03/01/12 - Trinity Waters - Woodlands

Weight - 17lb 2oz (4lb 14oz -silvers)
Catch - 2 Carp, 7 Skimmers, 2 Roach, 1 Motherless Minnow
Weather - Mild, cloudy, light winds
Match - Avon Angling Open - 9th out of 19

I am still on my festive holiday for the rest of the week and decided to booked into this match, although after the last time I wasnt that enthusastic, but reasoned my luck has to change soon. Initally when I drew p10 I was quite pleased, until I realised I was 1 of 2 pegs without a spare peg either side, with Ziggy on p9 and Steve Wynn on p11.

I set up to 2 rigs, 4x18 polar ice > .12 > 18 silverfish pellet and a 4x18 jolly > .10 > 20 silverfish maggot. I also set up a rig to fish in the margin more in hope than expectation and finally a straight lead rig.

As we were setting up there was a few fish boshing in the middle of the lake and was regretting not bring a waggler rod.

On the all in a ball of groundbait and caster was deposited at 9m and I continued to cup in caster/dead maggot, but only had 1 skimmer over this line all match. At 15m slightly to my left, a small amount of 3s & 4s was deposited. Whilst I let that settle I tried the straight lead without sucess as did Kev Molton who was opposite me.

After a 10min wait on the 15m line I managed my first skimmer on soft pellet, before losing a carp when the hook pulled when I had it on my top kit. I also lost another fish under my pallet which took the bait when I was filling my tosspot. Initially I thought had hooked my keepnet, but it pulled back before breaking me.

On the hour Misha brought my sausage bagette. So back out with the straight lead & punched meat and convientantly the tip pulled round after I had finished eating. No more followed, so back on the pole and the middle part of the match was a real struggle, I couldnt buy bite even on single maggot, I even tried a popped up boilie on a 5ft tail.

At just over half way I fed some grounbait at 15m, but that didnt work, so a new swim was set up at 15m slightly to my right with 3s & 4s again, pinging 4s over the top.

The last hour was my most productive, when 3 good skimmers in as many put ins on soft pellet, then another carp on the straight lead.

A difficult day for most with the majority of the weights coming from left hand end of the lake. At least I beat the pegs either side of me, who both weighted 7lb.

1^st66- 0 – Mark Poppleton – P31
2^nd40- 8 – Anton Page – P17
3^rd28- 0 – Dave Evans – p6
4^th27- 9 – Steve Evans – p2
5^th27- 5 – Phil Harding – p3
6^th23- 2 – Eddie Wynn – p7

Silvers

1^st13- 2 – Nick Collier – p32
2^nd10-14 – Phil Harding – p3
3^rd 10- 9 – Tony Rixon – p26

16/12/12 - Trinity Waters - Woodlands

Weight - 11lb 13oz
Catch - 14 Roach, 7 Skimmers, 1 Rudd, 1Carp
Weather - Mostly sunny and breezy
Match - Avon Angling Open - 12th out of 20

I was hoping after the recent mild weather the lake would fish and it did for some, but most struggled. Being such a deep lake the water temperature takes longer to warmer up and it was still feeling the effects of last weeks ice.

The last time I fished this lake was 15mths ago and was told dead maggot over micros was the way to go. Peg 26 however wasn’t ideal, but at least the forecast wind would mostly be off my back.

For the first 30mins I searched the swim with corn on the hook, initially trying at 5m, 16m, then the straight lead out into the middle, but other than a couple of liners on the lead nothing. Andy Hembrow opposite had an early carp on the method from the middle, but no more followed.

In the meantime Steve Seagar on p27 & John Bradford on p24 had both started catching small roach. I went out to 14.5m where I deposited some micros & 4s and started catching small roach and skimmers, but it was hard work, particularly when they came off as you shipped back. I did hook a carp in the tail, which I eventually netted and I hoped a few more would turn up. Unfortunately they didn’t.

I had set up a positively fed swim at 14.5m to my right, but again only small roach. I tried soft pellet, but only had 1 bite on that. I had also been feeding 4s & corn at 5m, hoping to catch later on, but this didn’t yield anything. In fact most of the fish seem to have been caught to my left, whilst those to my right where struggling, except for Dave Evans on p15 who was catching down the margin on corn.

With the expectation of carp I had been fishing with .12 bottom and 18 silverfish pellet. I did swap to .10 & size 20 hook with a lighter elastic later on, which meant fewer bumped fish, but in reality I was going no where fast and was quite pleased when the match ended.

1st 66-10 - Martin McMahon - p32
2nd 50-14 - Rod Wootton - p31
3rd 48-15 - Mike West - p29
4th 45- 0 - Tony Rixon - p9
5th 43-12 - Kev Molton - p2
6th 42-12 - Dave Evans - p15

Silvers
1st 8- 8 - Andy Hembrow - p13
2nd 8- 5 - John  Bradford - p24
3rd 7- 9 - Tony Rixon - p9

22/07/12 - Trinity Waters - Wildmarsh

Weight - 26lb 0oz (9lb 8oz - silvers)
Catch - 3 Carp, 96 Rudd, 79 Roach, 4 Motherless Minnows, 2 Perch
Weather - Hot & sunny.
Match - Avon Angling Open - 7th out of 30 (3rd out of 10 - section)

After yesterdays fiasco, I really needed a good match and Wildmarsh Lake has been quite good to me in the past. With 30 booked in, Tony split the lake into 3 sections, with 1 section made up of carp pegs, with most concentrated around the island.

I drew 16 which was in the carp section and the feedback suggested it wasn't the best, however with the wind blowing my way, although not much ripple I was hopeful. The peg itself is set at an odd angle, facing pegs 14 (Mike West) and 15 (empty corner). I had a reed bed and small tree down my right hand side, but due to the angle of the peg and the height of the reeds, I ended up setting my box to the far left of the peg making full use of the extending legs, so I could get out into the water as much as possible (next time I fish this lake I bring my penrose platform).

Once I finally got myself settled I noticed a few rudd in front of me and knew from experience that generally the carp dont show in any numbers, so a back up line was required. I also set up a line 13m to my left into the open water, feeding 3 pots of groundbait, caster, worm and pellet. To be honest this was a throw away line, since I didn't expect too many skimmers to be in this part of the lake and that's what happened, after 2 attempts during the match and only 2 roach, this line was binned.

On the all in, I went straight over to the reeds with paste hoping for an early carp, but after 20mins and only 1 roach it was obvious there was none around. A switch to my top and I was soon catching tiny rudd on maggot, feeding caster. After a few rig adjustments and a switch to caster I continued to catch slightly better rudd, but more roach began to show. As the match progressed, I had to fish top 3 and by fishing a little deeper managed a few better roach up to 3oz.

In the meantime my margin swim was topped up every 30mins with 1/2 pot of meat & pellet. I also set up another swim at 11m straight in front and this got a regular top up as well.

With 75mins to go my short line was slowing and it was time to catch some carp, having given them plenty of time to settle. First put in on meat produced a carp after 5mins, followed by a better one 10mins later on paste, before the small fish re-appeared. The 11m line failed to produce anything other than a couple knocks from suspected silvers, whilst Mike had 3 carp for 30lb in 3 put ins from his long line. Back into my margin and I had 1 final carp on paste.

Just 1 more carp would have seen me claim the section by default, with Dean beating me by 2lb, but I had an enjoyable day with plenty of bites.

1st - 58-12 - Paul Locke - p22 (paste @ 13m)
2nd - 57- 07 - Mike West - p14 (paste)
3rd - 38-11 - Anton Page - p11
4th - 30-14 - Tony Rixon - island 3 (paste!)
5th - 30-13 - Dave Roper - p6
6th - 28- 4 - Dean Malin - p42

Silvers
1st - 34- 0 - Paul Lock
2nd - 20- 8 - Tony Rixon
3rd - 20- 3 - Nicky Collins

09/10/11 - Trinity - Woodland Lake

Weight – 29lb 12oz
Catch – 5 Carp, 5 Skimmers, 1 Roach, 1 Motherless Minnow
Weather – Mild, breezy & mostly cloudy
Match – Club – 5th out of 16

With 16 anglers booked in I managed to spread everyone around the lake, with most on the favored far bank. I don’t like someone else drawing for me, so as I was holding the draw bag, I saw the pegs on the far bank disappear, leaving me with p22 in the corner. Today’s match was also the semi final for our knockout and I had Andy who beat me in last year’s final. Conveniently he was on p19 on the end bank so at least we could keep an eye on each other.

As I was walking around selecting the pegs, a car pulled into the car park and the occupants got out surveying the lake with the intention of fishing. By the time I walked back round I told 1 of them there was match on, before asking whether they read the big white board at the entrance, which clearly stated that Woodlands was closed. However, despite stopping in front of the board they still managed to miss seeing it!

The weather forecast was for strong winds, so it was a pleasant surprise to see a flat calm lake, although the wind picked up as were setting up. With the expectation of strong winds I didn’t bother with a long pole, only a rig for the margins, plus a method feeder to fish slightly to my left as not to interfere with peg 19 and a straight lead to fish to peg 20 on the end bank.

With the wind blowing down this end I quite fancied it for few a fish, however after 2hrs 25mins I had yet to catch, whilst Andy had 2 carp. After Fridays practice I had decided to concentrate on the method, whilst building my margin swims. I did lose 1 fish and had a few liners, but no fish. Since the wind wasn’t quite as strong as expected (although when I went round to the opposite bank during the weigh in I realized I was slightly sheltered from the worst) I decided to set a shallow pellet rig at 13m after seeing a couple of fish boshing close by. 20mins later I had my 1st carp on 8mm pellet and thought I sussed it, but ½hr later no more followed. They just didn’t want to come in close, although they were boshing further out in ripple.

I was in danger of getting pre-occupied trying to catch shallow, so decided to give it up as a bad job and focus on the margins where I had kept feeding 4mms and corn. After a few rig adjustments, finally started to catch on 6mm expander, unfortunately they were small skimmers, but at least I was catching and I was confident the carp would turn up.

I hooked 6 carp down the edge, losing 2 (1 was definitely fouled as it shot off), but 2 of the 4 landed were proper 8lb fish. Fortunately Andy only had 4 carp, although he lost a couple, so I knew I would be in the knockout final.

The winners came from the middle of the lake, where the fish seemed to be happiest today.

1st 82-8 Kev – p28 (12 carp. 10 in the last 90mins down the edge on worm)
2nd 78- 6 Chris – p13 (shallow 8mm pellet)
3rd 43- 4 Graham – p11
4th 32- 6 Tim – p7
5th 29-12 Ken – p22

07/10/11 - Trinity Waters - Woodlands Lake

Weight – 50lb 6oz
Catch – 8 Carp, 5 Skimmers, 1 Tench, 1 Roach
Weather – Showery, strong NW wind

Well my back injury wasn’t quite as bad as first feared. I did go fishing last weekend at the Winterbourne Duck Pond just to see how it felt and successful came though a busy session catching small skimmers. Sadly there was a major fish kill at the pond since last year, which has meant the majority of the big skimmers and carp have died, however there seemed to be plenty of 1-3oz skimmers, plus a few 2oz carp of various colours (discarded pets?).

Today’s session was about practicing for Sunday’s club match. I haven’t been to Woodlands lake since all the landscaping and what a change, although I’m not sure about the individual pegs being set back into little bays.

Tim Allen from our club decided to join me and as they say 2 heads are better than 1. I had already been told of the better areas, but decided to settle on p27, which is an average peg in the middle of the lake. With the strong wind, it would also give me a chance to sort out some pole rigs.

Initially started on the method, but mixed the green swim stim and micros separately so I could mix and match to see what worked. After 45mins I had tried meat, hard pellet, soft pellet and maggot without success. Tim in the meantime had 2 carp on a standard cage feeder with corn on the hook, so I opened a tin and hey presto a carp! Another carp followed shortly after, but the cold wind was having an effect on the fishing.

I deliberately didn’t want to target the silvers, since Sundays match wouldn’t have a silvers payout, so the 6m line was fed with 4mm & corn, as were the margins. Started with a 0.8g rig, but it wasn’t longer before I tried 1.25g rig due to the tow, which did produce a few skimmers, plus a near 2lb tench on red maggot. Although I stayed with it for a while the pole just wasn’t working due to the windy conditions.

After 2hrs a local old boy turned up, who knew “everything” and with the whole lake to choose from promptly set up next to me on peg 26. With Tim on the other side it now meant the margin I had started feeding could now be redundant, particularly now he started crashing about. I tried explaining to him what I was trying to do, but being a know it all he reckoned it wouldn’t make a difference. Muppet!

Since the pole line wasn’t working (including the margin which I had feed for 3hrs), I concentrated on the feeder, I had set up 2 rigs, 1x method feeder and 1x pellet feeder, fishing 17 turns out, so a gentle lob. The method was the better way to go and I found by moulding more micro pellet, then groundbait seemed to get bites quicker. Also corn was the best bait, although according to “know it all” corn doesn’t work.

Unfortunately I lost a few carp on the feeder, a couple when the free running feeder bounced the fish off the hook. I also lost a few when the hooklength snapped. Really not a fan of the method, but sometimes needs must, so a softer rod and stronger hooklengths for Sunday.

A worthwhile practice, but I think I will be a happier if I draw the other side. Tim also had 30lb.