After last weekend I was happy to be back fishing a commercial, Martyn Reyatt ran this match and it suited me as I didn't want to travel far this weekend. Once again I sampled the £3 breakfast at Wetherspoons in Hanham and it was more than enough for me, just a shame they had no mushrooms or black pudding left!
Arriving at the lake Dave Micklewright mentioned he had seen a couple of cormorants when he arrived, the black death seem to have taken a liking to this place as up to 11 are rumoured to have been seen. The draw was done with Leighton Palmer's little orange balls, and I offered my Preston cap as the container. So it was I was left with the last peg in the cap, which was 7. Last time out this peg blanked, but with a couple of no shows I had nobody in pegs 6 and 5 giving me an end peg. I had come to the match with carp in mind and had brought gbait, micros, 4mm pellet, corn and dead maggots for bait. First thing set up was a 15grm Preston in line method feeder, with a 16 to 0.18 with a quickstop. Two pole rigs one for the deep water 0.6grm pencil float (never had a bite on it) and a 4x12 for the 2.5ft margins with 16B911 to 0.14.
I Fed the margin to my left next to the reeds, and to my right at 11mtrs, pointless mentioning the long pole lines! Grabbed the method feeder and attached a piece of corn and cast it to the island, well actually onto the island! I had clipped up but had forgot to allow for the stretch in line once the feeder was loaded, doh. I had a few casts before I got a liner and then had 5 carp in 5 casts. One hour and 45 mins in and I had 8 carp for an estimated 30lb. This line then went very iffy and I only had 1 liner in the next 30 mins so I gave it a rest. At this stage I was well ahead of everyone else, Bob Price next to me had 3 carp which was as good as anyone else, and Leighton Palmer was moaning.
The next 3 hours were deadly in that I never caught a fish, I had 1 liner on the method and no bites on the pole. Martyn Reyatt on peg 3 had gone to his car for a sleep and Leighton was still moaning. I fed some dead maggots as a change at 3mtrs to my right next to a bit of reed. I dropped in on it and got roach bites, so I stuck a 6mm expander on and bugger me I had a small carp, and then another. I noticed the odd carp topping in the empty pegs below me (the wind was blowing to my end of the lake) so I decided to pot in a good amount of corn and micros on my two original margin lines. This was a good move as the margin to my right came alive in the last hour with 6 carp on corn. Match over and I had only lost 1 carp all day and landed only 1 fouler, that's a bit unusual but at the same time very satisfying.
I suppose in a way I had a bit of a typical summer carp match, carp early and late, but the weather was far from summery today, bitter in the wind! In my mind I thought I had 48lb but the scales recorded 62lb and that was enough to win, in fact I'd won the match in the first 2 hours, not that I had realised that of course.
1st me 62lb peg 7
2nd Lee Waller 20lb peg 1
3rd Martyn Reyatt 18lb (including 90 mins of sleeping) peg 3
Top Silvers Dave Tippett 12lb peg 5
Well that is it for a while, Cluckers Peg will be a bit quiet for the next few weeks as I am having another operation on Thursday. This one is to plumb my arse back in and get rid of the bag, and so I may change this blog to Dysons peg (get it, bagless!). If you can keep your fingers crossed for me. I will see you on the bank when it is warmer, in the mean time I look forward to reading other people's blogs to keep me informed and I'll do an "old days" blog once I feel up to it.
Sunday, 18 March 2012
Sunday, 11 March 2012
Newbridge Last Chance Open
I missed this match last year and was hoping that once again the bream would oblige and many anglers would get some decent weights. There had been bream caught most of the week at Newbridge and Frys and whilst the river was no longer heavily coloured it still looked great. There was a good turn out for this match with anglers coming from Swindon and Devises searching for slabs. I paired up with Lord Lucan (Glenn Bailey back fishing after a long break) who drew peg 7 in the Little Field, whilst I drew peg 34 on the straight which was OK for bream.
I set up two feeder rods, one with a 16 to 0.14, and the other with a 12 to 0.16. With these two rods I could swap between maggot and worm hookbaits. My plan was not to ball it at the start, but I had plenty of gbait so if it was dead after 2 hours I would then ball it. However, this plan went tits up when the lad next to me (and we were quite close) revealed 20 cannon balls of gbait. I thought I had no choice but to follow suit at the start for if the bream did go big time he would take them.
The river looked so good I expected to get a few roach bites on the tip to start but there was nothing. After an hour I had seen two bream roll just past my groundbait but had not had a bite, but seeing those bream gave me a confidence boost. Two hours later I was still without a bite and so I went for a walk, quite a long walk! From peg 3 in the little field to peg 43, and 1 bream was the best!
I spent the rest of the match admiring the wonderful bird life, a skylarks song, a couple of ravens, buzzards, woodpecker, lots of small birds and best of all a peregrine falcon. Then an admiral butterfly appeared, obviously awoken by the spring warmth and there were even.........OK I can't put it off any longer. Other than one small tap on the tip I never had a bite and blanked, in fact 4 of us in a row did. Bollox!
The match was won with bream but as you will see the weights dropped off very quickly.
1st Brian Melksham 70lb (just below Newton St Loe bridge) biggest bream 9lb 6oz
2nd Mark "ACKOO" Haskins 59lb (peg 61 Norfolk Reeds) biggest bream 8lb 6oz
3rd Alan Brown 27lb (I think peg 69)
4th ........ 13lb+
5th Martin Barrett 13Lb+ (just above N St L bridge)
Glenn had 8lb of small roach to win the little field and Rotork section. Leon Hubbard won the next section from peg 18 with one bream for 7lb. Nigel Saunders had 2 bream from peg 38, and Mike Shellard on peg 59 had 10lb.
Catch of the day....Darren Gillman with an estimated 15lb pike on the feeder (pike don't count). As Darren played the pike he noticed two small jacks following it around.
Laugh of the day...Richard Lacey snapping his brand new Maver feeder rod when casting out!
(Oh and at Frys 1 bream won the match, after there had been lots caught all week.)
One more match for me next week then an enforced break.
I set up two feeder rods, one with a 16 to 0.14, and the other with a 12 to 0.16. With these two rods I could swap between maggot and worm hookbaits. My plan was not to ball it at the start, but I had plenty of gbait so if it was dead after 2 hours I would then ball it. However, this plan went tits up when the lad next to me (and we were quite close) revealed 20 cannon balls of gbait. I thought I had no choice but to follow suit at the start for if the bream did go big time he would take them.
The river looked so good I expected to get a few roach bites on the tip to start but there was nothing. After an hour I had seen two bream roll just past my groundbait but had not had a bite, but seeing those bream gave me a confidence boost. Two hours later I was still without a bite and so I went for a walk, quite a long walk! From peg 3 in the little field to peg 43, and 1 bream was the best!
I spent the rest of the match admiring the wonderful bird life, a skylarks song, a couple of ravens, buzzards, woodpecker, lots of small birds and best of all a peregrine falcon. Then an admiral butterfly appeared, obviously awoken by the spring warmth and there were even.........OK I can't put it off any longer. Other than one small tap on the tip I never had a bite and blanked, in fact 4 of us in a row did. Bollox!
The match was won with bream but as you will see the weights dropped off very quickly.
1st Brian Melksham 70lb (just below Newton St Loe bridge) biggest bream 9lb 6oz
2nd Mark "ACKOO" Haskins 59lb (peg 61 Norfolk Reeds) biggest bream 8lb 6oz
3rd Alan Brown 27lb (I think peg 69)
4th ........ 13lb+
5th Martin Barrett 13Lb+ (just above N St L bridge)
Glenn had 8lb of small roach to win the little field and Rotork section. Leon Hubbard won the next section from peg 18 with one bream for 7lb. Nigel Saunders had 2 bream from peg 38, and Mike Shellard on peg 59 had 10lb.
Catch of the day....Darren Gillman with an estimated 15lb pike on the feeder (pike don't count). As Darren played the pike he noticed two small jacks following it around.
Laugh of the day...Richard Lacey snapping his brand new Maver feeder rod when casting out!
(Oh and at Frys 1 bream won the match, after there had been lots caught all week.)
One more match for me next week then an enforced break.
Sunday, 4 March 2012
Viaduct Winter League
Having seen the weather forecast on Friday suggesting Sunday would be very wet and windy I was thinking that Gary O'Shea had pulled a fast one asking me to take his place in the team. This was the last round of the league and my team had no Chance of doing any good overall so I could fish as I liked.
I knew I was going to be on either Lodge or Carey and a draw in one of the corners would very useful. Of course this being a team match I would be at the mercy of the team draw and Chris Higgins dipped his hand in today. I got peg 70 on Lodge, in the middle of the lake and was told it was fancied for skimmers. Chris was virtually behind me on peg 100 on Carey and he would be sitting facing the wind and rain, on the lead. I had the wind off my right shoulder which was good as my section is float only. The corner pegs seemed to have been drawn by Viaduct regulars, such as Andy Lloyd, Andy Power and Steve Jackson, and this just vindicated my decision to go all out for silvers. About an hour before the start there were skimmers and carp boshing right out in the middle of the lake in front of the peg to my right and in line with 55/56. A long chuck for a float only, and only the lad on the end bank cast that far during the day.
I set up two pole rigs, both Preston PB Inters one was 0.3grm and one .5grm just in case the wind and tow required it, an 18 to 0.10 was the business end. A 3.5 AAA waggler would get me far enough out due to the wind, and keep a bit of sensitivity. I shotted this with 1 no8 and 3 no10 down the line, with an 18 to 0.1.
The match started and I cupped a couple of balls of gbait at out eleven o'clock 14mtrs , and some casters to 1 o'clock. By the time I had done this my hands were freezing and I had to keep blowing on them to give me the ability to bait my waggler rig! I fed casters out on the wag line and in the first hour I didn't have that many small fish pester me and landed 4 skimmers. The next hour was poor and I only had 1 skimmer (which leapt out of the water) and so after 2 hours I tried the pole. A variety of hookbaits produced 2 tiny roach and much sooner than expected the wag was out again. By now the rain had stopped but the wind just got stronger and I had to add some depth to the wag and move the shot around a bit to keep it still.
I took the odd skimmer in the next 2.5 hours mainly on single red maggot on the wag, but the small fish really became a pain and despite upping the caster feed the last 30 mins were very frustrating. The pole line never produced for me and this was something I could not work out. I never hooked a carp all match and other than the skimmers the only other decent fish was a 8oz perch.
Dean Malin 2 pegs up from me on 68 had like me set his stall out for skimmers, but Dean had caught them on the pole and he landed 3 in the last 15 mins. He weighed 20lb and that beat my 18lb 2oz for the section, for some reason the anglers either side of me really struggled weighing 4lb to my left and 2lb to my right. I went back to the results for a beer and a cheese roll and was told I might sneak into the silvers frame. As it turned out I did frame in the silvers coming 5th, getting beaten by 8oz for 4th and then Dean was 3rd. 26lb topped the silvers today. I did bump 2 skimmers on the wag, but Dean told me he lost 4 so I won't lose any sleep!
Some anglers managed to sneak a few skimmers in on meat today, and I could have done with some of that I think as a change bait as I never had a bite on corn. Meat, but on the lead, also worked well for the winner Dave Roper who had 135lb off Carey I think on peg 97, and Des Shipp had 134lb on the same tactics from Campbell 113.
Thatchers youth won on the day and won the league (though the choice of name was questioned as Mark Harper was in the team lol!), so well done the young uns!
More results I'm sure on Tony's and Mike's blogs.
I knew I was going to be on either Lodge or Carey and a draw in one of the corners would very useful. Of course this being a team match I would be at the mercy of the team draw and Chris Higgins dipped his hand in today. I got peg 70 on Lodge, in the middle of the lake and was told it was fancied for skimmers. Chris was virtually behind me on peg 100 on Carey and he would be sitting facing the wind and rain, on the lead. I had the wind off my right shoulder which was good as my section is float only. The corner pegs seemed to have been drawn by Viaduct regulars, such as Andy Lloyd, Andy Power and Steve Jackson, and this just vindicated my decision to go all out for silvers. About an hour before the start there were skimmers and carp boshing right out in the middle of the lake in front of the peg to my right and in line with 55/56. A long chuck for a float only, and only the lad on the end bank cast that far during the day.
I set up two pole rigs, both Preston PB Inters one was 0.3grm and one .5grm just in case the wind and tow required it, an 18 to 0.10 was the business end. A 3.5 AAA waggler would get me far enough out due to the wind, and keep a bit of sensitivity. I shotted this with 1 no8 and 3 no10 down the line, with an 18 to 0.1.
The match started and I cupped a couple of balls of gbait at out eleven o'clock 14mtrs , and some casters to 1 o'clock. By the time I had done this my hands were freezing and I had to keep blowing on them to give me the ability to bait my waggler rig! I fed casters out on the wag line and in the first hour I didn't have that many small fish pester me and landed 4 skimmers. The next hour was poor and I only had 1 skimmer (which leapt out of the water) and so after 2 hours I tried the pole. A variety of hookbaits produced 2 tiny roach and much sooner than expected the wag was out again. By now the rain had stopped but the wind just got stronger and I had to add some depth to the wag and move the shot around a bit to keep it still.
I took the odd skimmer in the next 2.5 hours mainly on single red maggot on the wag, but the small fish really became a pain and despite upping the caster feed the last 30 mins were very frustrating. The pole line never produced for me and this was something I could not work out. I never hooked a carp all match and other than the skimmers the only other decent fish was a 8oz perch.
Dean Malin 2 pegs up from me on 68 had like me set his stall out for skimmers, but Dean had caught them on the pole and he landed 3 in the last 15 mins. He weighed 20lb and that beat my 18lb 2oz for the section, for some reason the anglers either side of me really struggled weighing 4lb to my left and 2lb to my right. I went back to the results for a beer and a cheese roll and was told I might sneak into the silvers frame. As it turned out I did frame in the silvers coming 5th, getting beaten by 8oz for 4th and then Dean was 3rd. 26lb topped the silvers today. I did bump 2 skimmers on the wag, but Dean told me he lost 4 so I won't lose any sleep!
Some anglers managed to sneak a few skimmers in on meat today, and I could have done with some of that I think as a change bait as I never had a bite on corn. Meat, but on the lead, also worked well for the winner Dave Roper who had 135lb off Carey I think on peg 97, and Des Shipp had 134lb on the same tactics from Campbell 113.
Thatchers youth won on the day and won the league (though the choice of name was questioned as Mark Harper was in the team lol!), so well done the young uns!
More results I'm sure on Tony's and Mike's blogs.
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