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!

Jerry Pocock Christmas Match Newbridge

I sincerely hope that you had a great Christmas. Sadly my step dad passed away on Christmas Eve, he was at home on the farm where he wanted to be. A difficult time for the family but we are sure he suffered no pain.

I was booked on this match and decided to go, the river was going to be clearer with a bit of pace but I thought it would be tough after the cold easterly wind. We met in the Midland Spinner for breakfast and the draw. I think there were 21 people fishing and I danced drawing the first 7 pegs and the last 6, but I managed to pull peg 12 and that was middle of the straight peg 36, not going to be good I reckoned.

I got to my peg and with the vicious easterly wind blowing downstream and the conditions I could not see setting a float up was worth it. A one rod job for me, using a Supera 12 foot feeder rod with a 2oz tip. A 45g open end feeder would just hold 2/3 over with 14 to 0.15. I didn’t set up a block ended feeder as I reckoned I would catch any around on gbait feeder and that would give me the chance of a bream.

After 15 minutes of the match I had a nice bite and was pleased to net a 12oz chublet, not blanking was a major achievement for me today.  Ten minutes later a similar bite and this resulted in a 6oz chublet. An hour later and no more bites and as it was so cold I went for a quick walk and the peg upstream of me Warren Bates was blanking. Downstream Jan Mazyk was also blanking. During the match a number of people were walking the bank and mid match just a few anglers had 1 bream and there was an odd chublet. As the match progressed I never had another bite so it was a bit of a bind, but I gave it my best.

My wanting to be in the first 7 pegs was a bit off, as 1 angler had 2 bream and another one chublet, I expected a few chub to come out. But the other end the match bream did show and the top 3 came from here.

1st Derek Coles 25lb (Norfolk Reeds)

2nd Kev Boltz 15lb 15oz

3rd Nick Coles 12lb 13oz

My section was won by Jerry Pocock with 3 chublets for 2lb 15oz. My two went 1lb 2oz, which was 9th in the match beating two other catchers and 10 blanks. Not a single roach was caught.

Actually I did have some luck in the end, I picked up a bottle of whisky for my prize and three prizes on the raffle 😊 

Must say thank you to Jerry and Dean Harvey for running the match.

Potentially I may be fishing next Sunday but with another cold week forecast it’s probably going to be another draw bag job.

Wishing you a Happy New Year.

Merry Christmas

There’s was no fishing for me this weekend after a busy week working away in North Yorkshire. Don’t mind going to work when you see a beautiful sky like this in the morning.

I’m hoping to fish a match at Newbridge the day after Boxing Day it might be a tough affair. However, my

Plans are all a little fluid at the moment as my step Dad (I call him Dad as he brought me up from 2 years old) has terminal cancer and not long left sadly.

Here’s hoping you have a Merry Christmas. 🎅