made a change not driving down in the ice , and the only ice left on the lakes were in the carpark corners of cambell and cary and as there was 29 booked in that was the only 2 lakes being used, so there would be plenty of room. i got to the front of the draw queue as my theory is that all the goood pegs are in there to draw, as are the bad pegs, in went the lucky left hand and out came 125, which is at the top end of cambell , a good draw in warmer weather but not at this time of year as all the fish tend to hole up at the carpark end as there is a spring running in with a temperature at a constant 10 c is it any wonder the fish dont want to come to far up the lake. so the plan today was silvers again(seems like months since i caught a carp), for company i had ray hayward to my right and alan oram to my left. again 2 rigs both being 4x16 to .10 one with a 20 808 to fish over the g bait, and one with an 18 808 for the caster line both on top sets with 3-6 j range hollow elastic with pulla bungs just in case. on the shout which as normal was over 2mins late by everyones watch but pauls and steve,s. i cupped in a ball of g bait at 16 mtrs straight out and about 50 casters with a few mags at 16 mtrs towards 10 o,clock , then began at 4 mtrs on caster as you some times get the odd big perch there , but not today i think it was a bit to clear, so after 30 mins it was out to 16 mtrs with single maggot over the g bait it was about 15 mins later that i had a skimmer of about 4 oz, i had a few skimmers during the next hour then it went quiet so another ball laced with caster went in and it was time to look at the caster line, single caster on the hook , 2 missed bites then a 4oz roach, not really what i wanted , i was really after perch , so e re fed and went back over the g bait , and i had a skimmer straight on a lift bite , so i slid 2 no 10,s down to about 5 inches from the hook , then every bite was an unmissable lift bite , the skimmers seem to hang on to the hook bait when its fished this way, then the wind got up blowing in and across making presentation difficult as the trip goes with the wind pushing the rig through to quick, so i spread the droppers ,deep,nd up a couple of inches to try and slow down the rigs progress and it seemed to work as i had agood perch over the g bait which is a bit unusual as the seem to prefer just caster , i actually had 2 perch over the g bait and 2 over the caster line , and the 4 perch probably went about 9 lb between them which was dead handy and still getting odd skimmers to the end i reckoned i had about 17lb which looked good for a section win as 2 carp was the best in my section as far as i could see. when steve arrived with the scales i was more than happy to weigh 20.7 which looked like getting me in the silver ,s money as the only other person to catch any silvers of note was mat parsons who ended up with 29.10 of skimmers taken 50 50 on the long pole and open ended feeder on peg 100 on cary.
the match was won by george perkins on 85 with 221.2 20 odd fish taken on staight lead with triple red maggot hook bait.
2nd alan perkins on 128 with 116.12some on the wag and some on the lead ,also on maggot the result making it a son and father first and second fairplay to them
3rd jason atkins 76.9 on peg 130
4th mat parsons 41.8 peg 100
5th ivan oakey 37.9 peg 97
6th barry fitchew 30.10 peg 96
good to see helen has been out and bought some new cups for the tea and coffee shame i never got one , i think the last time my cup saw liquid was when steve used to keep his false teeth in it at night it had more stains than some ones under crackers who is suffering from c diff!!!!!!lol
i heard another strange one to day , i dont know how true it is but i heard that the bathampton match secretary has cancelled the canal match at the weekend as no one can get any bloodworm and joker, whats wrong with bread , caster , maggots etc oh yes i was forgetting he doesnt sell them at the draw. i dont understand why the club let him do it as they rely on the shops to sell there licences and day tickets nuff said mr crookes and co
Wednesday, 30 December 2009
Monday, 28 December 2009
vaiduct silvers day 2
the draw was a lot kinder to me today with 114 sticking to my fingers in the draw tin. i had the breeze slightly off my right shoulder and only 6mts of 3mm thick ice to clear to let me get to a large clear area to fish , it was that clear that i could have fished the wag to the middle , trouble was i didnt expect this so i left rods at home, so i set the stall out to fish at 14.5 mtr , straight out over g bait and same length at 10 o,clock over caster just in case there are any perch or unseasonal tench mooching about, i even used the same rigs as yesterday as it was the same depth as 118 , so on the whistle 1 ball of g bait went straight out and the casters went on the angle.it only took 25 mins to get a bite today but i still missed it, never mind though as i had a 2lb bream next drop (lovely), then a 6oz skimmer the next trouble was dan squires on 112 and rich coles on 111 were both catching skimmers and quite regularly which was a worry, the only hope was that the skimmers they were getting were on the small side luckily for me i did manage 4 better skimmers during the match for about 9 lb plus a few smaller samples , so by the end i thought i had had about 13 lb so it was going to be close between me dan and rich. bait wise it was a bit of a mixture with nothing to choose between caster or maggot on the hook , but the fish seemed to want the groundbait as you would put a ball in laced with a few casters and get bites for 30 to 40 minutes then you would need to put another ball in with the fish seeming to come straight back over it. as for the caster line that was a none starter with not even a bite . by the time the scales arrived at my peg dave roper was top with 11.14 on peg 129 my net went 15.2 , dan had 13.13 with rich coles ending up with12.4 so i ended up with a much needed section win which might see me sneaking in to the overalls.
there was a tie on points for first place between joe roberts and bob gullick both on 2 points for 2 section wins with joe edging it on weight
3rd 4th and 5th all tied on 4 points with me taking 3rd spot with a weight of 19.5
4th dick bull 13.3
5th n white 11.6
6th was dave roper on 5 points
not a bad couple of days really when you consider everyone had to break ice to fish although there were blanks on both days, stil i aint complaing cos i,ve gone home 195 quid better off over the 2 days
there was a tie on points for first place between joe roberts and bob gullick both on 2 points for 2 section wins with joe edging it on weight
3rd 4th and 5th all tied on 4 points with me taking 3rd spot with a weight of 19.5
4th dick bull 13.3
5th n white 11.6
6th was dave roper on 5 points
not a bad couple of days really when you consider everyone had to break ice to fish although there were blanks on both days, stil i aint complaing cos i,ve gone home 195 quid better off over the 2 days
Sunday, 27 December 2009
2 day silvers match day 1
well i never expected that, after a few days of milder temps i thought the dreaded ice might be all but gone, wrong there was still an inch of the hard stuff still covering cambell and cary, and with my 2 breakers having gone to the great ice house in the sky, (actually i lost them both the previous weds at landsend when the chains on both snapped)so i was in trouble. drawing peg 118 i was informed by steve long that it had been broken out quite recently, so after scrounging paul greenwoods breaker ,off i went to do a bit of clearing , it couldnt be to bad as longy had told me that it had been done recently, i think by recently he must have meant last january as it was still an inch thick, so after 20 mins of slinging pauls breaker about i managed to clear to about 9 mtrs which was about as far as most and a bit more than others ,aint that so mr nicholls.
again it was a 1 rig job 4x16 with 20 808 to .10, i did set up an identical rig but with a 20 to .12 just in case some quality showed up . the plan was to put a ball af g bait to the ice at 9 mtr and cup casters on the edge of the ice at 6 mtrs , so on the whistle thats what i did, i did expect a bite quite quickly , but no , 1 1/2 hours the float finally crept under and a 2 oz skimmer was in the net. as the winner over the 2 days was to be done on section points i was already behindas stu foale and and bobby gullick on the opposite bank had been catching small fish from the off, but at least i was catching blips quite steadily and by switching from maggot to caster hook bait the size of the fish doubled with most going nearly an ounce now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. if i could keep them going there was a chance i could beat stu , but bob was catching small skimmers i knew that without a couple of bonus,s i wouldnt catch him, i did hook a good fish about 3 hours in which felt like a big perch but i wll never know as with the elastic under the ice the hook pulled, towards the end i new i was beating stu but about 10 mins from the end he went and spawned a 2lb perch(i hope i sound bitter and twisted), which was to put him back in front as he weighed 4.14 to my 4.3 so that big fish if it was a perch cost me being second in the section, bob gullick won our section with 7lb but they did have the wind off there backs making presentation a lot better, i was the only one one the windy bank in the section(yep still bitter and twisted). luckily with stu foale being opposite his generous bulk did afford me a bit of shelter from the cold wind lol, i didnt hang around long after the match but i think mash was top weight off peg 102 with 17 lb of small skimmers, any way back for round 2 tomorrow but i will have e breaker of sorts with me , as it looks like another frost tonite.
again it was a 1 rig job 4x16 with 20 808 to .10, i did set up an identical rig but with a 20 to .12 just in case some quality showed up . the plan was to put a ball af g bait to the ice at 9 mtr and cup casters on the edge of the ice at 6 mtrs , so on the whistle thats what i did, i did expect a bite quite quickly , but no , 1 1/2 hours the float finally crept under and a 2 oz skimmer was in the net. as the winner over the 2 days was to be done on section points i was already behindas stu foale and and bobby gullick on the opposite bank had been catching small fish from the off, but at least i was catching blips quite steadily and by switching from maggot to caster hook bait the size of the fish doubled with most going nearly an ounce now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. if i could keep them going there was a chance i could beat stu , but bob was catching small skimmers i knew that without a couple of bonus,s i wouldnt catch him, i did hook a good fish about 3 hours in which felt like a big perch but i wll never know as with the elastic under the ice the hook pulled, towards the end i new i was beating stu but about 10 mins from the end he went and spawned a 2lb perch(i hope i sound bitter and twisted), which was to put him back in front as he weighed 4.14 to my 4.3 so that big fish if it was a perch cost me being second in the section, bob gullick won our section with 7lb but they did have the wind off there backs making presentation a lot better, i was the only one one the windy bank in the section(yep still bitter and twisted). luckily with stu foale being opposite his generous bulk did afford me a bit of shelter from the cold wind lol, i didnt hang around long after the match but i think mash was top weight off peg 102 with 17 lb of small skimmers, any way back for round 2 tomorrow but i will have e breaker of sorts with me , as it looks like another frost tonite.
Thursday, 24 December 2009
a match of 2 halves
it was another slippery drive down to landsend fishery, so it was no surprise to find the venue solid with an inch of hard water on top. so the ten of us which turned out proceeded to attack the ice with all sorts of things ranging from purpose made breakers to scaffold tubes on ropes to a boat and sledge hammer, it took an hour in which time i lost both of my breakers when the chains snapped and then a piece of scaffold tude , but we cleared 10 swims out to about 10 mtrs so that would do.
gary wall drew for me and handed me peg 34 , which was the winning peg from sunday , but that was a carp weight but today was a silvers match so there was no point in clearing the ice to the bush on the island where they seemed to be holed up. it was another day for 1 rig a 4x12 to .10 with a 20 808 on the end, i was hoping for some roach , perch and perhaps skimmers, chub and f1,s(whats wrong with wishing at xmas).
at the start i cupped in 10 casters and 3 maggots expecting bites straight away, but i had to wait 35 mins for that and i missed it. in the mean time dave hodgson to my left in the corner was getting odd small roach as was jason radford opposite dave but fair play to him he was managing to shake most of them off on the way in, obviously he didnt want to get to far ahead of everybody else.
2 hours in all i had to show for my efforts were 7 small roach , as i could here mr duckett up in the carpark so i wandered up and got a bag of mosella all round g bait . mixing up a small ammount i cupped it in through a kinder with a few casters in and it was as though a light switch had been turned on , the fish werent big but i was now getting regular bites from 1/2 to 1 oz roach, so thats how the second half of the match went . the only other change was to come slightly off bottom and fish caster instead of maggot on the hook as the fish on caster were 1 to 3 oz and i did get a bonus 8 oz perch towards the end. the scales arrived , dave to my left had 3,15 i had 5 lb dead which turned out to be top weight on my half of the lake, but on the other side alan(austen)healey won with 5.11 on peg 26 he had some reasonable perch and skimmers (looks like he had my wishes)all taken on maggot.
2nd next to him was martin lenaghan with 5.5 with perch mainly peg 25
3 rd kev molten the other side of the winner with 5.4 peg 28
4th me 5 lb
5th jason(shake another roach off )radford 4.14 peg 32
6 dave hodgson 3.15 peg 33
at the end of the day we all had bites and caught a few we even had mince pies and hot coffee delivered to our pegs by mr duckett, oh yes and it rained for 2 hours (lovely).
xmas eve es i write this so i hope you all have a good time i wish you all all the best for the new year , but no doubt the goverment will bo its best to screw us all up next year , but as long as they are ok they wont worry to much about us will they? i wonder how many turkey,s will be on there expenses accounts lol
shit i hate xmas
gary wall drew for me and handed me peg 34 , which was the winning peg from sunday , but that was a carp weight but today was a silvers match so there was no point in clearing the ice to the bush on the island where they seemed to be holed up. it was another day for 1 rig a 4x12 to .10 with a 20 808 on the end, i was hoping for some roach , perch and perhaps skimmers, chub and f1,s(whats wrong with wishing at xmas).
at the start i cupped in 10 casters and 3 maggots expecting bites straight away, but i had to wait 35 mins for that and i missed it. in the mean time dave hodgson to my left in the corner was getting odd small roach as was jason radford opposite dave but fair play to him he was managing to shake most of them off on the way in, obviously he didnt want to get to far ahead of everybody else.
2 hours in all i had to show for my efforts were 7 small roach , as i could here mr duckett up in the carpark so i wandered up and got a bag of mosella all round g bait . mixing up a small ammount i cupped it in through a kinder with a few casters in and it was as though a light switch had been turned on , the fish werent big but i was now getting regular bites from 1/2 to 1 oz roach, so thats how the second half of the match went . the only other change was to come slightly off bottom and fish caster instead of maggot on the hook as the fish on caster were 1 to 3 oz and i did get a bonus 8 oz perch towards the end. the scales arrived , dave to my left had 3,15 i had 5 lb dead which turned out to be top weight on my half of the lake, but on the other side alan(austen)healey won with 5.11 on peg 26 he had some reasonable perch and skimmers (looks like he had my wishes)all taken on maggot.
2nd next to him was martin lenaghan with 5.5 with perch mainly peg 25
3 rd kev molten the other side of the winner with 5.4 peg 28
4th me 5 lb
5th jason(shake another roach off )radford 4.14 peg 32
6 dave hodgson 3.15 peg 33
at the end of the day we all had bites and caught a few we even had mince pies and hot coffee delivered to our pegs by mr duckett, oh yes and it rained for 2 hours (lovely).
xmas eve es i write this so i hope you all have a good time i wish you all all the best for the new year , but no doubt the goverment will bo its best to screw us all up next year , but as long as they are ok they wont worry to much about us will they? i wonder how many turkey,s will be on there expenses accounts lol
shit i hate xmas
Sunday, 20 December 2009
arctic landsend
it was supposed to be the landsend individual league today , but mike had the good sense to cancel it due to it being frozen solid. even though, we still had 20 hardy(dumbasses)souls turn up to break ice, which was 12mm thick after 3 good frosts which have seen temps go down to minus 7 in recent nights. with peg 11 coming out of the draw bag i was happy .
getting to my peg i set about ice breaking and soon had it broken up to 12 mtrs which was just at the bottom of the island shelf. next i went round to peg 13 where mike west was struggling a bit as he had done his back in the day before clearing ice on peg 24. after that i went back to my swim and started to get ready , then jason radford turned up behind me as he couldnt clear the ice due to pullling a muscle in his chest a couple of weeks ago in a fight , and i think the hobbit won!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. i started to clear his peg but luckily tony page took over as he was ready allowing me to go to my peg and get ready.
one rig a 4x14 rig with an 18 808 to .10, i had broken the ice iether side in the margins but by the time i was ready it had frozen over again so that was a none starter, we started at 10.30 and it took me an hour and 20 mins to get a bite, which i missed(must have been i liner). an hour after that i had another bite which i connected with , it came straight to the top and i could see it was a skimmer of about a pound , the problem now was that ice had formed in the channel i had cleared but by keeping the tip below the ice i managed to get it back to the top set but as i lifted it up the elastic connector stuck in the ice and the fish came off (luckily no one laughed,yes right)
i did have 2 more bites and managed to land a 4 oz perch and apart from 2 perch gary wall had on peg 7 no one else on our side caught.
the match was won by martin lenaghan on peg 34 where he had 11 carp on maggot by a bush on the island for 94.10 and it was a golden peg aswell so well done to him so he had a pick up of 275 quid, nice.
2nd and not to far behind was kev molten with 17.10 on peg 19
3rd mat tomes 14.6 on peg 31
4th mark leader 13.12 peg 27
5th mike duckett 13.6 peg 16
6th andy france 12.10 peg 33
silvers were won by that well known silvers ace (i cant believe i just said that )timmy clarke with 9.13 of roach off peg 25 just edging out john bradford on 39 with 9.2 which was the silvers golden peg he was abit gutted as he lost a 2lb tench first put in and he also lost 5 or 6 good perch so he had his chance.
the speci lake fished quite well with people catching roach on most pegs where as on the match lake you couldnt get a bite full stop , very strange.
to be fair landsend didnt fish to bad when you consider viaduct ,where carps were having there xmas match and it was won with less than 4lb and not a single carp was hooked , and when you consider the ammount of fish that are in there it just goes to show how badly this sudden cold snap has upset the fish
getting to my peg i set about ice breaking and soon had it broken up to 12 mtrs which was just at the bottom of the island shelf. next i went round to peg 13 where mike west was struggling a bit as he had done his back in the day before clearing ice on peg 24. after that i went back to my swim and started to get ready , then jason radford turned up behind me as he couldnt clear the ice due to pullling a muscle in his chest a couple of weeks ago in a fight , and i think the hobbit won!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. i started to clear his peg but luckily tony page took over as he was ready allowing me to go to my peg and get ready.
one rig a 4x14 rig with an 18 808 to .10, i had broken the ice iether side in the margins but by the time i was ready it had frozen over again so that was a none starter, we started at 10.30 and it took me an hour and 20 mins to get a bite, which i missed(must have been i liner). an hour after that i had another bite which i connected with , it came straight to the top and i could see it was a skimmer of about a pound , the problem now was that ice had formed in the channel i had cleared but by keeping the tip below the ice i managed to get it back to the top set but as i lifted it up the elastic connector stuck in the ice and the fish came off (luckily no one laughed,yes right)
i did have 2 more bites and managed to land a 4 oz perch and apart from 2 perch gary wall had on peg 7 no one else on our side caught.
the match was won by martin lenaghan on peg 34 where he had 11 carp on maggot by a bush on the island for 94.10 and it was a golden peg aswell so well done to him so he had a pick up of 275 quid, nice.
2nd and not to far behind was kev molten with 17.10 on peg 19
3rd mat tomes 14.6 on peg 31
4th mark leader 13.12 peg 27
5th mike duckett 13.6 peg 16
6th andy france 12.10 peg 33
silvers were won by that well known silvers ace (i cant believe i just said that )timmy clarke with 9.13 of roach off peg 25 just edging out john bradford on 39 with 9.2 which was the silvers golden peg he was abit gutted as he lost a 2lb tench first put in and he also lost 5 or 6 good perch so he had his chance.
the speci lake fished quite well with people catching roach on most pegs where as on the match lake you couldnt get a bite full stop , very strange.
to be fair landsend didnt fish to bad when you consider viaduct ,where carps were having there xmas match and it was won with less than 4lb and not a single carp was hooked , and when you consider the ammount of fish that are in there it just goes to show how badly this sudden cold snap has upset the fish
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
winter at avalon
last winter we enjoyed somee good silvers and carp fishing at this venue , so i was expecting the same this year(oh dear). i drew peg 26 but was advised by vic bush that i wasnt very safe as the front of the platform had gone and was sloping towards the water at quite a severe angle, and he was right and as it was damp it was like ice ,so i moved onto 27 after the ok from the people each side, it meant i was next peg to martin lenaghan so at least i could keep an eye on the quid.
i left the rods at home as i wanted to target silvers again so it was 2 rigs again , both 4x16, one with an 18 to .12 and the other had a 20 to .10, 3 lines to day ,13 mtrs over g bait and 2 at 16mtrs over micros at 11 and 1 o,clock. on the whistle i cupped in 4 balls at 13 mtrs and sprinkled some micros over the 2 lines at 16 mtrs.
straight over the g bait and a roach first put in , then not another bite for 45 mins then another small roach then a perch then nothing again, so i put in a soft ball of g bait at 13 mtrs then went out to 16 mtrs with asoft 4mm on , a 4 oz skimmer straight away then nothing , so out with maggot ,and a couple more small skimmers were soon in the net , this was really hard with the fish really struggling to pull the float under. stangely the fish didnt seem to want to sit over the gbait but by swapping between the 2 16 mtr lines and by introducing a few maggots in with micros the swim did improve so by the end i was getting fairly regular bites from skimmers between 2 oz and a pound although the pounder was a one off. also the 20 hook to .10 seemed to get more bites, the only person i could see catching with any regularity was brian shanks on 32 , as he had had 2 carp and quite a few silvers , when the scales arrived it became apparent as to how hard it had fished, brian won with 20.5 which was 2 carp for 10.9 and the top silver weight aswell with 9.12 of roach and skimmers with all his fish being taken on maggot or caster at 16 mtrs over chopped worm and caster,
i was joint second with my skimmer net going 7.10 which was the same as ian dawe who had 1 carp and a couple of bits on peg 24 , although he did lose 7 carp under the tree in the corner
4 th was alan oram with 7.7 on peg 44
5th adrian bishop 4.15 peg 40
6th martin lenaghan whose 1 carp went 4.13 peg 28 and i had his quid he was gutted(but he is lead chucker so it was even sweeter. even though his leads and feeders spent more time in the tree,s than in the water , i dont remember there being a squirrel pool)
i think it should improve once the fish get used to the cold weather , cos last year we broke ice and 100 lb was needed to win and 20 lb to win the silvers and it cant get any harder can it !!!!!!!!
and i got to get me thermal boots out cos me feet was froze. off to landsend lake 4 this weekend and there were blanks on it last weekend , so perhaps it will!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i left the rods at home as i wanted to target silvers again so it was 2 rigs again , both 4x16, one with an 18 to .12 and the other had a 20 to .10, 3 lines to day ,13 mtrs over g bait and 2 at 16mtrs over micros at 11 and 1 o,clock. on the whistle i cupped in 4 balls at 13 mtrs and sprinkled some micros over the 2 lines at 16 mtrs.
straight over the g bait and a roach first put in , then not another bite for 45 mins then another small roach then a perch then nothing again, so i put in a soft ball of g bait at 13 mtrs then went out to 16 mtrs with asoft 4mm on , a 4 oz skimmer straight away then nothing , so out with maggot ,and a couple more small skimmers were soon in the net , this was really hard with the fish really struggling to pull the float under. stangely the fish didnt seem to want to sit over the gbait but by swapping between the 2 16 mtr lines and by introducing a few maggots in with micros the swim did improve so by the end i was getting fairly regular bites from skimmers between 2 oz and a pound although the pounder was a one off. also the 20 hook to .10 seemed to get more bites, the only person i could see catching with any regularity was brian shanks on 32 , as he had had 2 carp and quite a few silvers , when the scales arrived it became apparent as to how hard it had fished, brian won with 20.5 which was 2 carp for 10.9 and the top silver weight aswell with 9.12 of roach and skimmers with all his fish being taken on maggot or caster at 16 mtrs over chopped worm and caster,
i was joint second with my skimmer net going 7.10 which was the same as ian dawe who had 1 carp and a couple of bits on peg 24 , although he did lose 7 carp under the tree in the corner
4 th was alan oram with 7.7 on peg 44
5th adrian bishop 4.15 peg 40
6th martin lenaghan whose 1 carp went 4.13 peg 28 and i had his quid he was gutted(but he is lead chucker so it was even sweeter. even though his leads and feeders spent more time in the tree,s than in the water , i dont remember there being a squirrel pool)
i think it should improve once the fish get used to the cold weather , cos last year we broke ice and 100 lb was needed to win and 20 lb to win the silvers and it cant get any harder can it !!!!!!!!
and i got to get me thermal boots out cos me feet was froze. off to landsend lake 4 this weekend and there were blanks on it last weekend , so perhaps it will!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sunday, 13 December 2009
landsend sunday xmas
with 39 booked in mike decided to spread the match over 3 1/2 lakes giving us all plenty of room. i drew for myself and pulled 31 on the speci lake , for those of you that know it ,it can be one of the best pegs on the venue in colder months, and its a peg where it is possible to catch well off bottom whatever the weather , probably due to the rotting hay bale on the deck around the end of the island and the evergreen shrub growing around the end of the island , giving them a roof on there house.
2 rigs again today one up the shelf 4x10 on .14 with an 18 xedion hook(strong and reliable), and a 4x14 again same line and hook, on the whistle and i cupped in some soaked 3,s at about 15 mtrs at the base of the island slope and went in with corn on the hook , i had a few indications but had to wait 30 mins until the float buried properly and the first carp was on ,problem was it wasnt in the mouth, it shot round the island and broke me . i stuck with the same rig for another 1/2 hour , i was getting indications but no proper bites , but i did manage to hook a nasty snag which appeared to be all around the end of the island , i think its the mesh tube the hay bale used to be in, the thing seems to have broken up now , i think mike has tried to get it out but the roots from the plants have grown through it making it hard to budge ,it will need a tractor to remove it or better still if mike can get nick to get his hands out of his pockets for long enough to be thrown in with a pair of shears , and while he,s wet chuck him in the match lake to do the same with that one aswell.
back to my peg and about 1 1/4 hours in and it was out with the half depth rig, then the fun began, fishing treble maggot with 2x no11,s down the line and firing 10 x 3mm,s over the top i think i lost 8 carp before i managed to get one in the mouth and land it, evening shallowing up didnt help , then all of a sudden i began to hook fish properly, most of them taking the bait on the drop so the second half of the match went well and i ended up with 14 carp , which was slightly more than the ammount i lost. i think if i had carried on losing fish a the rate i was early on i may well have lost the plot , jumped up and bown on my pole , tied a brick to my neck and thrown myself into the lake as it was all getting a bit torrid,
as it happened i didnt need those lost fish as the 14 i had went 105.1 for a comfortable win and the big hamper
2nd was andy france with 46.8 on peg 41 using soft pellet(avon anglings finest softy,s)
3rd jason radford 41.14 peg 34 on caster. unfortunately jason cant go now till after xmas as he got to do his shift in santa,s grotto
4th dave hodgson 37.14 peg 58 again on soft pellet
5th dean(me bitch) malin 33.11 peg 32 (oh is that next to me)
6th john bradford 33.5 which also included the best silvers weight on the day,16.14 mainly crucians and f1,s on softy,s
now a couple o thankyou,s firstly to di and dawn the twins for putting on a good spread after the match and to mike for his normal brilliant organisational skills(i cant believe i said that , never mind believe it), and an extra special thanks to mr mike nicholls for not putting the peg under to much pressure on wednesdays match, cheers matey.
2 rigs again today one up the shelf 4x10 on .14 with an 18 xedion hook(strong and reliable), and a 4x14 again same line and hook, on the whistle and i cupped in some soaked 3,s at about 15 mtrs at the base of the island slope and went in with corn on the hook , i had a few indications but had to wait 30 mins until the float buried properly and the first carp was on ,problem was it wasnt in the mouth, it shot round the island and broke me . i stuck with the same rig for another 1/2 hour , i was getting indications but no proper bites , but i did manage to hook a nasty snag which appeared to be all around the end of the island , i think its the mesh tube the hay bale used to be in, the thing seems to have broken up now , i think mike has tried to get it out but the roots from the plants have grown through it making it hard to budge ,it will need a tractor to remove it or better still if mike can get nick to get his hands out of his pockets for long enough to be thrown in with a pair of shears , and while he,s wet chuck him in the match lake to do the same with that one aswell.
back to my peg and about 1 1/4 hours in and it was out with the half depth rig, then the fun began, fishing treble maggot with 2x no11,s down the line and firing 10 x 3mm,s over the top i think i lost 8 carp before i managed to get one in the mouth and land it, evening shallowing up didnt help , then all of a sudden i began to hook fish properly, most of them taking the bait on the drop so the second half of the match went well and i ended up with 14 carp , which was slightly more than the ammount i lost. i think if i had carried on losing fish a the rate i was early on i may well have lost the plot , jumped up and bown on my pole , tied a brick to my neck and thrown myself into the lake as it was all getting a bit torrid,
as it happened i didnt need those lost fish as the 14 i had went 105.1 for a comfortable win and the big hamper
2nd was andy france with 46.8 on peg 41 using soft pellet(avon anglings finest softy,s)
3rd jason radford 41.14 peg 34 on caster. unfortunately jason cant go now till after xmas as he got to do his shift in santa,s grotto
4th dave hodgson 37.14 peg 58 again on soft pellet
5th dean(me bitch) malin 33.11 peg 32 (oh is that next to me)
6th john bradford 33.5 which also included the best silvers weight on the day,16.14 mainly crucians and f1,s on softy,s
now a couple o thankyou,s firstly to di and dawn the twins for putting on a good spread after the match and to mike for his normal brilliant organisational skills(i cant believe i said that , never mind believe it), and an extra special thanks to mr mike nicholls for not putting the peg under to much pressure on wednesdays match, cheers matey.
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
landsend wednesday xmas
mike duckett does 2 xmas matches one on wednesday and 1 on sunday but this will be the last year for 2 matches. its good prizes and good food after courtesy of di , she always does to much.
the draw wasnt particularly kind with peg 3 being mine for the day. not a very good carp peg at this time of year so i thought a day just fishing for bites off anything would be in order with the emphasis on silvers, two rigs was all i set up, one for caster at 12 mtrs straight across which was a 4x12 float with .10 to an 18 808 and it would do for iether side down the edge as it was the same depth, and a 4x14 rig with also an 18 808 to .12 for the soft pellet at 10 and 2 o,clock at 14.5 mtrs.
at the start i cupped in some casters with a few micro,s at 12 mtrs , and just micro,s on both 14.5 mtr lines , and started loose feeding some iether side at 4 mtrs. starting on the caster i started getting small roach straight away then i had a decent perch(12 oz) then i lost a series of good perch , i dont know why but they just seem to come off half way back for no reason, so after i scared them off it was back to mr nicholl,s ronnies , but i did get a 5lb carp about an hour in on the caster line .
after about an hour and a half i refed the pellet lines with a small ammount of micro,s on each , and do or die i put in about half a large pot of caster with a few micro,s in on the 12 mtr line in an attempt to feed off the small roach and attract some quality.
going to the right hand pellet line i sat there tweeking a 4mm soft pellet around but with no response,, so a look to the left, the float settled and went under and a 1 1/2 lb skimmer was duly netted, next drop and a 3lb carp found its way into the old onion sack, then as expected it went quiet so some more micro,s went into the left and a switch to the right , this time after a couple of missed bites and another skimmer was netted , then next put in and another one netted, then the same as the other side and it went quiet again so more feed and back to the left , with 2 good skimmers and a nice crucian were had , back to the right but no bites so i fed both lines with a reasonable ammount of pellet and then back to the caster line, and the big dump of caster seemed to have done the trick as i had a good spell on the single caster with several good skimmers a 3 lb perch and a nice ide all finding there way into the net, that good spell probably went on for about 50 minutes in which time i put about 10 lb in the net , i now thought i had made the right decision to go for silvers especially as i could see and hear vic bush on 11 and dean malin on 16 catching carp, both as it turned out were catching on caster. i couldnt see what was going on on the speci lake but judging by the banter it wasnt fishing that well, so i stuck to what i was doing picking off the odd fish from all lines . i even had small roach and perch down the edge but they were a bit to small to spend to much time on.
by the end i thought i might have 18 lb of silvers and 3 small carp for a total of 28 to 30 lb(wrong) i weighed in 29.2 of silvers and the three carp went 11.2 for a total of 40.10 , for first in the silvers and 4 th overall.
the match was won by vic bush on 11 with 87.4 taken on caster at 12 mtrs (he dont go for months and then draws the most consistent peg in somerset ha ha )
2 nd dean (i,ve only got 13 x 2 pounders)malin on peg 16 with 73.2 again mostly taken on caster by a bush to his left.
3 rd adrian clarke peg36 (how did he avoid the corners) with 64.15
4 th me 40.10 peg 3
5 th alan oram 32.2 on peg 25
6th andy bryant 29 on peg 13 and its rumoured he had them all in the mouth
back there again on sunday and theer are already over 30 booked in so it will be on 3 lakes with plenty of room.
i must mention fabio cos he is moaning i didnt say that he won a quid off me at the weekend its just a shame i got to offer him 10 to 1 on our weights in his favour just to get a bet.
also last weekend martin mcmahon was off to viaduct with the carpenters arms 2000 , he loves to be prepared does martin and artificial corn was going to play a part in his day so where do sort your rigs out , well its obvious innit , you do it whilst having your monthly bath , but i dont think it was quite what tracy had in mind when martin gave her a call to come and have a look at his pop up in the bath.
the draw wasnt particularly kind with peg 3 being mine for the day. not a very good carp peg at this time of year so i thought a day just fishing for bites off anything would be in order with the emphasis on silvers, two rigs was all i set up, one for caster at 12 mtrs straight across which was a 4x12 float with .10 to an 18 808 and it would do for iether side down the edge as it was the same depth, and a 4x14 rig with also an 18 808 to .12 for the soft pellet at 10 and 2 o,clock at 14.5 mtrs.
at the start i cupped in some casters with a few micro,s at 12 mtrs , and just micro,s on both 14.5 mtr lines , and started loose feeding some iether side at 4 mtrs. starting on the caster i started getting small roach straight away then i had a decent perch(12 oz) then i lost a series of good perch , i dont know why but they just seem to come off half way back for no reason, so after i scared them off it was back to mr nicholl,s ronnies , but i did get a 5lb carp about an hour in on the caster line .
after about an hour and a half i refed the pellet lines with a small ammount of micro,s on each , and do or die i put in about half a large pot of caster with a few micro,s in on the 12 mtr line in an attempt to feed off the small roach and attract some quality.
going to the right hand pellet line i sat there tweeking a 4mm soft pellet around but with no response,, so a look to the left, the float settled and went under and a 1 1/2 lb skimmer was duly netted, next drop and a 3lb carp found its way into the old onion sack, then as expected it went quiet so some more micro,s went into the left and a switch to the right , this time after a couple of missed bites and another skimmer was netted , then next put in and another one netted, then the same as the other side and it went quiet again so more feed and back to the left , with 2 good skimmers and a nice crucian were had , back to the right but no bites so i fed both lines with a reasonable ammount of pellet and then back to the caster line, and the big dump of caster seemed to have done the trick as i had a good spell on the single caster with several good skimmers a 3 lb perch and a nice ide all finding there way into the net, that good spell probably went on for about 50 minutes in which time i put about 10 lb in the net , i now thought i had made the right decision to go for silvers especially as i could see and hear vic bush on 11 and dean malin on 16 catching carp, both as it turned out were catching on caster. i couldnt see what was going on on the speci lake but judging by the banter it wasnt fishing that well, so i stuck to what i was doing picking off the odd fish from all lines . i even had small roach and perch down the edge but they were a bit to small to spend to much time on.
by the end i thought i might have 18 lb of silvers and 3 small carp for a total of 28 to 30 lb(wrong) i weighed in 29.2 of silvers and the three carp went 11.2 for a total of 40.10 , for first in the silvers and 4 th overall.
the match was won by vic bush on 11 with 87.4 taken on caster at 12 mtrs (he dont go for months and then draws the most consistent peg in somerset ha ha )
2 nd dean (i,ve only got 13 x 2 pounders)malin on peg 16 with 73.2 again mostly taken on caster by a bush to his left.
3 rd adrian clarke peg36 (how did he avoid the corners) with 64.15
4 th me 40.10 peg 3
5 th alan oram 32.2 on peg 25
6th andy bryant 29 on peg 13 and its rumoured he had them all in the mouth
back there again on sunday and theer are already over 30 booked in so it will be on 3 lakes with plenty of room.
i must mention fabio cos he is moaning i didnt say that he won a quid off me at the weekend its just a shame i got to offer him 10 to 1 on our weights in his favour just to get a bet.
also last weekend martin mcmahon was off to viaduct with the carpenters arms 2000 , he loves to be prepared does martin and artificial corn was going to play a part in his day so where do sort your rigs out , well its obvious innit , you do it whilst having your monthly bath , but i dont think it was quite what tracy had in mind when martin gave her a call to come and have a look at his pop up in the bath.
Monday, 7 December 2009
viaduct first tme for a while
there were 24 booked in today so cary and lodge were deing used, loads of room, only problem was that it had rained all night and it was still raining as we drove to the venue.
as we got there a bit early dean and me had a quick walk around spring lake which had been drained so it could be de-silted, it certainly looks a bit deeper, i think they have taken out something like 8000 tons of silt, also steve long is now the sole owner of the fishery and i think he will do really well, but i do think he will struggle with the physical side of the work around the complex without mr p pointing out as to what needs doing lol.
back to the draw and i ended up with 80 which is the carpark side of the spit, with the wind coming off my back on a slight angle at least it was comfy, those who know me will know my thoughts on lead chucking so i set up a wag to fish past the point which has worked for me in the past . pole rigs were two 4x14 rigs 1 to .10 with an 18 808 for the grondbait line and one to .12 to a 16 808 for caster against the spit for perch and possibly a tench.
on the all in i fired some corn out past the spit , cupped in 5 balls of g bait at 16 mtrs at 1 o,clock and cupped caster at the bottom of the shelf by the spit at 16 mtr, why 16 mtr , mainly cos it was flat calm due to the wind direction , and the silvers generally like a bit of ripple on there heads, also i started feeding a few casters at 5 mtr just in case. i would like to say i chucked out the wag and i buried with a carp on the end but no, i stuck with for over an hour with only 1 8oz skimmer to show for my efforts . on to the pole over the g b with maggot and a small roach followed by some missed bites which i put down to more small roach, on with a caster , i had to wait for a bite but when it came it was a 12 oz skimmer, but due to the flat water in front of me bites were a bit finicky, then the wind changed and started blowing up the lake putting ripple on my peg, and it changed almost straight away , with the float going under properly with skimmers between 3oz and 2lb and for the next 2 hours i got enough bites to make it interesting, every time the bites slowed i put in another ball and bites returned . i did have the odd look over the caster line by the spit but only had 2 small roach .
about an hour and a half from the end the wind died and so did the bites so i had to resort to the maggot hook bait again picking off the odd small roach up to the end, i did hook a carp about 35 mins from the end but it wasnt in the mouth and it came off after a few seconds.
at the end i thought i might be in with a chance of picking up some silvers money (it must come with hair colour mike), the only person i could see catching silvers was nigel bartlett on 94 who had been catching small fish all day and he ended up with 15.13 to win the silvers as mine went 14.15(that would be the 1lb skimmer i hit off with the landing net then).
the match was won by tim(64 turns)pallant on 85 with some carp on bread on the lead and a couple down the edge on worm with some perch and a tench
2nd was lewis moore on 88 with 38.7 on the lead
3rd barry fitchew 37.2 on the lead peg 78
4th dave roper 27.1 peg 102 on the lead
5th gary wall 24.15 peg 87 on the pole (yay)
6th phil cardwell 23.12 peg 70 on the wag and pole
i hind sight i should have chucked the lead but it is mind numbing and i have had a better days sport than those that have framed and to be honest we go to enjoy what we do , and for me that doesnt entail sitting there waiting for a carp to catch me but fair play for those who do you must have endless patience.
as we got there a bit early dean and me had a quick walk around spring lake which had been drained so it could be de-silted, it certainly looks a bit deeper, i think they have taken out something like 8000 tons of silt, also steve long is now the sole owner of the fishery and i think he will do really well, but i do think he will struggle with the physical side of the work around the complex without mr p pointing out as to what needs doing lol.
back to the draw and i ended up with 80 which is the carpark side of the spit, with the wind coming off my back on a slight angle at least it was comfy, those who know me will know my thoughts on lead chucking so i set up a wag to fish past the point which has worked for me in the past . pole rigs were two 4x14 rigs 1 to .10 with an 18 808 for the grondbait line and one to .12 to a 16 808 for caster against the spit for perch and possibly a tench.
on the all in i fired some corn out past the spit , cupped in 5 balls of g bait at 16 mtrs at 1 o,clock and cupped caster at the bottom of the shelf by the spit at 16 mtr, why 16 mtr , mainly cos it was flat calm due to the wind direction , and the silvers generally like a bit of ripple on there heads, also i started feeding a few casters at 5 mtr just in case. i would like to say i chucked out the wag and i buried with a carp on the end but no, i stuck with for over an hour with only 1 8oz skimmer to show for my efforts . on to the pole over the g b with maggot and a small roach followed by some missed bites which i put down to more small roach, on with a caster , i had to wait for a bite but when it came it was a 12 oz skimmer, but due to the flat water in front of me bites were a bit finicky, then the wind changed and started blowing up the lake putting ripple on my peg, and it changed almost straight away , with the float going under properly with skimmers between 3oz and 2lb and for the next 2 hours i got enough bites to make it interesting, every time the bites slowed i put in another ball and bites returned . i did have the odd look over the caster line by the spit but only had 2 small roach .
about an hour and a half from the end the wind died and so did the bites so i had to resort to the maggot hook bait again picking off the odd small roach up to the end, i did hook a carp about 35 mins from the end but it wasnt in the mouth and it came off after a few seconds.
at the end i thought i might be in with a chance of picking up some silvers money (it must come with hair colour mike), the only person i could see catching silvers was nigel bartlett on 94 who had been catching small fish all day and he ended up with 15.13 to win the silvers as mine went 14.15(that would be the 1lb skimmer i hit off with the landing net then).
the match was won by tim(64 turns)pallant on 85 with some carp on bread on the lead and a couple down the edge on worm with some perch and a tench
2nd was lewis moore on 88 with 38.7 on the lead
3rd barry fitchew 37.2 on the lead peg 78
4th dave roper 27.1 peg 102 on the lead
5th gary wall 24.15 peg 87 on the pole (yay)
6th phil cardwell 23.12 peg 70 on the wag and pole
i hind sight i should have chucked the lead but it is mind numbing and i have had a better days sport than those that have framed and to be honest we go to enjoy what we do , and for me that doesnt entail sitting there waiting for a carp to catch me but fair play for those who do you must have endless patience.
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
landsend weds
we should have been going to avalon, but as the lakes were being netted and electro fished on tuesday we re-arranged for landsend.
fabio drew for me so off to 21 it was , whilst he kept peg 1 for himself. it was a lazy day on rigs today , just 2 rigs, both 4x14 one with a 18 808 to .12 for soft pellet and caster over, and one with an 808 18 to .10 for caster at 4 mtr,s.
ot the start i cupped in some softened micro,s at 10 and 2 , some caster,s straight across. i started at 4 mtr,s loose feeding a few casters , but 45 minutes later i was still biteless, unusual as you normally get a few bits if nothing else, i couldnt even get a small perch on maggot.
on with a 4mm pellet and out to 10 o,clock and a good skimmer straight away, soon followed by a second and a f1 type thing, then it went quiet, so some more micro,s went in and a switch to 2 o,clock with pretty much the same result, so switching and feeding between the two lines it was possible to keep a few bites going .bites on the caster lines ,over and at 4 mtr,s were none existent until the last hour and a half , when i had a couple of reasonable perch and a chub but it was really hard going. i did get 2 carp on the soft pellet on the 2 o, clock line, so by the end i reckon i had 17 or 18 lb of silvers and 2 carp for 12 lb which i thought might just sneak me into 2nd spot , only the scales would tell.
the match was predictably won by nick duckett on peg 11 with 53.5 taken on corn and caster
2nd was dale(boy)howsen on 13 with 34.12 on caster
3rd was me with 34.5 which included 23.8 of silvers , mainly skimmers
4th martin alexander 32.12 peg 16
5th 23.8 mike duckett peg 19
6th mark lehay 21.9 peg 5
and what about fabio well he didnt weigh , i think he did probably have lots of bites but the poor fish must have trouble pulling his float under , its bad enough with just a big yellow bristle catching your eye , but when part of the body is in view as well its most off putting, i am going to put a collection box on the counter for him so he can buy some shot.
fabio drew for me so off to 21 it was , whilst he kept peg 1 for himself. it was a lazy day on rigs today , just 2 rigs, both 4x14 one with a 18 808 to .12 for soft pellet and caster over, and one with an 808 18 to .10 for caster at 4 mtr,s.
ot the start i cupped in some softened micro,s at 10 and 2 , some caster,s straight across. i started at 4 mtr,s loose feeding a few casters , but 45 minutes later i was still biteless, unusual as you normally get a few bits if nothing else, i couldnt even get a small perch on maggot.
on with a 4mm pellet and out to 10 o,clock and a good skimmer straight away, soon followed by a second and a f1 type thing, then it went quiet, so some more micro,s went in and a switch to 2 o,clock with pretty much the same result, so switching and feeding between the two lines it was possible to keep a few bites going .bites on the caster lines ,over and at 4 mtr,s were none existent until the last hour and a half , when i had a couple of reasonable perch and a chub but it was really hard going. i did get 2 carp on the soft pellet on the 2 o, clock line, so by the end i reckon i had 17 or 18 lb of silvers and 2 carp for 12 lb which i thought might just sneak me into 2nd spot , only the scales would tell.
the match was predictably won by nick duckett on peg 11 with 53.5 taken on corn and caster
2nd was dale(boy)howsen on 13 with 34.12 on caster
3rd was me with 34.5 which included 23.8 of silvers , mainly skimmers
4th martin alexander 32.12 peg 16
5th 23.8 mike duckett peg 19
6th mark lehay 21.9 peg 5
and what about fabio well he didnt weigh , i think he did probably have lots of bites but the poor fish must have trouble pulling his float under , its bad enough with just a big yellow bristle catching your eye , but when part of the body is in view as well its most off putting, i am going to put a collection box on the counter for him so he can buy some shot.
Monday, 30 November 2009
psv xmas
westerliegh was the venue for this one and with both lakes being used i wanted a draw on the new lake as generally you get more bites as there are lots of small carp skimmers and roach to be caught.i was happy with my draw as i pulled 23 on the new lakewhich was 2 past the aerator, basically it was a 2 rig job one 4x12 rig on 0.12 line and an 18 808 for over and the same for down the edge. on the all in i cupped some soaked micros in 3 spots against the far bank reeds and began loosefeeding a few casters down the margins.
first put in over on 4mm and a missed bite , next put in and i connected with what looked liked a 2 pounder ,shame it was hooked in the tail though, and the hook pulled after i had made a couple of stabs at it with the net.then it went daft as the skimmers showed up , and at about 3oz a time the can be a right pain on soft pellet. so i switched to single maggot , which the little buggers tend to hang on to. about halfway through i started to drip a few casters in with the micros which improved things as i started to get some nice roach and a couple of small carp also i got to admit i also foulhooked a 7 lb fish which stuck for a change and after a 10 minute tussle was safely netted, that was a proper bonus as no one on our lake seemed to be catching.all i had down the edge was 1 small carp(1lb) and a bumble bee perch, so i stayed with the far bank swims as at least it was regular bites wit caster hook bait being best as the fish were slightly bigger than on the maggot as tiny roach were nailing that on the way down . yuo had to keep moving between the 3 areas as you would catch a couple then the bites would stop so you would go to the next swim and thats how it went to the end, by rotating the swims i kept putting small fish in the net right to the end.
as the 2 lakes were being paid out as 2 matches i didnt mind that it turned out that the old lake had fished well with some good weights on the cards. back to our lake and i weighed 17 lb , which was just enough to edge out mark mark radford who had 16.12.
overall the match was won by neil(i cant draw)mercer on peg 2 old lake with 43.5 taken on corn off the back of the small island all small carp aprox 35 fish so he had a nice day.
2nd darren north 38.3 peg 15 on soft pellet
3rd ryan jordan 31 lb peg1
tony rixon 17 lb peg 23 new lake
mark radford 16.12 peg 30 new lake
paul elmes 15.6
it was then back to the midland spinner pub for the prizes and buffet which was done by paul elmes,s wife marie and very good it was as well and she is 7 months pregnant as well with there first child so good luck to you both.
highlight of the evening was dean malin getting hold of the wrong end of the stick and thinking certain people were taking some bags of groundbait they werent entitled to, he wanted to take people outside for a fight the language was terrible he even blamed me as i was sat next to them, but when some one explained to him that all they had taken was his and mine which we both had said we didnt want, so fair play he did come back with a huge slice of humble pie and apologised to everyone. i,ve seen it before and i do find it quite funny but it dont pay to laugh at him at the time , friends or not , but i did give him a bit on the way home .
and it pissed down all day thank god for goretex.
and as always the prizes sorted out by mr wilson were excellent
first put in over on 4mm and a missed bite , next put in and i connected with what looked liked a 2 pounder ,shame it was hooked in the tail though, and the hook pulled after i had made a couple of stabs at it with the net.then it went daft as the skimmers showed up , and at about 3oz a time the can be a right pain on soft pellet. so i switched to single maggot , which the little buggers tend to hang on to. about halfway through i started to drip a few casters in with the micros which improved things as i started to get some nice roach and a couple of small carp also i got to admit i also foulhooked a 7 lb fish which stuck for a change and after a 10 minute tussle was safely netted, that was a proper bonus as no one on our lake seemed to be catching.all i had down the edge was 1 small carp(1lb) and a bumble bee perch, so i stayed with the far bank swims as at least it was regular bites wit caster hook bait being best as the fish were slightly bigger than on the maggot as tiny roach were nailing that on the way down . yuo had to keep moving between the 3 areas as you would catch a couple then the bites would stop so you would go to the next swim and thats how it went to the end, by rotating the swims i kept putting small fish in the net right to the end.
as the 2 lakes were being paid out as 2 matches i didnt mind that it turned out that the old lake had fished well with some good weights on the cards. back to our lake and i weighed 17 lb , which was just enough to edge out mark mark radford who had 16.12.
overall the match was won by neil(i cant draw)mercer on peg 2 old lake with 43.5 taken on corn off the back of the small island all small carp aprox 35 fish so he had a nice day.
2nd darren north 38.3 peg 15 on soft pellet
3rd ryan jordan 31 lb peg1
tony rixon 17 lb peg 23 new lake
mark radford 16.12 peg 30 new lake
paul elmes 15.6
it was then back to the midland spinner pub for the prizes and buffet which was done by paul elmes,s wife marie and very good it was as well and she is 7 months pregnant as well with there first child so good luck to you both.
highlight of the evening was dean malin getting hold of the wrong end of the stick and thinking certain people were taking some bags of groundbait they werent entitled to, he wanted to take people outside for a fight the language was terrible he even blamed me as i was sat next to them, but when some one explained to him that all they had taken was his and mine which we both had said we didnt want, so fair play he did come back with a huge slice of humble pie and apologised to everyone. i,ve seen it before and i do find it quite funny but it dont pay to laugh at him at the time , friends or not , but i did give him a bit on the way home .
and it pissed down all day thank god for goretex.
and as always the prizes sorted out by mr wilson were excellent
Sunday, 29 November 2009
home bitz
just a quick mention of a conversation i had with judith the other night. for one reason or another the conversation ended up on the subject of dogging. as judith wasnt to sure what it was all about i had to explain what happens at these gathering(or so i have been told). after which she went bright red ,asking why this was she went on to explain that after going back into work after weekends , when she quite often goes to a dog show her male colleagues would snigger and ask how she had done at the weekend with her dogging and not realising what they meant would iether say no good or ok , and this has been going on for 2 years, poor girl, i feel sorry for them next week
Wednesday, 25 November 2009
tony and me practicing our 80,s disco moves on the rocks out of sight or so we thought !!!!!!!!!!!back to landsend and i found myself on peg 1 not to bad as it has framed a bit of late.
3 rigs , one 4x14 .14 line to a 16 808 for soft pellet and corn at the bottom of the shelf towards the island and the same rig for down the left hand side.
a 4x12 .14 same hook for up the shelf on the left and a 4x16 caster rig at 4 mtrs with an 18 808 to.10.
at the start i cupped in some softened 3mm towards the island and some at 14.5 mtrs down the edge up and down the shelf . then i started at 3 mtrs on the caster ,it took me 10 mins to get a bite(not a good sign)and i bumped it, next drop and a small perch was soon in the net, after several small roach the bites just stopped , after changing the depth and shot still no bites so on the hour i put a soft pellet on the 4x14 rig shipped it out to 13 mtrs and i would like to say it went straight under but it never , again a 10 minute wait befor it went under and i hooked one 2 foot off the bottom, probably no where near the mouth as it came off after a few seconds, then no bites again, not even liners, i tried putting some more pellet in but that didnt work.so shit or bust i cupped in a generous ammount of caster and switched my attentions to the left hand side , starting down the shelf i had 1 quick bite on corn then nothing again. i didnt expect this , a look up the shelf and first put in a loist fouler. next drop and i got one in the mouth but i lost it under my keepnet. i was getting the occasional liner so there did seem to be a few fish up on the shelf so i decided to concentrate on this area moving up and down the bank between 14 and 16 mtrs but apart from a lost fouler nothing again. with 1 1/2 hours to go i had 1 carp 1tench from the island on caster and some bits. so nothing to lose now so out with the catty, i should have done it earlier as bela bakos was on 24 (opposite) on sunday and had a few shallow on caster, what a difference i began to get liners , had some perch and 3 more carp as well as losing 4 more carp 3 in snags up the edge and one under my pallet(i,m sure some of these carp are crossed with chub)also i had some decent perch and lost some good perch, thats the price you for using heavier elastic . i should have got the catty out earlier cos it definately made a difference, still another lesson learnt. the match was won by dale howsen with 31.7 on peg 21 with soft pellet at 13 mtrs
2nd nick duckett 29.11 on peg 11 and he also had top silvers with 14.5 all on maggot at 14 mtrs
3rd mike duckett 27.4 peg 15
4 th alan oram 24.13 peg3
5th martin lenaghan 21.2 peg 5
6 th tony rixon 18.7 peg 1
oh well there,s always next time.
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
some pics and shop bitz
for those of you with bird tables and moan about rats, mice and squirrels being a nuisance spare a thought for the hardings, this is what happens when you get a visit from a baboon lmao.
tony,tony judith and barbara on the coastal walk at tsitsikamma to the storms river mouth
tony harding with a 30lb hammerhead, i would have caught one aswell but he did me some dodgy rigs
me in fancy dress with a 45 lb spotted gulley shark
southern right whales at hermanus, totally awesome.just a quick mention for the whitehall one , unfortunately he fell off the mortal perch last night and kicked the bucket. i may have to get a whitehall 2.
for those of you that know the shop , will know that it is a great place for stories and gossip, one of the best stories this week was from martin mcmahon recounting a day when he was young and nelson still had his eye, he had been given a job to shoot some rats in a shed , unfortunately the task was done quite quickly and all the rats were done in, sat there feeling bored they had a divvy up and martin was despatched to the pet shop to see if he could purchase some more rats, problem was all he could get was a hamster, letting it go in the shed martin nor his mates could bring themselves to shoot it so again martin went to the pet shop but this time he came back with a cage and took it home, so much for being a 6 ft 3 ex bouncing hard man lol.
Sunday, 22 November 2009
out of africa into landsend
at least on me hols the wind was warm, not today though showers, 30 mph wind and 12 c, at least anton page drew me 13 which is in the corner and out of the wind. so a 4x14 castwer rig with .12 to an 18 808 , and 2 corn / soft pellet rigs with the same 4x14 floats(impact 6) with .14 to a 16 808.
started by cupping in some casters at 11 mtr up the edge some softened 3mm at 14 mtr up the edge and some at 13 mtr at 2 o,clock into the deeper water which has been scoured out by the aerator.
starting on the caster i began to get bites from small roach , then after 20 mins i had a 3lb carp , then back to the small roach again, so i potted in more caster but could only get small roach, so after an hour i went to 14 mtr up the edge on soft pellet and had a small carp (1 lb), then no bites again, a change to corn and in the next 30 mins 3 hooked and 2 landed then nothing again so mre feed and time for a look in the deep water at 13 mtr, which is normally a banker in this peg , unfortunately i had fabio on 15 and he fed at 16 mtr to his left which means that there was 2 of us trying to catch in the deeps which tends to stop either of us catching and it did with fabs getting 1 carp and me getting 1 carp and 1 skimmer, i did try to catch there several times during the day but to no avail . back to the caster line and still only small roach so that was a waste of time with there being only small roach over the caster line it probably meant there were none of the big perch around so i decided to ignor the caster line and try for the carp.
i also went to 16 mtr towards the island , by swapping between the island and the margin i ended up with 9 small carp, and treble maggot on the hook seemed best cos as i wasnt feeding any caster or maggot the small fish dont seem to be to much of a problem .
it was a low weight match with kev molten winning off peg 19 with 8 carp and 1 tench for47.13 taken on meat between 9 and 13 mtr
2 nd was jason radford with 7 carp and 10 lb of silvers for 44.13 on corn and caster on peg 11.
3rd andy bryant 43.13 peg 31
4th alan oram 43,10 peg 32
5th tony rixon 30.11 peg 13
6th m lenaghan 27.5 peg1
silvers dean malin 22.8 peg 17 maggot right over
started by cupping in some casters at 11 mtr up the edge some softened 3mm at 14 mtr up the edge and some at 13 mtr at 2 o,clock into the deeper water which has been scoured out by the aerator.
starting on the caster i began to get bites from small roach , then after 20 mins i had a 3lb carp , then back to the small roach again, so i potted in more caster but could only get small roach, so after an hour i went to 14 mtr up the edge on soft pellet and had a small carp (1 lb), then no bites again, a change to corn and in the next 30 mins 3 hooked and 2 landed then nothing again so mre feed and time for a look in the deep water at 13 mtr, which is normally a banker in this peg , unfortunately i had fabio on 15 and he fed at 16 mtr to his left which means that there was 2 of us trying to catch in the deeps which tends to stop either of us catching and it did with fabs getting 1 carp and me getting 1 carp and 1 skimmer, i did try to catch there several times during the day but to no avail . back to the caster line and still only small roach so that was a waste of time with there being only small roach over the caster line it probably meant there were none of the big perch around so i decided to ignor the caster line and try for the carp.
i also went to 16 mtr towards the island , by swapping between the island and the margin i ended up with 9 small carp, and treble maggot on the hook seemed best cos as i wasnt feeding any caster or maggot the small fish dont seem to be to much of a problem .
it was a low weight match with kev molten winning off peg 19 with 8 carp and 1 tench for47.13 taken on meat between 9 and 13 mtr
2 nd was jason radford with 7 carp and 10 lb of silvers for 44.13 on corn and caster on peg 11.
3rd andy bryant 43.13 peg 31
4th alan oram 43,10 peg 32
5th tony rixon 30.11 peg 13
6th m lenaghan 27.5 peg1
silvers dean malin 22.8 peg 17 maggot right over
Friday, 20 November 2009
back home
i know tony and barb will probably read this so i want to say a big thanks for looking after judith and me for the 16 days we were there, it was one of the most relaxing times we have ever had, and tony and barb certainly know how to make you feel at home, and those of you that know them wont be suprised to know they have a stunning house in a stunning location, and within a shortish drive you can watch whales , walk through forests, see incredible coastal views or walk along largely desereted beaches, is it any wonder they are adament that they wont be coming back.
my last fishing trip was to target ragged tooth sharks in the lagoon at the bottom of there road, but unfortunately again the weather was against us with a gale force wind howling up through the estuary, we gave it a couple of hours but with not even a tug we decided to knock it on the head and go home to drink some wine, at least we had managed to avoid strictly come dancing(sorry barb but the gay on the right wants shooting).
the last couple of days were spent at the addo elephant reserve, its a 350,000 acre nature reserve, and bard had managed to book one of the lodges overlooking one of the floodlight water holes, as it is a prime spot for seeing one of the three black rhino which live in the park , and we werent dissapointed as just as the light was fading 2 of the buggers came down the hill had a quick drink , then they were gone just as quickly, but also there were kudu, buffallo and lots of birds and with tony,s expertise on the braai(barbie)it made for a good evening.
its a nice reserve as you can drive around yourself spotting wildlife at your leasure, considering there are 450 elephants in the reserve they are still difficult to spot , on the first day we saw about 50 , but on day 2 we only managed 4 god only knows where the other 446 were hiding.
to be fair the air temp on the second day was only 12 c so we werent expecting to much, there are a couple of places where you can get out of the car to look around but its not really recomended as there are signs telling you to be aware that lions could be close by , but as none had been seen we thought it would be safe , so after a leg stretch and a look around it was back into the car, i did joke as judith was last back to the car we should lock the doors but mr harding wouldnt do it, which was just as well as about 150 mtrs down the road we came upon 4 lions , judith wasnt really to impressed especially as i just happened to have our personal insurance documents with me,(just kidding dear). we spent the next 30 mins taking photo,s and video,s of a lioness and her 3 10 month old juveniles playing and watching us , no more than 30 ft away. there are only 8 lions on the reserve and one of the guides has been there for 9 years and not even seen one let alone four. there are far more things i could talk about but i would be here all night , when i have got the pictures sorted i will put a few on , but i cant do it and there is no one here to do it for me.
any way back home now and its off to landsend fishery sunday and after looking at the forcast it dont look good. and back in the shop tomorrow.
my last fishing trip was to target ragged tooth sharks in the lagoon at the bottom of there road, but unfortunately again the weather was against us with a gale force wind howling up through the estuary, we gave it a couple of hours but with not even a tug we decided to knock it on the head and go home to drink some wine, at least we had managed to avoid strictly come dancing(sorry barb but the gay on the right wants shooting).
the last couple of days were spent at the addo elephant reserve, its a 350,000 acre nature reserve, and bard had managed to book one of the lodges overlooking one of the floodlight water holes, as it is a prime spot for seeing one of the three black rhino which live in the park , and we werent dissapointed as just as the light was fading 2 of the buggers came down the hill had a quick drink , then they were gone just as quickly, but also there were kudu, buffallo and lots of birds and with tony,s expertise on the braai(barbie)it made for a good evening.
its a nice reserve as you can drive around yourself spotting wildlife at your leasure, considering there are 450 elephants in the reserve they are still difficult to spot , on the first day we saw about 50 , but on day 2 we only managed 4 god only knows where the other 446 were hiding.
to be fair the air temp on the second day was only 12 c so we werent expecting to much, there are a couple of places where you can get out of the car to look around but its not really recomended as there are signs telling you to be aware that lions could be close by , but as none had been seen we thought it would be safe , so after a leg stretch and a look around it was back into the car, i did joke as judith was last back to the car we should lock the doors but mr harding wouldnt do it, which was just as well as about 150 mtrs down the road we came upon 4 lions , judith wasnt really to impressed especially as i just happened to have our personal insurance documents with me,(just kidding dear). we spent the next 30 mins taking photo,s and video,s of a lioness and her 3 10 month old juveniles playing and watching us , no more than 30 ft away. there are only 8 lions on the reserve and one of the guides has been there for 9 years and not even seen one let alone four. there are far more things i could talk about but i would be here all night , when i have got the pictures sorted i will put a few on , but i cant do it and there is no one here to do it for me.
any way back home now and its off to landsend fishery sunday and after looking at the forcast it dont look good. and back in the shop tomorrow.
Monday, 16 November 2009
not quite so extreme
tony decided it would be a good idea to visit a place called maedebank, which is one of the easier walks and safer of the rock warks on robberg, which is a huge peninsula jutting out into the indian ocean, so after parking up we made the short 20 min walk down to the mark we were fishing ,and to be fair it was easy walking.
rods were soon put together ,one with the usual paternoster type thing ,then tony put together something called a slide rig, which entails casting an 8 oz gripper as far as you can and when the lead has bitten in you attach a big bait , in this case a whole squid of about 1 1/2 lb to a special one way clip which is then slipped over the line at the rod tipand let slide down to the water . now for the clever bit , you hold the rod high and start to shake it back and forward and as you do this the bait travels down the line away from you and only stopping when it reaches the sinker, what a brilliant way of getting a big bait out 100 mtrs plus.
with both rods in the water the waiting game began,it wasnt boring as the time was spent catching mullet for bait, it must have been at least 2 hours till tony had a bite on the slider rig with the fish giving a big slack line bite with the fish travelling to the left, tony tightened down struck and missed(lol). winding in the bait there was a big bite out of the middle of the bait probably a small shark. so he quickly baited up with a whole fresh mullet and slid it out again and sat back to wait.
it was my turn for a bite next and with the line peeling off the reel i tightened the drag struck to be met with a few seconds of solid resistance then the line went slack(gutted) i thought i had done something wrong but no i had been bitten off , the shark had swollowed the 12 inches of 150lb and bitten thru the 120lb nylon 10 inches above that , tony made another rig up this time with a 2ft 150lb steel trace which was cast out and the wait began again. tony had the next bite with lie peeling off the reel he was just about to strike and it stopped, waiting for 10 mins to see if the bait was picked up again but no so it was reeled in for inspection, no teeth marks meant it was probably one of the big rays(up to 200kg)which frequent the area.as the bait was untouched it was slid out again , it wasnt long before the mullet fishing was disturbed again . and this time tony,s strike was met by resistance and a fast moving fish was on the other end, after a short fight 5 mins i was sent down the rocks to grab the leader and drag an angry little hammerhead shark of about 35 lb up the rock, christ they gets pissy when the come out of the water, trying to bite anything near, quick photo taken and it was soon back in the water.
i was the only one to get another bite but the fish dropped the bait, so as it was time to leave the baits were wound in , then it became apparent as to why the bite didnt develop, mr harding had somehow managed to secure my bait to the trace about as far from the hook as was possible, it was right by the top swivel !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so to bites and 2 trace errors i didnt believe mr harding could be so nasty , and he didnt get the coffee,s in on the way back, never mind he is taking me to the estuarey tonite to try and get a big ragged tooth shark by one of the road bridges as they have been getting some up to 100 kg so i will let you know, but there will be some serious rig checking done.
rods were soon put together ,one with the usual paternoster type thing ,then tony put together something called a slide rig, which entails casting an 8 oz gripper as far as you can and when the lead has bitten in you attach a big bait , in this case a whole squid of about 1 1/2 lb to a special one way clip which is then slipped over the line at the rod tipand let slide down to the water . now for the clever bit , you hold the rod high and start to shake it back and forward and as you do this the bait travels down the line away from you and only stopping when it reaches the sinker, what a brilliant way of getting a big bait out 100 mtrs plus.
with both rods in the water the waiting game began,it wasnt boring as the time was spent catching mullet for bait, it must have been at least 2 hours till tony had a bite on the slider rig with the fish giving a big slack line bite with the fish travelling to the left, tony tightened down struck and missed(lol). winding in the bait there was a big bite out of the middle of the bait probably a small shark. so he quickly baited up with a whole fresh mullet and slid it out again and sat back to wait.
it was my turn for a bite next and with the line peeling off the reel i tightened the drag struck to be met with a few seconds of solid resistance then the line went slack(gutted) i thought i had done something wrong but no i had been bitten off , the shark had swollowed the 12 inches of 150lb and bitten thru the 120lb nylon 10 inches above that , tony made another rig up this time with a 2ft 150lb steel trace which was cast out and the wait began again. tony had the next bite with lie peeling off the reel he was just about to strike and it stopped, waiting for 10 mins to see if the bait was picked up again but no so it was reeled in for inspection, no teeth marks meant it was probably one of the big rays(up to 200kg)which frequent the area.as the bait was untouched it was slid out again , it wasnt long before the mullet fishing was disturbed again . and this time tony,s strike was met by resistance and a fast moving fish was on the other end, after a short fight 5 mins i was sent down the rocks to grab the leader and drag an angry little hammerhead shark of about 35 lb up the rock, christ they gets pissy when the come out of the water, trying to bite anything near, quick photo taken and it was soon back in the water.
i was the only one to get another bite but the fish dropped the bait, so as it was time to leave the baits were wound in , then it became apparent as to why the bite didnt develop, mr harding had somehow managed to secure my bait to the trace about as far from the hook as was possible, it was right by the top swivel !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so to bites and 2 trace errors i didnt believe mr harding could be so nasty , and he didnt get the coffee,s in on the way back, never mind he is taking me to the estuarey tonite to try and get a big ragged tooth shark by one of the road bridges as they have been getting some up to 100 kg so i will let you know, but there will be some serious rig checking done.
Thursday, 12 November 2009
extreme{stupid}fishing
as i said tony was going to take me to groot bank as this was the easiest {ha} places to go.
so the alarm went off at 5.30 am and a quick wash and brush and it was off to pick up one of tony,s young protoges up , Brandon Willmer,who is one of the up and coming youngsters on the local beach scene. it was a one hour drive to the mark of which the last 7 1/2 k was down through a forest track which is still home to leopard, lynx and not to mention puff adders and boomslangs all of which can give you a nasty nip!!!!!!!!!!!!. after parking and unloading the gear it was a 2 min walk to the beach which was easy then it was a 1/2 k walk to the rocks then 1 1/2 k walk or should i say in my case scrabble over rocks boulders crevices and around rock pools(now i wasnt looking forward to the journey home), but what a place, not only was the scenery amazing with waves crashing onto rocks all around us but the rocks gave way to amazing long golden beaches with not a soul in sight, and where else could you go and be greeted with the sight of a 50 ft right whale with its calf by its side,and further out in the bay humpback whales going somewhere only they know, also i saw seals , pods of bottle nose dolphins and to cap it all a great white leapt clear of the water about 500 mtrs out all amazing sights but to see them all in one day is something else.
back to the fishing and it was first blood to tony with a doughnut which is a type of doggie which curls itself into a circle and it stays that way until you put it back, then he had a striped cat shark which is also like our doggies but striped. then it was my turn for a bite but its not so much a bite as line just being stripped from the reel, but unfortunately the fish dropped the bait , a quick check of the bait which was still in good shape(mullet head on a 8/0)so it was lobbed out again . i didnt have long to wait until line was once again dissapearing from the spool but this time the the strike was met with resistance and the fish started to take line against a tight drag, unfortunatley i was fishing close to rock pinnacle which partly due to inexperiance and a lack of confidence on the rocks and not being able to jump round the rocks like a mountain goat i couldnt get enough angle on it to stop it getting back to the rocks and it went solid. game over.
to be fair sport wasnt hectic but both tony and brandon(if any of his teachers read this we did make him take his books and revise on the rocks) did manage a couple more small stripeys and doggies before tony hooked a smoothhound of about 7kg and they pull really hard as it did manage to pull tony across the rocks. once you get in close you have to send someone down to the waters edge to grab it, so thats why we brought brandon, i dont know if he is stupid or brave but he seems to love it and today was a calm day with only a 2mtr swell but you still need to watch out for the odd rogue swell that can catch you out, and as for tony he is just as daft and seems to thrive on rock hopping, even the man in the local tackle shop said he was mad likening him to a dassie which is a large rodent which lives in and around the rocks and looks like a big guinea pig and to be honest there is a likeness.
it wasnt long until i had another run and i also had a hound of about 7 kg and they give a good account of themselves even on the heavy gear we were using 100 lb leaders 45 lb mainlines on rods which can cast up to 10 oz plus bait.
next cast and again line was dissapearing from the spool and the strike was met with solid resistance as the fish took line tony told me to stop pulling like a pussie and give it some , so i did and i soon had my first spotted gulley shark under my feet, and again brandon was sent down the rocks to land it. they dont weigh fish here you measure them then convert it later. mine went 155 cm which works out at about 45lb. i did hook another a bit later which i got under my feet which made me think the fight was over (wrong) it turned tail swam against the drag and ended up in the same snag as the first one(bugger) to be honest it did feel bigger than the first one but i will never know.
we were going to pack up at 4 so at 12 mins to 4 brandon slung out with a small mullet head on and by 5 to he was hooked up with the moving bottom, this could be a long job as tony has hooked large fish and played them for 5 hours only to lose them(ha ha) but he played the fish well and it was by the rocks ready to land that took another 5 mins . i would like to say that i was a help but apart from holding brandon,s rod while he helped tony drag it onto the rock that was it. there it was about 150 lb of black skate which was duly unhooked piccy,s taken and slid back un harmed, which is more than can be said about brandon he fell over cutting his leg pulled a muscle in his back playing the skate as hard as he could and the tail af the ray whipped round catching his figer tips, you can see how steve irwin was killed by one of these as they are lightening fast and the sting was probably about 8 inches long. after that it was a quick pack up a 2 k walk back to the pick up and a 50 k drive home of which branbon slept all the way , any one would think he had had a hard day. back to tony and barbs for a tasty braai(barby)a few glasses of wine then bed.
the hospitality of the people here especially tony and barb is as good as would get any where in the world and the food is second to none, whether barb cooks or we eat out and it is very cheap to do the latter meaning i have probably gained a couple of pounds but in all fairness tony has been trying his best to walk it off me .
so the alarm went off at 5.30 am and a quick wash and brush and it was off to pick up one of tony,s young protoges up , Brandon Willmer,who is one of the up and coming youngsters on the local beach scene. it was a one hour drive to the mark of which the last 7 1/2 k was down through a forest track which is still home to leopard, lynx and not to mention puff adders and boomslangs all of which can give you a nasty nip!!!!!!!!!!!!. after parking and unloading the gear it was a 2 min walk to the beach which was easy then it was a 1/2 k walk to the rocks then 1 1/2 k walk or should i say in my case scrabble over rocks boulders crevices and around rock pools(now i wasnt looking forward to the journey home), but what a place, not only was the scenery amazing with waves crashing onto rocks all around us but the rocks gave way to amazing long golden beaches with not a soul in sight, and where else could you go and be greeted with the sight of a 50 ft right whale with its calf by its side,and further out in the bay humpback whales going somewhere only they know, also i saw seals , pods of bottle nose dolphins and to cap it all a great white leapt clear of the water about 500 mtrs out all amazing sights but to see them all in one day is something else.
back to the fishing and it was first blood to tony with a doughnut which is a type of doggie which curls itself into a circle and it stays that way until you put it back, then he had a striped cat shark which is also like our doggies but striped. then it was my turn for a bite but its not so much a bite as line just being stripped from the reel, but unfortunately the fish dropped the bait , a quick check of the bait which was still in good shape(mullet head on a 8/0)so it was lobbed out again . i didnt have long to wait until line was once again dissapearing from the spool but this time the the strike was met with resistance and the fish started to take line against a tight drag, unfortunatley i was fishing close to rock pinnacle which partly due to inexperiance and a lack of confidence on the rocks and not being able to jump round the rocks like a mountain goat i couldnt get enough angle on it to stop it getting back to the rocks and it went solid. game over.
to be fair sport wasnt hectic but both tony and brandon(if any of his teachers read this we did make him take his books and revise on the rocks) did manage a couple more small stripeys and doggies before tony hooked a smoothhound of about 7kg and they pull really hard as it did manage to pull tony across the rocks. once you get in close you have to send someone down to the waters edge to grab it, so thats why we brought brandon, i dont know if he is stupid or brave but he seems to love it and today was a calm day with only a 2mtr swell but you still need to watch out for the odd rogue swell that can catch you out, and as for tony he is just as daft and seems to thrive on rock hopping, even the man in the local tackle shop said he was mad likening him to a dassie which is a large rodent which lives in and around the rocks and looks like a big guinea pig and to be honest there is a likeness.
it wasnt long until i had another run and i also had a hound of about 7 kg and they give a good account of themselves even on the heavy gear we were using 100 lb leaders 45 lb mainlines on rods which can cast up to 10 oz plus bait.
next cast and again line was dissapearing from the spool and the strike was met with solid resistance as the fish took line tony told me to stop pulling like a pussie and give it some , so i did and i soon had my first spotted gulley shark under my feet, and again brandon was sent down the rocks to land it. they dont weigh fish here you measure them then convert it later. mine went 155 cm which works out at about 45lb. i did hook another a bit later which i got under my feet which made me think the fight was over (wrong) it turned tail swam against the drag and ended up in the same snag as the first one(bugger) to be honest it did feel bigger than the first one but i will never know.
we were going to pack up at 4 so at 12 mins to 4 brandon slung out with a small mullet head on and by 5 to he was hooked up with the moving bottom, this could be a long job as tony has hooked large fish and played them for 5 hours only to lose them(ha ha) but he played the fish well and it was by the rocks ready to land that took another 5 mins . i would like to say that i was a help but apart from holding brandon,s rod while he helped tony drag it onto the rock that was it. there it was about 150 lb of black skate which was duly unhooked piccy,s taken and slid back un harmed, which is more than can be said about brandon he fell over cutting his leg pulled a muscle in his back playing the skate as hard as he could and the tail af the ray whipped round catching his figer tips, you can see how steve irwin was killed by one of these as they are lightening fast and the sting was probably about 8 inches long. after that it was a quick pack up a 2 k walk back to the pick up and a 50 k drive home of which branbon slept all the way , any one would think he had had a hard day. back to tony and barbs for a tasty braai(barby)a few glasses of wine then bed.
the hospitality of the people here especially tony and barb is as good as would get any where in the world and the food is second to none, whether barb cooks or we eat out and it is very cheap to do the latter meaning i have probably gained a couple of pounds but in all fairness tony has been trying his best to walk it off me .
Monday, 9 November 2009
south africa first days
arrioved after a 12 hour flight(boring and cramped), we were met by tony and barb at cape town airport and the welcome was as warm as we had expected. after a quick wash and brush up at the airport, we took the what should have been the short drive to table mountain, but as i have come to realise over the few days that we have been here tony,s sense of direction is shit and if it wasnt for barb we would have probably ended up in one of the local townships.
back to the mountain and after the short walk (sorry i meant lift ride) we stepped out at 1067 mtr,s above sea level to mostly brilliant views over the sea and cape town, after a short walk around the top it was off to the restaraunt for dinner, by our standards the food was nice and even though we only had the small plates the servers managed to get plenty on. by the time we went down the mountain the mist had formed over the top giving it its table cloth appearance hence the name.
getting back to the car again it was a short drive back to cape town and a walk and a cappuccino overlooking the harbour(lucky barb was navigating lol), after that we had a longer drive to stellenbosch to some self catering accomodation where we were treated to the south african bbq known as a braai ably prepared and cooked by tony and barb over a wood fire , dilicious.
around the acommodation we saw wildebeast, zebra,elan and spingbok and they all came within about 50 mtr,s of us at times.
after 2 nites there it was back on the road again to go to hermanus for the whale watching, and what a brilliant couple off hours that turned out to be, as we pulled into the carpark we looked out into the bay and about 100 mtr,s out was what i thought was a rock, no , it was a female right whale with its half grown calf next to it, and as we looked out we could probably see 10 more in the bay and further out they could be seen breaching and tail slapping, but it was to get even better ,as we walked out on to the point where the whale caller was blowing his horn the whales were actually coming in to about 40 mtrs out and these animals weigh in the region of 40 tons which is about the same as 10 fully grown african elephants(pics to follow). i found it quite a humbling experiance to be stood watching some thing so big and so gentle with its young and to think these animals were nearly hunted to extinction by humans and they are still hunted by the japanese for scientific purposes, cos i dont think these animals are daft as i got the impresion they were as interested in us as we were in them, and i must admit it gave me goose bumps just to stand and watch them, it has been one of the most impessive things i have ever seen, and as we went for another coffee there were some tail slapping out in the bay and it seemed to be a signal to leave as the whales seemed to leaving the bay and heading out further.back to the driving and after about 5 hours during which we were treated to some lovely scenery as we seemed to be following a mountain ridge all the way. it wasnt until we got to mossel bay that the scenery changed again this time it was a much greener look with tree,s and wooded valley,s and hillsides all the way ta knysna and the harding homestead. and again we werent dissapointed it is a beautiful house set in a really stunning location overlooking a large valley lots of native plants and animals which includes its own baboon troop , bushbucks and to many birds to mention , we have our own part of the building with en suite and he is now taking bookings for the 2010 season(ha ha ha). and as for food i aint been dissapointed yet as barb is an exceptional cook and all the local eateries are spot on and you certainly aint ripped off, and the staff are friendly and eager to please.
thats enough of that , now for the fishing tony is taking me to groot(great)bank on weds to hopefully get anything from cat shark and rays to great whites, but we could blank as tony fished an inter club on saturday anc never had a bite(somethings never change do they). but we are taking tony,s bait bitch, brandon who is a local up and coming under 21 who luckily listens to everthing his uncle tony has to say then he does the complete opposite and does well.
now providing i dont get pushed into the path of a gt white or fall prey to one of the wild leopards which are still here i will be back on on thursday to let you all know how we done.
back to the mountain and after the short walk (sorry i meant lift ride) we stepped out at 1067 mtr,s above sea level to mostly brilliant views over the sea and cape town, after a short walk around the top it was off to the restaraunt for dinner, by our standards the food was nice and even though we only had the small plates the servers managed to get plenty on. by the time we went down the mountain the mist had formed over the top giving it its table cloth appearance hence the name.
getting back to the car again it was a short drive back to cape town and a walk and a cappuccino overlooking the harbour(lucky barb was navigating lol), after that we had a longer drive to stellenbosch to some self catering accomodation where we were treated to the south african bbq known as a braai ably prepared and cooked by tony and barb over a wood fire , dilicious.
around the acommodation we saw wildebeast, zebra,elan and spingbok and they all came within about 50 mtr,s of us at times.
after 2 nites there it was back on the road again to go to hermanus for the whale watching, and what a brilliant couple off hours that turned out to be, as we pulled into the carpark we looked out into the bay and about 100 mtr,s out was what i thought was a rock, no , it was a female right whale with its half grown calf next to it, and as we looked out we could probably see 10 more in the bay and further out they could be seen breaching and tail slapping, but it was to get even better ,as we walked out on to the point where the whale caller was blowing his horn the whales were actually coming in to about 40 mtrs out and these animals weigh in the region of 40 tons which is about the same as 10 fully grown african elephants(pics to follow). i found it quite a humbling experiance to be stood watching some thing so big and so gentle with its young and to think these animals were nearly hunted to extinction by humans and they are still hunted by the japanese for scientific purposes, cos i dont think these animals are daft as i got the impresion they were as interested in us as we were in them, and i must admit it gave me goose bumps just to stand and watch them, it has been one of the most impessive things i have ever seen, and as we went for another coffee there were some tail slapping out in the bay and it seemed to be a signal to leave as the whales seemed to leaving the bay and heading out further.back to the driving and after about 5 hours during which we were treated to some lovely scenery as we seemed to be following a mountain ridge all the way. it wasnt until we got to mossel bay that the scenery changed again this time it was a much greener look with tree,s and wooded valley,s and hillsides all the way ta knysna and the harding homestead. and again we werent dissapointed it is a beautiful house set in a really stunning location overlooking a large valley lots of native plants and animals which includes its own baboon troop , bushbucks and to many birds to mention , we have our own part of the building with en suite and he is now taking bookings for the 2010 season(ha ha ha). and as for food i aint been dissapointed yet as barb is an exceptional cook and all the local eateries are spot on and you certainly aint ripped off, and the staff are friendly and eager to please.
thats enough of that , now for the fishing tony is taking me to groot(great)bank on weds to hopefully get anything from cat shark and rays to great whites, but we could blank as tony fished an inter club on saturday anc never had a bite(somethings never change do they). but we are taking tony,s bait bitch, brandon who is a local up and coming under 21 who luckily listens to everthing his uncle tony has to say then he does the complete opposite and does well.
now providing i dont get pushed into the path of a gt white or fall prey to one of the wild leopards which are still here i will be back on on thursday to let you all know how we done.
Sunday, 1 November 2009
away on a high
, landsend match and speci lake today , 26 booked in originally but due to sickness and bad weather we ended up with 21(strange how some people cant go cos they got flu but are ok to fish on saturday mr foale lol).mike west rushed into the draw bag as he wanted to draw for me , and i got to say i wasnt to miffed with 36,as i have won off it and it is always good for a few fish.
3 rigs today , a 4x16 caster rig for down the edge on .12 to an 18 808, a 4x12 rig on .14 to a 16 808 at 16mtr at 2 and 10 0,clock for soft pellet over 3mm and a 4x10 corn rig for over on.16 to a 18 xedion hook.
at the start i cupped in some 3mm at 2 and 10 , some corn and 3mm over to the island and started loose feeding caster down to my right at 3mtr, befor the all in the wind was coming from the south but as i was feeding it changed direction and came from the west which turns landsend into a bit of a wind tunnel(great). starting at 10 o,clock with a 4mm softy on , i never had a touch plus i couldnt hold it still as the gale they had forecast had now arrived, so i decided to go to 2 o, clock as it was with the wind so thought i might be able to gain a bit of presentation, i did manage an f1 and a couple of roach but the wind was making it nigh on impossible to hold it still.
i loose fed some 3,s at 4 mtrs and after 5 mins i had a skimmer then lost 1 then the small roach found my soft pellets so i knocked that in the head. a look on single caster down the edge and the perch were there in numbers and sizes from 1oz to about 1 1/2 lb. the wind by now had changed direction slightly meaning that every now and then i could hold my rig over whithout it being blown into the bushes and by cupping in and not catapulting i could get carp to take the corn hook bait. so the rest of the match was most enjoyable, when the wind blew hard i fished down the edge for perch and when i could i pushed over to the island and had a carp .
by the end i had had about 15 carp and a lot of perch for a total weight of 136.4 the perch went 23.14 all in all apart from the wind i had a really enjoyable day
2nd was me bitch from hartcliffe dean malin on peg 24 with 58.11 with 11 carp on caster
3rd alan oram 52.2 peg 32
4 th gary wall 46.10 peg 29
5 th andy bryant 46.7 peg 22
6 th dave evans 38.13 peg 21
silvers were won by john bradford on peg 27 with 26.14 again mainly perch on castwer close in.
i,m off on my hols on tues , off to south africa to stay tony harding and his wife barb, i should be doing a bit of shore fishing hopefully for sharks the rest of the time we will be sight seeing and whale watching, i will hopefully manage to keep you all informed as to how i am doing via the blog but dont phone me as it will cost us both a fortune
3 rigs today , a 4x16 caster rig for down the edge on .12 to an 18 808, a 4x12 rig on .14 to a 16 808 at 16mtr at 2 and 10 0,clock for soft pellet over 3mm and a 4x10 corn rig for over on.16 to a 18 xedion hook.
at the start i cupped in some 3mm at 2 and 10 , some corn and 3mm over to the island and started loose feeding caster down to my right at 3mtr, befor the all in the wind was coming from the south but as i was feeding it changed direction and came from the west which turns landsend into a bit of a wind tunnel(great). starting at 10 o,clock with a 4mm softy on , i never had a touch plus i couldnt hold it still as the gale they had forecast had now arrived, so i decided to go to 2 o, clock as it was with the wind so thought i might be able to gain a bit of presentation, i did manage an f1 and a couple of roach but the wind was making it nigh on impossible to hold it still.
i loose fed some 3,s at 4 mtrs and after 5 mins i had a skimmer then lost 1 then the small roach found my soft pellets so i knocked that in the head. a look on single caster down the edge and the perch were there in numbers and sizes from 1oz to about 1 1/2 lb. the wind by now had changed direction slightly meaning that every now and then i could hold my rig over whithout it being blown into the bushes and by cupping in and not catapulting i could get carp to take the corn hook bait. so the rest of the match was most enjoyable, when the wind blew hard i fished down the edge for perch and when i could i pushed over to the island and had a carp .
by the end i had had about 15 carp and a lot of perch for a total weight of 136.4 the perch went 23.14 all in all apart from the wind i had a really enjoyable day
2nd was me bitch from hartcliffe dean malin on peg 24 with 58.11 with 11 carp on caster
3rd alan oram 52.2 peg 32
4 th gary wall 46.10 peg 29
5 th andy bryant 46.7 peg 22
6 th dave evans 38.13 peg 21
silvers were won by john bradford on peg 27 with 26.14 again mainly perch on castwer close in.
i,m off on my hols on tues , off to south africa to stay tony harding and his wife barb, i should be doing a bit of shore fishing hopefully for sharks the rest of the time we will be sight seeing and whale watching, i will hopefully manage to keep you all informed as to how i am doing via the blog but dont phone me as it will cost us both a fortune
Sunday, 25 October 2009
chilton trinity
when i had the chance to go to chilton with the psv boys i jumped at it as i hadnt fished woodlands for a couple of years and it is a nice lake with quality fish in it and you are always assured of a warm welcome from sue and her family.
i drew peg 18 which is at the top of the lake looking straight into the gale which was blowing, if there is a draw back with the lake , it is the depth which was 10 foot at 13 mtrs and 5 foot in the margins. so i set up a 4x18 rig for the long pole and two 4x16 for the margins one for caster iether side at 3mtr for silvers !!!!!!!!!! and one for corn to empty peg 17.
at the start i cupped in some 4mm at 13 mtrs , some corn and pellet by 17 pallet and loose feb caster either side at 3 mtrs,
starting at 13 mtrs on corn i missed a couple of bites on corn so i switched to a 4mm soft pellet and it soon bacame apparent that 6 oz skimmers were the culprits, so i upped the feed by cupping in half a cup of 4mm , i had tried catapulting but the wind was making it nearly impossible to feed properly so i decided that cupping was going to be best.
i thought i would try and get a few silvers down the edge while i waited for the 13 mtr line to settle ,first put in and a missed bite next drop on single caster and carp on , so much for silvers , next put in and another carp was on its way to the net, i fed it again and looked to the right at 3 mtrs and another carp , then nothing, so down to peg 17 which was hard as the wind kept trying to blow the pole up the bank, i missed 3 bites (liners)then connected with another carp , i fed it again and went out to 13 mtrs, where i had a couple of skimmers and carp.
by now darren north on 24 had started to catch shallow on pellet as did paul elmes on 26 , so i set up a shallow rig to give it a go but with the rig blowing back under the pole it just wasnt right so i chucked that up the bank , where darren and paul were they had the wind off there backs slightly making for better presentation and darren told me after that he definately had more bites when there was little or no ripple so i dont think i had much chance of catching shallow, so ijust kept catching odd fish from my 3 margin swim and the 13 mtr line,
at the end i quickly packed up as i had to do the weigh in cos i had sold the club a set of digi scales which some club members didnt like so i wanted to try them to see for myself if there was a problem.
first place went to darren north on peg 24 with 77.12 pellet shallow
2nd paul elmes 69.4 peg 26 again pellet shallow he also had top silver weight with 9.1 which was a few small tench also caught shallow on pellet !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3rd alan healey 63.10 peg 16
4th tony rixon 55.7 peg 18
5 th simon belcham 43.10 peg 3
6 th chris zakis(i hope thats right) 35
as for the scales they were fine , it seems the people who moan the most are the ones that do the least no change there then.
i drew peg 18 which is at the top of the lake looking straight into the gale which was blowing, if there is a draw back with the lake , it is the depth which was 10 foot at 13 mtrs and 5 foot in the margins. so i set up a 4x18 rig for the long pole and two 4x16 for the margins one for caster iether side at 3mtr for silvers !!!!!!!!!! and one for corn to empty peg 17.
at the start i cupped in some 4mm at 13 mtrs , some corn and pellet by 17 pallet and loose feb caster either side at 3 mtrs,
starting at 13 mtrs on corn i missed a couple of bites on corn so i switched to a 4mm soft pellet and it soon bacame apparent that 6 oz skimmers were the culprits, so i upped the feed by cupping in half a cup of 4mm , i had tried catapulting but the wind was making it nearly impossible to feed properly so i decided that cupping was going to be best.
i thought i would try and get a few silvers down the edge while i waited for the 13 mtr line to settle ,first put in and a missed bite next drop on single caster and carp on , so much for silvers , next put in and another carp was on its way to the net, i fed it again and looked to the right at 3 mtrs and another carp , then nothing, so down to peg 17 which was hard as the wind kept trying to blow the pole up the bank, i missed 3 bites (liners)then connected with another carp , i fed it again and went out to 13 mtrs, where i had a couple of skimmers and carp.
by now darren north on 24 had started to catch shallow on pellet as did paul elmes on 26 , so i set up a shallow rig to give it a go but with the rig blowing back under the pole it just wasnt right so i chucked that up the bank , where darren and paul were they had the wind off there backs slightly making for better presentation and darren told me after that he definately had more bites when there was little or no ripple so i dont think i had much chance of catching shallow, so ijust kept catching odd fish from my 3 margin swim and the 13 mtr line,
at the end i quickly packed up as i had to do the weigh in cos i had sold the club a set of digi scales which some club members didnt like so i wanted to try them to see for myself if there was a problem.
first place went to darren north on peg 24 with 77.12 pellet shallow
2nd paul elmes 69.4 peg 26 again pellet shallow he also had top silver weight with 9.1 which was a few small tench also caught shallow on pellet !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3rd alan healey 63.10 peg 16
4th tony rixon 55.7 peg 18
5 th simon belcham 43.10 peg 3
6 th chris zakis(i hope thats right) 35
as for the scales they were fine , it seems the people who moan the most are the ones that do the least no change there then.
Saturday, 24 October 2009
teams of 4 southwest
finally got the dates and venues sorted for the 2010 league
5/9/2010 trinity waters draw 9 fish 10.30 to 4
19/9/2010 cider farm draw 9 fish 10.30 to 4
3/10/2010 avalon draw 9 fish 10.30 to 4
24/10/2010 landsend draw 8.30 fish 10 to 3.30
7/11/2010 bullocks draw 8.30 fish 10 to 3.30
21/11/2010 viaduct draw 8.30 fish 10 to 3.30
league fee,s £144 per team to be paid before the end of june 2010
pools on the day £100 per team compulsory £20 goes to the team payout at the end , the £80 left to be paid out in full on the day. all people interested ring me at the shop for more details
avon angling 01179517250
5/9/2010 trinity waters draw 9 fish 10.30 to 4
19/9/2010 cider farm draw 9 fish 10.30 to 4
3/10/2010 avalon draw 9 fish 10.30 to 4
24/10/2010 landsend draw 8.30 fish 10 to 3.30
7/11/2010 bullocks draw 8.30 fish 10 to 3.30
21/11/2010 viaduct draw 8.30 fish 10 to 3.30
league fee,s £144 per team to be paid before the end of june 2010
pools on the day £100 per team compulsory £20 goes to the team payout at the end , the £80 left to be paid out in full on the day. all people interested ring me at the shop for more details
avon angling 01179517250
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
deciderdly hard
with me and the carps club booking cider farm for a match, and with both lots only getting 10 anglers we decided to join forces and have one match.
i drew 28 and after a quick look at recent results i could see no mention of peg 28, great, but then again every day is different , and the peg did look ok with a gap between islands , and one of the few pegs where you could fish tight to the island, but it turned out to be to shallow , rigs today , 4x14 rigs one for in the gap for pellet and one for corn down the left by the reeds, and a 4x12 rig to fish pellet across at 13 mtrs to some proper reeds not those crappy big norfolk snag pits. and a 4x10 rig to fish tight to the island, but as i said it was to shallow(12 inches)cos the water was quite clear after the weekends frost and last nights rain, and i did try it a couple of times during the match but never had any indications so i wont mention it again.
at the start i cupped in some 4mm at 13 mtrs in the gap some by the reeds and threw some pellets and corn at 3mtrs to my left margin, starting in the gap with 6 and 8mm pellet on the hook , i never had abite in the first 45 mins so i went to the far bank reeds and at least i had movement , and after a bit of adjustment to the depth the first carp was on its way.
2 hours in and i had 8 carp in the net, 5 across and 3 down the edge but again no bites,it was about now that mark walked round and said it was fishing very hard and that dave roper on 25 had 8 fish and that was about the best he had heard of , so i was still well in the race.
with 2 hours to go i reckon i had 15 fish in the net, and i was really struggling for a bite anywhere, so i put in about 50 grains of corn in the channel between the islands and started to feed more with the catapult towards the reeds, and it seemed to have the desired effect as i began to catch fish on corn and also the reeds to my left also started to show signs of life, trouble is you never really know as to whether it was down to the increased feed or just time of day that has made them have a go , but by swapping bertwwen my left margin , the channel and the far bank reeds i probably had 15 fish in the last 90 minutes.
by the time the scales got to me top weight was dave roper on 25 with 47.3, i was next to weigh and put 63.9 on the scales and as it turned out was enough to win with steve kedge coming second just 1 fish behind with60.3 on peg 36
3rd dave roper 47.3
4th ed wynne 45.5 peg58
5th mike owens 44.9 peg 41
6th phil(fabio)harding 42.8(he said he cant wait to get back to the river for some proper fishing)
silvers were won by martin alexander with 6.3 on peg 46
it was definately a day for rotating around your swims as it was a real struggle to get more than a couple of bites in each place. what was stange was the fact that 8mm hard pellets seemed to be best on the hook. more so when you are fishing close to snags as you can tell by the float when your bait is sat just on bottom.
i drew 28 and after a quick look at recent results i could see no mention of peg 28, great, but then again every day is different , and the peg did look ok with a gap between islands , and one of the few pegs where you could fish tight to the island, but it turned out to be to shallow , rigs today , 4x14 rigs one for in the gap for pellet and one for corn down the left by the reeds, and a 4x12 rig to fish pellet across at 13 mtrs to some proper reeds not those crappy big norfolk snag pits. and a 4x10 rig to fish tight to the island, but as i said it was to shallow(12 inches)cos the water was quite clear after the weekends frost and last nights rain, and i did try it a couple of times during the match but never had any indications so i wont mention it again.
at the start i cupped in some 4mm at 13 mtrs in the gap some by the reeds and threw some pellets and corn at 3mtrs to my left margin, starting in the gap with 6 and 8mm pellet on the hook , i never had abite in the first 45 mins so i went to the far bank reeds and at least i had movement , and after a bit of adjustment to the depth the first carp was on its way.
2 hours in and i had 8 carp in the net, 5 across and 3 down the edge but again no bites,it was about now that mark walked round and said it was fishing very hard and that dave roper on 25 had 8 fish and that was about the best he had heard of , so i was still well in the race.
with 2 hours to go i reckon i had 15 fish in the net, and i was really struggling for a bite anywhere, so i put in about 50 grains of corn in the channel between the islands and started to feed more with the catapult towards the reeds, and it seemed to have the desired effect as i began to catch fish on corn and also the reeds to my left also started to show signs of life, trouble is you never really know as to whether it was down to the increased feed or just time of day that has made them have a go , but by swapping bertwwen my left margin , the channel and the far bank reeds i probably had 15 fish in the last 90 minutes.
by the time the scales got to me top weight was dave roper on 25 with 47.3, i was next to weigh and put 63.9 on the scales and as it turned out was enough to win with steve kedge coming second just 1 fish behind with60.3 on peg 36
3rd dave roper 47.3
4th ed wynne 45.5 peg58
5th mike owens 44.9 peg 41
6th phil(fabio)harding 42.8(he said he cant wait to get back to the river for some proper fishing)
silvers were won by martin alexander with 6.3 on peg 46
it was definately a day for rotating around your swims as it was a real struggle to get more than a couple of bites in each place. what was stange was the fact that 8mm hard pellets seemed to be best on the hook. more so when you are fishing close to snags as you can tell by the float when your bait is sat just on bottom.
Sunday, 18 October 2009
de ja vue at landsend
anton drew me peg 21 , same as last weekend, hopefully it will be better today. much better conditions with no wind and some cloud cover starting to form even though there was a frost last night , i thought it might fish ok.
just 3 rigs today , a 4x12 with an 18 808 to 0.12 for corn and soft pellet at the bottom of the far shelf. a .40 rig again with an 18 808 to .10 for caster at 4 mtr,s and a 4x10 rig for corn over to the island, but i wasnt to convinced this would work as a lot of colour had dropped out since wednesday.
started off by cupping some 3mm pellets at 14 mtr towards 10 o,clock and some straight out at 13 mtr (same depth). and fired a few over to the island ,just in case.
i began at 4mtr to my left on single caster, as well as feeding the same distance to my right, after a few small roach and perch i found myself attached to a 4 lb carp, after 5 mins of careful playing it was safely in the net then it was back to the small roach and perch, a quick look to the right and it was small roach again that was until i hooked another good fish which turned out to be a bonus tench of about 2 1/2 lb , back to the left and i was attached to another carp which again found its way into the net, so the first couple of hours werent brill but at least it was more promising than last week. time to look on the corn lines , staight out and no bites so a look to the left and a couple missed bites(liners) so at least there are some fish about. next put in and i had one , and it was nearly in the mouth!!!!!!!!!
there seemed to be fish in the swim but they wouldnt feed, they seemed to be cruising about and not really interestd in getting there heads down, but by lifting and dropping and moving the bait about i did manage to snare a couple more, then with 2 hours to go i saw a fish by the island where i had been feeding a few pellets , in on the light rig and i missed a bite and spooked a fish, but by feeding a couple of areas on the far bank and moving between them i did manage to snare a few more befor the end the last 3 all falling to triple maggot as it was a more enticing bait as it was slower falling than corn.
first on the day was dean malin on peg 11 with 106.2 all taken on soft pellet in a foot of water by the island he had 19 carp which aint to bad even though dean reckoned they were only 2 pounders i have never known anyone as bad as him for estimating weights of fish.
2nd was tony wittcomb with 61.4 on peg 27 6 carp and a few silvers
3rd gary wall 48.13 peg 19
4th mr weasel aka tony rixon (that was for you mat tomes)45.9
5th martin (whit rhino)lenaghan 44.3 peg 5
6th a oram 39.7 peg13
silvers were won by martin pettiffer on peg 29 with 26.12 of roach caught on caster at 4 and ten mtrs
2nd nick collier 23.4 on peg three
fabio did well on the river today i had to give him 6 to 1 to get a pound with him but i need,nt have worried as he drew 1 above newbridge road bridge and never had a bite LMARO, but to be fair his section was only won with 9 oz, christ i really miss being a "proper"angler NOT .
just 3 rigs today , a 4x12 with an 18 808 to 0.12 for corn and soft pellet at the bottom of the far shelf. a .40 rig again with an 18 808 to .10 for caster at 4 mtr,s and a 4x10 rig for corn over to the island, but i wasnt to convinced this would work as a lot of colour had dropped out since wednesday.
started off by cupping some 3mm pellets at 14 mtr towards 10 o,clock and some straight out at 13 mtr (same depth). and fired a few over to the island ,just in case.
i began at 4mtr to my left on single caster, as well as feeding the same distance to my right, after a few small roach and perch i found myself attached to a 4 lb carp, after 5 mins of careful playing it was safely in the net then it was back to the small roach and perch, a quick look to the right and it was small roach again that was until i hooked another good fish which turned out to be a bonus tench of about 2 1/2 lb , back to the left and i was attached to another carp which again found its way into the net, so the first couple of hours werent brill but at least it was more promising than last week. time to look on the corn lines , staight out and no bites so a look to the left and a couple missed bites(liners) so at least there are some fish about. next put in and i had one , and it was nearly in the mouth!!!!!!!!!
there seemed to be fish in the swim but they wouldnt feed, they seemed to be cruising about and not really interestd in getting there heads down, but by lifting and dropping and moving the bait about i did manage to snare a couple more, then with 2 hours to go i saw a fish by the island where i had been feeding a few pellets , in on the light rig and i missed a bite and spooked a fish, but by feeding a couple of areas on the far bank and moving between them i did manage to snare a few more befor the end the last 3 all falling to triple maggot as it was a more enticing bait as it was slower falling than corn.
first on the day was dean malin on peg 11 with 106.2 all taken on soft pellet in a foot of water by the island he had 19 carp which aint to bad even though dean reckoned they were only 2 pounders i have never known anyone as bad as him for estimating weights of fish.
2nd was tony wittcomb with 61.4 on peg 27 6 carp and a few silvers
3rd gary wall 48.13 peg 19
4th mr weasel aka tony rixon (that was for you mat tomes)45.9
5th martin (whit rhino)lenaghan 44.3 peg 5
6th a oram 39.7 peg13
silvers were won by martin pettiffer on peg 29 with 26.12 of roach caught on caster at 4 and ten mtrs
2nd nick collier 23.4 on peg three
fabio did well on the river today i had to give him 6 to 1 to get a pound with him but i need,nt have worried as he drew 1 above newbridge road bridge and never had a bite LMARO, but to be fair his section was only won with 9 oz, christ i really miss being a "proper"angler NOT .
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
try again at landsend
after landsend on sunday and only catching 28 lb off peg 21 it could only get better. i let the only junior fishing today draw my peg , so when mat tomes handed me 15 i was quite happy.
i set up a 4x8 with 0.18 and an 18 xedion hook for under the tree to my right where it was only about 15 inches deep . a 4x12 same hook and line for my left hand margin, and a 4x12 rig on 0,14 with a 16 808 for 11mtr in front and 14,5 mtr to my left just into the deep water, and the same rig would do for the 5 mtr line.
starting at 5mtr on soft pellet after cupping in a few 3mm softened pellets at 11 and 14.5 mtr and throwing a hand ful of casters left and right. after 45 mins at 5 mtrs and not a bite to show for my efforts i decided to go to the 11mtr line and apart from some iffy liners and 1 lost fouler , that was a none starter aswell , a look at 14 mtr also ended the same way with nothing to show for my efforts on any of the 3 lines on corn or soft pellet this was going to be sunday all over again. i had been dripping casters left and right in the margins so it was time for a look . into the right and first put in on caster and a 4oz perch was in the net , next drop and a 12oz perch in the net , then a 3lb carp which lost the tug of war as it tried to get under the tree after a couple more it was time to rest it and have a look on the left which is normally the more productive side but 1 lost fouler and nothing else things were looking grim , another go in the right margin and 3 more hooked and 2 landed not bad really as it is a real snagpit with branches and brambles only inches from where you get the bites.
three and a half hours gone and with only 5 carp in the net and things werent looking to good, i began to fire a few 3 mm pellets to the island and it wasnt long until i could see movement against the island, as i thought it had been to cold and to bright i hadnt even made up a rig for it , so off the box and a 4x 10 rig was put together on 0.16 to 0.12 with an 18 808, and the last 2 hours went well with 12 carp all taking corn in 12 inches of water by the island you could even see the fish moving thru and the occasional fish would stop and take the bait.
the fish i had were on the small side but it was enough for a win with 68.4
alan oram on peg 1 was second with 64.10
3rd mike duckett peg11 45 .7
4th gary wall 42,4
5th nick duckett 40.1
6 chris davis 35 .10
silvers martin alexander 16.15 peg 13
i set up a 4x8 with 0.18 and an 18 xedion hook for under the tree to my right where it was only about 15 inches deep . a 4x12 same hook and line for my left hand margin, and a 4x12 rig on 0,14 with a 16 808 for 11mtr in front and 14,5 mtr to my left just into the deep water, and the same rig would do for the 5 mtr line.
starting at 5mtr on soft pellet after cupping in a few 3mm softened pellets at 11 and 14.5 mtr and throwing a hand ful of casters left and right. after 45 mins at 5 mtrs and not a bite to show for my efforts i decided to go to the 11mtr line and apart from some iffy liners and 1 lost fouler , that was a none starter aswell , a look at 14 mtr also ended the same way with nothing to show for my efforts on any of the 3 lines on corn or soft pellet this was going to be sunday all over again. i had been dripping casters left and right in the margins so it was time for a look . into the right and first put in on caster and a 4oz perch was in the net , next drop and a 12oz perch in the net , then a 3lb carp which lost the tug of war as it tried to get under the tree after a couple more it was time to rest it and have a look on the left which is normally the more productive side but 1 lost fouler and nothing else things were looking grim , another go in the right margin and 3 more hooked and 2 landed not bad really as it is a real snagpit with branches and brambles only inches from where you get the bites.
three and a half hours gone and with only 5 carp in the net and things werent looking to good, i began to fire a few 3 mm pellets to the island and it wasnt long until i could see movement against the island, as i thought it had been to cold and to bright i hadnt even made up a rig for it , so off the box and a 4x 10 rig was put together on 0.16 to 0.12 with an 18 808, and the last 2 hours went well with 12 carp all taking corn in 12 inches of water by the island you could even see the fish moving thru and the occasional fish would stop and take the bait.
the fish i had were on the small side but it was enough for a win with 68.4
alan oram on peg 1 was second with 64.10
3rd mike duckett peg11 45 .7
4th gary wall 42,4
5th nick duckett 40.1
6 chris davis 35 .10
silvers martin alexander 16.15 peg 13
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
plantation on a day off
went to plantation main lake today with a workmate of judith, chris shields and his brother mick just for a days pleasure, also i took my daughters boyfriend, chris , who, s best catch to date is 3 carp we got on pegs 25 (young chris),26 old chris(northern monkey)27 his bro mick and me on 28. after sorting young crhris out with a method feeder with soaked micro,s for the feeder and hair rigged corn on the hook.
onto the 2 northern exiles and i got them to feed soaked 3mm at 13 mtr with avon anglings finest jellie pellets on the hook. small roach soon started to show interest but by feeding 3.s over the top with a catty they both had some carp , crucians and decent skimmers , even method boy on the end was getting a few.
after sorting them out i got on with my peg ,after 2 small roach on pellet i switched to corn and straight away got skimmers , carp and crucians. and it turned in to quite a good session, and i ended up with 21 carp and about 13 lb of silvers, mick next door had 4 carp and silvers , chris on 26 had 8 carp and a rake of skimmers and crucians for about 50 lb and method boy on the end had 10 carp and 1 skimmer for his best day ever. so that was a good day
off to landsend tomorrow and i must try harder lol
onto the 2 northern exiles and i got them to feed soaked 3mm at 13 mtr with avon anglings finest jellie pellets on the hook. small roach soon started to show interest but by feeding 3.s over the top with a catty they both had some carp , crucians and decent skimmers , even method boy on the end was getting a few.
after sorting them out i got on with my peg ,after 2 small roach on pellet i switched to corn and straight away got skimmers , carp and crucians. and it turned in to quite a good session, and i ended up with 21 carp and about 13 lb of silvers, mick next door had 4 carp and silvers , chris on 26 had 8 carp and a rake of skimmers and crucians for about 50 lb and method boy on the end had 10 carp and 1 skimmer for his best day ever. so that was a good day
off to landsend tomorrow and i must try harder lol
shop bitz part 6
some people got a cheek, fabio brought a float back on monday as it had a hole in the base , being peacock it wouldnt have mattered as it dont take on water, but he wasnt having any of it and wanted it changed i wouldnt mind but he hadnt even paid for it yet cos his giro dont come till thursday, so the rest of the tax payers in the shop had a whip round and paid for it.
adrian jeffrey went to see tom jones at the weekend and said it was really good and he was enjoying it that was until his lighter ran out of fuel and tom threw his under crackers back as they were slightly soiled.
judith is still doing well she is on her third diet in three weeks and so far she has managed to put on one pound each week i think she should sue.
sounds like the whole nicholls family has gone down with e coli , i really think it is about time brenda threw out the family cook book
finally pete notten took the scenic route to lake 4 at landsend, he was told to walk past the match lake go through the gate and turn right shame nobody told him to go through the second cos if it wasnt for dean asking him where the fxxx he thought he was going i dont think he would have stopped till he got to wedmore, but he did get as far as the top of the hill though, and i did promise not to mention it , yea right ,.wot a winker
adrian jeffrey went to see tom jones at the weekend and said it was really good and he was enjoying it that was until his lighter ran out of fuel and tom threw his under crackers back as they were slightly soiled.
judith is still doing well she is on her third diet in three weeks and so far she has managed to put on one pound each week i think she should sue.
sounds like the whole nicholls family has gone down with e coli , i really think it is about time brenda threw out the family cook book
finally pete notten took the scenic route to lake 4 at landsend, he was told to walk past the match lake go through the gate and turn right shame nobody told him to go through the second cos if it wasnt for dean asking him where the fxxx he thought he was going i dont think he would have stopped till he got to wedmore, but he did get as far as the top of the hill though, and i did promise not to mention it , yea right ,.wot a winker
Sunday, 11 October 2009
lost it at landsend
it was the first round of mikes individual winter lge today, with 48 booked in it looks like being a good series. there was a couple of no shows due to illnes but that cant be helped.
with 12 on each lake there was going to be plenty of room, so i was more than happy to draw 21 on the match lake , as rod wootten had won off it on saturday with 119 lb mainly on corn at the bottom of the far shelf .
one rig for soft pellet at 5 mtrs which would do corn at the bottom of the far shelf aswell as it was the same depth, another rig for the hair rigged pellet at the bottom of the far shelf and a rig for pellet up the far shelf. at the start i cupped in softened 3mm at 5 mtrs and 4mm at 13 mtrs across and at 15 mtrs to my left which was the same depth, and startes to fire some 4,s against the far bank.
starting at 5 mtrs on soft pellet i had an 8 lb common first put in , then i fouled one about 10 , mins later which came off shortly after i had a skimmer and that was me lot on that line, even though i kept feeding that line i never had nother fish there .#
over at 13 mtrs with hard pellet and not a bite there now i was worried, over the 15 mtr line and again no bites, oh shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
up on top of the shelf and at last some bites on hard pellet and a couple of smallish carp to keep my first one company as it had been on its own for a good 2 hours, i was hoping that the carp would stay up on the shelf , but it wasnt to be, and by the end all i had to show for my efforts were 5 carp which went 22 lb and 6 lb of silvers for last but in my section of 6. i will be missing three of the 8 matches so i wasnt going win anything in the overalls any way all i am fishing for now is pride. my section was won by nck collier on peg 24 with 60 lb and he even managed to catch under pallet 23 which just dont normally happen so fair play.
top weight on the day was vince shipp(des,s younger brother)with 92.7 on peg 39 fishing soft pellet at the bottom of the island shelf.
2 nd was mat tomes on peg 11 with 91.4 on 8mm pellet at 14 mtr towards peg 12.(just as well i showed him how to tie hooks in the shop on saturday)
3 rd gary wall peg 28 with 89.15 and still on paste uuuurgh
4th rob wooten 81 lb peg 34 (sorry i missed you on the results with the paperwork all over i just missed you ) 5 th paul elmes 80.5 peg 33
6 th stu foale 79.3 peg 56
7 th scott lovell 77.1 peg 42 (and he is now the proud owner of a i beat anton page off the next peg t shirt)
silvers dave "scouse" hodgson 23.6 on peg 40
only good thing today was the quid i got off of fabio, i had to offer him 5 to 1 on weight and as he only had 4 perch for 7 oz,s on peg 39 at newbridge the pound is back where it belongs
with 12 on each lake there was going to be plenty of room, so i was more than happy to draw 21 on the match lake , as rod wootten had won off it on saturday with 119 lb mainly on corn at the bottom of the far shelf .
one rig for soft pellet at 5 mtrs which would do corn at the bottom of the far shelf aswell as it was the same depth, another rig for the hair rigged pellet at the bottom of the far shelf and a rig for pellet up the far shelf. at the start i cupped in softened 3mm at 5 mtrs and 4mm at 13 mtrs across and at 15 mtrs to my left which was the same depth, and startes to fire some 4,s against the far bank.
starting at 5 mtrs on soft pellet i had an 8 lb common first put in , then i fouled one about 10 , mins later which came off shortly after i had a skimmer and that was me lot on that line, even though i kept feeding that line i never had nother fish there .#
over at 13 mtrs with hard pellet and not a bite there now i was worried, over the 15 mtr line and again no bites, oh shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
up on top of the shelf and at last some bites on hard pellet and a couple of smallish carp to keep my first one company as it had been on its own for a good 2 hours, i was hoping that the carp would stay up on the shelf , but it wasnt to be, and by the end all i had to show for my efforts were 5 carp which went 22 lb and 6 lb of silvers for last but in my section of 6. i will be missing three of the 8 matches so i wasnt going win anything in the overalls any way all i am fishing for now is pride. my section was won by nck collier on peg 24 with 60 lb and he even managed to catch under pallet 23 which just dont normally happen so fair play.
top weight on the day was vince shipp(des,s younger brother)with 92.7 on peg 39 fishing soft pellet at the bottom of the island shelf.
2 nd was mat tomes on peg 11 with 91.4 on 8mm pellet at 14 mtr towards peg 12.(just as well i showed him how to tie hooks in the shop on saturday)
3 rd gary wall peg 28 with 89.15 and still on paste uuuurgh
4th rob wooten 81 lb peg 34 (sorry i missed you on the results with the paperwork all over i just missed you ) 5 th paul elmes 80.5 peg 33
6 th stu foale 79.3 peg 56
7 th scott lovell 77.1 peg 42 (and he is now the proud owner of a i beat anton page off the next peg t shirt)
silvers dave "scouse" hodgson 23.6 on peg 40
only good thing today was the quid i got off of fabio, i had to offer him 5 to 1 on weight and as he only had 4 perch for 7 oz,s on peg 39 at newbridge the pound is back where it belongs
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
ciders all round
its been 18 months since i last went to cider farm , and what a difference, masses of reeds which have grown like wildfire. talking with mark before the start and his advice was not to feed or fish near them, makes sense i suppose but the fish dont always want to come out especially if its bright, no danger of that the forcast was for a cloudy and mainly dry day with just the chance of a bit of light rain late in the day so i left my coat in the van!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. i,m beginning to think that the met office would stuggle to get last weeks lottery numbers right, needless to say i got soaked.
back to the draw and i pulled 25 which as you cider regulars will know is a flyer , luckily gary cross drew it at the weekend and managed 25 lb off so it has had a bit of a rest,i did say that if i did worse than that i would take up diy and sell my kit (i only bet on certanties).
first drop in at 11mtrs to my left on 8mm hard pellet and i had a 3 1/2 pounder on the deck swiftly followed by several more fairly quickly. with a gap in front of me and an island left and right at 11 and 13 mtrs i decided to concentrate on these 2 areas feeding 4mm with a catty. by the end of the first hour i had 10 carp in the net but then began to get liners and odd foulers so out with the shallow rig and the response was instant and by moving between the 2 islands feeding 4,s and with a 6 on the hook i ended up with 67 carp and when the scales arrived they went 159.9. apart from the good soaking and a quiet 4th hour when it went a bit hard and i had to go back on the deck it was a good day.
2nd off peg 46 was now venue regular rod wooten with 93.3 caught mainly on the deck feeding 4,s and using the same on the hook.
3rd derek cullip 90.6 peg 11
4th chris davies 71.10 peg41
5th eddie wynne 57.1 peg 54
6th john dursley 52.7 peg22
silvers were won by the old never been aka matt tomes with 7.9
and i got me quid back off fabio i wont say anything about him cos he did make me a chicken and sweet chile roll for after the match and i must say it went down a treat, oh and what did he catch, well apart from roger andoniou who went home with hypothermia , probably due to his old thin blood , fabsy never weighed .
back to the draw and i pulled 25 which as you cider regulars will know is a flyer , luckily gary cross drew it at the weekend and managed 25 lb off so it has had a bit of a rest,i did say that if i did worse than that i would take up diy and sell my kit (i only bet on certanties).
first drop in at 11mtrs to my left on 8mm hard pellet and i had a 3 1/2 pounder on the deck swiftly followed by several more fairly quickly. with a gap in front of me and an island left and right at 11 and 13 mtrs i decided to concentrate on these 2 areas feeding 4mm with a catty. by the end of the first hour i had 10 carp in the net but then began to get liners and odd foulers so out with the shallow rig and the response was instant and by moving between the 2 islands feeding 4,s and with a 6 on the hook i ended up with 67 carp and when the scales arrived they went 159.9. apart from the good soaking and a quiet 4th hour when it went a bit hard and i had to go back on the deck it was a good day.
2nd off peg 46 was now venue regular rod wooten with 93.3 caught mainly on the deck feeding 4,s and using the same on the hook.
3rd derek cullip 90.6 peg 11
4th chris davies 71.10 peg41
5th eddie wynne 57.1 peg 54
6th john dursley 52.7 peg22
silvers were won by the old never been aka matt tomes with 7.9
and i got me quid back off fabio i wont say anything about him cos he did make me a chicken and sweet chile roll for after the match and i must say it went down a treat, oh and what did he catch, well apart from roger andoniou who went home with hypothermia , probably due to his old thin blood , fabsy never weighed .
Sunday, 4 October 2009
better at bullocks
23 fishing today so we had 19 on the match with 4 on south pool. i didnt mind to much as to where i drew , but i wasnt to happy when shaun putley handed me peg 2. not normally to good for silvers or carp, although you can get a few down the edge to the left under a small tree. so i set up a 4x12 rig for in the open water for silvers , a 4x10 rig for the left hand margin and the same for 16 mtrs to peg 1 which wasnt in.
at the start i cupped in some dry grounbait at 12 and 2 , and a mix of caster maggot and pellet under the tree to the left at 6 mtrs and at 16 mtrs to peg 1 at 16 mts.
starting on maggot over the g bait a nd i had a fantail and a couple of hybrids ,then small roach, a change to corn on the hook and a sucsession of crucians started to find themselves in my net , by kinder potting dry g bait over the 2 lines i kept getting the odd fanny and crucians till about three hours in when it started to go quiet , a look with maggot only produced small roach , so i put in a potfull of g bait with maggot and caster over the 2 lines and got the margin rig out, a look to the left only reseulted in a missed bite on treble maggot and the rig ended up in the tree, i still get excited when the float goes under!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! . so i went round and retrieved the rig from the tree, then went to peg 1 with treble maggot , and hooked 1 straight away but it came off after a few seconds, so i cupped in some more mix up and went back over the silver lines and had odd fannies and roach . after about 10 mins i went back down to peg 1 and after a couple of mins i had another 1 on which stuck this time and a 9 lb fish was safely netted, thats how my match went right to the end really catch a carp feed again go on the silver line get a couple of roach and a fannie then try for a carp, by the end i had 6 carp and i thought about 12 lb of silvers. i could see bela bakos on 17 catching on paste and in the end he had had 21 carp plus bits so he was favourite to win , and lewis jones on 24 had been catching silvers well so that looked sown up.
back to the skales and i was first to weigh, 16.8 of silvers that was a shock , obviosly fat fannies tend to weigh well. and the carp went 34.8 total 52 lb which was top until we got to bela on peg 17 whose 21 carp went 66.13 for first with my 52 lb good enough for 2 nd
3 rd lewis jones 39.11 and top silvers with 16.13 peg 24
4 th tom thicck 32.2 peg 26
5 th gary wall 28.10 peg 21
6 th mike nicholls 28.1 peg 8
nice to see shaun putley out on the bank again thats 2 weeks on the trot and he is even threatening to go again next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!. he was going to fish next years teams of 4 with bela and 2 more but bela has decided to fish with someone else so shaun has has been treated like a used condom and thrown in the gutter poor bloke , i can remember when bela used to like him.
and fabio has finally won a quid off me he was on the river fishing the winter league .i had to offer him 6 times his weight to get the bet, then he goes and draws one of the best chub pegs on the lower avon at swineford and managed to foulhook 12 lb of the buggers meaning i had to get 72 lb to get the quid which is a tall order at bullocks. it aint so bad cos i am only loseing 1 of the pounds he has had to give me lol , i think i might have my wag rod back that i have lent him.
at the start i cupped in some dry grounbait at 12 and 2 , and a mix of caster maggot and pellet under the tree to the left at 6 mtrs and at 16 mtrs to peg 1 at 16 mts.
starting on maggot over the g bait a nd i had a fantail and a couple of hybrids ,then small roach, a change to corn on the hook and a sucsession of crucians started to find themselves in my net , by kinder potting dry g bait over the 2 lines i kept getting the odd fanny and crucians till about three hours in when it started to go quiet , a look with maggot only produced small roach , so i put in a potfull of g bait with maggot and caster over the 2 lines and got the margin rig out, a look to the left only reseulted in a missed bite on treble maggot and the rig ended up in the tree, i still get excited when the float goes under!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! . so i went round and retrieved the rig from the tree, then went to peg 1 with treble maggot , and hooked 1 straight away but it came off after a few seconds, so i cupped in some more mix up and went back over the silver lines and had odd fannies and roach . after about 10 mins i went back down to peg 1 and after a couple of mins i had another 1 on which stuck this time and a 9 lb fish was safely netted, thats how my match went right to the end really catch a carp feed again go on the silver line get a couple of roach and a fannie then try for a carp, by the end i had 6 carp and i thought about 12 lb of silvers. i could see bela bakos on 17 catching on paste and in the end he had had 21 carp plus bits so he was favourite to win , and lewis jones on 24 had been catching silvers well so that looked sown up.
back to the skales and i was first to weigh, 16.8 of silvers that was a shock , obviosly fat fannies tend to weigh well. and the carp went 34.8 total 52 lb which was top until we got to bela on peg 17 whose 21 carp went 66.13 for first with my 52 lb good enough for 2 nd
3 rd lewis jones 39.11 and top silvers with 16.13 peg 24
4 th tom thicck 32.2 peg 26
5 th gary wall 28.10 peg 21
6 th mike nicholls 28.1 peg 8
nice to see shaun putley out on the bank again thats 2 weeks on the trot and he is even threatening to go again next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!. he was going to fish next years teams of 4 with bela and 2 more but bela has decided to fish with someone else so shaun has has been treated like a used condom and thrown in the gutter poor bloke , i can remember when bela used to like him.
and fabio has finally won a quid off me he was on the river fishing the winter league .i had to offer him 6 times his weight to get the bet, then he goes and draws one of the best chub pegs on the lower avon at swineford and managed to foulhook 12 lb of the buggers meaning i had to get 72 lb to get the quid which is a tall order at bullocks. it aint so bad cos i am only loseing 1 of the pounds he has had to give me lol , i think i might have my wag rod back that i have lent him.
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
even blind squirrels pick up at landsend
good turn out today 21 fishing so all the golden pegs were in but i never got one . martin lenaghan handed me 33 which is behind the hut on the speci lake, and with 34 not in i had lots of options. 1 4x12 rig for hard pellet on the deck , 1 4x10 for in the left hand edge, 1 4x10 for over on the island and a dibber for shallow. 11.45 start and i began by cupping in 4mm in the deep water at 15 mtr and some at 14 mtr in the margin , and fired some 6,s over to the island.
first put in and a 5 lb carp was in the net followed by another on the next drop , then a couple of foulers which came off, then a nice f 1 thingy, then at 12.15 , mikes wave maker began, and for the next 2 hours all i had was 2 carp and 3 chub. i thought i might catch trotting down the side of the island but apart from the 2 chub and 1 lost fouler that was hard aswell especially as i had to use 17 mtrs to do it, so a quick look in the margin , first put in and a snag! next put in and i hooked a carp which went down thru a snag taking my rig with it so i gave that up as a bad job.
back on the deck rig and wait for the water wheel to stop, i did get a couple of liners but no fish.
aerater went off at 2.15 so it was time to go to the island 17 mtrs again , christ its hard work, but there were some fish showing . i began to get bites straight away and had a couple of quick fish before they dissapeared, as it was only 12 inches deep they spook quite quickly so you keep feeding but fish back on the deep line till there confidence returns and you start to see movement, by swapping between the two lines i kept odd fish coming ,and ended up with about 20 carp which i thought would go about 100 lb. apart from gary wall next to me who was admitting to about 85 lb the only ather angler to have much was martin lenaghan who managed to draw peg 19 for himself so that was 2 fliers he had drawn in 1 day and he trys to tell us he cant draw and he had 27 carp and they went 125. 3 for first place, all caught shallow at 13 mtrs on pellet. i was second with 109.1
3rd gary wall 89.13 peg 35 on paste
4th a oram 73.8 peg 18 meat at 4 mtrs
5th tim clarke peg 7, 71.4
6th phil(fabio)harding peg 13 ,50.12
sivers tom thick on peg 1 20.7 on worm and caster
2nd john bradford 17,3 peg 15
good to see charlie has got some help to get to his peg now in the shape of a battery trolley, and it has to be said that it is very good cos i took it for a test drive around the carpark. and i nearly lost it by the corner of the hut. s0 all you oldies out there who are finding it a bit of a struggle now it could be a life saver so eddie wynne it might just be for you the battery will do 5 miles so it would be ok for those long long walks to infinity and beyond or even the corn field.
first put in and a 5 lb carp was in the net followed by another on the next drop , then a couple of foulers which came off, then a nice f 1 thingy, then at 12.15 , mikes wave maker began, and for the next 2 hours all i had was 2 carp and 3 chub. i thought i might catch trotting down the side of the island but apart from the 2 chub and 1 lost fouler that was hard aswell especially as i had to use 17 mtrs to do it, so a quick look in the margin , first put in and a snag! next put in and i hooked a carp which went down thru a snag taking my rig with it so i gave that up as a bad job.
back on the deck rig and wait for the water wheel to stop, i did get a couple of liners but no fish.
aerater went off at 2.15 so it was time to go to the island 17 mtrs again , christ its hard work, but there were some fish showing . i began to get bites straight away and had a couple of quick fish before they dissapeared, as it was only 12 inches deep they spook quite quickly so you keep feeding but fish back on the deep line till there confidence returns and you start to see movement, by swapping between the two lines i kept odd fish coming ,and ended up with about 20 carp which i thought would go about 100 lb. apart from gary wall next to me who was admitting to about 85 lb the only ather angler to have much was martin lenaghan who managed to draw peg 19 for himself so that was 2 fliers he had drawn in 1 day and he trys to tell us he cant draw and he had 27 carp and they went 125. 3 for first place, all caught shallow at 13 mtrs on pellet. i was second with 109.1
3rd gary wall 89.13 peg 35 on paste
4th a oram 73.8 peg 18 meat at 4 mtrs
5th tim clarke peg 7, 71.4
6th phil(fabio)harding peg 13 ,50.12
sivers tom thick on peg 1 20.7 on worm and caster
2nd john bradford 17,3 peg 15
good to see charlie has got some help to get to his peg now in the shape of a battery trolley, and it has to be said that it is very good cos i took it for a test drive around the carpark. and i nearly lost it by the corner of the hut. s0 all you oldies out there who are finding it a bit of a struggle now it could be a life saver so eddie wynne it might just be for you the battery will do 5 miles so it would be ok for those long long walks to infinity and beyond or even the corn field.
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
shop bitz part 5
cant believe the cheek of some people. a certain psv rent boy aka darren north was in the shop commenting on what a good freebie it was on the AT last week. it was an avanti method feeder and mould(rec retail 7.99 lol winkers preston is only 4.98 for mould and feeder), and then he asks me how to use it, ooh wonder what i told him, cant say here cos my mum reads this!!!!!!!!
i, m still having a few problems with the coffin dodgers. firstly mr nicholls, he repaired a pole section of mine as an experiment in carbon repairs with a view to doing repairs properly but after doing it he quickly realised that it wasnt financially viable, any way when doing repairs the sections have to be held straight , now i aint quite sure how he did it cos the repair was nice and straight but he just had to apologise for the ammount of vaseline that was still all over the section hmmm i wonder!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
another oldy namely adrian jeffery proudly announced that he was off to a tom jones concert shortly , and he even admitted to buying the tickets, and they try and tell us that the male menopause is just a myth ,if they need proof just get a doctor to spend an afternoon in the shop and all will be confirmed.
congrats to my wife judith who has been on a asda diet for 2 weeks now , she is doing really well cos she has only put 1 pound on, perhaps tesco will be next .
cant go without mentioning fabio , after not doing to well on the river at the weekend it could be that he was to weak after having a barry white night with fi fi on saturday , now as he isnt seeing her tonite he has taken 2 porno dvd,s someone dropped in today so he can have a barry white night on his own (know what i mean). so it will be over with quick time and so he shouldnt be so tired tomorrow at landsend, time will tell.
i hope pete wild is on the mend as he came in last friday complaining of a cracked ring(nasty)
i, m still having a few problems with the coffin dodgers. firstly mr nicholls, he repaired a pole section of mine as an experiment in carbon repairs with a view to doing repairs properly but after doing it he quickly realised that it wasnt financially viable, any way when doing repairs the sections have to be held straight , now i aint quite sure how he did it cos the repair was nice and straight but he just had to apologise for the ammount of vaseline that was still all over the section hmmm i wonder!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
another oldy namely adrian jeffery proudly announced that he was off to a tom jones concert shortly , and he even admitted to buying the tickets, and they try and tell us that the male menopause is just a myth ,if they need proof just get a doctor to spend an afternoon in the shop and all will be confirmed.
congrats to my wife judith who has been on a asda diet for 2 weeks now , she is doing really well cos she has only put 1 pound on, perhaps tesco will be next .
cant go without mentioning fabio , after not doing to well on the river at the weekend it could be that he was to weak after having a barry white night with fi fi on saturday , now as he isnt seeing her tonite he has taken 2 porno dvd,s someone dropped in today so he can have a barry white night on his own (know what i mean). so it will be over with quick time and so he shouldnt be so tired tomorrow at landsend, time will tell.
i hope pete wild is on the mend as he came in last friday complaining of a cracked ring(nasty)
Sunday, 27 September 2009
bullocks with charlie
with 20 people booked in for the match lake , it all looked good for a nice match, trouble was charlie hasnt worked out how to work his answering machine so there is now 24 booked in and the extra 4 were to be put on north pool on the good pegs at the bottom of the arm. when the draw got under way i pulled peg 8 which has a bit of form as a down the edge peg towards no7 which isnt in. as i mentioned last time , phil has employed a gardner to tidy the place up a bit , if i was phil i would sack the lazy idle git cos i couldnt even lift a top set up in my peg , so i had to do some pruning myself. 3 rigs today 1 4x12 silvers at 8 mtrs . 4x8 hard pellet rig against the island under a tree and a 4x10 rig for down the edge.
at the start i cupped in some grounbait and caster on the 8 mtr line , some 4mm against the island and a mix of caster, maggot, pellet and corn down the edge either side. nothing like giving them a choice.
starting on caster i had to wait about 15 mins for my first bite , and a lipless fantail ended up in the net, i was getting indications but no real positive bites , although i did get a couple more rantails and , hybrids a change to small pieces of corn and the bites improved with more fantails ending up in the net, after about 2 hours i went down the margin to peg 7 and had a 2lb carp on corn straight away, (that was the end of the silvers then , more fool me). apart from a few liners no more bites were forthcoming, so i cupped in some pellet and maggot and had a look to the island.
lowering the pellet in as tight as i could and the float kept going and another 2lb carp was in the net, quicklly followed by 2 smaller ones . tme to go down the edge again this time to the left and after snagging first put in i decided to leave this side and concentrate on the right hand side, although it was nearly 12 inches shallower the bottom was clear.
this time i went in with treble maggot on , which the fish seemed to prefer, and by alternating between the island and the margin odd fish kept gracing the net , problem was the fish were on the small side it must be a nursery peg, by the end i had 12 small carp which i estimated would go about 30lb with the silvers. they actually went 30lb 15 oz for no where in the match,
the match was won by gary bedford with 75.10 on north pool peg 12 using soft pellet down the edge and across,(poxy split venues cos a pensioner cant work his answering machine lol)
2nd the old sly fox himself mike nicholls 58.8 peg17 match lake mostly taken on a rapala magnum draggeb across there backs.
3 rd adrian jeffrey 50.4 19 match lake on maggot down the edge mainly in the last hour
4th tom tick 49.7 25 match lake again maggot down the edge
5 th jason radford 40.6 22 match lake
6th paul faires 36.2 6 north pool
silvers was a father and son doudle act with ray and glyn wickham both having 12.5 on pegs 24 and 26 respectivaley
jason radford had to go in after the match to find his half ex which slid in before the start and with the water over 3 foot deep he had to use a pole section as a snorkel but he did find it, nick collins looks like a giant stood next to jason
pictures of jason will be available on mikes blog
any one looking for a match next sunday i am running one at bullocks again
at the start i cupped in some grounbait and caster on the 8 mtr line , some 4mm against the island and a mix of caster, maggot, pellet and corn down the edge either side. nothing like giving them a choice.
starting on caster i had to wait about 15 mins for my first bite , and a lipless fantail ended up in the net, i was getting indications but no real positive bites , although i did get a couple more rantails and , hybrids a change to small pieces of corn and the bites improved with more fantails ending up in the net, after about 2 hours i went down the margin to peg 7 and had a 2lb carp on corn straight away, (that was the end of the silvers then , more fool me). apart from a few liners no more bites were forthcoming, so i cupped in some pellet and maggot and had a look to the island.
lowering the pellet in as tight as i could and the float kept going and another 2lb carp was in the net, quicklly followed by 2 smaller ones . tme to go down the edge again this time to the left and after snagging first put in i decided to leave this side and concentrate on the right hand side, although it was nearly 12 inches shallower the bottom was clear.
this time i went in with treble maggot on , which the fish seemed to prefer, and by alternating between the island and the margin odd fish kept gracing the net , problem was the fish were on the small side it must be a nursery peg, by the end i had 12 small carp which i estimated would go about 30lb with the silvers. they actually went 30lb 15 oz for no where in the match,
the match was won by gary bedford with 75.10 on north pool peg 12 using soft pellet down the edge and across,(poxy split venues cos a pensioner cant work his answering machine lol)
2nd the old sly fox himself mike nicholls 58.8 peg17 match lake mostly taken on a rapala magnum draggeb across there backs.
3 rd adrian jeffrey 50.4 19 match lake on maggot down the edge mainly in the last hour
4th tom tick 49.7 25 match lake again maggot down the edge
5 th jason radford 40.6 22 match lake
6th paul faires 36.2 6 north pool
silvers was a father and son doudle act with ray and glyn wickham both having 12.5 on pegs 24 and 26 respectivaley
jason radford had to go in after the match to find his half ex which slid in before the start and with the water over 3 foot deep he had to use a pole section as a snorkel but he did find it, nick collins looks like a giant stood next to jason
pictures of jason will be available on mikes blog
any one looking for a match next sunday i am running one at bullocks again
Friday, 25 September 2009
shop bitz part 4
i,m starting to worry about the older anglers coming into the shop. it hit home today when ed wynne was chatting to gus manton about the size of the hemp and commented on the quality of it and i must say it is huge but it wont split, any way after guy left the shop ed walked over to an open sack grabbed a handful and said what lovely hemp it was , shame really as it was a sack of 4mm coarse pellets, i think ed ought to consider suing the opticians in his local pound shop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
trig(aka craig edmunds)came in today on his way back from his latest laser treatment he has now started with some liquid the clinic gave him , he has to use a syringe to put about 2 ml on twice a day so he thought he would do the first dose in the shop , problem was it had a particularly stubborn child resistant lid on it which he failed to remove so i had to do it so after squirting it on his head he sat down to let it take effect trouble i think it was made of acetone and cow piss judging by the smell. then dean came in and decided that it was time for the second treatment, and it wasnt a pretty site that of dean giving trig a head masage cos trig looked to be really enjoying it . he must have a soft spot for dean after the ball licking incident.
nice to see fabs and fi fi had a good time on the isle of wight last weekend shame it was cut short when they were caught dancing naked around a rams head in a sechluded piece of woodland and they got themselves evicted on the first night lol
trig(aka craig edmunds)came in today on his way back from his latest laser treatment he has now started with some liquid the clinic gave him , he has to use a syringe to put about 2 ml on twice a day so he thought he would do the first dose in the shop , problem was it had a particularly stubborn child resistant lid on it which he failed to remove so i had to do it so after squirting it on his head he sat down to let it take effect trouble i think it was made of acetone and cow piss judging by the smell. then dean came in and decided that it was time for the second treatment, and it wasnt a pretty site that of dean giving trig a head masage cos trig looked to be really enjoying it . he must have a soft spot for dean after the ball licking incident.
nice to see fabs and fi fi had a good time on the isle of wight last weekend shame it was cut short when they were caught dancing naked around a rams head in a sechluded piece of woodland and they got themselves evicted on the first night lol
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
close at avalon
strange how you manage to draw the same pegs on the same venues innit, i ended up on peg 12 yet again, good wag peg and not to bad on the pole iether, but i would like to draw a different peg occasionally. three pole rigs , one 4x14 for hair rigged pellet on the deck , 4x12 up in the water, paste rig and of course the pellet wag for over. starting at 14 mtr i cupped in half a pot of 4mm and started to fire 8mm to the island, i would have liked to have fed 6,s to the island but its about 35 mtrs and with no wind to help they wouldnt quite get there. 10 minutes in and my first bite resulted in a 7 lb common finding its way into the keepnet, by the end of the first hour i had only added 1 more to the tally, but i had lost a couple of foulers. oh well out with the paste, but that was no good all i could get was a few funny dips which i put down to skimmers . after 2 hours it was time to chuck the wag , and i had 1 first chuck, although there were a few fish showing on the island they were a bit cagey and not really willing to stray to far from the island, so the tighter you could get the more chance of a bite , but you tend to lose some as you got to pull like hell to stop them going thru the gap , all the time i was feeding 4,s on the pole line ,but the fish seemed to be backing away from the feed, as every time you fed the minimal fizzing stopped, so it seemed better to feed 3 pouches and leave it , and when some bubbles appeared go in with the pellet rig and wait for a bite . normally lifting and dropping in the bubbles brings a response but today it seemed better just to sit and wait for a bite. by alternating between the wag and pole i ended up with 14 carp and 1 skimmer, both gary wall and martin lenaghan also had 14 carp so it was going to be tight. as it turned out gary had 79.12 on peg 21 with one fish going 18lb
2nd me with78.1
3rd martin lenaghan 77.9(my 1.2 skimmer was crucial)peg 9 pellet wag
4th tony wittcomb 61.6 peg5 wag(wot no paste)
5th chris fox 60.1 peg 16
6th colin dyer 35.2
so 1 fish seperating the top 3 thats much better than someone running away with it.
cant go without mentioning the silvers master chris derrick, having decided that he had the silvers sussed he announced he was going to catch carp today so we could do away with the silver pool, 6hours later and 2 carp in the net i think he was beginning to regret it , even after spending 4 hours at dodgy,s house on tues evening for some coaching from the new paste master (dave downton)and several phone calls during the day it just never happened . dodgy couldnt understand what went wrong !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2nd me with78.1
3rd martin lenaghan 77.9(my 1.2 skimmer was crucial)peg 9 pellet wag
4th tony wittcomb 61.6 peg5 wag(wot no paste)
5th chris fox 60.1 peg 16
6th colin dyer 35.2
so 1 fish seperating the top 3 thats much better than someone running away with it.
cant go without mentioning the silvers master chris derrick, having decided that he had the silvers sussed he announced he was going to catch carp today so we could do away with the silver pool, 6hours later and 2 carp in the net i think he was beginning to regret it , even after spending 4 hours at dodgy,s house on tues evening for some coaching from the new paste master (dave downton)and several phone calls during the day it just never happened . dodgy couldnt understand what went wrong !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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