AAF Gp2, Match 6, Todber Manor

This peg gave me a multitude of options as the far margin was 16m away and continued to the left where I could chuck a pellet feeder and finally there was a bush to my rig hand side to fish a margin line. My rigs were a 4X12 Big H float for across on 0.17mm mainline and a 0.15mm bottom with a 16 B911, this was on Vespe Green E2 hollow. My margin rig was a 4X14 handmade float with 0.17mm main to a 0.15mm bottom again to a 16 B911 this was on red Vespe E2 hollow and finally my pellet feeder was a guru pellet feeder inline to a 0.19mm bottom and a 16 QM1, this was on my Series 7 10 ft carp feeder and a 2508 Whisker reel with 8lb sensor.

At the start I potted some meat and hemp under the bush to my right and then shipped out to 16m with a toss pot full of pellet and a 4mm expander on the hook, this led to 2 small roach so a change was called for, so on went an 8mm cube of meat and within a minute a carp was on its way to the keepnet. After 90mins I had taken 14 carp from the same swim but after that it died a death, so I started looking for more fish and over the last 4 ½ hours I managed another 4 on the feeder and two from the edge.

The end of the match could not come fast enough as Mike, 4 pegs to my left was steadily catching F1’s however, it was not enough and I finished with 30.530kg and mike had around 25kg. On the top lake there were some bigger weights however even the flyer peg 2 on the top lake could not top my weight so I managed a section win for the first time in a while.

Even better was the fact that my team took top spot on the day with Craig taking a section win and match win from peg 6 on Park, he ended up fishing the method due to the wind and rain ending up with 54kg. Happy days.

FLE Fishery (formally Greenridge Farm Fishery) Open, 26 March 2011

So it was off to Greenridge for a Saturday Open, and there were some well known local rods lingering around at the draw as well as the usual suspects. Peg 23 was to be my destination and on first looks it was quite good with a bay on the far bank that had been made by the bank falling in and a small bush almost straight in front of my peg and a tree in my right hand margin. On plumbing up things got better with the depth on each corner of the bay being 2 feet with cover and the depth in tight next to the far bank bush was 2 ½ feet, this however ,saw me having to set up two rigs for the two spots. I also plumbed up at 10m at an angle of 45degrees towards the blank peg to my left as a track swim and this was 3 feet deep all over the peg from about a meter out to tight over, and I set up a margin rig to go under the tree to my right and amongst some brambles to my left. My far bank swims were a 4X12 Big H Border float on 0.15 mainline to a 0.13mm bottom and an 18 B911 and another 4X12 Big H float on 0.17mm main to 0.15mm bottom and a 16 B911 for the deeper rig. Both were on Green Vespe E2 Hollow elastic and had a small toss pot fitted to the top kits. My paste rig consisted of a modified KC Carpa Margin Paste Float on 0.19mm Mainline and 0.17mm Bottom to a 12 B911, this was on Red Vespe E2 Hollow. My Margin rig and Corn rig were my standard rigs however did not get used alot.

At the all in the standard pot of hemp, corn and pellet went on the Paste line and I shipped my shallower rig across with a 6mm punch of bread on hoping for a quick mug fish but all I caught in the first 15 mins was the far bank bush (Twice!!!). this saw me decide to start a standard pellet match so I shipped over with my deeper rig and a 4mm expander on the hook and softened pellet in the toss pot and things started to happen with 4 fish falling to this in the first hour. All of them ran me behind the trailing branches of the bush and led to some tourettes kicking in however, I managed to keep them all on the hook. The next hour was much the same but the fish were starting to move around up in the water so I put a 6mm hard pellet into a bait band a foot deep and continued to toss pot pellet in. This led to a quick run of fish but then they wised up so I pulled a catty out of my bag and started to ping pellet towards the bay on the left hand side of the swim.  This again saw me put some more fish in the net but their average size was quite small and after having been topping up my paste line regularly I decided to give it a look with paste on. Second drop in saw me attached to a 6 lber so I decided to rotate from the far bank line and the paste line for the last 2 hours and this saw me double my weight in this time.

At the all out I ended up with 88lb 2oz for third on my lake (Beaten out of 2^nd by 8oz) and 4^th overall so it was a good day 107lb won my lake and the match was won with 131lb. After the match it was the annual prize giving so a buffet had been laid on that was really needed and was really good. Next match is an AAF qualifier at Todber so much of the same.

Orchard Lakes Sunday Series

So it was the middle weekend of the month and that means the Sunday Series at Orchard Lakes beckoned again. All the usual faces were at the draw and the talk was about a couple of big weights that had started to come short the previous day, a bacon butty and coffee were dispatched (cheers Pez), before I pulled peg 27 out of the bag. I knew from previous experience that I was already against the two end pegs in my section (30 + 24) and that with one of the local experts (Nathan) sat on the flyer that is peg 33, I just needed to get my head down and try to get a decent weight without trying anything silly. With this in mind I set up a far bank rig on 0.15mm main to a 0.13mm bottom and an 18 B911 under a 4X12 Big H Border float, due to the varied size of fish I decided on green Vespe E2 Hollow elastic. I plumbed up my standard Corn rig with the same line, hook and elastic as the far bank rig but with my now faithful 0.4g Drennan Carp 6, this was on a 2+1 in 4 feet of water on the slope and finally I plumbed up a margin rig. Due to the fact that the area I was sat in was known for some better fish I set a 4X10 Duro 10 on 0.17 to a 0.15mm bottom and a 16 B911, this was all attached to red Vespe E2 Hollow as I was hoping for some of the lumps and needed to subdue them easily. This was set to fish tight in on my left and right hand side at 2+1 in about a foot of water on both sides, I even got my weed cutter out and had time to do some pruning before the start.

At the all in a pot of hemp and Corn was deposited on my shelf line and I went across with a 4mm expander on the hook and my usual mix of 2 + 4mm pellet in the toss pot, I had to wait a whole 30 seconds before Carp number 1 was on its way into the net and this continued with lots of small fish for the first hour. It then seemed as though the far bank swim was starting to fade so I tried my corn line, this resulted in an instant bite but then nothing so back to the far bank. I swapped hookbaits from pellet, meat and corn to try and put fish consistently into the net and I started another line about 3m to the right behind the rushes that were in the middle of my swim. This was more difficult to fish due to the overhanging branches but gave me somewhere to try when it was slowing on my main line.

With 2 hours to go I started throwing meat down the margins on both sides and the response took about 30 minutes before I was willing to try and catch one, first put in to my left saw the float dip and 15m of elastic disappear up the lake on the strike. 5 minutes later an Orchard lump was in the net, I refed and tried the right swim again with almost instant results and over the last 90 minutes I took about 15 Carp from 2-8lb. Every time I hooked a fish I would feed 20 cubes of meat and then fish the other margin until I had a bite, and then repeat for the other side with feed rest fish. The all out came around all too soon and I realised that I had fished hard all match as most of my bait was gone but all my water and food was still intact (Starving!!) I demolished them and had a chat with the guys either side to find that the venue had fished very hard (for Orchard) with most people admitting to 50-60lb. I knew know that I had done well as my last 90 minutes had seen around that weight go into my net so after a few weighs it turned out that my 119lb 12oz was enough for the section and third overall. Nathan had won it with 140lb from peg 33 and Daryl (another Regular) had taken 124lb from the other end of the same section. All in all another enjoyable day at Orchard and another ton already and it is only March. Next Match is either an Open or the AAF Gp2 Match 6 at Todber.

Orchard Lakes Open

Another open at Orchard and this time I was hoping for a decent result again, Peg 19 along the back arm was where I would be sat for the day. It gave me 14.5m across to the far bank under a few sparse branches and a blank peg to my right. I decided to fish pellet across and corn on a 2+2 in 4 feet of water, there was also a chance that the margins might work so I plumbed up a rig to fish off the reeds next to my keepnets on the left of my swim. The across rig consisted of a 0.3 Inter 2 plumbed to fish in 3 feet of water on a 0.15mm main line and a 0.13mm bottom to a 16 B911, this was set on green Vespe E2 hollow and had a small kinder cup on the top kit to feed softened pellet and expander on the hook. The Corn rig was a 0.4g Drennan Carp 6 same line as the across rig but a size 18 B911 and double 8 elastic, this was set to fish on quite a severe slop at 4 foot deep. Finally I set up a margin rig of a 4X14 Preston Duro 10 on 0.17mm main with a 16 B911 on a 0.15mm bottom, this was to fish meat or maggot in the margin.

At the all in I potted in half a cup of hemp and corn on my 2+2 line and then shipped across to the far bank with a 4mm expander on the hook, it took about a minute before the first fish was in the net and this was followed by another 5 before the guy in the next peg started catching alot quicker than me by fishing tighter over towards the far bank. This led to the end of my nice days fishing as I started a line about a foot off the far bank in 2 ½ foot of water that was under a couple of branches and various other bits of crud. I thought that I would be able to fish it easily as long as the breeze stayed steady (how often does that happen?) and it was my best swim of the day however over the 5 hours I lost numerous foul hooked fish through over feeding and 7 rigs got trashed due to the breeze and branches. I suffered due to my pole being sticky with corn juice, my corn line should have been further down the shelf as I could see the fish bubbling in the track, and I tried paste on the corn line but the paste drew in skimmers and tench!!!

In the last 10 mins I had a look on my margin and took a small carp and had a few more indications but my best line had definitely been the far bank, I ended up with 58lb 8oz, beating the end peg to my left but well off the pace as it was won with 90 odd pounds from the far end peg and the same came off the peg to my right. He had steadily been catching off the far bank all day on pellet and the far end peg had his fish on paste and corn along the margin (with the wind hacking in). Well done gents.

VDE Supercup Rd 1, Bristol Avon, Chippenham, 06/03/11

So it was my first foray into the VDE Supercup and we were competing against Chippenham AC and Elgin AC on the Bristol Avon at Chippenham (My favourite venue at the moment, NOT). My team captain came over after the draw and told me that my destination for the day was around permanent peg 126 , this was on the stretch known as the island park and gave me about 20m of slow moving water with most of the flow across the far side. I was on peg 1 for my section with the Elgin lad on 2 and Chippenham on 3, instantly I was fishing for 2^nd as peg 3 had 80yds downstream to a bridge to fish through and a large overhanging tree on the far side.  Unperturbed I set up a waggler, Bolo, Maggot feeder and a couple of pole rigs to hopefully catch on punch at 11m, at the all in I fed a ball of punch crumb at 11m and chucked the feeder tight to the far bank hoping for some small chub. 2^nd cast I had a small bite that I hit and got instantly smashed up by the fish on the distant end, which was the end of the feeder line. I looked on my punch line and worked a bait through the swim for the next 40 mins without so much as a sniff so I decided to try the waggler, this resulted in two tiny perch and was followed up by the guy on 2 taking a decent perch on worm. The flow picked up so out went the Bolo for a change in presentation and a couple of small chub came in, what happened next made my day as the guy on peg 2 picked up a Chub of around 4 ½ lb. I had about a pound in the net and was going nowhere fast with all my lines drying up, I got off my box and mixed up a bit of groundbait, chopped a ¼ of a kilo of worm and then set up a ground bait feeder. I needed a bonus fish to stand a chance of doing any good from my swim and 2 hours on the feeder resulted in 2 perch for a pound and 3 missed bites. I wasn’t happy.

At the weigh in I had 2lb 8oz, peg 2: 5lb 6oz and peg 3: 16lb 8oz (match win) AAF gp2 came last on the day and Chippenham went through to the next round. Well done lads and all the best in round 2.

AAF Gp2 Match 5, Viaduct

So it was time to put the lessons that I had learnt at the weekend open into practice. However, when it turned out that peg 119 on Campbell lake, was to be my destination for the day I started to moan like a goodun. I felt that I was at the wrong end of the lake for the carp and that the conditions of cold and clear would put paid to too many silvers showing, since I was in a silvers peg this was not ideal. When I got there I found that all the top end of the lake was not pegged so that gave me a 40yd long margin to chuck a bomb at. There is also a partially submerged bush in the corner of the lake that can be reached with 14.5m of pole so that was another area of interest, finally I decided to fish a short pole line in open water looking for the Tench I had seen come out at the weekend.

I set up the same bomb outfit as the weekend and also a waggler that didn’t really get used, a 0.4g Drennan Carp 6 for a 4foot line over by the bush; this was on 0.15mm to a 0.14mm bottom and a B911 in 18. This was set up on doubled no.8 and an identical rig was plumbed up on my 6m line at a 30 degree angle to the right of my peg as a silvers line, this was on green Vespe Hollow. Since I had a few minutes before the all in I also set up a dobbing rig for along the margins and around the bush with bread, this was a 0.3g Preston Inter 1 on the same line and hook as the other rigs and again on green Vespe hollow.

At the all in I fed a half pot of Hemp, Caster and Corn on my silvers line then shipped the dobbing rig along my margin and tucked it up next to the bush, 20 seconds later Carp number 1 was on its way to the net and at about 1 1/2lb it was a start. Three more followed from the same spot before bites dried up, I then fed my 4 ft line with Hemp, Caster and Corn and chucked out bread on the bomb. I tried several spots on the bomb over the next hour and a bit with only a couple of liners to show for my efforts so I had a quick look on my bush line. The float buried almost instantly and a 4lber found its way into the net, but that was it for that line again and a Perch from my silvers line did not fill me with confidence.

Now it was a case of rotating through my swims to try and scratch a few more bites out and it turned out that the bush Corn line was my most productive with a further 6 carp to double figures coming out over the last 2 hours. It turned out that my 38lb odd was enough for 2^nd in section with lots of people moaning about lost fish and a lack of fish I front of them, the cold weather had done me a favour. 60lb won the lake but I don’t believe that my swim was worth enough to beat that today even though I had killed it for the last half an hour; I went from plenty of liners and nearly a fish every couple of minutes to nothing just by feeding 100 grains of hemp and a few bits of corn. I’ll try not to do that again. Supercup on the Avon next so we shall see how that goes.