, losing a foul hooked tench.
Come the weigh in, it came as no surprise that Pete on p12 won the section with 75-14, which included 10lb of F1s. With no other silvers weights it was between Chris and myself and as soon as he pulled his net out I knew I couldn’t beat him when he weight 9-13. Those smaller fish counted for a lot. My 9-3 was more than I expected, but the good news was Chris came 2ndin the section with 37-9 so I picked up the silvers my double de-fault.
The irony today was I needed the wind to keep blowing, because in the last couple of hours I struggled to catch.
1st 83-8 - Mike Owens - p7
2nd 75-14 - Pete Bartlett - p12
3rd 70-12 - Lewis Jones - p8
4th 60- 1 - Tim Ford - p30
5th 54- 3 - Tom Thick - p40
5th 54- 3 - Andy France - p9
Silvers
1st 16-12 - John Bradford - top lake 6
2nd 14-15 - Lance Tucker - top lake 3
3rd 12-14 - Mark Broomsgrove - p36
4th 12- 1 - Dave Poole - top lake 7
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
31/03/13 - Acorns - Paddock
Weight - 18lb 12oz
Catch - 9 Carp, 1 F1
Weather - Frozen overnight. Sunny, but cold easterly wind
Match - Pole Only Series rd 2 - 18th out of 32, 8th out of 8 section
After yesterdays match I was feeling confident, with a clear idea of how I would attack the match. However fishing has a habit of kicking you were it hurts sometimes.
Today was another free draw, but would dictate the rotation for the next 3 rounds with C section (pegs 12-22) in 2 weeks.
When we arrived the lakes were frozen, which tempered my initial excitement of drawing peg 6, the form peg in recent matches. As I was clearing the ice, the wind was blowing more into my peg and I spent as long as I could with the help from Chris Fox (cheers mate) clearing as much as I could from my peg.
For company I had Chris on peg 7 and Bob Gullick on p40. I started fishing tight to the bridge, but the wind was proving troublesome blowing right across me and both Chris & I swore a couple of times as we tried to control our rigs.
Fortunately I had a couple of carp on maggot and as yet hadn't fed anything. Bob in the meantime was able to control his rig more easily, since my side of the bridge resembled the north sea and Bobs was a mill pond.
The wind did ease a little later in the match, but what killed my match (as well as Chris's) was another sheet ice which had been covering peg 5 drifted into my peg, so I was off my box again clearing more ice. The wind also caused a strong undertow and the melting ice water ran though the peg.
I did try to catch close to the island, but only had an F1, which meant all my carp came from the bridge. I didn't fed much and too be honest I wasn't sure whether feeding was actually benefiting me, since all the fish caught were away from the feed.
To be honest I was gutted come the weigh in, to drew a flyer, but only for the weather to defeat me. I caught more carp than most, but they were a smaller stamp.
1st 65- 4 - Pete Bartlett - p8
2nd 52-12 - Paul Faires - A4 (top lake)
3rd 39-10 - Tom Thick - A2
4th 39- 4 - Bela Bakos - A5
5th 38- 7 - Bob Gullick - p40
6th 36-14 - Eddie Wynne - A8
Silvers
1st 37- 2 - Tom Thick - A2
2nd 36- 4 - Glenn Bailey - A3
3rd 20-10 - Andy France - A1
4th 10-12 - Mark Broomsgrove - p16
5th 9-12 - Russ Peck - p9
Catch - 9 Carp, 1 F1
Weather - Frozen overnight. Sunny, but cold easterly wind
Match - Pole Only Series rd 2 - 18th out of 32, 8th out of 8 section
After yesterdays match I was feeling confident, with a clear idea of how I would attack the match. However fishing has a habit of kicking you were it hurts sometimes.
Today was another free draw, but would dictate the rotation for the next 3 rounds with C section (pegs 12-22) in 2 weeks.
When we arrived the lakes were frozen, which tempered my initial excitement of drawing peg 6, the form peg in recent matches. As I was clearing the ice, the wind was blowing more into my peg and I spent as long as I could with the help from Chris Fox (cheers mate) clearing as much as I could from my peg.
For company I had Chris on peg 7 and Bob Gullick on p40. I started fishing tight to the bridge, but the wind was proving troublesome blowing right across me and both Chris & I swore a couple of times as we tried to control our rigs.
Fortunately I had a couple of carp on maggot and as yet hadn't fed anything. Bob in the meantime was able to control his rig more easily, since my side of the bridge resembled the north sea and Bobs was a mill pond.
The wind did ease a little later in the match, but what killed my match (as well as Chris's) was another sheet ice which had been covering peg 5 drifted into my peg, so I was off my box again clearing more ice. The wind also caused a strong undertow and the melting ice water ran though the peg.
I did try to catch close to the island, but only had an F1, which meant all my carp came from the bridge. I didn't fed much and too be honest I wasn't sure whether feeding was actually benefiting me, since all the fish caught were away from the feed.
To be honest I was gutted come the weigh in, to drew a flyer, but only for the weather to defeat me. I caught more carp than most, but they were a smaller stamp.
1st 65- 4 - Pete Bartlett - p8
2nd 52-12 - Paul Faires - A4 (top lake)
3rd 39-10 - Tom Thick - A2
4th 39- 4 - Bela Bakos - A5
5th 38- 7 - Bob Gullick - p40
6th 36-14 - Eddie Wynne - A8
Silvers
1st 37- 2 - Tom Thick - A2
2nd 36- 4 - Glenn Bailey - A3
3rd 20-10 - Andy France - A1
4th 10-12 - Mark Broomsgrove - p16
5th 9-12 - Russ Peck - p9
Monday, April 1, 2013
30/03/12 - Acorns - Paddock
Weight - 37lb 3oz (7lb 10oz - silvers)
Catch - 11 Carp, 7 F1, 7 Skimmers, 1 Rudd
Weather - Mostly sunny, cold NE breeze
Match - Open - 5th out of 25 (3rd - silvers)
Really bored with this weather now and the Met office predicts another 7-10 days of this easterly system. Also this March has been the coldest since 1962 - no kidding!
I was a bit surprised to find 25 had booked in. Turns out today was advertised as an Easter open, with £20 pools instead the usual £12. However, the payout was top 3 overall and top 2 silvers only, with no sections so the draw was going to be all important.
Peg 12 was my home for the day, which I was reasonably happy with, but felt I would be up against it, with the better draws at the moment being around the small island. For company I had Lewis Jones on p10 and an angler I didn't know on p13. At least I had some room into the corner, but another frosty night meant a slow start.
After plumbing around I settled on fishing down my right hand margin on the 2nd shelf feeding caster and 2 areas against the island on the 2nd shelf, feeding micros and 4s. I also had a swim in the open water to my right and at the bottom of the far shelf.
Rig wise I set up 3 rigs, but only ended up using 2. Jolly 4x16 > .08 > 20 silverfish maggot for the open water and frostie 0.3g > .10 > 18 silverfish pellet to fish the 2nd shelf.
On the all in a small ball of groundbait with micros was cupped into the open water and a pinch of micros at the bottom of the shelf. It was no surprise it took 30mins to catch my fist fish a small skimmer on maggot over the groundbait. My first carp was a 6-7lber over the micros, which took a while to land on .08 bottom.
I kept the caster going into the right hand margin, as well as loose feed 4s to the left side of the island and micros on the point. There was definitely a few fish moving around, but they were reluctant to feed in the cold. By the half way point I had a few more skimmers and carp for about 15lb on double maggot from the island, which was on par with Lewis, but every time I looked up pegs 6 & 7 were landing fish.
First look into the right hand margin and I had a carp straight away, but lost the 2nd. The open water swim produced a couple more skimmers and F1s mostly over the groundbait, whilst the 2nd shelf accounted for more carp.
With an hour to go I knew I was fishing for at least 3rd, but didn't realistically think I would challenge for the silvers, so stuck with the carp, landing another 4. That decision probably cost me £70. I beat everyone around me, p13 only weighed 4lb, whilst Lewis had 23lb. However my silvers weighed 7-10 and 8-2 was needed to win! A surprisingly low weight.
In the end I felt I fished a good match and got the most out of the swim (except for the silvers). If I repeated that in tomorrows pole only series I would have won the section.
1st 55- 6 - Mark Bartlett - p6
2nd 47- 1 - Ade Baker - p7
3rd 45-12 - Shane Lovell - p5
4th 37-15 - Mark Walsh - p37
5th 37- 3 - Ken Rayner - p12
6th 34- 1 - D Blakemore - p9
Silvers
1st 8- 2 - Charlie Barnes - p26
2nd 8- 0 - Rob Fogg - p15
3rd 7-10 - Ken Rayner - p12
Catch - 11 Carp, 7 F1, 7 Skimmers, 1 Rudd
Weather - Mostly sunny, cold NE breeze
Match - Open - 5th out of 25 (3rd - silvers)
Really bored with this weather now and the Met office predicts another 7-10 days of this easterly system. Also this March has been the coldest since 1962 - no kidding!
I was a bit surprised to find 25 had booked in. Turns out today was advertised as an Easter open, with £20 pools instead the usual £12. However, the payout was top 3 overall and top 2 silvers only, with no sections so the draw was going to be all important.
Peg 12 was my home for the day, which I was reasonably happy with, but felt I would be up against it, with the better draws at the moment being around the small island. For company I had Lewis Jones on p10 and an angler I didn't know on p13. At least I had some room into the corner, but another frosty night meant a slow start.
After plumbing around I settled on fishing down my right hand margin on the 2nd shelf feeding caster and 2 areas against the island on the 2nd shelf, feeding micros and 4s. I also had a swim in the open water to my right and at the bottom of the far shelf.
Rig wise I set up 3 rigs, but only ended up using 2. Jolly 4x16 > .08 > 20 silverfish maggot for the open water and frostie 0.3g > .10 > 18 silverfish pellet to fish the 2nd shelf.
On the all in a small ball of groundbait with micros was cupped into the open water and a pinch of micros at the bottom of the shelf. It was no surprise it took 30mins to catch my fist fish a small skimmer on maggot over the groundbait. My first carp was a 6-7lber over the micros, which took a while to land on .08 bottom.
I kept the caster going into the right hand margin, as well as loose feed 4s to the left side of the island and micros on the point. There was definitely a few fish moving around, but they were reluctant to feed in the cold. By the half way point I had a few more skimmers and carp for about 15lb on double maggot from the island, which was on par with Lewis, but every time I looked up pegs 6 & 7 were landing fish.
First look into the right hand margin and I had a carp straight away, but lost the 2nd. The open water swim produced a couple more skimmers and F1s mostly over the groundbait, whilst the 2nd shelf accounted for more carp.
With an hour to go I knew I was fishing for at least 3rd, but didn't realistically think I would challenge for the silvers, so stuck with the carp, landing another 4. That decision probably cost me £70. I beat everyone around me, p13 only weighed 4lb, whilst Lewis had 23lb. However my silvers weighed 7-10 and 8-2 was needed to win! A surprisingly low weight.
In the end I felt I fished a good match and got the most out of the swim (except for the silvers). If I repeated that in tomorrows pole only series I would have won the section.
1st 55- 6 - Mark Bartlett - p6
2nd 47- 1 - Ade Baker - p7
3rd 45-12 - Shane Lovell - p5
4th 37-15 - Mark Walsh - p37
5th 37- 3 - Ken Rayner - p12
6th 34- 1 - D Blakemore - p9
Silvers
1st 8- 2 - Charlie Barnes - p26
2nd 8- 0 - Rob Fogg - p15
3rd 7-10 - Ken Rayner - p12
Monday, March 11, 2013
10/03/13 - Acorns - Top Lake
Weight - 5lb
Catch - 12 Skimmers
Weather - Cloudy, bitterly cold north easterly wind
Match - Pole Only Series - rd 1 - 27th out of 32 (8th out of 8 - section)
I was looking forward to this series, with all matches on Acorns, rather than being split with Plantations. Originally there was suppose to be 40 anglers, but only 32 stumped up the cash, which at least means the pegging wont be as tight as it could be. What I wasn’t looking to was sitting in the bitterly cold north easterly wind and everyone wanted to draw out of the wind, which isn’t easy at Acorns.
I was more than happy to pull peg 2 on the top lake, because it was mostly out of the worst of the wind, although it was still blowing into my face. The lake is also nicknamed the dog bone lake, becuase it is wider at both ends and narrower in middle. My peg was opposite Nick Harvey on peg 1 who was looking very pleased with himself, with the wind off his back and flat water in front. We both thought we would do well, because neither of us fancied being drawn at the top end where it was really exposed to the elements.
On the all in a small amount of micros & maggot was deposited at 6m and against the end bank, which had the same depth as the rest of the peg. After 90mins I caught my first fish, a skimmer from the end bank.
Tim Ford on p7 called to see how I getting on. At the time I still only had 1 skimmer, whilst Nick had 1 small carp. Tim said that most had caught a few fish, so I was falling behind, although at the time I wasn’t overly concerned about the lack of activity, because I was sure I would catch, but I was in danger of having to play catch up.
Since my carefully fed short swim wasn’t working, a ball of groundbait was deposited at 10m, whilst I kept drip feeding micros and maggot into the end bank, expecting the swim to come to life later on. Having left the groundbait for 10mins, I caught a skimmer straight away, before losing 3 mainly due to the wind which was increasing in strength. I had been using a 0.5g chump, but felt I needed a heavier float so set up a .75g polar ice which sat better in the worsening conditions, but I couldn’t get another bite.
I had fed a ball of groundbait to my right, but never had a bite, so I fed another ball to my left and I had my best spell of the match with 7 skimmers in the last 30nins.
I think today I can genuinely say I had drawn the wrong of the section, with the bottom 3 in section all coming from my end of the lake. In hindsight I should have fed groundbait earlier, I may have caught more then Paul on p3 who had 7-11, but next best weight was 12lb so miles away really. At least I know which result I will be dropping.
1st 68- 2 – Paul Bartlett – p9
2nd 62- 9 – Mike Owens – p34
3rd 52-10 – Lewis Jones – p7
4th 44- 8 – Chris Fox – p33
5th 44- 4 – Matt Tomes – p38
6th 36-12 – Mike Nicholls – p12
Silvers
1st 14- 6 – Nigel Vigus – top lake 8
2nd 12- 0 – Tim Ford – top lake 7
3rd 9- 0 – Lance Tucker – top lake 4
4th 8- 8 – Nigel Bartlett – top lake 6
Catch - 12 Skimmers
Weather - Cloudy, bitterly cold north easterly wind
Match - Pole Only Series - rd 1 - 27th out of 32 (8th out of 8 - section)
I was looking forward to this series, with all matches on Acorns, rather than being split with Plantations. Originally there was suppose to be 40 anglers, but only 32 stumped up the cash, which at least means the pegging wont be as tight as it could be. What I wasn’t looking to was sitting in the bitterly cold north easterly wind and everyone wanted to draw out of the wind, which isn’t easy at Acorns.
I was more than happy to pull peg 2 on the top lake, because it was mostly out of the worst of the wind, although it was still blowing into my face. The lake is also nicknamed the dog bone lake, becuase it is wider at both ends and narrower in middle. My peg was opposite Nick Harvey on peg 1 who was looking very pleased with himself, with the wind off his back and flat water in front. We both thought we would do well, because neither of us fancied being drawn at the top end where it was really exposed to the elements.
On the all in a small amount of micros & maggot was deposited at 6m and against the end bank, which had the same depth as the rest of the peg. After 90mins I caught my first fish, a skimmer from the end bank.
Tim Ford on p7 called to see how I getting on. At the time I still only had 1 skimmer, whilst Nick had 1 small carp. Tim said that most had caught a few fish, so I was falling behind, although at the time I wasn’t overly concerned about the lack of activity, because I was sure I would catch, but I was in danger of having to play catch up.
Since my carefully fed short swim wasn’t working, a ball of groundbait was deposited at 10m, whilst I kept drip feeding micros and maggot into the end bank, expecting the swim to come to life later on. Having left the groundbait for 10mins, I caught a skimmer straight away, before losing 3 mainly due to the wind which was increasing in strength. I had been using a 0.5g chump, but felt I needed a heavier float so set up a .75g polar ice which sat better in the worsening conditions, but I couldn’t get another bite.
I had fed a ball of groundbait to my right, but never had a bite, so I fed another ball to my left and I had my best spell of the match with 7 skimmers in the last 30nins.
I think today I can genuinely say I had drawn the wrong of the section, with the bottom 3 in section all coming from my end of the lake. In hindsight I should have fed groundbait earlier, I may have caught more then Paul on p3 who had 7-11, but next best weight was 12lb so miles away really. At least I know which result I will be dropping.
1st 68- 2 – Paul Bartlett – p9
2nd 62- 9 – Mike Owens – p34
3rd 52-10 – Lewis Jones – p7
4th 44- 8 – Chris Fox – p33
5th 44- 4 – Matt Tomes – p38
6th 36-12 – Mike Nicholls – p12
Silvers
1st 14- 6 – Nigel Vigus – top lake 8
2nd 12- 0 – Tim Ford – top lake 7
3rd 9- 0 – Lance Tucker – top lake 4
4th 8- 8 – Nigel Bartlett – top lake 6
09/03/13 - Acorns - Paddock
Weight - 17lb 2oz (7lb 6oz - silvers)
Catch - 4 Carp, 8 Skimmers, 3 Rudd, 3 Perch, 2 F1, 1 Tench, 1 Roach
Weather - Cloudy, slight northerly breeze
Match - Open - 6th out of 9 (2nd - silvers)
With the 1st round of the pole only series starting on Sunday I decided to book in at Acorns and was surprised to see only 4 names on the list. Eventually 9 turned up, but the low numbers was a result of a league match at Plantations.
Since there were only 9 of us it was decided to have a rover and I had 7th choice. I picked p33, although in hindsight I should have gone for p5. For company I had Mark Walsh on p34, but everyone else was spread around. As we were setting up a couple of carp rolled 2 pegs down so I was hopeful of a few fish, but the cold easterly weather system was still persisting, so no-one was too sure how it would go.
Well the answer was hard. With so few on the lake, it was easy enough for the fish to hide away. I decided not to bother with the groundbait today because it proved fairly in conclusion on Tuesday, but settled on feeding micros, by the bridge and 11m to my right down the track.
Unfortunately I couldn’t get a bite and it was an hour before I had my first fish, a small rudd on maggot. I had started feeding caster by the pallet on p32, which produced most of my silvers throughout the day, but I couldn’t catch more than 2 fish at a time.
The bridge swim didn’t produce anything and Mark only had 2 F1s early on from his side of the bridge so they just didn’t seem to be any fish there. In fact Mark caught mostly fishing to his left in the open water. Down the track to my right I only managed a few small skimmers on pellet, by continually drip feeding micros.
In the 2nd hour of the match I had decided to start ping 4s to the far bank in an attempt to pull in those carp that had been boshing further down the lake. I had periodically tried the far side and eventually the carp turned up with only 30mins left, catching 4 and losing a 5th. Had they turned up 30-45mins earlier I am certain I would have framed.
Come the weigh in I was left a little annoyed to find out that silvers payout was worth more than 2nd overall. Because there was less than 10 anglers the normal ready reckoner pinned up in the café didn’t apply, so I was unfortunately deprived of a silvers pick up by default.
1st 32-12 – Lee Waller – p6
2nd 27- 1 – Andy Gard – p38
3rd 24- 2 – Mark Walsh – p34
4th 21-14 – Siman Ryall – p9
5th 18-14 – Rob Smith – p21
6th 17- 2 – Ken Rayner – p33
Silvers
1st 23- 4 – Andy Gard – p38
2nd 7- 6 – Ken Rayner – p33
Catch - 4 Carp, 8 Skimmers, 3 Rudd, 3 Perch, 2 F1, 1 Tench, 1 Roach
Weather - Cloudy, slight northerly breeze
Match - Open - 6th out of 9 (2nd - silvers)
With the 1st round of the pole only series starting on Sunday I decided to book in at Acorns and was surprised to see only 4 names on the list. Eventually 9 turned up, but the low numbers was a result of a league match at Plantations.
Since there were only 9 of us it was decided to have a rover and I had 7th choice. I picked p33, although in hindsight I should have gone for p5. For company I had Mark Walsh on p34, but everyone else was spread around. As we were setting up a couple of carp rolled 2 pegs down so I was hopeful of a few fish, but the cold easterly weather system was still persisting, so no-one was too sure how it would go.
Well the answer was hard. With so few on the lake, it was easy enough for the fish to hide away. I decided not to bother with the groundbait today because it proved fairly in conclusion on Tuesday, but settled on feeding micros, by the bridge and 11m to my right down the track.
Unfortunately I couldn’t get a bite and it was an hour before I had my first fish, a small rudd on maggot. I had started feeding caster by the pallet on p32, which produced most of my silvers throughout the day, but I couldn’t catch more than 2 fish at a time.
The bridge swim didn’t produce anything and Mark only had 2 F1s early on from his side of the bridge so they just didn’t seem to be any fish there. In fact Mark caught mostly fishing to his left in the open water. Down the track to my right I only managed a few small skimmers on pellet, by continually drip feeding micros.
In the 2nd hour of the match I had decided to start ping 4s to the far bank in an attempt to pull in those carp that had been boshing further down the lake. I had periodically tried the far side and eventually the carp turned up with only 30mins left, catching 4 and losing a 5th. Had they turned up 30-45mins earlier I am certain I would have framed.
Come the weigh in I was left a little annoyed to find out that silvers payout was worth more than 2nd overall. Because there was less than 10 anglers the normal ready reckoner pinned up in the café didn’t apply, so I was unfortunately deprived of a silvers pick up by default.
1st 32-12 – Lee Waller – p6
2nd 27- 1 – Andy Gard – p38
3rd 24- 2 – Mark Walsh – p34
4th 21-14 – Siman Ryall – p9
5th 18-14 – Rob Smith – p21
6th 17- 2 – Ken Rayner – p33
Silvers
1st 23- 4 – Andy Gard – p38
2nd 7- 6 – Ken Rayner – p33
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
05/03/13 - Acorns - Paddocks
Weight - 8lb 0oz (5lb 0oz - silvers)
Catch - 2 Carp, 5 Roach, 3 F1, 3 Skimmers, 3 Perch
Weather - Cold start. Bright, warm sunny day!
Match - Open - 10th out of 22 (5th - silvers)
As promised in my facebook status, this blog will be very short!
With the 1st round of the pole only series on Sunday, I thought a visit to Acorns was required and when we arrived everyone was surprised to see the venue covered in ice. So a hard day was in prospect for the 22 that booked in.
P10 was hardly ideal, being the narrowest peg on the venue at only 10m wide, but there had been a few silvers weight from the area, before the cold snap kicked in.
Along with the majority I struggled. My groundbait swim produced very little, as did my pellet swims dotted around various areas of the peg, up and down the shelf. The best area was next to the pallet on p11, fishing maggot over caster, where I caught both my carp and the better sized silvers. Hard to believe my 5lb was enough for 5th in the silvers.
At least I got a feel for the place again, but it became apparent, the fishing was hard. Hopefully it wont be long before the water warms up and the fish will have a proper munch.
1st 49- 0 - Ian Cole - p5
2nd 44- 0 - Mike Owens - p34
3rd 38-14 - Mike Chapman - p33
4th 38- 6 - Eddie Wynn - p6
5th 34- 0 - Dave Wride - p16
6th 24- 1 - Mark Poppleton - p12
Silvers
1st 12- 3 - Andy Gard - p8
2nd 7- 4 - Gary Etheridge - p38
3rd 6- 4 - Ray Bazeley - p14
Catch - 2 Carp, 5 Roach, 3 F1, 3 Skimmers, 3 Perch
Weather - Cold start. Bright, warm sunny day!
Match - Open - 10th out of 22 (5th - silvers)
As promised in my facebook status, this blog will be very short!
With the 1st round of the pole only series on Sunday, I thought a visit to Acorns was required and when we arrived everyone was surprised to see the venue covered in ice. So a hard day was in prospect for the 22 that booked in.
P10 was hardly ideal, being the narrowest peg on the venue at only 10m wide, but there had been a few silvers weight from the area, before the cold snap kicked in.
Along with the majority I struggled. My groundbait swim produced very little, as did my pellet swims dotted around various areas of the peg, up and down the shelf. The best area was next to the pallet on p11, fishing maggot over caster, where I caught both my carp and the better sized silvers. Hard to believe my 5lb was enough for 5th in the silvers.
At least I got a feel for the place again, but it became apparent, the fishing was hard. Hopefully it wont be long before the water warms up and the fish will have a proper munch.
1st 49- 0 - Ian Cole - p5
2nd 44- 0 - Mike Owens - p34
3rd 38-14 - Mike Chapman - p33
4th 38- 6 - Eddie Wynn - p6
5th 34- 0 - Dave Wride - p16
6th 24- 1 - Mark Poppleton - p12
Silvers
1st 12- 3 - Andy Gard - p8
2nd 7- 4 - Gary Etheridge - p38
3rd 6- 4 - Ray Bazeley - p14
Monday, October 22, 2012
20/10/12 - Acorns - Paddock
Weight - 52lb 1oz (10lb 4oz - silvers)
Catch - 14 Carp, 34 Skimmers, 1 Tench
Weather - Cool start. Bright & sunny, with a slight breeze
Match - Open - 8th out of 16 (2nd - silvers)
Revision for my final financial services exam has meant no fishing for 2 weeks, because I really don't want to be taking a 3hr written exam for a second time, so I had to really concentrate and the fishing took a back seat. The exam was on Monday 15th and I am quietly optimistic, so keeping my fingers crossed when the results are released on 9 November.
Today I decided to attend the popular Saturday Open at Acorns and with 16 anglers we were well spread around the lake. One of the nice things about Acorns, other than the fact you can park behind most pegs, is there website which is kept up to date with match results, which revealed peg 40 is the form peg over the last 2 months. Alas I found myself on p15, which did win the silvers on Tuesday, but other than that hasn't featured too much recently.
On the drive down the temperature gauge dropped from 7c to 5c and coupled with the bright flat conditions, I wasn't really expecting the skimmers to feed in any numbers.
With plenty of room, the anglers either side were on 12 & 18, I decided to fish 12m left and right down the track feeding 3mms via a toss pot to my left and 4s to my right by catapult. On the all-in I went straight across to the far bank sedges where I had seen some movement, feeding a small amount of yellow atomic cloud & pellet, with corn on the hook. After 30mins I had 3 carp for 10lb before they disappeared.
I had kept both down the track swims topped up and kicked off down the left soon catching small skimmers on 4mm expander. The positively fed right hand swim, produced fewer, but slightly better skimmers up to 12oz.
The match was spent rotating left and right, catching skimmers with the occasional carp, mostly on 4mm expander. In an attempt to target the carp, I tried hard pellet and corn, but soft pellet was definitely the best on the day.
Despite feeding pellet to the far bank all match I only managed another 2 small carp. I had also been feeding towards the pallets, caster & corn to my left and pellet & corn to my right. The right margin produced 3 carp, whilst the left margin didn't produce any.
I knew I had beaten the anglers around me, in fact Eddie and I were the only ones to weigh-in on the straight. I also knew I was unlikely to frame, which meant I was relying on my skimmers for a pick up. As it was my 10-4 was a little less than I thought and I scrapped 2nd in the silvers.
1st 124- 6 - S O'Toole - p40
2nd 112-14 - Mike Owen - p9
3rd 103- 8 - Eddie Wynn - p22
4th 86-12 - Rich Lovering - p2
5th 75- 5 - Andy France - p4
6th 69-10 - Andy Gard - p6
Silvers
1st 17-11 - Dave Wride - p36
2nd 10- 4 - Ken Rayner - p15
Catch - 14 Carp, 34 Skimmers, 1 Tench
Weather - Cool start. Bright & sunny, with a slight breeze
Match - Open - 8th out of 16 (2nd - silvers)
Revision for my final financial services exam has meant no fishing for 2 weeks, because I really don't want to be taking a 3hr written exam for a second time, so I had to really concentrate and the fishing took a back seat. The exam was on Monday 15th and I am quietly optimistic, so keeping my fingers crossed when the results are released on 9 November.
Today I decided to attend the popular Saturday Open at Acorns and with 16 anglers we were well spread around the lake. One of the nice things about Acorns, other than the fact you can park behind most pegs, is there website which is kept up to date with match results, which revealed peg 40 is the form peg over the last 2 months. Alas I found myself on p15, which did win the silvers on Tuesday, but other than that hasn't featured too much recently.
On the drive down the temperature gauge dropped from 7c to 5c and coupled with the bright flat conditions, I wasn't really expecting the skimmers to feed in any numbers.
With plenty of room, the anglers either side were on 12 & 18, I decided to fish 12m left and right down the track feeding 3mms via a toss pot to my left and 4s to my right by catapult. On the all-in I went straight across to the far bank sedges where I had seen some movement, feeding a small amount of yellow atomic cloud & pellet, with corn on the hook. After 30mins I had 3 carp for 10lb before they disappeared.
I had kept both down the track swims topped up and kicked off down the left soon catching small skimmers on 4mm expander. The positively fed right hand swim, produced fewer, but slightly better skimmers up to 12oz.
The match was spent rotating left and right, catching skimmers with the occasional carp, mostly on 4mm expander. In an attempt to target the carp, I tried hard pellet and corn, but soft pellet was definitely the best on the day.
Despite feeding pellet to the far bank all match I only managed another 2 small carp. I had also been feeding towards the pallets, caster & corn to my left and pellet & corn to my right. The right margin produced 3 carp, whilst the left margin didn't produce any.
I knew I had beaten the anglers around me, in fact Eddie and I were the only ones to weigh-in on the straight. I also knew I was unlikely to frame, which meant I was relying on my skimmers for a pick up. As it was my 10-4 was a little less than I thought and I scrapped 2nd in the silvers.
1st 124- 6 - S O'Toole - p40
2nd 112-14 - Mike Owen - p9
3rd 103- 8 - Eddie Wynn - p22
4th 86-12 - Rich Lovering - p2
5th 75- 5 - Andy France - p4
6th 69-10 - Andy Gard - p6
Silvers
1st 17-11 - Dave Wride - p36
2nd 10- 4 - Ken Rayner - p15
Sunday, September 23, 2012
22/09/12 - Acorn - Paddock
Weight - 46lb 5oz (13lb 14oz - silvers)
Catch - 10 Carp, 32 Skimmers, 6 Perch, 2 Roach, 1 Tench, 1 Goldfish
Weather - Cold start, sunny, cool breeze
Match - Open - 9th out of 23 (1st - Silvers)
Originally I wanted to fish Lands End, however the Saturday opens seemed to have died with only a handful turning up, which to be honest I think is a shame.
Instead I decided to get a battering by the locals at Acorns. Well 23 turned up, which speaks volumes for the place and its certainly the closest commercial fishery to me, although its still 30mins away.
I found myself on peg 1, which has some recent silvers form, but I wasn't sure whether the skimmers would feed following the first cold night and bright, sunny conditions. Due to the weather I didn't fancy too many fish coming shallow so decided to focus on fishing down the track, with caster at 5m and pellet 11m slightly to my right & 12m to my left.
I started at 11m on 4mm expander, feeding a tiny pole pot of 3s and within 30mins had 4 carp and a skimmer before the swim died. This also co-incided with the wind picking up a little and it doesn't take much for the lake to start towing. As a consequence I had to change from the 0.3g HB Chump to a 0.5g, which definitely helped. I had been catapulting 4s at 12m, as well as caster at 5m. As the match progressed I had to keep rotating the 3 swims, because I couldn't catch more than 4 fish from one swim before I had to switch.
By the half way point a few more carp were being caught around me and I decided to stay focused on the silvers, since I couldn't see many being caught. However during the last 90mins I suffered a really dodgy patch, losing 4 carp (probably foul hooked) and missing a number of bites (probably liners).
As expected the weather had a say in the final result, but still plenty of bites, although no decent sized silvers to really boost my weight.
1st 80- 1 - Rod Wootton - p15
2nd 75-10 - Nick Harvey - p13
3rd 71- 4 - Garbriel S - p38
4th 64- 2 - Dom Sullivan - p37
5th 63- 0 - M Bellringer - p34
6th 50-13 - Jon Andres - p26
Silvers
1st 13-14 - Ken Rayner - p1
2nd 12-14 - Charlie Barnes - p11
Catch - 10 Carp, 32 Skimmers, 6 Perch, 2 Roach, 1 Tench, 1 Goldfish
Weather - Cold start, sunny, cool breeze
Match - Open - 9th out of 23 (1st - Silvers)
Originally I wanted to fish Lands End, however the Saturday opens seemed to have died with only a handful turning up, which to be honest I think is a shame.
Instead I decided to get a battering by the locals at Acorns. Well 23 turned up, which speaks volumes for the place and its certainly the closest commercial fishery to me, although its still 30mins away.
I found myself on peg 1, which has some recent silvers form, but I wasn't sure whether the skimmers would feed following the first cold night and bright, sunny conditions. Due to the weather I didn't fancy too many fish coming shallow so decided to focus on fishing down the track, with caster at 5m and pellet 11m slightly to my right & 12m to my left.
I started at 11m on 4mm expander, feeding a tiny pole pot of 3s and within 30mins had 4 carp and a skimmer before the swim died. This also co-incided with the wind picking up a little and it doesn't take much for the lake to start towing. As a consequence I had to change from the 0.3g HB Chump to a 0.5g, which definitely helped. I had been catapulting 4s at 12m, as well as caster at 5m. As the match progressed I had to keep rotating the 3 swims, because I couldn't catch more than 4 fish from one swim before I had to switch.
By the half way point a few more carp were being caught around me and I decided to stay focused on the silvers, since I couldn't see many being caught. However during the last 90mins I suffered a really dodgy patch, losing 4 carp (probably foul hooked) and missing a number of bites (probably liners).
As expected the weather had a say in the final result, but still plenty of bites, although no decent sized silvers to really boost my weight.
1st 80- 1 - Rod Wootton - p15
2nd 75-10 - Nick Harvey - p13
3rd 71- 4 - Garbriel S - p38
4th 64- 2 - Dom Sullivan - p37
5th 63- 0 - M Bellringer - p34
6th 50-13 - Jon Andres - p26
Silvers
1st 13-14 - Ken Rayner - p1
2nd 12-14 - Charlie Barnes - p11
Monday, September 17, 2012
16/09/12 - Acorn - Paddock
Weight - 44lb 13oz
Catch - 11 Carp, 8 Perch, 7 Skimmers, 1 F1, 1 Rudd
Weather - Cool, cloudy & breezy
Match - 2+3 Short Pole Only - 20th out of 50 (4th out of 10-section)
50 pegs meant every peg was in on both lakes and everyone wanted a draw with some space. I found myself on peg 16 in the middle of the straight, with Matt Tomes on 15 and Paul Lock on 17.
I made up rigs to fish caster/maggot, pellet and paste, so covering all basis, because during Wednesdays match p16 wasn't in but the pegs to the right all caught, whilst those to the left struggled, which meant I wasn't sure whether I had carp or silvers in front of me.
Our section ran from 11 - 20, so the expectation was pegs 11 & 12 were the ones to watch, however it was Tim Clark on p19 who got off to a flyer catching carp on caster from the end of his keepnet. As for me I decided on a steady approach starting straight away on the paste feeding some 4s via the toss pot, hoping for some early carp. However after 20mins I had nothing to show for my efforts other than a couple dips on the float. I suspected skimmers and a change to soft pellet produced 3 fish and then I couldn't catch.
After an hour and seeing others catching the devil on my shoulder started talking to me. What I should have done in hindsight was stick with the soft pellet. But no I decided that I could catch shallow on caster, so started feeding caster. Whilst I primed the shallow line, I switched to the short line but only had micro perch. The shallow line proved to be a waste of time and now 2hrs gone with 2lb in the net things weren't looking good.
A quick chat to myself about being patient (a real problem for me at the moment!) and I potted some caster with corn down the track. Letting that settle I went back to the short line and bugger me, I had a couple of carp on maggot.
Down the track produced a few more skimmers, then a few more carp. As the match progressed I started getting more carp, although not as many as Matt who was catching on soft pellet. My short line completely died, but I managed 3 carp on my top kit in 1ft of water by the sedges late on.
In hindsight, I lost focus in the 2nd hour, being too easily distracted by those that were catching, when I really should have just stuck with soft pellet. Tim Clark won my section with 72-12, whilst Matt was 2nd with 59-2 (and yes I forgot to give you my pound - so double or quits next time). Paul the other side spent the day on pellet & paste and tipped back 30-40lb.
Bearing in mind every peg was in the venue actually fished quiet well.
3rd98-10- 0 – Tim Ford – p27
4th81- 3- 0 – Bob Gullick – p21
5th80-13- 0 – Mike Nicholls – p30
6th80- 9- 0 – Craig Edmunds – p1
Silvers
1st32-10 – Tom Thick – old canal p5
2nd27- 4 – Pete Wild – old canal p6
3rd24- 6 – Martin Rayet – old canal p2
oh - anyone seen Tonys blog yet? Anyway, it doesn't take long to write about catching 11lb. No-one mentioned it much, during the weigh-in.
Catch - 11 Carp, 8 Perch, 7 Skimmers, 1 F1, 1 Rudd
Weather - Cool, cloudy & breezy
Match - 2+3 Short Pole Only - 20th out of 50 (4th out of 10-section)
50 pegs meant every peg was in on both lakes and everyone wanted a draw with some space. I found myself on peg 16 in the middle of the straight, with Matt Tomes on 15 and Paul Lock on 17.
I made up rigs to fish caster/maggot, pellet and paste, so covering all basis, because during Wednesdays match p16 wasn't in but the pegs to the right all caught, whilst those to the left struggled, which meant I wasn't sure whether I had carp or silvers in front of me.
Our section ran from 11 - 20, so the expectation was pegs 11 & 12 were the ones to watch, however it was Tim Clark on p19 who got off to a flyer catching carp on caster from the end of his keepnet. As for me I decided on a steady approach starting straight away on the paste feeding some 4s via the toss pot, hoping for some early carp. However after 20mins I had nothing to show for my efforts other than a couple dips on the float. I suspected skimmers and a change to soft pellet produced 3 fish and then I couldn't catch.
After an hour and seeing others catching the devil on my shoulder started talking to me. What I should have done in hindsight was stick with the soft pellet. But no I decided that I could catch shallow on caster, so started feeding caster. Whilst I primed the shallow line, I switched to the short line but only had micro perch. The shallow line proved to be a waste of time and now 2hrs gone with 2lb in the net things weren't looking good.
A quick chat to myself about being patient (a real problem for me at the moment!) and I potted some caster with corn down the track. Letting that settle I went back to the short line and bugger me, I had a couple of carp on maggot.
Down the track produced a few more skimmers, then a few more carp. As the match progressed I started getting more carp, although not as many as Matt who was catching on soft pellet. My short line completely died, but I managed 3 carp on my top kit in 1ft of water by the sedges late on.
In hindsight, I lost focus in the 2nd hour, being too easily distracted by those that were catching, when I really should have just stuck with soft pellet. Tim Clark won my section with 72-12, whilst Matt was 2nd with 59-2 (and yes I forgot to give you my pound - so double or quits next time). Paul the other side spent the day on pellet & paste and tipped back 30-40lb.
Bearing in mind every peg was in the venue actually fished quiet well.
1st111-10 – Glenn Bailey – p2
2nd104- 0- 0 – Allan Oram – p73rd98-10- 0 – Tim Ford – p27
4th81- 3- 0 – Bob Gullick – p21
5th80-13- 0 – Mike Nicholls – p30
6th80- 9- 0 – Craig Edmunds – p1
Silvers
1st32-10 – Tom Thick – old canal p5
2nd27- 4 – Pete Wild – old canal p6
3rd24- 6 – Martin Rayet – old canal p2
oh - anyone seen Tonys blog yet? Anyway, it doesn't take long to write about catching 11lb. No-one mentioned it much, during the weigh-in.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
12/09/12 - Acorn - Paddock
Weight - 54lb 3oz (18lb 1oz - silvers)
Catch - 13 Carp, 29 Skimmers, 4 Perch, 3 Tench, 1 Chub, 1 Roach, 1 Rudd
Weather - Cooler. Mostly sunny, occasional shower
Match - 2+2 short pole - Avon Angling Open - 13th out of 22 (3rd - silvers)
Still quiet at work, although hopefully that will soon be resolved, so decided a mid-week match would be a good idea. It always surprises me the number of people who can make these matches.
I haven't fished Acorns since May and was looking forward to it, although a little out of touch with whats working. Initially I thought p38 was a good draw, however after reviewing the past 6 weeks results the peg has only featured once.
Tony rocked up on p36 with a gallon of maggot (well that experiment didn't work) and I decided to concentrate on soft pellet. Initially fed 4s at an angle to my left and a micros/groundbait to my right. Whilst I let that settle I started down my left margin next to some reeds on caster. However it took me a while to get a my first fish which was a small rudd and I became a little pre-occupied trying to catch by the reeds, because I was getting plenty of bites, but not connecting with anything.
After 30mins I decided I was wasting my time and switched to fishing my left & right hand down the track swims. I had set up 2 rigs, one to fish hard pellet on a hair rig and the other for soft pellet. The fish didn't seem to settle over the micros, so I binned that line concentrating on the left hand swim, which was also a little shallower so I don't know whether that had an effect.
Over the next couple of hours I kept catching skimmers and a couple of carp. In the meantime I had been feeding 4s and a few bits of corn to my right at the bottom of the first shelf where it was about 3ft. I had a few skimmers straight away on soft pellet before switching to corn when I had 3 carp and thought I sussed it, but no, the swim went quiet.
In the last 2 hours I kept rotating my 3 swims. The down the track swim produced very little and I think I may have overfed it. The right hand swim was still producing the odd fish, but it was a little sporadic, whilst my left hand reed swim finally started to produce a few carp on caster, as well as a couple of Tench, including one of 4lb 6oz.
During the weigh in it became obvious I was in the wrong part of the lake, however I still had plenty of bites and I can see me coming here quite a bit in the future.
1st 117-11 - Mike Nicholls - p12
2nd 99- 0 - Glenn Bailey - p21
3rd 98- 3 - Phil Harding - p15
4th 91- 8 - Mike West - p13
5th 90- 7 - Mash - p9
6th 70- 8 - Chris Winstone - p5
Silvers
1st 43-12 - Craig Edmunds - p1
2nd 29- 8 - John Bradford - p11
3rd 18- 1 - Ken Rayner - p38
Catch - 13 Carp, 29 Skimmers, 4 Perch, 3 Tench, 1 Chub, 1 Roach, 1 Rudd
Weather - Cooler. Mostly sunny, occasional shower
Match - 2+2 short pole - Avon Angling Open - 13th out of 22 (3rd - silvers)
Still quiet at work, although hopefully that will soon be resolved, so decided a mid-week match would be a good idea. It always surprises me the number of people who can make these matches.
I haven't fished Acorns since May and was looking forward to it, although a little out of touch with whats working. Initially I thought p38 was a good draw, however after reviewing the past 6 weeks results the peg has only featured once.
Tony rocked up on p36 with a gallon of maggot (well that experiment didn't work) and I decided to concentrate on soft pellet. Initially fed 4s at an angle to my left and a micros/groundbait to my right. Whilst I let that settle I started down my left margin next to some reeds on caster. However it took me a while to get a my first fish which was a small rudd and I became a little pre-occupied trying to catch by the reeds, because I was getting plenty of bites, but not connecting with anything.
After 30mins I decided I was wasting my time and switched to fishing my left & right hand down the track swims. I had set up 2 rigs, one to fish hard pellet on a hair rig and the other for soft pellet. The fish didn't seem to settle over the micros, so I binned that line concentrating on the left hand swim, which was also a little shallower so I don't know whether that had an effect.
Over the next couple of hours I kept catching skimmers and a couple of carp. In the meantime I had been feeding 4s and a few bits of corn to my right at the bottom of the first shelf where it was about 3ft. I had a few skimmers straight away on soft pellet before switching to corn when I had 3 carp and thought I sussed it, but no, the swim went quiet.
In the last 2 hours I kept rotating my 3 swims. The down the track swim produced very little and I think I may have overfed it. The right hand swim was still producing the odd fish, but it was a little sporadic, whilst my left hand reed swim finally started to produce a few carp on caster, as well as a couple of Tench, including one of 4lb 6oz.
During the weigh in it became obvious I was in the wrong part of the lake, however I still had plenty of bites and I can see me coming here quite a bit in the future.
1st 117-11 - Mike Nicholls - p12
2nd 99- 0 - Glenn Bailey - p21
3rd 98- 3 - Phil Harding - p15
4th 91- 8 - Mike West - p13
5th 90- 7 - Mash - p9
6th 70- 8 - Chris Winstone - p5
Silvers
1st 43-12 - Craig Edmunds - p1
2nd 29- 8 - John Bradford - p11
3rd 18- 1 - Ken Rayner - p38
Monday, May 21, 2012
20/05/12 - Acorns - Paddock
Weight - 73lb 10oz
Catch - 27 Carp, 13 Skimmers, 2 F1, 1 Tench, 1 Rudd
Weather - Sunny, cool northerly gusty wind
Water Temp - 18.6c - 19.9c
Match - Pole Only Series - rd 5 - 5th out of 22 overall (5th in section)
The 5th and penultimate round of the Pole Only series and it was my turn to fish Paddocks Lake, whilst the remainder had the joys of Horseshoe Lake at Plantations. I was a bit undecided how to approach the match, whether to go for carp or silvers. With the way the series has gone for me silvers looked like the better option in terms of potential overall payout. I was lying 5thwith the top 3 being paid out and excluding my dropped result I had 3x 2nd, however the top 3 to date had dropped very few points.
So it would be down to the draw and when I saw peg 3 staring back at me, I thought “OK, silvers it is” But as is usual with leagues that are coming to a close, there was a number of anglers who decided not to fish and when peg 5, the carp flyer to my left wasn’t drawn it put a different perspective om matters. Paul Frairs who draw peg 1, was being less that subtle about the fact I should fish for carp, particularly with the space to my left, thus leaving him free to plunder the silvers (Paul - told you I would put it on the blog, but we wont mention the carp that dived under my platform, between my keepnets, leaving me to thread my top kit the same way! Oops too late).
In truth, now I had some space to my left, I didn’t need much persuasion to go for carp, but various rigs were set up to cover all options just in case. Rigs for the day, was a HB ratcatcher 2 .17 > 16 B960 for hair rigged 8mm, the same rig as Thursday, HB Chump 0.4g, .12 > 16B911 for fishing soft pellet, HB Shindig 0.3g .14 > 18 B911 hair rigging 6mm pellet down the track, HB Billybob 0.2g .16 > 16 B911 meat down my the next pallet and finally a Jolly 4x14 for fishing caster short, but I never used it.
The northerly wind was an issue, as well as been quite cool it was also quite gusty, so catapulting pellet to the far bank was a case timing between gusts, needless to say, some landed on the island, whilst some fell short.
On the all-in micros and 4mms were deposited down the track and I went straight across to the far bank with 8mm pellet. Within 30mins I had 2x small carp, but although there was a few carp showing, they weren’t taking the bait with any confidence. So rather than keep chasing shadows, I went down the track were I spent the next couple hours, catching a few skimmers and a few carp in between, toss potting 4s. The wind was creating a fair bit of tow against the wind and some of the better fish came by holding back, then letting go – just like being on the river. Since more carp were showing I decided to switch rigs to the HB Shindig, but caught more skimmers! Typical catch carp on the skimmer rig and skimmers on your carp rig.
After a few hours the swim needed a rest, so switched back to the far bank were I had been continually feeding 6s, but the fish didn’t really want to be there and other than a lost foul hooker, no further carp were forthcoming.
With 2½hrs to go I was up to 10 carp and really hoping that by feeding meat to the pallet on peg 4 that I would make up some lost ground on the pegs behind me, particularly since my far line wasn’t producing and every time I looked back when shipping my pole, either Lance (p38) or Dave (p36) were landing fish.
A further 17 carp from the pallet, including 2 from the right hand margin was certainly useful, however the average stamp was on the small side, which was unfortunate and meant I was about 15lb shy of what I would expect. Not that it would have helped since the 3 pegs behind me all weighed a ton and any chance of an overall pick up in the series has gone. Nick Harvey on p7 who was fishing towards the end of the island (where peg 5 is) weighed 77lb, which probably illustrates that the concentration of fish in our area wasn’t as high as pegs 36,38 and 40.
Paddocks was definitely the lake to be on, with Horseshoe Lake being patchy with 58lb being the best weight, plus there was only a handful of silvers caught with 1lb 9oz picking up in 1 section.
1st 122- 6 - Lance Tucker - p38.
2nd 116-14 - Lewy - p40
3rd 100-12 - Dave Wride - p36
4th 76-15 - Nick Harvey - p7
5th 73-10 - Ken Rayner - p3
6th 58- 3 - Simon Carvello - Horseshoe Lake
Silvers
1st 31- 0 - Paul Frairs - p1
2nd 20- 4 - Lance Tucker - p38
3rd 18-10 - Mike Owens - p34
Catch - 27 Carp, 13 Skimmers, 2 F1, 1 Tench, 1 Rudd
Weather - Sunny, cool northerly gusty wind
Water Temp - 18.6c - 19.9c
Match - Pole Only Series - rd 5 - 5th out of 22 overall (5th in section)
The 5th and penultimate round of the Pole Only series and it was my turn to fish Paddocks Lake, whilst the remainder had the joys of Horseshoe Lake at Plantations. I was a bit undecided how to approach the match, whether to go for carp or silvers. With the way the series has gone for me silvers looked like the better option in terms of potential overall payout. I was lying 5thwith the top 3 being paid out and excluding my dropped result I had 3x 2nd, however the top 3 to date had dropped very few points.
So it would be down to the draw and when I saw peg 3 staring back at me, I thought “OK, silvers it is” But as is usual with leagues that are coming to a close, there was a number of anglers who decided not to fish and when peg 5, the carp flyer to my left wasn’t drawn it put a different perspective om matters. Paul Frairs who draw peg 1, was being less that subtle about the fact I should fish for carp, particularly with the space to my left, thus leaving him free to plunder the silvers (Paul - told you I would put it on the blog, but we wont mention the carp that dived under my platform, between my keepnets, leaving me to thread my top kit the same way! Oops too late).
In truth, now I had some space to my left, I didn’t need much persuasion to go for carp, but various rigs were set up to cover all options just in case. Rigs for the day, was a HB ratcatcher 2 .17 > 16 B960 for hair rigged 8mm, the same rig as Thursday, HB Chump 0.4g, .12 > 16B911 for fishing soft pellet, HB Shindig 0.3g .14 > 18 B911 hair rigging 6mm pellet down the track, HB Billybob 0.2g .16 > 16 B911 meat down my the next pallet and finally a Jolly 4x14 for fishing caster short, but I never used it.
The northerly wind was an issue, as well as been quite cool it was also quite gusty, so catapulting pellet to the far bank was a case timing between gusts, needless to say, some landed on the island, whilst some fell short.
On the all-in micros and 4mms were deposited down the track and I went straight across to the far bank with 8mm pellet. Within 30mins I had 2x small carp, but although there was a few carp showing, they weren’t taking the bait with any confidence. So rather than keep chasing shadows, I went down the track were I spent the next couple hours, catching a few skimmers and a few carp in between, toss potting 4s. The wind was creating a fair bit of tow against the wind and some of the better fish came by holding back, then letting go – just like being on the river. Since more carp were showing I decided to switch rigs to the HB Shindig, but caught more skimmers! Typical catch carp on the skimmer rig and skimmers on your carp rig.
After a few hours the swim needed a rest, so switched back to the far bank were I had been continually feeding 6s, but the fish didn’t really want to be there and other than a lost foul hooker, no further carp were forthcoming.
With 2½hrs to go I was up to 10 carp and really hoping that by feeding meat to the pallet on peg 4 that I would make up some lost ground on the pegs behind me, particularly since my far line wasn’t producing and every time I looked back when shipping my pole, either Lance (p38) or Dave (p36) were landing fish.
A further 17 carp from the pallet, including 2 from the right hand margin was certainly useful, however the average stamp was on the small side, which was unfortunate and meant I was about 15lb shy of what I would expect. Not that it would have helped since the 3 pegs behind me all weighed a ton and any chance of an overall pick up in the series has gone. Nick Harvey on p7 who was fishing towards the end of the island (where peg 5 is) weighed 77lb, which probably illustrates that the concentration of fish in our area wasn’t as high as pegs 36,38 and 40.
Paddocks was definitely the lake to be on, with Horseshoe Lake being patchy with 58lb being the best weight, plus there was only a handful of silvers caught with 1lb 9oz picking up in 1 section.
1st 122- 6 - Lance Tucker - p38.
2nd 116-14 - Lewy - p40
3rd 100-12 - Dave Wride - p36
4th 76-15 - Nick Harvey - p7
5th 73-10 - Ken Rayner - p3
6th 58- 3 - Simon Carvello - Horseshoe Lake
Silvers
1st 31- 0 - Paul Frairs - p1
2nd 20- 4 - Lance Tucker - p38
3rd 18-10 - Mike Owens - p34
Friday, May 18, 2012
17/05/12 - Acorn - Paddock
Weight - 92lb 5oz
Catch - 30 Carp, 10 Skimmers, 2 Roach, 1 Goldfish, 1 Tench, 1 Crucian
Weather - Mostly cloudy, cool easterly breeze
Water Temp - 18.8c - 19.6c
With an exam on Monday (my 3rd attempt!) I had today and Friday off work for revision. However its the 5th round of the pole only series on Sunday and I wanted to have a practice before Sunday, but couldn't afford the time to fish a match. So I managed a short (4.5hrs) afternoon/evening session on Paddock Lake, fishing peg 18 on the main straight.
Its easy to see why Acorns is becoming so popular, with well maintained lakes, as well as easy access to your peg and parking right behind your peg certainly saved time.
Originally, I wanted to target the skimmers, because the way my league has gone, silvers may be my best chance of picking up in the overall league.
I started fishing down the track on 4mm expander, feeding soften 4s. However after 90mins the carp started to move in and the skimmers where few and far between. With so many carp in the swim decided to set up a shallow rig with hair rigged 8s, feeding 6s across.
I caught consistently for next couple of hours, including a few more carp from the right hand margin. I did go back to my "silvers" line but 2 carp in 2 put ins and that line was binned.
The session didn't pan out as expected, but enjoyable none the less.
Catch - 30 Carp, 10 Skimmers, 2 Roach, 1 Goldfish, 1 Tench, 1 Crucian
Weather - Mostly cloudy, cool easterly breeze
Water Temp - 18.8c - 19.6c
With an exam on Monday (my 3rd attempt!) I had today and Friday off work for revision. However its the 5th round of the pole only series on Sunday and I wanted to have a practice before Sunday, but couldn't afford the time to fish a match. So I managed a short (4.5hrs) afternoon/evening session on Paddock Lake, fishing peg 18 on the main straight.
Its easy to see why Acorns is becoming so popular, with well maintained lakes, as well as easy access to your peg and parking right behind your peg certainly saved time.
Originally, I wanted to target the skimmers, because the way my league has gone, silvers may be my best chance of picking up in the overall league.
I started fishing down the track on 4mm expander, feeding soften 4s. However after 90mins the carp started to move in and the skimmers where few and far between. With so many carp in the swim decided to set up a shallow rig with hair rigged 8s, feeding 6s across.
I caught consistently for next couple of hours, including a few more carp from the right hand margin. I did go back to my "silvers" line but 2 carp in 2 put ins and that line was binned.
The session didn't pan out as expected, but enjoyable none the less.
Monday, April 2, 2012
01/04/12 - Acorn - Paddock Lake
Weight – 73lb 14oz
Catch – 21 Carp, 4 Skimmers, 2 F1
Weather – Frosty start. Mostly bright & sunny.
Water Temp – 14.1c – 14.8c
Match – Pole Only Series – 6th out of 28 overall (2nd out of 9 – section)
The 2nd round of the Paul Frairs series meant it was my turn to be on Acorns Paddock Lake, hence the recent visits. At the draw Paul had to announce that 4 or 5 people rang during the week to say they couldn’t fish, which is fair enough because replacements were found, but then 2 more didn’t turn up on the day. If these people had to organize matches, I can guarantee they wouldn’t, not turn up again. I don’t understand why you pay £50 to fish series, then just don’t turn up (unless it’s emergency).
Anyway, back to the match. Our section, would be on the best part of Paddock Lake, so hopefully a few fish would show, however scrapping ice off the car this morning and the lake has been hammered this week with matches on most days I expected a difficult match. Fortunately there wasn’t many poor draws in this section and was quite happy with p36, although results during the week suggested it had gone off the boil from previous weeks, with top weight being about 50lb.
As you can see from the photo, I had the pump in the left hand corner, as well as the corner of the island opposite. Plumbing around revealed really shallow water by the island (the water level was still down) and it was the same under the platform to my right peg 35 (hopefully I’ve got my pegging right this time, before Joe tells me off again ;¬)). Down the track was surprisingly deep with 5ft between the pump and the corner of the island, but it was slightly shallower to my right which is where I hoped to pull in a few skimmers from the gap. However my gut feeling was these swims would be either too deep or too shallow, so fortunately when plumbing up in the left hand corner revealed about 2½ft of water.
After 90mins I thought the wheels had fallen off with only a skimmer and an F1 from my right hand down the track swim, whilst everyone was catching particularly those on the island (pegs 1, 3, and 5). The left hand down the track swim only produced a few liners and as suspected confirmed what I thought about the depth, so I stopped feeding the swim never to be tried again. In the meantime I had kept pinging 6mms to the island and meat by the pump.
After seeing a fish roll by the pump it was time to give it a go and 45mins later I had 7 carp on meat, which cheered me up. The rest of the match was a case of rotating between the pump, the island, down the track and the right hand platform. The island only produced 1 small carp on 8mm pellet all match, as did the right hand platform. The water was just too shallow for the fish to feed with any confidence. The track swim, only produced a few more silvers, but I just couldn’t pull those skimmers into the swim, probably because it was a bit too narrow for them to settle.
So the majority of my fish came from the pump swim. With 30mins left, I was sure I was still behind 4 or 5 anglers, and then I had a run of 6 fish from the pump. The last fish being my best weighing 6-15 and it was just as well I put it in my 3rd net. If I hadn’t it would have pushed me over the 70lb net limit, by a pound.
As we were packing up, I felt that Rich Lovering on p5 would win which he did with 108lb, catching on various baits and I thought it would be close with Gary Bewdell on p1, but he only weighed 43lb. apparently he lost a load. Fortunately my fish were a better stamp than normal, which according to the locals isn’t a surprise for this peg. On reflection a bit of strange match. I probably only had about 2-3hrs of activity, whilst the rest of time was a bit boring – not that I’m complaining.
1st 108-2 – Rich Lovering – Paddock 5
2nd 100-10 – Rod Wootton – Plantations 19
3rd 100- 0 – Lance Tucker – Plantations 8
Catch – 21 Carp, 4 Skimmers, 2 F1
Weather – Frosty start. Mostly bright & sunny.
Water Temp – 14.1c – 14.8c
Match – Pole Only Series – 6th out of 28 overall (2nd out of 9 – section)
The 2nd round of the Paul Frairs series meant it was my turn to be on Acorns Paddock Lake, hence the recent visits. At the draw Paul had to announce that 4 or 5 people rang during the week to say they couldn’t fish, which is fair enough because replacements were found, but then 2 more didn’t turn up on the day. If these people had to organize matches, I can guarantee they wouldn’t, not turn up again. I don’t understand why you pay £50 to fish series, then just don’t turn up (unless it’s emergency).
Anyway, back to the match. Our section, would be on the best part of Paddock Lake, so hopefully a few fish would show, however scrapping ice off the car this morning and the lake has been hammered this week with matches on most days I expected a difficult match. Fortunately there wasn’t many poor draws in this section and was quite happy with p36, although results during the week suggested it had gone off the boil from previous weeks, with top weight being about 50lb.
As you can see from the photo, I had the pump in the left hand corner, as well as the corner of the island opposite. Plumbing around revealed really shallow water by the island (the water level was still down) and it was the same under the platform to my right peg 35 (hopefully I’ve got my pegging right this time, before Joe tells me off again ;¬)). Down the track was surprisingly deep with 5ft between the pump and the corner of the island, but it was slightly shallower to my right which is where I hoped to pull in a few skimmers from the gap. However my gut feeling was these swims would be either too deep or too shallow, so fortunately when plumbing up in the left hand corner revealed about 2½ft of water.After 90mins I thought the wheels had fallen off with only a skimmer and an F1 from my right hand down the track swim, whilst everyone was catching particularly those on the island (pegs 1, 3, and 5). The left hand down the track swim only produced a few liners and as suspected confirmed what I thought about the depth, so I stopped feeding the swim never to be tried again. In the meantime I had kept pinging 6mms to the island and meat by the pump.
After seeing a fish roll by the pump it was time to give it a go and 45mins later I had 7 carp on meat, which cheered me up. The rest of the match was a case of rotating between the pump, the island, down the track and the right hand platform. The island only produced 1 small carp on 8mm pellet all match, as did the right hand platform. The water was just too shallow for the fish to feed with any confidence. The track swim, only produced a few more silvers, but I just couldn’t pull those skimmers into the swim, probably because it was a bit too narrow for them to settle.
So the majority of my fish came from the pump swim. With 30mins left, I was sure I was still behind 4 or 5 anglers, and then I had a run of 6 fish from the pump. The last fish being my best weighing 6-15 and it was just as well I put it in my 3rd net. If I hadn’t it would have pushed me over the 70lb net limit, by a pound.
As we were packing up, I felt that Rich Lovering on p5 would win which he did with 108lb, catching on various baits and I thought it would be close with Gary Bewdell on p1, but he only weighed 43lb. apparently he lost a load. Fortunately my fish were a better stamp than normal, which according to the locals isn’t a surprise for this peg. On reflection a bit of strange match. I probably only had about 2-3hrs of activity, whilst the rest of time was a bit boring – not that I’m complaining.
1st 108-2 – Rich Lovering – Paddock 5
2nd 100-10 – Rod Wootton – Plantations 19
3rd 100- 0 – Lance Tucker – Plantations 8
4th 80- 8 – R Hentley – Plantations 27
5th 74- 9 – Lewis Walker – Plantations 28
6th 73-14 – Ken Rayner – Paddock 36
31/03/12 - Acorn - Paddock Lake
Weight – 48lb 11oz (18lb 11oz-silvers)
Catch – 32 Skimmers, 12 Carp, 3 Tench
Weather – Cool & cloudy. Cold northerly breeze.
Water Temp – 15.7c – 16.3c
Match – Open – 5th out of 23 overall
Back on with the fleece, following a week of warm weather today was a bit of a shock to the system, with a cold northerly blowing.
I found myself on p26, which normally is a poor draw, although Dave Wride managed 31lb of skimmers from the peg in Tuesdays open, but generally it isn’t great. To make matter worse the peg is at the end of the long straight, with the wind blowing straight down and I was bloody freezing.
Due to the “lack” of carp in the area, I decided to concentrate on catching silvers, which meant ignoring the shallow water by the island as well as the margin, thinking not too many carp would be happy sitting there with the cold wind.
I started at 10m at the bottom of the shelf with a 0.3g HB frostie, but after 15mins I was a setting a 0.4g SZ munkeez which sat better in the wind. After the 1st hour I had 7 skimmers, but by the 2nd I was up to 20, including a carp. Bait was 4mm expander, however I started to catch more on JPZs, probably because they were a bit denser than the expanders and sat better in the tow.
In the meantime I had been feeding at 11m to my left in open water with potted meat and pellet. First put in with meat produced a carp, I tried pellet but this didn’t produce, so decided to just feed 4mms by catapult, hoping to pull in a few more skimmers. I also started feeding meat by hand to my left at the bottom of the nearside shelf.
During the 3rd & 4th hours it was a case of rotating and picking up odd fish, including a decent tench. The skimmers seemed to have done a disappearing act, although I was finding more carp, which created a bit of conundrum. I really wanted to be catching silvers, because I didn’t think my peg was a framing peg, but they just didn’t seem to be any volume in front of me. I kept feeding pellet hoping the skimmers would return and tried down my left hand margin and picked up 4 carp and 2 very useful tench over the next hour.
Going into the last hour the skimmers had finally returned in the open water swim, including a proper bream, before I had a couple more carp.
During the weigh in pegs 17 & 18 weighed 27lb & 30lb of silvers, with 44lb winning from peg 1. My total weight was the best from peg 10 around to peg 34 when Rod weighed 51lb to finish 3rd. There was a couple of low 50s with 61lb weighing (I was hoping the Acorn website would show the results, but it hasn’t been updated yet). So in conclusion I was very surprised to be so close to the overall frame and I should have spent more time trying to catch carp. Never mind.
Catch – 32 Skimmers, 12 Carp, 3 Tench
Weather – Cool & cloudy. Cold northerly breeze.
Water Temp – 15.7c – 16.3c
Match – Open – 5th out of 23 overall
Back on with the fleece, following a week of warm weather today was a bit of a shock to the system, with a cold northerly blowing.
Due to the “lack” of carp in the area, I decided to concentrate on catching silvers, which meant ignoring the shallow water by the island as well as the margin, thinking not too many carp would be happy sitting there with the cold wind.
I started at 10m at the bottom of the shelf with a 0.3g HB frostie, but after 15mins I was a setting a 0.4g SZ munkeez which sat better in the wind. After the 1st hour I had 7 skimmers, but by the 2nd I was up to 20, including a carp. Bait was 4mm expander, however I started to catch more on JPZs, probably because they were a bit denser than the expanders and sat better in the tow.
In the meantime I had been feeding at 11m to my left in open water with potted meat and pellet. First put in with meat produced a carp, I tried pellet but this didn’t produce, so decided to just feed 4mms by catapult, hoping to pull in a few more skimmers. I also started feeding meat by hand to my left at the bottom of the nearside shelf.
During the 3rd & 4th hours it was a case of rotating and picking up odd fish, including a decent tench. The skimmers seemed to have done a disappearing act, although I was finding more carp, which created a bit of conundrum. I really wanted to be catching silvers, because I didn’t think my peg was a framing peg, but they just didn’t seem to be any volume in front of me. I kept feeding pellet hoping the skimmers would return and tried down my left hand margin and picked up 4 carp and 2 very useful tench over the next hour.
Going into the last hour the skimmers had finally returned in the open water swim, including a proper bream, before I had a couple more carp.
During the weigh in pegs 17 & 18 weighed 27lb & 30lb of silvers, with 44lb winning from peg 1. My total weight was the best from peg 10 around to peg 34 when Rod weighed 51lb to finish 3rd. There was a couple of low 50s with 61lb weighing (I was hoping the Acorn website would show the results, but it hasn’t been updated yet). So in conclusion I was very surprised to be so close to the overall frame and I should have spent more time trying to catch carp. Never mind.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
27/03/12 - Acorn - Paddock Lake
Weight – 68lb 14oz
On the all in I started firing 4mms at the far bank and went straight over to the corner of the island, immediately landing a 3lb carp on 6mm pellet, but I couldn’t get another and lifting and dropping was difficult due to the overhanging sedges. I did give it a go briefly later on without success.
My constant firing of pellet to the far bank was having the desired affect with tails waving at me, so I went over with hair rigged 6mm pellet. I then spent a very frustrating time trying to hook a fish. I did manage 4 over the next hour, but I couldn’t work why I didn’t hook more. I even tried a new rig, with expander or 3 maggots on the hook – a real head scratcher. In the meantime Mike Owens on p2 was catching well as was p4.
With my 2 down the track swims primed, I started to catch properly on 4mm expander. Mostly skimmers, with carp coming from under the bridge, I managed to keep both swims going rotating over the next 2 hours or so, changing to softer elastic to stop me bouncing the skimmers off the hook, before they both slowed down.
Back to the far bank again, I had kept the pellet going in, mostly 6mm’s this time and there was plenty of fish moving around. But still struggled to catch on 6mm hard pellet, maggot or expander. Then I decided to get some 8mm’s from my carryall and bingo (or doh!) I started to catch properly. Well, to start with it was land 1, lose 1, land 1 lose 1. But a few rig changes sorted that and over the last 90mins another 13 carp where landed.
Overall I was pleased, particularly since it was a first visit, but disappointed, because I spent too long in the 1st 90mins dicking around trying to catch carp shallow, when I should have concentrated on fishing on the deck, but at least I know for next time. Another carp or 2 would have pushed into to 2nd, but Mike Owens certainly used his venue knowledge to win comfortably with 92lb.
1st 92- 3 – Mike Owens – p2
2nd 73- 0 – Gary Bewdell – p38
3rd 70- 5 – D Warren – p4
4th 68-14 – Ken Rayner – p34
4th 68-14 – Eddie Wynne – p40
6th 56-14 – D Cole – p8
Catch – 25 Carp, 25 Skimmers
Weather – Cold start, but warm and sunny with a slight breeze.
Water Temp – 14.8c – 16.6c
Match – Open – 4th out of 19 overall
Weather – Cold start, but warm and sunny with a slight breeze.
Water Temp – 14.8c – 16.6c
Match – Open – 4th out of 19 overall
Yet another new venue for me, but at least it’s close to home this time. Doing some research on the venue, thanks to the their website, revealed most of the weights came from either corners or the bridges, so I was pleased to draw peg 34, which won last Saturdays match with 90lb (although I was told later that he didn’t have any anglers either side of him and in fact the angler who had drawn 33 on the other side of the bridge, decided to set up on 34), however it failed to weigh on Sunday.
Setting up on my peg, I had a bridge to my right and to my left I had a gap to the next island. Plumbing around I discovered the far bank was less than a foot deep due to the lake being about a foot below normal level, but there was a few fish moving around and I fancied it for fishing shallow. As for “down the track” the same rig (HB Shindig 0.3g) could be used for fishing under the bridge and 10m to my left in open water. I also plumbed up to the corner of the other island where it was 2ft deep.
On the all in I started firing 4mms at the far bank and went straight over to the corner of the island, immediately landing a 3lb carp on 6mm pellet, but I couldn’t get another and lifting and dropping was difficult due to the overhanging sedges. I did give it a go briefly later on without success.
My constant firing of pellet to the far bank was having the desired affect with tails waving at me, so I went over with hair rigged 6mm pellet. I then spent a very frustrating time trying to hook a fish. I did manage 4 over the next hour, but I couldn’t work why I didn’t hook more. I even tried a new rig, with expander or 3 maggots on the hook – a real head scratcher. In the meantime Mike Owens on p2 was catching well as was p4.
With my 2 down the track swims primed, I started to catch properly on 4mm expander. Mostly skimmers, with carp coming from under the bridge, I managed to keep both swims going rotating over the next 2 hours or so, changing to softer elastic to stop me bouncing the skimmers off the hook, before they both slowed down.
Back to the far bank again, I had kept the pellet going in, mostly 6mm’s this time and there was plenty of fish moving around. But still struggled to catch on 6mm hard pellet, maggot or expander. Then I decided to get some 8mm’s from my carryall and bingo (or doh!) I started to catch properly. Well, to start with it was land 1, lose 1, land 1 lose 1. But a few rig changes sorted that and over the last 90mins another 13 carp where landed.
Overall I was pleased, particularly since it was a first visit, but disappointed, because I spent too long in the 1st 90mins dicking around trying to catch carp shallow, when I should have concentrated on fishing on the deck, but at least I know for next time. Another carp or 2 would have pushed into to 2nd, but Mike Owens certainly used his venue knowledge to win comfortably with 92lb.
1st 92- 3 – Mike Owens – p2
2nd 73- 0 – Gary Bewdell – p38
3rd 70- 5 – D Warren – p4
4th 68-14 – Ken Rayner – p34
4th 68-14 – Eddie Wynne – p40
6th 56-14 – D Cole – p8
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