Angling Trust Winter League Final

It has been quite a few years since I have been in this final which is fished on the Fenland Drains and Decoy Lakes. My preparation was mainly done a couple of weeks ago, so no mad rush in the lead up. The final had 28 teams of 10 competing, with 5 anglers on the drains and 5 on the lakes. My Thatchers Preston Innovations team was:-

Drains - Andy Ottaway, Lee Trivitt, James Carty, Ian Paulley, Mike Marsden.

Lakes - John Harvey, Rob Jones, Luke sorokin, Paul Isaacs, Tim Ford

I was going to travel up with Paul Isaacs in his large van, but the day before Paul’s van had a problem and so I had to drive which was no problem. We drove up Friday afternoon and got to our pub / hotel just after 6pm, we met up with the rest of the team during the evening as they arrived. A few beers, a Chinese and a great night with the lads, all we needed now was a decent set of pegs.

Saturday morning and the cheapest breakfast of £6 for cereal, drinks, toast and full English! Andy Ottaway had left early to draw and as Paul and I drove to Decoy Lakes we found out are pegs, I was on Beastie 15, and Paul Elm 12. Driving Paul to Elm lake I walked with him to his peg (Paul had not fished Decy before), it was the end bank of a rectangular strip lake, and I told him it was a great peg. I told him that he would catch dobbing bread and would be ok. Off to my lake and found that I was on a mini island (they called it a spit) where two of us were facing into the main lake and two were facing the other way into a bowl. Carp were boshing around and the four of us were a little excited about our prospects. 

I had a nice island to fish to and an aerator and carp were topping all around the island. My neighbour on peg 15 was a young lad called Will Marchant, he said it was the first time he had seen a fish top in three matches at Decoy. I had a straight lead for popped up bread and a maggot feeder for the island. I had 2 pole lines at 14m one for pellet and corn, one for groundbait and maggots. I had 4x16 and 4x14 floats, and 16 GPM to 0.13 and 16 SFL to 0.11. The same rigs would do for 6m.  Now, the sad thing was that I had a lovely left hand margin with reeds where dobbing bread etc looked ideal… but I couldn’t fish it. Fishery rules are you can only fish up to the leg of the next platform, and peg 14 was between me and the reeds. See my picture showing this, arrow where I wanted to fish, but cross where I could not fish past which was 5 metres away. The lad on 13 Dan Bennett said it was the rule too, but thought it was unfair.

Dan was just around the corner of those reeds and it was a fancied peg apparently. See the picture of him behind me on the end of the spit.

The match began at 11:00 and I started on the lead and bread casting short of the aerator to start. A ten minute cast and no indication, so I cast a few metres further. Another 10 minutes and no indication so I was now already going close to the island. By this stage an odd early carp had been caught around the lake, Dan had a couple on bread, but Will and I were still waiting for a liner.

On the hour I had a tiny knock, then Will landed a 4lb F1. Ten minutes later I shipped the pole out with maggot and caught a little roach to save the blank. Back on the lead and needed a trick, so tried to ring Paul but he didn’t answer, as I put my phone down I looked back and my rod was bent in half, trick worked 🤣.  After a worrying time as this fish tried to get under the aerator it soon came in close and I was happy to land a 7lb carp. No more signs, so I went onto the pole but nothing on corn and just another roach on maggot.

I went onto the maggot feeder for an hour, didn’t get any carp but had two skimmers, a few roach and a Gudgeon. I didn’t feel this was right although John Harvey had said it would work, but the roach were feeding. Back on the bread and after a few chucks had a F1 and then a skimmer. I stayed on this longer than I wanted too as the sun was in my eyes and with the wind I couldn’t see my pole floats, in fact I couldn’t even see my tip at one stage and had to reposition it. 

I knew I was doing ok against the guys around me except Dan who was bagging on F1’s fishing to his right on the end of the spit. But I could see others on the lake were doing better. My 6m swim was full of roach despite feeding 2 pints of maggots I took a few of them as I could see the float here, but knew I needed carp so had to get on the lead as the corn line on the pole never gave me a bite all match sadly. No signs for me and with Will having a couple of F1 and skimmer on the pole (and now I could see it) I went back on my gbait and maggot line. I quickly had an F1, and knew I was ahead of Will but with about 30 minutes to go he hooked a carp on the pole. Eventually he netted a 10lb carp hooked in the tail and I congratulated him on landing it. I finally hooked another fish on the pole and as I shipped back the all out was called, a last minute skimmer was nice.

The guy off to my left on the other bank had seen about 25 carp top in his peg yet didn’t get any, he would end last in the section with 3 kilo, and the lad next to him with 7 kilo last but one. Behind me, peg 10 George Webb had 5 F1 for 8 kilo 775g, then Dan smashed the lake with 51 kilo of F1 on maggots. I weighed 8 kilo 450g and Will had 10 kilo 100g.  After this the weights just got better. Unfortunately take away Dan and the bottom 5 of my section came from my area of the lake. Clearly the topping carp were not feeding, maybe cleaning off leaches? But we were all left scratching our heads.

My fish today. Disappointed to only beat 2 people, but realistically beating 4 was the best I could have done. I never missed a bite on the tip and never lost a fish.

Paul had a great result coming second on his lake with nearly 30 kilos, all caught on bread in the first 90 minutes. 

Rob had a nice peg and was third with 30 kilos but John and Luke were in bad areas and only beat a few. On the drains our star was Andy who won his section with 193 fish for 5 kilo. Mike was 6th, but unfortunately James, Lee and Ian were all low down. That meant we ended in 17th place out of 28 teams, too many poor pegs but that’s winter for you. Barnsley Blacks won with local team Tackle and Bates runners up, well done to them very consistent performances.

We stopped for a bite to eat on the way home, Paul certainly had an appetite ordering two meals 🙈🤣. 

Well a bad result but I enjoyed spending time with the lads, meeting new anglers and a few others I had not seen for some time. Next got to try to get on the river before the end of the season!

Pleasure Fishing the Bristol Avon

The last couple of weeks have seen me working away, with last week me being in Holland. Weather was the same cold, damp and no sun. I hadn’t thought about fishing and so forgot to order any casters. There was a match at Newbridge which I forgot about and with no casters I was not going to compete. I hatched a plan to fish the lower Avon somewhere.

I was looking forward to getting back on the bank, and after watching the Gas win on Saturday was buzzing. I got wrapped up and loaded the van, then got a couple of pints of maggots from Premier Angling. Decided to stay here and fish the Crane, and pushed my trolley to the peg just over the cattle grid. This peg has a large Willow tree opposite that’s now badly damaged I assume from floods and wind, and so I set up a block end feeder for this. Also set up a 13BB crow quill for fishing about a third out.

I had about an hour on the feeder with no bites and then got snagged up and lost everything. I didn’t think it was worth setting up again so grabbed the float rod. Probably spent 45 minutes on this and was thinking this was not going to happen when a long way down the peg I hooked a chub. I was on 0.12 and pulled as hard as possible but it snagged me up. Onto 0.13 powerline, and hooked another chub in the same spot and this one also snagged me up. I then hooked one closer to me and got it out no problem, about 3lb. Nice to get one out!

I hooked what I think was a fouler as it was a dead weight and then it pinged off, this mead to a quiet spell. I then had a visit from my former school teacher and former match angler Roger Stone. Older anglers will remember Roger for sure, he told me he had not fished for 20 years and is himself 80 years old. Sad to say as we chatted and he asked me about certain anglers and I had to tell him many had passed away. Sadly I never had a bite whilst we chatted, but no sooner had he walked out of sight and I hooked another chub by the boat, and it was soon in the snag and gone. I tried fishing further out but I couldn’t get a bite there, the float had to be by the boat.

There’s lot of underwater weed and reeds on this peg, and to get the float to run down the side of the boat I had to cast further out and down and then slow it up to come in below the snags. I was going to keep trying and hope that a chub would swim out into the river, but I put a 0.15 hook length on now. That didn’t help much and I lost another 2 chub quite quickly one I got a lot further up to me but it still snagged me. They had all felt like decent size fish, so when I hooked the next one and it didn’t pull so hard I was hoping I could get it out. Success and a 2lb fish landed.

After a bit of a wait I hooked another chub, this one felt heavy and dead handy it swam out into the middle of the river. After a few nervous moments I got it in the net. It was my best one and probably 5lb. That was the last fish as a while later I snagged bottom and lost everything, an original topper float drifted off down river.

That was plenty of fun and not being a match I wasn’t worried about losing the chub. It would need a pole and Strong elastic approach sat next to the boat I think to keep the chub away from the snags.

Nice to hear the bream showed at Newbridge, with Jerry Pocock winning the match with 70lb. Think there were a few 50lb and plenty of back up weights. Shaun Townsend had 26lb of chub by the pumphouse to only beat one angler in his section. Dean Harvey had a bream of 8lb 14oz, huge!

One thing about today was despite the bitter cold I stayed warm, the Preston Celsius fleece is brilliant, and with my Sonubaits bobble hat I was toasty! Time to finish the prep now for the ATWL final next week, carp bingo for me need a draw 🙏🙏🙏

Where did January go?

 Just posting a quick update as I have not been fishing since my match at Windmill. I was going to fish a match on the river but Rovers match was put on a Sunday and I watched that and glad I did as I saw a rare win!

Quite honestly I can’t motivate myself to go out when I see how tough places are fishing, so I’ve been doing some family time. However. I’ve been doing a bit of prep, as I’m fishing the Angling Trust Winter League Final with Thatchers. Ten anglers are in the team, 5 fish on the Fenland Drains and 5 fish at Decoy Lakes. I’m in the Decoy team so have been tying rigs, hooks etc. looking at recent matches at the venue it is carp bingo, so the drawbag is going to play a huge part. Mind you the normally prolific drains are very poor in places, with one recent open match being abandoned after 4 hours with nobody having a bite. 

If the cold weather stays, and the fish don’t come into the drains then Lady Luck will play a huge part in this final which takes place Saturday 22nd February.

Windmill Fishery Open

Happy New Year! It’s been a few weeks since I last fished, 1) because I spent New Year’s in Tenerife and 2) because I didn’t fancy fishing given the river levels and temperatures. The weather was lovely in Tenerife and I even got to see dolphins and whales on a boat trip. 

Getting back home I had another chesty cough and blocked nose, about 5 times in a year now, which also kept me off the bank. Midweek working up in Yorkshire I felt like I wanted to go fishing, the temperature was coming up and lakes thawing out. With no river matches on that I could see I booked in for Windmill. Then the weather changed and got cold and I was thinking it was going to be tough.

After watching the Gas win (been a while) and a few celebratory drinks I was looking forward to Sunday. A quick breakfast to fuel me and then off to the fishery. 12 fishing today, not surprised by the low turnout as it was absolutely freezing! Nick Sanders did the draw and I pulled out peg 23. I had to be happy with this as it seems the carp are this end of the lake, and on Thursday Kai Hurley had 53lb off it for fourth. Being the shortest walk I was soon at the peg.

First obvious spot to fish to was the island reeds, just to the right as the angler on 25 can cast to the end of the island. I had a lead rod for here, and pole at 16m with 4x12 in about 3 1/2 feet of water, 0.11 to 18 GPM.

I also had a 4x16 rig for fishing two 14.5m lines in the deep water. 

Lastly my 16m rig would do for fishing next to margin reeds at 12m, it was a float length deeper here.

With only 12 here I had lots of room, with Gary Bedford on 21, Antony Bright on 25, bang opposite me on 1 was Jon Osbourne. We started at at 10:15, thirty minutes later Mr Bright has a carp on method feeder, and two chucks later another. Soon after Jon had a carp and lost one on the long pole in deep water. I’d been dobbing various areas without a sniff, nothing on my deep swims. A hour in and I had my first bite from 16m, 15 seconds later it came off.

Another hour or so and no bites, Gary had 2 carp and John 2, but on peg 3 Gerry Welsh had 30lb dobbing. Eventually I got bored and despite 5 layers was feeling the cold, so I went for a walk. Other than Gerry and John Williams on 6 (which won on Thursday) not much was caught, even the likes of Shaun Townsend were blanking. What was noticeable was that a few anglers had carp moving in the reed, but my reeds were empty. I returned to the peg and still couldn’t get a bite anywhere, I was a bit fed up as clearly there were carp this end but I was avoiding them. The margin line was dead, and so I started to loosefeed maggots here with a catapult to try to make something happen.

Just after 1:30pm I hooked a carp on double maggot in the margin. Landed a 5lb fish and then realised I had not put my keepnets in, so thought I better put one in! Next drop in the margin and waited about 15 seconds for the float to go under, carp number 2 was soon in the net, a nice 9lb common. Next drop in missed a bite, but soon attached to carp number 3 and another 7lb in the net. At this point Leyton Palmer sat on the bench by me, he saw me hook and shortly afterwards pull out of a carp. Luckily it was well away from the margin and I was soon into another carp.

By 2:30pm and with an hour to go I had 47lb on my clicker, and Glenn Bailey and Dave Haines had also been watching me. The margin line then died, not really surprising considering the great spell I had. I’d tried toss potting, fishing further away but no more bites. I tried my other lines to rest the margin, but no bites anywhere. I decided to sit it out in the margin for the last 20 minutes (finishing at 3:30pm), but there were no signs. Just as I said to Jon “is it all out yet” my float dipped and as I struck the all out was called by Nick… “fish on!”. A nice 8lb mirror to end the day. 

I had the scales and had to weigh from peg 11 back to me. It wasn’t going to take long. Gary on my right had 3 carp for 23lb 11oz and that was the best until I weighed 55lb 4oz.

Winner today was Gerry Welsh with 60lb 11oz, all caught dobbing, well done Ger!

I was second, and third was John Williams with 33lb on peg 6.

Silvers was jointly won by Paul Barnfield and Mat Tainton with 4oz. I think the lakes silvers have been decimated, the clue being 14 cormorants on site.

I was happy to get home and get warmed up, and reflected on a poor day brightened up by a wonderful hour. Don’t think the temperature got much above 3C today and in my book any result in winter is a bonus. I was glad I finally found the fish and didn’t pack up which did briefly go through my mind lol!

Philtone Teams of 4 Acorn Fishery

 Hope everyone reading this has had a great Christmas and is looking forward to the new year. Neil Mercer has run this match for a number of years now albeit on different venues. There were 20 anglers split into five teams of four anglers, my team was captain Mark Bromsgrove, Ricky Mills, Jamie Brown and myself. Mark was the only angler who fishes Acorn regularly, and I was next after my few matches back here in the summer fishing for silvers. 

I picked up my Thatchers team mate Andy Ottaway who was in one of the other teams, this would be his first visit to Acorn. We all met up at 8am at the Bridge Inn for breakfast and a good chat. The draw was soon done and from my teams envelope I pulled peg 40 a bridge peg, Mark was the other side of the bridge on 6, Ricky on 25 and Jamie on 15. My section ran from me back to peg 29.

It was cold and low cloud meant there was a tiny bit of drizzle now and then. However, I could still easily see the anglers on the island including Martin Reyat on fancied peg 5.

It wouldn’t take long setting up and based upon what my captain said I had 3 rigs. A 4x16 for fishing at 9m in the deepest water, a couple of 4x12 rigs one for 12m and one for against the bridge, both at around 3 1/2 to 4 feet deep. I had 18 GPM to 0.11 powerline on all rigs. I was going with maggot as my feed today but did have some corn and micro ready to try.

We started at 10:15 and it was really slow it seemed, my 12m opening gambit spot didn’t yield a single indication. I moved to 9m in the deep water straight in front, but nothing doing here either, so tried the 9m line next to the bridge which was my banker. This time I had a bite and hooked a decent fish, but I soon realised it was fouled and after playing it for a good 5 minutes plus I pulled out of it. Back to the bridge and liner, then another bite, hooked it and this fish charged off under the bridge. After a few minutes everything went slack, line had snapped just below the bulk so clearly the fish had found the underwater stanchion, think it was fouled too. Third time lucky I hoped, and indeed I was hooked up again to a smaller carp that was hooked in the mouth, but it came off as I was about to net it.  Not the best of starts then!

At this stage Mark in 6 had netted a few fish, Freddie Harper-Wojtyla had missed 1 bite on 38, but Steve Spencer on 36 had a few carp from fishing down his margin. By the bridge had gone quiet and so tried back in front of me, I had my one and only bite here, lost another fouler. Finally just after the hour I had my first carp in the net at 5lb, soon followed by a 4lber, both from the bridge. 

Had to rest it and go round my swims for nothing at all. Then about 2 hours in hooked a good carp than swam away from the bridge and up to Freddie. Luckily I just managed to turn it and get it under control, a nice 8lb common hooked in the mouth. It was a one off and I was really struggling, so went round the swims again. Three hours in and get my first bite at 12m, fish hooked and took off under the bridge, this was really pulling and I was just waiting for the line to snap when I saw the fish boil nearly in peg 7. Somehow the line held, after pulling the fish a long way from the bridge I finally thought it was safe to break down to the top set. Eventually got the net under the carp, it had been hooked in the pectoral fin and was a double figure common.

With 2 hours to go Freddie got his first carp, but mine and Marks pegs really switched off, Mark had double what I had but he couldn’t get a sign now. I managed to catch just two more fish, both tench about 3lb each. Freddie had a couple more carp and tench to end better.

Scales were coming to me last and it was getting quite dark so no pictures today. My section was being won by Steve Spencer with 52lb, my fish went 33lb 11oz which was just enough to get me second in the section, my biggest carp was weighed at 11lb 5oz. 

Back at the Bridge Inn Neil did the results. 

1st on the day Martin Reyat 104lb peg 5

2nd Neil Mercer 103lb peg 9

3rd Jamie Brown 93lb peg 15

On the team front my team had tied for first with Neil’s team, but we lost out on weight by 9lb. My consolation was taking the biggest fish prize and a tenner lol.

There was a match at Newbridge today and I expected it to fish well for bream, it did with 56lb, 54lb, 47lb and 44lb.

Next fishing for me is I don’t know just yet, will see in a couple of weeks.

Happy New Year!