Tony Rixon Float Only Series - Final Round Viaduct Fishery

Well I didn't pick the best of week's to have a holiday in the UK, got a bit wet at West Bay during the week lol! Got back home Saturday and the first thing I needed to do was get all my gear out (which had been put away wet last Sunday) and clean and dry it off. Thankfully the weather was good and after a while everything was washed down and left out to dry.

I spent the morning making some rigs up and tying hook lengths and was happy that I had everything ready for Viaduct the following day. Glenn was doing the honours again on the driving front, primarily because his car can take the extra load of made up rods that Glenn takes. He picked me up at 7:30 and we headed off for breakfast at the Highwayman pub which is next to Canards Well. The breakfast was well pricey at £8 but included fruit juice and cereal (not that I had that), but when the cooked brekky turned up it was well cooked but low on contents. Not worth it in my opinion.

Today's match was on Campbell and Carey, and I had no thoughts about where to draw or not, I just got into the queue. Craig Edmunds was winning the league with 4 perfect section wins, Tony Rixon, Shaun Townsend, Steve Tucker and myself were all 1 point behind Trig, and I was 4th on weight. I therefore need a section win today to keep myself in the money overall, and hope the others dipped out.  I was happy enough when I pulled out peg 96 on Carey. I've not been on Carey for a long time, and I knew this was a good peg although I'd rather be chucking the lead out on it! Glenn was away to 114 and off we went.

Got to the peg and 95 is left empty, Glen Calvert (we seem to draw next to each other a lot) was on 96, 90 wasn't drawn, dunno the lad on 88 and Mike West was on 86. Glen would be dangerous having all of the end bank to himself, and I could not talk him into fishing for silvers! I had asked around for advice, and World Champion swimmer James Guy was helpful as he had been on the peg the day before. I decided on a paste approach at 14m, a waggler at depth for further out, a meat rig at 6m, and a margin rig to fish next to pallet 95 which other than a 1lb tench was no use. All rigs were on 0.18 Exceed or 0.17 Powerline for obvious reasons! On my left was Neil Mercer, and I told him he had to me a favour as in his section were Shaun, Tony and Tucks! That was good news for me and if I could win my section I would beat at least two of them.

On the all in I fed a pot of 6mm pellets on the paste line, fed a couple of cattys of 8mm pellets further out and then saw that on peg 98 Paul Elmes was already playing a carp caught on the short pole. I started on the paste and soon hooked and lost a fouler, but next drop in I was hooked up to a decent fish and landed it, must have been near 12lb. Fifteen minutes later and I was in again and this time I thought the carp was around 10lb, not a bad start after 30 minutes! Then the fun began...... I fouled 2 carp on the pole and after 90 minutes I had only added one more smaller carp. I did have a chuckle at Neil who managed to snap a top set in 5 places, but still managed to land the carp!

A try on the waggler was just as frustrating with a few missed "bites" and two foulers lost. Back in on the paste and although fish would show themselves by fizzing I either missed bites or fouled the odd fish. I did manage another carp on the pole but after 3 hours my 4 carp was winning my section, but Neil was beating me next door. Glen on 94 then had 4 carp in a shot time and I was really struggling to get my head round how to catch these lumps. Another go on the waggler was even more frustrating with another 3 fish pulled out of, one of them even hooked itself with the handle spinning backwards but was still fouled grrrrr!!! After this the wag line died and I decided to give it up and concentrate on the pole lines.

Early looks in the margin and meat line were fruitless, and Neil was way ahead of me, then I hit a couple of carp on the paste and it seemed to me the fish had moved into my swim from Neil's as his long line dried up. I hooked a fish on the paste with an hour to go which I really had to hang onto, and I knew it was fouled, as I got it nearer I knew it was in the tail and trying to reverse in a double ain't easy! Luckily everything held and a very round fish finally settled in the net. Another fish then snapped the line and somehow the float came off so I had to get another rig. Glen was still my main rival in the section but he had slowed down on the wag and I was sure I was ahead of him. I took another couple of carp in the last hour on the paste, the meat didn't work for me, or should I  say I didn't make it work! I ended the match with 10 carp all on the paste, I had fed about 3 pints of 6mm pellet on this line. Neil thought he had around 15 and it would be very close in his section between him, Shaun and Tony, Tucks had really struggled.

When the scales arrived at my peg Glen was winning my section with 69lb, I knew I had that beat and the scales confirmed it at 106lb, I had got the all important section win. I then followed the scales down as the next section was important, Neil had a good 156lb, and he just beat Shaun by around a 1lb, and Tony got 136lb. What that meant was I was going to beat all of those guys in the league. Of course I was never going to beat commercial fishery expert Craig Edmunds, and he finished his league off in style winning the match from peg 76 with 175lb and winning the league with perfect points, well done legend! Actually Trig should have been 3rd over all on the day but on Campbell Gordon Cannings and Chris Fox both went over in their nets losing weight, in Gordons case 89lb OUCH!!!

Results on the day (as I recalled them)

1st Trig 175lb
2nd Chris Fox 173lb
3rd Chris Davis 171lb

Silvers 1st Gord Cannings 30lb

League overall
1st Trig 25 points
2nd Me 24 (yay)
3rd Chris Davis 23
4th Shaun Townsend 23
5th Tony Rixon 22

Well I am well chuffed to come 2nd overall, I certainly had some good draws and the luck went my way today with those 3 anglers in the same section. Picking up £265 on the day was the icing on the cake. Thanks to Tony for running the league.

Next week I am fishing the river Thames, not fished it for ages, might be a struggle!

Super League Final Round Newbridge

Another week of hard work and being kept very busy. Saw an old mate on Friday at Marshfield (where I spotted a rare Marsh Harrier) and then swim clearing Jack Whites Saturday morning to make pegs available for the winter league, then watched Bristol Rovers win in the afternoon. All that meant my prep for this match was in the evening, it was still very warm and hard graft mixing the groundbait.

Up nice and early Sunday for the 8:30 draw and I could tell we'd had a fair bit of rain overnight, how much I did not know but heavy rain during the day would make a difference to the river. Although some people did not agree, I know the streams that flow into the river will get very dirty as a result of torrents of rain, and this will have an affect and I thought some bream would feed if the colour came in. Captain Mark Harper did the team draw and he put me on a roach flyer peg 148, last peg in the trees where Darren Gillman last week had 18lb of roach. As we filed out of the club the rain started, and by the time my shuttle was loaded everything was soaked. After walking by the side of the rugby pitch I went through the arch and past peg 107, only 41 pegs to walk this week! It was like walking in a monsoon, and I slipped and slid my way to my peg, passing Darren on 118 who was kind enough to tell me how he fished the peg last week.

Got to my peg and quickly put my brolley up to get my bait bag and box under, I don't normally get under a brolley but I needed to today, and I could still fish the pole without compromise. I took a little video of the rain, actually this was not when it was at its heaviest!

Knowing how Darren had caught last week only cemented my thoughts, it was really going to be a day on the pole, but I would set up a crowquill and a feeder just in case. I was thinking about my usual pole rigs when Lee Trivett rang me from peg 18 to say the river was colouring up and speeding up and to be prepared for the extra water and use heavier rigs. No pencil float today then, a 2grm and a 4grm both with 18 to 0.10 were assembled as was a 4grm flat float with 0,12 to 16. I added some casters and hemp and a few pinkies to my gbait and soil mix, (no worm as I didn't want perch to upset the roach) and made up 12 big balls. After throwing them in I dropped in with the 2g rig with a maggot on the hook, I was a bit surprised when after 5 runs through I hadn't had a bite, but on the 6th it did dip and a roach of no more than 2oz was swung in. The next few runs through brought the odd small roach and it certainly was not as good as I expected. Then the Lobbys lad Charlie on 146 came down and asked me if I could help him get two pole sections apart, then 10 mins later I walked up to him asking for the same favour lol! Charlie had struggled but he had lost his first three fish to pike. I was soon into a 4oz roach and next chuck the same but a pike grabbed it, we played tug of war and after a minute the roach did an impression of a salmon as the pike let go. Next chuck same thing and I got the roach back, next chuck another pike hook length gone. Back out and I had a couple of small perch and the roach I found had dropped back a little. An hour gone and I had not much more than 2 1/2lb in the net, poor,

The second hour was better in terms of more bites and the roach were more 3 to 4oz. However, the pike came back with vengeance, and at one stage I lost 3 roach on the bounce, and I'm not sure how but on one occasion the main line snapped just below my olivette. This really knocked the peg back and a try on the crowquill was strangely no good. I topped up with a ball of gbait, and after 15 mins of no bites the float went under again. I then had 30 mins of bites as soon as the float settled, I even tried the 4g rig and I was hitting as many bites and it was good. Bites stopped so I topped again, there was just less than two hours to go, this produced another flurry for 15 mins then dead again. Topping up again this time made no difference this time, but by searching the peg I got an odd bite but I was not catching well enough. My feeling was I had to reball it as this often works on this peg or where there are a lot of fish. Sadly for me it only produced another 5 or 6 little roach and a couple of perch. The last hour was dreadful and I couldn't raise a bite on any rig, bait or the crowquill. I tried going down to 22 and 0.09 but as I suspected that made bugger all difference. All I managed was half a dozen little chub when I shallowed up in desperation to catch something.

When the match finished I was thoroughly wet through and I have to admit very disappointed with what I had caught. The rain which had been on and off all day (more on!) returned to monsoon for another 30 minutes as I packed up, great lol! When the scales arrived to weigh me first my net of roach went 10lb 11 1/2oz, a nice bag but no where near what I was looking for. Charlie had 7lb+ which turned out to be last in the section, and then the next three anglers weighed 12lb, 15lb and 15lb, with Mark Bromsgrove winning the section by 1oz over Mark Treasure. I spoke to the Marks and they had both caught well when topping up with a ball of gbait, and they had a couple of skimmers each too. The rest of the river had fished well, and the bream started to show further up as the colour came in, but it seems nearly all were caught on the pole. I didn't get the results as I was chatting to others and never heard the results which were done outside the club. I know there were a couple of 30lb weights and some twenties, one section in the 30's and 40's 9lb was last and Shaun Townsend had 17lb and only beat 2 in his section.

Overall the league was sewn up by Diawa Gordon League again, Thyers had a very good day and took second with Blackmore Vale 3rd. Thatchers could only manage 4th and had struggled after two poor rounds on the Gloucester.

Not sure that my gear will be dry before next Sunday, but maybe all the slugs and snails will have crawled off to the corner of my shed. I have to get everything changed over to carp gear as it is the last round of the float only series which is at Viaduct . I am doing well in that but need a section win and others around me to dip out as I have a poor weight.

Superleague Round 5 Bristol Avon Newbridge

Despite the winding up by Nick Chedzoy I am still a Preston Thatchers team man, and after a long break from team fishing I was back with the lads for this match. Earlier in the week the weather forecast got my hopes up of a decent river, but Bristol and Bath escaped the torrents and what we got on Friday mostly got absorbed by the dry ground. A low and clear river would be awaiting us anglers, no real surprise as it seems to be the way most summers now.

Saturday was all about Sunday, I spent the day making rigs, changing elastics etc, and I must say I had to question myself over the line diameters I was using, 0.10 looks pathetic after months of 0.16 to 0.20! Actually things came into focus for me when I put my "reading" glasses on, yes old age has caught up on me and for the first time in my life I now have glasses for close up. Certainly made tying hooks a lot easier! Good news my far sight is still perfect.

Sunday arrived and I arrived at the Rugby club at Saltford in good time, a couple of rolls filled my belly and I spoke to Darren Gillman who was guesting for Maver Cadbury. Liam Bradell organised our team pools and did the draw, got to be honest it didn't look very good to me, whereas the Blackmore Vale draw looked a cracker. I was on peg 52, a nice long walk but nothing to faze me now I'm at full fitness. The peg though did faze me as I drew peg 51 last year on the last superleague match and I struggled for 4lb+ and Glenn Calvert on 52 came last with 2lb+. Oh well maybe the roach would be there this time? Pretty wide this bit of river, and a good place for bream when the river has a bit of colour.

On the way to the peg I got to Andy Britt on peg 49 which is generally a good peg, Andy told me he had the shits so I lent him some wet wipes,if he spent more time with the squirts than fishing I may have a chance lol! Ian Sheppard of Diawa Gordon League was on 50 and on the bream hole peg 54 was Don Sutherland. Setting up was pretty straight forward today, a feeder rod with 14 PR355 to 0.14 Exceed, a waggler rod 4AAA wag with 20 to 0.10, then 3 pole rigs; for chopped worm at 7m 1.25g job which never got me a bite today! A 1grm pencil float with 20 to 0.10 and later 0.09, and a 2 grm with 18 to 0.11. The long pole line was at 13m and on the whistle I threw in 12 jaffas, and threw 6 balls right over for a feeder line. I picked up the pencil float and stuck on a red maggot and when the float the settled it went under and I had a roach of no more than an ounce. Next chuck the same, so on with a caster and that stopped the bites so back to maggot. It was a bad sign to be catching such small roach from the off, in my experience you tend to catch a decent stamp of roach straight away if they are in your peg.

Over the next hour I worked hard to get and hit the bites from small roach and odd small perch, and then the float started to get held up by bleak or ting chublets. I had to change to the 2gm rig and even then I had to push the bulk down and put 4 no 8 six inches above the hook to occasionally get past the bleak. Trying caster again I had a 4oz chub, and then a couple of roach of similar size and when I then hooked a 6oz roach I thought I was in business. However, the 6 ouncer spat the hook out before I netted it and the rig flew into the bankside vegetation and I lost the hook. Tying on a new hook length I cursed my luck, but was soon back fishing, but the fish had gone, not a bite and even on the light rig the bits had gone!

Time for a change, I knew there were lots of small fish up in the water over, but I thought I should have a sneaky look on the feeder. Starting on 3 red maggots was a bad idea as 1oz chub took that, another then took a dendra! After this I had 3 or 4 small perch and I didn't feel it was right to stay on this as Don was getting a small fish a chuck on the wag. I switched to the wag and before I could feed the float went under, bleak, so I fed and cast out, bleak, small chub, missed bite. Basically it was solid with fish of less than an ounce, and I was missing too many bites, so I shallowed up to about 2 1/2ft  and that was better. I would cast out and catch about 5 fish on the same maggot and then feed and change the bait. It was good for about an hour, but then much like on the pole the bites just stopped. Meanwhile Don next door was still catching on the wag. I stopped feeding and caught a few more, then found I had to cast further and further across the river to get a bite. I was not catching fast enough now and decided to rest it.

The pole line was still dead despite my feeding it regularly with hemp and caster, so with and hour left I reballed it which did not work! Another small perch on the feeder and and a fruitless spell on the wag saw my match petering out. Desperate I tried fishing a small worm on the pole over my 13m line, 3 perch and a roach probably going 12oz in total were welcome but I still felt not enough as the match came to an end.

Stretch had the scales and he started on the flyer peg in our section the Norfolk Reeds where Nicky Johns had just under 10lb, a 6lb, then 5lb was weighed before Don put a good 8lb 12oz of mainly chublets on the scales. My turn and I had 8lb 2oz which was a bit more than I thought, Ian had 4lb and then Andy easily won the section with 14lb+ of proper roach mainly caught in the first couple of hours. Not sure I could have caught 10lb today, but I may have made a mistake coming off the feeder as I was getting small perch. Don had small chub hanging around the trees and after the match we were watching 4 to 6oz fish swimming on the surface, he not caught any that big.

I didn't get the winners name today, but he was in the last section in the trees and had a good 26lb of skimmers on the pole, that beat Darren Gillman who was lucky to draw the end peg of the match in the trees and had a lovely 18lb of roach. Overall the river fished well with a couple of 15lbs, some 14lbs, and other doubles. Certainly the chublets on the wag have added 3 to 4lb on the weights, if these fish survive and grow on then we could have some seriously good chub fishing in a few years.

Team wise Blackmore Vale did their good draw proud and paralysed the match, my Thatchers team came 2nd which I really thought was a good result, Liam and Nathaniel were our section winners today, Overall DGL are untouchable, and now BMV are in second place with Thatchers and Thyers tied 6 points behind them. Last round next week on the same venue.

Chilton Trinity Woodlands

Today's match was the last of the 4 round short pole series. Sadly for myself after a section win in round 1 I was unable to fish the next 2 rounds and as only one stand in allowed I got a zero point in round 3 meaning the league was over for me. Thanks though to Aaron Britnell who did stand in for me, Up The Gas Aaron!

I was well overdue giving a lift to Glenn, and so even though I had thought of fishing the river today I took my turn driving to Chilton Trinity. Glenn had an outside chance of getting in the top 4 of the league if he won his section and a couple of results went his way. I was just going for the best I could on the day, and as such we both went armed with just pellets and paste! After a brekkie in the grumpy old gits cafe (Hilltops) I was set up nicely for the day. I was quite a long way back in the draw queue again today, and even before I got in the cabin Chris Fox came storming out with a face like thunder. Glenn shouted back he'd drawn 25 and was in the same section as Chris, not good then. I then went and pulled peg 24 so I was going to spend all day next to Glenn the paste master, and on peg 23 was the one and only Tony Rixon, good neighbours today then. Apparently this has not been a good section all series, but it is a fair one as there are no corners or gaps.

As I started to assemble my gear on the grass behind the wooden planks I was thinking how was I going to beat Glenn fishing paste, I'd really not done well on it this year and Glenn has just emptied everywhere on it. However, I wouldn't feed it in the same way or use the same paste mix as him so as long as approaches differed slightly there was a glimmer of hope. Rigs today were just three; for the far line (6m) the paste rig (a big H 4x12) with 0.19 to size 10 Drennan Carp Feeder, a 4x16 pellet rig, and for the margins a 4x10 Dura 10 for banded pellet. Nice and easy and I was well ready for the start of the match putting in a pot of 6mm pellets in at 6m, and some 8mm pellets in either margin, that was it. Starting on the paste rig and there was a fizz straight away, first drop in and I soon missed a bite or a liner. Back out again and after a 5 min wait the float buried and I struck but didn't connect with anything until about 2 feet below the surface, bugger must be fouled then! Off this fish went and I hung on, and whilst it pulled really hard it didn't go stupid. After a few minutes the fish boiled near the surface and from that boil I could tell it was a good fish, but I still assumed fouled. After a short time I got the carp in closer and I could then see it was hooked in the mouth (how did it swim 5 feet up from the bottom with my paste in its gob?) and a biggy. Got it in the net and I guessed it had to be close to 15lb which is about a good a start as I could get! Here's a pic of the beast, I struggled to hold it up, and that's Glenn's finger in the shot!

Back in on the paste and it all went a bit quiet before I had a 12oz skimmer, so I re fed some more 6mm pellet. About 20 mins gone and I hooked another carp, this fish fought hard too but it turned out to be a white ghostie and they always go mad, it was about 6lb. By the end of the first hour I'd added a 12oz hybrid and that was it. Glenn was really struggling and had only 1 carp, Tony was fishing for silvers and only had a couple of skimmers. At this stage Bela Bakos on 26 was on 3 carp and doing beat in our section. The next hour was tough and all I managed was a small skimmer and believe it or not an eel getting on for 2lb!

The next 2 hours were dross and Glenn soon over took me and he and Bela were in front, Tony had one carp and was struggling for anything. Across from me Craig Edmunds was catching steadily and stood out as the only person catching regularly. I tried my margins on and off all day and I never had one bite from them, neither did the pellet rig work at 6m, it was paste or nothing. The last 2 hours Glenn and myself were able to draw the odd fish in over our past swims (getting the odd fizz) but catching them was not easy, whenever I did catch a carp Glenn would seem to get one soon after, and he kept being 1 or 2 carp in front. Coming up to the last 15 mins Glenn had another carp and he now had 8 to my 6, but with 3 or 4 mins to go I had a fizz approach my float like an otter and as it arrived the float shot under and I was in. Tony shouted take my time, I wasn't rushing that's for sure, and I had too as this fish fought like a tiger even though it was only about 5lb, I landed it a few minutes after the whistle, would it be crucial! I looked on my clicker, I had  recorded 50lb, and I thought I had 6lb of silvers, Glenn was saying he had 40lb.

The scales arrived and Tony weighed in 20lb, I think he might have had one or two choice comments about his fish being lonely lol (read his blog for how he caught!). My silvers weighed 7lb+ and my 7 carp 49Lb+, for once I got my clicker number right! 56lb 10oz was my total, and the scales went on to Glenn, he had only 1 skimmer to go with his carp, but he had more than he thought, well the fish were big. Luckily for me they were not quite big enough and he had 51lb+, so my last fish probably was crucial. Beating the paste master at his own game and Tony next door made my day, and the icing on the cake was I was top weight on my bank and so won the section.

Opposite Trig won convincingly with 135lb, an awesome performance, 2nd was Kev Moulton from I think peg 17 with 81lb, and 4rd was Tom Magnall from peg 7 with 65lb, so I guess I was first out of the money in 4th, hmmm think that happened last week lol! Paul Faires and Ken Rayner were 1st and 2nd in the silvers respectively.

Trig managed to clear up on virtually all the money, he won the league, the knockout, and the heaviest weigh over the series, there is simply no stopping him, congratulations. Sadly, me knocking Glenn down to 2nd in the section meant he was first out of the money in the league, I was gutted about that but we did have a great peg to peg battle and some good banter was had with everyone throughout the day.

Next week a complete change, it is back to the Rivers and the Avon at Newbridge. I hope we get some rain this week, otherwise I could be looking at a difficult match, but whatever I will be looking forward to it.

Float Only League Round 5 - Sedges Fishery

There was no blog last week as I was on holiday in Ibiza, and what a cracking holiday it was, great weather, great food, great company and far too much booze. I managed to put on 5lbs in 10 days, sadly it has all gone on my gut, so I need to do something about that! Anyway, I didn't get home till gone 9pm Saturday night and a quick call to Glenn (who did me some meat) was the extent of my preparation for this penultimate round of the series.

Glenn did the honours driving which was a godsend as I was well and truly knackered. We stopped at Hill Tops where I had my 11th consecutive cooked breakfast, no more of them this week! We were well early arriving at the fishery, but even so we only just got a parking space, and took a walk around the two lakes which were being pegged. The wind was blowing straight down the lakes from the car park, and it was forecast to get very windy during the day. A corner draw at the bottom end where the wind was blowing into looked to be favourite, and peg 11 where Glenn won from Thursday was high on my wish list. I was quite a way back in the draw queue and saw peg 11 drawn out, bugger, but then I was lucky enough to draw corner peg 40 which is a flyer, even though it was the opposite windy end it was still fancied as a week or so ago 350lb came off this peg, albeit on a method feeder!

After my short walk to the peg I got on setting up as we were starting at 10:45 today. My neighbour today was Dave Roper on 39, behind me on peg 1 was Mike West. First thing set up was a 4 Swan pellet waggler with 0.18 to 16 PR38, this was for the long chuck to the island, see below. Oh by the way, this photo was taken about 30 mins AFTER the match ended and the wind dropped!!!

I also set up 4 pole rigs, a 4x16 Preston Yellow for fishing banded pellet at 14m, a 4x10 Tyson for fishing shallow over the top. A 0.4 Corby for meat on top set plus 1 and lastly a 4x12 PB Inter for fishing banded pellet at 16m to the end bank. All rigs featured 0.16 to 16 PR36 except the meat rig which had a 14 PR456.

When the match started I fed half a pot of 6mm pellets at 14m, half a pot of 8mm pellets to the end bank. I started on the deep rig at 14m and all the while fed some 11m pellets all over the island as the wind was not nice. I missed a decent bite first drop in, then not long after had a very slow pull down on the float which moved off and looked like a liner, but the float never came up so I struck anyway. The culprit was a foul hooked 1lb 10oz eel! For the rest of the match I never caught another fish on this rig. I was catapulting 6mms over this line in the hope the carp would come in shallow, so I let that settle and had a quick look on the wag. It was not easy and Dave Roper had already given it up as a bad job, in 30 mins I had 2 bites, one of which resulted in a 2lb carp. I never had a another fish on the wag for the rest of the match.

It was not the start I was looking for or expecting, but I could see Anton Page opposite me on 21 not doing well either but had taken a couple shallow, so I went back to my 14m line with a 8mm in the band. A few fish were blowing but it was hard getting a bite, I think I managed 3 (one of which went 12lb) before it went quiet and I had an early look up the end bank which was biteless. Resting my other line worked and first chuck back out shallow I had a carp, sadly I never had another fish shallow for the rest of the match... Do you see a pattern forming lol? Not a lot was being caught and I was ahead of Dave who had 3 carp on paste.

I guess it was about 2 1/2 hours in that I went back to the end bank and this time the float went under, but after a fouler I soon realised the fish were up in the water, but with so much foliage fishing shallow would be hard. I did try it with no reward and so cupped in about 30 to 40 8mm pellets and stopped feeding with the catty in an attempt to try to pin the fish down. This worked a treat and I started to catch small 2-3lb carp fairly regularly by just potting, then toss potting in about 15 pellets. I probably took 6 in as many casts and was now getting regular indications. For the next 2 hours I caught slowly but steadily, mainly small carp, when it slowed I tried my meat line and had 2 fish quite quickly, but I never had another bite here!

The end bank line was now a struggle and I had to wait a long time for a bite, hard graft when you're fishing 16m. That said I was confident the fish would return and with 75 mins to go I got another keepnet, sadly I only managed to put 3 carp in the new net as the fish just went. I think I caught the resident fish that were probably happily living under the trees to my right, I fished as near to them as I could next to some reeds, you might be able to see the spot I fished in this picture.

When the match ended I was feeling tired but happy as I had enjoyed the day despite knowing I was not going to frame, which I thought might have been possible mid match. I had to wait till last to be weighed in and it was plain to see that the other end of the lakes had been the place to be, in fact I think the top weight in my section was 29lb until weighed in, my nets went 88lb+ I think. To be honest I missed all the results due to being last to be weighed, so rather than the guess the winners and the weights I will have to refer to other blogs, Tony's, Mike Nicholls etc. I do know Glenn and myself won our sections. With one match to go I am in contention in the league, but, and it is a big but, I would need the front runners to have a bad result as I have a low weight compared to them. The reality is Trigger and Shaun Townsend will be fighting out for the top spot.