Viaduct Costcutter open, 27/12/2013

Today saw me and Tony taking a trip down to Viaduct for a cost cutter open, it was being held over campbell and cary but with the wind forecast all I wanted was a peg with a bit of respite so that I could try a few things out.
Peg 79 was my destination for the day, and all the info that I was getting was that there were carp in the area and that they were coming on meat and bread. With the wind forecast to increase at lunch time I decided on a simple plan of a bomb attack with a skimmer feeder as a back up, due to recent form I also pulled a waggler out of the bag and plumbed around a bit to get an idea of the depths, I found that it was around 3ft on the top of the bar in front of me and went down to 4 1/2 ft almost everywhere else.
I had a few minutes before the start so also pulled a rig out of the box to fish in front of the platform to my right, the plan for this was to fish at the base of the shelf where the keepnets would normally be.  I decided to feed dead maggot, corm and meat on this line so as the all in i cupped in a quarter of a cup of grub and then cast the bomb baited with meat out around 30 yds.  
Not alot happened for the first hour and a half, I was getting plenty of liners but I could not find a way to convert them into bites until I dropped on what must have been a small pod of fish as I had 3 bites in 20 minutes and landed 2 carp for around 20lb both on meat. That was it for a while and the liners stopped on the top of the bar, I thought about trying the feeder for skimmers but hearing that Mr Tucker on Campbell had been catching well from the start meant that skimmers would not cut it today, plus I felt that the swim was too shallow for them.
I had a go on the waggler and lost a foul hooker so back to the bomb and out of curiosity I tried towards the aerator on the right hand side of my swim, as the lead was falling through the water I could feel it bouncing off fish and I thought that I had a bite on the drop but it was nothing. So out went the bomb again, this time it got to the bottom and after 6 minutes the tip went round, I lifted and felt solid resistance and after an epic struggle that saw the fish try to swim around everything, get snagged and do several long runs I finally managed to net half of this:

25lb 10oz of Scary Cary magic, the next 3 casts saw me land another 2 fish and then that was it, the last hour and a half saw the wind die down so I tried to find the fish with the waggler but they had gone and I only saw one more carp caught from the lake for the rest of the match.

At the all out I thought that I would have 60lb and so it turned out when the scales came around with my total being 60lb 6oz, this was enough to take the customary quid off of Tony and also for second in the match behind Tucks on Campbell. So again not a bad day at all.

Todber Christmas match,Park lake, 21/12/13

This weekend I was off to Todber for my annual pilgrimage for the Todber Christmas match, at the draw it was a who's who of match fishing in the south west with the likes of Nick Chedzoy, Mark Poppleton, Ken Rayner, Chris Perry, Mark Harper and finally Des Shipp. Since it was another Christmas match, I was in it for the fun so I waited until close to the end on the draw and managed to pull out peg 9.  I do not know the venue that well but was not too impressed as I thought that 5, 6, 7,or 37 would have been better and the weather was pants so the top corner where the guys could fish across with the pole easily looked better.

However I was there to give it a bash so I decided on a three point plan to try and overcome the fresh breeze from right to left, I set up an 8ft Commercial King F1 Wand to fish a scoop feeder across, then a 2+2 line straight in front where I would fish pellet and a margin riog at the base of the marginal shelf down to my left.
There was bags of time before the all in and I was soon ready to go, bait list was 2mm and 4mm pellet mixed, a few expanders and a few red and white maggot, the al in was called and I potted in a small ball of pellet in front and then around 100 maggots down to my left. I then cast the feeder across and set a stopwatch onto 5 minutes, it counted down to about 3 minutes and the tip ripped round with carp number 1 on, and this was followed by 6 more of his friends in the first hour and a quarter before bites dried up.  I seemed to be about the only person catching on the method, bar Mark Harper on peg 5 who was admitting to 4, and on chatting to the guy in the next peg i can only assume that it was due to the fact that I was feeding pellet around the feeder and not alot of them, everyone else seemed to be sending out quite big lumps of groundbait that I could see. Whatever it was a change from a 6mm hard pellet to double dead red saw another carp and 2 F1's in the next 15 minutes before another quite spell.
It was at this point I decided to rest the far side and try the 2+2 line with pellet, I had been using my big cup to keep it topped up and as I lowered a 4mm pellet under the 10X11 MW F1 slim the float dipped and a small roach came straight to hand, unperturbed I dropped in again and this time the float dinked and a fair bit of pink reflex elastic came out the tip of the pole as a small carp did its best to get rid of the hook.  It failed and my day was set from then, it became a  case of trying my pole lines for a few minutes and if the float did not go under re feed and then sit on the tip for a little while.
I ended up with around 15 carp, a handful of decent roach and a skimmer at the end of the 5 hrs and I was unsure where that would put me, I had been watching Mark Harper catching a few lumps on corn throughout the day and I was sure that the far side would have seen some better weights. The scales did Mark before me and he managed 46lb, I had 2 weighs for 48lb and that was good enough for second on the board as when they reached Des Shipp it turned out that he had managed a few fish from his short pole line over the last couple of hours I believe and that was enough for 53lb.

We all went back to the shop for the prize giving and it turned out that Des, Mark and I had the top 3 spots on the day, It had been a close match with only 2 fish separating the top 3 so I was glad to be up there in such esteemed company.
Many thanks to John and the guys at Todber for running it again and to all the other anglers who braved some atrocious conditions on the day, I will see you all there again next year.

Withy Teams of 4, 7/12/13

It was back to Witherington farm for my first Teams of 4 since I have been back, and it was time for my second breakfast in a week. Team for the day was myself, Steve, Les and Gerry and it was decreed that I would be back on Selwood.  I was happy with that but not so happy when after we had filled in all the team sheets and paid our money that it turned out that we could have swapped a couple of anglers around, that aside it was good to see a few friendly faces and have a bit of banter before the draw.  Steve did the honors for Browning Andover Green and I had peg 7 as my destination for the day, I challenged Ian R for a quid and giggled a bit as he was sat on 14, not the best peg for him.

I decided to concentrate on skimmers for the most part of the match so set up a groundbait line at 14.5 m in a slight depression, a small groundbait feeder for towards the island and finally a margin rig for towards the platform to my right that was empty.  I prepped some pellet, mixed my groundbait and then decided to pull a method rod out of the bag, just in case.  

I had decided on a positive approach for the day so at the all in i fed 6 balls of groundbait with 2 mm pellet and dead maggot at 14.5 meters, I fed around 40 caster, the same of micros and half a dozen grains of corn down the edge to my right and then sent out a 4 hole drennan cage feeder 1 m short of the reeds on the island.

Not alot happened on the feeder apart from a couple of liners and I saw that the carp were up in the water, so I grabbed my method rod, cut off the feeder and set up a pop up bomb rig with a 12 inch hook length. Three 10 mm punches of bread went on the hair and out it went towards the island, I was going to be leaving the casts for 15 minutes but silvers soon put paid to that as twitches on the tip soon gave way to it going around with a skimmer on the end.  Nothing on the next cast so it got thrown up the bank for the time being and I went out onto the skimmer line, it was at this point that Kev in the peg to my right lost his second carp on the pole line, and since there was nothing happening on the skimmmer line I decided to set up a new rig to see if I could start a pellet line, keeping the pole at 14.5 meters I found a slight rise 6 inches shallower than the depression, in line with a bush on the island.  I fed a few pellets and chucked the feeder out to give the new line a chance to settle, this time the tip went round with an odd bite that seemed to swim towards me as I wound in, next thing I knew a 10lb + carp swirled by my feet turned and before I could loosen the drag my 0.12 mm hooklength parted seeing me gutted.

I went back onto the line but this time nothing happened, so in desperation I went down the edge, I had a small cup on the end of my pole and i filled it with 3 grains of corn, 20 caster and the same of micros, dropped the rig on top and 15 seconds later the float dipped, i struck and was attached to carp number 1. It tried to get under the platform but the Reflex 10-12 elastic soon pulled it out of its lair and carp number 1 was scooped up and into my net, at around 6 pounds it was a good start and it was followed 5 minutes later by its twin. The successful rig was a 4-8 MW carp slim on 0.18 mm mainline and a 0.14 mm hooklength terminated in a size 1 Tubertini 175. 

I went back around the pole lines with not alot happening until I cast the bread out to the island with about an hour and a half to go and the tip went round again, carp number 3 was soon followed again on the tip by his baby brother, then I had a skimmer on the feeder and another carp down the edge.Then disaster as I bumped another margin carp off and all of a sudden the line died, fortunately Kev pointed out that my skimmer line was fizzing like a Jacuzzi so I had a quick look on there for another skimmer but then I lost one by trying to rush it in, I hoped that that would not be critical and then went down the edge for the last 5 minutes a couple of liners and then the all out.

As the scales came around it was a tale of woe, all around the lake, my 5 carp and 3 skimmers went 31lb and that was winning until we got around to Johnny Gray on peg 11, he had 4 carp and a few skimmers for 41lb, my final hurdle was Ray Haywood on peg 15 as he had been catching steadily until a pole breakage prevented him from fishing to the island, lucky for me though as he weighed in 28lb. 

This was enough for me to take second in section and second overall as the other lakes had fished hard all over, the team news was not good however with both Steve and Les on the Green team suffering bad results and I managed to take a quid off Ian from the Blue team as he was last on the lake.

Next stop will be the great carp hunt again in a coupe of weeks as work will be getting in the way first but ce la vie.

AAF Gp2 Fur and Feather,

It was time again for the fur and feather run by AAF gp 2 at Witherington Farm Fishery, and as there were only 33 of us we were going to all be sat around the inner and outer snake. Kev ran the proceedings with his ragtag team, John, Chris and myself (must stop volunteering) and all went well, a fantastic breakfast was dispatched (don't tell the missus) side bets were made and the draw was on. A section was the inner, B and C were on the the outer, I was drawn B2 on the outer snake, four pegs up from the car park on the right hand leg. 

Getting to my peg I had Kev sat to my left on the flyer end peg, John sat on the wides at the corner to my right so straight away I was against it and looking at best for third in section. Thinking that I knew best I decided to set up a method rod, light skimmer rig for the track, a heavier rig in case the wind picked up, an across rig and a margin rig. I prepped my pellet , mixed my groundbait (50:50 Mussel Betaine feeder and Etang both sieved) and nipped of to the shop on a brew run and was still almost ready for the all in. 4 bvalls of groundbait were shipped onto he track line and then across I went trying to dob a carp at 16m, I managed a couple of small roach on bread and triple maggot so went onto the groundbait line at about 45 minutes. This was a good call as I managed to start to put a few small skimmers and roach together, the rig I was using was a 10-11 MW F1 slim on 0.16 mm mainline to a 0.10 bottom and an 18 Tubertini 808. This was working well and I was starting to enjoy myself, Kev to my left had been struggling until he started his 4th line and started to hook and land a few carp.

My silvers would never keep up so I had to start looking for a carp in my mind so out went the method with pepparami on the hair and 2 mm pellet around the feeder, not alot happened really, by sitting it out for the carp I watched my match tick away as the tip stayed motionless, I managed a couple of small carp by casting to various spots across and I had a few more silvers to try and keep in touch with the rest of the field but basically I blew it. 

This was hammered home when I watched none other than Father Christmas (Graham) slipping the net under his 4th or 5th carp with an hour to go 4 pegs to my right. I was resigned at the end, but it was really only a fun match so I chucked the tip out and packed up my top kits and pole with 30 minutes to go, in this time I had a small carp and my groundbait line suddenly turned into a Jacuzzi, lesson learnt?  Probably not!

The all out was called and I helped out on the scales ( well I was packed up), Kev took top honours in my section with 25Kg, I had 7 and a half and managed to ounce John Goddard from my right ( although he had me on the ropes until my last gasp carp).  Overall Kev won it, Si had 22Kg for 2nd, I managed 8th overall and took a quid each of Tony and Pez (Christmas money sorted) a box of mince pies and a tub of chocolates. Nice.

Many thanks to Kev and his team for running it and I can't wait until next year.

Great carp hunt Pt2

I had a week off so I was going to try and get my 20lb carp, I had Monday night and Thursday night so two venues were selected and away I went.
Monday saw a visit back to Little Haynes at Todber Manor, I think that the carp gods are against me at the moment as the weather forecast was pants with freezing conditions promised straight after a few milder days.

Overnight the temperature as promised dropped right off and at one point my thermometer read minus 6 degrees C!!??  Needless to say I didn't catch even though I was working hard and recasting on fish at 2am! the view in the morning was beautiful though with the frost and Cat ice.

Thursday I decided to try a new venue and made the pilgrimage to Oxfordshire, Braesenose 1 was my destination, After another 24hrs of watching and working as hard as I dare I was still biteless, but no one else on the lake had caught so I felt a little better after that.

I moved three times in the night to try and find the fish and all I had to show for it was a few liners, but the lake itself is impressive, the pegs comfortable and the fishery gives the Armed forces a 50% discount on day tickets. I will be back there soon.

ATWL round 5, K&A Marlborough.

On this round last year I managed to weigh over 40lb from this canal so I was hoping for a good draw on the day, it didn't quite pan out as that though, I ended up going to the same car park as the week before but on the other side of the bridge, by about half a mile. It felt like a ten mile walk though as I had bruised my ribs the day before in PT so I was not an impressed bunny when I finally got to my peg.

As you can see there was no far bank feature, that coupled with he fact that I could see the bottom at 3 ft discounted the far side completely. I had Gary Williams of Swindon on the end peg to my right with a far bank tree and the Daiwa Gordon League lad on the other end peg was in a line of trees so had loads of features. In fact about 3 of the pegs looked better than mine so I was looking at a long slog for 4th in section.
I decided to again keep it simple and aim for small fish, so I plumbed up a bread rig at about 6m, a squat line at 10.5m and then two worm lines both down the track, one to the left the other to the right at 13m.
At the al in I fed a small ball of licky at 6m, then 4 balls of groundbait were dispatched across loaded with squat and hemp. I decided to feed the worm lines just before I went on them for the first time, so was soon expectantly awaiting a bite on the bread line I would love to say that the float went under and my day was plain sailing, but that was not the case. I waited for what seemed like an eternity for a bite and then only managed a few fish from the inside line before having to chase them, I managed a bonus 4oz perch off a worm line but the rest of my 50 fish were very small. I had to chop and change line regularly to keep the fish coming and I struggled to get a run of fish together on the squatt line, that was frustrating. The match could not finish soon enough and as I was on Boards the fun of following them down began, I managed to weigh 2lb 15.5oz for joint second in section with Gary on the next peg, we were both well of the pace of the other end peg who won the section with a good 4lb+ weight.  
Back at the football club and the team had not done brilliantly but we had a few pick ups but going into the last match we were in a 3 way tie for third so it is all to play for next week.

ATWL practice, 17/11/13

This was a quick practice open before the main event next week, the sections were on Marlborough waters so I had half an idea what to expect. The draw saw me off to the Farmers section and I was on peg 3 so I had 3 pegs to my left and 2 to my right, both of the pegs to my right had good far bank features as did the peg to my left so I was aiming for 4th in section straight away.

I decided on a simple match and plumbed up a bread rig at 5m, 2 squat rigs for 10m and a 2 worm rigs for the track and the far bank. At the all in a ball of licky went in, 4 balls of groundbait and 10 chopped worms and a few caster across the far bank. 
I managed 20 fish off the bread line before I had to move across but Pike put paid to me having a really good day and after I would get a better fish there would be a strike over my squatt line and then tiny fish would appear for 10-20 minutes. I tried both worm lines to rest my main line but I had no indications at all on either rig, I did however, get a few fish on bread in the last 30 minutes but it was not enough. I ended up with 108 fish for 4lb 12.5 oz for 3rd in my section of 6 behind a big 5lb and a 6lb weights from the trees to my right.

I learnt alot that would hopefully help out the team for next week.