Thursday 29 December 2016

Viaduct Thursday cost cutter

Not been here for a long time so after a chat with Mr Rixon last night I decided to give it a go. He said during the silvers match Wednesday, alot of anglers were pestered by carp. Well today was totally different. I drew peg 88. Apparently a decent silvers peg and good one for carp on wag or the bomb. Not today. In fact that end of the lake was devoid of any fish life. From 80 to 97 the top weight was around 3lb. I had About 10 roach and a tiny skimmer for less than a pound. The guy on 86 fished the wag all day for two skimmers and other anglers struggled for ounces. The fish seemed to be sholed up around 98 to 101 as they did catch a few. I didn't stay to the end as flogging  that dead horse got boring, so I dont know the results. But when I got to the car park I had walked past many anglers packing up early and there were already several empty parking spots. John Bradford said the angler on 130, don't know who, had 18 carp and the anglers either side of him had nothing. Just shows the sever frost had really sholed the fish up. Ah well there always next time. But with only three months of match angling left before I leave these shores I was hoping g to go out with a few bangs. Looks like a few whimpers more like lol

Tuesday 27 December 2016

Acorn Tuesday open.

Off to Clevedon today looking forward to making up for the last few disasterous matches. Fished it last Tuesday and drew peg 27. A peg I've always hoped I would avoid drawing. It's either last, last but one, DNW, or the angler goes home early in all the matches I've fished there this year. And it was no different for me with one bite after 4 hours. So I was hoping to avoid that area today. Into the draw bag and I pull out 27 again. And as I was not prepared to sit and struggle all day again it was back in the car and off home to watch football. Have to wait for the weekend for my fix now

Saturday 24 December 2016

Windmill Open 25/12/16

Nothing else to do today and didn't fancy driving to somerset so went to Windmill for an open run by Dave Haines. Only 5 turned up so we all sat at the top end of the lake in the deeper pegs. To say it was hard is an understatement. Won't go into too much detail as we all struggled just to get bites. I had about 25 anchovies for 1-8 on my top kit in peg 1. Only place I had a bite. Jerry Welsh won it with 2 carp for 13lb odd from peg 26. Taking the £50 winner take all. Nice one!!. Dave Willmott got Second with one big perch and a few silvers for 5-13, I think, from peg 28. Dave Haines had a last gasp small carp and few silvers for 3-1 from peg 3. Paul Elmes did the sensible thing and went with 30 minutes to go. He struggled for a few bites but I recon he had done me. Well done those that bothered to turn up on a horribly windy day. It was Terry's last day as fishery manager. Good luck with whatever comes next Terry. Not sure what is happening now as there is no news on anybody to run the place.

Sunday 18 December 2016

Windmill Xmas match 18/12/16

Well, there not much to say about today as most of the lake fished rock hard. I drew peg 24, which was the golden peg. And Mike Nichols reminded that it was a kiss of death to draw it lol. And he was right. Had a few silvers early on maggot at 2+2 line, then went on meat at 11 metres. In half an hour I landed one carp and lost three foulers, and only brought back a scale each time. And untill the last 45 minutes that was it, then I had two more carp and a skimmer on the meat line. Pellet to the island was biteless as was the near margin. I ended up with 13-14 of which 1-11 was silver's​, which got me 4th in the silver's. And as they paid out 4, it paid for the day. Winner on the day was Sean Townsend 50-09, caught mainly on wag to the island. Well done to Sean on a tough day.

1st Sean Townsend, 50-09,  peg 8.
2nd John Osbourne, 40-01, peg 1.
3rd Mark Summerhayes, 23-06, peg 26.
4th Mike Nichols, 19-05, peg 13

Silvers
1st Mike Nichols, 3-08
2nd John Barker, 2-08, peg 30
3rd Sean Townsend, 2-05
4th Stuart Barnett, 1-11, peg 24.

Sunday 11 December 2016

Windmill sunday open 11/12/16

With the Xmas match on next Sunday it was the last chance to get a bit of practice in. But with a heavy frost, first one for a week, it could be hard. Into the mini tea chest and number 20 sticks in my fingers, and it's the first time I've ever drawn a golden peg. Pressure on. Four rigs were set up. A margin rig to fish meat down the shelf a bit. A .75 slim to fish meat at 11 metres at 11 and 1 o'clock angles. The left side being a bit deeper. A .5 slim to fish maggot or caster over ground bait at 2+2. And a .1 Shalla slim to fish across to the island at 16 metres. Plus a light bomb set up to chuck just past the corner of the island. Fed all lines and chucked out the bomb rod, which was set up with a 6 gram Olivette and size 18 on .013 with 6mm pellet. After 15 minutes I'd had no indications so I went on the 2+2 line. That was also dead so after another 20 bite less minutes I chucked the bomb out again. Still nothing. Not looking good. It was about an hour before the first bite on the short line and several blippy roach came to hand. About 90 minutes in and I saw a bit of movement over by the island so I dropped the pellet rig in and managed to get a 3 pounder. But that was it. Kept switching around and around half time I had two quick carp to 6 lb on the bomb. Then another quiet period so it was back on the meat line. Straight into a couple of small carp and a skimmer. I stayed on the meat line for most of the last two hours except for 5 minutes across to the island where I spotted another fish moving and caught it. Three more carp on meat and that was it. Unusually I landed every fish I hooked today, including silvers, and only missed half a dozen bites so I think I did all I could today. I was guessing on 1lb of silvers and 35 of carp and was almost spot on. 35-8 in total for second on the day. Had to be happy with that as it didn't fish great. Martin Rayet won today with 40-11 from 27, which included a fish of 12lb which made the difference today. I did enjoy it, having to think about it and swap about. Kept it interesting.

1st Martin Rayet 44-11
2nd Stu Barnett 35-8
4th John Osbourne, 32-2, Peg 9

Top silvers, Dave Britain, 3-00, peg 24

Thursday 8 December 2016

Windmill Bazeley open

I managed to take a day off work so headed off to Windmill for a match organised by Ray Bazeley. Left home with 30 minutes to make the 10 minute drive but the road were gridlocked. A quick message to Ray to say I'd be late and when I got there 45 minute's later I found myself on peg 24. At the start I was nowhere near ready and started about 15 minutes after everyone else. I started on the bomb to the island as I was still setting stuff up but after 20 and only one liner I came short, 2+1, and fished maggot over ground bait, Plenty of tiny roach were obliging but with 2 to the once it was hard work. I kept pinging a few pellets to the island on a 16 metre line for later. After about 90 minutes the roach disappeared, not for the first time, and after a few minutes a carp took my single dead red. That was a bonus because as far as I could tell that was the first carp on the lake. Unfortunately it was the only one on that line. I tried the margin with no luck, and then went across on 16 metres. It took a while but the carp moved in, and apart from a couple of tries on the other lines I stayed across for the last 2 1/2 hours putting another 14 carp in the net. I was guessing on 70lb at the end and when Terry weighed me in I was close with 72-4, which took top honer's today. Second was Paul Haines on peg 8 with 64-6 caught on various methods. An enjoyable day with the weather holding out. Back there again Sunday for another go.

1st Stu Barnett 72-4
2nd Paul Haines 64-6
3rd Ray Bazeley 23lb peg 10

Silvers winner J Fudge 11-10 peg 2

Sunday 4 December 2016

Landsend winter league round one

Not much to say on this one. Drew peg 16 on match. Set up to fish light and catch anything that swims feeding very lightly. First 40 minutes I could only fish the far side at 16 metres cos the ice I cleared had filled back in. Well to keep it short I had one bite all day for one tiny perch that I threw back without weighing as I was last in my section anyway. Do t know the results as I didn't stay. That's my series over after the first match.