Tony Rixon Float Only Series - Plantation Lakes

After a couple of weekends of no fishing I was wondering where to go on Sunday. Lucky for me I spotted Tony Rixon looking for a couple of stand ins for his first match in his float only league. I fished the same match last year as a stand in drawing on Jubilee lake. I spent some time Saturday morning putting my gear together for carp fishing on pole and pellet waggler. Then off I went to Rovers to see us win our last game at home 4-0, at least the last few months have been decent!

I went to H&H cafe on Sunday morning for a breakfast roll and as ever it was decent. Then on to Plantation and arrived with lots of time to spare in time to have few chats. Pools paid and draw done at 9am peg 32 stuck to my mitt, this is on the match lake.

Got to my peg and had a little island to fish a pellet waggler against. Trouble was so could Pete Nurse on peg 38 and Matty Tainton on 31, though he did fish away to the right.

Also had a long margin to fish down to as off to my left is a bay which was not pegged. The margins are quite deep at 3 feet and I set a 4x12 Preston Edge float with 12 XSH-B and 0.18, this would do for topset plus one and 13m. I also set up a slapping rig for hard pellets and a 4x12 for topset plus in front.

I started the match on the pellet wag, it was a bit awkward than I thought casting and despite being clipped up it was easy to catch a twig or a bramble. After an hour I had 2 carp and had lost 2 wagglers, and with Pete’s waggler landing fairly close I decided to sack it off. Mat also had 2 carp on it but it wasn’t happening for us.

I decided to get some early feed in on my close margin line, I fed micros and gbait here. I then went down further to 11m and started slapping a pellet about.  It was a bit tricky with foliage and overhead tree branches being caught. I had to reduce the rig length to help. I got two carp here and then no signs at all. I went to 13m which was as far as I dared because of some brambles in the water a little further down. Didn’t get any more signs though.

A look on my short margin fishing with 5 dead reds and some fish were there. Turned out it was skimmers. Unfortunately the swim was full of  twigs, I thought I got most of them out but no, they were everywhere. I did 4 good skimmers from here, but lots more twigs. Whilst fishing here I pinged some 6mm pellets to 13m in the hope of attracting some carp. When I went down there with my slapping rig I nailed a nice 9lb common, again a one off.

I was kind of struggling mid match, Mat was now doing well on skimmers and I think I messed up not having a proper rig out in the open water for them.

Back at 13m and nothing shallow, but decided to try my deep rig with dead reds here, my thinking was I might see if any carp were in the spot deeper. The rig didn’t move for 10 minutes and I was just going to ship back when the float buried. I was attached to a decent fish that thankfully swam out into the lake. I thought it might be fouled as it went on some crazy runs, but it turned out to be a near 15lb common. There were 2 hours to go and I decided to pot in micros, pellets and dead reds at 13m as I felt I needed to catch here. 

Catching just a big skimmer after 30 minutes here didn’t get my confidence up. But a few more carp did put in an appearance. A couple of foulers lost, two more took me into snags (I retrieved an empty groundbait bag full of water and shiteon one), but had a couple more decent carp 9lb+

Match over and I knew Mat had beat me as he had a few late carp from where he was catching skimmers, but Mat wasn’t in my section. Mat won his section with 88lb (including 33lb of skimmers) pipping Tony who had 82lb on the pellet wag (he lost 4 wags).

My silvers went 11lb 14oz and when added to my carp I had 80lb 6oz. I was second in the section picking up £55 as Vic Bush on the opposite side of the lake had 89lb 7oz, that was also the top weight on the day. 

Weigh sheets below and generally it was a bit of a tough day, especially in some areas. It was a close affair in most sections with just one or two fish making the difference. I enjoyed it, a case of being patient and some lovely big common carp.

Not fishing the bank holiday weekend, but hopefully will be the week after.

Hillview Fishery Open

No fishing last weekend as Wendy and I were in Wales for the weekend, though I did pop back early to see a rare black crowned night heron on the Avon at Newbridge! 

The long Easter weekend meant fun, a good start seeing another Rovers home win, 2026 has certainly been an easier watch at home! Decided to go back to Hillview again on Sunday and give the canal another go. Keith Hill was back from his holiday and was happy to see me again. Canals 2, 3 and 4 were in today and whilst I don’t really mind where I draw most people said canal 3 was the place to be. I was second in the woolly hat and I pulled out peg 92, same as 2 weeks ago!

Today I was going to concentrate on fishing meat which has done quite well here, and as the wind was quite horrendous I was going to fish it short. In fact to save any calamity I only got top sets and a short no 4 out of hold-all. Rigs were lighter than last time after some advice from Martin Rayet, 4x10 with 16 GPM to 0.13. The plan was topset for meat, topset plus short no4 in margins. The right margin is much deeper than the left in this peg, but the left side has a lot of roots / weed. 

Starting at 10:30 I began on the top set and had a Rudd on the drop on my meat. Next drop a 5lb carp. Nothing else so I tried a new line more to the left and had a 1lb carp. It was painfully slow, no indications just a very odd bite out of the blue. It seemed a slow first hour for my canal. The odd person risked fishing a long pole, whilst they caught a couple of fish it didn’t seem much better so I still kept the pole packed away safely.

Three hours in and all I had was about 20lb at most and was definitely last on my canal. I tried pellets as a change but that was no good and been in the margins for a couple of fish and a few silvers. I was hoping of course that the fishing would improve but it was just as hard and I had about 30lb with just over an hour left. I was thinking it was going to be a DNW today! However, my margins finally came alive with the RH side being nice and steady. Then I ended with 3 carp from the LH side in maybe 7 minutes as the float buried each time before the bait got to the bottom.

I had certainly reduced my deficit on the other lads on my canal in the last hour but no more. Once again peg 95 won my canal, he had 106lb mostly caught in his margin on meat. I had 73lb and the lad on 90 had 78lb. The other end of the canal there were two 87lb weights. So last on the canal, sticking to meat short probably cost me more fish, but my new pole is still intact lol. That said second place went to John Drew on canal 2 with 144lb on meat short, whilst the winner on canal 3 had 153lb on pellets. 

My lack of time on commercials and here is showing, getting into the top end of the results is going to take some time and effort, but getting bites and catching fish is going to keep me going back for a while.

Hillview Fishery Open

With no fishing last weekend and no fishing for me next weekend I was really wanting to get out for day in this nice weather. Wasn’t really sure where to go, and expected to be pools fodder wherever lol. In the end I planned to go to Hillview at Tewkesbury, a place that is always given me a warm welcome and lots of fish. I booked on and the match was on the canals. 

I got to the fishery in good time and grabbed some breakfast and paid my pools. I didn’t recognise anyone but all the other anglers were friendly, but there was one lad called Keith Bilder who I half recognised as he used to live in Bristol. He was fishing here for the first time for a long time just like me.

The lodges are looking very good, and later this year I will be staying in one for the annual fishing holiday (moved from Viaduct for a change).

I drew peg 93 which is on the back canal and in the shade of the big fir trees to start. A lad called Colin was on the end of the canal peg 96 and on 91 was a lad called Charlie. The pegs have got plastic platforms now and it’s only about 12m to reach the far bank. This would be a nice easy work out for my latest acquisition, a Preston Superium X95 pole 😊. It really is a beautiful pole.

Rigs today were a 4x14 for fishing a top set with meat with 0.13 to a 16 GPM. 4x12 for my margins and the far bank, I used a mixture of 0.13 to 16 GPM and 0.11 to 16 SFL. 

I started the match fishing my top set with meat it was very slow but I managed 3 or 4 small carp before bites completely stopped. I was feeding maggots down to my RH margin but didn’t want to go there just yet, so went across to the far side feeding fishery micro pellets and soft pellet on the hook. I had a nice 45 minutes here catching the odd carp and F1, but liners were a problem from the carp swimming up down the far bank off bottom. Just as I thought I was going to have a nice time on this line it died, a tiny tench and ide signalling the carp had moved.

The meat line was still bite less so onto the RH margin with maggots. Plenty of bites from silvers, ide, perch and little tench. When I thinned them out I got one F1 but nothing else. Back across on pellet and another run of fish which didn’t last long. I seemed to be doing ok on my canal from what I could tell, but over on canal 3 the two anglers on 70 and 72 were catching well i thought.

Mid match was slow and it seemed to be the same for many, if I could get 1 or 2 fish from any line I was lucky. I decided to start feeding my LH margin at top set plus one with micro and meat just because the maggot didn’t seem to keep the fish in the swim. I kept trying short meat line but I couldn’t get a bite, doing something wrong maybe?

I spent the next two hours working the two margins and the LH meat and micro was getting better with carp up to 5lb. With just over 30 minutes left I had to put another net in, but had left it in the van, Colin lent me one which was good of him. However, the dreaded extra net syndrome hit me big time! My RH meat line went from nice clean bites to lots of liners and lost two foulers, maggot line dead. I had just one carp and one F1 in the last 30 minutes whilst Colin had at least 6 carp and Charlie had 4. Talk about gutted 🙈🙈🙈

It wasn’t long before Steve and Huggy arrived with the scales, Colin had 112lb which I knew I couldn’t beat, my silvers went 10lb and along with my carp I had 96lb. Clearly the last 30 minutes had cost me as Colin won our canal. Well done to John D who had 123lb all on meat (they call him the meat master) to be top weight. I had a chat with John after and he told me he used to fish for Seymo Aquarians who used to be a top river team. We mainly talked about our river experiences, what a great bloke. 

Every canal needed a ton to get the section so it fished well.

I always thought it would be difficult for me to do well today but I was close, definitely enjoyed it and will go back. All the weights are on the board below.

Bathampton open Bristol Avon Newbridge

My last chance to fish the river this season and I was able to fish a match being run by Ben Rendall at Newbridge. Bream had been coming out to pleasure anglers and so most people were expecting a decent day. Saturday was spent changing my gear from carp to river bream and I put some 6lb line on my new Centris 420 reel. Got everything done and managed to get down the mem to see the Gas win 2-1, a few bream Sunday would make it a great weekend!

Sunday morning I grabbed a Greggs on the way to the river and arrived in good time. There were 20 of us fishing today, Ben put peg 1 in the little field on permanent peg 3 and peg 20 was permanent peg 50. I drew peg 19 so was on permanent 49 hoped this would be ok, but I did fancy the end peg which was what Pete Mills had. 

It didn’t take long to set up as I just set up a feeder rod with a 14 to 0.15. Groundbait as usual brown crumb, sweet skimmer and Thatchers. A 28g feeder held the bottom pretty well. We started at 10:30 and I spent the first 20 minutes casting regularly to get some bait in. Starting with three red maggots on the hook I soon caught a small roach, after the first hour I had three small roach, Pete had 1 bream. The second and third hour were devoid of any fish activity! I went for a walk and below me Jason Fearn was struggling despite trying running line tactics.

With just under two hours to go I had a lovely bite, pulled round and dropped back, and I was sure I was attached to a bream. Now this would be interesting as sometimes the bream do feed late and it can be good. Alas I soon realised this was a chub but at nearly 3lb it was still welcome, but my bream dream was shattered and no more bites till 3pm. I had a big drop back bite and connected with a big fish, I had to back wind quite a bit. I wasn’t sure what I had hooked but started to get it back towards me, as it got closer to my bank it surfaced and I saw it was another chub and I really had to pull hard to get it to come to me and stay out of the margin snags. It was a fat chub, which weighed later at 5lb 4oz. Next cast I missed another drop back and that was the last bite. (Picture below by ace photographer Derek Coles 🤣

I wasn’t going to weigh in but I wanted to weigh the chub, my total weight was 8lb 11oz that was second in my section behind Pete who had 3 bream and chub for 14lb. Jason had 2lb 8oz and below him Graham Hunt 8lb 3oz of chublets on the waggler. 

Overall the match won by Jeff Surmon on peg 1 with 46lb of bream. Well done mate!

2nd Jan Mazyk 42lb from permanent peg 30 again bream.

3rd Derek Coles 34lb of bream from peg 38.

Warren Bates and Shaun Townsend both had 20lb+ catching mainly on the float.

Biggest bream was 8lb 15oz caught by Ben Rendall, Dean Harvey also had a big bream 8lb 6oz.

Well I was a bit gutted not to draw on a few bream but the big chub was a lovely fish to end my river season on. 

Angling Trust Winter League Final

The last few weeks for me have all been about getting ready for this final and preparing for fishing on a commercial fishery called Rookery Waters. 25 teams of 10 were competing this year and the fishing was as ever in Cambridgeshire on the drains and lakes. 5 of my Preston Innovations Thatchers team would fish the drains and 5 the lakes. We were allowed to pick which commercial fishery we were going to and with my Welsh teammates Rob Jones and Luke Sorekin happy to go to Decoy Lakes, Shaun Townsend and myself went for Rookery, leaving Float Fish Farm for Andrew Mann.

Towner picked me up Friday morning and we started the 3 1/2 hour drive to Rookery to see the lakes. After the section draw in the week Towner knew he would be on Jay which is a snake lake, I could be on either Raven (snake) or Magpie an open lake with a central island where some pegs are on. Towner had drawn up a matrix of every pegs match weights and this allowed us to see the flyers. The recent mild weather had it appeared moved some of the fish around so nothing was guaranteed.

We stayed in March and it was great to have a night out with the boys a few beers and a curry. Next morning Andy Ottaway left early to draw our peg set, and soon after 8am I was going to Magpie 16. Looking at the matrix this had two good weights and two average but I was happy, Towner had missed the flyers but was on a peg which seemed better than average.

When I got to my peg I had lots of room to my left and a sunken boat creating an island at 16m. X marks my peg.

There was what appeared to be an island (later told it was a semi sunken boat) at 16m and the locals told me that would be where I would have to go for bites. Trouble was the wind was getting up and was blowing from left to right.

Off to my left on the point of the island was old team mate Geraint Powell who fishes with Starlets. I’d been told the day before that his peg and the one around the corner were the flyers.

I set up a dobbing rig but with the lake coloured wasn’t sure if I would try it. A 4x12 for the margins but never had a bite on these, a 4x14 for top set plus two which was 4 1/2 feet, a 4x12 would work but I thought it was too windy. I shipped out to the boat to find it was about 6”’deeper than the top set plus two line, so used a 4x14 here too. I left a fair bit of line above the float as my pole was being blown around. I did set up a maggot feeder to use by the boat in case the wind got worse but never picked it up.

We started at 11 and I shipped out to the boat and toss potted in a few maggots. I fished to the left edge as the middle had plants and twigs which I didn’t want to hook up on. After about 5 minutes I had a bite and hooked a fish which swam out nicely and then came off. Back over again fed a few more maggots and hooked another fish, landed a 2lb F1. Over the next hour I had a struggle getting odd bites with my pole being bent like a banana and hooking fish that were off the bottom. After hour 1 I had three F1’s, had lost about 5 and lost one rig which blew into the plants. 

Hour 2 was just as frustrating and I had tried fishing off bottom, half depth and dobbing, a couple of Rudd a couple of F1’s and more foulers. Clearly lots of F1’s in the peg but I wasn’t working it out!

Mid match I rang Towner, I said I had 10lb and he said he didn’t have that. Everyone was losing foulers it seemed. I tried feeding a bit heavier to get fish to go down on the bottom it gave me a couple of F1,s but then died. I was really worried that I was cocking up a great peg as everyone I could see was catching the odd fish and Geraint especially doing well getting out fouled carp lol. My one thought was stay positive they might come on the feed late for me.

With two hours to go the wind dropped and I was able to fish to the middle of the boat, it was a tiny bit shallower here. It started slow but then I had a great hour catching F1’s and was clawing my way back into the match. All of a sudden it slowed and it was back to odd foulers, so weird! My last hour was OK but not as much as I hoped for, I took two F1 on the short line one in the mouth one in the tail, and a few from 16m. Match over and I hadn’t had a carp and don’t think I hooked one, it was all F1’s. Whatever I weighed I was sure I had lost the same off the hook, Geraint said he was the same.

My fish went 23 Kilo 925g about 53lb, this got me 5th in the section an ok result but I feel I should have done better. That said a local angler in my section told me he drew my peg last week and said he fished it the same had 70lb and lost at least that in foulers. Typical of winter fishing the fish were in certain areas, Will Raison in my section beat two anglers with 8 kilos, if he can’t catch there’s no fish in his peg. Here’s my section sheet.

Towner had a great last hour to end with 26 kilos also coming 5th in section so steady enough. Andrew Man on Float Fish was 5th, on Decoy Rob 3rd but Luke never had a bite and blanked. Having blanked there myself in the past I knew how he would be feeling, gutted for him. The lads on the drains had all done steady and our penalty points were 60. This put us 9th just 1 point off 8th which was the last team payout. Diawa Dorking and Barnsley both had 58 points and 55 points was 4th so it was very close. Congratulations to Geraint and his Starlets team who won convincingly, local team Tackle & Bates were second.

Weather permitting I will get one chance to get on the river next week for a bit of feeder chucking! 🤞

Westerleigh Lakes Open Match

Fishing has taken a back seat for me for a few weeks. Mainly because I just couldn’t be bothered to get soaked and cold, and obviously the rivers are not match fishable. However, I’ve got the Angling Trust Winter League Final next Saturday and so I wanted a chance to use some new elastics and rigs and Westerleigh was just the ticket.

Most of my prep has been done for a few weeks and so Saturday it was nice to see a Rovers win 😃.  Went to Emerson’s Wetherspoons for breakfast on Sunday where Martin Reyat, Freddie Wojtyla and Shaun Townsend also filled their bellies. Shaun likes to hide his breakfast beneath pepper 🤣.

There were 19 people fishing today so one lake would have 10 anglers and the other 9, this would be random depending on the last peg not drawn. I was happy to draw peg 11 on Shipps canal, a peg I’ve won off before in winter. However it would depend where the carp were shoaled, and top bagger Martin Reyat was on peg 5 with 6 not drawn and would be hard to beat if the carp were that end of the lake I thought.

I made three rigs today, a 4x10 for against the left hand island at 13m, a 4x12 for near the right hand island, and a 4x14 for fishing in the deep open water. All rigs had 16 SFL to 0.11 accu power. I was pinning my faith in maggots today and decided not to dob bread. On peg 12 was evergreen Mike Nicholls who would fish for silvers, on peg 10 was Chris who normally fishes with PSV he told me. 

We started at 10:30 and I fed all my lines with maggots and started over by the left hand Island. It was just roach here, as was the other island, as was the deep water. Hmmm, kept toss potting in maggots to try to get the roach full. After an hour I managed to catch a 2lb F1 from the RH island but it was a one off. Chris had managed a couple on meat and I was thinking I had made a mistake not bringing any.

Halfway through the match and not much had been caught my end of the lake, I was probably best with three F1’s. Mat Tainton on 8 had a few carp and Martin after a terrible start was now getting the odd fish. About 2 hours to go the RH island swim came to life I caught 3 F1’s and 2 carp, plus I pulled out of 2 carp that I think were fouled.

It went quiet after this and I also managed to hook a branch and trash a rig. 

Chris had a similar run but more carp, on meat but then his swim also went quiet. Try as I might I couldn’t catch in the deep water despite trying it all match. I did get an F1 from the LH island which was the only one there, and 5 mins before the all out I hooked another carp from the RH island which I landed before the all out. 

With the top 2 and 1 silvers being paid on each lake I knew I was not going to pick up as Martin 76lb and Mat 54lb had both caught well. Chris had just under 30lb and then I had 43lb which was more than I thought as I think the F1’s were decent size. Mike took the lake silvers with 7lb.

Weigh sheets below…

Well done Matt Challenger on winning the other lake catching mainly on pellets.

It was nice to fish in dry conditions and a bit milder, but the wind was in my face blowing through the gap just to keep me cool lol. I hope the weather stays mild this week which will surely help the carp feed next weekend, fingers crossed!

Westerleigh Lakes Open Match

Had a message in the week from Mike Nicholls asking if I wanted to fish a match at Westerleigh. As the river was wrecked and I hadn’t fished Westerleigh for a couple of years I thought why not. With me fishing the ATWL at the end of February I need to get my head and my gear around carp as I’ll be fishing a lake, did quite a few top sets with Preston Hybrid elastic, I like the green 11, and did some rigs and hook lengths

Had a nice time out Saturday that culminated with a lovely meal at the Beirut Mezze in Bristol. The picture is the sharing starter. 

Woke up before the alarm Sunday morning and headed to the new Wetherspoons at Emerson’s Green where I met Martin Rayet. He had a large breakfast and for the first time ever I had a small, I was still feeling full from yesterday 🙈.

Got to the lakes and paid my pools to Mark Taylor, the match was being run as two separate matches, so each lake would pay out top 2 and top silvers. I hoped to draw Shipps lake (some call it the canal lake) as this has been producing better than the main lake. I got my wish by drawing peg 1, but the carp have been up the other end I was told. Rang Glenn Bailey who I knew had drawn this peg a few weeks ago and he told me what he did and that he had to wait 3 hours to get a carp. Hopefully I wouldn’t wait so long!

Lots of options on this peg with an island and some open water that was about 5 1/2 feet deep.

Also a bush on my right side margin, you’ve only got a little bit of it to fish to from this peg but a definite fish holding spot. On peg 2 was the latest addition to the pensioners list Tony Rixon. I’d won the coin toss as to who of us would be on the scales, so I thought at least I had beat him at something lol.

I made up three rigs; a dobbing rig for by the island (thanks to Bela Bakos for giving me a couple of slices of bread) with 0.13 powerline to 16 GPM. My deep rig was a 4x14 F1 maggot again with 0.13 to 16. My last rig for the bush was a 4x12 but I used 0.11 to 16 SFLB, I went a bit lighter here as I was expecting a few F1s. Bait choice was maggots.

We started at 10:15 and I began by feeding maggots on top set plus 2, top set plus 4 and the bush. I then went dobbing bread by the island. I dobbed bread all along the island and all I got was roach bites. I felt there were no carp here so tried my deep water swims. I could get the odd bite but this was also from roach.  After an hour I had a handful of roach as did Tony, further up the lake Bela, Vince Shipp and Mike Nicholls had netted some carp / F1. I plugged away just catching the odd small roach, Tony managed a couple of F1s and then I finally got an F1 from the bush. 

After three hours I had 2lb of roach and the F1, and was really thinking I should set up a light roach rig and go for the silvers prize. Then I foul hooked and lost a carp on my top set plus 4 line. Ten minutes later I had another carp on and landed this one as it was hooked in the mouth about 5lb. Next drop a 4lb carp hooked in the dorsal and next drop a 7lb carp in the mouth. That little run was great but that line died and I had to rest it. My top set plus 2 line was useless and I couldn’t get a fish here. But then the margin bush got me an F1 and small carp.

Last hour and I was still thinking I was miles behind those at the other end of the lake. Tony had a few F1’s but he was missing a few bites and lost a few foulers. I had dropped the top set plus 2 and rotated the margin and top set plus 4, feeding maggots by toss pot and increasing what I fed if the roach were in the peg. I had another F1 and carp from the margin, and another couple of carp and a decent F1 from my long line. Match over and I thought I might have 40lb if lucky. 

Whilst packing up Bela said he only had 20 odd pound as did others, except for Mike Etheridge on 8 who had caught well and I would probably be second. I was weighed first and my roach went 2lb 5oz, my carp and F1s 39lb 14oz, so 42lb 3oz. My carp net picture courtesy Tony.

Tony weighed 21lb 12oz and wasn’t impressed by his next peg battering, picture courtesy Tony 😂.

Bela was correct and I did end up second on the lake quite comfortably, with Mike running out an easy winner on peg 8 with 64lb 8oz all caught on dobbing bread. Silvers was won by Mike Nicholls who …. See his blog.

The main lake was harder, Mark Taylor also caught on bread but near the bottom. Martin Rayet got a dozen F1 for second and Andy Gard won the silvers with just 1lb 7oz.

Well I was very happy to get amongst the fish today and it was good to get some elastic pulled out. After the match carp were eating the slices of bread that were thrown in the lakes proving that they were there all the time.

South West Disabled and over 50’s - Acorn Fishery

Happy New Year.

The last couple of weeks have been frustrating on the fishing front. First a match on the Crane was cancelled due to flooding, and then Saturday morning Dean Harvey messaged me to say he had cancelled a match at Newbridge due to flooding. All plans messed up, but I really wanted to get on the bank, I saw Eddie Wynne had posted on Facebook that his club were looking for guests on their match at Acorn. I got a place in the match and then did a bit of last minute gear sorting and changing!

Sunday morning was very dark, dull and damp a complete change from Saturday. I grabbed a breakfast roll at the H&H cafe and was soon at fishery. Great to see some old faces like Bob Feltham and Alan Jones, still braving the elements to have a fish. Acorn is great for these guys with no walks and safe pegs, they also get to draw first to avoid the island pegs. The pegs to draw at the moment are 5, 7, 9 with 10 and 12 also holding a few carp. I got peg 23 which didn’t give me good vibes, and venue expert Gary Bowden said he’d fish for silvers on my peg, and he would on his peg 4.

Rig wise I set up a 4x10 with 18 to 0.10 for fishing across to the boards with pinkies. A 4x14 rig with same hook etc for fishing in the deep water.  I started the match tapping pinkies in by the boards whist feeding gbait and pinkies in a couple of spots in the deep water. In the first 30 minutes I lost 2 foul hooked carp, I was hoping to get among the ide across as these are fairly reliable feeders. Unfortunately I had no signs across from ide or anything else all match!

It was 2 hours into the match when I finally caught a roach from my deep line at 10m. On bridge peg 21 Mark Britton had 1 ide, but on my left on 25 Mark Bromsgrove had a couple of carp, a tench and skimmer. I finally found a skimmer which perked me up a bit. Sadly my peg never showed any signs of fish being there, or willing to feed. I managed 2 more skimmers and another roach for a DNW. Can’t really say much more about it lol. Mark Britton also DNW after a couple of skimmers joined his lonely ide.  Mark Bromsgrove had a decent day getting 14lb silvers and 17lb of carp.

The framers were…

Result of the Southwest over 50's and Disabled match fished on the Paddock at Acorn Fishery today.

1. Mike Wilson                   69-09 p5

2. Mark Walsh                    51-14 p9

3. Eddie Wynne                  46-09 p7

4. Alan Smith                      42-15 p12

5. Mark Broomsgrove       31-10 p25

6.  Gary Bowden                27-09 p4

Silver's 

1. Gary Bowden                 18-10 p4

2. Eddie Wynne & Mark Broomsgrove    

14-00      pegs 7&25

Well done Mike on the win, and GB on the silvers win with ide. 

Not sure what is up next, let’s see what the weather does!