Bristol PSV Fishing Club: Sedges, Tile Lake, 27 April (19 pegs)

19 fishing this week which is a full house all bar 1 peg.
I had the choice of taking a peg out with the obvious choice being 30 as this one doesn't seem to do too well for us, or to leave all 20 in and let fate decide.
I stuck with the latter which resulted in 29 being the last ping-pong ball in the bucket and the empty peg which gave peg 30 a bit more of a chance so that worked out quite well.
The second last ball to come out went to myself and that was 21, a corner surprisingly, and it had the wind blowing into it so no complaints from me!
That's the third week on the trot now that I've drawn a corner and also the third time on the trot I've drawn a corner on Tile lake so somebody up there must like me.
Payout today was top three, two sections and just the one silvers which I expected John Bradford and Matt Challenger to be fighting over as they were both drawn in the mid thirties which tend to throw up some good silvers weights. (Got that wrong then)
Arriving at my peg I had Brian Shanks next door on 22 and up from him, thankfully obscured by undergrowth, Alan Healey.
Opposite I could see Adam Caswell in 40 which is a good corner peg and won last Sunday's match with over 140lbs. Strangely though, Adam had geared himself up to fish for silvers and never brought any rods so that peg was wasted (dnw)!
I could also make out Matt Taynton on 37 through the gap between the islands.
Setting up today I never got any rods out as, with the wind blowing into the corner, even a blind man could have worked out how to fish it (got that wrong as well)!
Plumbing up revealed there wasn't any definite ledges to fish on so I set up 3 rigs, one to fish at the shallowest area (tight to the bank), one at the bottom of the slope and one somewhere in between.
Bait was to be casters (with groundbait), meat, 6 & 8mm pellet and there was a tin of corn in reserve in case all the other options let me down.

On the all-in, which was on time as even I can manage to sort out three pole rigs in an hour, I churned up 3 handfulls of caster into the groundbait mix and deposited a ball on each of the three lines at 13m plus I fed some caster down each margin and over into the corner,

Starting with double caster on the full depth kit produced a slow start but after 30 minutes a couple of roach and a tiny skimmer gave themselves up.

Brian next door had started shallow with pellet slapping a stumpy little waggler to aid presentation (something he has picked up from Si Belcham but wouldn't admit to) but it wasn't having the desired effect and he was soon fishing soft pellet on the deck, probably to get some use out of his new plummet.

At this stage the only pegs that were producing were Lionel Legge in 31 and also peg 32, most others were struggling.

Having re-fed the deep swim I tried the "up the slope" rig but this was also unsuccessful.

I had a look on the shallowest line with an 8mm banded and after a few lifts I hooked and landed a carp of a couple of pounds and for a brief moment it looked like the tide had turned but nothing followed.

My inside caster lines also produced nothing and a look into the corner only gave up a couple of suicidal micro-rudd.

The emergency tin of corn had no effect either!
Shanksy meanwhile had snared a couple of fish on the 13m line but was struggling to get into any sort of rhythm and was chopping and changing between every method that didn't involve watching a rod tip.

It was time for a walk!!

As it turned out the lake was fishing much harder than I had anticipated perhaps due to a bit if pressure in the week from the Sedges / Avalon Spring festival.

On my return I happened to spot a fish top out towards the aereator cable so with half the match gone and nothing to lose other than my dignity and pound coins to Alan and Lee Williams I filled a bait tub with 8mm pellets and dug out the (almost brand new) waggler setup.

First random chuck towards the edge produced a bite almost straight away which I wasn't expecting and therefore missed completely.

Reeling in it became apparent that the wind had blown my line in amongst the undergrowth as instead of the rig heading back to me it veered off to the right and lodged itself in an overhanging reed bush resulting in the first of many trips along the end bank!

Second chuck had the same result only this time I was coiled like a tiger and this one was safely landed.

The rest of the match followed the same vein with a few fish followed by a walk round the bank.

Occasionally the bites went a bit "iffy" either because the fish had come up shallower or they had maybe backed off a bit but on the whole they were small fish around the 3lb mark with the odd better fish thrown in but none of the proper ones that you would normally expect to come shallow and are necessary for a big weight.

Mr Shanks in the meantime had stepped up a gear and was putting a few fish together on his long line, probably due to superior presentation helped by a back-shot (ask him)?

Unfortunately in his desperate attempts to catch up he was wasting time swapping methods instead of sticking to the one that was working which was the cause of his demise.

I was first to weigh and put 58-5 on the scales and despite my concerns Mr Shanks could only muster 49-6.

Alan had fished for silvers and deposited 10-8 of them on the scales, his three carp boosted that to 22-15 although he did manage four carp on the lead after the all-out by the time the scales reached him!

The rest of the weights up this bank were mediocre with the exception of Chris Davis on 28 who had 43-8.

Lionel on 31 had just under 52lbs and Matt Taynton on 37, who had had a bit of a late charge had me sweating for a moment, running me close with 54-8

Which just left Matt Challenger to weigh on 39 and he put 79-0 plus a couple of pounds of silvers on the scales which well and truly pissed on my fire!

I think I will be visiting Avon Angling in future for my bait and tackle!

And Alan's dismal silvers weight was good enough to win the silvers money which meant the Healey family's KFC bill was sorted for another week.

So no big weights but a close result.

And I think the same could be said for the Board Mills club match on Brick as there were a few dejected souls packing up early on that one but I don't know the winning weight (please comment if you do)

This Sunday we are up at Hillview on the canals for a change of scenery ... Should be interesting as we've not been up there for a few years.