Viaduct open, 13/12/14

I decided on a little trip to Viaduct today to start getting ready for the winter league next month, I arrived a bit earlier than I had planned only to find out that there were only 3 booked in for the day, not the best start.  It then got worst when the Langport Christmas match got cancelled from the river so we got moved off of Campbell, Rolly had turned up by now and we were waiting on number 3.  We waited 30 minutes and in the end decided to start without the third person, we also moved on to the far side of Lodge opposite the guys on the Langport match.  I was on 59 and Rolly was on 62.

My plan was simple, try to catch an early carp and then aim for skimmers, I decided on a 14.5m groundbait and dead maggot line, a 14m caster and corn line next to the rope that holds onto the aerator, 2 margin lines, a bomb and a waggler rod both got set up as well.  I was ready (almost) for the nominal all-in and we decided to start almost at the same time, I potted 4 balls of groundbait with caster and dead maggot in it on the long pole line, as I had been plumbing up I had found a small slope and my plan was to fish halfway down it so that I had a semi hard bottom to fish on. I fed my rope line with 50 caster and 20 grains of corn and chucked a bread hookbait out into the open water to my right.

After 40 fruitless minutes on the bomb I tried the waggler set at 3 feet deep and baited with 3 maggots, this gave me a small skimmer but I soon had enough as small roach were ragging the hookbait nearly every chuck. I shipped out on my skimmer line with 2 dead reds and it slipped under almost straight away, skimmer number 1 was soon in the keepnet it was followed by a couple of smaller fish so I topped up and tried the rope line. A missed bite and small roach later I topped it up and started to rotate around all my lines, I even started the two margin lines about an hour and a half into the match to try and make something happen quicker. There was an hour long spell when I managed 5 decent skimmers, 1 on meat that I started feeding next to the rope and the rest on dead red over the groundbait.

I managed another quick run of smaller hybrids and a pound perch in the last 10 minutes but other than that the day was quite uneventful. The weigh in was quick, I had 10lb 12oz and Rolly had 9lb 12oz so that last gasp perch was very handy, Rolly had caught far more fish than me but fewer of the bonus skimmers, he had been fishing live maggot on the hook.

It was a cold but enjoyable day and I have learnt a lot ready for the winter league next year.

What would I do different?

To be honest not a lot, I think that next time I will have a softer waggler rod and also a hair on for bigger baits to avoid the tiny roach.

Withy Teams of 4, 06/12/14

It was back down to Witherington farm for the teams of 4 this weekend and after a week on exercise I was looking forward to it, I was on the outer snake again and after the last time I was pretty confident of a decent day but the weather decided to throw and oar in at the last minute. 

As you can see I was there nice and early but there was a cheeky frost and half of Selwood was under ice, I had my breakfast and then got my briefing off John before the draw took place.  Kev came back with end peg 24 that made me happy, then gave me my dead reds and off we went to our respective pegs.

For the day I set up a dobbing rig, a skimmer rig, a method and a rig for the base of the near shelf off to my right, at the all in I fed one skimmer line with a small ball of groundbait and dead reds, some corn and caster down the edge before dobbing up and down the near and far edge to no avail with 3 maggots.

45 minute in I tried the feeder for 15 minutes with no indications so went onto the skimmer line, by this time the guy on the peg to my left had managed to dob a carp and had a couple of skimmers on his silvers line so I needed a start to my day. It came quickly on the skimmer line as I had a pound skimmer quite quickly but then nothing, not even a sign of a fish. I started another 2 skimmer lines and started to rotate, it took another hour for skimmer 2 and then skimmer 3 another hour after that. Everyone I the section had been catching as far as I could see so I spent the last hour and a bit trying for a carp with no joy.

The tale of the scales was that I was last in section with 3lb 2oz, from the end peg so I was not too happy at the end, but it seemed that a lot of people struggled with a few blanks from all for the lakes so at least I had avoided that. My section was won by Graham Hougton with 33lb odd from the middle of the section, so well done mate, I don't know who won overall as disappeared early to make up from exercise week.

What would I do differently?

Take more coffee and biscuits and possibly start playing candy crush.

I don’t think I could have done much more apart from wait for a carp all day and that was not in the plan and may have seen a blank.

AAF Gp2 Match 2, K&A 12/11/14

We were supposed to be on the Avon at Chippenham for this one, but due to the amount of rain that has fallen lately we decided to move it to the K&A at Bishops Cannings, The main reasons were the fact that I would be very difficult fishing making it unfair for the less experience members of the group and the fact that the banks would be treacherous.  It proved to be a good decision as the river broke the banks in the morning and we stayed reasonably dry.

I had volunteered to peg the stretch, well I do live 6 minutes away, so I was walking up and down the bank with a small headlamp and a set of shears at 6 am, I did my best at cutting out some of the worst pegs and even managed to check the depth on 1 swim, it was deeper than my wellies!!!!!  I finished pegging with wet feet, unlocked the gate and went to the pub for my breakfast where everyone seemed to be moaning about the rain. I hadn’t noticed it really as I had been too busy pegging the venue, and my Team Army Gortex held up to the onslaught.  Breakfast eaten, pools paid, banter had, team briefs given and the draw done I was soon zooming towards C11.

As I had not prepped a lot for the canal the attack would have to be simple, bread short, groundbait long ish and a couple of worm lines, it was only 11m wide so I was limited on the number of swims that I could put in.

The bread line went at the base of the near shelf at 2+2 and for the groundbait line I found a nice plataue at 10m lest to the left of centre in the swim. Here is a picture of the rigs:

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I decided that I would fish Lobs tight over in the shallower water, and I also plumbed a rig for down the track to fish Dendys:

I was ready well before the all-in so abused Si and Rikki on the last 2 pegs on the stretch to my right, sorted Shaun some groundbait on the next peg, as I thought it would do him better than the pellet on his side tray.

As Kev called the start I cupped a small ball of bread in, and then 3 balls of 50/50 groundbait and leam with a pinch of dead pinkie, caster and hemp went in on the long line.  I shipped the bread rig out and had to wait 5 minutes for my first fish which was then followed by another 15 or so of his mates in short order all at 10pp, then the stamp of the fish reduced to tiny fish and I took the decision to feed a thumbnail of bread again.  This did the trick as I had a 4oz roach, a few bread fish and a rogue perch before I had to re-feed and this was the pattern for the first hour and a half, I even managed a run of 3 small hyrids that got my hopes up for a big weight but as they disappeared so did the rest of the fish on the line. I dropped in another small ball and tried the groundbait line.

I shipped out with a pinkie and had a similar stamp of fish straight away, maggot and caster resulted in smaller fish so I stayed on the pinkie.  Managed a run of fish from here but as the sun came out and the colour started to drop out of the canal the fishing got harder and harder, I fed 2 lobs on the across line and 10 dendies with some caster and maggot down the track.

I tried the lobby line for a couple of small perch, the track line didn’t result in anything all day and the fishing got harder and harder, I ended up twitching flouro pinkies around the swim for micro perch just to keep something going in the net. I was happy to hear the all-out.

The scales came down and every one from my left was regaling tales of woe and pike as well, Rikki and Si had caught well from the end and I estimated about 2KG as I had not been counting my fish. Rikki had 3.00kg from the end, Si pipped him with 3.49kg then there was a kilo and a smaller weight before I managed to tip 2.76kg on the scales which was enough to do everyone to my left for third in section.  Ben in A section managed a 3^rd in section with 2.69kg and Daz had a mare in b section for 0.94kg and 9 points, it was still; enough for team 4^th on the day which is enough to get us into the team final if we stay there.

All in all it was a good day, I would have preferred to be on the river but there is always January.

What would I do differently?

I will try to get some squatt next time as that may have given me a few more fish when it got hard,

I spent too long on the worm line again so need to get that out of my system somehow.

Jefferies Cup, 05/11/2014

I was rudely awoken by my alarm at 0315 this morning so that I could drive across the country and take part in the Jefferies Cup at on the Nene in March.  It was an easy run at that time in the morning and I was soon enjoying a breakfast and waiting for the rest of the Army Teams to turn up.  The morning went too smoothly when I missed out on being a team captain and was soon having A8 thrust into my hand, in Army B was myself, Rikki, Bri and Gaz so we had half a chance if it was a good draw.

Kev said he knew the way so Craig, who was pegged next to me on A7, and I followed him to the wrong section, oh how we laughed, not Kevs fault; he had been given a bum steer.  Five minutes later we were pulling up in the right section and finding our pegs.

Settling down I decided to fish bread short, groundbait by the boats and a worm line down the river to my right, my groundbait was the first job and a mix of Gros Gardons, No.1, Lake and brown Crumb with a few special bits was soon ready for a rest. I then spent a bit of time plumbing up and found a few problematic bits of weed in the swim, but after 10 minutes I soon had 3 areas of the swim earmarked and finished my prep.

I was readyish for the all in apart even though I had been chatting to Craig for most of the time; we had already decided to go a quid when we found out that we were in the same section so I was surprised when he started giving me tactical gems. I repaid the favour, sit on the dry stuff and use a hook. I fed a small ball of licky bread at 2+2, then 3 balls of groundbait across to the boat, all quite hard as I wanted them to take a while to break down and reveal the goodies inside them. I went straight out on the bread line and started catching straight away. I was on a 0.6g float with a 0.08mm hooklength to a 20 B511, this was set on doubled 4 again and it was working a treat even letting me swing 4oz roach with ease but still remaining soft enough not to bump any off. It was 30 minutes in and Craig had his second bite on the worm that I had seen and I was swinging my 30^th fish to hand for close to 2lb. It was at this point that my day went wrong as I decided to feed my worm line, now this could have been an inspired decision and I could have had 20lb of skimmers or tench but I didn’t.

After feeding the worm line it was back on the bread fish but they had reduced in size drastically, a small nugget of bread and depth change sorted it for 3 more fish but then it started to turn into a grind. I tried on the worm line for a couple of small perch and across for a couple of roach before they backed off but it was head down time.

I rotated trough the swims taking as many fish as I dare from each one, a few eels started coming out on worm to my left and right so I swapped my hooklength to a 0.16mm bottom and a size 13 B711, this didn’t put the fish off, so is one to remember. I tried loose feeding over the groundbait line but the fish seemed to spook off to many loose offerings, so a small nugget of groundbait after every rotation was the plan.

The flow was tricky, it was going left to right, then it stopped and flowed the other way for 2 ½ hours before going back left to right for the last hour, odd. The fish preferred it going left to right. The wind and leaves on the water and bottom were also a pain but I was steadily amassing a weight.

The last 30 minutes saw a quick flurry of better roach and then it was all over, I was confident that I had done Craig but the guy to my left had been sneaking fish in all day from one line down the track, Craig had 6lb odd, I beat that with 9lb 4oz then the guy to my left had 10lb dead.  I ended up 7^th in section, Craig was12th and kev was last, I didn’t Hang around for the results as I had to do the 3 hour drive home.

What would I do different

Not a lot really I could say leave the worm in the car but if I had done that it would have been a worm day. Next time I will be stricter on myself for 100 seconds on the worm and if they are small I will come off it as they were taking longer to catch than the Gustas.

Withy Teams of 4, 01/11/2014

A couple of weeks ago I got asked if I would fish for Dandys K2 on the withy Teams of 4, well being at a loose end most Saturdays because my better half works I accepted not even asking what lake I would be on.  I arrived at the café to a nice welcome from my old team mates and new ones as well as everyone else at the draw.  Bacon butty eaten, worm collected and tactics discussed the draw took place and I was off to peg 36 on the outer snake.

I will be honest and I do not get on too well with the outer snake most of the time so when I drew middle of the section, on the wrong bank and with the ripple finishing just to my left I thought that I was in for a grueller.  I set up a skimmer rig for 11.5m, a meat rig to try and mug a couple of carp on and a margin rig, I also set up my new Spectron 10ft tip rod with a small method feeder.  Bait was just as simple, 4mm pellet, method mix consisting of 50/50 micros and groundbait, 6mm meat, a few expanders and some dead maggot.

The all in sounded and I cast the feeder against the mud on the far bank and started loose feeding pellet on my skimmer line and that sums up my first hour and a bit, one positive indication that I missed.  I tried the skimmer line at this point and managed a couple of quick fish but they didn’t like me catching there friends and got finicky really quickly so I decided to try fishing down the edge like I would across.  This consisted of using my big pot to feed a walnut sized ball of method mix and 5-10 cubes of meat next to the platform down to my right. Over the next 30 minutes or so I had 4 or 5 decent skimmers on this line, re feeding after every fish with the same amount of bait.

At this point I moved back onto the skimmer line and had another quick run and this is how my day panned out until the last 30 minutes of the match, I had a half decent net of silvers but needed a final push of carp to get decent points.  I went down the edge over the top of a small ball and 5 cubes of meat and within 45 seconds I was attached to a big angry carp, it gave me a bit of a run around before I was able to net it but at close to 8lb it was worth it. I managed 3 more carp and a couple of silvers over the next 25 minutes in the best spell of my match and the all-out came as I was least expecting it.

I had gone a quid with Nick Mac and he was claiming that I had won it, I agreed but we still had to weigh in to prove it, Jay on the end peg had 58lb 1oz then there was a mid 40lb a 58lb 2oz then Nic mac on 20lb odd. Next to Nick was Ray ‘the bagger’ Hayward and he managed about 30lb. I had 17lb of skimmers and 18lb of carp for 35lb plus change, and this beat all but 2 to my right, one of which was Jon Gray on the end who had over 70lb, all this gave me 5 points .

The team did well with Stumpy coming second in his section and John winning the second round on the bounce. I am off to the Nene this week so I need to swap all my kit back over…..again.

What would I do differently?

 Would use bigger hookbaits on the method, the double dead res was getting ragged by tiny fish with me failing to hook a fish. 

I would fish a pole line where I was chucking the feeder until the wind became too strong rather than just fishing the tip.

I would put in a couple more lines just to try and find a few fish, 5 hours is a long time.

South West WL, Rd 2, Newbridge

So it was a drive through a sleepy Bath city center at 0730 for me followed by a meet for the second round of the South West WL on the Bristol Avon. My team again was Premier Amalgamated and even though we had been joined by fellow Fosters Team Army stalwart, Kev, we were still down 2 anglers come the draw. I was team captain for the day and due to the fact that we had waited so long for the last 2 anglers we were the last to draw so I couldn’t even use my magic drawing hand.

Kev was sat on the bridge itself so had the chance of a good day, I was on permanent peg 24, and this looked good for a few of the target species but I ended my match near enough whilst setting up. My Z10 had been delivered a couple of days before and I was soon sat on m y box plumbing up a couple of rigs for a long roach line and a short lobworm line at the base of the near shelf 10m downstream. I also decided to try and catch bream or skimmers out of my peg so set up a groundbait feeder to fish just short of the far bank foliage. I was ready for the all-in even having had to mix two different groundbait mixes without a drill as I had left it at home, but as it sounded out went 8 babies heads on the pole line followed by 8 cricket balls onto a line just short of the far bank tree line.

I shipped my 2g roach rig out onto the longer line and managed 4 fish in 5 run downs but then the swim started to wain almost straight away and by the end of the first 30 minutes I had only managed another roach and a couple of small perch. I decided to give it a couple of small balls of groundbait and then chucked the feeder across the river, this was a nonstarter really and only produced 2 small chublet and a few small perch all day, and I spent a long time on it in between the canoes.

Speaking of canoes, I don’t mind sharing the water with other people but they were sooo bloody minded it was unreal, on more than one occasion I was unable to cast or fish due to a line of boats coming through or they would stop in front of you for a rest/chat….. Not too happy.

Back to the fishing, the pole gave me a few perch on the short line, including some wasps on half a lobworm and I was able to scratch a few more roach from on the pole line but at the end I was glad to finish, especially after not putting a fish into the net for the last hour.

The all out was called and after a wait the scales arrived, the two downstream pegs had pound weights, Andy power had 7lb odd mostly on the wag and the guy to my left had 8lb+. I had guessed at 3-4lb and was spot on with about 3 1/2lb for third in section. Kev walked up to see me after he had weighed and he had managed a section win with 8lb 10oz I think, and we had another second in section in the next section, unfortunately the missing anglers cost us and we were the strongest team on the day propping up the whole table, this last also put us into last in the league.

Off on exercise for a few weeks now so I will let you know how I get on when I am back.

What would I do different?

I should not have balled in on the feeder line, it had been a cold night, I should have gone softly softly to see if any fish were there.

I should have set up a crowquill/ bolo for the pole line so that I could explore more of the swim, the guy downstream managed a few nice Hybrids on the crowquill over the pole line.

Should have set up a wag to fish across as it appears that it was a better wag peg than bream peg historically. 

South West WL, Round 1, Crane and Swineford, Bristol Avon, 5/10/14

Since I left had Browning Andover in the summer I had been looking for something to do this winter, I had been looking at a couple of small winter leagues but it appeared that they didn’t want new teams entering so myself and a few others were all at loose ends. However a few weeks ago a message popped up on facebook from none other than Mark Harper from PI Thatchers asking for anglers to compete in the AT South West WL, I jumped at the chance as I have never fished this part of the Avon before and fancied the challenge of going against the likes of PI Thatchers and Maver Batheaston on their own territory. I was also promised lots of info so who could refuse that offer?

I could barely sleep the night before I was that excited, even with the added stress of moving house the next day, but it was not long until I was trying to park up at the draw venue, unfortunately the owners of the rugby club had heard that I was coming so they had not opened and we were all parked up the main road. Not ideal.

As I walked towards the main throng of people I bumped into a few friendly faces from all over the south of England, including Colin Gittens from Premier Angling, James Carty who is now fishing for PI Thatchers and many many more.

It turned out that the team I was fishing for would be an adhoc team under the premier angling banner, it included Colin and the team plan that we decided on was to catch as many fish as possible in 5 hours. I missed the team getting called for the draw but soon found that I would be sat on peg f5….. It meant nothing to me either at the time. I got given some rough directions but I decided to follow the first car I could to the main car park for ease.  Mark was trying to sort me some info on my peg but I was basically told to fish for roach as I was an end peg and that I might get a couple of chub on the wag under the far bank tree. This was good enough for me and I was soon winging my way to my peg as I was envisaging a massive walk, I was wrong and it turned out that I was the closest peg to the car park. Things got better when I got to my peg as you can see from the photo.

My plan was quite simple and I plumbed up a waggler rig first, well when I say plumbed I set it to 11ft deep and noticed that it had a few feet to go so I left it at that for a start, I used a 4 AAA insert waggler and put a 0.10mm bottom to a size 18 hook in case of the chub. Next was the pole and on plumbing up I found the flow was at 14.5m, with just over a top 5 of depth a 1g pencil and 2g round bodied floats were set up for that line, again with decent hooks and bottoms after the Thames the other week. Finally I set up a small maggot feeder to fish tight across just upstream of the tree tight to the brambles, as this was an out and out bonus fish rig the hooklength was 0.14 to a size 16 hook and I had it about 3 feet long for the start.

I was ready for the all in and once it was called out went 8 cannonballs onto the pole line at 14.5m with little feed in followed by 3 cupped balls laced with caster and hemp, I then sent the feeder across towards the brambles whilst trying to get my eye in with the catty. The wind was deceptive and I was cussing the fact that I could not get the bait far enough across the river when on my third cast on the feeder the tip bounced back. I struck and a good fish headed straight for the tree taking a little line, I managed to turn it and after a few hairy moments near the net a 4lb chub was soon being transferred to the keepnet. It was an awesome start and with shaking hands I rebaited and cast back out towards the far bank, 5 minutes later and a twitchy drop back saw a 6oz perch joining the chub. What a start, I now chinned off feeding maggot on the waggler line as it was difficult to remain accurate and so that I could reserve my maggot for the feeder line, I also reduced the size of the feeder with the idea of casting more often to keep the bait falling through the water.

After only another ten minutes another positive bite and another chub was hooked and carefully played across the river, and this continued until just after the hour mark I had 3 chub and a couple of perch in the keepnet for about 11lb. It had started to quieten down and I was getting indications from small fish so had a quick look on the pole, this was a good idea as I had 5 roach in 5 put ins, they were around 8-10 to the pound so I decided to swap my elastic up from a no.5 to a tight no.6 so that I could swing them more easily. It worked well but after 15 minutes disaster struck and my 14.5m section shattered inside the 13m section and this prevented me from fishing at full distance on top of my groundbait line. I decided to start feeding as close to where I had balled as possible so added a half butt onto the 13m of pole and rested it by chucking the feeder back across.

I had a quick indication that I missed and then the next cast I lost a chub in the tree when the hook bent out of shape, it was a 14 B560 so I swapped it to a 14 Carbon feeder and also made some floating maggots to offset the extra weight of the hook. As I had lost a fish I went back on the pole and had a quick run of roach and so my day carried on swapping between the pole and feeder trying to eek as many fish out as possible. I had managed another chub mid match and then the fishing dropped of and in the last hour was hard but I did lose one more decent fish on the feeder in the last 30 minutes when it ran in a weed bed under my rod tip.

The all out was called somewhere in the distance and I reckoned I had 15-18lb of fish, depending on the size of the chub, as the scales reached me the Thatchers angler on peg 1 had managed 16lb odd of perch and chub, then there was another double figure weight and then the 2 pegs upstream of me both struggled with 2 pounds and odds a piece. I pulled my net out and it felt good, 17lb 9oz good in fact and this was enough for the section.

Back at the car park I managed to claim my £1 side bet from James and then it was into the pub for the results. Thatchers won it by 3 points over Bathampton, and I managed to win the match by all of 5 ounces.

WHAT WOULD I DO DIFFERENT?

Not a lot really, maybe I should have spent a little more time on the pole trying to sort out the roach?

I also should have started on a stronger hook as I was not fishing for bream but it fortunately didn’t cost me.

And I will try not to break my pole again in future.