avon angling weds open , acorn fishery

with 17 fishing and no sign of any pleasure anglers bev let us use more pegs than i initially asked for, and the weather men were right again with a forcast of heavy slow moving heavy showers, and they were slow moving, so slow in fact that a cloud sat over us for over 4 hours with stair rods falling out of it, the lake level came up 2 inches during the match.
i had the last ticket and ended up in peg 24 which i have had before and its not to bad a peg, i had mike west on 22 and tom thick on 26, and he is becoming a bit of a nemesis for me and today wasnt going to be any different.
i decided on a bit of a corn approach today so i set up a couple of rigs for the far side, one for tight in and another for just off in about 2 feet of water,with 16 6313 hooks on .12 line. a 4x10 caster rig for the margins and a .5grm for caster at 4mtrs.
at the start i began on the 4mtr line with caster, after feeding the other lines, tom went straight across and i said to him he would get a bite in the first 5 seconds, i actually got to a count of 8 before his float went under and that set the scene for the match really with tom catching steadily throughout.
my caster line gave me a couple of carp and a few skimmers but it died by the end of the first hour , so it was across i went , on the slightly deeper rig to begin with but it soon became apparent that the fish didnt want to be in the deeper water so it was up into the shallow water, kindering a few pieces of corn and a sprinkling of soaked 3mm pellets, and i did begin to catch but i was to far behind tom to cause a threat to him so a minor placing was my only option, the only other person i could see catching was jason radford on peg 1 who was catching on paste, the last couple of hours was spent between the far side and the margin caster swim, with the latter being the most productive but the fish were on the small side. by the end i had lost count of the numbers of fish i had caught but it was probably between 35 and 40 carp for about 100lb, tom had 67 carp so 200lb was looking on the cards for him, he also was catching well on caster down his margin in the last hour so thats another battering from him, but he,s not a gloater, but after watching him today he is a bit of a gurner when he,s netting fish, so make sure you keep an eye on him next time you draw next to him.
1st tom thick peg 26 202.5
2nd tony rixon peg 24 106.11
3rd jason radford peg 1 106.1
4th rich coles peg 10 77.12
5th mat tomes peg 6 77.9
6th ziggy slowinski peg 5 67.8
silvers
today was a tie with the 2 oldest people in southwest match fishing
john(the gimp)bradford and rich coles both with 15lb on the button, both feeding caster close in

silvers league, viaduct fishery round 1

i think obout 45 were fishing today so we were spread over cambell, cary and lodge lakes which is nice to see. i wasnt to sure as to where i wanted to draw but i can tell you i wasnted to dissapointed when i opened the ticket to reveal number 126 on cambell looking at me ,it is a good silvers peg and john bradford won the silvers off it on thursday with over 60lb of skimmers, catching on small pieces of worm over groundbait, for company i had newly returned to the sport steve kedge on 125 who had spent the whole summer commercial mackrell fishing in dorset and smiling dave roper on 127, and with nick collins on 128 it was going to be an interesting day, yet again the weather men got it right with strong easterly winds which was cold and lots of rain,lovely.
i set up 3 rigs , a .3 with a 18 6313 for caster on my topset, a .75 g for 11mtrs over gbait, a bit heavier than i would have liked but with the strong wind blowing in and across i thought it would help again with an 18 to .10. then a .5 worm rig for 5 and 11 mtrs with a 16 6313 on .12, at the start i cupped in 6 balls at 11 mtrs, some w&c at 5trs and began feeding a fer casters on topset range, i did put some casters and finely chopped worm in the g bait aswell but not to much, dave to my right also fed some g bait and worm but kedgey fed just w&c on various lines which i thought a bit dangerous as the carp love it, shows how much i know .
starting on my topset i had a couple of quick roach then i lost a tench and that line went dead, so onto the 5 mtr line with a piece of worm on, a small perch was followed by a good skimmer then no bites so a bit more w&c and out over the g bait at 11 mtrs on single caster which produced a few skimers but only odd better ones. by feeding and rotating around the feed areas i cant complain about the number of bites i had but i was struggling for quality with no tench whereas both steve and dave had several and nick collins on 128 went from last in the section to 2nd in the last hour netting 7 tench in that period, i did manage 1 tench on my topset but that was my lot as far as tench went, kedgey was flying towards the end with good skimmers and tench catching on small pieces of worm, as was dave on my right but he was catching on caster as well as worm, the fish i was getting on worm were the same size as the caster fish and with no tench coming my way the best i could hope for was 3rd in section and thats where i ended with 25lb, dave won the section with 32lb and nick collins was 2nd with 28lb, i did lose a couple of good flying bream which possibly would have given me 2nd in the section, but thats fishing , steve kedge luckily was in the next section and he had 44lb so definately a chip shop sausage today being battered all round, obviously i got something wrong today as all around me caught tench late on but with them all doing it differently you just dont know really do you, the highlights of the day was sitting opposite mat tomes on 115 putting in a fine show of carp fishing , whatever he did he hooked a carp lol, also clyaton hudson on 66 lodge lake somehow managing to step off his platform and into the lake , its much easier and safer to use a plummet matey.
i dint get the full results but phil cardwell on 69 lodge lake (i think) had 56lb of skimmers on w&c
2nd was tim palant on 80 cary with 52lb of skimmers on caster over g bait
3rd steve kedge 44lb peg 125
4th stuart barnett 43lb peg 100
off to landsend next sunday for an open so if anyone is interested ring me at the shop on 0117 9517250
also on weds we are at acorn fishery for those who want to brave the rain

silvers open , viaduct fishery , cambell lake

firstly i got to say well done to our ceck angler gabriel(i think)who won the acorn open open on tuesday off the peg i failed badly on (38) on sunday, i bet he,s glad i rested it so well ha ha ha.
back to viaduct and i was a bit suprised to see only 11 booked in especially as the silvers league starts this weekend and there are 46 booked in for that at the mo.
into the draw tin and out comes 123 which is up in the top left hand corner and has a lot of form for tench and skimmers, for company i had the gimp on 125 and our polish buddy ziggy slowinski(is that better zig)on 126 , both swims being good silvers pegs. i managed to get the gimp to have a quid but on present form even that wasnt going to be easy. i set up 4 rigs, a pellet rig for 5mtrs to my right at the bottom of the slope, and a margin caster rig both of which were non starters so no more of them then. a .5grm rig for 4 and 11 mtrs for caster over groundbait with a 18 6313 on .10 ,and a 4x14 impact 6 with a 16 6313 on .12 for chopped worm and caster to my left at 4 mtrs at the bottom of the shelf, at the start in cupped in 7 balls at 11mtrs and 3 at 4mtrs and some messy w&c at 4mtrs to the left. starting at 4mtr with single caster in soon had a small skimmer followed by a few more then the roach turned up over the g bait making it hard to get a bait to the bottom, i think a heavier rig will be made for the weekend with the bulk well down to try and crash through the rubbish(silverfox dream fish), by now there were some bubbles coming up over the 11mtr line so i shipped out to this line and missed a couple of bites, which i think were liners, so i put double caster on which gave me 5 good skimmers in quick time then it went quiet, i think carp were coming over the feed and unsettleing the silvers also the bubbles stopped so i cupped in a couple more and came back over the close line but the small roach were still there, so down on the c&w line and i had 3 tench then i hooked a snag which i pulled off the deck and the swim never came back to life so in cupped some more at ii mtrs down the left again at the bottom of the shelf, i didnt want to go to close to the margin a there seemed to be plenty of carp mooching around and i didnt want to waste any time or hooks on them, back out to the 11 mtr line and a couple more skimmers before it went a bit slow again so a couple more balls and down the edge on the worm, the only person i could see catching was ziggy on 126 but i think his elastics were a bit harsh as he lost several good skimmers during the match, and the gimp was catching carp lol but he did get some skimmers and tench towards the end of the match.
on the 11 mtr line down the left i had 3 carp in the first 3 put ins but on the 4th put in i had a tench followed by 2 more before the swim died, so in refed and went back out over the g bait i had a couple of skimmers but bites were hard to get, i was getting moverments on the float so i think the skimmers were there but i dont hink they were feeding properly ,possibly due to the bright sunshine and flat water on our bank, by the end i had another 5 tench down the left giving me 10 tench and several skimmers for what i thought would go about 35lb, when paul got to me ziggy was winning with 32.13 but my net went 41.8 for first on the day with ziggy coming second,
3rd was chris fox with 25.12 on 112
4th john bradford 25.10 peg 125
5th dick bull 16.10 peg 115
6th paul blake 15.10 peg 111
now looking forward to sunday , hopefully with more anglers on the bank sunday carp wont be so much of a problem as most people caught or lost loads today, i had 10 myself, its amazing how hard you can pull on .10 without it snapping,

avon angling sunday open, acorn fishery

now the trauma has subsided i will do my blog, the end












just joking, 48 fished today so we put 39 on paddock and 9 on the old canal, the match would be won on paddock but i had a sneaky feeling that the silvers winner would come off the old canal, and for a consistent weights affair the canal looked best, i let re patriated aussie stu barnett draw for me , i ended up on paddock 38 which was 2 pegs from where i failed miserably on weds and stu had 3 on the canal,
i,m not going to waste to much time on my match as i was shit, started on caster and had a few skimmers, that died ,went out on soft pellet had 1 skimmer and a small carp, tried paste, no good , i did manage to mug a cruiser which was about 7lb, and that was really the end of my match as i weighed in 11 lb for last in the match of people to weigh in. luckily 10 never weighed so i wasnt last overall (smacks of desperation methinks), on my left martin rich had a few carp on paste and on my right nigel bartlett had 15lb of silvers and he worked really hard for that, all i did was run round in ever decreasing circles until i dissapeared up my own ass, so this was one to forget, what was interesting today as far as paddock went was that the pegs everyone expected to win never, the weights came off pegs you wouldnt really pick,
1st went to glen bailey on peg 2 with 111.10 on paste
2nd alan oram 104 on peg 7
3rd tim ford 98.10 peg 27
4th bob(mammy)gullick 81.3 peg 21
5th mike nicholls 80.13 peg 30
6th craig edmunds 80.9 peg 1
silvers
tom thick 32.10 peg 5 on the old canal, skimmers on soft pellet over micros
those interested i am running an open on landsend on sunday 30 th september, book in with me at the shop on 01179517250
back to the match and as it was a short pole match, top set plus 3 more maximum it fished very consistently so i will be doing more but not till next summer now,
right now i have done the blog i will leave it to mr anon to have the last word in the comments lol x

acorn fishery topset and 2 sections only

with 22 fishing there was still plenty of room for everyone, although i did cram a few together in the good areas and as results went the fish still seemed to stay put in the better swims, i let trigger draw for me today and he handed me peg 36, this peg blows hot and cold and it has been more cold than hot of late. craig edmunds aka trigger was in the shop on tuesday saying that he thought the venue would respond to a heavy maggot feeding approach as the carp are coming up in the water for pellet and caster and with not to many small rubbish fish to snaffle the bait it may be a goer. why oh why did i talk him out of it, probably as i had already decided to do it myself (wish i hadnt)so with trig on peg 1 and fishing caster it would be easy to keep an eye on him, especially as he was giving me a hard time for talking him out of maggot drowning then doing it myself.
i put together a .5g rig for on the deck with a 16 6313 hook on .12 a 4x12 for up in the water with a 18 hook of the same pattern and a down the edge 4x12 rig for corn with an 18 9313 hook on .14 line.
just before the start kieth turner over on peg 26 loose fed his 4 and 5 section into the lake and even the fishery staff armed with rakes couldnt retrieve them , that kind man trig did offer to get in after the match and try and get them, and he did and he got them straight away, i think the videos are on tim fords blog and possibly mike nicholls blog aswell fairplay to trig i say, kieth did eventually get down to fishing with just his topset down his margin and he caught over 40lb giving his son shane a severe beating off the next peg,
i would like to say the mag attack worked really well but it never and by the halfway mark i only had 3 small carp and a handful of skimmers, much to trigs ammusement as he was getting a skimmer every put in, fishing on the deck and up in the water.
sat in this peg you can see all the good pegs and most were catching with mike nicholls on 12 mike west on 13 and fabio on 15 was catching ,also mash on 9 was getting plenty of action but he was missing a lot of bites and losing a fair few, and over on bridge peg 21 glen bailey was also catching, with the exception of fabio the rest were all catching on paste , fabio was catching shallow on paste,
with 2 hours to go i ditched the maggots and spent the rest of the match in the margins, even that was slow but it did get better in the last hour and i ended the match with 66lb but that was no where near a pick up, with mike nicholls winning the paste race with 117.11 off peg 12 on mainly just his topset
2nd glen bailey , 99lb peg 21 on paste
3rd philip(fabio)harding, 98.3 on pellet shallow
4th mike west peg 13 on paste
5th mash 90.7 peg 9 on paste
6th chris winstone peg 5 0n paste
i think it may be a paste attack at the weekend as we are back here again on sunday for a topset and 3 sections only, and with 50 booked in it should be interesting with no areas for the fish to hide in, and with everyone fishing the same distance the fish will come to the anglers, these short pole matches do seem to throw up consistent weights as its the same for everyone.
silvers on the day went to craig edmunds with a nice net of skimmers for 43.12 off peg 1
2nd in silvers went to john bradford on peg 11 weith 29.8

sedges brick lake

20 fishing today so no empty pegs , a quick chat with owner jamie revealed that it had fished hard on saturday with the top end of the lake fishing the best probably due to the wind blowing that way, so with a favaoured draw at the top half of the lake i let steve seager draw for me, after he had drawn 10 for himself which is the top left hand corner of the lake with the wind blowing in, then he draws peg 4 for me which is ok for skimmers but even then you generally need to be a couple of swims up to be smack on, i had decided on a meat approach as the skimmers and carp have been responding to it on this lake, so a 4x18 rig was assembled for 5 and 14 mtrs as its the same depth with a 16 middy 9313 hook on .14 and a 4x12 for the margins with the same hook and line. and a 3ssg pellet wag for out by the rope which runs down the centre of the lake, for company i had the evans brothers each side with steve on my left and dave on my right, at the start i cupped meat in at 5 and 14 mtrs then went straight out on the wag with a banded 8 on the hook, you can sometimes get a couple of mug fish early on, but not today , i fished it for the first hour for only one bite which i missed, there were a couple of fish taken by odd anglers on the wag but it wasnt happening for me or most others, only adrian jeffery on 8 was catching odd fish on it but he had to chuck into the gimps peg to get a bite lol. well the gimp wasnt useing it,
onto the pole and my first bite at 14 mtrs resulted in a near 14lb carp, dead handy methinks, then it was skimmers all falling to 8mm meat, it wasnt fast and furious but it was interesting, you would catch a couple of fish then they seemed to back off and you would have to wait for a while to get another bite, the 5mtr line gave up about half a dozen skimmers and one carp but most of the action was out at 14mtrs, adrian jeffery looked to be doing the best as he was swapping between the pole and pellet and the wag catching odd carp and skimmers right up to the end, alan oram on 7 had been catching skimmers on paste and meat and with paul elmes, mike west and fabio all catching it was hard to tell as to who was winning but by the end it was the old stager adrian jeffery on peg 8 who came out on top with 97.1, its nice to see the old boys doing well occasionally
2nd and at the other end of the age scale was paul(beever)elmes with 77.01 on peg 6
3rd and back up to the top end of the ages was mike west with 71.6 on peg 11
4th phil(fabio)harding 68.5 peg 12
5th tony rixon 67.2 peg 4
6th alan oram 43.13 peg 7
silvers
me with 36.8
alan oram 32.12

weds open landsend fishery

only 13 of us today so we only used the match lake, mark poppelton drew for me and handed me peg 7, which is a peg i seem to draw quite a lot, i wasnt to upset as it is a consistent peg which seems to get better in the last half of the match, fabio kept up his drawing prowess by ending up on 19 again, he was hoping to put right what he cocked up last time he was sat on this flier, and with in form paste head mike west on 22 it looked as though he was going to be the man to beat , fabio came round to see me and i had to make him a paste rig as he cant see to thread the line through the float rubbers, but of course he dont need glasses does he !!!!!
i set up a meat rig for 5mtrs, which would also be alright for meat in the left hand margin as the 2 lines were the same depth, the business end had a 16 6313 on .12 .
a paste rig as if you cant beat them you got to join them havnt you which i planned to use up to empty peg 8 and the bottom of the far side shelf as again it was the same depth.
and a couple of pellet rigs for over to the island both with a 18 b960 on .16, in the last couple of matches tom thick has done well just kindering pellets and leaving the catty alone so i decided to do the same but fish about 2 feet off the bank to try and draw the fish off the island instead of chasing slurpers, you can catch by slapping the rig tight to the island but this peg has an overhanging bush about 3 feet off the water making slapping a bit perilous so another good reason to try and draw the fish off the island, after feeding all lines with a cup at the start i began at 5 mtrs on meat and it took about 15 mins to get my first proper bite which ended up with a 2lb skimmer in the landing net ,then it flipped as i was putting it into the net and i dropped it the wrong side of the net DOH. i spent the first 90 mins on the meat line and had a couple of carp and another skimmer, although there were signs of feeding fish on this line proper bites were hard to get, by now fabio was catching well on the paste rig i made for him, as was ziggy zowinski on 21 who was catching on pellet over to the island, but disaster struck for ziggy when his 14mtr section snapped in half when he lifted into a bite, so that was basically the end of his match as he was flying when it happened.
back in my swim and a look over the paste lines gave me 2 over at the bottom of the island shelf but down by the empty pallet it seemed to be full of nibblers, back to the 5 mtr meat line and i had 2 quick carp then no more, by now it was about halfway through(where does the time go )so with 6 or 7 carp in the net it was over to the island kindering 4,s and fishing a banded 6 and i started catching straight away (why i left it so long is a mystery)by feeding a few pellets after every fish i managed to end the match with about 25 carp for about 120lb, fabio looked like todays winner as he had a really good spell with big fish on paste down the edge, on a rig he had assembled himself, and those big fish really made the difference as he put 4 on the scales for 36 lb which is big fish for this lake,and they helped him to a match winning 146.13 off 19
2nd was me with 135.12 off 7
3rd tom mangnal 125.14 on 18
4th mark poppleton 111.14 peg 13
5th ziggy zowinski 109.2 peg 21, the snapped pole cost him methinks
6th rod wootten 91.3 peg 11
silvers
rod wootten 18.01
roger andoniou 16.13 peg 5

chilton trinity wildmarsh lake

it was meant to be the first round of the teams of 4,s today on this venue but due to a couple of teams dropping out at the start of last week i decided to abandon the league. but with the venues booked for this year i decided to run them as opens on the venues instead, and with 29 booked in today it was a reasonble match.
bela bakos pulled 2 tickets out at once so i took the spare off him and ended up with peg 60 which is along the road bank, not the best of swims but there is always a chance of some good skimmers and carp, normally on paste at this time of year. for company i had the somerset ,( put another pot in) paste angler mike west on 59 and dean malin on 62, to win or frame today i thought you would need a draw at the other end of the lake by the reed beds or around the island , but with sensible section payouts(£45) at least there was a chance of recouping some expenditure,
i set up the paste rig for 14mtrs and a rig to fish other baits over the pellet line as i thought it may be worth a few fish if the paste wouldnt go, i also set up a margin meat rig and a shallow rig to slap around in the pellet fizz, at the start nearly everyone started by cupping in some pellets , and most people had instant fizz, but in 6ft of water, this area seems a bit shallower than other parts of the lake, and in the first 5 mins both mike and me were both playing carp as was tom thick on 57, there seemed to be a few fish in our three swims as by the end of the first hour i had 2 carp and a couple of good skimmers, mike was up to 4 carp and tom was catching silvers quite steadily, but to my left dean was struggling with only a couple of skimmers and it got worse the further along the road bank you went,
after the initial burst things went a bit slow, although the pegs were still fizzing you couldnt get a sensible bite, up in the water on the drop just off bottom, meat paste,soft and hard pellet, paste it didnt seem to matter, soft pellet was ok for small skimmers but the larger skimmers werent playing ball and it was looking like it was carp or bust just to win the section, tom on 57 was still catching odd skimmers so it was no good trying to play catch up as my skims were to small. word came around the bank that the island pegs were fishink ok with adrian clark and steve seager doth catching a few, and i could see alan oram on peg 3 on the island catching some good fish.
back to my swim and it was going to form as the middle of the match and it was going to form as the middle period was rubbish but it did pick up in the last hour with me catching a couple more carp and losing a few , so i ended up with 4 reasonable fish plus a few silvers, but with mike having 7 carp it looked as though he would win our section.
1st on the day went to adrian clark on peg 3 with 14 carp for 63.5, catching on paste down the edge then later on pellet on the lead fished across to the far side reeds
2nd steve seager on 39 with 56.3
3rd alan oram on 3 island peg, 53.14
4th mike west on 59 . 39.3
5th tony rixon on 60 35.4
6th jason radford on peg 7 with 31.12
silvers went to tom thick on 57 with 19.5 of skimmers on banded 6mm pellet