Windmill fishery sunday open

Short drive to Westerly today. Only went realy to deliver some floats to the ever green Mike Nicholls. After the the usual bumbling around, which is normal here, even after everybody had paid there money on time the draw was done nearly 15 minutes late. It's like a comedy show at this place. As I know very little about the venue, the draw wasn't too important as I was only gonna fish for carp with pellets. Out pops peg 3. Next door on 2 was Mr Evergreen, so good company today. He had the golden peg and a peg known for big carp down the edge but he stuck to his tried and trusted way of doing things and it paid off. Set up a paste rig for 8 metres. That's as far as I was going in the usual hurricane blowing down the lake. A silvers rig for 2+2, plus a carp rig to fish the same line incase they turned up. They never. Plus a margin rig. But nothing showed up there all day. And Mike only had two there. Plus a bomb rod as there were fish moving against the island. Well, that's were I stayed most of the day as the close lines and margins were void of carp today. I did try close and the paste lines but never had anything at all on the pole. Mike stuck to his silvers line and had top weight on the day. I didn't get the results as they were sorted while I was packing the car and as it was peeing down I couldn't be bothered to go and find the weight sheet. I will edit this when Mike publishes his blog later. Don't even know what my final weight was but it was in the low 60's.

Landsend saturday open

Down the M5 to landsend today and it's a nice change not to have all the horrid school holiday traffic. After one of ID's lush breakfasts it was time for the draw. Only two pegs I didn't fancy as always and that's 1 and 24. With 14 fishing there was little chance I'd draw one of those. WRONG!!!!. Peg 1 was in my hand. Not a peg I fancy at all. Ah well, I guess bad draws are part of match fishing. Got to the peg and it was blowing a gale into my face. To keep it short. The island line at 16 1/2 metres was bloody hard work as bait presentation was crap. Only had one fish there. The end bank took several hours to get going and I only had 5 squeakers there. Under the tree to the right produced just two good skimmers. Only place that produced any half decent fish was the 2+1 line straight in front. But when you go 4 hours with only 1 carp and 1 skimmer it was a case of trying to enjoy catching a few late. At the end I weighed 45-10 for less than nowhere. The match was won by Derrick Beard on 15 with 95-02. It was hard all over with most struggling for the first 3 or 4 hours.

1st Derrick Beard, peg 15, 95-02
2nd Rich Wheatley, peg 13, 85-06
3rd L Jones, peg 22, 72-12

Acorn saturday open.

Bit late posting this one but I've been a bit busy since Saturday. With the weather looking pretty good and last week's weights I was hoping the form shown by this fishery would continue. Only 8 turned up today which was a bit of a disappointment. Into the draw bag and peg 7 comes out. Not drawn this for ages after a run of drawing it 6 times in eight matches at the start of the year. Three rigs and a bomb rod were set up. A .1 shallow slim to fish the far side. A .4 slim to fish 2+1 in about 5 feet. And a .15 slim to fish the margins either side. I like my home made Slim's. Pellet was to be fished everywhere today as it was all I had on me. My left margin would be fished over GB and the right just loose fed to see which worked best. As I wasn't quite ready at the start I chucked the bomb out with 8mm pellet, to the corner of the island towards the bridge while I fed my other lines. Before I'd finished pinging pellets across the tip pulled round and a 3 pounder found itself in my net. I then fed my margin lunes with the pole cup then chucked the bomb out again. The tip flew round again but I missed it. By the time I reeled in there were carp in the margin. So I dropped an 8mm in the right margin. 15 minutes later and 4 carp landed I thought the peg was on fire. Then the fire brigade turned up and put it out. The next two hours produced 1 fish. Even though the carp were feeding on the loose feed they totally ignored the hook bait. Only the odd liner moving the float. A try across only produced one fish. The bomb line had dried up too. Then at the midway point I started to get the odd fish. After 4 hours I had around 60lb in the net so I thought bugger it and upped the feed. That had the desired effect and the last two hours I put around 100lb in the net from both margin lines. It seemed the more GB I put in the more fish turned up. Lesson learnt for next time. Over on peg 5 Mace Graham had a very similar day as me with a long dead stretch after a flying start. At the end I guessed at around 160lb and ended up putting 163-2 on the scales for second on the day. Mace weighed 128-6 for 4th. The match was won by Lydney bagging machine Norm Sterry on peg 15 with 225-4. A good day again. The place is just getting better.

1st Norn Sterry  225-4, peg 15
2nd Me with 163-2, peg 7
3rd Mark Walsh 129-14, peg 21
4th Mace Graham 128-6, peg 5

Avalon open

Off to Avalon fishery today for another open organised by Tony Rixon. A stop off at Landsend first to fill my belly with one of Di' s fab cooked breakfast set me up for the day. 14 fishing to day all pegged on the right hand bank as you look down the lake from the carpark. Peg 37 comes out for me which is about halfway down. A nice looking peg as most are at this fishery with a gap between two islands opposite me. Two rods and three rigs were set up. A bomb rod and waggler to fish pellet as tight as possible to the island at about 35 meters. A paste rig to fish 12 meters. A .5 pencil to fish soft or hard pellet at 2+2. As it's the same depth right out this would do to fish the paste line if I wanted a change. Plus a margin rig, but that never got used apart from plumbing up. Started on the paste rig and did ok for the first 40 minutes with three carp netted and one lost, but loads of missed bites was a bit frustrating. I tried hard pellet and expanders over that line but the float was motionless so it was back on the paste for another round of missed bites. I then tried the 2+2 line but got no indications there, even though it was fizzing. After a couple of hours I tried the bomb. I had a couple of savage pull rounds but the .017 hook link was smashed before I got my hand on the rod. I chucked the waggler out but just missed a couple of bites. So it was another go on the paste but all I got was one more carp and a lost fouler. The short line was tried again but still nothing. So it was back on the waggler and I started to catch as long as I could get it tight to the island. The rest of the match was spent over to the island putting a dozen or more carp in the net. At the end I had clicked 65 pound and was very close as the scales went to 64 dead for third on the day. The match was won by Craig Trigger Edmonds, as many are these days, with 124-12. He's unstoppable at the moment. Second was Martin Lanaghan with 77-5. Top silvers went to Tony Rixon who managed  33-12 of quality skimmers. Gotta admit I thoroughly enjoyed catching on the wag today. Should have gone on it a bit earlier. Ah well, Ce'st la vie.

1st. Trigger 124-12, peg 30
2nd Martin Lanaghan 77-5, peg 26
3rd Me 64lb, peg 37

Top silvers Tony Rixon 33-12, peg 32.
Second Ziggy 26-8, peg 27

Acorn saturday open.

With the weather forecast looking very dodgy a good draw was important today. Peg 36 would be nice tucked in behind the sheds. Strong winds and rain forecast all day, so not a nice thought. Into the bag and ping pong  ball 18 comes out. Not fished the road bank for ages but the lake has been chucking up weights a over so wasn't too bothered. Got to the peg and it was already blowing hard from left to right, but I could see fish on the far side. Three rigs today, all Slim's. A .1 to fish 6 or 8mm banded tight over in 15 inches. A .4 to fish pellet at 2+2 .  And a .15 to fish worm or caster down the margin. And on that note, I don't think I'll bother taking that bait with me again as all it attracts is whitebait. The first couple of hours was spent fighting the wind at 14 metres. I stuck with it as it was solid over there but because of the wind it was making bait presentation almost impossible. But on the odd occasion it dropped I caught. I could have sacked up over there on another day. But then It got just too strong and after I had the pole blown round at 90 degrees several times and wanting my pole packed away in one piece I decided to put that away. I came in on the usually reliable 2+2 line and got nothing after 20 minutes. So it was the margin line next. And after an hour of nothing I had dropped behind most people by a long way. The young lad on 15 was getting a few on the method flicked to the island and had about 10 fish during my dead period. I got a bomb rod out and tried that and even though there were fish right on it I never got a pull round. So that was 90 fishless minutes. So it was back to the margin were I saw the first tail after swapping to pellet from caster feed and started catching. The last hour and half I put 14 fish in the net and finished with what I thought was 120lb. I was close with 116-14 going on the scales for nowhere today. You will have to look at the weigh sheet photo for the result as I didn't stay due to being a tad wet and it's hard to make out the writing. All in all, it could have been a superb day even though weights were still good but the wind made life realy hard and definitely stopped me catching alot more. But that's fishing for you.