acorn fishery, paddock lake

another good attendance with 23 fishing, so with it being a 40 peg lake everyone had an empty peg on one side, so after a brekkie at the fishery which isnt to bad but it would never be enough for dean malin and it was only just enough for me, on to the draw and i let new dad and balding man in denial craig(trigger)edmunds draw for me and he handed me peg 12 which is a corner peg and the next angler to my right was on peg 10 and that was the cockney immagrant and self confessed carster marster ,martin mcmahon, and somerset angling,s roach demon steve kedge on 13. the venue has been fishing really well with carp being caught on pellet up the far shelf and down the edge on various baits and lots of skimmers down the middle on maggot over groundbait or soft pellet over micro,s, but i decided on a carp only attack so i set up a 4x10 rig for just down the far shelf and a dibber rig for up the shelf both on .14 with a 18 b960 for banded pellet and a 4x12 for caster down the edge with a 16 6313 on .12 but that was a non starter apart from one roach so the less said about that the better, starting on a banded 6 over loose fed 4,s i soon had a 2 pounder in the net but then it went a bit strange with only a couple of skimmers so that rig was thrown up the bank and the shallow was shipped out , and by now i could see odd mud clouds coming up and the occasional swirl, i had a few straight away but the rig wasnt right as the water was so shallow (8 inches)as the levels are down a foot so i got off the box and made up a 4x8 bristle float rig so it was easier to tell when the pellet was just on or just off the bottom, but as far as i could see around the lake i was well behind both gary mewdell on 5 and tom thick on 38 both catching well as was john dursely on 7 but he seemed to be loseing as many as he was landing, by the halfway mark steve kedge was on the silvers attack with the only serious threat to himwas craig edmunds on 18 who was catching skimmers on soft pellet between 11 and 13 mtrs , the 4th and 5th hours were my best spell but the carp were on the small side so by the end i thought i would have about 70lb but it was going to be out of gary mewdell and tom thick as to who would come out on top, as it turned out it was tom thick on 38 who had 104.9 for first ,all the fish falling to soft pellet fished across and then down the edge towards the end
2nd gary mewdell 102.4 peg 5
3rd john dursely 74lb peg 7
4th tony rixon 71.1 peg 12
5th mike chapman 68.8 peg 6
6th mike west 65.11 peg 1
silvers
craig edmunds 45.9 peg 18 on soft pellet nearly all skimmers to 3lb
steve kedge 27lb
all told it was a realy good match with everyone catching a few with only 1 weight under 30lb so there was no complaints today and considering we didnt have a cloud in the sky and it must have been at least 22c the fish fed well

acorn dog bone lake weds

i let fabio draw for me today and he gave me peg 15 and he ended up on 16 both reasonable pegs so no complaints, the beauty of this canal type lake is that you only need one rig as its nearly the same depth bank to bank so i set up a .2 rig on .12 with a 18 6313 hook and a 4x12 rig on .14 with an 18 8313 hook for bagging (just in case), with a severe lack of nuisance small (or any)silvers in the lake the bait today was going to be maggot, i started by cupping some maggot and softened micro,s at 13 mtrs and right over at 15 mtrs and fed some down the edge and at 6 mtrs in front , starting at 13 mtrs i missed a bite after 5 mins but by now tom thick on 13 had caught 2 carp and ha continued to catch for the first 3 hours fishing tight over using maggot over micro,s, after 3 hours tom was well ahead but his swim died and the last half of the match was very hard for him whereas fabio and me had a proper next peg battle with both of us catching odd fish right through the match both tom fabio and me all ended up with over thirty carp so it was going to be very hard to tell who won and it turned out to be a very close thing with tom thick just edging it with 74.11 peg 13
2nd and only a small fish behind was me with74.5 peg 15
3rd and slightly bigger fish away was phil(fabio)harding with 72.15 peg 16
4th ryan summerhayes 69.10 off peg 4
5th craig edmunds 42.14 peg 11
6th pete sivell 30.00 peg 8
silver were won by ryan with a skimmer and a roach for 2.4

acorn lakes practice match

22 booked in today but due to some doctors notes being sent to the draw we ended up with 19 , still a good number for a wednesday, we were using paddock lake which has 40 swims on it ,so plenty of room.i let roger andoniou draw for me even though he tends to give me a crap peg , but today he handed me peg 33 which is a bridge swim and anyone who knows this venue will know that the bridges really guarantee a days sport, i had dave roper the other side of the bridge on 34 and to my right was anton page who was miles away on 28, i had decided to fish with some live baits for a change in the shape of worm and caster down the middle by the bridge and up to my right ,still in the middle, feed and fish caster over by the grass on the far bank and pellet and corn up to the empty swim to my right, the worm rig was a 4x14 affair with a 14 6313 on .12, over was a 4x10 with a 16 6313 on .14 whilst the pallet rig was 4x12 on .16 with a xedion hook. at the start i cupped in some w&c on the worm lines some caster in 2 spots across and some pellet and corn to the pallet, i think tom thick on 3 had caught 2 fish on peg 3 before i had finished feeding on his soft pellet approach fished tight across.
i went in with the worm and was getting bites straight away from small skimmers , f1,s and a couple of small carp, i stuck with this for a couple of hours not really going anywhere as tom on 3 and rich coles were catching steadily, so i ditched this line and went over on double caster and began catching small carp , these bridge swims do seem to hold the smaller fish, i was trying to feed with a catty but the strong right to left wind was making feeding hard so i started potting them in but it wasnt as good as the catapult as the fish seemed to be responding better to catty feeding, the pallet swim to my right was hard to fish as the strong wind was blowing the rig back under the pole tip and dack towards me , i did get 4 fish from there including my biggest fish(4lb)and i lost another better fish there, i think it would have been better to fish paste there as the heavier bait would have stayed in position(best take some sunday). the rest of the match was spent on the far bank as the small carp were being very obliging, i think i ended up with about 40 small carp between 8oz and 1 1/2 lb which was ok around me but probably not enough to worry tom or richard, and thats how it ended with tom thick on peg 3 weighing 84.6
2nd went to rich coles on 6 with 70.10
3rd was me with 59.12 peg 33
4th kev molten 57.12 peg 6
5th steve kedge 44.12 peg 15
6th john bradford 40.7 peg 40 and he was top silver weight with 7.7
sunday should be ok as no one should blank especially as charlie barnes isnt going now lol
most people weighed in but fabio harding,s run of form had to end and today he dnw,d and has his ass tuned by the oldest angler on the bank off the next peg in the shape of joe thompson, with joe giving him a lesson in patience and presentation
breakfast is available on sunday morning at the fishery and its about a fiver for the large one. another plus to the lakes is that you can park right behind your swim with 20mtrs being a long walk

acorn speci lake

owners son mark bartlett suggested we have a match on the speci lake , and with viaduct being a bit close to the glasto festival site people werent to keen to risk the traffic , even with the oky koky anglers booking in and out i still managed to fill the 16 pegs on offer, but with roger andoniou turning up on speck we had 17 but there is a spare peg in front of the cafe so there was no problem. everyone fancied a draw on the front bank as the wind was blowing in to it and we all thought the fish would probadly be following it so when dean drew peg 12 for me which was on the far side in flat water i thougth my chances of winning had all but dissapeared but with the lake being a bit of an unknowner as there are few matches held on it , you never know. there was a clevedon club match on it at the weekend and andy hembrow won that with 85lb on the spare peg on poled pellet down the edge and a lot of the other anglers gaught carp with a fair few being taken on the method feeder but with this being a float only match at the request of mark,as he thought it would fair it up.
the lake has a reasonable head of 4 to the pound skimmers so i intended to target them so at least i would be getting bites. i did set up a margin rig for meat and corn but the wind which was by now gale force blowing the marginal reeds over i couldnt see up the edge and when i could i never had a bite so no more of that then, i also set up a wag to fish pellet on the deck halfway to the island but that only produced one bite from a 6oz carp so no more of that then,
i set up a 4x16 j15 float with a size 18 6313 rig for the skimmers with most of the shot 15 inches from the hook and 2x10,s 4 inches from the hook so the lifters would be easy to spot, at the start i cupped in 8 balls at 13 mtrs then had 30 mins on the wag to no avail, dropping in on the pole i wouldnt say it was hectic but there were enough bites to keep the interest going , but they needed feeding as they would drift away but they would come back after each ball, to be fair i dont think i took enough groundbait, i put in 2kg but i think 3 would have been better as towards the last hour i ran out and the last 45 mins i was skimmerless i did try putting some caster and dead mags in but all that did was to prevent my bait getting to the bottom as a tiny rudd stopped it on the way down.
the only person i could see who had taken any carp was jason radford on peg 3 who had 5 on paste in his left hand margin for 26.10 and first on the day
2nd went to steve kedge on peg 15 with 25.12 which included top silvers with 25lb of small skimmers and perch
3rd mark bartlett 21.5 peg 16
4th t rixon 19.10 peg 12 my silvers went 18.6 to give me the silvers by default
5th r fogg 15.13 peg 4
6th m alexander 13.8 peg 13
i think we will have another match there but it will be any method as there were a lot of fish on the islands and they appeared to want to stay there

more antics at acorn

with the colour dropping out of the water due to the cold weather i thought it may be hard today, but i wasnt to dissapointed with the draw as i ended up on peg 3 which is permanent peg 4 and as most who know the lake will recognise as possibly the best peg as its wide but with nick plip plop davidson opposite at 11 o,clock angle it would cut down my chances of catching straight in front so i set up a 4x12 on .12 with a 16 6313 to fish at 12 and one in 4 ft of water and a 4x12 with the same hook and line for down the edge to my right in 3 ft of water at 4.5 and 6 mtrs. all i had for bait today was 1 pint of red and white maggots aas there are no rubbish fish to worry about, for company i had the hartcliffe escapee who now lives at the posh end of stockwood, known as the cootes on the next peg, (mat genghis tomes)who was brimming with confidence and explained to me that he was going to beat me into oblivian, so it probably aint worth mentioning the 2 carp and 1 perch he managed to snare in 5 1/2 hours .i,ve just had a txt at 8.40 pm from mat to inform me that he only had 1 carp, no margin even though there was an empty peg between me and him and no far bank as plip plop was opposite, hmm he sounds bitter.
at the start i cupped about 10 mags on each line i intended to fish and went straight out at 11mtrs in front, first drop in and i had a perch , then i never had another indication for 40 mins then i missed what must have been a liner, a look at the 1 o,clock line produced 1 carp then no bites, i kept feeding about 10 mags on each line every 15 to 20 mins but after 2 hours i still hadnt had another fish, i did get occasional tiny movements on the float but i think it was just fish mooching about and not feeding cos the water was very clear, time for the margin, first drop in at 4.5 mtrs and i bumped one next drop and i got one then nothing so i fed again and went back out at 11mtrs nothing at 12 but i did get one at 1 o.clock, going back down the edge i had 2 more so i fed again and went out in front, not that i was expecting to catch there as i thought the fish would prefer the cover of the margins due to the clarity of the water, by nicking an odd fish from the margins then resting it i kept getting an odd fish right to the end and ending up with 15 carp and 1 perch, by the sound of things the person to beat would be martin lenaghan on peg 9 who was admitting to about 20 carp, the scales would tell, i couldnt lay my hands on any pound shillings and pence scales today so we had to go metric which i must admit to likeing as its easier to add up which is a real bonus when jason radford is helping as he thinks there is only 14 oz,s in a pound, luckily for me my fish were of a better stamp than martins as my net went 23kg 5oo grm for first on the day and my first win on the venue
2nd martin lenaghan 17 400 peg 9(14)
3rd dean malin 15 400 peg 5(7)
4th pete sivell 13 900 peg 10(15)
5th andy france 9 800 peg 12(17)
6th nick davidson 9 4oo peg 1(1)
no silvers today as they seem to have done a dissapearing act. there arent to many venues where the owners deliver a cup of tea to your peg foc are there, most welcome on a cold day.
anyone interested there is a silvers mastch at landsend this sunday, book in with me at the shop on 01179517250 or with mike at the fishery on 07977545882 draw at 9 fish 10 till 3.30

acorn antics

only 13 of us today so we were on the small lake, which is a long narrow lake with a bowl at each end. i let dean draw for me so i ended up on peg 3 which today was the third peg from the far end , a good draw with a lot of form, for company i had martin (arkwright)alexander on 4 and phil(fabio)harding on 2.
i set up a 4x12 rig on .12 with a 16 6313 to fish 11 mtrs which was the deepest part of the peg at about a metre, same rig but on .14 to fish the far bank reeds and a 4x10 rig to use at half depth against the reeds and with an absence of small nuisance fish i would be using maggot on all lines. on the all in i cupped some maggots with a few micros at 11 and against the far side, then dropped the rig in with double maggot at 11 mtrs, it was a slower start than i expected with only 5 smallish carp in the first hour, that was more than the people each side, but martin lenaghan on peg 1 was catching regularly anywhere he cared to put his rig. after 90 mins i pushed out to 13 mtrs and got another couple of carp but it was turning into a proper grind, by now fabio was casting a feeder to the far bank and begun to catch a few but matin on 1 was still catching well, so that looked like first place taken care of, i did begin to catch a few towards the far bank reeds in the last couple of hours on the half depth rig but fabio had started catching well on the pole by now on maggot at 14 mtrs so that was another 2 quid going his way ,thats 3 on the trot now and i,ve banned him from the shop.
as expected martin lenaghan won on peg 1 with 89.3 catching on maggot at 13 and 16 mtrs
2nd was tim ford on 11 with 80.6
3rd phil harding 55 lb peg 2
4th tony rixon 44.12 peg 3
5th pete sivell 40 10 peg 8 inc top silvers with 1.9
6th john (the gimp)bradford 33.12 peg 12

acorn on paddocks

why have the weather men got to get it right, we had early rain and a strong north easterly wind forcast , and thats what we got , and .it was cold with it.
another reasonable turn out of 27 , so i could leave a few corner pegs out , but i must have had a brain surge cos i left out a couple of pegs that i shouldnt have ,doh,
ryan summerhayes drew for me and handed me peg 2 (nice), i must admit i nearly ran to it as tim clark even had 60 lb off it last match so it must be solid.
it was going to be a mostly a maggot and caster job today so i set up only 2 rigs, both impact 6,s , one 4x12 with a 16 6313 to .12 for over , and a 4x16 on the same line and hook to fish at 4 and 11 mtrs as its the same depth, about 6 foot, over on the island i had about 18 inches a metre off.
at the start i cupped in some caster with a few dead mags on all 3 lines, then started at 4 mtrs, it wasnt long befor i started to get the odd perch up to 8oz on double caster but no carp. over on peg 9 ,the waitrose trolley dolly, aka shaun kitteridge was catching carp already, helped by the fact that he had an empty peg each side of him(blame it on the pegger), also 2 pegs to my left the clevedon dwarf paul faires had a couple of early fish on (horror of horrors)THE METHOD, but fairplay to him he did stop using it after a few choice insults from me , i should have let him carry on as it cost me at the end. i had a good first 2 hours catching perch on the 4 and 11 mtr lines, i also had a small carp and a 4 pounder at 4mtrs but that was about it really. the last 3 hours were really hard for me , i think i only had 5 more small carp, all taken by the island on corn or maggot and 3 more perch, all this time shaun had been catching steadily on 9 , also gary wall on 30, rod wootten on 11 were all getting a few as was tim ford on 5. paul faires was catching quality silvers after ditching the method.
as expected shaun kitteridge won with 135.13 all carp to 8lb on pellet at 11 mtrs on peg 9
2nd rod wootten 64.4 peg 11 on maggot over pellet
3rd gary wall 60.00 peg 30
4th martin rich 51.8 peg 16
5th tim ford 49.14 peg 5
6th paul faires 49.6 peg 4 also he had the top silver weight with 25.14 big skimmers 2 tench and some nice perch
rod wootten came second in the silvers ,but as he came second overall it meant i picked up 2nd silvers money with 16.6, if i had left paul with his method i may have even picked up first in silvers by default(bugger).
the wind was a real problem today and with the wind going with the trip presentation was hard , so i think the weights suffered as most people couldnt , stop there rigs blowing through .
off to landsend tommorrow and with 30 booked in and with a better forcast it should be good.

acorn new lake

it was the first proper match on the venues new snake lake, it has 43 permanent pegs so with 30 of us on it today it would be interesting , there have been a few pleasure anglers on it during the week , and it seems all baits and methods were working so it would come down to fishing to your strengths, also we didnt know which pegs or areas would be best as there was nothing to go on.
paul faires drew for me and gave me peg 19 which gave me 2 empty pegs to my left as it was on a bend and i had my travelling partner dean malin on 18 next door. the plan was to fish caster at 3mtrs for perch and pellet over up and down the shelf with banded pellet, i set up two 4x14 impact 6 rigs one with an 18 6313 to .12 for the perch and one with a 18 b960 for pellet at the bottom of the far shelf and a 4x10 impact 1 with a 18 b960 to .14 for on top of the far shelf, with the lake only 12 mtrs wide it was going to be comfortable day . starting at 3 mtrs on caster it took about 5 mins to get a bite and a 8 oz perch was in the net then a small carp then a 4lb carp then some more perch but after an hour that line was all but dead, dean next door had faired slightly better taking a few more perch than me and several small carp but his line was dieing now so it was over at the bottom of the far shelf, i had been firing 4mm pellets over this line and up the far shelf from the start, first drop on an 8mm pellet and i fouled a 6 pounder up the ass i played it for several minutes even touching it with the net but it came off , next drop and i had a 4 lb carp then i couldnt get another bite there so it was out with the up the shelf rig. and it was bites straight away but the fish were small between 4 and 12 oz but there seemed to be plenty there. looking around most people seemed to be targetting the far side and it kept going till about an hour and a half from the end when the fish dissapeared .
i began feeding 13 mtrs to me left up the shelf and started to catch again . i was a bit slow really as steve hucthinson on 17 next to the bridge had been catching on caster from the start but his fish were slightly smaller than fish on the pellet but dean spotted whet he was ding came up and stole my casters and caught well till the end the smaller fish certainly responded to the caster at our end of the lake. the match was won by john dursley on peg 5 which is the end peg over the bridge on the island he weighed in 97.5 on corn at 13 mtrs
2nd was jim jenner with 74.9 on peg 8
3rd steve hutchinson 70.9 on peg 17
4th chris fox 66.15 peg 21
5th tony rixon 64.5 peg 19
6th timmy (wingnut) clarke 62 peg 2
silvers charlie barnes 15 lb peg 13 mainly perch on chopped worm
as long as they dont get any problems it will certainly be a good venue as the fish are in excellent condition and with a new aerater system going in befor the summer it should keep it nice, it could do with a bit more cover on the bank but that all takes time dont it.
so mr tomes you missed a good match but there are probably to many fish in there for you. i hope the sea fishing went well.

an acorn ammering

thatchers very own rent boy drew for me. and handed me peg 14. certainly not a bad peg as pete sivell had won off it a few weeks ago so i wasnt unhappy, the only dampener was the gale blowing right to left which was going to make it more than a bit difficult (but only for me as it turned out), for company i had pete on 12 and dean on 14 so i was in a dynamite sandwich. 2 rigs today both 4x12 with a 16 middy 6313 to .12, one for down the middle and the other for over as it was slightly shallower at 2 foot 6 whereas it was 3 foot down the middle.
at the start i cupped in some 3mm and maggots at 5 and 10 mtrs and some right over at 13 mtrs against the dougal grass.
starting at 5 mtrs i had a bite first drop and lost a carp, i seem to do this a lot , then i had a small one of about a pound 10 mins later, then i started to get some perch, not the big ones but nice fish of between 6 and 12 oz, at least the float was going under, after the first hour it was close between me and dean but pete had taken 3 better fish on paste down the middle and at least one was in the mouth, by the end of the 3rd hour dean was forging ahead catching at 13 and 16 mtrs right over on maggot, pete was now going tight to the far bank, and by wedging his pole tip into the bank he was managing to get some sort of presentation and was now getting regular bites, also ed wynne on 16 was catching well, mostly silvers but he did get 5 carp towards the end, most of his fish coming at 6 mtrs on caster. about 45 mins from the end the sky went black and we had to endure 15 minutes of snow hail and frozen rain, and by now i had lost a bit of interest as i was so far behind, so i put the pole down turned my back to the storm and sat it out, i did get a couple more before the end but the would have had to have been 15 pounds each to make any difference. so today will be chalked down to experience .
1st dean malin 47 lb peg 15 (to my left)
2nd pete sivell 45.1 peg 12 (to my right)
3rd ed wynne 41.10 peg 16 (2 to my left)his catch included top silvers weight of 23.4 mainly perch with a couple of tench thrown in for good measure
4th pete notton 28.14 peg 10 (2 to my right)
5th chris fox 26.10 peg 4
6th martin lenaghan 22.11 peg 3
oh yes and what did i get. 19.2 for absolutley nowhere, i would like to say there were no fish in my peg but i think i have been watching shrimphead to closely, i think there were just as many in my peg as the swims iether side but i just had a day avoiding them, oh well off to viaduct friday for a pole only with 50 plus booked in and landsend sunday, dont think i can go on monday, judith seems to be putting her foot down and i may have to scrape some wallpaper boo hoo

aching at acorn

talking to the owners it would appear that they have big plans for the fishery, and with the new 50 peg snake lake opening in may the other fisheries in the area may have to watch out.
back to the draw and any peg from 1 to 7 would do me , the only pegs i didnt really want were 17 and 18 as they were down at the windy end of the lake , and it is also the shallowest, and with a stiff easterly blowing to that end it was really knocking the temerature back. normally someone draws for me as i am organising but the buggers made me draw my own , and what did i get effing 18 , at least i had charlie barnes nextdoor on 17 so we were going to have a laugh.
one rig would do all today as it is the same depth wherever you go, about 22 inches ,mint,go 2 pegs to my right and you start to get 3 foot which gives the fish a bit more confidence especially as the water was quite clear. so one rig it was then a 4x12 impact 6 float with .12 to an 18 808. as i said 1 rig would do as it was the same depth down the edge , at 13 mtrs and at 17.5 mtrs which was about 1 mtr off the far bank reeds. on the whistle i cupped in some maggots and dampened micro,s on all 3 lines anmd started at 13 mtrs straight out, and had my first bite after about 10 mins and what felt like a perch came off about halfway back, so i cupped some more mags and 5 mins later a 10 oz perch was in the net. i stayed on this line for about an hour and a half and ended up with 7 perch up to about a pound and a quarter but no carp and by now i could see plenty of elastic up to my right so i was behind and going nowhere , quick look down the edge and no bites, to cold and to shallow me thinks. out to 17.5 mtrs and bites straight away and a couple of 2 lb carp safely netted feed again and a couple more soon followed. andy france wandered round for a chat and told me pete sivell on peg 4 had already had about a dozen carp down the edge on corn, i couldnt have drawn any further from the fish, and with dean malin 2 pegs to my right now catching down the track it didnt look to good. with 2 hours to go and no bites anywhere it was off the box for a quick rummage in deans holdall and me back at my peg with a couple of different extensions so icould fish 18.5 mtrs to the reeds christ this was going to hurt in this wind, but at least i was getting some bites again and putting odd carp and small perch in the net , that was till about 45 mins from the end when my bodged extension snapped on the strike , so back to deans bag and back to my peg with a 16 mtr tournament bit which fitted after a fashion, and i had a few more towards the end , that is when i could hold the pole in the wind, my shoulders are hurting now just typing, 18.5 is to far!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
as i went round with the scales pete on unfancied peg 4 was abmitting to 30 carp but he thought it might not be enough, i cant believe he kept straight face when he said it.
pete won as expected with a very good 113.8 with him taking a lot of fish off the bottom on corn, a good weight for the time of year
2nd dean(i,ve only got 30lb)malin 64.15 peg16
3rd ed wynne 58.14 on peg 10 in the narrows
4th tony rixon 37.12 peg 18
5th mike west 35.6 peg 15
6th alan oram 30.5 peg 13
silvers
john(its only me fishing for them)bradford 17.12 of perch on peg 7
fairplay to tom thick for letting pete catch some fish out of his peg i hope tom has learnt a bit more as to how to catch carp now i hope you didnt show him to much pete.
for those inetrested the cafe at shipham will be open on sunday morning
and where was fabio, well he decided to fish the open on the river at newbridge , only 8 turned up, 7 blanked 1 caught 1 bream, i,m really glad i aint a "proper" angler any more lmfaro.